Star Wars: Dark Force Rising

by Timothy Zahn

  “You see, Councilor, some of us don’t consider loyalty to be all that outmoded,” Virgilio cut him off, turning to Leia. “Councilor Organa Solo, I’d like you to join me on the bridge at your convenience. We’ve called for a Star Cruiser to back us up, but it’ll take awhile to get here.”

  “We’ll just have to hold them until then,” Leia said, standing up. She looked at Karrde. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

  “Not for you or your war,” Karrde warned her. “Mara and my people could be arriving at any time. I’d just as soon they not be facing a Star Destroyer alone.”

  “They won’t,” Virgilio said. “Councilor?”

  “It’s a lost cause,” Fey’lya said, trying one last time as he surrendered his blaster to one of the soldiers.

  “That’s all right,” Virgilio said, smiling tightly. “The whole Rebellion was considered nothing more than a lost cause. Excuse me, Councilor; I have a battle to run.”

  The Chimaera was touring the region Pellaeon had privately dubbed the Depot when the report from the Judicator came in. “Interesting,” Thrawn commented. “They’ve responded faster than I’d expected.”

  “Karrde must have decided to be generous,” Pellaeon said, skimming the follow-up report. Five drop ships and three TIE fighters destroyed; one of the Dreadnaughts apparently under Rebellion control and joining battle. It looked like a major scrap was shaping up out there. “I recommend we send another Star Destroyer to assist, Admiral,” he said. “The Rebellion may have larger ships on the way.”

  “We’ll go ourselves, Captain,” Thrawn said. “Navigation: set us a course back to the Katana fleet.”

  The navigation officer didn’t move. He sat at his station, his back to them, unnaturally stiff. “Navigation?” Thrawn repeated.

  “Admiral, message coming through from the sentry line,” the comm officer reported suddenly. “Unidentified Lancer-class Frigate has entered the system and is approaching. They insist on speaking with you, personally and immediately.”

  Thrawn’s glowing eyes narrowed as he tapped the comm switch … and suddenly Pellaeon realized who it must be aboard that ship. “This is Thrawn,” the Grand Admiral said. “Master C’baoth, I presume?”

  “You presume correctly,” C’baoth’s voice boomed from the speaker. “I would speak with you, Grand Admiral. Now.”

  “We’re on our way to assist the Judicator,” Thrawn said, his eyes flicking to the still-motionless nav officer. “As you perhaps already know. When we return—”

  “Now, Grand Admiral.”

  Moving quietly in the brittle silence, Pellaeon keyed for a course projection on C’baoth’s ship. “It’ll take at least fifteen minutes to bring him aboard,” he murmured.

  Thrawn hissed softly between his teeth; and Pellaeon knew what he was thinking. In the fluid situation of a spontaneous battle, a fifteen-minute delay could easily be the difference between victory and defeat. “Captain, order the Peremptory to assist the Judicator,” the Grand Admiral said at last. “We’ll remain here to consult our ally.”

  “Thank you, Grand Admiral,” C’baoth said; and abruptly, the nav officer gasped and slumped in his chair. “I appreciate your generosity.”

  Thrawn reached to his board, and with a vicious flick of his wrist cut off the comm. He looked down into the crew pit and motioned to two bridge guards. “Sick bay,” he told them, indicating the now-shivering nav officer.

  “Where do you suppose C’baoth found that Lancer?” Pellaeon murmured as the guards helped the nav officer out of his seat and carried him aft.

  “He most likely hijacked it,” Thrawn said, his voice tight. “He’s been sending messages for us over distances of several light-years, and he certainly knows how to take control of people. Apparently, he’s learned how to meld the two abilities.”

  Pellaeon looked down into the crew pit, a shiver running up his back. “I’m not sure I like that, sir.”

  “I don’t much like it myself, Captain,” Thrawn agreed, turning his head to look out the viewport. “It may be time,” he added thoughtfully, “to reconsider our arrangement with Master C’baoth. To reconsider it very carefully.”

  CHAPTER

  28

  The Katana’s turbolasers flashed, disintegrating the center of the Imperials’ drop ship formation, and one of Wedge’s X-wing pilots gave a war whoop. “Will you look at that?”

