Deactivate the homing system. Use line-of-sight guidance system. I want these babies dead on." The Ranger carried a battery of two MG1-A proton torpedo tubes. They were new weapons, auxiliary to the ship's batteries of laser cannons, not yet tested in battle but potentially devastating, with a range of three thousand kilometers, a velocity of twenty thousand kph. Unaffected by energy fields, they could go straight to their target without interference. Using line-of-sight guidance would prevent the missiles from homing in on other ships as they closed in on their primary target.

"Target marked, sir. Range one thousand kilometers."

"Thirty seconds to initial point," the navigator intoned.

"Fire when ready, Captain," Halcyon commanded. He strapped himself into the gravity couch beside Quegh and waited.

"Fire control," the captain said, "on my mark "IP reached, sir," the navigator said.

"-fire! Watch officer, mark in the log the time the first salvo fired. "

He turned to Halcyon. "General, we are engaging the enemy."

A bright flash filled the viewscreens. "We got him! We got him!" the navigation officer shouted. Immediately the communications consoles blinked into life and the bridge was filled with a cacophony of voices from the other ships in the fleet.

"Get some control there," Quegh told the communications officer, who immediately got busy reestablishing the ship's command-and-control net.

"Tell the fleet to follow me and execute the attack plan." He turned to Halcyon. "This is all we needed to give us the edge over the enemy."

"Captain, can you try to establish contact with Slayke's forces? Also, set me up with a line to Coruscant. I want to report that we have opened contact with the enemy. First salvo " to us.

"Second to them." Captain Quegh pointed to a screen. A nasty red glow began to blossom on a heavy cruiser on the extreme starboard flank of the attack formation. It grew quickly; then a bright flash consumed the ship.

He shook his head sadly. "That was the By'ynium, Lench's ship. He was a good captain. Good crew on that vessel." But now bright flashes began to appear all over the enemy's ships as Halcyon's fleet closed in.

The Ranger lurched suddenly to port. "Everyone stand fast. Damage reports!" The ship's stations reported no significant damage. "Near hit,"

Quegh said with a sigh. "They're ranging in on us, so hold on, everyone."

All the Rangers batteries began firing as the enemy ships loomed bigger and bigger in her viewscreens. Halcyon noted with satisfaction that many of them were burning.

"Give me an external view of our hull," Quegh commanded. When he switched to the port side he shouted, "No, wait, that was no near hit-we're being boarded!"

A huge explosion suddenly rocked the Ranger. Her powered movement began to slow, and then she began drifting. "Tell the other ships to continue the attack," Halcyon shouted as he unstrapped himself from his gravity couch. "What's our status, Captain?"

"We've been breached somewhere aft. I think it took out our propulsion unit. There's a small vessel fastened onto our stern. They're coming in through a breach back there. Ship's stations, damage reports."

There was no report from the propulsion unit.

"Captain," the executive officer reported, "not all the air lock doors are working. I'd like to go back and inspect the damage, sir.

Go to it.

"I'm going with him," Halcyon said. "You two-" He gestured at the pair of guards standing beside the aft hatch. "-unsling your weapons and follow me." He pulled his light-saber from his belt.

The guards did as they were told, grinning broadly. "It's about time,"

one of them said.

"General, what are you doing?" Quegh asked.

"I'm taking these guards and your executive officer and going aft, Captain. If we have boarders on us, we're going to repel them." He turned to the ship's exec. "Commander, arm yourself."

"How the-"

"I can handle this. Alert the crew to prepare to defend themselves."

"General, we have to get you out of here!"

"No time for that, Captain. Send a message to the Neelian. Inform Commander Skywalker that he has command until he hears from me, and that he should commence deploying the landing force. Seal this hatch behind us and don't open it unless you know who's there." He turned to his three companions. "Come on, let's get aft and deal with the boarders."

"The Ranger's been hit!" Anakin shouted. Everyone on the bridge started.

"I believe you're right." Captain Luhar leaned forward. Then he looked at Anakin. "Commander, that means-"

"Sir! Message from the Ranger. She reports her propulsion unit is damaged and they have been boarded. General Halcyon directs Commander Skywalker to a.s.sume command of the fleet and to commence deploying the landing force."

"Look there!" another crew member shouted. "She is being boarded." On the screens they could just make out a dim shape attached to the Ranger's stern. "There's another one."

"They're skirmisher ships," the captain announced. "The enemy commander's put them out in advance of his position to ambush us. Blasted things remained cloaked until they attacked. Comm, warn the rest of the fleet.

