Star Wars - Speaking Silently by Jason Fry

Author:Jason Fry
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2013-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

It wasn’t until the gunship doors began to retract that Rex realized he’d forgotten to ask the militiamen something.

“It’s ten meters down — do you know how to fast-rope?” he asked, even as the doors opened all the way and Jesse and Ringo flung the ends of the heavy cables down into the darkness.

To his relief, ap-Orwien nodded and smiled, pantomiming a hand-over-hand descent.

“Let’s go then,” Rex ordered, and a moment later the two clones were descending the rope into the compound below. The two Lorrdians went next, then Rex and Kix.

Rex let go of the rope a meter above the ground, slipped in a slick of mud on the permacrete and wound up on his hands and knees. Cursing, he got to his feet, pistols drawn. They were in a small walled area, with a gate at one end and a platform at the other — a loading dock for speeder trucks. His helmet’s night-vision filter showed him Jesse and Ringo, scanning the yard with blasters raised. The Lorrdians were standing back to back in the center of the yard beside Kix, night-vision goggles over their eyes.

Dogma landed beside Rex and he heard the faint shush of the gunship’s engines as it accelerated, already climbing skyward.

“Yard’s clear, sir,” Jesse said.

“Into the depot, then,” Rex said. “Lieutenant — any way to make use of your communications skills in a combat situation?”

Ap-Orwien shook his head, but Dafyd patted his blaster.

“Good shots,” he said.

“Glad to hear it,” Rex said. “We go in fast, get our people, get out fast. Leave only footprints and scrapped clankers.”

“Roger, roger,” Jesse said, a hint of merriment in his voice. He and Ringo hoisted themselves onto the loading dock and attached charges to the broad door leading into the depot, the other clones and Lorrdians arranging themselves on either side. The door blew and the two clones ducked through the ragged hole they’d made, blasters howling in the space beyond.

Rex leapt through the hole in the door, its edges a brilliant green in his night vision.

Two battle droids were down on the floor, birdlike heads blown off. Jesse and Ringo were already on the other side of the cargo bay, examining the outer door.

On the other side of that door they’d find a narrow walkway between the loading dock and the depot office — if the instructions silently transmitted by the Lorrdian captive could be trusted.

Rex decided not to think about that if.

The door’s indicator showed it was unlocked. Ringo nodded at Jesse and the two thumbed it open and dashed through, moving low with their guns raised. The walkway was just as the Lorrdians had said. The door on the other side led to a cramped space around an unlovely, squat office. The clones cleared the yard, moving in pairs with practiced ease, then moved to cover the door leading inside.

It was locked.

“Our people should be two floors down,” Rex said as Jesse and Ringo set charges. “Dogma, give them a droid popper as a wake-up call.

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