Imperial Matters

Tunnels Beneath Imperial Listening Post 2237-B, Yukantar

30.8 ABY

I held my assault blaster in my hands, wishing I were anywhere else.

The tunnel was easily thirty feet tall and equally as wide, and perfectly circular, as if carved by prestine tools. This, I knew, was one of the greatest mysteries surrounding Arachnites: how they constructed their hives so brilliantly. Beside me, Major Valhalla handed me a pair of night vision optics, which I gratefully donned. The impenetrable darkness of the Arachnite tunnel became suddenly illuminated in black and white. I could see the thirty stormtroopers marching in three neat rows, blasters poised and scanning the ceiling for any sign of the multilegged foe. Boba Fett was in front, his own customized E-11 ready for action. The Major hadn't said much since we climbed down into the abyss, other than barking instructions to the troopers to install cables so we could climb out. The stormtroopers themselves were as stone, well trained. We were guided by a digital layout carried on the Major's datapad. As of right now, we had but to follow this tunnel for another thousand yards or so, then scale down into the second level, where Fett said the weaker, smaller spiders would be gathering food for the larger ones farther below. Apparently, according to his knowledge, the farther down we went, the bigger and more powerful the Arachnites were, to better defend the nest where the breeders and the queen were. This information was not comforting, as the group plowed onwards to certain death.

I checked the power pack in my rifle for the third time, trying to distract myself from the impending conflict. Why exactly the Empire paid us fifty grand each to do this job with the help of thirty battle hardened troopers was unclear, though the fact that if they believed it was worth it to spend such a dramatic amount of credits to hire two mercenaries alongside the division already tasked with removing the Arachnites told me that they didn't expect this to be easy. And if the Empire didn't expect it to be easy, then it wasn't going to be.

"We're coming up on the level two access tunnel, mark two hundred yards," Valhalla said quietly.

I noticed the stormtroopers focus their weapons above them, a few training their weapons in front, towards the access hole. They seem like they've got some tunnel clearing experience, I thought, which is weird considering they hired Fett to guide them through.

Fett held up a fist, and the stormtroopers held position. I gripped my rifle with pale knuckles. Fett peered down into the hole, then unclipped a glowrod from his belt, and tossed it down. The green-white light was merely a flash of white in my night vision, and disappeared down the long vertical tunnel, bouncing loudly off the sides. Fett motioned for the group to step back a dozen yards, and we did. "Five men focus behind us, five on the ceiling, and the rest on this hole. Fox, take over the rear guard. Major, watch above."

"Above? Behind? What the hell did you do, Fett?" Valhalla demanded, his E-11 gripped so tight I thought he'd break it.

Fett snorted. "You're in the vornskr's den, Major. You think we walked in here without being followed? And I just told most of the second level where we are."

Valhalla started towards him, as if he was about to strike the Mandolorian, but thought better of it. "By the Force...you just killed us all."

Fett marched over and grabbed the Imperial by the chestplate, giving him a shove. "Get your mind straight, Imperial. Your men need a leader. If you want to take out an Arach nest by just walking the tunnels killing everything in sight, be my guest, I'll be there at your funeral. This is how it's done: one level at a time. We fight them as they come in through this hole, their main way up. There is a rear tunnel, which Fox is watching, and one father down, they're always like that. Man your damn position."

The Major shook his head, but did as he was told.

I took aim on the rear of us, my night vision only allowing me about fifty yards of sight before the light vanished into silent darkness. For a long, terrifying moment, the tunnel was silent, minus the sound of my own breathing. Through my mask, it was silent to the others, but inside my head it was thunderously loud.

A three round burst of blaster fire shattered the silence, followed by a hiss, like a Coruscanti housecat being stepped on. A few seconds later, a distant muffled crunch sounded from the bottom of the hole.

