Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(108)

Double vision: bolts coming at chest, at head, at legs, at head, at legs, at chest—

There were probably twenty of them in all, B1s and B2s. It didn’t matter. Anakin was deep in the Force, turning and blocking and slashing and destroying. Dimly through his combat haze he could sense other blasterfire cutting through the melee: Padmé and Thrawn picking off the more vulnerable B1s where they could.

The threat to Padmé—the danger to the Republic—the murder of Duja—

Double vision: bolts at chest, at head—

He continued his attack, a memory swirling up through the mist: the slaughter of the Sand People who’d tortured and murdered his mother. Then it had been justice. Now it was war.

Double vision: one bolt at chest—

He deflected the solitary bolt, raised his lightsaber. Before he could attack, the last remaining B1 fell, its torso burned through by the shot from Padmé’s S-5.

He looked around. They were down. Destroyed. All of them.

“Are you all right?” Padmé asked as she hurried over to him.

“Sure,” Anakin said, breathing a little harder than he should have been. The result of fighting in full armor, no doubt. “Thrawn?” he asked, turning around.

“Here,” Thrawn said, emerging from cover and walking over to them, Padmé’s ELG-3A blaster in his hand. “Do you still wish to destroy this place?”

Anakin looked over at the row of cortosis-laced clone armor. Dooku’s ultimate plan for victory. “Absolutely,” he said.

“Then do so,” Thrawn said. “Ambassador Padmé and I will check on the freighter.”

Anakin looked questioningly at Padmé. “Go ahead,” she said. “Dooku can have his battle droids now, for all the good they’ll do him. But this…”

“Got it,” Anakin said. “Be careful. I’ll be right out.”

The armor might be impervious to his lightsaber. But the pillars holding up the ceiling and the floor above weren’t.

He started on the one farthest to the east, to seal off that entrance as quickly as possible in case Solha tried to move the B2 out of the doorway. The pillar was stronger and better-designed than he’d expected, and it took six cuts to finally bring it down.

But when it fell, it fell spectacularly. Apparently the builders had never dreamed the pillar would collapse, and so had anchored it firmly to the ceiling as well as the floor. The result was that as the upper part of the pillar came down it dragged a huge section of ceiling and roof down with it. Even with Jedi speed Anakin was barely able to get out of the way in time.

The debris was still bouncing, the dust thick in the air, when he started on the second pillar.

By the time he reached the end of the chamber, he’d figured out the structural characteristics accurately enough to drop the last pillar squarely across the racks of clone trooper armor.

He spent a moment peering through the clouds of dust at what was left of the chamber, surveying his handiwork and making sure there was no chance that anyone could ever retrieve enough of it to be of any use. Then, picking his way through the debris, he made his way back across the chamber to the easternmost door.

Padmé and Thrawn were outside, crouched behind a section of broken permacrete that seemed to have come from the east wing’s roof and top floor. “Is it done?” Padmé asked as Anakin dropped into a crouch beside them. “It was certainly loud enough.”

“Buried, crushed, and shattered,” Anakin confirmed. He tapped the pile of broken masonry in front of them. “What happened here?”

“Did you forget my ship’s diversionary attack?” Thrawn asked.

“I guess so,” Anakin said. Across the courtyard, four more B2s were standing guard at the foot of their freighter’s ramp. “Let me guess. The other Serennians and the rest of the droids are inside?”

“Most likely,” Thrawn said.

“Solha said they were going to disable it,” Padmé said. “They’ve probably had enough time to do that by now.”

“Probably,” Anakin agreed. “So what now?”

“We prepare to leave this world,” Thrawn said. “Ambassador Padmé and I will go there.” He pointed to another pile of debris about halfway down the east wing’s wall. “You, General, will go to the spot where the shield generator used to be and engage the battle droids. Don’t advance, but remain on that spot and merely defend yourself. We shall do the rest.”

Anakin frowned. Only the one hatch on the freighter was open, and there was no way anyone would be able to sneak in past the B2s, no matter how engaged they were. Even if Thrawn and Padmé got in, there was no easy way to unsabotage a ship in a timely manner without knowing exactly where and how it had been sabotaged in the first place. “May I ask how you’re going to accomplish that?”

“There’s no time,” Thrawn said, peering up at the stars. “Go. Now.”

Anakin took a deep breath. “Okay. Just remember what I said earlier about never letting you hear the end of it.” Bracing himself, he ignited his lightsaber and charged into the courtyard.

The B2s swiveled as they saw him, bringing their wrist blasters to bear.

Double vision: bolts at chest, at chest, at head, at chest, at head—

He settled into his defense, letting the Force guide his hands. The battle intensified; he intensified his defense…