"Message to fleet, sir," the signals officer responded.

"Speed, twenty-one thousand. It's headed directly toward Praesitlyn," the ship's navigator reported.

"Guns locked on target, sir," the gunnery officer announced.

"Twenty-one thousand kilometers an hour? Whatever it is, it's moving slowly. Where are those visuals?" The screens gradually revealed a shapeless black object, almost a cloud. "Give me more definition," Foth ordered. "Blasted thing doesn't look like a vessel."

"That's the best our equipment can do until it gets closer, sir."

"We didn't have time to upgrade our visual observation equipment before we left Coruscant," Vitwroth said.

"I know, I know. Guns, when will it be in range?"

"At that speed, on my mark, two hours, twenty-seven minutes-mark."

"Then we wait, unless fleet orders us to approach closer. Do you think it's a cloaked Separatist ship?" Foth asked Vitwroth.

"We have to a.s.sume it is, sir."

'Sir, fleet message received and authenticated: 'Maintain your position, observe and report. Fire only if fired on,' " the signals officer announced.

"So we wait," Foth announced. "Two hours? Two hours, twenty-seven minutes, no, twenty-six minutes now, and then maybe we'll find out more."

The palms of his hands were sweaty, but to the crew on the bridge he appeared icy calm. "Everybody, on your toes. This could be it."

"We're going in fast and we're traveling light," Anakin told his a.s.sault force, gathered in a small bunker attached to the command post. The force had grown to include a squad of fully armored clone infantry to go in Erk's ship as security for the transport craft while they were on the ground inside the center. "Erk, we're going to push those transports at top speed and fly them as close to the ground as we can get. Are you up to that?"

"Yessir."

"Getting out of here is going to be a problem. The ships are protected in revetments, but in order to avoid being hit by enemy gunners, we're going to have to make a dash for it, so everyone be prepared for a very hard takeoff. I expect to have hard landings, too, but we'll talk about that later. Everyone look at this graphic of the mesa and memorize as many of the features as you can in the short time we've got. Also, this display.

" He punched up a floor plan of the main communications building.

"Trooper Subu, does any of that look familiar?"

"Yessir. This long corridor leads to the main control room. She used a laser pointer to highlight the area she was talking about. "These side corridors here," she said, pointing to three corridors in quick succession, "lead to various other parts of the complex. Here, this leads to the courtyard where the staff often take their breaks and eat their meals. These rooms are staff quarters. Back here are storage rooms, repair shops. Where are they holding the hostages?"

"In the main control room. If they move them, I'll know. Everyone look at this." Anakin highlighted an area outside the main building. "We are going to land here, among these outbuildings, hopefully screened by them and these trees. We'll go in hard, so everyone be sure to secure yourselves for a rough landing. From there it's a very short sprint." He pointed to a large doorway. "If it's locked, we blow it open. It leads directly down this corridor to the main control room. Hardly any possibility of getting lost on our way to the main control room. It's these side corridors that we should worry about. They offer opportunities for an ambush, so I want to leave one trooper at each intersection to cover them so we can leave our exit route open. Sergeant," he said to the clone trooper, "you pick those troopers now, and deploy them as we go in.

You two-" He turned to the guards, Raders and Vick. "I want you in the transport with me. Your job will be to patrol that main corridor and back up the troopers who'll be watching the side corridors. Shoot anything that's made of metal and moves.

"We're traveling light, weapons and equipment only. If we're in there more than ten minutes, we'll be visited. The hostages are heavily guarded. Surprise will be our best weapon. We've got to get in there, take the guards out, and get the hostages to the transports as quickly as possible. If I go down, he will be in charge-" Anakin pointed to the ARC sergeant. "Lieutenant H'Arman, you stay with your transport and the infantry escort. Trooper Subu, you come into the building with me. Your job will be to get the hostages moving and back to the transports."

Private Vick gave Odie a grin. She smiled back. Erk noticed the exchange and, despite himself, felt a tiny twinge of jealousy, "How many hostages are there?" he asked, taking his mind off Odie.

"The original staff was fifty technicians and specialists. We don't know how many of them may have been executed. I know none of you saw the clip of Reija Momen, but she said the Separatist commander threatened to kill one hostage every hour that we didn't give in to their demands. We think the enemy commander was bluffing, but, well, he had fifty potential victims-some could have been executed. We won't know until we get in there. Remember this: we won't have any time to search for anyone left behind. The hostages themselves can tell us if we've gotten everyone out.

We'll just have to rely on that to ensure we don't leave anyone behind.

It's a chance we're going to have to take."

