Delusions of Grandeur

20

The assault on Mechis III came with such sudden force and devastation that Jacen could hardly believe only one bounty hunter was responsible.

The attacking vessel pummeled its way through the atmosphere, throwing off sonic booms like obscuring veils. The ship thundered overhead, crashing through the roiling clouds, pausing only briefly to loose a volley of concussion torpedoes.

Smokestacks crumbled, dropping like felled trees. Secondary detonations ignited combustible gases that rose from the industrial sections in an inferno that blasted through the underground tunnels. A line of factory buildings toppled in a devastating chain reaction as the spreading shock front ripped out their foundations.

Alarms screeched through the administration building. Lights flashed, sirens wailed.

Tyko Thul ran to the diagnostic screens inside his office. His skin had gone a pasty gray, and his eyes widened in terror. Beside him stood Raynar, his simple Jedi robes contrasting with his uncle’s garish display of noble heritage.

The young Jedi Knights scrambled to defensive positions. Tenel Ka took her place beside Jacen, cool and ready to fight, her hand on the hilt of her lightsaber. Even in the midst of such confusion, it made Jacen glad to see how quickly the warrior girl came over to fight next to him.

“Why bother with all the sirens?” Jaina said, pressing her palms to her temples. “The whole planet’s automated. Do droids care about that stuff?”

Jacen looked out the window across the smoky landscape. Another building erupted into flames. “Good thing there aren’t any people out there.”

“But think of all the droids!” Em Teedee wailed. “They’re doomed!”

Zekk stood near Jaina with his arms crossed over his chest. He squinted into the soot-stained sky as the attacker swung around for another furious pass. A cargo-load of concussion bombs dropped again, blowing up another thermal exhaust port. Zekk’s face turned grim as he recognized the ship. “That’s Dengar,” he said. “How did he know to come here?”

Targeting rooftop-cannons tracked Dengar across the sky and fired long blasts of crackling blue ion bolts or sharp green turbolasers. But the cybernetically enhanced bounty hunter reacted too quickly— flying, dodging, skipping left and right. The clumsy automated defensive systems could not keep up.

A gruff voice came over the citywide intercom system, echoing from a thousand amplification speakers. “This is Dengar. I know the bounty hunter Zekk is down there—I have followed him here to the hiding place of Bornan Thul.”

“Why does everybody make that assumption?” Zekk said.

“I intend to cause much more damage unless you surrender my bounty.” After a pause, Dengar’s deep voice continued, “Further negotiation is … not acceptable.”

An army of scurrying machines spread out through the factory city. Fire-response droids and disaster-mitigation crews pumped flame-suppressant chemicals onto the burning wreckage. Salvage crews set to work cleaning up portions of the assembly lines and strove to keep them running at all costs.

Dengar’s ship cruised overhead, banked, then came back toward the administration building. With calculated malice, he dropped another bomb directly onto a droid fire-response fleet, obliterating them.

Tyko gazed around in confusion and horror. “What are we going to do?”

Tenel Ka turned toward him skeptically. “First we must know if you staged this attack. The timing would appear somewhat … convenient. Is this a new hoax—like your assassin droids on Kuar?”

“Certainly not!” Tyko looked at her, the picture of appalled innocence. “My dear girl, that terrorist is destroying my factories!”

Raynar studied his uncle for a second. “I believe him. He’d never damage his own facilities like this.”

“No, Dengar doesn’t work for Tyko,” Zekk agreed. “He’s after Tarkona’s bounty. He intends to bring in Bornan Thul, dead or alive—it doesn’t matter which.” He frowned, his green eyes hard as emeralds. “I outwitted him once, but I wouldn’t count on it again. Dengar’s one of the best.”

The broad windows rattled with the thunder of Dengar’s passage as he swooped past the administrative headquarters. As if to taunt them, the bounty hunter loosed another explosive … but detonated it in midair, so that the walls of the office buildings merely shuddered.

Jacen looked at Raynar with concern. “'Hey, we promised to keep Raynar safe on this trip—and it’s not very safe just to sit here in an office while we get bombed. I think we should head for the Rock Dragon and get out of here. If we all leave Mechis III, Dengar won’t have any reason to stay and cause more damage.”