Commander, shall I give the order to land the landing force?"

Anakin struggled to control his emotions. He was in charge now, and he would be every bit the commanding officer.

Thank you, Captain. Please give the order to land the transports. Inform General Halcyon's deputy division commander that he is now in command of his division and, until further notice, I shall be field commander in place of General Halcyon." He turned to the Rodian. "Grudo, our troopers are ready for battle. Let us join them."

Anakin stood before the screen for a moment. Smoke, debris, pain, and fear-he could see it all. But Halcyon was alive and fighting. Anakin smiled. Too bad for you, boarders, he thought. He tried to send a thought to Halcyon: Good luck. As he and Grudo made their way back to the flight deck he realized how little he had used the Force since they'd set out from Coruscant.

There was vast confusion aft of the Rangers control room.

"Commander," a chief petty officer exclaimed, running up to the ship's executive officer, "good to see you, sir. They're in the propulsion unit.

I a.s.sume the crew there is all dead. We've sealed the air lock doors just forward of the propulsion room, but they're cutting through and we have some doors in the forward compartments that won't seal. Better suit up."

"General, follow me." The exec led them into an equipment compartment that was full of crew getting into low-gravity gear. "If we're going to have a fight inside the ship, sir, we can't rely on hull integrity.

Quickly, quickly!" Several crew members, already suited, rushed up to help Halcyon into his own gear.

"Have you issued weapons yet?" Halcyon asked.

"Taking care of that, sir," an ensign replied.

"Good. What is your job, Ensign?"

"I'm a structural engineer, sir."

"You know this ship, then, don't you?"

"Yessir."

"Commander, I'll go forward with the two guards and this ensign, a.s.sess the threat, and hold them up. I want you to organize the crew and form them into an attack force to follow me. Clear?"

"Clear, sir."

With his suit secure and life-support systems running, Halcyon raised the ship's bridge. "Captain, Halcyon here. We are going aft to a.s.sess the situation. I'm leaving your exec here to organize a party to repel boarders. What can you see from up there?"

"The propulsion room has lost atmosphere. Someone's in the next forward compartment, cutting through the air lock. Please be advised, a malfunction has prevented us from sealing the air lock between where you are and the propulsion unit. Be prepared for loss of atmosphere momentarily. Droids don't need it, but we do."

"We re all right. Everyone's suited up and armed. Will keep you informed." Suddenly the atmosphere rushed out of the Ranger's aft compartments with a roar so violent it nearly knocked them off their feet. Just as suddenly the wind and roar ended in the deep, still silence of airless s.p.a.ce. Halcyon had counted twenty crew on the bridge and fifty more behind them who'd been suiting up. That meant a hundred crew members were unaccounted for, dead if they hadn't been killed in the attack or failed to don their zero-atmosphere suits in time. "Ensign, I'm only familiar with certain parts of this ship. I need you to guide us to the stern. Guards, are you ready?"

'Yes," one responded.

The other added somberly, "The rest of our detachment is back there somewhere. Yeah, we're ready."

Halcyon held up his lightsaber and activated it.

"Pretty light," one of the guards commented.

"You should hear it sing," Halcyon replied.

"I've never seen a Jedi Master or one of those things before," the other guard said.

"Well, you're seeing us now. I'll lead the way. Ensign, you stay close behind me. Guards, ready your weapons and bring up the rear. Don't fire unless you have a clear target, and whatever you do, don't shoot me!"

"I'd never shoot a Jedi, sir. Don't know about a general, though."

"When we get through this, I'll have both of you a.s.signed to my personal staff."

"We don't deserve a reward like that, sir," the one protested.

Halcyon laughed. "That's no reward. After a while, you'll wonder what you did to deserve such punishment. Come on, stay alert."

They pa.s.sed the ship's medbay. The medical staff hadn't had time to suit up. "Poor guys," one of the guards whispered.

"I'm afraid that's only the first of many," Halcyon said. "Ensign, are we going the right way? By the way, what is your name?"

"Yessir, right way. Six compartments ahead there's a hatch that leads us to B Deck, then back six more compartments and we're there, if they haven't moved ahead. Uh, my name, sir, is Dejock."

"Captain, update, please," Halcyon said into his comlink.

"As far as we can tell they're having trouble with the hatches. We couldn't seal them airtight, but the crew did manage to close some of them manually and dog them and they're having to cut through."

"Guards, what do I call you?"

