Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(92)
He jerked sideways as a last-second twitch by Vader sent him past the opening and dropped him onto solid floor. He keyed in his scanners, noting at least a dozen hot spots of hidden enemies as Viq flew up and landed on the other side of the hole.
And as Dorstren flew up behind them, his heavy DLT-19 cradled in his arms, and landed beside Viq, the entire room erupted into a blaze of blue-edged lightning bolts.
Kimmund ducked to the side, feeling a sudden tingling in his skin as one of the bolts barely missed him. A second later he staggered off balance as something small and hard slammed into his armor. No idea where the projectile shot had come from; the lightning weapon, in contrast, marked a clear path back to the gunner. Kimmund sent a volley of blasterfire to that point as another lightning bolt lashed out, this one targeting Viq. Kimmund shifted his aim toward that shot’s origin and again returned fire.
That latter shot went wide as another pair of impacts jolted against his chest and shoulder. Some kind of pellet weapons, apparently, which the First Legion’s armor was fortunately strong enough to block.
He snarled under his breath. Whoever was running the defense here knew what he was doing. The lightning weapons were hard to aim, but had the capacity to do serious damage if they hit. The pellet guns didn’t do much damage, but they came out of nowhere and could keep the stormtroopers off balance, impeding their ability to stay clear of the more dangerous weapons. In addition, the lightning flashes briefly overloaded the stormtroopers’ targeting sensors, making the pellet gunners that much harder to spot and eliminate. Out of the corner of his eye Kimmund saw Morrtic fly up into view, her BlasTech E-11 blindly spattering cover fire everywhere she could reach. She hit the floor, shifting her blasterfire to another of the lightning-gun nests—
And then, with a dramatic flourish that never failed to send a shiver up Kimmund’s back, he was there.
Instantly the weapons shifted aim. But to no avail. The black armor shrugged off the lightning flashes with ease, and Kimmund could barely see the small twitches caused by the pellet impacts. The figure strode forward like something out of dark myth, heading toward the nearest pile of rusted machinery, a spot Kimmund’s sensors had tagged as the hiding place of at least four of the attackers. With the Grysk focus distracted, the other stormtroopers were emerging from the opening, adding their firepower to the battle. A final burst of lightning lashed out—
From dark shadows far to the rear of the main battle floor, half a dozen clouds of insects burst into view.
The figure stopped, lightsaber raised, as if daring the insects to attack. For a couple of seconds they buzzed almost aimlessly; and then, as if at a silent order, they swarmed forward.
Kimmund smiled tightly behind his faceplate. Once again, Lord Vader had called it. The Grysks were going with the same attack plan they’d used on Batuu: swarms of insects, directed by invisible controllers, carrying loads of immobilizing liquid stone. Layered with the pellet guns and the lightning weapons, it was a strategy the aliens probably assumed was unbeatable.
Only they’d forgotten something. They’d forgotten that this time there was a squad of stormtroopers along. Stormtroopers who were good at evasion and counterattack. Stormtroopers who also had enhanced sensors in their helmets.
Stormtroopers who had known this exact moment would be coming.
“Viq?” Kimmund called into his comm.
“Got ’em,” Viq said with dark amusement. “Feeding coordinates now.”
The first wave of insects reached their target, and the glistening black armor erupted in multiple splotches of gray as the insects delivered their payloads and died. On Kimmund’s heads-up display six hazy red marks appeared, the locations where the swarms had appeared—seemingly from nowhere. “Targets marked,” he said. “Take them.”
The entire chamber lit up as the stormtroopers opened fire, concentrating everything on the cloaked Grysks.
The insects didn’t care, of course. They continued their mindless attack even as their masters abruptly became visible, choked or screamed or snarled, and died. The pellet guns belatedly opened fire again, but the lightning blasts remained silent, their owners no doubt reluctant to shoot through the swarms and possibly undermine the insects’ attack.
Not that there was much need to worry on that score. By now almost the entire suit of armor was covered in gray, with each successive wave adding new layers, to the point where it was barely even human-shaped. Only the lightsaber remained untouched, the blade frozen in place as it blazed uselessly toward the ceiling.
The final wave of insects splattered themselves and died. Kimmund looked carefully around, feeling the impacts of the pellets, knowing that the lightning guns would soon open fire again. With the stormtroopers pinned down, and the greatest threat fully encased in stone, the Grysks no doubt felt confident of victory.
They’d forgotten that Vader had already seen their attack. They’d perhaps not realized that the Dark Lord was himself a master tactician.
And they’d probably never known that Vader had two full sets of armor.
The lightning guns were beginning to open fire once more when the Dark Lord of the Sith appeared from below, for real this time. He stepped forward, calling his lightsaber to him from the now loosened grip of the hollow suit of armor that he’d walked so convincingly across the chamber and into the Grysks’ trap.
Someone hidden among the machinery gave a startled-sounding shout. But it was too late. Even as the lightning weapons shifted their full fury to Vader, he strode toward them, deflecting the bolts into the ceiling as he used the Force to twist their weapons off target, hurling his lightsaber to bring down sections of machinery onto the enemy, grabbing anyone who came into view and throwing them into the rapidly diminishing number of lightning bolts.