[Legacy Of The Force] - 01(51)
The sensor board showed the oncoming starfighters closing on the Falcon. Now it popped up a diagram of their pursuers: fuselage shaped like a beetle’s body, two downslanted wings stretching out to support lengthy thruster pods, a laser cannon turret under the fuselage main body.
“A-Nine Vigilance Interceptors,” Leia said. “Speedy little things.”
“Weak hulls,” Han said. “I used to crack ‘em with my teeth and suck out the meat inside.”
“I’ll grant that you have a mouth big enough to do it.”
Dodonna flashed by to their port side. Her turbolaser batteries did not track the Falcon as they passed.
“Besides,” Han said, “they won’t fire on me. I’m a Corellian celebrity.”
Leia snorted. “Make sure your transponder is sending out your real identity. Otherwise they have no reason not to blow you out of the sky.”
“Good point.” Han checked his comm board and nodded, satisfied. “Turn on the bow holocam, would you? I want to record what we’re about to see.”
Leia sighed and did as she was asked.
CENTERPOINT STATION
Ben lay atop a square-sided conduit a meter wide and tall. It was suspended five meters above the passageway floor, just a meter below the ceiling, and immediately below him CorSec agents were talking.
One said, “Any word?”
Another: “They’ve got him boxed in at one of the empty theater chambers.”
“They’ve got him, then.”
“I don’t know. He’s a Jedi. They’re sneaky.”
Ben grinned. Sneaky. He liked that.
Footsteps approached, and the first CorSec agent shouted, “Halt! Show your identicard.”
A new voice, female: “Ables, Transportation.”
“You need to evacuate this area. It’s under lockdown.”
“No, I’m excluded. Emergency personnel.”
“So you are. All right, get to your station. And fast.”
The footsteps left. The first CorSec agent said, “Back to the patrol.”
“Don’t get lightsabered.”
“Very funny.”
The CorSec agents moved away in opposite directions, leaving Ben alone.
His face fell as a realization hit him. He was sneaky, and he was really good at being sneaky, but being sneaky wasn’t enough. Sneaky was slow. Skulking, crouching, hiding, crawling-it took forever. He was in the corridor that would take him to the station’s repulsor control chamber. By his calculation, it was just a few hundred meters away. But moving stealthily along every centimeter of that distance might take hours.
And all because the enemy knew they were facing Jedi.
Ben sat up so fast he banged his head on the ceiling above. He rubbed at the point of impact and considered. He didn’t have to be a Jedi right now. Clumsy in his haste, he began pulling his boots off, pulling his Jedi robe and all its accoutrements free, and in a minute was left wearing just a black undershirt and black shorts. His lightsaber and all the electronic toys intended to make this mission a success went into his pouch.
Pouch in hand, he dropped over the edge to the floor beneath, rolling up to his feet, and began running in the direction of his destination.
ABOVE CORELLIA
Lysa ended her run along the length of the VibroSword/attack fighter engagement. She would let her thrusters put her some distance away from the conflict before turning around for another run. She was certain that she’d scored some hits on Correllian attack fighters, but had flashed by so fast that she had no idea if any were debilitating, if any were kills.
Killing Corellians.
Eight was still on her tail, but sparks were shooting out and up from his port-side thruster. “Seven, I’m hit.”
“How’s it look?”
“Not good. It’s overheating. Venting it to space isn’t doing any good.”
“Shut it down and get back to Dodonna.”
“Will do.” Eight sounded regretful. “You’d better hook back up with the V-Swords and see if you can pick up a temporary wingmate.”
“You’re right.” Then Lysa’s eye was caught by something on her sensor board-a lone enemy blip, its course taking it near her position and down toward the planet. “After this,” she said.
“Lysa, don’t do it alone.”
“See you back at Dodonna.” She peeled off and looped around to follow in the new starfighter’s wake.
Her sensor board had it classified now-an X-wing. She was surprised; she didn’t think any of the Corellian units here were X-wing squadrons. But then, they hadn’t seen everything the Corellians had to offer them. She smiled, the competitive expression her trainers had sometimes described as feral, and roared up after her new prey.