He squeezed both controls, launching searing blazes of laser energy from all four cannons. The beams targeted on the bomber just before it could drop its proton explosives. Instead of destroying the homes of hundreds of Wookiees, the bomber became a brilliant ball of fire and smoke. The belch of detonations grew louder as the TIE fighter’s own proton bombs fed into the eruption.
“Got one!” Jacen crowed.
Tenel Ka fired repeatedly until another pair of TIE fighters exploded in the air. “Two more,” she said.
By now, additional Wookiee defenders had arrived to assume positions at the remaining guns. Jacen fired again and again, rotating his chair to aim at the rapidly moving targets. He blasted another TIE fighter out of the sky.
“Just like our practice runs in the Millennium Falcon,” he said. “Only this time, hitting the targets is a lot more important than winning a contest with my sister.”
“This is a fact,” Tenel Ka said.
Another wing of TIE fighters swooped down, and Jacen shot wildly. So many Imperial targets, he thought, all of them bristling with lethal weaponry…. His quad-laser cannon spat beams of energy, but they all missed as the fighters spun evasive loops in the air.
“Oh, blaster bolts!” Jacen said.
Wookiees kept appearing, leaping off the vine pulley-lifts and rushing to their positions, although now there were more defenders than guns. Lowie and Sirra hurried over to Jacen and Tenel Ka, speaking loudly. Their grunts and growls overlapped, so that Em Teedee had difficulty translating both.
“One at a time, please!” the little droid said. “All right, I believe I understand the basics of what you’re saying. Master Lowbacca and Mistress Sirrakuk have determined that a single-point defensive failure occurred in the traffic control tower for this facility. Somehow, all of the central command systems have been compromised. It appears that the attack is being guided from there.”
Lowie roared a suggestion. “Oh dear,” Em Teedee said. “Master Lowbacca suggests we would be well advised to go to the heart of the problem and leave these well-trained Wookiee gunners to continue the fight here. While I agree that it might be safer to move inside—I am skeptical about the wisdom of rushing into greater danger.”
“Good idea, Lowie,” Jacen said, ignoring Em Teedee’s warnings. He fired the quad-laser one more time, almost offhandedly, and was astonished to see his quick shot destroy the side panel of another TIE fighter, which spun out of control and crashed to the treetops. “Hey, got another one,” he said.
Barricaded in the traffic control tower, Zekk listened to outraged Wookiees pounding against the sealed door. A sizzling, melting sound worked its way into the background din as the Wookiees used high-intensity laser torches to slice through the armored metal. Their own well-constructed defenses worked against them, since they had intended Kashyyyk’s command center to be impregnable. Slowly but surely, though, the Wookiees made headway, slicing through the door one centimeter at a time.
Using the security monitors, Zekk watched the hairy creatures out in the hall. With bestial rage one of them picked up a metal pipe and hammered at the door—to no effect, of course, because of the thick plating, but the Wookiee seemed satisfied just to be able to vent his fury.
Tamith Kai crossed her arms over her reptile-armored chest. “The noise level out there is most annoying,” she said, then glared at the stormtrooper standing guard. Her violet eyes flashed with a twisted idea. “Why don’t we trigger the locking mechanism and let the Wookiees stumble inside. We can easily take care of the whole lot before they recover from their surprise.”
Vonnda Ra chuckled. “That would be amusing to watch.”
Before Zekk could voice an indignant protest that he was in command of this mission, the stormtrooper activated the door controls. The panel suddenly slid aside, shocking the Wookiee engineers who had been working to gain access. They howled.
The stormtrooper used his blaster rifle to mow them down in a few seconds, every one of them. Even encased in white armor, the storm-trooper’s body language showed his pleasure. He keyed in the sequence to slam the heavy door shut again, leaving the fallen Wookiees out in the corridor.
“At last, peace and quiet,” Tamith Kai said.
Overhead, TIE fighters and bombers continued to attack, dodging bursts of weapon fire from the tree facility’s perimeter defenses. The reinforced dome overhead showed the battle in the skies. Several contingents of stormtrooper reinforcements had already landed.
Vonnda Ra worked at one of the computer stations, scanning security images. A minute later, she gave a gasp of surprised triumph. “Ah, I believe I’ve found them,” she said. “The vermin were firing the perimeter guns, but now they’re in the corridors. They seem to be making their way … ah! They’re making their way here. Delusions of grandeur. That could prove quite convenient.”
“Who?” Zekk said.
Vonnda Ra raised her eyebrows. “Why, those Jedi brats, of course. Had you forgotten your other goal for this mission?”
Zekk thought of Jacen and Jaina and their friends. “No, I didn’t forget,” he said. But he didn’t want to confront the twins here, not in front of the evil Tamith Kai. This should have been his own private battle, the consequences of the choices he had made. “We’ll meet them on the way. Ambush them. Lock down their location.”
“Simple enough,” Vonnda Ra said.
Reinforcing his position of command, Zekk turned sharply and issued brisk orders. “Tamith Kai, you will remain here and continue organizing the mission. Our primary goal is to get those computer systems for the Second Imperium. You—” he nodded toward the stormtrooper “—will stay here as guard. Vonnda Ra and I will take care of the young Jedi Knights.”
Tamith Kai scowled at being ordered about, but Zekk rounded on her, his cape swirling. “Is that assignment beyond your capabilities, Tamith Kai?”
“Indeed not,” she said. “Is yours? Just be certain you eliminate those brats.”
When the stormtrooper unsealed the armored door again, Vonnda Ra followed Zekk, and they strode out into the corridor, stepping around motionless Wookiee engineers sprawled on the floor, heading toward a confrontation with Zekk’s former friends.
Jacen rushed along, shoulder to shoulder with Lowie and Sirra. The interior corridors were full of smoke, debris, and noise. Glow-panels in the ceilings flickered off and on with energy fluctuations from the attack.
Jacen and Lowie drew their shimmering lightsabers and held them ready. Tenel Ka picked up a loose metal rod, a piece of destroyed pipe that had fallen from an overhead assembly, and loped along behind them, guarding the rear. She held the rod like a spear, as if hoping to find some enemy target.
Lowie and Sirra turned the corner in the corridor, and Jacen thought he recognized the route they had taken to the monolithic control tower during their visit with the Tour Droid. Suddenly, Lowie gave a surprised roar; Sirra bellowed in alarm. Tenel Ka brandished her long metal rod.
“Hey, it’s Zekk!” Jacen shouted, skidding to a stop.
There in the corridor, as if waiting for them, stood the dark-haired scamp who for years had been a friend to Jacen and Jaina … who had taken them on excursions through Coruscant’s abandoned building levels and dim alleys. Now the once-scruffy boy wore expensive leather armor and a crimson-lined black cape—and bore a scarlet-bladed lightsaber. He looked ominous.
Tenel Ka saw Zekk, too, and held her metal staff at the ready. In a flash of memory, Jacen thought of the warrior girl’s initial meeting with Zekk, back on Coruscant: when the young man had dropped down from above to surprise them, Tenel Ka had whipped out her fibercord with blurring speed and lassoed him before he could jump out of the way.