Chapter 17

Han skillfully maneuvered the hover limo through the spaceport, heading to the Falcon's berth. Unfortunately, the Falcon had been impounded. A squad of CSA stormtroopers guarded the heavy docking bay doors.

"Sithspit!" Han cursed. "If there's that many on the outside, how many are gonna be on the inside?"

"Let me take care of it, Dad," said Anakin softly. "Me and Tahiri."

Tahiri shot Anakin an icy glare as she agreed, "We'll do it Han."

What do you have in mind? Tahiri's voice suddenly rang out in his head.

Nothing major. Anakin started talking aloud as he and Tahiri watched from behind some elaborate shrubbery. "That speeder there, see it?" Tahiri nodded. "I'm pretty sure it's a SoroSuub XP-38. The power cells in the older SoroSuub models are extremely volatile. If we send that thing up by the wall and blow up the power cells, it should blow through the door, taking out most of the stormies on either side."

Tahiri nodded. "Good plan. One thing, what if the Falcon's close to the door?"

"It isn't. The techs aboard that SSD gave me an extremely good eye for detail. C'mon. Let's highjack the speeder. They crossed the street and walked over to the speeder. "Tahiri, look a little more casual. You're giving people the impression that something's up."

After Anakin said that, Tahiri loosened up slightly. Anakin walked up to the door and tried to open it. "Locked?" asked Tahiri.

"Of course," he said dryly. Anakin pulled his lightsaber out and pressed the hilt up against the door where the locks would probably be and pressed the activation stud. He moved the lightsaber up slightly and then deactivated it, clipping the hilt to his belt.

"Good work, but how are we going to get it open?" asked Tahiri.

Anakin just grinned. He placed one of his gloved hands into the hole he had made and tore the door off with the slightest of ease. "They injected chemicals into me to make me super strong." People were starting to take notice of two kids breaking into the speeder.

"Anakin, hurry up. Someone's going to call the Security Police soon."

Anakin didn't respond. He was concentrating on the security keypad, trying to find out the code to open it. He reached out with the Force and somehow felt which of the buttons were supposed to be pressed. The speeder's repulsorlift started up with a high-pitched whine.

"Something else the CSA techs gave you?" asked Tahiri sarcastically. "Infrared vision to see which buttons were the warmest?"

"Funny. It was the Force. And I've always been good with machines. Get in and get ready to jump out the door."

"Get out of the vehicle," came a cold voice from above. Anakin glanced up. It was an Espo.

"No way, laser-brains," Anakin muttered as he punched into the man's ribs, his hand piercing the Espo's armor and breaking a rib. The guard crumpled to the ground. Taking advantage of the second he had before the Espo's friends would be after them, he pulled out a concussion grenade and armed it. He quickly turned the craft and pushed the throttle to full. "Jump Tahiri!" Both of them jumped out the open doors and onto the ground.

The speeder continued and hit the door as the concussion grenade went off. The power cells exploded as planned, incinerating a great deal of the door and most of the stormies near it. "Come on!" Anakin yelled to Han, Mara, and Fiolla. as he drew two holdout blasters from his sleeves and began picking off the stormtroopers that had been near the edge of the blast. The Falcon had been far enough away from the docking bay doors that it hadn't been touched by the explosion.

Han got to it and lowered the ramp. Before it was all the way down, he had run up to the cockpit. Anakin, Mara, Fiolla, and Tahiri followed and Tahiri headed for the gun turret. As Mara began to head for the cockpit, she was stopped by Anakin. "Let me copilot on this one, Aunt Mara."

She looked into his eyes and saw the determined look that had almost always been on his face in the months before he died. "Alright. I'll take the gun turret."

The hurried their separate ways. Han looked up as Anakin sat down in the copilot's chair. "Dad, we're going to have to blast our way out of here. I forgot about the doors on the ceiling. Laser cannons aren't going to go through them fast enough."

"Don't worry Anakin. Just get ready to launch a shadow bomb."

"Shadow bomb?"

"Remember how Kyp used proton torpedoes without drive casings against the Vong? They became known as shadow bombs. Get ready to launch one on my mark. I'll tell you where to send it."

Anakin nodded as Han eased the Falcon out of the docking bay and into the center of the spaceport. There was a humongous transparisteel dome covering the whole spaceport. "Anakin, your target's the dome. Three...two...one...mark!"

Anakin sent a concussion missile speeding out of one of the Falcon's launchers towards the dome. He looked away as the missile exploded, taking a good portion of the dome with it. The Millennium Falcon shot through the hole. Just as they came out into the air, they took a stray laser blast. "Just great!" Fiolla yelled as she entered the cockpit and strapped herself into the navigator's chair. "You've brought us right into a war zone!"