Star Wars_ Darth Bane 01_ Path of Destruction - Drew Karpyshyn [31]
He whipped the rifle around in desperation, looking for a new target on the roof. He set his sights on a soldier crouched down low beside a small canister. The soldier wasn’t moving, and he’d covered his face with his hands as if shielding his vision. The blast from Des’s weapon hit him square in the chest just as the device at the soldier’s feet detonated.
“Flash canister!” Lucia screamed, but her warning came too late. The view through the scope vanished in a brilliant white flare, temporarily blinding Des.
But with his vision gone, he could suddenly see everything clearly. He knew the position of every soldier even as they all scrambled for cover; he could track exactly where they were and where they were going.
The soldier in the third turret was training the cannons on the incoming wave of troopers. In the excitement she’d popped her head up just slightly above the walls of the flatbed, leaving the smallest of targets exposed. Des took her with a single shot, the bolt going in cleanly through one ear hole on her helmet and out the other.
It was as if time had slowed down. Moving with a calm and deadly precision, he trained his rifle on the next target, taking her through the heart; barely a moment later he got the soldier beside her right between his cold blue eyes. Des took one man in the back as he ran for the nearest gunship. Another was halfway up one of the flatbed’s ladders when a bolt sliced through his thigh, knocking him off balance. He fell from the ladder, and Des put another shot through his chest before he hit the ground.
It had taken fewer than three seconds to wipe out eight of the nine soldiers. The last one made a run for the edge, hoping to escape by diving off the roof on the far side of the building. Des let him run. He could feel the terror coming in waves off his doomed prey; he savored it for as long as he could. The soldier leapt from the rooftop and seemed to hang in midair for a second; Des fired his last three shots into his body, draining the weapon’s power cell.
He handed the weapon back to Lucia, blinking rapidly at the tears welling up as his eyes tried to soothe their damaged retinas. The effects of the flash canister were only temporary; his vision was already beginning to return. And the miraculous second sight he’d experienced was slipping away.
Rubbing his eyes, he knew now was not the time to think about what had just happened. He’d eliminated the gunners, but his troops were still outnumbered. They needed him down in the hot zone, not here on the edges of the battle.
“Keep an eye on that roof,” he ordered Lucia. “If any of those Republic mudcrutches appear on top, take them out before they get to the gunships.”
She didn’t reply; her mouth was hanging open in amazement at what she’d just witnessed.
Des grabbed her by the shoulder and gave her a rough shake. “Snap out of it, trooper! You’ve got a job to do!”
She shook her head to gather her senses and nodded, then loaded another energy cell into her weapon. Satisfied, Des pulled out the 21D and charged across the clearing, eager to join in the battle.
Three hours later it was all over. The mission had been a complete success: the outpost was theirs, and the Republic had no idea that thousands of Sith troopers were marching through the valley to attack them at first light. The battle itself had been short but bloody: forty-six Republic soldiers dead, and nine of Des’s own. Every time a Gloom Walker went down, part of Des felt he’d failed somehow, but given the nature of their mission, keeping the casualties under double digits was more than he could have reasonably