  “Cut the chatter, Rogue Seven,” Wedge admonished, trying to see through the cloud of flaming debris. The Imperials had gotten a bloody nose, but that was about all. “They’ve got lots more TIE fighters in reserve.”

  “Wedge?”

  Wedge switched channels. “I’m here, Luke.”

  “We’ve decided not to leave the ship,” Luke said. “We’d run right into the Imperials, and you know how well transports fight. You might as well get your group out of here and go whistle up some help.”

  The surviving drop ships, Wedge saw, were reconfiguring into an evasion pattern with the TIE fighters moving ahead to clear a path for them. “You’ll never be able to hold out,” he told Luke flatly. “There could be three hundred troops aboard those drop ships.”

  “We’ll have a better chance against them than you will against a Star Destroyer,” Luke retorted. “Come on, get going.”

  Wedge clenched his teeth. Luke was right, and they both knew it. But to abandon his friends here—

  “Rogue Leader, this is Gold Leader,” a new voice abruptly came on the comm. “Requesting permission to join the party.” Frowning, Wedge threw a glance out the back of his canopy. They were there, all right: the Quenfis’s two X-wing squadrons, coming up behind his group for all they were worth. “Permission granted,” he said. “I didn’t think Councilor Fey’lya was going to let you come out and play.”

  “Fey’lya doesn’t have any say in it anymore,” the other said grimly. “Tell you about it later. Captain’s turned things over to Organa Solo.”

  “First good news I’ve heard today,” Wedge grunted. “All right, here’s the scheme. You detail four of your group to hit those drop ships; the rest of us will concentrate on the TIE fighters. With luck, we can clear them out before the next wave gets here. I don’t suppose we’ve got any backup of our own coming?”

  “Captain says there’s a Star Cruiser on the way,” Gold Leader said. “Don’t know when it’ll get here, though.”

  Probably not soon enough, Wedge told himself silently. “Okay,” he said aloud. “Let’s do it.”

  A new set of drive trails had appeared near the Star Destroyer’s docking bay: the second wave of TIE fighters had launched. That was going to be trouble down the line; but for the moment, the X-wings had this batch of Imperials outnumbered. And the Imperials knew it. They were spreading out, trying to draw their attackers apart where they couldn’t cover each other. Wedge did a quick evaluation of the situation— “All X-wings: we’ll do a one-on-one,” he said. “Choose your target and go.”

  Closer now, he could see that two of the Imperial starfighters were the faster and more advanced TIE interceptors. Picking one of them for himself, he broke formation and headed after it.

  Whatever erosion the Empire had experienced in the way of ships and trained personnel over the past five years, it was quickly clear that their starfighter training program hadn’t suffered a lot. Wedge’s target TIE interceptor slipped adroitly away from his initial attack, doing a sideways skid that simultaneously braked him out of the X-wing’s way and swiveled his lasers around to track along its flight vector. Wedge threw the X-wing into a drop loop, wincing as the other’s shot came close enough to trigger the starboard engines’ heat sensors, and turned sharply to starboard. He braced himself for a second shot, but it didn’t come. Bringing the X-wing out of its combination loop/turn, he looked around for his opponent.

  “Watch your back, Rogue Leader!” the voice of Rogue Three snapped in his ear; and Wedge again threw the X-wing into a drop loop just as another laser blast sizzled past his canopy. Not only had
the Imperial not been fooled by Wedge’s corkscrew maneuver, he’d even managed to follow him through it. “He’s still with you,” Rogue Three confirmed. “Go evasive—I can be there in a minute.”

  “Don’t bother,” Wedge told him. Through the spinning sky outside his canopy he’d caught a glimpse of another Imperial moving past him to portside. Hauling hard on his controls, he broke out of his loop and drove directly toward it. The TIE fighter jerked slightly as its pilot suddenly became aware of the threat bearing down on him and tried to veer out of the way.

  Which was exactly what Wedge had counted on. Ducking beneath the TIE fighter, he threw the X-wing into a upward rolling turn, swinging perilously close to the Imperial’s canopy and bringing his nose around to point back the way he’d come.

