Battle to the End by Michael Kogge

Author:Michael Kogge
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Disney Book Group

CHOPPER BUZZED nervously while Sabine gave him a new paint job. Each spray of black and white paint made him look more and more like an Imperial courier droid and less and less like himself.

“It’s for Kanan,” Ezra said. “We’ll paint you back fresh and new once we rescue him.”

They’d better paint him back. Chopper detested being mistaken for a model with an inferior central processor. But he didn’t grumble as much as he normally would. His probability module determined that his temporary paint job would indeed increase their chances of finding Kanan.

At the Capital City spaceport, Sabine and Zeb took out a squad of stormtroopers and stole the accompanying courier droid. It was Chopper’s job to replace the droid.

“I know you can do this, Chopper,” Ezra said to him.

It was almost an insult: Chopper could play this role with 93 percent of his circuits off-line. Imperials didn’t program their droids with personalities. All they wanted were beeps of yes and no.

Chopper wheeled into the hangar where the stormtroopers had been leading the courier droid. Two troopers guarded the ramp of a transport shuttle.

“There’s the courier, but where’s his escort?” one trooper said to the other.

“Not our problem. We’re running late as it is,” his comrade said. He waited for Chopper to roll up the ramp before he spoke into his wrist comm. “BN-Seven Forty-Nine to pilot. Courier is aboard.”

Chopper planted his treads on the cabin floor as the shuttle took off. The cockpit blast doors were open, so once the shuttle had gained orbit, his photoreceptor made out their destination in the viewscreen. They were heading toward a light cruiser.

Chopper couldn’t see the Ghost anywhere in the star field, which he calculated was a good thing. They were out there, flying undetected by the Imperials.

The shuttle docked with the light cruiser. Chopper went out with the troops the shuttle had ferried and switched on the beacon Sabine had installed inside him. It would allow Hera to track his location on the cruiser with the Ghost’s extensive passive sensors.

He trundled down the cruiser’s main corridor and onto the bridge. It was a busy place. Officers conversed with the captain while technicians consulted screens and operated their various stations. “You’re late, Two-Six-Four,” one technician said. “Plug in.”

Chopper tooted back at him in binary. He was never late. It was the shuttle pilot who was late. Chopper had one of the best internal clocks ever invented.

Following the technician’s orders, he extended a connector arm from his dome and inserted it into a port. Instantly, he had access to the entire Imperial network. Given the network’s size, sifting through it to find out where Kanan was being held would take three hours, forty-four minutes, and eleven seconds—too much time, according to their mission plan. So he began downloading and copying everything he could with the intent to search it all later.

The technician glanced at his monitor, which was still blank. “Where’s the data? I’m not seeing it.”

Chopper wanted to zap the man. Organics could be so impatient.

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