Zekk looked over at Jaina. “The Lightning Rod is closer. We could get to my ship and harass him, create a diversion so the others can escape.” He raised an eyebrow hopefully. “I could use a good copilot, Jaina … if you wouldn’t mind coming with me.”

She hurried to Zekk’s side. “What are we waiting for? Em Teedee, you go with Jacen—he’s a fair pilot himself, but he and Tenel Ka may need your assistance getting the Rock Dragon out of here.”

The little droid floated upward in his excitement, barely managing to keep his new microrepulsors under control. “Oh my! This is a sobering responsibility—I will do my utmost not to let you down, Mistress Jaina.”

Jaina grabbed Zekk’s hand and they raced out of the offices together, toward where he had docked the Lightning Rod. Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Raynar headed for the door as well.

Tyko Thul stood all alone, looking sickened. “But … but I can’t leave here. This is my factory planet! I got Mechis III up and running when all the systems had fallen into disrepair. I won’t abandon it just because some … some vandal comes in shooting.”

Raynar spluttered, “But you can’t stay here, Uncle Tyko—you’ll be killed. You’ve got to come with us.”

“No! I’m going down into the reinforced lower levels. I’ll be perfectly safe there. You children go on now.” Leaving his office, Tyko turned and jogged out of sight down the corridor.

Jacen looked after him, but Tenel Ka gestured for them to hurry. “Jacen, we must get to the roof or our plans will be wasted.”

The three ran toward the nearest turbolift. Em Teedee floated after them, still working to control his new repulsorjets. “Wait! Wait for me!”

Breathing hard, Jaina secured her crash webbing as Zekk lurched the Lightning Rod into the air, roaring out of the overhang-covered shipping area where he had landed. She glanced at the dark-haired young man as he worked, his gaze intent on the controls.

“Sure is good to fly with you, Zekk,” she said.

“You seem to be making this a habit—getting into situations where I have to come rescue you,” he said, smiling slightly.

“Hah! I’m not half-bad at rescues either, you know. Watch it, or I might just turn the tables on you one of these days.”

“I don’t suppose I’d mind that so much.” Zekk punched the engines for a new surge of acceleration. They streaked up between tall manufacturing centers and into the open air. Jaina leaned forward to the cockpit windows, trying to see through the thick curls of smoke.

Dengar dropped a thermal shock-wave generator onto the roof of the building adjacent to Tyko’s administrative headquarters. The weapon burned its way downward like a luminous diving bell, incinerating floor after floor after floor until it impacted the building’s foundations.

“I’ll concentrate on flying,” Zekk said. “You take the weapons controls.”

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go,” Jaina said.

As if out of nowhere, they soared in. Jaina fired the laser cannons without mercy, targeting the hull of the bounty hunter’s ship. They skimmed past so close that Jaina could have kicked Dengar’s craft if the Lightning Rod’s access hatch had been open.

Zekk sped onward, and Dengar launched after them in hot pursuit. Wrestling with the piloting controls, Zekk rolled the battered old ship. He took them into a downward loop and flew beneath his enemy, jerking sideways and up. Jaina could see that subconscious instincts made Zekk use his Force skills to dodge, but she said nothing to interrupt his concentration.

Dengar followed, blasting away furiously with his ship’s weapons.

“Think he’d hold a grudge against me for what I did to him on Ziost?” Zekk said.

With a touch of irony, Jaina said, “At least he’s stopped damaging the buildings. Our goal was to distract him so the others could get away to safety.”

“Of course, I’d like to get away, as well,” Zekk said. “Hang on.” He headed in the direction of the smoldering buildings Dengar had already blasted. “That looks like a good prospect.”

Sagging and ready to collapse, twin skyscrapers blazed side by side in parallel infernos. With the bounty hunter still clinging to their afterburners, Zekk arrowed the ship directly toward the blazing columns.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Jaina muttered.

The Lightning Rod shot into the gap between the burning towers as a network of connecting girders broke loose. Damaged beyond repair, the skyscrapers began to topple….