As Anakin spoke, Odie watched him closely. He was a handsome young man, maybe only a little older than she was, but it was clear from the way he spoke and the way he held himself that he was very much in charge.

"Everyone take a few minutes and study these charts until they're burned into your brains. One more thing. The signal for the fleet to open fire is the common Basic word finished When that signal is transmitted to General Halcyon, the fleet will open up with its heavy weapons, so we need to be totally clear of that mesa when the signal is given." Anakin leaned forward toward his team. "This operation has to come off with split-second timing. Once the enemy realizes we're in the center, he'll kill the hostages. He knows as well as we do that once the hostages are no longer in his power, his lease on life is up. AH right, five minutes until we mount up."

Strapped into the copilot's seat, Odie's heart pounded with excitement; she had never traveled this fast over the ground before. Anakin kept the aircraft no more than fifteen meters above the ground as it roared along at top speed. He controlled the craft expertly, almost effortlessly as far as Odie could tell. His adjustments of his flight pattern were so perfectly in time with his velocity, it was as if he could see the terrain before it showed up in front of them.

"Ever fly in one of these?" he asked her conversationally.

"Not up in the c.o.c.kpit," she answered. A small hill flashed beneath them as Anakin spurred a few meters of alt.i.tude out of the transport.

"Ever do any Podracing?"

"No s sir."

"That lieutenant behind us is one fine pilot," Anakin observed. "I understand that you're pretty good on a recon speeder." He keyed his throat mike. "Okay, Erk, we break here. Just follow me. Everyone get ready, check your weapons and equipment. Three minutes to touchdown."

"Yessir, I am pretty good as a recon trooper." Odie was surprised at how level her voice was; she'd been scared before, scared plenty, but this was terrifying. Calmly, hands steady, she undid the flap on her blaster holster, checked the charge and the safety, and slid it back in. Anakin, on the other hand, seemed almost happy to be at the controls of a ship that could crash one second or be blown out of the sky the next. That must be how Erk felt in his fighter during combat, she thought.

Odie's checking her weapon didn't go unnoticed, and Anakin smiled. "You know how to use that thing, don't you?"

Her sunburned face turned even redder. "Yessir."

Anakin realized she thought he was thinking about the incident with Grudo. "What happened with Grudo was an accident," he told her. "I don't hold it against you-put it out of your mind. Think about what's ahead of us and get ready to use that blaster again."

The mesa loomed a few kilometers ahead. It glowed and pulsated with artillery fire, both incoming and outgoing. Halcyon's attack was proceeding.

"Prepare for landing," Anakin announced on his command net. "Erk, set down next to me. All right, everybody, here we go!"

Anakin's landing craft slammed down between two low buildings and stopped in a swirl of dust just in front of a grove of trees. Even before it was stopped, the rear ramp thudded down and the ARC trooper and clone infantry were out and running for the entrance to the main communications building. All around them the air hummed and buzzed and cracked with the blasts from high-energy weapons; a hundred meters beyond the trees was a maelstrom of fire as Halcyons guns blasted Tonith's positions, but so far no one seemed to have noticed the landing craft-two now, because Erk's landed just beside Anakin's and the clone infantry emerged to set up pen-meter security. The ARC trooper blew open the door to the communications center and, followed closely by Anakin and Odie, dashed inside.

"It's about forty meters from here to the main control room door," Odie shouted.

"Move fast but keep a sharp lookout," Anakin ordered over the tactical communications net. "Be sure of your targets before you shoot. No unnecessary fire."

He sprinted down the long corridor, followed by the rest of his force.

The side corridors flashed by, but all seemed empty just now. As ordered, the clone sergeant began deploying his troopers. A corridor leading off to the left of the structure lay ahead, and the doors to the main control room were just beyond that.

Anakin had his lightsaber out. He was a good three meters ahead of the fastest clone infantryman when a battle droid popped around a corner and fired its weapon. The bolt hit the trooper behind the Jedi. The trooper gasped and collapsed to the floor in a clatter. Anakin disposed of the droid with one swift sweep of his lightsaber, but other battle droids, six or eight of them, emerged and took up positions directly in front of the control-room doors and immediately began firing. Odie, the clone troopers, and the two guards. .h.i.t the deck and the bolts lanced harmlessly over them, caroming off the walls and ceiling. None of them could fire back because Anakin was in the way. To Odie, lying on the floor watching him, he seemed at the center of a cyclone of blue light as his lightsaber whirled and slashed at the droids whose blaster bolts, aimed directly at him at point-blank range, bounced off the high-energy blade and tore into the walls and ceiling. In seconds, the droids were smoking piles of junk.