"One reported kill, Major," one of the stormtroopers said, "That damned thing was huge-"

The man's scream tore his sentence short. I whirled around to see him being pulled down into the cavernous opening by a swarm of hairy legs. The others, Fett included, opened up on the hole, where six of the beasts had already emerged. I returned my attention to my assigned area, trusting Fett's skills to keep me from being mauled to death from behind. Three spiders were heading my way, two on the walls, and one on the floor. I lined the ironsights up on the nearest, and folded it up with a three round burst. The troopers around me fell the other two, only to have them be replaced by six more.

That explains how they took the entire base, I thought grimly, dropping two more, they're so many you can't kill them fast enough.

I held the trigger down, killing four more. My stormtrooper team kept pace, yet was not as accurate. As a result, one of the speeder-sized arachnids was a mere twenty feet from us when I emptied the last of my power pack into its face and pincers. The creature hissed, rolling over on its back and curling its legs in. I ejected the pack, slapping in a fresh one. A dozen or so more headed my way, and I did my best to keep them from getting too close. The Imperials were very accurate in their own right, but my own training was far superior. I killed two to their one, gaining confidence as I did so. I wasted nine more, dropping into a tactical crouch and advancing. I moved and fired with effortless grace, putting a few yards between me and the others. Behind me, I heard Fett shout something.

I glanced upwards, checking to make sure one of them didn't slip past.

The massive spider dropped from the ceiling and crashed into me before I could raise my blaster. Its legs stomped me down, pinning my hands away from my weapons. I stared up into the eight black eyes, above the polished pincers.

Its face decimated behind a full-auto blizzard of red bolts, reducing the torso to a smoldering heap.

I scrambled to my feet, snatching my rifle from where it had fallen. Boba Fett stood in front of me, grey-blue blood splattered across his armor and helmet.

"That soldier boy trash doesn't work down here, Fox. As good as you are, you know nothing about how these things work. They waited for you to break off, they could tell you were the best. Stay close, stay alert, and stay calm. That's how you survive."

I glared at him, wanting nothing more than to shoot him.

Fett grabbed a dead stormtrooper's body, rolling it down the hole in the tunnel. A smear of blood followed the body over the edge.

"What the hell are you doing?" the Major asked furiously, "That's a good man you're feeding to those things."

I looked around, counting only twenty-six. "Those things," Fett replied emotionlessly, "Know we're here for sure, now."

Valhalla threw his hands up, "So why throw him down?"

"So we can follow his blood trail to the nest," I replied, seeing the sick necessity of the act.

Fett nodded, reloading his weapon. "You boys better strap up, it's about to get a lot worse. We cleared the first level, but those are the weaker ones. The ones on level two will be stronger, faster, smarter. And it only gets worse."

I was positive that only the intense, brutal training stormtroopers undertook from the beginning prevented the Major and his men from fleeing back to the surface, boarding their ship, and going AWOL on some backwater planet in the Outer Rim. I, for one, wanted the money, the glory, and the experience. I did not, however, want to die in these forsaken catacombs underneath the pincers of a spider bigger than my car.

It's not getting any easier, might as well do what you were paid to do. Think about that island on Ariannas.

Fifty grand would put me closer to my goal, for sure.

I checked the shot count on the small display beside the underslung power pack, which read: 110. I had plenty of ammo, so long as I chose my shots more carefully. My worry was that the stormtroopers would not survive the mission, leaving Fett and I with nobody to cover our backs, and no reliable source to inform the Empire that we'd done the job. That meant we didn't get paid.

"Fox," Fett snapped, "Give me your grenades."

He held a hand out, his face pointed towards the access hole. I unbelted them, trusting his leadership. He took them and then accepted a roll of metal tape from one of the troopers, wrapping them together along with a dozen more. He took the bundle and placed it on the inner wall of the hole, about a foot down from the edge.

"To blow them up if they're chasing us on our way out, right?" Major Valhalla asked.

Fett pulled himself back up, retrieving his rifle from the ground.

