Chapter 28

Jacen, Corran, and Luke were all awakened early that morning by one of General Farlander's aides. When they arrived in the war room, another aide presented each of them with a cup of caf.

"They're coming," said Farlander. "We've got three hours, at the most. They're dropping in about two klicks from our eastern perimeter."

"What's the size of the force?"

"Maybe six hundred, Espos and Elite Stormtroopers. They've got a dozen or more AT-STs and about twenty Chariot LAVs and maybe forty other assorted repulsor-craft."

"If we can't hold them off, have all of the trainees loaded onto the Night Crawler for evac," said Luke. "Corran, you stay here for now. Jacen and I will wake all of the students and get them prepared for battle." He turned to Farlander. "May be Force be with you."

"We're going to need it," said the General as Solo and Skywalker left.



***

Anakin Solo stared through his macro-binoculars at the approaching Corporate Sector force. They were marching in perfect formation, every soldier. The first line was all Espos, it appeared. He turned to the Rebel soldier manning the gun beside him. "What kind of gun is that?"

"It's a NRMG-1, shoots 14 mm armor piercing slugs at 3000 rounds per minute. Not quite as powerful as a blaster, but the rate of fire makes up for it." The Sergeant patted the back of the large mounted gun. "Those Espos won't know what hit 'em. This bunker's pretty well camouflaged. There's a line of these bunkers set up across this perimeter."

Anakin nodded. "Good luck." He turned and headed out the back of the bunker to where his swoop was waiting. He took one last glance behind him as he headed out to where the Jedi trainees were boarding the Night Crawler.

It was a solemn scene, with all of the younger Jedi trainees heading up the ramp sullenly. Ben Skywalker stood at his father's side, pouting about having to leave.

And then suddenly, the enemy was upon them. The sounds of machine guns ran out, followed closely by blaster fire.

Jacen stood with Danni, begging her to take the ship out, in case things went bad, but the look of defiance on her face told Anakin that she wasn't going anywhere. Jacen pulled her into a tight hug and then both of the mounted speeder bikes and left for the battle.

Luke had given up arguing and had handed Ben off the an older Jedi trainee before leading a group of Jedi to the main battle.

"Waiting for something?" said a female voice from behind him. Anakin whirled about. It was Tahiri, clad in brown Jedi robes.

"More like someone. Hop on. I've got to get out there." He spun the swoop around and Tahiri leapt on. As they sped off for the fighting, Anakin shouted over the engines, "I just wanted you to know, Tahiri, that I love you. Stay safe." She didn't reply, and Anakin wondered whether or not she had heard him.

He was jolted out of his thoughts by a explosion that sent them flying off of the swoop. Both of them stood up and ignited their lightsabers, ready to fight. They kept going forward, dodging artillery fire.

Finally, they reached the first line of bunkers. Blaster fire was flying over their heads. Tahiri and Anakin ducked behind a fallen tree. Anakin pulled a blaster rifle off of his back and checked the power pack.

"Glad to see you, sir," yelled a non-com from behind the wreckage of a bunker. "It's a mess. They got the bunker with artillery. There's two more soldiers spread out in this general area, but they're green."

"Sarge!" shouted another voice. The Sergeant turned to face the tree stump the young soldier was standing behind. "They got Sehielan!"

The Sergeant nodded grimly and yelled to Anakin, "If you can get any reinforcements here, it'd be real helpful!"

"I'm on it." Anakin raised his comlink to his lips as Tahiri let out a burst of laser fire from her side of the tree. "This is Wraith Twelve to any available Wraiths. I need immediate reinforcement at my current location. Say again, I need immediate reinforcements at my location."

"Acknowledged Twelve," said Grabakhar. "Larvaroo, Piggy, Runt, Elassar, and I will be there shortly."

Anakin turned to the Sergeant and said, "We've got reinforcements on the way. Commandos."

"Thanks, sir-" The Segeant took a blaster bolt to the shoulder. "Sithspawn!" He dropped his rifle and drew his pistol with his good arm.

"Tahiri!" called Anakin. "Can you help him out? I'll cover you." She nodded. "Suppressing fire! Three, two, one, run!" As Tahiri took off for the Sergeant's position, Anakin and the young private stood up and lanced fire across the wrecked forest towards where the Espos were firing from. They were joined a second later by the Wraiths.

"Thank the Force you guys are here," said Anakin to Grabakhar.

"How many?"

"I'm guessing a dozen scattered across this clearing."

"We need to advance on them and take their position so they can't be reinforced." Grabakhar turned to the other Wraiths. "Give us cover fire, on my mark. Anakin, come with me, using your lightsaber." The Noghri commando unsheathed two nasty daggers. "Three, two, one, MARK!"

Anakin ignited his lightsaber and followed the Noghri's lead. Grabakhar leapt over a broken tree into a crater. Anakin winced when he heard the screams and saw the blood spatter on Grabakhar's knives when the commando jumped out and headed for the next Espo position. Anakin deflected a blaster bolt and jumped down into a crater, killing three of the Elites.

He continued in the bloody massacre, fighting only by the instincts that the CSA had implanted in him.

"Captain!" called the Sergeant from his bunker. "HQ's on the line. Enemy forces have breached our defenses at Bunker Alpha Seven. They want us to pull back to help evac the kids!"

"Got it Sarge. Start heading back. The Wraiths and I will cover your retreat."

"Sir, Private Zanzi and I can help!"

"Go Sergeant! That's an order! You're wounded. Get the Jedi out of here!" shouted Grabakhar.

The Sergeant saluted, and he and the Private started moving back. Anakin clipped his lightsaber to his belt and pulled out his rifle, dropping CSA troops that were beginning to filter into the clearing while dropping back quickly.

There was a high pitched whine from behind him. Anakin dove out of the transport speeder's way at the last second. When he noticed the pilot, he groaned and climbed aboard. "Kell! What are you doing? Orders were to hold the base until the evac was complete!"

"We're Intelligence kid. We don't exactly follow orders from Generals. Hop in!"

The Wraiths hopped through the open troop bay doors on both sides of the transport and hooked the clips hanging from the ceiling to their belts. Anakin looked at them for a moment, bewildered, but when Elassar leaned out the open door way and returned fire with the Espos, he got it. Anakin clipped himself in and used the cord to swing onto the roof of the transport and opened fire.

They came to a sudden stop and he hopped off, looking for his brother, Uncle Luke, or Face. He found Face talking with General Farlander in the command tent in the center of the Complex.

"What's going on, sir?"

"The General just approved my plan. We're going to steal a landing craft from their base and get on board the Planet Slayer. Your grandpa says that'll have the fleet command program he needs to demobilize the Eclipse. Reload weapons and ammo, and meet back here in five."

"Yes sir!"



"Good. It's game day kid, and we're on the spot. Get moving."