Star Wars_ Jedi Trial Part 17

"He's been muttering something, whether it's in his own language or just moaning, I don't know. It's astonis.h.i.+ng that he's even semiconscious with a wound like that. I'm not that familiar with the Rodian brain, but look here, you can see through the skull-"

Anakin cut the doctor off. "There's nothing you can do, Doctor?"

The surgeon shook his head. "No, he's just too far gone."

"Can he hear us?"

"I don't think so, but his status is the same if he can hear us or not.

With a head injury like that he won't last much longer. We can't even give him a sedative, unless, of course, you want me to end his misery-"

Anakin turned on him. "If I ever again hear you say something like that about one of my troopers, I swear..." He shook his head. "Now have the courtesy to leave me alone with my friend."

The doctor blanched, parted the curtains, and disappeared.

Anakin looked down at Grudo. "Can you hear me?" he asked. He bent closer.

"Grudo, can you hear me?"

Grudo opened his one good eye. Something rumbled deep in his chest, and he coughed. "A-Anakin..." He let out his breath.

"Save your strength-you're going to be just fine," Anakin lied.

"No," Grudo whispered. "Time-to-go."

"No, no, Grudo! They're sending you to the Respite, a fine hospital s.h.i.+p where they have everything they need to help you-"

With great effort Grudo raised himself up on an elbow and with his free hand gripped the young Jedi by the shoulder. He brought his ruined face close to Anakin's. "Don't cry over me," he said, then fell back on the cot.

Anakin didn't need to touch Grudo to know the life force had left him. He sat by his side for several minutes, then stood and returned to the command post. There would be an attack in the morning, and he would lead it. Grudo would be avenged.

22.

Often the success of a military operation depends on a mere chance event, such as someone coming to a place-a crossroads, a river, a bridge, a village-only a few minutes before or after someone else. That matter of moments can spell the difference between victory or defeat on a battlefield. Or sometimes disaster hangs on a decision by a commander who makes it without full knowledge of his enemy's intentions or dispositions; a good commander has to be able to make snap decisions, because delay can be fatal to a campaign. But so can the wrong decision, and even the very best commanders, pressed by the rapidly unfolding events of the modern battlefield to decide quickly on tactical matters, can make a mistake. Even with all the technology available to the warrior, the battlefield is still a confused and disorganized place where events move with ugntning speed under a cloak of impenetrable darkness called the fog of battle. And no one who is not right there can penetrate it.

Thus the importance of the reconnaissance Nejaa Halcyon ordered, and thus the importance of the decision he made based on the information garnered by only one of the teams sent on that reconnaissance.

Clone Commando CT-19/39, not Sergeant Omin L'Loxx, good as he might have been, was really the best reconnaissance man currently on Praesidyn. His own nickname for himself was Green Wizard, because of his rank as a sergeant and his skill at patrol craft. As soon as he was given command of team one to cover the left flank of the enemy positions, he decided to split it up so each commando could conduct his own probe into the enemy lines and penetrate as far into them as he could, to bring back as much intelligence as possible.

Green Wizard made it all the way to the Intergalactic Communications Center buildings without being detected. Carefully, he committed the position of every gun he could find to memory, counted the droids staffing the positions, noted their armaments, noted where the enemy had dug in artillery. Of special interest to him was the fact that several guns were evidently being moved to the far left of the enemy line to strengthen the positions on the two small hills at that end of the defenses. In his opinion, however, the weak spot in Toniths line was on his right, not his left, because Green Wizard had come through there so easily-and especially now, since he could tell the general where every gun was on that flank. It was clear to Green Wizard that the attack should fall entirely on the left, the whole army thrown against that flank in echelon to slam into it with tremendous force and fold it back upon itself, breaking Tonith's hold and rolling up his entire defenses in one swift, irresistible blow.