"I'm Corporal Raders, sir."

"I'm Private Vick, sir."

"Call me General. And no more jokes from here on out."

They came upon the battle droids just as three of them entered the crew's compartment. Halcyon didn't hesitate. His lightsaber flashed in a whirl of energy, easily deflecting the bolts from the droids' laser rifles. He slashed into them, one-two-three, and the machines disintegrated before his companions could point their blasters at the intruders. Halcyon stood flat against the bulkhead and, as the next three battle droids came through the hatch, disposed of them in turn. In six seconds he had turned the compartment into a junkyard.

"Blast through that hatch!" Halcyon ordered. "Exec, we've got them stopped. Bring up the rest of the force."

The two guards advanced using fire-and-maneuver, one directing bolt after bolt of energy through the open hatch while the other rushed to the left, to continue delivering fire when his companion broke to the right and took cover up against the bulkhead. Ensign Dejock followed the second guard. "Sir, this next area is a storage compartment. The one directly aft of that is a repair shop and then the propulsion room."

Halcyon went through the hatch. The compartment was full of battle droids, all of which opened fire at the same time. Halcyon parried the blaster bolts with his lightsaber. Most of the bolts arced back onto the droids that had fired them. Halcyon pressed forward. The two guards followed him. In seconds the repair shop was.a shambles, but the droids in it were all destroyed.

Halcyon's suit was nearly melted through in places from near hits; one of the guards had sustained a bad burn on his thigh, but the self-sealing material in his suit had saved his air supply.

"We have them on the run!" Ensign Dejock shouted.

"Yes, we've pushed them back. Come on, let's clear out the next compartment." Halcyon started forward.

"Hold it!" The ship's exec stepped through from the crew compartment, followed by twenty heavily armed men. "You don't look so good, sir. Your suit's sustained some damage." He looked around the compartment, littered with destroyed droids, and glanced up at the hull. "It'll take some time to repair that damage," he said. "General, you'd better get back up to the bridge and get out of that suit before it fails. Take these others with you. We know what to do. We'll finish what you started." He looked around the compartment again and whistled. "You really did a job on them."

Supporting the wounded guard between them, the trio staggered back up to the bridge. Within a few minutes the ship's exec and his team had cleared the boarding party. The crew sustained no further casualties. Damage control was already working on restoring hull integrity, and atmosphere was being restored in some of the forward compartments-but the Ranger was out of the battle.

"I'm very sorry about your ship and her crew, Captain," Halcyon said.

"They were good troops and she's a good ship, sir, but I've already made arrangements to transfer to another vessel. We'll scuttle her. General, if it hadn't been for you, we'd all be dead now." Quegh held out his hand and they shook. "Take good care of those two guards, Captain. When I get to the ground I want them a.s.signed to my staff. Hard to get good help these days."

"Commander Skywalker is already deploying his troops, sir."

"Good! Get me down there, or he'll have the war won by the time I can land and claim the glory."

17.

Using ground-skimming navigation, Anakm expertly guided the troop landing craft, letting it roar along at a scant ten meters above the ground.

Grudo sat strapped into the copilot's seat, gripping the armrests as Anakm delicately shifted the steering yoke just enough to clear the top of a hill that flashed beneath them. "Just missed that one, Grudo! Check our troopers, would you?" He was delighted to be flying the transport, and perversely amused that at last he'd found something that made the Rodian soldier nervous.

Glad to have an excuse to take his eyes off the terrain that was whipping past too close beneath them, Grudo slid the cabin door open and glanced back at the fifty clone troopers strapped into the troop compartment.

They sat there calmly, silently, as if they were riding a bus to a picnic. The platoon commander glanced at Grudo and gave him the thumbs-up sign. Grudo turned back to Anakin.

"The troopers are doing well. Can you slow down a bit, or do you enjoy giving me heart failure?"

Behind them, at somewhat higher alt.i.tudes, the sky was dark with other craft, each carrying fifty combat-loaded soldiers. The plan was to approach the predesignated landing zones from about one hundred kilometers out, flying close to the ground to avoid detection, instead of landing straight from orbit where the landing craft's entire trajectories would be subject to observation and direct enemy fire. From orbit, the armada could easily be discerned by the huge cloud of dust it kicked up as it pa.s.sed over the planet's surface.

The combat engineers had already landed, and thousands of labor droids were preparing defensive positions for the infantry. Once Anakin's force had landed and reinforced the engineers, the rest of the army would touch down in huge transport ships.