Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (10 page)

They reached the checkpoint, one of seven scattered across the city. This was the least frequented but still under heavy guard. Seven stormtroopers patrolled the area, keeping a close eye on anyone who approached.

“Your turn to shine, PROXY, ” Juno said. “You’ve assimilated the Imperial files?”

The droids holographic generators flickered and flashed, hiding his true appearance behind another-that of a rotund, balding white human male dressed in an Imperial uniform.

“Yes, Captain Eclipse. ” His voice changed, too, to march that of the fighter wing’s commander. “If you will follow me… “

“Sorry about this, ” whispered Juno to Ackbar as she aimed her blaster at him. Organa did the same for Tels. “You know it’s just for show. “

“No hard feelings, ” said Ackbar, slipping his own blaster out of sight.

PROXY strode confidently into view, leading the two humans and their Dac native “captives” to the checkpoint. The guards looked up as they approached and stood to attention.

“Commander Derricote?”

“Indeed, ” said PROXY, not breaking step.

The trooper who had spoken raised a hand. “I’m sorry, sir. I just need to record your companions. “

“Of course. Two informants and two members of the Dac resistance for urgent interrogation. I have reason to believe that an attack is imminent. “

The troopers exchanged nervous glances.

“Security codes?” asked the squad leader.

Juno hid her anxiety. Why was a stormtrooper asking the flight wing commander for security codes? Something was going wrong. She tightened her grip on her blaster.

“Twenty, thirty-five, nineteen, sixty-seven, ” said PROXY without hesitation, quoting the information he had sliced from the Imperial network.

“Thank you, sir. Move along. “

The troopers parted ranks, allowing the group of five an unobstructed path through the checkpoint. Juno held her breath as she passed between the troopers. All it would take now was for PROXY’S holographic impersonation to flicker and the ruse would be exposed.

“Commander Derricote, hold a moment. “

PROXY stopped in mid-stride but didn’t turn. “What now? Can’t you see I’m in a hurry?”

Juno didn’t learn what had made the trooper suspicious. A bolt of blasterfire from Bail Organa caught him in the throat, throwing him backward. A second bolt took our the trooper closest to him, and a third spun the next one along in a circle. The speed and accuracy of the three shots was as impressive as they were unexpected. She took two shots of her own as the opposing groups scattered, leaving just four troopers to return fire.

Bolts of energy flashed back and forth. Small explosions threw fragments of plastoid from the walls and ceiling. Smoke thickened the air, made her eyes water.

It didn’t last long. Ackbar and Tels took out three of the remaining troopers, and the last soon keeled face-forward across one of his compatriots, hit by Juno and Organa from two sides at once.

“Nice shooting, ” Juno told the Senator as she emerged from cover. The compliment was sincerely meant. Shot for shot, he was both faster and more accurate than she was.

“I’m a little out of practice, ” he said, checking up and down the corridor for signs the ruckus had been noticed. “You should’ve seen me during my Academy days… “

They dragged the bodies into a storage locker. With luck, no one would notice the breach in security before their mission was complete. PROXY maintained the illusion of Commander Derricote as they resumed their hasty march into the secure compound.

It was more crowded than the city proper had been. Droids and techs hurried through the corridors, but thankfully 110 more troopers. They received the odd askance look, and Juno wondered why. What about PROXY’S impersonation didn’t ring true?

When they reached the flight wings’ empty barracks, she began to understand what PROXY had got wrong.

“It’s filthy in here, ” she said, staring at the messily draped uniforms and unpolished boors. Weapons parts lay on bunks, next to scattered rations. Because grunts took their lead from their superior officer, she had 110 doubt that this reflected the real Derricote through and through. “Who are these guys?”

“I don’t know, ” Organa said, “but we have to hurry. The briefing starts in ten minutes. “

They found a passerby and grilled him on the whereabouts of the real commander.

“In the n-nursery, ” stammered the tech.

“They have kids here?” Juno’s sense of outrage reached a new peak. She would never have allowed such laxity under her command.

“For his p-plants, ” the tech managed to get out. “The nursery’s what he calls the g-greenhouse. “

When he had provided directions, Organa knocked him out with a deft tap to the back of the skull.

