Copyright © 2005 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or TM.
Cover art by Louise Bova and Lucasfilm
All rights reserved. Published by Disney • Lucasfilm Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney • Lucasfilm Press, 1101 Flower Street, Glendale, California 91201.
ISBN 978-1-4847-1758-5
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Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
The Republic was at war. For two thousand years, the Jedi Knights had kept the peace, but even their formidable skills could not prevent the strife this time. Led by the former Jedi, Count Dooku, the Separatist coalition broke away from the Galactic Republic. War erupted during a rescue mission on Geonosis, and many Jedi died. Jedi Master Yoda arrived unexpectedly with clone troops, in time for the Republic to win that first battle—but too late to stop the war.
At first, many in the Republic were sure that their clone troopers would end the war quickly. But the Trade Federation, with its enormous army of droids, supported the Separatists. Even with the forced-growth techniques of the clone masters, it took longer to grow a clone trooper than to produce a battle droid. The Clone Wars raged on, and spread to many systems.
Only the Jedi were not surprised. For on Geonosis, Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, had learned that Count Dooku had turned to the dark side of the Force—and the power of the dark side had been growing for years. The Jedi knew that defeating the Separatists would be neither quick nor easy with a Dark Lord of the Sith aiding them.
As soon as they recovered from the injuries they had received during their battle with Count Dooku, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi rejoined the war. Together they became heroes of the Republic, sometimes leading clone troopers in pitched battles, sometimes making daring raids in secret. For their work, Anakin was made a full Jedi Knight, and Obi-Wan was given a seat on the Jedi Council and the title of Master.
No one, not even the Jedi, knew that one of the things driving Anakin was his desire to be back on Coruscant, the home of the Galactic Senate. In defiance of the Jedi Order, he had secretly married Senator Padmé Amidala, who spent most of her time working there. As the fighting spread into the Outer Rim Worlds, the moments Anakin could steal to be with his wife became fewer.
Then the Separatists struck a paralyzing blow, straight at the heart of the Republic. A fleet of ships commanded by the dreaded Separatist General Grievous slipped through the outer line of defenses to attack Coruscant itself. In the confusion the Separatists kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the elected leader of the Republic.
But Coruscant was not only the heart of the government and the location of the Galactic Senate. It was also the home of the Jedi Temple. As the Separatist attack began, a message was beamed to the Outer Rim, summoning the Jedi’s greatest warriors home. Before the Separatist fleet could leave the Coruscant star system with the Chancellor, they found themselves under attack. Waves of clone starfighters, led by Obi-Wan and Anakin, stormed around their ships.…
Laser beams flashed around Obi-Wan’s Jedi Interceptor as his fingers danced across the controls. The small starfighter danced in response, avoiding the beams. Space is supposed to be empty, Obi-Wan thought as he wove through the swarm of droid tri-fighters.
Not that the space around Coruscant had ever been empty. The capital planet of the Galactic Republic attracted thousands of ships every day, carrying diplomats and Senators, tourists and refugees, food and goods from strange and distant star systems. The ships that filled the sky now, however, were fighters and cruisers and battleships, not freighters and transports.
At least a lot of them are ours, Obi-Wan thought. His ship rocked as a droid fighter exploded a little too close by. Anakin had scored a hit. Obi-Wan grimaced. He didn’t enjoy this sort of flying, not the way his former apprentice did. “Flying is for droids,” he muttered.
As the fireball cleared, Obi-Wan saw movement against the stars. “Look out,” he said into his comm. “Four droids, inbound.”
He swerved as he spoke to avoid the oncoming tri-fighters. Off to one side, Anakin’s Interceptor made the same move in perfect unison. They swept around one side of the droid formation, then swooped unexpectedly close to the two nearest ships. One droid saw them and followed, but the ship behind it kept to its original course, and the two fighters collided.
Two down, two to go. But the remaining droids wouldn’t fall for the same trick. “We’ve got to split them up!” he said into the comm.
