Boundless Risk Pays for Boundless Gain
Anakin forced himself not to crush the comm in his anxiety as he waited for Chatter to respond. The cycling of red light overhead aggravated his sense of urgency. At least the verbal warning had stopped. He spotted a dataport on the wall and gestured to Artoo to plug in. There was no screen, unfortunately, but at least they would have access to information.
The comm crackled. "I was about to contact you, sir. They've discovered the breach."
"Yes, Chatter, we know. We can't get to you. They've just set up a security checkpoint at the main turbolift. Is there any other way to the lower levels? Another lift? Stairs? Anything?"
"One minute, sir…" The pause was nerve-wracking. "…There's a staircase beside the turbolift."
"That won't work. We can't get into the area at all without going through the checkpoint. Is there anything else?"
"Hold on." Another, longer pause. "The only other lifts are in the corners at the rear of the tower. There are stairwells too."
"Hold the line," Anakin said as Artoo squawked. "Negative, Chatter. Checkpoints are in place at all the turbolift banks on this level. We're not going to be able to get through with Artoo. You'll have a better chance of making it to us."
"But, sir, are you sure we can get past?"
"Artoo says they're calling stormtrooper patrols up from the sublevels. You've got ID. Act as though you're running a patrol. We're in an alcove about halfway between the cargo lifts on the west wall of the tower and the entrance to the large chamber off the LP."
"Commander Cody says we'll be there ASAP."
"We'll do our best to be inconspicuous until you get here."
Anakin cut the connection and bent over Artoo. "Are you able to reroute stormtrooper patrols?"
Artoo worked for a time before giving an affirmative.
"Can you arrange for periodic gaps in the patrols of the concourse here? Say…two minutes? To start five minutes from now?"
Kenobi chuckled at Artoo's indignant chirp. "I take back what I said. He has indeed been invaluable."
"My requests aren't challenging enough, eh?" Anakin said to Artoo. "What about the blast doors at the end of this corridor and the ones to the landing pad? Can you open them? Don't do it yet," he hastened to add. "I only need to know if you can."
Artoo's dome twirled and he rotated his visual receptor in a gesture that bore a disturbing resemblance to an eye roll.
"Of course you can. Foolish of me to ask. All right—don't initiate this yet. When I give the signal, open the doors and simultaneously block the controls so they can't be operated electronically. We need two and a half to three minutes to reach the end of this corridor, cross the atrium, and get out to the landing pad. We can't do anything about the manual overrides. We'll just have to hope for the best."
Artoo gave a happy little wiggle and set to work.
Anakin checked that the droid was not visible from the hallway before he extracted their lightsabers. He handed Kenobi's over and clipped his own to his belt. "Don't use this if you can help it," he said in an undertone.
They pressed themselves into the corners of the alcove, monitoring the corridor with the Force and nudging away any interest in their hiding place. Anakin reminded himself that it would take the clones at least five minutes to reach their location. When that did nothing to settle his jangling nerves, he employed an old Jedi breathing exercise as a calming technique. He resented that Kenobi's tranquility seemed undisturbed by their peril.
He tensed to the cadence of stormtroopers marching past and relaxed as they continued on.
Artoo began to toot.
Anakin shushed him. More boots approached and receded. A third set of footsteps turned toward the alcove, but Anakin had already recognized Cody and heaved a sigh of relief.
He lifted the comlink to his mouth. "Come in, Rex." No response. He keyed the comlink on and off and tried again. Nothing.
The clones reached the alcove.
"We had to switch the frequency when the tower went into lockdown, sir," Chatter said. "What's the message?"
"He needs to bring the shuttle to the LP at the base of the tower."
There was a brief exchange over the comm. "Rex is on his way. We should try to get closer to the LP before he arrives."
Anakin nodded. "Cody, you and the others take charge of Artoo. We must get him to the shuttle. If anyone questions you, claim you found him wandering around alone and are taking him to the data center. Kenobi and I will give you a thirty second head start, then we'll follow one at a time. We'll be right behind you. Don't wait for us and don't look back."
"Understood, General."
"Artoo, open the blast doors now."
Artoo's data arm spun in the socket for several seconds. He withdrew it and rolled toward the clones.
"Form up, men. Artoo, in the middle," said Cody.
The droid took up his assigned position with an anxious burble. The clones marched out. The sound of distant consternation reached the alcove.
Anakin risked a quick look. The stormtroopers assigned to the checkpoint at the blast doors had been startled when they opened and were trying to summon assistance. Anakin counted off thirty slow seconds as the commotion in the corridor grew more agitated before he nodded to Kenobi, who assumed an alert but unhurried air.
Anakin was counting off another interminable thirty seconds when the activity in the corridor picked up. He hurried out of the alcove as if he were part of whatever was going on.
