Part 8 (1/2)
”What show?” Doriana asked ”What are you doing?”
”You'll see,” Roshton said, shi+fting his eyes to the o bounce?”
”Uh no”
”Then you've got a treat in store” Roshton pulled the front of his tunic slightly back to reveal a comlink hidden behind the flap ”Number seven, stand by now”
And from the direction of the house came the thundercrack of anexplosion Doriana twisted around in ti over the heads of its startled coround trailed a strand of smoke ”Number ten: now,”Roshton said
There was a second explosion, this one squarely at the feet of one of theassault droids The big machine lost its balance and toppled backward to landwith a sickening thud ”Where are they firing froaround in bewilderht, and preciouslittle cover anywhere nearby for the in ”Roshton?”
”Later,” Roshton said ”Five and eight: go”
Twoa pairof battle droids flying across the neatly trimmed lawn ”And here cohtly colored Neimoidian robes appeared inthe doorway ”This should be fun”
”Hold it,” Doriana said, squinting across the distance Nearly hidden in the folds of the robes ”Hold your fire, Roshton,” he repeated urgently
”They've got Binalie's son with the under his breath ”Rotten cowards,” he said conteht s his lips ”Well, well
Cowards and fools both”
”What?” Doriana asked, frowning
”They've got Corf Binalie, all right” Roshton gestured ”They've also got Jafer Tories”
He lifted his eyebrows at Doriana ”Like I said This should be fun”
Two more explosions, the third and fourth by Tories' count, shook thehouse as Ashel and Gehad hurried them down the entry hallway to the mansion'smain door
”I do not understand,” Gehad said nervously as they peered outside”Where are they shooting fro to the droids ”Droids! Form a cordon to the transport!” Obediently,the droids abandoned their encircle, as their capabilities allowed, toward the vehicle squatting a dozen up into ts, their weapons pointingoutward, when another explosion caught the transport's right front corner,bouncing the vehicle ablack and twisted
”This is impossible!” Gehad shouted ”How do they do this?”
”Ask questions later!” Ashel growled, pointing toward the Spaarti plant
”Look! Here is our air support”
And impressive air support it was, too, Tories had to ad in froed on the Binalie estate
But the STAPs were still out of range, the droids in their cordon hadtheir weapons and sensors aimed outward as they searched for their unseenattackers, and the Neimoidians were far too preoccupied with their own safetyto be watching their prisoners Ti hi between the rows of droids toward the transportGrabbing Corf s ar behindhiht the boy's other arround just outside the mansion'sdoorway For a moment, Corf was stretched between them like a pull-war cable,and then Gehad stopped and spun around ”What do you-?” he snarled He never finished his question In that sa along a uard by Tories' suddenhalt, arrived at either side of the Jedi And in a single smooth htsaber, and ignited itGehad gave a little deep-throated screao of Corf's arave the boy a quick shoveback through the doorway as he slashed the lightsaber across the upper chestof the droid to his left The brilliant green blade sliced through the thickacertron ar plastoid, and the top third of the droidslid off and fell with a crash onto the ground The rest of thestolidly upright like abeheaded corpse patiently awaiting further orders Tories didn't wait to seewhether or not it would fall The assault droid to his right was alreadyreacting to this unexpected threat, twisting at its hips to try to bring itsblasters to bear Tories swiveled to his right to htsaber around and down across the raised forearround His second cut took off thedroid's legs; even before the pieces clattered to the ground, he leapedbackward through the doorway into the htsaber into guard position As if in emphasis,another nearby explosion blew clouds of dirt into the air The two aliensdidn't need further encourage, they sprinted down the line ofdroids and sca droids followed,closing up the cordon neatly behind them A minute later the transport, joinednow by three h speed ”Wow,” Corfbreathed
Tories turned to see the boy gazing up at hiht?” he asked
Mechanically, Corf nodded ”I never saw anything like that,” he said”Just doing what I was trained for,” Tories said With one last look outside,he closed down his lightsaber ”Let's go tell your father you're all right,”he said ”And after that,” he added griet nasty”
There they go,” Roshton commented as the last of the droids piled intothe transports The first vehicle, the one with the Nei for distance, the STAP escort forain for awhile”
”Probably not,” Doriana agreed, his eyes still on the remains of the D60s that had taken Tories maybe half a second to turn to scrap He'd beenaround Jedi much of his life, but never before had he actually witnessed onein full coan to truly see why Sidious wanted the into his comlink ”City, forest units: stand ready”
With an effort, Doriana pulled his attention back to the militarysituation ”What do you ethose shots?”
”Don't be dense,” Roshton chided 'That was nothing but a set ofstrategically placed, remote-controlled landdone around the grounds the past two days”