“Break left,” Anakin’s voice said in his ear. “Fly through the guns on that tower.”
“Easy for you to say,” Obi-Wan grumbled as he sent his fighter hurtling toward the gun towers of the nearest cruiser. “Why am I always the bait?”
“Don’t worry,” Anakin said soothingly. “I’m coming around behind you.”
Obi-Wan would have snorted, but he was too busy with the controls. Flying this close to a large starship was tricky, even with the Force to help. The droids weren’t having much trouble, though. Both of them had stuck with him, and they were gaining.
Laser fire flashed, barely missing the Jedi fighter. “Anakin, they’re all over me!” Obi-Wan complained.
“Dead ahead!” Anakin’s voice said happily. “Move to the right so I can get a clear shot at them. Closing…Lock onto him, Artoo!”
Obi-Wan heard a faint beep in the background from Anakin’s astrodroid, R2-D2. A moment later, one of the tri-fighters behind him exploded. Obi-Wan would have been better pleased if the second fighter hadn’t kept on firing. Its aim was improving, too. That was the trouble with droids; you couldn’t distract them. “I’m running out of tricks here,” Obi-Wan said to Anakin.
The cruiser dropped away behind them. Out in open space, he was a sitting duck. He needed something else to dodge behind. A Separatist battleship loomed—not the best idea, perhaps, but the only one available at the moment. “I’m going down on the deck,” he told Anakin. He swung his fighter, narrowly avoiding another barrage of laser fire.
“Good idea.” Anakin sounded cheerful. “I need some room to maneuver.”
What, space isn’t big enough? But once again Obi-Wan was too busy skimming the surface of a battleship to speak. And this one was firing at him, right along with the droid fighter on his tail. This may not have been such a good idea, he thought as he dodged blasts coming from all directions.
“Cut right!” Anakin said, and for the first time his voice sounded a little strained. “Do you hear me? Cut right! Don’t let him get a handle on you.” The comm crackled, but did not cut off. “Come on, Artoo, lock on!” Anakin said. “Lock on!”
“Hurry up,” Obi-Wan said. “I don’t like this.” A laser blast struck one of his wings. The ship bucked and twisted. Obi-Wan’s han
ds flickered from one control to another. Behind him, his astrodroid beeped emphatically. “Don’t even try to fix it, Arfour,” Obi-Wan told it. “I’ve shut it down.” So dodging the droids would be even harder. If Anakin didn’t hurry…
As if he could hear Obi-Wan’s thoughts, Anakin said, “We’re locked on. We’ve got him,” and an instant later, the droid tri-fighter exploded. “Good going, Artoo!”
Obi-Wan blew out a quiet sigh of relief. “Next time, you’re the bait,” he told Anakin. He could picture his former Padawan’s answering grin, and added firmly, “Now, let’s find the command ship and get on with it.”
“Straight ahead,” Anakin responded. “The one crawling with vulture droids.”
“I see them.” They were hard to miss; dozens of the broad, half-flattened shapes crouched ominously behind the blue force field that shielded the open hangar. “Oh, this should be easy,” Obi-Wan said sarcastically.
“Come on, Master,” Anakin said. “This is where the fun begins!”
Obi-Wan shook his head, though Anakin couldn’t see him. They’d taken on similar odds before, and won…barely. If this had been an ordinary battle, Obi-Wan might have joined Anakin. Though I wouldn’t have been happy about it. But a mistake now might cost the Chancellor’s life. “Not this time,” Obi-Wan said. “There’s too much at stake. We need help.” He changed the comm’s settings and called in the nearest squad of clone fighters.
A moment later, he was glad he had. The droids lifted off, rising from the hangar in a dark cloud. They headed straight for Anakin and Obi-Wan.
The clone squad of ARC-170 starfighters swung into formation behind them. Obi-Wan just had time to acknowledge their arrival before the Separatist droids were on them. He blasted one, then swung to back up Anakin. More droid fighters appeared from behind the cruiser.