The only trouble was that now Green Wizard had to get back to his own lines to report this information. He could call on his comlink, but General Halcyon had been very specific that no one was to break comm silence during the reconnaissance. Apparently his other two comrades had not had as much success as he at remaining undetected: there had been shooting all along the line, especially where they would have crossed - a lot of shooting-so Green Wizard was pretty sure they had been discovered and possibly had not made it back to their rally point just below the mesa. He wondered about the troopers who were supposed to probe the center. Would they have seen what he had? Had some of the shooting been directed at them? They were clone commandos so they were good, very good, but not as good as he, and everyone's luck ran out sometime. Green Wizard knew one day his would, too, and perhaps this night it had for his comrades. He had to a.s.sume he was the only one left now and it was up to him to get the intelligence he'd gathered back to headquarters.

The barrage came unexpectedly, catching Green Wizard still behind enemy lines. That didn't surprise him: such things happened often in battle.

Someone had made a mistake, starting the barrage before all the teams had been accounted for, but that wasn't his worry-getting back was. Yet even as Green Wizard hugged the ground, he noted how accurate Halcyon's artillerists were. He respected accuracy and professionalism, and admired the artillery even as it came cras.h.i.+ng and smas.h.i.+ng down all around him, bouncing him up in the air, crus.h.i.+ng the breath out of him, shaking his teeth loose.

At first Green Wizard felt no pain at all. He knew his leg had been severed, but he just tied off the artery with a length of cord and considered his options. He knew that soon there would be pain, followed by shock. He had to do something and quickly, because the intelligence he had was too important to die with him. If he stayed where he was, he would be found and executed. He could call in his findings now and his mission would be over, successfully completed; but his orders were not to use the comlink except to signal that he was ready to come back in. He gave the signal and for a moment, but only for an instant, he felt a flash of something like anger that someone back at the command post had not followed the plan for the night. The barrage continued unabated.

So his only option now was to try to get back to his own lines. With one leg gone, that would be difficult, but not impossible. Clone commandos were at their best when faced with obstacles that would be insuperable to any ordinary being.

Slowly, carefully, he began to crawl. At some point the tourniquet on his leg came loose and he started losing blood. He succeeded in making it as far as the dry riverbed, but that was where he finally realized he could go no farther. He had to make his report before he was too weak to do it, orders or no orders. He reached for his comlink, but somewhere along the way he had lost it. He chided himself for that. He had let pain and physical exhaustion distract him. It would be good if he did die here. He didn't want anyone to know how incompetent he'd become. But Green Wizard also felt a terrible sense of frustration, not because he was dying, but because he would die with information that was vital to the army he served. His last conscious thought was that he had done his best.

"We don't have much time," Anakin informed his commanders, "so here's the plan of attack." He called up a huge three-dimensional view of the battlefield. "The focus of our attack is this hill. Note the jumble of huge rocks at its base. They'll serve as cover for our infantry, and we'll mount our a.s.sault from there. The key is to get across this plain as quickly as possible, because there we'll be in full view of the enemy on the mesa. General Halcyon's full-divisional attack on the center will draw troops away from the flanks to meet it and weaken their positions elsewhere, in particular here on this hill, which we know from last night's recon is only lightly defended by infantry droids with no artillery. Once we occupy that hill, we'll enfilade the entire enemy position. First Brigade will occupy the hill, while Second Brigade will sweep around to the rear of the positions. We will be attacking from three directions simultaneously.

"We will be preceded by Clone Commandos, led by an ARC trooper, who will infiltrate the position on this hill and cause a diversion. Under cover of that diversion we will attack in strength. Now, as I said, it's vital we get across that plain quickly. We will be preceded by a battalion of crawlers that will lay down suppressing fire on the hilltop. Our infantry will follow in their armored transports. We'll use this dry riverbed to get mto position-that will provide us cover until we're ready 0 atti*ck across the plain. We won't mount our own attack until jeneral Halcyon's division is fully engaged. Fire and maneuver all the way across, but move your soldiers quickly-I cannot overemphasize speed. You will be under direct observation until you get to these rocks. You'll be supported by artillery all the way, and it will continue to pound the enemy positions as you go up the hill, but as you can see, these rocks make the approach to this hill impossible for vehicles of any kind, so this phase of the operation will have to be accomplished on foot. This will be an infantry soldier's fight."

