Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [45]
A ball of fire, the droid careened into a flak-dazzled tri-fighter and the two of them exploded.
Anakin checked the display to make certain that Obi-Wan was still with him.
“Are you all right?”
“A bit toasted, but okay.”
“Stay with me.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Always, Master.”
Deeper into the melee now, ARC-170s, V-wings, and droid fighters were joined in a great cloverleaf of combat, chasing one another, colliding into one another, twirling out of the fight with engines smoking or wings blown away. Weapons themselves, the droids were accurate with their bolts, but slower to recover, and easily confused by random maneuvers. While at times this made for effortless kills, there were just so many of them …
Anakin squared off with the enemy leader of the cloverleaf clash, and began to harass it with laser bolts. Adapting to his tactics, Obi-Wan fell back; then leapt his starfighter into kill position and opened up.
“Nice shot!” Anakin said when the wing leader vanished.
“Nice setup!”
Signaling Obi-Wan to follow, Anakin climbed out of the main battle, veering tangent to it, and rocketed toward the nearest of the Separatists’ needle-nosed picket ships. Loosing two missiles to draw the picket’s attention, he yawed to port, pushed over, then came back at the vessel with lasers.
“Run the hull! Target the shield generator!”
“Any closer and we’ll be inside the thing!”
“That’s the idea!”
Obi-Wan followed, unleashing with all cannons.
They were in the thick of the heaviest fighting now, where ranged fire from the Republic capital ships was breaking against the particle and ray shields of their targets. Blinding light pulsed behind the canopy blast tinting. The picket Anakin had piqued with missiles was under heavy bombardment. He grasped that a high-yield torpedo would be too much for it, and rushed to deliver it.
The torpedo tore from between the starfighter’s cockpit-linked fuselages and burned its way toward the picket.
The picket’s shield failed for an instant, and in that instant the huge incoming turbolaser bolts did their worst. Struck broadside, the picket burst like an overripe fruit, venting long plumes of incandescence and spilling light and guts into space.
Anakin jinked away, whooping into the comlink.
“We’ve got a clear shot at Grievous!” he told Obi-Wan.
With its tapered bow and large outrigger fins, the general’s cruiser resembled a classic-era Coruscant skyscraper laid on its side.
“This hardly seems the time to bait him, Anakin. Have you had a look at those point-defense arrays?”
“When are you going to learn to trust me?”
“I do trust you! I just can’t keep up with you!”
“Fine. Then I’ll be right back.”
Anakin pushed the starfighter to its limits, paying out plasma and missiles that exploded harmlessly against the great ship’s deflector shield. He peeled away from the fiery wash, only to fall back at the ship in predatory banks, breaking ultimately for its 200-meter-tall conning tower.
The cruiser’s in-close batteries came alive, chundering, gushing enormous gouts of spun plasma at the pest that was attempting to besiege it. Snap-rolling, Anakin slid the starfighter hard to port, belly-up, and continued to fire.
Again he tried to harry the invulnerable bridge with bursts of his lasers. And again the batteries of the colossal vessel tried but failed to get him in target lock.
Anakin pictured Grievous standing stalwart behind the transparisteel viewports.
“A taste of what’s coming when we meet in the flesh,” he growled.
Grievous’s reptilian eyes tracked the audacious maneuvers of the yellow-and-green starfighter that was attempting to strafe the bridge. Firing with precision, anticipating the responses of the forward batteries, taking chances even a clone wouldn’t take … the pilot could only be a Jedi.
But a Jedi unafraid to call on his rage.
Grievous could see that in the pilot’s dauntless determination, his abandon. He could sense it, even