Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(99)

“Anakin?” Padmé’s soft voice came.

“Here,” he stage-whispered back. Checking the B2s on the floor one last time, he made a low jump back to the area by the door where he’d first started this game. Padmé was at the edge of the platform, crouched in the partial cover of a rusty bin, her S-5 blaster in one hand and his lightsaber in the other. She looked over as his movement caught her eye, some of the tension lines smoothing from her face as she saw him. She started to stand up; he motioned her to stay where she was and hurried over.

“You all right?” he asked as he crouched down beside her.

“I’m fine,” she said, passing him the lightsaber.

“Where’s Thrawn?” he asked, hefting the weapon. The weight felt good in his hand.

“He’s gone,” she said shortly. “What’s going on here?”

“Solha and most of the droids went charging off to deal with the other attack,” Anakin said, frowning. There was an edge of weary bitterness he’d seldom sensed in her before. “If you’d been half a minute sooner you’d probably have gotten run over.”

“Yes, I had to hide from a group of B1s heading for the courtyard,” Padmé said, frowning. “What other attack?”

“Didn’t you hear the thuds? I think someone’s shooting at the outer wall. What do you mean, he’s gone?”

“He brought his ship in, stole the shield generator, and took off,” Padmé said. “I guess that’s all he came for.”

Anakin felt his stomach tighten. He should have known the Chiss hadn’t teamed up with him out of the goodness of his heart. “Well, at least he was helpful enough to pop off a few shots as a diversion on his way out,” he said. “I’m heading down. Wait here until I clear out those droids and then you can help me figure out what this is all about.”

“Right,” Padmé said, squeezing his hand briefly. “Be careful.”

“Always.” Stretching out to the Force for strength, Anakin stood up and jumped off the platform, aiming for an empty spot on the control table that would put him in easy reach of all three B2s. A crouched landing, three quick slashes with his lightsaber, and it would be over.

The techs, absorbed in their work, never saw him coming. All five of them jerked violently backward as he suddenly slammed down onto the table in front of them. The B2s, probably just as surprised, didn’t even twitch. As Anakin ignited his lightsaber they raised their arms, bringing up their wrist blasters. He slashed across the nearest droid’s upper torso—

And the brilliant blue blade vanished.

For half a second Anakin just stared at the empty space in confusion. There were a few weapons like electrostaffs that could block a lightsaber, but he’d never before had the weapon simply shut down.

The droids were still bringing up their wrist blasters. Igniting the lightsaber again, Anakin slashed a second time. Again, the blade disappeared before it could do more than leave a scratch on the droid’s metallic skin.

There was no time to figure out what was going on. The wrist blasters were almost on target; stretching out to the Force, Anakin leapt up and over the top of one of the droids, landing five meters away and again igniting his lightsaber.

They turned to face him, their arms swinging around. The first to get his blasters lined up fired.

Double vision: bolts coming at torso, at torso—

Anakin swung the blade around, catching the two shots and bouncing them into the walls. At least that still worked. He dodged to the side as the second droid came on target and added its blasterfire to the first’s.

Double vision: bolts coming at torso, at head, at torso, at torso—

Letting the precognition and the Force guide his hands, Anakin deflected the salvo as he tried to think. All right. Somehow, something about the B2s’ armor was able to shut down his lightsaber.

But maybe whatever it was wasn’t so good at blocking blaster bolts. Time to find out.

Double vision: multiple bolts coming at torso, torso, head, torso, torso, torso, head—

Again, Anakin blocked the salvo. Only this time, instead of sending the shots across the room, he turned them straight back at his attackers.

No good. The impacts looked strange, the bolts hitting with a sort of shimmering splash instead of just digging into the surface. But there was no damage he could see. Certainly the droids weren’t slowing down.

The blaster bolts were coming faster now as all three B2s came on target. Anakin dodged to the right, still blocking the shots. A pair of shots angled down from above as Padmé opened up with her S-5, her attacks leaving the same odd splash and the same lack of damage.

Anakin continued to dodge, deflecting the bolts, trying to think. Blaster bolts didn’t affect Solha’s new brand of B2s. That was bad enough; but the fact that they could somehow shut down lightsabers was far worse.

But the droids had to have some vulnerability. If they couldn’t be stopped, then the Separatists had won. Anakin wouldn’t accept that. He dodged again, leaping left this time, watching the droids’ slitted eyes as they again tracked their blasters toward him…

Their blasters.

It was a slim chance, he knew, not to mention a nearly impossible shot to make. But right now, it was all he had.

Unfortunately, it would also require him to get a lot closer to at least one of his attackers. He dodged left again, still blocking their shots, then leapt up and over the droids, spinning in midair and landing again on the control table.