Anakin's commanders stood in full battle gear. Their troops had been a.s.sembled for the attack some time before and were waiting for their orders. He turned to the ARC captain in charge of his clone commandos.

"You will depart immediately, Captain, and go in first. I want you to penetrate the enemy position and raise havoc up there. As soon as you're in, we'll follow. Remember, all of this starts ten minutes after General Halcyon commences his attack on the center of the enemy's positions.

Everything we do must be coordinated to the second.

"That's it. You've all been a.s.signed your sectors and objectives. Return to your units and brief your subordinates. We jump off in thirty minutes."

"Sir," one of the two brigade commanders said, "who will be battlefield tactical commander?"

"I will," Anakin replied. At the surprised silence that met his words, he straightened his shoulders and silently reminded himself to relax and remember Grudo's lessons. "First of all, I don't believe in ordering someone else to anything I'm not willing to do myself. Second, if any mistakes are made this morning, I'm responsible whether or not I'm there with you, so I may as well be there. And finally, you can't lead from behind. All right, let's get going. Dismissed."

"Sir, may I speak with you for a moment?" It was the ARC captain.

"Make it quick, Captain."

"Yessir. We lost six troopers on the reconnaissance, so we know nothing about what the enemy intends to do in his main positions."

"Well, Captain, I'm sure you lost your troopers because that part of the enemy line was impenetrable. That must mean that General Halcyon's decision to take the hills is the correct one. You heard Sergeant L'Loxx's report."

"Yessir. Why did the second barrage open before we knew if the men had made it back?"

Anakin hadn't expected that question. Was this clone questioning his commander's orders? He knew ARC troopers were several cuts above the ordinary clone trooper, but this line of questioning was getting very close to insubordination. "General Halcyon had to make a decision, Captain: leave L'Loxx out there until your troopers reported in, take a chance on losing all the recon men, or bring at least some of them in to make a report. In the event, he made the correct decision."

"But one did give the signal. Too late."

"Yes, yes," Anakin answered quickly, "I'm sorry about that. Captain, you do realize that this entire attack depends on you and your troopers, don't you? What do you say we get moving now?"

The captain saluted, made an about-face, and left the command post.

Anakin stood there thinking for a moment. He had not expected a clone trooper-even an ARC-to question orders. When Anakin had craved a command of his own, he had not really thought about the responsibility that entailed: responsibility for the lives of individual sentient beings who would die on his orders, regardless of whether their loyalty had been bought by the Republic, as was the case with the clone army, or whether, like Khamar's and Slayke's soldiers, they fought because they thought it was their duty to oppose tyranny.

"A credit for your thoughts, Jedi."

Anakin whirled to see Slayke standing there, a big grin on his face. "I was just thinking-"

"Thinking is dangerous for a commander." Slayke laughed. "See where it's gotten me?" He paused. "You are going to lead the attack personally, I hear."

"Yessir. I can't just send soldiers in there while I sit safely back at headquarters. Besides, if anything goes wrong, I want to be on the spot to correct it."

Slayke nodded and held out his hand. "You'll do just fine. I wish I could go with you, but we're being held in reserve. I've had a talk with your Third Brigade commander and we have an understanding. I'll hand it all back to you when this is over. I'll be hanging around here during the attack, keeping an eye on Halcyon. Don't worry," he added, with a good-natured laugh, "I won't let him goof things up. Well, good luck, Commander. " They shook hands, and then Slayke took two steps back, came to attention, and saluted Anakin.

As Anakin walked to his command post, he noted a spring in his step and couldn't help smiling. That brief conversation with Slayke had invigorated him. The old soldier, the rebel, the iconoclast, had actually taken the time to seek him out and wish him success. And had expressed his confidence in his leaders.h.i.+p ability. That was a high compliment, and his spirits soared. Maybe Slayke wasn't such a bad character after all.

"Driver," Anakin shouted as he hoisted himself through a hatch, "crank this thing up. Time to move!"