  The TIE interceptor, which had instinctively swerved off Wedge’s tail to keep from ramming one of his own ships, was caught flat-footed. A single point-blank blast from the X-wing’s lasers blew it out of the sky.

  “Nice flying, Rogue Leader,” Gold Leader commented. “My turn.”

  Wedge understood. Throwing power to his drive, he shot away from the TIE fighter he’d used for cover, getting clear just as Gold Leader’s lasers caught it. “How we doing?” Wedge asked as his canopy lit up briefly with the reflected light of the explosion.

  “We’re done,” Gold Leader said.

  “We are?” Wedge frowned, bringing his X-wing around in a wide circle. Sure enough, the only things visible nearby were X-wings. Apart from expanding clouds of glowing debris, of course. “What about the drop ships?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” the other admitted. “Gold Three, Gold Four; report.”

  “We got six of them, Gold Leader,” a new voice said. “I don’t know what happened to the seventh.”

  Wedge swore under his breath, switching comm channels as he glanced back toward the Star Destroyer. The new group of TIE fighters was coming up fast. No time for him to do anything for the Katana except maybe warn them. “Luke? You’ve got company coming.”

  “We know,” Luke’s tight voice came back. “They’re already here.”

  They came out of the drop ship with lasers blazing, laying down a heavy cover fire as they moved toward the two sets of blast doors that led forward from the docking bay. Luke couldn’t see them from where he was, any more than he could see Han’s group waiting silently for them behind the edge of the portside blast doors. But he could hear the Imperials’ blaster fire, and he could sense their approach.

  And there was something about that sense that set the back of his neck tingling. Something not quite right about them …

  His comlink beeped. “Luke?” Lando’s voice came softly. “They’re coming. You ready?”

  Luke closed down his lightsaber and gave his handiwork one last check. A large section of the corridor’s ceiling was now hanging perilously by a few strands of metal, ready to come crashing down at the slightest provocation. Beyond it, two sections of the wall were similarly booby-trapped. “All set,” he told Lando.

  “Okay. Here goes …”

  And suddenly, the pitch of a different class of weapons joined the cacophony as the defenders opened up on the Imperials. For a few seconds the two groups of weapons vied with each other. Then, with a screech of strained metal, the sounds were cut off.

  The four techs were the first around the corner to where Luke waited, their faces showing the mixture of fear and nervousness and exhilaration of men who’ve just survived their first firefight. Lando was next, with Han and Chewbacca bringing up the rear. “Ready?” Han asked Luke.

  “Yes.” Luke indicated the rigged sections of ceiling and wall. “It’s not going to hold them for long, though.”

  “Doesn’t have to,” Han grunted. “As long as it takes a few of them out it’s worth it. Let’s go.”

  “Hold it,” Luke said, stretching out with the Force. Those strangely disturbing minds … “They’re splitting up,” he told Han. “About half are still at the portside blast doors; the other half are going to the starboard Operations section.”

  “Trying to flank us,” Han nodded. “Lando, how well is that area sealed off?”

  “Not very,” Lando admitted. “The blast doors from the docking bay itself should hold for a while, but there’s a whole maze of storage rooms and maintenance shops off of Operations that they can probably get back to the main starboard corridor from. There were too many doors for us to close it all off.”

  From the blast doors they’d just left came the dull thud of a shaped charge. “So this group keeps us busy thinking they’re all here, while the other one tries to get behind us,” Han decided. “Well, we didn’t want to hold the whole corridor, anyway. Chewie, you and Lando take the others and fall back toward the bridge. Take out as many of them as you can on the way. Luke and I’ll go across to starboard and see if we can slow that batch down a little.”

  Chewbacca growled an acknowledgment and headed off, the four tech men already on their way. “Good luck,” Lando said, and followed.

  Han looked at Luke. “Still in just the two groups?”

  “Yes,” Luke said, straining to locate the enemy. The strange feeling was still there …

  “Okay. Let’s go.”

  They set off, Han leading the way down a narrow cross corridor lined with the kind of closely spaced doors that indicated crew quarters. “Where are we going?” Luke asked as they hurried along.