Obi-Wan fired at one droid, dodged a series of laser blasts from two others, and called a warning. “Anakin, you have four on your tail!”
“I know, I know.”
“And four more closing from your left.”
“I know, I know!” Anakin’s ship swung wildly from side to side, dodging laser fire. “I’m going to pull them through the needle.”
Obi-Wan stared at the Trade Federation battleship. At the end of a long trench, a conning tower stood on two metal struts like legs, with only a narrow slit between them. Anakin was right; the droid fighters would never make it through that. Even a Jedi could easily crash. “Too dangerous,” he warned. “First Jedi rule: Survive.”
Another burst of laser fire erupted around Anakin’s ship. “Sorry, no choice,” Anakin said. His fighter dodged and shuddered. “Come down here and thin them out a little.”
Obi-Wan shook his head again, but he plunged toward the eight vulture droids as Anakin’s fighter shot down the trench toward the impossibly narrow slit ahead.
The laser fire was nearly continuous. Where is Obi-Wan? Anakin thought as he made his ship jump and dodge. He felt a larger explosion somewhere behind him and glanced at his rear viewscreen. Several of the vulture droids had vanished in a large fireball. Good. Now if the rest of them will just keep following me.…
The “needle” was getting close. R2-D2 beeped nervously. “Easy, Artoo,” Anakin said. “We’ve done this before.”
“Use the Force,” Obi-Wan’s voice said over his comm unit. “Feel yourself through; the ship will follow.”
As if I didn’t know that already. It annoyed Anakin when his former Master treated him as though he were still a Padawan learner, instead of a full Jedi Knight, just as good as Obi-Wan was. Or better. But there wasn’t time now to be annoyed with Obi-Wan, not with the conning tower almost on top of him.
R2-D2 squealed in panic as Anakin tilted the ship sideways just in time to skim through the gap. “I’m through!” he broadcast to Obi-Wan.
He pulled out, away from the battleship, and saw Obi-Wan’s fighter driving the last of the vulture droids into a fireball clinging to the legs of the conning tower. Tried to follow me and missed, Anakin thought with satisfaction.
Obi-Wan pulled up long before he was close to the tower, and the two Jedi Interceptors flew side by side. Around them, the clone starfighters dodged and wove and fired in a deadly dance with a huge cloud of vulture droids. The clones were badly outnumbered.
“I’m going to help them out!” Anakin said, and started to turn his fighter.
“No,” Obi-Wan told him firmly. “They’re doing their job so we can do ours. Head for the command ship!”
Anakin complied, feeling irritated again, though this time he was more annoyed with himself than with Obi-Wan. He had forgotten, just for a second, that winning the battle wasn’t important—not if the command ship got away with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.
Two droid tri-fighters appeared straight in front of them, firing missiles. Anakin called a warning to Obi-Wan as he sent his own ship sharply to the right. Two missiles pursued him. Let’s see them follow this, Anakin thought, and went into a tight loop. The missiles collided and exploded. Anakin looked for Obi-Wan, just as Obi-Wan’s voice came over his comm: “I’m hit!”
Anakin’s heart lurched. Frantically, he hunted for Obi-Wan’s ship. It looked intact—and then he saw the buzz droids crawling like spiders over its surface, ripping holes in the skin and tearing out wiring. At that rate, they’d destroy the fighter in a matter of minutes.
An unnatural calm descended on Anakin. “Buzz droids,” he told Obi-Wan. “I see them.”
There was an instant of silence as Obi-Wan absorbed the information. Then his voice came again, cool and almost resigned. “Get out of here, Anakin. There’s nothing you can do.”
I’ll make up something. “I’m not leaving you, Master,” Anakin said.
“The mission, Anakin,” Obi-Wan reminded him gently, as if he were teaching a particularly hard lesson to a reluctant Padawan. “Get to the command ship. Get the Chancellor.”
