Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(106)

But he couldn’t. Thrawn was right: They had to beat this thing right here, and right now, or the Republic would be in deadly danger.

And already he could hear the sounds of approaching droids from the western end of the north wing. He and the Chiss were running out of time. “You sure this will work?” he asked as he set the helmet on the floor with the others.

“I’m certain of nothing,” Thrawn admitted. “Stories and legends are useful for gauging a culture, but aren’t always reliable sources of tactical data. Yet from what I’ve seen I believe this has a good chance of success.”

“Well, if it doesn’t I’ll never let you hear the end of it,” Anakin said. The sounds of droid feet were getting closer—

There was a sudden thud from behind them. He spun around, drawing and igniting his lightsaber in a single motion.

To his relief, it was Padmé, with R2-D2 jetting his way through the air right behind her. “Padmé!” he called.

She turned toward his voice, her stride faltering for a split second at the sight of him and Thrawn encased in their new clone trooper armor, then hurried toward him. “The other B2,” she called tensely. “It’s right behind me.”

Anakin hissed between his teeth. An invulnerable B2 behind, an unknown number of battle droids in front. Great. “I’ll take care of him,” he said, starting toward her.

“Wait,” Thrawn called after him. “You must disable the droid in such a way that you block the door.”

“Don’t worry, none of the other blanks have been activated,” Padmé said.

“The blockage is for us,” Thrawn said. “They must not wonder afterward why we didn’t return to that chamber and destroy it.”

“Yeah, yeah, got it,” Anakin said impatiently. Unfortunately, even a hulking super battle droid wouldn’t fully fill the whole doorway. “Suggestions?”

“Try to spread-eagle it, as I did the two with my arc-cannon,” Thrawn said.

“Why don’t you do it?” Padmé asked. “You still have one shot, right?”

“We need that here,” Anakin said, thinking fast. “Okay, I’ll get it. Padmé, stay here and give him a hand—we’re filling as many helmets with cortosis as we can. Artoo, you’re with me.”

“And don’t let the B2 see your lightsaber,” Padmé called after him.

“Okay,” Anakin said. Prying back the top of his chest plate, he dropped the weapon between his chest and the armor, and sprinted toward the doorway, feeling decidedly awkward and more than a little claustrophobic. He normally fought with only minimal armor, as Thrawn had already noted, and with his arms and legs free to move. Going into battle fully encased this way was a new experience, and not a particularly pleasant one.

A screwdriver lying on the floor a few meters away caught his eye, and he used the Force to draw it to his hand. A couple of quick instructions to R2-D2—

The little droid warbled a warning.

“Right,” Anakin said, slipping on the helmet.

And now he felt awkward, claustrophobic, and blind. Great.

B2s weren’t terrifically fast, fortunately, and the battle droid was still a few paces away when Anakin and R2-D2 reached the doorway. The B2 caught sight of Anakin and stopped, raising its wrist blaster. “Identify,” it demanded in a flat voice.

Anakin smiled inside his helmet. So that was what Padmé had meant. The three Serennians were also in clone armor, and they probably hadn’t had time to work out a proper ID code system with their droids. As long as the B2 didn’t see his lightsaber, it couldn’t tell he wasn’t one of its masters. “Duke Solha,” he said, just to see what it would do.

The B2 paused, thinking or else confused. “Artoo?” Anakin murmured, nodding toward the droid.

R2-D2 twittered and rolled forward, gunning his little wheels for all they were worth. He reached top speed and kept going.

And rammed straight into the B2’s legs.

Given the difference in size and weight, Anakin hadn’t expected the astromech to topple the battle droid. Sure enough, the B2 staggered with the impact but stayed on its feet. It looked down, as if amazed by R2-D2’s sheer impudence, and Anakin took advantage of the distraction to reach up and drive the end of the screwdriver into the wall just above the door lintel, using Force strength to shove it through the ceramic nearly handle-deep.

The B2 swept its left arm down, shoving R2-D2 off to the side, and started toward the doorway again. Anakin backed up a couple of steps, then reversed direction, running forward toward the droid. He reached the doorway and jumped up, catching hold of the screwdriver and using the pivot point to swing himself forward. He shoved off the screwdriver, arced briefly through the air, and slammed feetfirst into the B2’s torso.

The battle droid nearly fell over that time, barely managing to maintain its balance. Anakin landed on his back on the floor and scrambled to his feet.

Double vision: shot coming at torso—

Just as the B2 fired its wrist blaster at full power into his chest.

Anakin jerked back, feeling a warm glow spread rapidly from his chest to envelop his whole body. The droid fired again as Anakin backed through the doorway; this time the glow was almost painfully warm. Even cortosis, apparently, had its limits.

The B2, its balance now restored, started forward again, its blaster tracking Anakin’s chest. Behind the droid, apparently unnoticed, R2-D2 was coming up, preparing for another run at its legs. Anakin watched the B2, judging his timing—