"Right." Luke ignited his lightsaber. The two Vagaari were still there, he knew, but it was unlikely they would be expecting a straight-out charge. "Ready?"
"Ready."
"Again," Drask ordered.
Fel nodded and fired again, sending a short burst from his borrowed carbine into the corridor wall a few meters in front of him, listening to the slightly wheezy and very distinctive sound of the ancient weapon. "Anything?"
"They sound agitated," the general said, holding his appropriated Vagaari helmet up to his ear. "Ah—there is an order."
Fel frowned. "How can you possibly know that?" he asked. "You don't even speak their language."
"There is a tone of command that is the same in all languages," Drask said. "Now we need only wait and see if it is the command we are hoping for."
"They're coming," Grappler murmured, cocking his head toward the corner he and Cloud were waiting beside.
"Stand ready." Drask gestured to Fel. "Fire again."
Fel did so, trying to watch both ends of the corridor at once. Between bursts he could hear rapid footsteps approaching...
Suddenly, with a clatter of armor, they were there: five armored Vagaari, charging to what they thought was their comrades' aid. They got off a single, startled volley before the two stormtroopers cut them down.
"Good," Drask said, surveying their handiwork with satisfaction. "That diminishes the enemy somewhat. Where do you recommend we go next?"
"There's a series of emergency battery rooms back that way," Fel said dubiously. "You aren't really intending to try this same trick twice, are you?"
"Not at all," Drask assured him. "It is time to take the battle to the enemy. The other stormtroopers should be in position by now; let us see if we can drive the Vagaari into reach of their weapons."
"Ah," Fel said. "In that case, we probably want the fluid systems service corridor instead of the battery rooms. There are two access panels in particular we might find usefuclass="underline" one opening into one of the cross-corridors on this side of the starboard turbolift lobby, the other door opening into the lobby itself."
"How likely are the Vagaari to have set up pickets at the entrance to this corridor?"
"Not very," Fel said. "It's narrow and probably not well marked."
"And it offers an avenue of retreat?"
"It has doors to both the main engine room and the secondary command complex," Fel told him. "We could hold off a small army from either place."
"Excellent," Drask said. "Take us there."
Cautiously, keeping an eye out for stray Vagaari, Fel led the way through a series of small utility rooms. They reached the entrance to the service corridor, only to find it jammed shut.
"What I don't understand is where they're all coming from," Fel said, stroking his bandaged right arm restlessly as he watched Grappler and Cloud work on the door. "That ship of theirs couldn't have followed us here, could it?"
"It could not, and did not," Drask told him. "But surely now that we know about their suspended animation technology the answer is obvious."
"But if they didn't—oh." Fel broke off, embarrassed. It was obvious. "Those three sealed rooms aboard their shuttle, the ones they claimed were open to vacuum."
"Yes," Drask confirmed. "Though undoubtedly a small portion of each was indeed open to space."
"Right—the part by the door sensor and access port," Fel said, nodding. "Otherwise, a secondary test by your people would have shown that the readings were fake."
"They would have had a secret way to reseal the rooms, of course," Drask said. "That was why they pretended Estosh had been attacked, to give him an excuse to stay behind."
"Only it wasn't just pretending—they really did shoot him," Fel reminded him. "These people are seriously out for revenge."
"Perhaps," Drask murmured. "Or perhaps they are motivated by something more practical."
There was a hollow popping sound from the door. "Got it," Cloud announced.
"Good," Drask said. "Proceed."
Cloud led the way, followed by Grappler, Drask, and Fel. The corridor was narrower than it had looked on the blueprints, Fel realized with a twinge of apprehension, with barely enough room for the stormtroopers to get through without scraping their shoulders on the piping and access manifolds lining the walls. Far too narrow for any of them to pass any of the others.
Which meant that if they had to retreat, it would be Fel and his injured gun arm who would be running point.
But at least the Vagaari did seem to have missed this particular back door. There were no sentries or other signs of enemy presence in the corridor. In fact, from all appearances, the place might not have been visited in years, and several times Fel had to fight back a reaction to the drifting dust being kicked up by their passage. It would be a shame to put this much effort into sneaking up on the enemy only to announce their presence with a coughing fit.
They made it to their target panel without incident. Drask motioned the stormtroopers to take up side-to-side positions in front of it, BlasTechs at the ready. Then, reaching around past them, he punched the release.
This door, fortunately, opened without any difficulty at all. The stormtroopers were ready, opening fire the instant the sliding panel was clear of their muzzles. "Can you see anything?" Fel shouted to Drask over the BlasTechs' stuttering screams.
"Vagaari," Drask shouted back succinctly. Return fire was starting to come now, and Fel winced as burst after burst slammed into his men, leaving blackened marks on the clean white armor. The targets were clearly plentiful—Fel could see both stormtroopers rhythmically swinging their weapons back and forth—but at the same time the return fire seemed to be increasing rather than decreasing. However many troops Bearsh had brought along, it was starting to look like a large percentage of them were right here.
And even the legendary 501st had a limit to what it could handle.
It took only a few more seconds for Drask to come to the same conclusion. Again reaching past the stormtroopers, he punched the control. The door slid shut, the metal ringing with the impact of belated Vagaari fire. "We have done what we can to encourage their retreat," he said, nudging Fel back toward the direction they'd come from. "It is time to make our own."
"Right." Fel turned around—
And froze. Moving stealthily through the passage toward them was a line of Vagaari warriors.
Apparently, the enemy hadn't missed this bet after all.
CHAPTER 21
Gathering his feet beneath him, Luke ducked out of the doorway he'd been hiding in and sprinted ahead and down the corridor toward the next room in line. As he ran, a hail of blaster bolts scorched the air around him, scattering from his lightsaber blade. He made it to the doorway without getting hit and ducked inside the room.
It was another bunkroom, he saw, this one having been converted into a game area. In the back corner four young couples sat huddled together on the floor, their fear radiating toward him like a set of permlights. "It's all right," he assured them. "Don't worry, you're safe now."
None of them replied. With a sigh, he leaned back out into the corridor for another cautious look. He had hoped this strange aversion to Jedi was confined to the original group of Outbound Flight survivors. But whatever the reason for their hatred, they'd clearly done a good job of passing it on to successive generations.
Unfortunately, if Jinzler was to be believed, it also meant this was yet another place where it might not be safe to leave Evlyn alone. It was starting to look like they were going to have to drag her all the way back to the turbolifts.
Behind him, Mara signaled that they were ready. Raising his lightsaber again, he stepped back into the corridor.
Again, the Vagaari opened fire. But this time, the shots were coming from a set of doorways farther down the corridor. He and Mara might not be taking down many of the enemy with this maneuver, Luke reflected as he took a step toward them, but they were definitely pushing them back.