Star Wars_ The Han Solo Adventures - Brian Daley [224]
I warned him, thought Han. Life-Debt or no, it’s everyone for himself. He had trouble selling the idea to himself, though.
Then the decision was taken from him. Issuing a deafening Wookiee battle cry, Chewbacca moved off, holding up the gong to protect himself. Han looked back and saw that Hasti and Skynx were watching him. The girl, he thought, would surely run to help Badure if he didn’t.
“Don’t just stand there,” he snarled. “Get to cover!” He gave her a shove toward the edge of the field and dashed off the other way, laying down heavy fire as he sprinted, zigzagging after the Wookiee.
“You crazy fur-face!” he roared at his first mate when he had caught up to him. “What’re you doing, playing captain again?” Chewbacca took a moment from angling and maneuvering the gong for an irritated, explanatory growl.
“Life-Debt?” Han exploded, dodging around his friend into the open to snap off a pair of quick shots. “And who pays up if you lose us ours?”
But he maintained his fire, sideskipping along behind the straining, gong-toting Wookiee and bounding from cover to either side of him to get off a shot or two. Flames lit the scene, and the air was smoky and hot from the firefight. The flame-rifle’s discharges were growing weaker, and its range was decreasing.
Skirting a section of field torn and ruptured by the battle, they finally reached Badure, who was pressed down flat on the ground, shooting with the pair of long-barreled power pistols. Chewbacca heaved the gong between the old man and the oncoming shots. Han coaxed a last feeble flicker from the flame-rifle, then threw it aside. Dropping to one knee, he helped Badure up. “Last bus is leaving now, Lieutenant-commander.”
“I’ll take a one-way on that,” panted Badure, adding, “glad you could make it, boys.”
Han snagged his own blaster from Badure’s belt, and a sudden confidence steadied him. He stepped into the clear, crouched low, and let off a series of quick shots. Two Survivor marksmen who had been taking careful aim with heavy-particle beamers fell away in different directions, their wounds smoking.
Han ducked back, waited a beat, then stepped into the open again on the same side of the gong, eluding the aim of those who had been waiting to see him emerge on the opposite side. His bolts dropped two more enemies from the ragged firing line. But Survivor flankers could be seen in the wavering light, fanning out to either side in an effort to cut off retreat.
“Let’s jump!” Han cried. Chewbacca began back-pedaling, still holding the gong, and headed for the field’s edge as Badure and Han kept up the most intense fire they could, pinning down the Survivors facing them and impeding the flankers. Their energy weapons lit the night, answered by bullets, blaster bolts, needles, harpoons, particle beams, and gushes of flame. Han occasionally assisted the Wookiee’s progress with a judicious shove.
Someone came toward them. Badure nearly burned the silhouetted form before Han batted the power pistol aside. “Bollux! Over here!”
The ’droid somehow made it to the gong’s cover; they withdrew step by hotly contended step. A group of Survivor flankers was nearly in position to enfilade them, crouching by the antenna mast. Badure held both long-barreled weapons up side by side and fired at the flankers. Men fell and the instrument shorted out; the mast’s power supply was drained in a swirl of energy, and the mast fell, wreathed in crackling discharges. It crashed into the rostrum and rostrum, frame, and log-recorder disk went up in flames.
Han heard his named called. Skynx and Hasti crouched at the edge of the field. Firing and scrambling, the others joined them.
“We can’t retreat down that snowfield; it’s too steep,” Hasti declared, “and even Chewbacca couldn’t carry that gong down. We’d make perfect targets out there.”
Han dealt out a few more shots, pondering her reasoning and their lack of alternatives. Then