"No," I replied quickly, trying to show Fett that I wasn't useless, "These are sandstone tunnels, which means they're fragile. Arachnites are light, so they don't cave their tunnels in, but they're not especially strong diggers. The charge is there to collapse the tunnel on our way out."

The Major hesitated, "Won't the charges down in the main chamber do that?"

I looked at Fett. He dipped his helmet as if to say, Go on.

"For the lower tunnels, yes. But Arachnites are a matriarchal society, they'll just elect a new queen within themselves. Sort of how the wolves do on Endor, just in a larger pack. The chosen spider will then be fed the energy of its inferiors until it has reached such a massive size, its authority cannot be denied. That means that they would just rebuild, the ones not currently in the lower chamber. We have to seal off this main tunnel, so we know they can't reach the surface."

I looked back at Fett, hoping my tactical abilities had been displayed properly. He nodded slightly, almost unnoticeable, then nodded again for the Imperials to see.

"What about the two other tunnels, the ones behind us and farther down, the two you mentioned?" he pointed at Fett with his elbow.

"No," Fett replied, "They closed them off before we got here. Must've seen us enter, and are only leaving the main tunnels open. That's why there was only a few dozen on Fox's side."

Valhalla scoffed, the noise mechanical through his helmet. "And how the hell do you know that?"

Boba Fett shoved the major with one hand, staggering him back. "You hired me to do this job for your joke of an Empire. I agreed. I'm the expert, if you don't want my advice, go find someone else. If you want to stay alive long enough to tell your superiors what happened, shut up and hook your cables to the top of this hole. Half go down with me, Fox takes the other half once we say it's clear. Do you understand, Major?"

Valhalla's face was undeadable underneath his helmet, but I was positive he was red faced and insulted. For a long while, neither spoke, both emotionless masks mere inches from each other.

"Yeah," Valhalla replied, "Move out, men," he listed off fifteen names, "You men follow the bounty hunter down to the second level. We'll rendezvous with you there once it's cleared."

"Yes sir!" the soldiers exclaimed in unison.

Fett snorted, then hooked his cable into a peg he drilled into the sandstone, rappelling over the edge a whole five seconds before the Imperials. I waited at the top with Valhalla and his men, my mind's assessment of the situation observing a flaw in the plan.

I pressed two fingers to the side of my head, where my earpiece was hidden. "Fett, if these arachnites come back from the surface and rout us from behind, we'll be dead. We need to leave a few men here."

After a few seconds, Fett's response was curt and short. "Leave three men."

"Major," I said, the darkness of my voice startling him, "Leave three men here to make sure no surface scouts come back behind us to deliver food. Make sure they're good, or we'll pay for it later."

Valhalla nodded, then pointed to three troopers in turn. "Kilpon, Ymaec, and Jungstitch. You three stay here, keep guard. If anything goes down, click the comm and I'll know you guys went down. We'll keep the channel clear for you."

They saluted, and set up a triangular position at the side of the opening closest to our original entry point.

"We're at the bottom, LZ is clear." Fett said into my ear.

I shouldered my rifle, "Fett and his team are clear," I hooked my belt onto the same cable the Mandolorian had used, "Hook up, Major. I'll go first, you follow me down."

Valhalla nodded, then barked orders at his men, who latched onto the cables with practiced movements. Again, I noticed a strange sense of experience in the men, as if they'd done this type of job before. I withheld my comments, bouncing down the wall like a tree frog, my eyes peeled for arachnites. The tunnel must've been a hundred yards down, and perfectly circular like the others. For bugs, I thought, they drill pretty good. My mind wandered to Boba Fett, legendary bounty hunter and mercenary, and the fact that he'd done this before. How many times was a mystery, though I definitely admired the courage he had in doing this type of work again. I'd been down into one of the abandoned spice mines of Kessel as part of my Praetorian training, working under great fear and pressure, and was forced to hold my ground as two of the massive energy spiders angrily tried to dice me up into a thousand pieces. There, all I'd done was set up a defensive perimeter, watch all the tunnels, and when they entered the mine, use hit and fade tactics with the dark as my ally.