23.

Admiral Pors Tonith kicked the body gingerly with one foot and cast a wary eye at the armor that had been stripped from the corpse and piled off to the side. He was very nervous, being exposed like this in the open, but he'd been called out of his bunker to witness this grisly discovery and he realized it was important. It was still full dark and dawn was an hour away, but he was anxious to get back under cover again.

"It's a clone commando," he said.

We've found one more complete body and parts of others, possibly as many as five altogether," the officer said. "Evidently they were killed by their own artillery last night."

'Evidently," Tonith replied. "Evidently they made it all the way inside our lines without being detected. Evidently"-his 'e rose an octave in anger-"they now know a lot about how toy army is disposed. These weren't the only ones sent up here, can be sure of that."

"We must strengthen our lines, sir," the officer said.

Tonith nodded in agreement. "That hill is the key to our position. Did you move the troops and guns as I ordered last night?"

The officer s.h.i.+fted his weight nervously before he answered. "Some. We've experienced mechanical difficulties and-"

Tonith whirled on him. "You mean my orders weren't carried out?" he asked, his voice rising again.

"We are carrying them out, sir, but-"

"No huts." He was calmer now. "Here is what you will do. I want that hilltop reinforced. Right now. Shorten this line. Move troops from the right to the center; take some from the center to that hilltop. If they take that hilltop, our entire position will be exposed to their fire, and it's all over. If the coming a.s.sault threatens to turn our right wing, I want the army to fall back to a line about there-" He pointed to a spot some distance behind them, closer to the communications center. "They will take the enemy under fire as he advances across the plain below us, but if he makes it to the mesa, the right flank will swing backward like a door closing. That will shorten the line and consolidate our forces.

Once he's on the mesa it'll force him to come at us over another stretch of open ground, where we shall cut him to pieces."

Tonith grinned, exposing his stained teeth. "And we have a little surprise for him down on the plain, don't we? Get artillery up on that hill right now. Also, warn all commanders to expect infiltration by ARC troopers. They will send them up here to penetrate our lines and weaken them in concert with a ground a.s.sault. They'll come at our center in full force, but the real objective of their attack will be right there." He gestured in the dark toward the hills again. "Now get to it and report to me in my command post when these dispositions have been made." He spun on his heel and stalked off to his command bunker, where it was safe and warm and where a simmering pot of tea waited for him. Where, he asked himself, were those reinforcements he'd been promised?

Anakin's a.s.sault force hugged the far bank of the dry riverbed, stretched out for nearly half a kilometer along the ancient stream. First light would be at precisely 0603, Praesitlyn time. It was now 0600. He sat at the communications console in his command transport. "This is Unit Six,"

he said. "Mark the time, three minutes and counting," he advised his commanders, all of whose eyes were glued to their chronos. He turned and grinned at the transport's commander, a clone sergeant. "Nervous?"

Nossir," the tank droid commander answered automatically. Well, I am, and I hereby authorize you to be nervous, too." He may as well not have said anything, for all the reaction he got.

We have two minutes, Sergeant. As soon as the transport column goes over the top of the bank onto the plain, I want you to swing around on the flank, climb the bank, and park there so 1 can supervise the movements of my units." They'd been over this simple maneuver numerous times during the last hour, but just talking about it-about anything-had a calming effect on the troopers, and on Anakin, too.

"Yessir," the sergeant answered. The five sat silently, each thinking his own thoughts, each checking his chrono constantly, watching the seconds flash by.

"The worst part is to come," Anakin said. "We have to wait a full ten minutes after the attack-" He c.o.c.ked his head. "There it goes," he whispered as Halcyon's preparatory artillery fires commenced. Within seconds, concussions from the dozens of guns of all types reached them inside the armor of the tank droid. They could feel the pressure of the firing in their eardrums. Last night the barrages ordered to cover the reconnaissance had been spectacular displays, but this morning the soldiers were right underneath the guns' trajectories and the noise was tremendous, especially when the enemy's own artillery opened fire on Halcyon's advancing troops.