Up on the rooftop, the smell of fire saturated the air. Jacen and Tenel Ka ran side by side, with Raynar close behind them. “There they are!” the Alderaanian boy said, pointing. The polluted wind rippled the sleeve of his Jedi robe.

With Dengar’s ship perilously close behind them, firing its blasters, the Lightning Rod plunged recklessly between two collapsing buildings. Fire and smoke raged upward as the towers crashed together, and Zekk’s ship vanished into the inferno.

Dengar broke off his pursuit at the last instant, hauling his ship around and up, away from certain death. He left the wreckage behind and came about.

Tenel Ka drew a breath of dismay as the Lightning Rod vanished into the billows of smoke and debris. But Jacen shook his head. “I’m sure they made it, somehow. Zekk’s too good a pilot—and I’d sense it if Jaina got hurt.”

“This is a fact,” the warrior girl said.

Jacen looked over his shoulder toward the stairwell, trying to locate Em Teedee. The little floating droid had not managed to keep up with them. When Dengar spotted them and soared toward the rooftop, Jacen forgot about Em Teedee and thought instead about their own survival. “To the Rock Dragon— quick!”

The Hapan passenger cruiser sat where they had landed it on the opposite side of the roof. Tenel Ka sprinted along to the sheer edge, running as if she were simply doing her morning workout. Tossing her red-gold braids behind her shoulders, she glanced down, observing the extreme height with interest. “Lowbacca would have enjoyed being up here.”

“Yeah, I’d rather he was here to pilot the ship, too. Em Teedee!” Jacen called. “Where can he be?”

Dengar’s inelegant ship circled low. Before they could reach the safety of the Rock Dragon, the bounty hunter landed defiantly at the edge of the roof, blocking the way.

Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Raynar staggered to a stop, looking grimly at each other.

The bounty hunter opened the hatch and leapt out. His shoulders were broad, and he carried two massive blaster cannons—each of which usually required two arms to lift, though Dengar easily held one in each hand. The mouth on the bounty hunter’s bandage-wrapped face sagged like his loose-fitting clothes, which were dirty and stained from a thousand fights and a thousand quick repair jobs on his ship.

Dengar’s sunken eyes flicked from side to side as he scanned the three young Jedi Knights like a targeting computer assessing damage potential. He aimed both blaster cannons at the companions. “Hostages. Expendable.” He scowled. “Where is Bornan Thul? Tell me.”

Raynar crossed his brown-robed arms and put on a brave face. “I am Raynar, son of Bornan Thul. My father isn’t on Mechis III. He never was.”

Dengar’s expression did not change. “Then you will tell me how to find him, or I will begin eliminating hostages.” His sallow face showed no sign of regret or anticipation. “I hope one of you cooperates before all three of you are dead.”

Around the metropolis, emergency-response droids cruised through the damaged areas. Smoke poured into the sky, blacker and more noxious than the pollution belched out by the manufacturing centers.

Jacen and Tenel Ka exchanged glances, but no one spoke.

Dengar waited precisely five seconds. Then he raised his blaster cannons, both pointing at a single target—Jacen.

The young man’s heart thudded, and his hand groped for his lightsaber. He wondered if he could possibly use its blade to deflect such high-powered explosive bolts. He was sure his uncle, Luke Skywalker, could have done it.

“You will not kill my friend,” Tenel Ka said, stepping in front of Jacen to shield him with her body. She drew her own rancor-tooth lightsaber and flashed its turquoise blade. Jacen saw her lips part in a feral grin, filled with challenge and menace toward anyone who would threaten him.

Jacen glanced over at Raynar, who stood concentrating, his gaze fixed on Dengar’s ship. Jacen felt a ripple in the Force and instantly knew what the blond boy was trying to do.

“Doesn’t matter to me who I start with,” Dengar answered coldly. He readjusted his aim toward Tenel Ka. She didn’t flinch.

Jacen added his own Jedi abilities to Raynar’s, concentrating on the bounty hunter’s ship. The craft had landed close to the edge of the rooftop, and its rear support pad rested …

“Let this first one be a lesson to you,” Dengar said. The bounty hunter’s finger tightened on the firing stud. Defiant and fearless, Tenel Ka held up her lightsaber, ready to block the shot.

