Free Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II by Sean Williams Page A

hours, in groups of two, with a ten-minute overlap, but there’s a period once every five days when all the pilots are recalled for debriefing. That can last anything up to an hour. The next such briefing is in six hours. “
    Siric said something in his native tongue.
    “I know we have no air force, ” Ackbar said. “Ask yourself what a frontal assault would achieve. Reinforcements would arrive within hours, and any advantage we gained would be quickly reversed. And more. The Empire does not take kindly to insurrection. “
    “As we know all too well, ” said Tels.
    “You’ve got something else in mind, ” said Juno, relieved she wasn’t going to be asked to mount a single-handed assault on the fighter wing, and thinking of Siric’s missing fingers.
    Ackbar outlined the essence of the plan in a few brief sentences, and Juno learned why his mind had been so highly prized by the Grand Moff who had made him a slave. The plan was within their means, yet certain to have a far-reaching effect on the
    Imperial forces in the region. If it succeeded, they were bound to galvanize the resistance into a single force. If it failed, no one would ever know.
    “I like it, ” she said. “Count me in. “
    “And I, ” said Tels.
    All eyes turned to Siric and his assistants, who conferred in a series of hurried whispers. Siric asked Tels a question, and he translated it for the benefit of Juno and Bail Organa.
    “Siric wishes to know how he can be sure that he can trust you. “
    “He can’t, ” said Ackbar. “He can only rake as a form of assurance the fact that I will be fighting alongside him. “
    “We all go down together, in other words, ” Juno said, “or we all give up and go home. “
    The Quarren conferred again, and this time they agreed. Five nods indicated their willingness to be part of the mission.
    “Thank you, ” Ackbar said. “We will never forger your decision today. “
    “Neither will the Rebel Alliance, ” said Organa. He glanced at his chrono. “Six hours, you said, Ackbar? If we’re going to make that window, we’d better get started. “
    “You’re coming with us?” Juno asked him.
    “Of course. I didn’t come here just to make introductions and pretty speeches. “
    “But you’re nor trained for this kind of work. I wouldn’t want to answer to your daughter if you were killed. “
    “Don’t worry about that, Captain Eclipse, ” he said with an expression that was part smile, part grimace. “I think you’ll find that I can handle myself. “
    Juno didn’t press. Organa’s experiences with the Emperor stretched farther back even than the formation of the Empire itself. No one lasted that long on luck alone, she supposed.
    Ackbar stood and, with a powerful sense of gravitas, shook hands with Seggor Tels. Only then did the mission truly get under way.

CHAPTER 5
    Present day…
    Starkiller stared up in awe at the massive beast that emerged from the shadows. All muscle and bone and teeth and claws, it walked with a hunched, thundering gait that made the stone beneath him shake. Its thick, powerful legs looked disproportionately small compared with the reach of its arms, but the strength they contained-capable of propping up a creature larger than most spacecraft and actually propelling it, too-was almost beyond comprehension. Were it to raise itself upright, its hands would brush the arena’s distant ceiling.
    Thick duranium shackles that pierced its dense flesh down its back prevented it from coming any farther than the center of the arena. It strained against the chains, roaring. One mighty fist lunged forward to take out its frustration on the tiny creatures standing before it, with their bright blades raised in futile defiance.
    Starkiller went one way, Kota the other. The stone cracked beneath them. Dust and splinters of rock flew like shrapnel. Starkiller rolled on landing, then jumped again as the Gorog groped after him. It missed by barely a meter, amazingly fast for a