*****
We didn't bother introducing ourselves at the time, but I later learned the names of the guards we joined up with, so I might as well include that now. The one in charge was a Lt. Raden Praré, who is nineteen. He was leading a small group of young people who weren't even old enough to actually be guards, but had joined since the battle began–Lissé Talen (she's 13, like me and Saché), Delranek Kobé (he's 14, like Rabé) and Chak Carré (he's also 14). As the resistance both grew, with more and more people joining with every passing hour, and shrunk, with more and more "rebels" being found out and captured constantly, the remaining trained guards began splitting up, each of them taking a few untrained volunteers with them. Which is how Raden, Lissé, Del and Chak came to be together and how we came to meet them. They had been ordered to try to get into the Palace and do whatever they could and had somehow managed to make their way all the way up to the level of the Queen's apartments.
Like I said, all this we learned later. At the time, we only stopped long enough to exchange names. Raden explained that they had been instructed to try to clear the way to the Throne Room as much as possible, and since Saché and I were also heading that way it made sense to join up.
We made it almost to the lift which we always take from our rooms to the Throne Room in the morning when Padmé is going to have her audience with the Council when we encountered our first droidekas. There were two of them, along with six battle-droids. I had never fought a droideka before, even in sim, and I still can't believe how difficult it was. We had to take out the battle-droids first, then concentrate our firepower on the droidekas, three of us on each. By the time they finally exploded, all of our power cells were pretty much drained, and we had to take the blasters from the downed battle-droids.
Then we had to figure out how to get up to the Throne Room level. Raden produced a cable-gun from his belt and he and Saché began to discuss using it to go up the outside of the Palace. I was glad to see Saché finally seemed to be back to normal, but I thought they were wasting their time. I tapped my foot against the polished floor impatiently. The cable-gun wasn't much use to us, because there was one gun and six people. Even if we went up one at a time, that would take forever. There has to be another way, I thought.
And then I had it.
"Um, guys," I said. They ignored me, so I cleared my throat and said, "Guys!" in a louder voice.
Everybody looked at me. I pointed a finger down the hall where we had been headed.
"The lift?" I said. I saw recognition dawning in their eyes and remembered something Panaka told us when we were doing our initial training. He said that often in the heat of battle, the most obvious things become obscured and that many times the most obvious things are also the most effective. At the time I didn't get it, but standing there by the lift, it finally made sense.
"It'll be deactivated," Raden said as if that should be obvious–which it was.
"But we can still use it," I answered. "There's usually a maintenance ladder or something in lift shafts, isn't there?"
"It's worth a try," Raden said, motioning the others down the hall to the alcove in front of the lift.
Saché got herself set up on one side of the hall to watch our backs, with Del and Chak on the other.
Raden, Lissé and I went over to the lift and I keyed the code to override its programming and send it to us immediately, but it was, unsurprisingly, completely deactivated. Well, we had figured it would be, so that was no surprise. But I hadn't counted on the doors being locked shut.
I turned and picked up a section of battle-droid that lay nearby.
"That looks about right," I said and Raden nodded, understanding what I had in mind.
Saché turned back over her shoulder and said, "Hurry up you guys, I've got a feeling we're going to have company real soon," and I was glad to see her getting into the fight.
We didn't bother answering her, though, because we had the rod lodged in the almost hairline crack between the decorative doors, and were starting to try to prize them apart. The lift might not be working, but the shaft was the still shortest way to get up to the level we needed.
We forced the doors open just far enough to be able to squeeze through, which I immediately did. It was dimly lit, but before I could even say anything, I felt Raden press a glowrod into my hand and I activated it. With the light it shed, I could see the lift far below me, and I satisfied myself that if we kept to the sides of the shaft, we'd be safe even if it moved. Of course, none of this would have worked had there not been something to climb, but I was relieved to see a maintenance ladder was indeed running up one of the walls.
I ducked back out and called Saché and the others over.
"There's a ladder to the right of the doors that should take us up to the level we want," I said.
"They'll be watching the lifts, even if they are deactivated," Raden said. "The shaft may even be booby-trapped."
"I doubt it," I answered. "The scum have been using the lifts while they were here, so they wouldn't booby-trap them. And with all the confusion, they won't be very organized in defending the Palace. After all, our guards just ran off without even seeing that our door was properly locked."
Raden nodded. "Alright then, you five go up the lift shaft. I'm going to cable up outside that window--" he pointed to the nearest one, "and I'll be waiting for you when you get to the top."
I nodded and began swing myself into the shaft again when Raden pulled me back.
"You'll have to wait for me to get the doors open. I'll take out whatever droids are there, and open the doors for you. Got it?" He directed the words at me, and I figured he'd already picked up on the fact that I probably would have tried to do it all myself–climb the shaft, pry the doors open, shoot the droids, save the Queen, liberate the planet... I grinned at him.
"Got it."
He nodded and then tucked the metal rod we'd used to open the lift doors into his belt, headed for one of the hall alcoves and blasted the window. As he disappeared onto the ledge outside, I finally swung into the shaft. I reached over and grabbed hold of the metal rungs and began to climb, going up far enough to give the others room to come in after me. Once everybody was in the shaft, I started climbing in earnest. It took a lot longer than I would have guesses, and was a lot harder, too. I had thought I was very fit, but after that climb, I'm going to add some more exercises to my workout. At the same time I was trying to keep my arms and legs moving as fast as possible, I also had to count floors as I climbed and guess at the right one. I suddenly wondered what would happen if Raden and I chose different floors and hoped that wouldn't happen.
*****
TBC...