Anakin leapt over the mess, brought his lightsaber down in one swift motion, burst open the doors to the control room, and stepped inside. The whole fight had taken only seconds, and to those behind him watching it seemed he had merely strolled through the droids and pushed open the doors.

Odie and the others lay gasping and coughing on the floor behind him. The corridor was filled with the choking stench of vaporized droid metal and components. Anakin had already disappeared into the control room before she got to her knees and shouted, "Follow him!"

The droids in the main control room had been given strict orders to guard the prisoners, so when Anakin appeared suddenly among them, his lightsaber flashing, it took several fatal seconds for any of them to recognize him as a threat. One fired directly at him, but it was as if Anakin knew the droid's intention even before it moved. With an almost casual sweep of his blade, he deflected the blaster bolt and cut the droid in two. Odie, coming through the ruined doors behind him, was horrified to see Anakin holding off six battle droids. Fortunately for her and the infantry troops who pounded in just behind, the droids'

attention was all focused on the Jedi. To Odie, his movements were so fast that by comparison the droids' defense was in slow motion. She knelt and fired at a droid in a far corner of the control room. The sergeant and his troopers took up shooting positions, but Anakin had so quickly dispatched the droids inside the control room that there were no opponents left for them to shoot at.

"Secure the hostages," Anakin ordered. "Quickly! Quickly! A counterattack is on the way."

Pors Tonith, who up to this point had fought a brilliant defensive action, had made one big mistake, and that was moving the hostages into the main control room. He had done it to make guarding them easier, and he had never planned on an attempt to free them. Now he issued a fateful order: "Kill them, kill them all!"

Anakin stood in the center of the control room surrounded by the steaming piles of debris that had been the hostages' guards. To Reija Momen, who only moments before had been sitting dozing against a wall in the corner of the room surrounded by her companions, the Jedi's arrival among them occurred in a burst of sound and fury so astonishing and unexpected that at first she couldn't grasp what was happening. The ARC trooper came up to her, offered her a hand, and said something. She got to her feet.

Other clone troopers were helping her companions up and ushering them through the ruined doors. But Reija moved toward the solitary figure standing in the center of the room. The kiss she placed on Anakin's cheek came as a total surprise to him. In his mind he knew the droid counterattack was almost on them, and he knew what direction it was coming from. He had been about to activate his light-saber again when Reija kissed him.

Without even knowing who was standing beside him, Ana-kin automatically put his arm around her shoulders and drew her close. She said something and he smiled and looked down at her. What he saw in that brief instant was a profound flash of recognition. In this maelstrom of death and destruction, m this desperate situation with the enemy sweeping down on him and escape a perilous possibility at best, Anakin Skywalker experienced-peace. In that brief instant of the unexpected kiss a profound la.s.situde had come over him; he wished to lay his head on this woman's shoulder and rest, just rest. Maybe sleep, leave this nasty place and not have to get up the next morning.

What happened next would have consequences yet undreamed of; it was as if Anakin Skywalker were having an epiphany. In a microsecond he saw what was coming and knew where it would lead him, but he was powerless to interfere. He felt like a headstrong and disobedient child being forced to sit still and watch a puppet show. A battle droid stepped into the room from the far side and leveled its blaster at Anakin. Reija Momen stepped in front of him just as the droid fired. The bolt, fired at low power, hit her squarely in the chest and slammed her back into Anakin.

She didn't scream, didn't cry out, but her mouth formed a tiny O, and her eyes looked up at him, pleading. He held her under the arms and looked into those eyes and watched the life force drain out of them. Memories of his mother's death flooded him and he felt the rage rise.

The droid stood there, staring at Anakin. It was as if it were waiting politely until Reija Momen was gone before it fired again. The control room was silent for a long moment, broken only by a repeated click, click, click as the droid impotently pulled the trigger of its blaster.

Anakin was saved by poor maintenance. In that instant he once again became an Avenger.

28.

There are so many of them," Lieutenant Commander Vit-wroth said softly as he watched the enemy fleet slowly filling the Mandians screens. He turned to Captain Foth, who sat silently in his chair, fingers drumming softly on one arm, and said, "I've never seen so many ships in one place before."

The main fleet around Praesitlyn had been warned of the approaching danger. Now what? everyone on board the Mandlan wondered. Everyone but Captain Foth.

"Pretty impressive, isn't it?" he commented.

"They were able to mask them until they got within range, sir," Vitwroth said. "I wonder how they did that."

"The same way they blocked communications earlier. They've got the money to pay for research and development," Foth replied. "Now we'll see how well they can fight."

