Republic Commando_ Hard Contact Part 31

"Let's move it, Darman," she said, and hardly recognized her own voice. For a moment, she didn't sound like a Jedi at all.

Hokan was still on the loose. Niner knew it. He'd seen him-or at least someone in his armor-come out of the facility. The officer whom Darman had shot had just been a young captain. And Hokan was probably doing what the dead captain seemed to have done, and tracked them by the gunship. Their salvation might also prove to be their undoing.

"About one more klick," Fi said. "Any word on Atin?"

"Haven't you got your long-range switched through?"

"No. It's one more distraction I can't face right now."

Niner was beginning to understand how Fi coped: the man just switched off, sometimes literally. He wondered who or what had taught him to do that, because it wasn't Skirata. Kal Skirata felt, all too visibly sometimes.

"I hope we get an urban deployment after this," Niner said. Stay positive. Look ahead. "A nice, noisy, confusing city with places to hide and lots of running water. Surveillance. Data extraction. Easy Street."

"Nah, jungle."

"You're sick."

"Jungle's like a city. Lots going on."

"You're worried about Atin."

"Shut up, Sarge. I'm just worried about me, okay?"

"Of course you are."

"Why didn't we just pound this whole region from s.p.a.ce?"

"No intel. Virus could have been at several locations. We might not have hit them all and we'd never have known until it was too late."

"Just when we were making a good team."

"He's still alive, Fi." Niner began walking backward, playing the tail role. "He's still alive. Jedi can heal. Darman's done all the right first aid-"

Niner never did like being tail on patrol, especially at night. He liked it even less when the point man shouted, "Down!"

He dropped flat in the gra.s.s and looked where Fi was aiming his Deece.

"Speeder," Fi said. "Guess who. Crossing right-to-left ahead. It's got to be Hokan."

"Can you take him?"

"Clear shot when he pa.s.ses the trees."

"Don't hang about, then."

Niner counted the seconds, following the speeder bike with his rifle scope. The speeder's movement behind the avenue of kuvara created a strobe effect. A flare of energy lit up his night vision and the rider was thrown off the vehicle in a cloud of vapor.

"That's the way to do it," Niner said.

They waited the mandatory few seconds to check that Hokan was truly down. There was no movement at all. Niner could see the glint of gdans' eyes in the gra.s.s, a sign that at least someone thought the fighting was over and that it was safe to come out again.

Niner was on his feet and Fi was up on one knee when Hokan rose from the gra.s.s like a specter. He staggered a few steps and raised his weapon.

Niner didn't hear him fire. But he heard a projectile whistle pa.s.s him and hit something with a loud crack. Verpine shatter guns were silent, and they were accurate. If Hokan hadn't been winded by Fi's round, then Niner would have had the same hole blown in him as Atin."Sarge, when I kill him, can I have his armor?" Fi asked.

"You get to take it off him personally."

"I needed that motivation. Thanks."

"Still see him?"

"No..."

A blaster round hit the gra.s.s a meter in front of Fi and sent sparks swirling. Their enemy wasn't a mindless tinnie or a stupid Weequay. He was a Mandalorian, a natural-born fighter, dangerous even when wounded.

He was very much like them.

"You think that gunship's going to wait?" Fi asked.

"Not once they have Uthan."

"Fierfek." Fi snapped on the grenade attachment and aimed. "Maybe we shouldn't have ditched the E-Web." The night lit up with the explosion. Fi raised his head a little and blasterfire flowed back, a meter farther off target than before. "You go right of him while I keep him busy."

Niner edged forward on his elbows and knees, Deece crooked in his arms. He'd moved about ten meters when the air above him made a frying noise and a blaster bolt took the seed heads off the gra.s.s above him.

If it hadn't been for that Verpine, things would have been a lot simpler.

Majestic wouldn't wait much longer. The stims had worn off fully now, and Niner was feeling the impact of days of hard tabbing, little sleep, and too much noise. He made himself a promise there and then. If he and Fi weren't getting off Qiilura, then neither was Ghez Hokan.

But Mandalorian or not, Hokan was just one man, and he was facing two men who were at least his match. Niner didn't underestimate him, but the end result was almost certain: sooner or later he would deplete the power cells. Still, time wasn't on their side right then.