“Tels and I will deal with the commander, ” he told Juno. “You and Ackbar go with PROXY to the briefing. Make it convincing. “

“We’ll do our best, ” Juno said, even as one growing doubt niggled at her. If Derricote was as slovenly as his pilots, that had to be what was giving them away.

They split up. Hurrying to the briefing room with Ackbar, she directed PROXY to look more like the real Derricote did. She hoped.

“Undo another button. Loosen the collar. Roll up the sleeves, too, and mess the hair more. “

“Are you sure this is an improvement, Captain Eclipse?” the droid asked her.

“As sure as I can be, PROXY. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. “

There was no guard at the briefing room entrance. Ackbar and Juno slipped to the back of the room as PROXY strode to the podium at the front. Pilots slouched in their seats and didn’t rise to attention when their commander entered. Although she had left the Empire more than a year ago, Juno’s blood still boiled. These guys were giving pilots everywhere a bad name.

No one looked twice at PROXY’S modified disguise. His preamble was brief. “Forget the flight schedules you already have, ” he said. “I’m giving you a new assignment-practicing honor rolls over the city. All of you. “

There were groans from pilots who had only just come off an active shift. “Is this something to do with the shuttle that arrived last night?” asked one.

“That is classified, ” said PROXY without missing a beat. “I want you in the air in five standard minutes. Dismissed. “

The pilots complained and griped but slowly began to move. Some even managed a semblance of urgency. Five minutes would have been a very quick turnaround even for a well-practiced flight wing. Juno wouldn’t have put a credit on this lot making ten, maybe not even fifteen.

Still, time was tight for the conspirators to get to where they needed to be next.

“Good work, PROXY, ” Ackbar told him when the room was clear. “Now back to the rendezvous point. “

They retraced their steps through the secure compound, past the still-unnoticed checkpoint and into the city proper, where PROXY returned to his normal appearance. No alarms sounded; no shouts rang out. Everything appeared to he going according to plan, so far.

The five Quarren were waiting for them in the shadowy lower levels, rehydrating themselves in the rippling water. They communicated by hand signals that the charges were laid and the triggers set exactly as required.

So far, thought Juno, so good.

“Bail and Tels should’ve been here by now, ” she said, checking her chrono and counting off the minutes. The TIE fighters of the 181st would be in the air soon, even by her most conservative estimate. “Search for them in the city’s security grid, PROXY. Maybe they’ve been picked up somewhere…”

“No need, ” called the Senator himself from the top of the ramp. He jogged down to meet them with Tels in his wake, pushing their prisoner ahead of them. “Sorry to hold you up. Our friend here moves more slowly than we planned for. “

“What is the meaning of this?” blustered the real Evir Derricote, commander of the 181st fighter wing. He looked even scruffier than PROXY had portrayed him, although perhaps that was a result of his capture. “You’ll never get away with it!”

“Take those binders off him, ” said Ackbar when the commander was before him. “We have a message for the Emperor. Get off Dac, and stay away from the Mon Calamari system, or…”

Something moved in the shadows. Ackbar reached for his blaster, and so did Juno. The Quarren huddled in closer to one another.

“Who’s there?” called Organa. “Come out!”

“I think they’ve said enough,” called a voice. “Take them. “

“It’s a trap!” gasped Ackbar.

Two dozen stormtroopers stepped into the light, weapons trained on the knot of conspirators they encircled. At their head stood a tall, thin man in the uniform of a senior officer in the Imperial administration. So senior, in fact, that she had never seen the insignia in person before. He had a nose like a knife-blade and eyes to match, and his cruel mouth was practically lipless.

It was clear that Ackbar knew him. He instantly raised his blaster to shoot at him, but a well-rimed blaster-bolt from one of the troopers knocked the weapon from his hand.