"They're really catching it up there," one of the gunners commented. His voice showed no more emotion than did his blank-featured helmet. Over the command net they listened with rising anxiety to the cacophony of commanders' voices as Halcyon's troops dashed across the plain under the enemy's devastating fire. Someone in a transport screamed.

"Switch to the tactical net," Anakin ordered. They'd hear enough of their own troopers screaming soon enough-they didn't need any of that now.

And then he realized something important. These were clone troopers sitting around him now-bred to war, bred to discipline, bred to obey without question the orders of the powers that paid for their services.

But though their faceplates were expressionless, minute perturbations in the Force told Anakin that these five were reacting to the impending attack like regular troopers, troopers who sweat, were afraid, who could imagine their own deaths. In his att.i.tude toward the clones, had he himself prejudged them? They didn't act here, inside this transport that might soon be their funeral pyre, like they did in ranks. He wondered if Jango Fett had had a sense of humor.

The minutes dragged by. At precisely 0613, the vehicle battalion commander's vehicle roared over the bank, followed by scores of Republic transports.

"Get me up there right now!" Anakin ordered his driver, and the tank droid shot forward. The first dozen or so transports over the bank succeeded in cutting a deep furrow in the soil, and the rut deepened as more followed. This was planned for and would give the following troop transports cover as they negotiated the bank as well as an easy path to follow. But Anakin's vehicle surged over a bit to one side of the beaten path, and the going was very rough for the clones inside.

"Stop here!" Anakin ordered. He climbed into the commander's cupola.

"Sir," the sergeant protested, "you're exposed." Anakin toggled his throat mike. "Better to see from up here." 'We should keep moving, sir.

We're too good a target stopped like this!"

Don't worry. The law of averages is with us. This is a target-rich environment." The sight that greeted Anakin's eyes would never leave him: the entire plain was full of moving vehicles, huge clouds of dust and smoke, and burning fires. As he watched, transport about a kilometer away suddenly blossomed into ball of fire. He could see one of Halcyon's transports dimly hrough the drifting smoke and dust. It had suffered a direct from a blaster cannon. Burning clones poured out of the vehicle and whirled and twisted awkwardly in their armor, like living torches, before collapsing; the transport exploded in an enormous flash, and then, mercifully, battlesmoke closed over the scene.

Ahead, his own transports were making good headway so far. The battalion commander had positioned several machines along the route of attack, and they were already taking the distant hilltop under fire with their guns.

The others were firing as they moved. "Get ready," Anakin told the transport commander waiting patiently in the riverbed for the signal to start advancing. Suddenly a dozen or more enemy tank droids surged forward out of a depression in the ground, guns blazing. Two of Anakin's vehicles were hit immediately. One was the battalion commander's vehicle.

It started burning. No one tried to get out.

"Unit Six is taking over!" Anakin announced on the command net.

"Concentrate your fire on those tank droids!"

Blaster cannon bolts flashed overhead from the enemy vehicles, bouncing off the ground and into the air over them, making sizzling noises as they pa.s.sed. Anakin smiled. The Separatists had begun their counterattack too soon.

"Get me over on that firing line right now!" he ordered his driver.

"Gunner, open fire when ready!"

Calmly Anakin's gunner announced the range-"Twenty-one hundred meters"-and fired his blaster cannon. The transport bounced and swerved as it moved forward, but the stabilized blaster-control system was unaffected by the motion and the second bolt hit one of the enemy machines squarely on its front armor. That bolt bounced harmlessly off the machine, but the second bolt disabled its right tread and it began to turn helplessly in a circle before several other gunners destroyed it with their own cannons.

"Sir I suggest you get down from there before you're hit," the sergeant advised.

"If I'm hit, you take charge, Sergeant." Anakin reached down impatiently and tapped the driver on his helmet. "Come on, come on, get us over there!"

Odie and Erk sat in the aid station, listening to the thunder of the guns supporting Halcyon's attack. The a.s.sault had been going on for ten or fifteen minutes before the chief surgeon accosted them.