The clones and Artoo had reached the blast doors, and it appeared they might be able to slip through in the midst of the commotion.
"Halt," called a voice behind them.
Cody pivoted with a salute. "Sir."
"Where did you find this droid?"
Anakin quickened his pace and caught a glimpse of the commander who had stopped them when they first arrived. With difficulty he restrained himself from cursing aloud. Maybe they should have risked killing him earlier. Except his body might have been discovered before they had finished at the data vault and…
He cut off the fruitless train of thought.
Cody said, "It was in one of the alcoves, sir. It's not an Imperial model, so we're taking it to DPC."
"Your initiative is commendable, Sergeant. Follow me. Colonel Yularen is coordinating the response to the security breach and will wish to direct the examination of this droid himself."
Anakin brushed against the man's mind. Sharp and wary, it snapped with suspicion. It would be impossible to divert him with a touch of the Force and time was their enemy now. He sprang at the officer, knocking him to the floor. "Go!"
The clones snapped off shots to take out the squad manning the checkpoint and hurried into the atrium.
Anakin attempted to beat the commander's head against the floor, but he resisted with considerable strength, writhing in an effort to flip their positions. Anakin slipped on the highly polished floor. With no time for finesse or mercy, he grabbed the man by the neck, choking him with his left hand. As soon as he felt the neck crack, he flung the corpse aside and rolled to his feet.
The clones were making the best time they could across the open expanse of the atrium. Officers were shouting. Stormtroopers double-timed from both the main corridor and the side corridors.
Kenobi had not run as Anakin had hoped but was reaching out a hand to help him up. The moment he had regained his feet, Anakin started for the LP at the quickest pace he could manage. They had scarcely crossed the threshold of the atrium when the first stormtroopers got a clear shot.
Blaster bolts burst around them. Anakin grabbed his lightsaber.
Beside him, Kenobi ignited his blade too. "I thought you said no lightsabers."
"If possible. It's not possible anymore." Anakin pointed across the chamber to Cody's group, which had perhaps another ten meters to traverse. "Run; I'll cover you."
Kenobi kept pace with him.
"Go, Obi-Wan! I promise I'll be right behind you. We'll make a smaller target than if we're side-by-side."
"No. Two lightsabers are better than one. We'll go together. You're wasting time."
Groaning in aggravation, Anakin complied. The concentration of blaster fire grew to monsoon proportions. They had crossed almost half the cavernous room, but more stormtroopers poured in every moment. Desperately, Anakin reached for the Force to enhance his stamina. He hadn't done something like this in far too long; he was not conditioned for this sort of combat any longer. He shot a sidelong glance at Kenobi, who was not as young as he used to be, but was heartened to see him keeping up the pace.
A groan of metal reverberated through the room and, ponderously, the blast doors began to slide toward one another. Sithspit. Either Artoo's encryption had failed or someone had reached the manual controls.
"We've got to get there before the doors close," he yelled.
The Force flared a warning behind him. Anakin risked a glance over his shoulder. Where had those stormtroopers come from?
Ignoring the irrelevant question, he began a spinning defense across the floor. By some miracle the two men managed to deflect blaster fire coming from all directions. Another glance to the blast doors. Perhaps three meters left before the doors sealed.
Anakin extended his left hand, briefly retarding their progress.
It took a great deal of effort to hold back the massive panels, and the split concentration was costly. Obi-Wan cried out. Spinning once more, Anakin glimpsed the black mark of a blaster burn on his jacket. It wasn't clear how serious the injury was, but it was hampering his defense.
The doors had begun to move again.
He was out of time and he hadn't spotted the door's control mechanism. Abandoning any attempt at precision, he thrust out his hand and hurled enough energy to warp one panel sufficiently to jam. All the while, he deflected bolts. A couple broke through his guard to graze his right arm and his upper left shoulder, but the pain wasn't debilitating.
"We need to run," he called, loping for the door.
The older man did not reply but began a limping jog. Was that really the best he could do? Then Anakin saw that his side was streaked with blood. He ran back and drew Obi-Wan's left arm over his shoulder, maintaining their defense with his free hand. Kenobi, too, continued deflecting bolts as best he could, although he was slowing and growing clumsy. Anakin dragged him along, desperate to reach the blast doors.
"You should leave me. I'm slowing you down."
"No one gets left behind," Anakin puffed.
Something was drawing some of the fire away from them. Anakin couldn't spare the attention to see what it was, but he was grateful.
They reached the doors at last. Anakin raced through, pulling Kenobi behind him and ducking to one side to take shelter from the blasters. Cody and Dash were firing into the atrium through a smaller door to the right of the blast doors.
The rain poured down, soaking them instantly. Visibility was almost zero, but Rex had illuminated the shuttle's lights. Another ten meters to the ramp. A few stormtroopers pushed through the gap and fired toward the shuttle.