“There’s no point resisting, Ackbar, ” said the stern figure in a chillingly polite voice, striding confidently toward them with his hands behind his back. “You’re quite outnumbered. Please drop your weapons, or I will have you executed right here. All except you, Ackbar. I’m looking forward to having you back in my employ. That’ll remind my other slaves that escape is simply not an option. “

Ackbar’s mottled skin had turned a sickly yellow. “I will never be your slave again, Tarkin. Never. “

Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin smiled coldly. “That choice is now well and truly out of your hands. “

Derricote pulled free, rubbing his wrists. “Thank you, Grand Moff. Thank you for rescuing me. “

“I won’t say it was my priority, but I will accept your gratitude. Be careful it doesn’t happen again. ” Tarkin turned to face Bail Organa. “Your weapon. Senator. I asked you to drop it. “

Organa obeyed, and so did the others. All except Tels. His gun remained in his hand, and none of the Imperials moved to force the issue. Slowly, without saying a word, he walked to join their numbers.

“Why?” Ackbar asked him.

“Once a traitor, always a traitor, ” answered Tarkin for him, with a gloating tut-tut. “You Rebels should choose your friends more carefully. He contacted me a day ago, offering to return my slave in exchange for greater freedoms for his people and a place in the civil administration. He won’t get either, of course. I’m not known for changing my mind, particularly when it comes to negotiating with aliens. “

It was Tels’s turn to go pale. “You mean…”

“Yes, put your blaster down and stand with the others while I decide if you’re important enough for the Emperor to kill himself, or whether I should just dispose of you now. I’m leaning toward the latter, simply to spare the mess…”

At that moment, a series of explosions rocked the city. The floor moved beneath them.

“What’s that?” asked Tarkin of his nearest trooper. “Find out!”

Another trio of blasts brought part of the ceiling down. Tels raised his blaster and fired at the lights, extinguishing them. Utter darkness instantly fell.

In the confusion, Juno dived for her blaster. She heard a stormtrooper say, “It’s the Hundred Eighty-first, sir. They’re firing on the city. “

“Impossible!” blubbered Derricote. “I gave no such order!”

“To me!” Tarkin ordered his men from the ramp. “To me!”

Juno fired in the direction his voice had come from. Her shot went wide, revealing his high-cheeked visage in the flash. She rolled before the stormtroopers could return fire. Soon the space was a maelstrom of light and sound as more explosions rocked the city; one after the other, and the two sides exchanged blasterfire. She found Organa and stood with her back to him, admiring the elegant precision of his shots. When he fired, he nearly always hit, even in the dark.

The stormtroopers retreated up the ramp, following the voice of the Grand Moff. Juno and the others stayed exactly where they were, waiting for the echoes of the last explosion to fade away. When it did, there was blessed silence, apart from the tinkling of debris and the lapping of water.

A torch flared, held high in Ackbar’s hand. “Are we all here?”

Juno took a quick head count. Everyone was accounted for except PROXY and one of Siric’s assistants, who had been hit in the chest by a stray shot. Organa found Derricote huddling in a ball in the corner of the room with his hands over his head. He didn’t seem to notice that the firing had ceased until the Senator pulled him upright, blinking and fearful.

There was no sign of Tarkin.

“He must have slipped away in the skirmish, ” said Ackbar, looking disappointed.

“Never mind, ” said Organa, patting his shoulder. “That we almost got him sends the same message. “

“And we still have this one, ” said Tels, squeezing Derricote’s face between his long fingers and peering close. “For what he’s worth. “

“You mean you’re not…” stammered the flight wing commander, looking from face to face in confusion. “And you are…”

“All on the same side, yes, ” the Quarren said. “Thanks for your help. “

“But I didn’t…”

Juno almost felt sorry for him. “Explosions, timed to coincide with the honor roll you didn’t order. It won’t fool anyone for long, but it had exactly the right effect in the moment, don’t you think?”

Footsteps sounded on the ramp above. They looked up to see PROXY returning, the Tarkin disguise he had adopted during the battle slipping away with an electric crackle.

“I led the troopers, in the opposite direction from the real Grand Moff, ” the droid said. “They are currently on their way to the landing pads, with orders to arrest the pilots responsible. “

“Good work, PROXY. It went almost perfectly. “

Derricote stared at the droid in shock, clearly beginning to piece events together.

“What are you going to do with me?” he asked.

“Nothing, ” said Ackbar.

His eyes narrowed. “Nothing?”

“Tarkin will accept your explanation, ” Organa explained, “but I’d say your career is pretty much ruined here regardless. Grand Moffs don’t like inferiors who draw attention to themselves. You might want to pull your head in for a while, if you still have one. “