Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [120]
“Anakin, if you are receiving this message, then I have urgent need of your help …”
The crew chief’s comlink toned.
Obi-Wan glanced from the crew chief to Anakin and back again.
“What is it?” he asked in a rush.
“Tight-beam comm from Coruscant,” the crew said. He listened for another moment, then added, in obvious disbelief: “Sir, the Separatists have invaded!”
Obi-Wan gaped at him.
Above him, Anakin lifted his face to the high ceiling and let out a sustained snarl. Glaring down at Obi-Wan, he said: “Why does fate target the people who are most important to me?”
“I—”
“Crew chief!” Anakin cut him off. “Refuel and rearm our starfighters at once!”
Grievous had a good lead on them.
Seated in the copilot’s seat of a Republic cruiser, Mace accepted that the shuttle couldn’t be intercepted before it left Coruscant’s envelope. And perhaps not before it was in the protective embrace of the Separatist fleet.
Regardless, the hot scrambled starfighters were giving all they had to the chase.
Having access to high-clearance codes, Grievous could have plotted a proprietary launch vector for the shuttle. But by doing so he would have put the shuttle at risk of arrest by disabling fire or tractor beam. Instead, he had elected to avail himself of the protection afforded by starship traffic in one of the outbound autonavigation trunks.
Police, governmental, and emergency vessels were permitted to use free-travel lanes that paralleled the trunks, but even with that advantage, Mace and Kit’s cruiser was still several kilometers behind the rising shuttle. Below, vast areas of darkness stained the usual circuit board perfection of night-side Coruscant.
That the vessels surrounding it were compelled by orbital tractor beam arrays to adhere to standard launch velocities benefited the shuttle. The tri-wing benefited even more from the fact that Grievous was almost as adept at handling a ship as he was a lightsaber. Each time flights of starfighters attempted to hem him in, Grievous would lead them on spiraling chases through the thick traffic, inserting the shuttle between ships, initiating collisions, resorting to firing the shuttle’s meager weapons when necessary.
Recalled from the battle outside the well, Agen Kolar, Saesee Tiin, and Pablo-Jill had come closest to incapacitating the shuttle, but, twice now, Grievous had managed to evade them by bringing the shuttle’s laser cannons to bear on cargo pods and strewing local space with debris. Even when the three Jedi had gotten near enough to launch disabling runs, the shuttle’s shielding and armor had absorbed the bursts.
With the pursuit closing rapidly on the rim of the gravity well, the Jedi pilots were executing maneuvers they had been reluctant to employ deeper in the atmosphere. Weaving among the vessels, the starfighters fired on the shuttle at every opportunity, scorching its wings and tail, as the shield generator became overtaxed. Grievous was unable to match them maneuver for maneuver, but his response to the attacks was to target any innocent in his sights, ultimately forcing the Jedi to fall back once again.
Punching through Coruscant’s sheath of gases, the autonavigation trunk branched like the crown of a shade tree. Thrusters flared as endangered ships slued and rolled onto vectors meant to distance them from the fray. With local space crosshatched with plasma trails and brilliant with explosions, escape was scarcely an option. Even so, many ships were attempting to follow the curve of the gravity well toward Coruscant’s bright side, while others veered for the safety of Coruscant’s moons, and still others sped for the nearest jump points.
Except for the shuttle, which accelerated straight for Grievous’s flagship.
Calling full power from the cruiser, Kit Fisto joined the three Jedi starfighters in a flat-out race for the shuttle. By then, too, several Republic frigates and corvettes were