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The other fully functional Mando before Raynar, the woman whose mini rockets he had triggered, spun against him, a bare vibroblade in her hand. She thrust; he dodged. He riposted with his lightsaber; she caught the blade on her gauntlet, allowing the blade to skid harmlessly away. Raynar focused on her, could not pay attention to the apprentice’s fight, though he could hear the zat-zat-zat sounds of lightsaber blows raining quickly yet ineffectively against Mandalorian armor.

Raynar feinted with a high-to-low lightsaber slash but spun out of the false maneuver into a side kick that caught his opponent in the helmet, at the jaw. He spun again twice more, kicking twice more, his spinning momentum maintained by the Force, and connected each time. On the third blow, his target crashed to the floor and lay unmoving.

The spinning also caused Raynar’s broken arm to flail around uncontrolled. It hurt, and a groan escaped him. But he’d been hurt worse, far worse. This level of pain wouldn’t debilitate him.

The apprentice was now backing away from his crippled opponent, batting away blasterfire as fast as he could swing his lightsaber. Raynar gestured, used the Force to levitate the Mando, and then slammed him down onto the floor again and again.

Normally that wouldn’t take out an armored commando, and it didn’t this time, either. But the injury to the man’s leg made the impacts hurt him far worse than they would have otherwise. And Raynar just lofted the man and slammed him down until the Mando fell unconscious.

Panting, Raynar looked at the apprentice, who was breathing even harder. “All right, you’ll do.”

“Sir, your arm—”

“Yes, make me a sling, would you?” Raynar tucked his left hand into his belt, partially immobilizing the arm, then trotted toward the intersection, trying to catch his breath as he went.

Jaina’s battle had gone silent. That was either very good or very bad.

Raynar peeked around the corner. Down the way, walking toward him, carrying Jedi Tainer, was Jaina Solo. Her robes had burn marks but she seemed unhurt. Raynar stepped out and gave her a nod.

Jaina did not look happy. “This level is indefensible. There are holes where the StealthX hangar exterior doors should be. There may be more Mandos massing outside.” She swept past him on her way to the turbolifts.

He followed. “Let’s go up one level, lock down the lifts, and hold there.”

She nodded. “How’d the new boy do?”

“Not bad. Not so good at taking orders. I remember when you were like that.”

She finally grinned. “Still am.”

An hour later, it was clear that the raid on the Temple was both a failure and far more damaging to the Jedi than the government could have guessed.

The assault on the Main Hall, which had involved Mandos firing ranged weapons into the hall from fixed positions outside, was, Master Hamner announced, nothing but a feint. “The real attacks came at the hangar level and through the food warehouse areas. Commandos entered with enough explosives and electronics subversion gear to open indefensible passages throughout the Temple and cripple all our communications and coordination. But fast thinking and an early alert from Jedi Solo meant we were aware of the possibility of flanking maneuvers and could counter them.”

No Jedi had died. Losses among the Mandos were unknown; follow-up Mando units had retrieved their fallen comrades. Government forces were now situated around the Temple, preventing traffic from moving to or from the edifice. Mobile artillery emplacements were trained on the main entrance and all known secondary entrances.

Kyp Durron, who had led the defense at the food-preparation level, brought the news to Jaina. “The StealthX launch is scrubbed. No way are we going to be able to get them out of here unseen.”

Jaina, sitting alone at a table in the mess hall, using a datapad to compose her report, scowled at him. “They’re the stealthiest vehicles in the galaxy.”

“In space. In atmosphere, the repulsors and thrusters still make noise … and