"Not good at all," Niner said. "Darman, Niner here. What's your position?"

He sounded out of breath. "Slow going, Sarge. About ten minutes from the EP."

"Ask them if they'll keep the meter running, will you? Just saying good-bye to Ghez Hokan."

"I'll drop Atin off and-"

"Negative, Dar. We can handle this once we crack his armor. Stand by."

Fi was edging forward looking for a clear shot. Niner, running out of patience, looked about for some cover he could use to get a position to the side of Hokan. The flash of a weapon discharge caught his eye but he didn't hear anything except Fi beginning to say something over the comlink and then a very brief searing peak of high-pitched noise.

Then everything went silent and black.

For a moment Niner thought he'd been hit. He couldn't hear Fi and he couldn't see the data from his HUD. There was no green image of the field and the trees behind it in his night-vision visor. But he could feel his elbows squarely braced in the soil and he could feel his Deece still in his hands. No pain-but if you were hurt badly enough you sometimes didn't feel a thing.

It took him several slow seconds to realize his helmet's systems were totally dead. His face felt hot. He wasn't getting air.

He pulled off the helmet and squinted through the scope of his DC-17. The night-vision scope picked up his image; Fi had taken his helmet off, too, and had his hand inside it, pressing controls frantically.

EMP grenade, Niner thought. Hokan's droided us.

You used electromagnetic pulse charges against droids. But they were equally effective against delicate electronics attached to wets. The enhanced Katarn helmets, three times the price of an ordinary trooper's version, were packed with sophisticated prototype systems, vulnerable systems.

Niner crawled slowly and carefully toward Fi. A couple of blaster bolts went wide. He lay flat, head-to-head with him.

"He's fried our helmets," Fi whispered. "Don't they test these things properly?"

"I bet some civvy thought n.o.body would use EMPs against wets."

"Yeah, I might look him up when we get back."

"They should reset."

"How long?"

"No idea. Deece still works, though."

"As long as he puts his head up."

"I could do with one of Dar's flash-bangs."

"Doesn't fit the Deece anyway."

"Can you see him at all?"

"No ... no, wait. There he is."

Niner had to track back and forth a couple of times before he spotted Hokan through the scope. "Got any of the IEDs in easy reach?"

"Six."

"How far can you throw?"

"Far enough."

"Wide as you can. Scatter them across him."

Niner laid down suppressing fire while Fi bounced up and down, lobbing the little makeshift bombs and dropping flat again. Niner took the detonator control.

"When I hit this, you go wide that way and try to get side-on to him."

Fi rolled slightly to one side, bracing on his right arm for a quick start. Niner hit the det. Fi bobbed up.

Nothing happened. A blaster round seared the gra.s.s between them, and Fi threw himself down again.

"We really must talk to procurement about hardening our electronics," Fi said mildly.

"I fear we might be back to old-fashioned soldiering."

"I'm fresh out of bayonets."

"Sergeant Kal would have an idea."

"You got his number on you?"

"I'm going to scream."

"What?"

"Don't laugh. This man's a nut. If he thinks I'm down and badly injured, he won't be able to resist coming over and slitting my throat."

"And then I give him a surprise party?"

"Anything that resolves this fast."

"Okay, kid. Off you go."

Niner suddenly realized he didn't actually know how to scream. But he'd heard enough terribly wounded men to make a fair stab at it.

He threw back his head and let go.

20.

I don't know who the good guys are anymore. But I do know what the enemy is. It's the compromise of principles. You lose the war when you lose your principles. And the first principle is to look out for your comrades.

-Kal Skirata The gunship was the most beautiful craft Darman had ever seen.

It came into view as he staggered through the line of bushes and into the newly plowed field. Its c.o.c.kpit bubbles gleamed like a holo of Cloud City, and its cannon turrets had the symmetry of the finest Naboo architecture. He even loved its rust and the dents in its wings.

"Look at that, Atin," he said. "Sheer art... Atin?"

"... yeah."

"Nearly there."

"... uh."

White trooper armor came running toward him with a Gran in a medic's uniform just behind them. Atin's weight lifted from his back, and he struggled to pull his arms free of the webbing. He followed the stretcher, trying to talk to the medic.

"Verpine projectile, right side of his chest," he said. "Painkiller, five ccs of-"