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“Lead, I have a question for you.”

Wedge glanced over at where Tycho hovered his X-wing. “Go ahead, Two.”

“Wouldn’t the AT-AT assault been more effective if they’d waited to launch it until the shuttles landed? Walkers are death on ground troops.”

“True, and stationing the stormies around the spaceport instead of inside those monsters would have been better, too.” Wedge frowned. “These guys might look like stormtroopers, but they certainly aren’t thinking that way.”

“And yet Intel said there were crack units here, but if not here, where?”

Wedge’s mouth soured. “The sector where Three Flight ran into trouble. You think Krennel is hiding something there? Save for the dam, that’s a pretty remote area.”

“Where better to hide something you want to remain hidden?”

The first of the assault shuttles landed and started to disgorge troops. A couple of squads moved forward to deal with the captured stormtroopers. The others fanned out, found cover, and established a perimeter on the ferrocrete. The second shuttle landed its troops closer to the hangars and a third dropped its troops near the main spaceport facility.

A light blinked on Wedge’s communications console. He punched it. “Rogue Leader here.”

“Commando One here.” Kapp Dendo’s voice came through strongly. “Thanks for vaping the stalkers. I wouldn’t mind it if you want to strafe the approaches to the spaceport, just in case some local militia decides to hop a hoverbus here.”

“I copy, Commando One. I help you, you help me?”

“What do you need, Wedge?”

“I have a flier down at the dam in blue sector. Lots more activity there than here.”

“Search and rescue ops are a bit down in priority, Lead. I’ll see what I can do.” A grave tone ran through Kapp’s words. “How hard did your boy go down?”

“Under control, I’m told.” Wedge smiled. “He can probably take care of himself, but if the stormies we were expecting to be here are actually there, for just how long I don’t know.”

15

I don’t like the looks of this at all. Corran crouched in some brush overlooking a ravine with a small, ice-crusted streambed at the bottom of it. The ravine showed signs of flooding with seasonal runoff, but had a high-water mark far higher than he would have expected. Just north of his position lay the reason for the extraordinary high-water mark: A tunnel had been bored through the granite hillside and clearly, once upon a time, had been used to divert river water around the site of the dam.

The tunnel mouth had been plugged with ferrocrete and two sets of durasteel security doors. The larger pair of doors would admit vehicles; the other was for personnel. Four stormtroopers stood guard outside the doors, but had moved from beneath the shadow cast by an outcropping to soak up the direct morning sun.

Corran ran a hand over his mouth. This has to be what they were protecting with those chips—and a lucky shot meant they did more than just chip my hull. This place wasn’t on any of the survey maps of the area, which means it’s very new, or very secret or, worse, both. Getting in there and getting out again is clearly a job for a Jedi Knight.

He fingered the lightsaber clipped to the left side of his belt. Unfortunately, there isn’t one here.

For an instant Corran regretted having rejected Luke Skywalker’s generous invitation to train to be a Jedi Knight. Had he accepted it, he could have used Jedi powers to walk right past the stormtroopers without their noticing. He could use his lightsaber to deflect blaster bolts. He could find out what the facility was all about and likely neutralize it as well.

That sense of regret died quickly, however, as Corran thought about what he’d have had to give up to become a Jedi Knight. He admired Luke Skywalker and wished him the best in his quest to reestablish the Jedi Order, but he also knew Luke was paying quite a cost. Corran had Mirax to spend the rest of his life with, but Luke had no one. Moreover, the fact that he was needed to solve problems all over the galaxy,