Jacen squeezed his eyes shut and focused. He had to help her! With every ounce of his concentration, Jacen drew on the Force to nudge, push, shove.

Dengar fired both blaster cannons.

Using the Force, Jacen jostled the weapons. Both shots went wide, missing Tenel Ka. Behind him, Raynar was still focused on one goal.

“And let this be a lesson to you, Dengar,” Tenel Ka said. Sensing that she was joining her efforts to Raynar’s, Jacen lent his assistance as well.

Dengar’s ship slid backward, scraping across the rooftop. Its rear support pad dropped over the side of the building. The craft tipped and lurched, its hull grating against the rough edge of the roof.

The bounty hunter whirled in alarm. “What—?”

Suddenly the rooftop door burst open. The towering bulk of IG-88 strode out, arms extended, weapons powered up.

Em Teedee, hovering above the assassin droid’s body frame, amplified his normally tinny voice to a commanding boom. “I suggest you leave our friends alone, you arrogant bully!”

Tyko Thul in his colorful robes confidently followed the two droids out onto the rooftop. “IG-88, I order you to protect us!” The assassin droid aimed his built-in weapons.

Dengar reacted with lightning speed, whirling away from Tenel Ka and letting loose a volley of blaster bolts. Most ricocheted harmlessly off the assassin droid’s durasteel torso, leaving cherry-red spots of absorbed energy.

However, one bolt glanced off IG-88’s skeletal frame and hit Em Teedee’s outer casing. The little translating droid shrieked as sparks flew from his side; his optical sensors flickered wildly. Spinning in the air like an asteroid after a collision, he let out an electronic wail.

IG-88 opened fire again and again, but with such precision that instead of blasting the bandage-wrapped human off the rooftop, his weapon discharges turned one of Dengar’s heavy blaster cannons to slag in his fist.

Jacen remembered that the assassin droid’s new programming prevented him from shooting down the bounty hunter outright, even to protect his masters. But IG-88 was resourceful enough to find alternatives.

Behind him, Dengar’s ship teetered precariously on the edge of the roof.

Still expressionless, Dengar tossed the smoldering firearm away and grabbed his remaining cannon with both hands. But IG-88 targeted carefully with a volley of shots that blew away the muzzle of the second blaster, leaving Dengar unarmed.

Then the droid bombarded the roof plates at the bounty hunter’s feet.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Dengar dove for his ship. Off balance, it groaned and tilted toward an inevitable crash between the buildings. IG-88 fired once more just as the bandage-wrapped bounty hunter scrambled through the hatch. Blaster bolts sizzled off the frame as Dengar sealed himself in.

With a final shriek of protest, the ship fell from the rooftop. Jacen gasped, and Raynar raced to the edge of the building to look down. The ship plunged and spun, like a paving stone dropped off a cliff.

At the last instant, Dengar managed to power up his engines and wrench the ship out of gravity’s clutches. Spinning the craft sideways, the bounty hunter thundered through the narrow gaps between buildings. From the rooftop IG-88 launched grenades toward the stern of Dengar’s ship in an attempt to disable the engines as he departed. The explosives fell short as the bounty hunter whirled and dipped, zigzagging skillfully along a random course.

“No more grenades,” Tyko yelled at the assassin droid. “If you can’t bring yourself to actually destroy his ship, at least wait until he comes back into range, or you’ll damage my buildings.”

Before Dengar could circle around and come back again, though, the Lightning Rod shot up out of an alleyway, gaining speed as Jaina blasted volley after volley of laser fire into Dengar’s already damaged craft.

“All right, Jaina!” Jacen cried. “Go!”

Facing Zekk’s unexpected and relentless pursuit, Dengar made a logical choice. He set course for escape, and with an angry roar, his ship careened into the sky.

Standing beside Tenel Ka, Jacen watched the bounty hunter’s craft jet upward at high speed until it was swallowed by the swirling black smoke. Dengar disappeared into orbit, leaving behind the smoldering wreckage of his devastating attack.

Planting one fist on each of his hips, Raynar observed the bounty hunter’s departure with defiant satisfaction. “That’ll teach him not to tangle with young Jedi Knights!”