Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [11]
“Looks like they’ve taken the bait, General!” Cody said while he, Obi-Wan, and two commandos fought their way into a side room.
“Another successful action! Now we just have to survive it!”
Cody pointed to the entrance to a second room, opposite their present position.
“Through there,” he said. “A second bank of turbolifts on the far side.” He tapped Obi-Wan on the shoulder. “You first. We’ll provide cover. Go!”
Obi-Wan shot for the room, deflecting bolts and mangling two super battle droids that stood in his way. The room beyond was stacked with coffin-sized repulsorlift shipping containers, constructed of some lightweight alloy. Treaded labor droids were moving additional containers into the room from an adjacent packaging area. Without warning, a battle droid appeared in the entrance. Obi-Wan glanced at the wall-mounted mechanism that operated the sliding doors. Adopting a defensive stance, he did just as he had done in the grotto, returning the first of the droid’s blaster bolts, and sending the second caroming around the room in a path calculated to disable the door apparatus.
Things might have gone as planned had a labor droid not entered the room at an inopportune moment, guiding a levitated shipping container behind him. Ricocheting from the floor, the deflected bolt passed completely through the container before it struck the door mechanism. The pair of sliding doors attempted to close, but the crippled container was now in the way, so they began to cycle through attempts to repocket themselves, close, repocket themselves …
Each time they opened, a battle droid would squeeze into the room, firing away, forcing Obi-Wan back toward the entry-way through which he had originally come, where a brutal firefight was still raging between commandos and super battle droids.
While all this was occurring, something else was afoot. Strands of some gauzy white substance were beginning to drift from the holed shipping container.
Obi-Wan realized instantly what the substance was.
Taking one hand from the hilt of lightsaber, he began to fumble for the rebreather pouched on his belt, only to find it empty.
“Stars’ end,” he cursed, more in disappointment than anger.
Already beginning to feel woozy.
Sirs, this a terrible mistake!” TC-16 inserted into a brief pause in the firefight.
“Keep him quiet,” Anakin snapped at the commando closest to the droid.
“But, sirs—”
A second commando glanced at Anakin and motioned down the corridor behind them. “Six infantry droids advancing. We’re going to be caught in a crossfire.”
Anakin gave his head a quick shake. “Wrong. Follow me—and bring the droid.”
A muffled sound of dismay escaped TC-16’s vocabulator.
Fury clouded Anakin’s eyes. Lightsaber held high in his crooked right arm, he whirled into the intersecting corridor. No need to use the Force, as many Jedi said, for he was never anywhere but fully in the Force. He called instead on his anger, bringing images to mind to fuel his rage. It wasn’t difficult, with so many to choose from: images of a Tusken Raider camp on Tatooine, Yavin 4, the defeat at Jabiim, Praesitlyn …
Blue blade flashing, he cut a swath through the super battle droids, opening their burnished carapaces with diagonal slashes, cutting off blaster arms, hobbling the droids by deflecting bolts into their hermetically sealed knees. Scarcely letting a shot get past him, so that the commandos following in his wake could concentrate their fire on the ones Anakin only wounded.
Their enemies fell aside, almost as if surrendering.
Focused on the route Gunray and his lackeys had taken, Anakin raced through corridors, rounding corners without slowing down, sprinting for the launching bay at the far end of the final corridor. Confronted with