"Cody," yelled Anakin. "Help Obi-Wan."
Cody took Anakin's place so he could drop back. Weaving from side to side, he made his way toward the shuttle as fast as he could, Dash firing beside him. A shot came close and low. Dash jerked and stumbled.
"Go! I'll hold them," Anakin called. He risked a glance behind him. Cody was almost to the ramp, though Kenobi was slower with every meter. "Go on, you space slug. Don't give up now."
Obi-Wan's laugh was breathless. "I'm doing my best. But you should have left me behind. You'd already be out of here without me."
The unmistakable whine of TIE engines screeching overhead poured new energy into Anakin's exhausted legs. They needed to get off the ground now. He chased Kenobi and the clones up the ramp.
"Rex, take copilot," he called as soon as his feet hit the deck.
Cody towed Kenobi to one of the cockpit passenger's seats, where he sat wheezing for several moments before he recovered enough to fumble with his flight harness.
"Strap yourselves in," Anakin shouted. "We're going out hot."
He dropped into the left-hand seat. He trusted that Rex had left the ship ready to fly, so with a quick scan of the instruments, he lifted off, even before the ramp had sealed.
"How are you going to get through the shield gate?" Kenobi demanded.
"I don't know. I've got to get there first—and this slug can't outrun a TIE."
"What about Artoo?"
"Call him!"
Liftoff was not a moment too soon as the TIEs began their first strafing run. Anakin juked to avoid the shots, but the shuttle groaned in protest.
An electronic screech wailed from the passenger cabin.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan said in a strangled voice, "this is not an Aethersprite."
"Trust me, I know," he grated, jinking to starboard this time. "Rex, enter the coordinates for Nal Hutta."
"Nal Hutta?!"
"Just do it!"
Rex punched in the coordinates.
"Can you take over fire control?"
"Yes."
Artoo managed to claw his way into the cockpit and plugged into the dataport.
"The shield gate is closed. Can you open it?" Obi-Wan asked the droid.
Anakin ignored the conversation, all his attention occupied by the fight. Some combination of instinct, skill, and sheer blind luck seemed to be blessing them. He hoped it would continue long enough for them to escape. He gunned the engines.
Black spots danced on the edge of his vision. He drew a deep breath and the spots cleared.
The shuttle soared into the sunlight. He squinted. A TIE brushed past their dorsal fin, and he dropped altitude so fast, Rex yelped. At least, he thought it was Rex. Maybe it had been Cody.
The black spots fluttered again.
Rex shot the TIE's wingman, but Anakin couldn't avoid the fireball, and their shields were scorched. He raced toward the shield gate.
"Artoo, can you open it?"
The droid shrieked in frustration.
"I know. If you can't, you can't," Anakin shouted back.
Rex sent a comm to gate control, requesting release, but of course that was fruitless. They were ordered to power down all weapons and shields and return to the surface.
Nuts to that.
Anakin wracked his brain as the gate approached. A squadron of TIEs commenced a pincer trap below them.
This was it. They had to open that gate and it had to be now.
"Rex, fly the ship," he barked.
"What?" the other man said, even as he lifted his hands to the controls.
Frantically, Anakin punched in a code, hoping against hope it would work. If the Emperor had in fact deactivated all his codes…
He held his breath, watching the readouts on the gate for an interminable moment as the shuttle rocked under the combined fire of the TIEs. Their shield strength was dropping below fifty percent. He shunted all power, including weapons and life support, to the shields. If this didn't work, life support would be extraneous anyway.
His heart pounded despite the pacemaker, and the low-volume warning on his oxygen system chimed. He cursed under his breath. The supplement had been running at full power since the too observant officer had spotted Artoo the first time. All the spare canisters were in his bag in the main cabin. He would have to hope it would hold out.
With glacial slowness, the gate began to open. It had worked! He reclaimed the controls and flew evasively, his attention riveted to that slowly widening gap. At the earliest possible moment, he forced his way through. The ship jerked. The port wingtip had collided with the edge of the gate. No time to worry about that.
He had no sooner cleared the shield than he raced away from the planet, pushing the engine for all it was worth.
"Life support and weapons!" he snapped.
"On it!"
"Is the nav computer ready yet?"
"No. Another…twenty-six seconds."
Ahead, the star destroyers guarding the gate converged. So many TIEs poured from their hangars, the ships looked like they were erupting black clouds. Anakin twisted the shuttle enough to slip through a gap between two of the destroyers. Open space lay ahead.
"Where's that vector?"
"Right here."
He lined up the yoke with the vector and veered in a wide turn for a spinwise jump. Just before he pulled the hyperspace lever, a gigantic clone helmet outlined in lights on the port side of the flagship caught his eye. Beneath the image the legend Fett was here blinked on and off like a Coruscanti diner's sign.
He pulled the lever and the stars became streaks.