Star Wars - 225 - Legacy of the Force 01 - Betrayal - Arron Allston by Star Wars

Author:Star Wars
Format: mobi
Publisher: Srengseng Books
Published: 2009-08-05T04:00:00+00:00

There were twenty of them, all human, men and a few women uniformed in gleaming black body armor. The chest plates were rigid carapaces, the helmets narrower than pilots' protective gear. Upper arms, legs, and hands were protected by a mesh-like material, heavy but flexible; lower arms and legs were encased in the same heavy material as torsos. They carried gleaming black rifles of types unfamiliar to Tawaler, three different designs, all of them curiously oversized, one of them intended, as the placement of the padding and sights indicated, for shoulder-mount use.

And their faces—Tawaler didn't know what to make of their faces. Slightly obscured as they were behind the amber faceplates of the helmets, they seemed just a little wrong. The analytical portion of his brain went to work on the problem even as the men and women began streaming in through the air lock.

Age range: thirty to sixty, he estimated, older than ordinary recruits, averaging older even than a standard unit of elites. Planets of origin: it was never easy to calculate such a thing, but a certain characteristic leanness of features and the way they made eye contact suggested Corellia. Yet in other ways their mannerisms were strikingly non-Corellian; Tawaler saw none of the good cheer and cockiness that usually characterized the soldiers and citizens of that system.

And there was something wrong with them, a hollowness to their cheeks, an odd intensity to their expressions.

“They're dying.” The woman whispered the words in Tawaler's ear as if answering his unspoken question. “Each of them, from various wasting diseases that medicine can't arrest. They're all still at something like full strength, with painkillers to keep them that way for a while, and they have no worries about mortality to hold them back. It's delicious, isn't it?”

Tawaler tried to suppress a shudder and did not entirely succeed. “Delicious,” he repeated, as if agreeing.

The woman shut the air lock, then held up a datapad and moved to stand at the head of the column of armored soldiers. “I'm transmitting the station plans and the locations of your targets. This information should be appearing in the heads-up displays of your helmet visors.”

Tawaler saw dimly glowing green shapes flickering over the visors, and several of the soldiers nodded. None spoke.

The woman's lean features twisted up into a smile. “Good. Get to it.”

In two columns, silent except for the faint creaking of their armor, the soldiers passed to either side of the woman and headed down the passageway. The passageway's curve soon took them out of Tawaler's sight. He was glad to see them gone.

“The shuttle that brought them will take you to Kuat,” the woman said. “You'd better board.”

Tawaler turned and slapped the control board for the air lock. He entered and peered in some confusion through the transparisteel view-port in the door on the opposite side. It showed nothing but stars. “It's gone,” he said. “The shuttle.”

He heard the air lock door hiss closed behind him. The woman's voice came across the air lock speaker.

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