We didn't bother introducing ourselves at the time, but I later learned the names of the guards we joined up with, so I might as well include that now. The one in charge was a Lt. Raden Praré, who is nineteen. He was leading a small group of young people who weren't even old enough to actually be guards, but had joined since the battle began–Lissé Talen (she's 13, like me and Saché), Delranek Kobé (he's 14, like Rabé) and Chak Carré (he's also 14). As the resistance both grew, with more and more people joining with every passing hour, and shrunk, with more and more "rebels" being found out and captured constantly, the remaining trained guards began splitting up, each of them taking a few untrained volunteers with them. Which is how Raden, Lissé, Del and Chak came to be together and how we came to meet them. They had been ordered to try to get into the Palace and do whatever they could and had somehow managed to make their way all the way up to the level of the Queen's apartments.
Like I said, all this we learned later. At the time, we only stopped long enough to exchange names. Raden explained that they had been instructed to try to clear the way to the Throne Room as much as possible, and since Saché and I were also heading that way it made sense to join up.
We made it almost to the lift which we always take from our rooms to the Throne Room in the morning when Padmé is going to have her audience with the Council when we encountered our first droidekas. There were two of them, along with six battle-droids. I had never fought a droideka before, even in sim, and I still can't believe how difficult it was. We had to take out the battle-droids first, then concentrate our firepower on the droidekas, three of us on each. By the time they finally exploded, all of our power cells were pretty much drained, and we had to take the blasters from the downed battle-droids.
Then we had to figure out how to get up to the Throne Room level. Raden produced a cable-gun from his belt and he and Saché began to discuss using it to go up the outside of the Palace. I was glad to see Saché finally seemed to be back to normal, but I thought they were wasting their time. I tapped my foot against the polished floor impatiently. The cable-gun wasn't much use to us, because there was one gun and six people. Even if we went up one at a time, that would take forever. There has to be another way, I thought.
And then I had it.
"Um, guys," I said. They ignored me, so I cleared my throat and said, "Guys!" in a louder voice.
Everybody looked at me. I pointed a finger down the hall where we had been headed.
"The lift?" I said. I saw recognition dawning in their eyes and remembered something Panaka told us when we were doing our initial training. He said that often in the heat of battle, the most obvious things become obscured and that many times the most obvious things are also the most effective. At the time I didn't get it, but standing there by the lift, it finally made sense.
"It'll be deactivated," Raden said as if that should be obvious–which it was.
"But we can still use it," I answered. "There's usually a maintenance ladder or something in lift shafts, isn't there?"
"It's worth a try," Raden said, motioning the others down the hall to the alcove in front of the lift.
Saché got herself set up on one side of the hall to watch our backs, with Del and Chak on the other.
Raden, Lissé and I went over to the lift and I keyed the code to override its programming and send it to us immediately, but it was, unsurprisingly, completely deactivated. Well, we had figured it would be, so that was no surprise. But I hadn't counted on the doors being locked shut.
I turned and picked up a section of battle-droid that lay nearby.
"That looks about right," I said and Raden nodded, understanding what I had in mind.
Saché turned back over her shoulder and said, "Hurry up you guys, I've got a feeling we're going to have company real soon," and I was glad to see her getting into the fight.
We didn't bother answering her, though, because we had the rod lodged in the almost hairline crack between the decorative doors, and were starting to try to prize them apart. The lift might not be working, but the shaft was the still shortest way to get up to the level we needed.
We forced the doors open just far enough to be able to squeeze through, which I immediately did. It was dimly lit, but before I could even say anything, I felt Raden press a glowrod into my hand and I activated it. With the light it shed, I could see the lift far below me, and I satisfied myself that if we kept to the sides of the shaft, we'd be safe even if it moved. Of course, none of this would have worked had there not been something to climb, but I was relieved to see a maintenance ladder was indeed running up one of the walls.
I ducked back out and called Saché and the others over.
"There's a ladder to the right of the doors that should take us up to the level we want," I said.
"They'll be watching the lifts, even if they are deactivated," Raden said. "The shaft may even be booby-trapped."
"I doubt it," I answered. "The scum have been using the lifts while they were here, so they wouldn't booby-trap them. And with all the confusion, they won't be very organized in defending the Palace. After all, our guards just ran off without even seeing that our door was properly locked."
Raden nodded. "Alright then, you five go up the lift shaft. I'm going to cable up outside that window--" he pointed to the nearest one, "and I'll be waiting for you when you get to the top."
I nodded and began swing myself into the shaft again when Raden pulled me back.
"You'll have to wait for me to get the doors open. I'll take out whatever droids are there, and open the doors for you. Got it?" He directed the words at me, and I figured he'd already picked up on the fact that I probably would have tried to do it all myself–climb the shaft, pry the doors open, shoot the droids, save the Queen, liberate the planet... I grinned at him.
"Got it."
He nodded and then tucked the metal rod we'd used to open the lift doors into his belt, headed for one of the hall alcoves and blasted the window. As he disappeared onto the ledge outside, I finally swung into the shaft. I reached over and grabbed hold of the metal rungs and began to climb, going up far enough to give the others room to come in after me. Once everybody was in the shaft, I started climbing in earnest. It took a lot longer than I would have guesses, and was a lot harder, too. I had thought I was very fit, but after that climb, I'm going to add some more exercises to my workout. At the same time I was trying to keep my arms and legs moving as fast as possible, I also had to count floors as I climbed and guess at the right one. I suddenly wondered what would happen if Raden and I chose different floors and hoped that wouldn't happen.
*****
TBC...