Star Wars_ Splinter of the Mind's Eye - Alan Dean Foster [75]
“Sarcasm aside,” Luke pointed out unarguably, “it’s going to take more than bravery and courage to keep this from turning into a massacre of our friends.”
“I’d argue with you, Luke boy,” the old woman murmured pleasantly. “Give me bravery and courage anytime.”
“Just give me one clear shot at Vader,” the Princess snarled, her hands tightening on the rifle stock. The hatred that flamed in those eyes belonged on a much less fragile face. “Save that one chance, I ask nothing of life.”
Luke looked down at her, murmured with feeling, “I hope you get it, Leia.”
“That brings up a distressing possibility,” she said later, as they climbed to take up places behind a bulwark of striped travertine. “What if Vader doesn’t come with the attacking force?”
“He’s coming,” Luke assured her.
“The Force?”
He nodded slowly. “Besides, as you pointed out before, he knows you and I are here. He’ll come along to supervise the capture,” he said, then added after a knotted swallow, “to make sure we’re taken alive.”
Sighting the heavy rifle over the edge of the wall, Leia muttered forcefully, “That’s one thing he’ll never do.” Then she relaxed slightly, her earnest gaze focusing unshakably on her companion. “If it should come to that, Luke …”
“Come to what?”
“Being taken alive.” He indicated understanding and she went on. “Promise me that out of any feeling you have for the Rebellion, out of any feeling you might have for me, that you’ll put that saber at your hip to my throat.”
Luke stared at her uncomfortably. “Leia, I …”
“Swear it!” she demanded, her voice that of a steel kitten.
Luke mumbled something that satisfied her. They became aware a Coway was calling to them softly from above. Halla looked down from her position high on the cave wall to their left.
“Don’t you two ever shut up? Hush now, children … company’s coming.”
Silence reigned supreme in the tunnel. Luke strained till the muscles in back of his eyes hurt, but the Coway concealment was perfect. Dozens were hidden within meters of him, but he could detect signs of only a few. Close by and evident were only Leia, Halla, and Kee, the muzzle of his rifle protruding like a broken stone from between a pair of huge stalagmites. Of Hin there was no sign.
So clear and still was the dead air of the tunnel that Luke heard the metallic pad-pad of the first Imperial troops before he could see them. Shortly thereafter, the familiar robot-like forms came into view. Flesh and blood beneath the armor, the distant figures carried their own rifles casually, at waist level. Obviously, they were expecting little if any resistance.
As he studied them Luke realized that the Coway were right, in such close confinement the energy armor would work against the wearer. Such armor rendered the person inside it invulnerable to most energy weapons, save at vital points like the joints and eyes where protection was necessarily weaker. More important, the armor also restricted its wearer’s vision. Not so critical in a battle on a ship, say, with its wide, unobstructed corridors. But in the jumbled tunnel, vision was more vital than an extra shot.
As if on signal, four Coway, two on either side of the narrow pathway, materialized silently from invisible hiding places. The two advance scouts were dragged from view with astonishing speed. Not so astonishing to Luke, though. He’d experienced the power of Coway muscles. In the resulting silence he thought he could hear the cracking made by limbs and bone through restrictive armor.
Nervously, he waited for something to happen. Everyone knew that if the four Coway selected for the task of eliminating the scouts bungled their assignment, if they wasted even a few seconds, one of the scouts might have time to call to the troops behind him via his helmet communicator. Surprise, the defenders’ most potent weapon, would be lost.
He was still waiting when the single Coway slipped up behind him, so quietly that Luke almost exclaimed