Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [74]
“The building appears to be completely abandoned, General. No signs of droids or living beings—other than varieties common to similar manufacturing slums.”
“Abandoned, perhaps, but not forgotten,” Captain Dyne said from behind Valiant. “The building’s live. It has power and illumination.”
“Doesn’t mean much,” Mace said. “Many structures in this district were self-powered, often by dangerous, highly unstable fuels.” He gestured broadly. “They’re still belching smoke.”
Dyne nodded. “But this one shows periodic and recent use of power.”
Mace turned to Valiant. “All right, Commander. Give the go-ahead.”
From behind and to both sides of the observation post, LAATs lifted off into the smoke-filled sky, doorway gunners traversing their repeating blasters and commandos standing ready to deploy from the gunship’s troop bay. Elsewhere, AT-TEs and other mobile artillery vehicles began to lumber across the debris-filled urbanscape toward the target.
Valiant turned to the troopers who made up Aurek Team.
“The building is a free-strike zone. You are to consider anyone we find inside to be hostile.” He slammed a fresh power pack into his short-stocked blaster. “Troopers: find, fix, finish!”
No matter how often he heard it, the grunting, communal response to the ARC’s rallying cry continued to disturb Mace on some level. Although it was probably no different from what the clone troopers heard when the Jedi said to one another, May the Force be with you.
He swung and waved a signal to Shaak Ti.
“I’ll ride with Aurek Team. You have Bacta.”
As beautiful as a flower, as deadly as a viper, Shaak Ti was the Jedi Master one wanted by one’s side in chaotic circumstances. Graced with the ability to move quickly through crowds or tight spots, she was often the first to wade into close-quarter engagements, her striped montrals and lengthy head-tail alert to distances, her blue lightsaber quick to find its mark. She had proved instrumental in the defense of Kamino and Brentaal IV, and Mace was glad to have her with him now.
Aurek Team’s gunship was already packed with commandos and Padawans by the time he clambered inside. Lifting off, the LAAT/i aimed straight for the summit of the building. The strategy was to work from the top down, in the hope of flushing hostiles out through the lowest levels, where infantry and artillery units were already taking up firing positions around the buttressed base. The entire area was undermined with tunnels that had been used for transporting workers, droids, and materials. While it wasn’t possible to monitor every entrance and egress, many of the principal tunnels that opened on the building’s sub-basements had been outfitted with sensors capable of detecting droids or flesh-and-bloods.
No functioning docking bay large enough to accommodate a gunship had been discovered. The commandos had advocated blowing a gaping hole in the side of the superstructure, but engineers feared that an explosion of the strength required could very well collapse the entire structure. Instead the LAAT/i carried the team to the largest of the blown-out windows below the summit, and hovered there while everyone was inserted.
Leaping the gap, Mace activated his lightsaber and instructed the Padawans to follow suit.
Weapons raised to their chests, the commandos spread out in fire-and-maneuver squads and began to move deeper in the building, checking out each room and alcove before declaring any level secure. Mace’s blade glowed amethyst in the gloom. Stretching out with the Force, he could feel the presence of the dark side. The only explanation for Quinlan Vos not having felt it was that he, too, had gone dark.
Yoda had warned Mace that the dark side might cloud his mind to certain rooms and passageways—places that the Sith Lords didn’t want Mace to discover—but he felt alert in all ways. Besides, that was what the commandos were for.
They worked their way down and down,