Here, all I had was my tactical knowledge, my understanding of arachnites in general, and my stealth. I hoped to pick up the proper technique for dealing with this type of job by watching Boba Fett, knowing I'd probably get called on at least one more arachnite hunt in my time as a mercenary.

I withdrew from my train of thought, my feet hitting solid rock again. I unclipped my belt hook and gripped my rifle with one hand, adjusting my night vision with the other. "About time you got here," Fett hissed, "Major, take point, you've got the datapad. Fox and I will take the back. We'll have to fight our way to the next access tunnel, so stay frosty. They'll try to flank us from behind. They're ambush hunters. Check your fire, no grenades, and stay in a group. Follow the blood smear on the ground here. Let's move."

I made my way to the rear, my eyes scanning the web covered tunnel. I had no doubt in my mind that they knew we were here, and that they'd avoided attacking us the second we landed only because we proved to be dangerous, and they were mere seconds from returning with reinforcements. I put my back to the Imperials, and slowly followed them, crouched and walking backwards. Fett was doing the same thing, his E-11 panning the ceiling and walls, finger tight on the trigger. As uncomfortable as most would be walking backwards in a pitch dark tunnel occupied by a few hundred giant spiders, I felt no change. In the Imperial Army, every stormtrooper was forced to undergo simulated missions playing the same role Fett and I were in, as to become accustomed to backpedaling and moving in formation. In the Praetorian Program, me and my brothers often had to run entire missions, go on five mile jogs, and even do obstacle courses backwards, blindfolded, with our limbs bound, poisoned, the list went on. I was quite safe in such a position. Fett must've picked up the skill on one of his many operations. My form was smoother, more practiced, no doubt due to better training. Though I had to admit, Boba Fett was certainly as good as any Shadowtrooper, and had more knowledge about the criminal workings of the galaxy.

A hiss sounded down the tunnel, about twenty yards in front of me, in the darkness.

"Here they come," Fett whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear him, "Guns hot, fire at will."

I brought my rifle to bear, waiting for the first spider to come into view, but there was nothing, not even above us. Our group kept our forward pace, one step at a time. Ten seconds slipped by, the only sign of life in the entire tunnel was the slight shuffling of our boots on the sandstone.

I tilted my head to the side, about to ask Fett what they were doing.

Thirty arachnites, each easily a foot bigger in all directions than the last ones, poured into my field of vision, each as fast as a sprinting Vronskrr. "Son of a-" my words were cut off by the nine-shots-per-second stream of lasers that screamed from Fett's E-11, spraying in an accurate arc that dropped the first wave. I joined him, taking aim on the rapidly advancing arachnids. I flicked the selector lever to full auto, sawing a spider in half as I did so. I watched my ammo count drop to the seventies, then the sixties, then fifties, rapidly depleting as I held my ground against the oncoming wave of oversized tarantulas. Fett was now one-handing the E-11, his other slinging green bolts from a modified shotgun blaster pistol. We stood less than a yard from one another, fighting with practiced and well trained movements, firing and killing with lethal fluidity. Behind me, I heard the monotonous drone of the stormtroopers unloading their power packs into what I imagined was a horde twice as large as ours. Five Imperials crouched around Fett and me, adding to our firepower. Still, despite our valiant efforts, the arachnites pressed forward, albeit slowly. We just couldn't hold them off.

I reached down to my E-12 pistol on my chest holster, tearing the blaster free while I held my rifle under one arm, firing from the hip in a wide arc. "Fett," I shouted over the din of gunfire. He cast a glance at me, blindfiring into the onslaught. I held up the pistol, "Smuggler's Flashbang!" I bellowed.

He nodded, then resumed firing.