  “Number two starboard weapons blister,” Han said. “Should be something nasty there we can use to flood the main corridor with—turbolaser coolant or something.”

  “Unless they have life-support gear,” Luke pointed out.

  “They don’t,” Han said. “At least, they weren’t wearing any when they charged us. They had standard trooper air filters, but if we fill the whole corridor with coolant those won’t do them much good. You never know,” he added reflectively. “The coolant might be flammable, too.”

  “Too bad the Katana fleet wasn’t made up of Star Galleons,” Luke said, reaching out again toward the enemy. As near as he could tell, they were in the maze of rooms Lando had mentioned, working their way around toward the main starboard corridor. “We really could have used those anti-intruder defenses they come equipped with.”

  “If this was a Star Galleon, the Empire wouldn’t be so anxious to take it away from us in one piece,” Han retorted. “They’d just blow it out of the sky and be done with it.”

  Luke grimaced. “Right.”

  They reached the main starboard corridor; and they were halfway across it when Han suddenly stopped short. “What in blazes—?”

  Luke turned to look. Ten meters down the corridor, sitting in a patch of darkness beneath burned-out light panels, was a large metal box resting at a tilt on a half-seen tangle of cables and struts. Twin blaster cannon protruded from beneath a narrow viewport; the corridor walls immediately around it were warped and blackened, with a half dozen good-sized holes visible. “What is it?” he asked.

  “Looks like a scaled-down version of a scout walker,” Han said. “Let’s go take a look.”

  “Wonder what it’s doing here,” Luke said as they walked toward it. The floor beneath their feet was noticeably warped, too. Whoever had been in there firing had done a thorough job of it.

  “Probably someone brought it out of storage during the hive virus thing that killed everyone,” Han suggested. “Either trying to protect the bridge or else just gone crazy themselves.”

  Luke nodded, shivering at the thought. “It must have been a real trick to get it in here in the first place.”

  “Well, we’re sure not going to get it out,” Han said, peering down at the tangle of debris where the walker’s right leg had been. He cocked an eyebrow at Luke. “Unless … ?”

  Luke swallowed. Master Yoda had lifted his X-wing out of a Dagobah swamp once … but Master Yoda had been far stronger in the Force than Luke was. “Let’s find out,” he said. Taking a deep breath, clearing his mind, he raised hi
s hand and reached out with the Force.

  The walker didn’t even quiver. Luke tried again; and again. But it was no use. Either the machine was wedged too tightly against walls and ceiling to move, or Luke simply didn’t have the strength to lift it.

  “Well, never mind,” Han said, glancing back down the corridor. “It would have been nice to have it mobile—we could have put it in that big monitor room behind the bridge and picked off anyone who came close. But we can use it here, too. Let’s see if we can get in.”

  Holstering his blaster, he climbed up the single remaining leg. “They’re getting closer,” Luke warned him, looking uneasily back down the corridor. “Another couple of minutes and they’ll be in sight.”

  “Better get around behind me,” Han said. He was at the walker’s side door now, and with a grunt he pulled it open—

  “What?” Luke asked sharply as Han’s sense abruptly changed.

  “You don’t want to know,” Han told him grimly. Visibly bracing himself, he ducked down and climbed inside. “Still has power,” he called, his voice echoing slightly. “Let’s see …”

  Above Luke, the blaster cannon traversed a few degrees. “Still has maneuverability,” Han added with satisfaction. “Great.”

  Luke had made it to the top of the leg now, easing carefully past sharp edges. Whoever the walker had been fighting against had put up a good fight. The back of his mind tingled— “They’re coming,” he hissed to Han, slipping off the leg and landing silently on the deck. Dropping into a crouch, he peered back through the gap between the angled leg and the main part of the walker, hoping the darkness would be adequate to conceal him.

  He’d gotten out of sight just in time. The Imperials were moving swiftly toward them down the corridor, spread out in a properly cautious military formation. The two point men paused as they caught sight of the broken walker, probably trying to decide whether to risk a straight advance or to give up the element of surprise by laying down cover fire. Whoever was in charge opted for a compromise; the point men glided forward while the rest of the party dropped prone or hugged the corridor walls.