Crisis of Faith by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online Page B

guess they don’t want us heading toward the palace.”
     
    “Lucky we didn’t want to go in that direction anyway,” Sanjin said with his usual calm. “Here comes the vec-null  contingent.”
     
    The words were barely out of his mouth when the western half of the city suddenly exploded with laserfire as a dozen concealed laser cannons opened up against the TIEs flying overhead.
     
    “About time,” Sanjin shouted over the noise. “A-racks, stop; gunners, grab the E-Webs. Kicker, find me some useful real estate.”
     
    Lhagva turned from the large insectoid beings closing on their rear, their short swords and heavy maces glinting in the shield-muted sunlight, and peered across the landscape in front of them. There was the vec-null contingent, just as Sanjin had said: another hundred or more Soldiers who had left their places along the juggernauts’ insertion route and were heading toward the stormtroopers.
     
    And that was a direction Sanjin’s assault force /had/ been hoping to go in.
     
    Lhagva looked to the west. So far, that area was still clear of Quesoth. If Sanjin gave the order, and if they turned the A-racks and pushed them to the limit, they could probably get back out from under the umbrella shields and into TIE cover ahead of all three groups of Soldiers.
     
    But that would mean running. And Imperial stormtroopers never ran. Not when they had a job to do.
     
    Not even when they were outnumbered ten to one.
     
    “Kicker?” Sanjin prompted.
     
    “Yes, sir,” a stormtrooper from one of the other squads called back, his eyes on the portable sensor looped over his shoulder. “One of the shield generators is in there.” He pointed at a modest house just ahead and to the east. “Next nearest is over there,” he added, pointing to another house to the northwest. “That enough, or do you want one more?”
     
    “Two should do us,” Sanjin said, looking back and forth among the incoming groups of Soldiers. “If we can wreck both generators, it should open the sky enough for the TIEs to get under the rest and access the whole city. Squad three, take the eastern house. Squads one and two, you’re with me in the other one.”
     
    There was another burst of Soldier Speak from the nearby loudspeaker.  “North and east Soldiers, converge northeast at weapons site; defend and attack from there,”/ Lhagva translated. /“South Soldiers, follow your current track.”/
     
    “What does she mean, weapons site?” Sanjin asked. “A weapons cache, or one of those laser batteries?”
     
    “I don’t know,” Lhagva said. “The term could apply to either.”
     
    “A laser battery would make more sense,” Sanjin decided. “New plan: squad three to eastern house, squad two to northwest, squad one with me. We’ll go to ground somewhere, wait for them to tag the weapons site for us, and try to get in. Smoke grenades; two per enemy force. Everyone ready? Grenades: go.”
     
    The grenades had just hit the ground when, in the distance, the rearmost juggernaut lumbering along through the city exploded.
     
    In the dim light filling the /Admonitor’s/ ground-tac center, a second display flared unnaturally bright and then went dark. “Juggernaut One has been hit,” General Tasse reported. “Cam out; telemetry data … it’s  still moving, but just barely. Another hit like that and it’ll be as dead in the mud as Juggernaut Nine.”
     
    “Acknowledged,” Thrawn said.
     
    Parck stole a sideways look at the admiral. Thrawn was standing in front of the tac board, his eyes sweeping methodically across the myriad displays and status readouts. To all outward appearances he seemed as calm as always.
     
    But Parck knew better. The Grand Admiral’s campaign against warlord Nuso Esva had been a long and bloody one, a road littered with betrayal and destruction, new allies and barely thwarted genocide. Now, at long last, Nuso Esva’s end was finally in sight.
     
    At least, all indicators pointed in