The Smuggler's Flashbang was a trick used...well, by smugglers. The idea was to take a blaster pistol of medium strength, like the E-12, and load in a power pack. While loading the ammo, one would take a vibroblade and stab the exposed loading mechanism. This would short out the power pack, send a direct torrent of energy through the focusing lens, and release a small wave of loose energy that would numb and stun the enemy in a manner similar to putting your hand in the power channel between the engines of a podracer. The blast was ten, maybe twelve feet wide, and weakened as it traveled. I hoped that the flash of light would be enough to disorient the subterraneans long enough for us to mop them up. Our blasters created a strobe light effect down here, and that didn't seem to bother them, but perhaps a light as bright as an arc welder would do the trick, especially with the static discharge.

I slapped the trooper next to me on his armored shoulder, "Do exactly what I'm doing, and throw yours out in front of the Major. Make it go far," I roared at him so he'd hear me, then ejected the power pack. I pulled my knife from my back, and drove it up into the blasters handle. I heard the mechanism snap, and slammed the power pack in. I pulled the slide, hearing the mechanical whine, then smiled as the whine turned into a buzz that grew louder. I hurled the pistol out into the crowd of legs and pincers, waiting for the explosion.

The flash of light wouldn't have bothered the stormtroopers for more than a second before their helmet's visors polarized, blocking the light out and allowing them to fight. For me, that wasn't the case, and I was smart enough to avoid it. I tucked my head down into my arm, still firing, and heard the bang followed by the crackle of lightning. I looked up, expecting to see several dozen spiders crawling over me and dragging me away to their lair. Instead, my eyes were greeted to twenty or so spiders kicking and flailing their hairy legs in an attempt to gain control over them about thirty feet in front of us. Fett, the stormtroopers, and myself especially wasted no time in mowing them down, reducing the otherwise fearsome creatures into smoldering chunks of hairy flesh. The remaining wave of a few dozen had a difficult time trampeling their fallen brethren without being burned by their charred skin, and were made easy targets by their hesitation.

I reloaded, and scanned the ceiling.

Six had made their way up to the roof of the tunnel before the gun had gone off, escaping the blast. I took aim and fired, killing two with ease but unable to get the others before they dropped down right above our group. The spider felt like it weighed as much as starfighter, pummeling the five stormtroopers in one go and kicking me across the tunnel's width, where I slammed hard on the arc where the floor met the walls. I felt my right arm go numb as I hit my head, frantically searching for my blaster. Fett killed two spiders before the Imperials of the main body spun and decimated the other two.

I looked around for my rifle, but it was gone.

I tugged my heavy revolvers from my thigh holsters, and dumped rounds into the large wave still attacking the front of the stormtrooper team. By my count, four were missing, and I watched in horror as a fifth was grabbed by an arachnite that leapt off the wall, bowled him over, and then drove its pincers into the trooper's eye sockets, pulling both his helmet and face off with one swipe. The man screamed in agony, and the spider latched onto him with a web, scuttling back to the hive. I felt my face contort with rage, and cut the arachnid apart with four thunderous blasts from my pistols. Major Valhalla fired bolt into the troopers head, and then resumed fighting, his face emotionless beneath his helmet. Fett joined the fray, picking off the spiders disoriented from the stormtrooper's Smuggler's Flashbang with surgical precision. I pounded over to him, firing accurate gunslinger-style shots as I did so.

"How many more?" I shouted to Fett, reducing an entire spider leg to ashes with one well placed bark of the revolver.

"Can't be many more," he replied, drawing his vibroblade and hurling it end over end into an arachnite's face. I nodded, still firing. I briefly wondered how we'd manage to keep up at this rate with there still being two more levels between us and the breeding chamber, but said nothing. I felt something hit the back of my boot, and whirled around to level the spider who'd tried to sneak up on me.

Instead, I saw the spider that was dragging away one of the dead troopers. I cut it in two ragged pieces, the barrels of my revolvers growing faintly red. I peered around, searching for the other bugs that I knew had waited until we turned our backs to strike. Surely there was at least one more.

