"And there's a channel that cuts through jamming, too," Jinzler added. "Just in case Bearsh finds those controls and turns it on again."
"It's here," Pressor said, pointing out the setting.
"Thanks," Mara said, stuffing the comlinks into her belt.
"Be careful." Pressor glanced at his niece, then over at the old men glaring at them from across the room. "And," he added, lowering his voice, "may the Force be with you."
There were three armored Vagaari standing guard in the turbolift lobby when Fel, Drask, and the 501st arrived. They weren't standing guard for long.
"Power levels seem fine," Watchman said, glancing around. "Their line creepers must not have gotten this far aft yet."
"This will be the last place they will spread them," Drask said. "The Jedi said that the forward turbolifts have already been compromised. The Vagaari must make certain these remain operational if they hope to escape again to the surface."
"Makes sense," Fel agreed, visualizing the ship's layout in his mind. "To be specific, they need the turbolift that connects to the starboard side. That's the only one left that'll get them to D-Four."
"Which means they will have committed a large number of troops to its defense," Drask said thoughtfully. "What do you think, Commander? Would that be a good place for an ambush?"
"Maybe," Fel said doubtfully. "Of course, it's also the most likely place for them to be expecting an attack."
"I did not say an attack," Drask said, his eyes glittering maliciously. "I said an ambush. The aft turbolift cluster consists of six cars, does it not, operated singly or in groups?"
"Should be the same setup as the forward ones, yes," Fel said, nodding.
"And the starboard tube connects with D-Four, D-Five, and the storage core?"
Fel smiled tightly as he finally understood. "Yes, sir, it does," he said. "How do you want to proceed?"
Drask looked at the stormtroopers. "We will assign two to each mission, I think," he said. "Normally I would prefer three or more for the ambush unit, but the Five-Oh-First has shown itself capable of handling unusual odds."
"And if we don't have at least two of them here with us, the Vagaari may notice and get suspicious," Fel agreed. "Watchman and Shadow, how would you like to take a walk?"
"Ready and willing, sir," Watchman said. "Once we've reached the turbolift pylon, what exactly do you want us to do?"
"You will take up position at the point where the tube from the storage core connects with the tube running between D-Four and D-Five," Drask told him. "We will attempt to drive the Vagaari back into the cars. As they lift toward D-Four, we will alert you, and you will destroy them in transit. Can that be done?"
"I think so," Watchman said. "It should be easy enough to lock down one of the cars just below the intersection point and climb the rest of the way into position."
"And as long as you have that one car tucked away out of the line of fire, you can shoot up any of the others that you need to," Fel added. "But make sure that one car stays tucked away, or we won't be able to get back to the surface ourselves."
"And watch out for the same kind of trap Pressor had set in the forward cars," Grappler warned. "They are likely to have wired this group, as well."
"No problem," Watchman assured him. "Now that we know how it works, we should be able to get up onto the roof of the car and either bypass or reroute the wiring."
"Good," Fel said. "Everyone clear on their job?"
There were four nods. "Then carry out your orders," Drask said. "Maintain comm silence unless absolutely necessary—the enemy may be able to locate your transmissions and thereby anticipate your movements. May warriors' fortune smile on your efforts."
Stiffening briefly to attention, Watchman and Shadow returned to the turbolift car. "Now," Fel said as the car's creakings faded into the distance. "What are your plans for the rest of us?"
"First, we borrow these." Stooping, Drask relieved one of the dead Vagaari of his blaster carbine and helmet. "The armor, unfortunately, is too small for us. Still, the weapons may be enough. Choose a weapon for yourself, Commander, and let us plot out our best approach to the enemy."
Cautiously, Luke eased an eye around the jog in the corridor just ahead of him. Somewhere nearby he could sense a pair of vaguely hostile alien minds...
There was a flicker of warning from the Force, and he ducked back just as a pair of red bolts blew pieces of the corner past his face.
"Okay," he murmured aloud to himself. So they were closer than he'd realized, and more than just vaguely hostile. That was handy to know.
"Anyone ever tell you that talking out loud when you're alone is a bad sign?" Mara murmured from behind him.
"When the Force is your ally, you're never truly alone," Luke said gravely, turning around and blinking in mild surprise as he caught sight of the girl trailing silently behind his wife. "We have company?"
"So it would seem." Mara gestured to the girl. "You remember Evlyn, don't you?"
"Quite well," Luke said. "Hello, Evlyn."
"Hello," the girl said, a bit timidly. "I'm sorry about... earlier."
"That's all right." Luke looked at Mara, lifting his eyebrows questioningly.
"It's a long story," she said, "and I only have half of it myself. The short version is that Jinzler thinks she'll be safer with us right now than with her own people."
"All right," Luke said, setting his curiosity aside in favor of more pressing business. "Did you get the message from Fel?"
"The one about us pushing the Vagaari back toward the turbolifts?" She nodded. "Pressor's also heard from one of his people back there. It appears that as long as the Colonists stay out of their way, the Vagaari aren't bothering to shoot them."
"Rather have them die slowly, I guess," Luke said.
Mara nodded. "And to that end, they're also apparently scattering line creepers by the bucketful." She hesitated. "We may not be able to save this place, Luke."
He'd already come to that conclusion. "We'll just have to do what we can," he said. "And the faster we finish off the Vagaari, the less of a problem we'll have. Are any of Pressor's people going to be in a position to help when we start our push?"
"Not really," Mara said. "Four of them are inside current Vagaari territory, but I doubt their antiquated blasters have enough power to punch through that armor. Oh, and it turns out that two of the missing Peacekeepers had only been stunned by the Five-Oh-First as they passed through D-Six and are up and functional again. That helped Pressor's mood a little."
"Happy allies are good to have," Luke said. "Let's keep him that way by telling his people to stay put. Outnumbered and undergunned is a bad combination."
"Already done," Mara confirmed. "Though one bright side is that they're probably not as undergunned as they might have been. The fact that the Vagaari are using charrics and old Republic blasters against us implies they didn't bring any real weapons of their own, but had to loot the Chaf Envoy and D-Four's armory for what they needed."
"Makes sense," Luke said. "They couldn't risk the Chiss picking up odd power readings when they went through scanning their shuttle for line creepers. And of course, that leaves them with the same overage Tibanna gas problem the Peacekeepers have."
"Right," Mara said. "Even so, the outnumbering remains." She hefted her lightsaber. "So I guess it's up to us."
"And the Five-Oh-First." Luke paused, frowning as a distant sound caught his attention. "You hear that?"
"Sounds like blasterfire," Mara said, her forehead wrinkled in concentration. "And lots of it."
"Maybe they've decided some of the Colonists need to die right now after all," Luke said grimly.
"Or else one of Pressor's people decided to be a hero," Mara agreed. "Either way, I think that's our cue."