"Enemy ships are within range, Captain," the gunnery officer announced.

"We are ready to open fire, sir."

"Belay that. Our job is to see and flee, and we are now going to flee.

Helmsman, get us out of here."

The smell of Reija's hair still in his nostrils, Anakin reached deep into the Force. A sense of invincible power came over him, infusing him completely. Even during the desperate battle with the enemy tank droids and the attack on the hill he had not experienced the Force as fully as it now flowed into him. In that instant when he achieved total oneness with the Force he knew he could do anything, and it felt good. All thought of his mission, retreating to the transports, evacuating the hostages, giving the signal to Nejaa that would spell victory, evaporated. "Follow me!" he commanded the clone troopers.

Chaos reigned outside the building. Odie, a.s.sisted by Corporal Raders and Private Vick, ushered the hostages into Erk's transport. She could see Erk in the c.o.c.kpit giving the thumbs-up sign and smiling broadly. The Separatists, however, were now aware of their presence and, despite the continuing bombardment from the artillery, had sent the battle droid infantry against them. The clone troopers were engaging from their defensive perimeter.

Erk's voice crackled in Odie's headset. "Good work. Get on board and let's get out of here."

"We can't. The commander's still inside," Odie shouted back.

"Come on. He can take care of himself," Erk ordered. "Get on board and let's get these people out of here." As if to emphasize Erk's words, a stray blaster bolt skipped between Odie's legs and caromed off into the side of the building.

"What's the holdup?" Raders asked, running up to where Odie stood and looking up at Erk in his c.o.c.kpit.

"The commander's still inside. We can't just leave him," Odie said.

"Yes, we can," Raders replied. "Come on, mount up. You've done your job."

"No!" She shook Raders's hand from her shoulder and stepped back, just avoiding a blaster bolt that sizzled past her nose. "I'm going back inside! "

"You're crazy!" Raders cursed. "You'll get us all killed standing out here."

Vick ran up. "What's going on here?" he gasped. "They're closing in, our line is collapsing. We've got to get the hostages out of here!"

The trio was on the ground in the shadow of Erk's transport. A clone infantryman ran up. "We can't hold them any longer," he said, his voice as calm as if he were standing on the firing range. "Our line is collapsing. What are your orders?" As he stood there a blaster bolt hit him squarely between the shoulders, propelling him forward as it burned completely through his body armor and exploded out through his chest.

"That's it, you're leaving," Vick shouted.

The deflective armor on Erk's transport had so far saved it from any serious damage. His power system was up and ready. He shook his head sadly and raised the ramp. "Good hunting, he whispered, his voice cracking. His transport slowly began to move forward. "I guess it wasn't meant for us to spend our lives together." In that instant one of the enemy's heavy guns ranged on Anakin's ship, and it exploded in a brilliant cascade of flame. The concussion buffeted the three on the ground and knocked out the walls on the nearby building, but they were unhurt and Erk's ship was away undamaged.

The three looked at one another.

"Thanks, trooper, you've just effectively killed us all," Vick said bitterly.

The clone troopers' fire had ceased, and from where they lay on the ground the three could clearly see enemy battle droids moving toward them. Odie leveled her hand blaster at the nearest droid.

"Not yet." Raders laid a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Let's make a run for the building. Maybe the commander and his clones are still alive in there. Maybe we can get out somehow before they blow this place."

"Oh, we're dead, dead, dead!" Vick groaned.

"Stop whining!" Raders snapped. "What do you think they pay us for? On my command, run like mad for that hole in the wall over there. Ready? Go!"

Nejaa Halcyon sat as if transfixed. He knew the disturbance in the Force he was experiencing was a result of Anakin's tapping into it. He knew Anakin was still alive. But there was something troubling "General, urgent report from fleet." A staff officer stood at Halcyon's elbow. He hadn't even been aware of the man's approach.

Slayke, who was standing nearby, smiled. He realized the Jedi Master had been absorbed in a reverie, and it amused him that even Jedi sometimes let their minds wander. Yet he also knew that Halcyon's reverie concerned Anakin, and that the Master was worried about him.

Despite their former differences, Slayke had come to respect, even like, Halcyon.

Halcyon sat bolt upright when he read the message just handed to him.

"Listen up!" He gestured at the officers around him and beckoned at Slayke to come closer, "This campaign is shifting into a new level. A large enemy fleet is approaching."

Slayke betrayed not even a twinge of emotion. "It's the relief fleet.

Nejaa, we're now between a rock and a very hard place."

"Yes, we are." Halcyon stroked his chin. What was happening on the mesa?