There was.

The thing was on Fett before he could react. Unlike the troopers, Fett slapped the pincers out of the way, firing but two shots into the soft underbelly before the arachnite knocked the gun from his hands. I started forward to help him, but I heard a cry from my right.

I glanced over to see two more stormtroopers fall, pounced on by ravenous spiders who tore their guts out and sprinted away with their screams echoing off the cavernous walls.

We're getting massacred in here.

I shot the spider pummeling Fett, then charged forward, ramming my shoulder into another, slightly smaller, arachnite that had showed up to take its place. Both me and the bug crashed to the ground. I reacted quicker, drawing my knife and driving it through the belly of the creature three times in rapid succession. The beast squirmed, kicked me hard in the chest. I felt my right shoulder dislocate, and I soared back ten feet, piling up in a heap on the stone floor.

I looked up, expecting to see the thing on me.

Instead, I saw a thin white smoke travel over me. The spider was lost in it, but eventually I heard a gurgled hiss, followed by the sound of the creature writhing and kicking around. I felt a slight tingle on my skin, like having a feather brushed against my face, and instantly retreated. Most airborne nerve agents that killed their prey by inhalation had a tingling effect on the exposed skin, and judging by the way the spiders were dying off like flies, I'd say my guess was pretty much accurate. But Imperials wouldn't carry nerve gas into an enclosed space...unless they knew it would only affect the Arachnites. But that didn't make sense. If they were so prepared to take these spiders on, had so much study and technology wrapped up in this mission, why bring along two mercenaries? I understood that they needed men with experience in tunnels and against this sort of creature, but it actually appeared that they had more than enough training to handle this job alone. Watching the stormtroopers walk unharmed through the gas cloud, I felt myself get suspicious, alert.

The stormtroopers collected ammo packs from their dead comrades, loading them onto their belts and into their blasters as if nothing was amiss. I stared around at them, my apprehension increasing. One of the troopers walked over to the Major and nodded slightly as he went by. Valhalla turned towards Fett and I, holding his datapad as if he was about to give us a status report. The other soldiers moved like they were comfortable, too comfortable for someone in an underground hive infested by massive spider creatures, especially given that most were alert and nervous just before the second wave. A small voice inside my head said, Something's not right here.

I reflected back on the last hour or two of the mission, searching for details.

The Major had said that he had no experience with Arachnites, but somehow knew that the spider in the listening post had been a smaller one. Also, they held perfect tunnel-combat formation while engaging, something not generally taught in boot camp. Sure, they could have been prepped for this mission, that would explain the rappelling skill as well. But what about the nerve gas? They couldn't possibly have known what type of gas to use, because Arachitnes change their defenses and immunities to adapt to their environment. The Empire would have had to study a group of them, in this particular hive, for an extended period of time.

Something is not right here...

I slowly brought my revolvers to bear on the Major's chest, unable to see Fett out of the corner of my eye. In my ear, I heard his voice say, "You too? Something's not right, I'm calling this job off."

"And what exactly isn't right, bounty hunter?" Major Valhalla asked, lifting his head and removing his helmet.

I dropped to a crouch, holstering my left revolver and snatching my rifle up from where it had fallen, keeping it at hip level and ready to fire. Fett didn't respond.

"I think our work is done here, Major. You may keep your payment, and we'll be on our way."

The remaining twenty or so stormtroopers took aim on us mercenaries, ready to gun us down at a moment's notice.

Valhalla waved them down, "Don't shoot, we need them. What seems to be the problem, Mr. Fox?"

I cast a sideways glance at Fett, and he shrugged just barely.

"The gas," I replied, keeping my revolver trained on his face, "You couldn't have possibly known what strain to put in it without knowing the exact genetic code of the Arachnites here, in this particular hive. They change their blood types, skin textures, amino acids, everything, in response to their environment," I pulled the hammer back, activating the underslung grenade, "Better start explaining, Major Valhalla, or I fire and blow this tunnel down on top of us."

