Star Wars_ Boba Fett 06_ Pursuit - Elizabeth Hand [3]
"Things sure are heating up around here!" Boba kicked out at the second droid. It collapsed against the side of the conveyor. Before it could move again, Boba blasted it. Remnants of plasteel and sensors rained down onto the conveyor belt, as the first droid was borne into the furnace. "I think it's time I checked out - "
He shoved his blaster back into his belt and turned. Behind him was an opening.
That must be how I got here. A shrill alarm sounded. And it looks like it's how I better leave - now!
He ran through the opening into a narrow passage. Muted thunder came from outside. The floor beneath him shook. Boba looked around but saw no signs of life anywhere; only piles of rubble where the Republic's fire had damaged the fortress walls. The passage went in only one direction, so he began to run swiftly, one gloved hand resting lightly on his blaster.
I've got to find Wat Tambor, he thought with grim determination. If he gets away...
Boba quickly pushed that thought aside. He had been sent to Xagobah to capture Wat Tambor and bring him back to Jabba the Hutt, dead or alive.
Failure was not an option.
CHAPTER THREE
Boba had no idea how to find his way out of Wat Tambor's fortress, let alone find the Foreman of the Separatist's Techno Union, before he fled Xagobah. He continued to follow the passage as it twisted and turned, gradually climbing toward one of Mazariyan's upper levels.
Welcome cool air flowed past him, and Boba inhaled gratefully.
You never know how much you miss breathing till you've been dead, he thought wryly.
He came to a spot where the tunnel forked. Here he paused. It was easier to breathe now; easier to do everything. The xabar's toxins had finally worn off.
But Boba couldn't blame everything on the toxin. He inspected his body armor and noted where it had been damaged by Grievous's assault. As he ran a hand over his arm he winced.
That was a bad one, he thought. A surface wound; but Grievous's weaponry and lightsabers had managed to tear right through the Mandalorian body armor. Better make sure I treat th -
KARAM!
With a cry Boba fell backward. Blinding heat surrounded him. With one hand he gripped his blaster, moving carefully to see what had happened.
One entire side of the fortress was gone. Where moments before the tunnel's wall had curved, now there was only empty air, a scorched ring of rock and metal, and the slimy, organic mass Wat Tambor had bioengineered from Xagobah's native fungi. Warily, Boba approached the opening and peered out.
Below, all was chaos. The main entrance to Mazariyan had been breached. Clone troopers stormed through a huge gaping hole, tendrils of smoke still rising from its edges.
"Whoa," Boba said in grudging admiration. "That was the explosion I felt back there in the tunnel! The Republic must've used a thermal detonator to blow their way in. Man, I'd love to get my hands on one of those...."
He stared down to where clone troopers ran between the fortress and an AT-TE - a Republic all-terrain-tactical-enforcer. A pall of smoke hung above the ground, mingling with the purplish spores that pervaded Xagobah's atmosphere. At the edge of the clearing that surrounded Mazariyan, blasted malvil-trees oozed and burned. Flames licked up from the ruins of an immense hailfire droid. There were blasted spider droids and battle droids. The charred remnants of a Fromm tower droid were scattered across the ground like the ruins of a small city. A few beleaguered battle droids still made their way across the battlefield, firing relentlessly as the clones rushed toward and past them.
It was clear that the Republic now had the upper hand.
"Wat Tambor must have given the signal to retreat," Boba muttered.
"He came here to regroup after he escaped from the Republic. Now that Glynn- Beti's tracked him to his