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Terpfen snarled and ran to another Spider Walker. He was a chief starship mechanic. He had helped the Imperials work on their combat vehicles and their Star Destroyers. He could run any equipment—probably better than Furgan himself.

In his panic Furgan had trouble making all eight of the Walker’s legs move in sequence to make progress across the grotto floor, but he finally plowed ahead, swiveling the laser cannons on the joints of the articulated legs to blast one of the B-wing fighters that stood in the way.

Terpfen powered up his Spider Walker and slammed down the canopy. The machine had crude controls and sluggish response, nothing at all like the streamlined controls used on Mon Calamari Star Cruisers.

Furgan’s vehicle approached the large opening at the cliff’s edge, and Terpfen knew from the design of the MT-AT that it could climb straight down the rockface. He didn’t quite know how Furgan would escape once he got to the bottom; he doubted the ambassador had thought that far ahead.

Terpfen found the fire controls and shot his lasers three times, taking out one joint of the other Walker’s legs. The lower portion of the metal limb sheared off and fell to the grotto floor with a clang.

Off balance, Furgan’s Walker scuttled in a drunkard’s circle until he managed to compensate for the lost limb. Once again he made for the exit.

Terpfen saw the powerful blaster cannons slung beneath his cockpit—if he fired both of them in the enclosed grotto, it would obliterate Furgan’s assault transport … but the explosion would also destroy him and his own Walker, and probably most of the B-wings as well.

Then Terpfen saw other rescuers streaming into the grotto. Admiral Ackbar himself came from a different entrance and stood with his own team next to a white-clad woman whom he recognized as Leia’s companion Winter.

He could never fire the blaster cannons now. But he vowed not to let Furgan escape. Working the controls, Terpfen lunged the eight-legged vehicle forward in pursuit just as Furgan’s machine tottered on the edge.

Ackbar arrived in time to see the beginning of the battle between the two Spider Walkers. Terpfen’s lasers blasted out, striking the ambassador’s MT-AT. Furgan didn’t seem to have a plan, intending only to get away. Terpfen’s Walker scuttled forward. Its clawed footpads struck sparks from the landing-bay floor.

Terpfen blasted again and again with his lasers. Furgan fired back, but his shot missed, scoring sharp flakes of rock from the grotto wall.

Terpfen’s MT-AT charged ahead, raising its two front clawed legs, and grabbed the metal limbs of Furgan’s transport, raising it partway off the floor. Furgan’s vehicle reached out with its own legs to grasp the edge of the cave opening, trying to haul itself forward and away.

Terpfen fired directly at the transparisteel canopy of the cockpit, but the laser shots could not pass through the shielded surface. His Spider Walker grappled with Furgan’s vehicle, four mechanical legs planted firmly on the stone floor, four legs pushing with all his engine’s capacity.

A large chunk of rock shattered at the claw grip. With a horrible sound of rending, tearing metal, Furgan’s walker finally broke free of the grotto opening.

Terpfen’s MT-AT pushed forward and forward. Inside the cockpit of the ambassador’s vehicle, Furgan frantically grabbed the controls but did not seem to know which to use.

Terpfen continued his relentless blasting with the lasers. He shoved Furgan’s walker completely through where the blast door had been blown away and held out the thrashing MT-AT over open space.

Terpfen released his grip.

Ambassador Furgan’s multilegged vehicle flailed as it dropped through the air on a long plunge toward the jagged landscape far below. Before the assault vehicle could actually strike the ground, Terpfen fired both of his powerful blaster cannons. The beams blew up Furgan’s MT-AT with a blinding flash just above the spiked rocks.

And then,