The Major's face broke into a wide grin, and he clapped his hands together, the sound echoing off the cavernous walls, he pushed a button on his wrist, and then spread his hands wide, "You're good, I must admit. Fett did a good job picking you. Unfortunately, you two are now involved in Imperial matters, and I'm afraid you'll have to come along quietly."

The stormtroopers held their blasters aloft, ready to saw Fett and I in half at the slightest twitch of movement.

"Hands up, fingers off the triggers," Valhalla barked, "Kenden, Breistav, take their blasters."

I held my hands up, revolver still in my right hand. The two stormtroopers moved slowly, reluctant to attempt to disarm the legendary Boba Fett, and me, a new face in the game who'd already shown his lethality and surgical precision on several accounts. I looked at my revolver, at the polished chrome weapon with the silver rose with gold petals etched along the barrel, to the gleaming white wood grip, to the hammer-

The hammer was still pulled back.

I slowly peered to my left, at Fett. One trooper veered off towards him, blaster level with Fett's helmet. The bounty hunter had dropped his rifle, both empty hands pointed towards the roof of the tunnel. The Imperial placed a hand on Fett's wrist, drawing a pair of binder cuffs from his belt. Ten feet away, a stormtrooper did the same to me.

Boba Fett clenched his fists, tilted his head forward, and fired a rocket out of the top of his jetpack, which struck the ceiling with a deafening retort, the force of the explosion slamming me to the floor. I rolled as I landed, stabbing the assault rifle out towards the Imperials, squeezing the trigger down in full auto. I fired the revolver grenade as I rolled, on accident, and heard it detonate far down the tunnel. I heard one trooper shout, then a second blaster fire. I felt heavy chunks of sandstone hit my legs and boots as I scrambled to my feet, landing on all fours and coughing in the dust. A small pile of stones fell from a wide crack in the ceiling, standing about waist high. Most of the stormtroopers, Valhalla included, had dived for cover and were just now picking themselves up. I threw the rifle aside, drawing the second revolver. I picked cheap headshots off while I sidestepped over to where Boba Fett was staggering to his feet. I placed a hand on his shoulder, helping him up.

"We have to move," I roared, splitting a stormtrooper's plasteel helmet with a face shot, "Now!"

Fett placed a gloved hand on my forearm, allowing me to pull him back towards the second level access tunnel, and away from the Imps, who were returning fire. I looked back at them, aiming my second revolver at the ceiling, the hammer drawn back. I fired, the explosive shell launching from the second barrel, striking the crack Fett had made. A blue-white flash preceded another electronic explosion, this time bringing the entire ceiling down.

In the split second before the rocks fell, I glimpsed Major Valhalla glaring at me from a kneeling position, his face battered and bleeding. He held a communicator in one hand, and was shouting as he fired blindly in our direction. His head snapped up just as the roof collapsed on him and his men, blocking them from view.

I looked away, down at where Fett was clutching his thigh.

"You're hit," I said, noticing that the shot failed to cauterize the wound all the way.

Fett grunted, "No, it was a piece of the roof. Get us to the surface. Whatever the Imperials had planned, it wasn't good. We need to get out of here."

I eyed his leg, which was trickling a steady stream of blood down his plated thigh, leaving a trail behind us. "You're marked good, that's for sure. We need to get that patched up, its leaving a trail. Someone's going to follow it if we don't do something, be it Imperial or arachnite. We can't risk that."

I felt the bounty hunter stiffen under my grip, and I paused, worried he'd been hit somewhere else and just realized.

"Too late," he said emotionlessly, pointing ahead of us.

I snapped my head in the direction he was looking in, and almost dropped him.

A dozen stormtroopers were standing under the access tunnel, detaching themselves from cables. They each turned to us, E-11 carbines raised.

Damn.