Anakin hesitated. Chancellor Palpatine was not just the leader of the Republic; he was a friend and advisor. His gentle wisdom had helped Anakin many times. Only Padmé knew more about Anakin’s secret feelings. But Obi-Wan had been Anakin’s teacher and companion since he was nine years old. He was the father Anakin never had, the brother Anakin had imagined, the working partner who’d saved Anakin’s life and been saved by him more times than either could count. Anakin set his jaw. “Not without you.”
“They’re shutting down the controls,” Obi-Wan said.
Anakin swallowed hard. The buzz droids had already ripped Obi-Wan’s astrodroid apart, so that it couldn’t fix anything. Without controls, Obi-Wan would spin away into space. Even if his life support wasn’t damaged, it would be hard to find him before his air ran out. And the buzz droids wouldn’t stop with the controls. They’d go for the life support next.
No! Anakin came toward Obi-Wan’s ship at an angle and fired. The shot vaporized several buzz droids…and part of Obi-Wan’s left wing.
“That’s not helping,” Obi-Wan said.
“I agree, bad idea,” Anakin admitted. But I have to do something! What else? “Swing right. Steady…” He moved his ship closer to Obi-Wan’s. Closer still…
“Wait!” Obi-Wan protested. “You’re going to get us both killed!” He sounded as if he was more worried about what Anakin was doing than about the buzz droids.
Anakin ignored him. Obi-Wan always argued whenever Anakin wanted to try something tricky. As long as he held his ship steady, giving Anakin a stable target, he could complain all he wanted. Cautiously, Anakin dipped closer. His wing scraped away almost all of the buzz droids, but despite his care, the maneuver dented both ships—and the last remaining buzz droid ran up his wing. Better not try that again.
Behind him, R2-D2 beeped angrily. Artoo can handle it, Anakin thought.” Get him, Artoo!” he said.
“Go for the eyes,” Obi-Wan advised. Anakin heard a zap, and an instant later the buzz droid slid down his wing and dropped off into spac
e.
“Blast it!” Obi-Wan said. “My controls are gone.”
He can still steer, Anakin thought. But without the rest of his controls, Obi-Wan’s ship was nothing but target practice for the vulture droids. Desperately, Anakin looked for a place to hide—and saw the Trade Federation’s command ship looming ahead of them.
Oh, great, just what we need…wait, no, it really is just what we need! “Stay on my wing,” he told Obi-Wan. “The general’s command ship is dead ahead.”
The smoke in front of Obi-Wan’s fighter began to clear. A moment later, Obi-Wan’s voice complained in Anakin’s ears. “Whoa! Anakin, we’re going to collide!”
Anakin smiled. Sometimes his Master was so predictable. “That’s the plan. Head for the hangar.”
The command ship loomed large in front of them. “Have you noticed the shields are up?” Obi-Wan said.
Oooops. “Sorry, Master.” Anakin zipped ahead to blast the shield generator before Obi-Wan’s rapidly disintegrating fighter could hit. A moment later, the two Jedi Interceptors flew through the doors of the command ship hangar. Blast doors slammed shut behind them. Obi-Wan’s ship crashed at the far end of the hangar as Federation battle droids rushed in from all directions.
As his starfighter crashed to the hangar floor, Obi-Wan ignited his lightsaber. In one quick movement, he cut a hole in the roof of the cockpit and leaped out. Seconds later, the crippled ship exploded.
Battle droids fired as Obi-Wan landed, but he sent their laser bolts singing back at them. He sensed, more than saw, Anakin landed and ran to join him. Together, they cleared the battle droids from the hangar floor.
As the last battle droid fell, Obi-Wan deactivated his lightsaber and looked at his former apprentice. He knew that he ought to rebuke Anakin for taking such chances during the battle with the buzz droids. He’d risked their entire mission—and the Chancellor’s life—to satisfy his personal feelings. But if Anakin hadn’t taken those risks, he, Obi-Wan, would very likely be dead. Obi-Wan frowned. He still has much to learn, he thought, but then, so do I.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Page 1
