Shatterpoint

"Minutes from now, nearly a thousand clone soldiers of the Republic will reach this position." New light kindled in her glazed eyes. "The Halleck-they can save us-" "No," Mace said. "Listen to me: We have to save them." "I–I don't understand-" "They are coming in under fire. This entire system is a trap. It's been a trap all along. The Separatist pullback was bait, do you understand that?" "No. it's not true, it's not truel" But the flash faded from her eyes, and she sagged. "But of course it's true. How could I have thought otherwise? How could I have thought I would win?" "They've caught a medium cruiser. Not to mention two members of the Jedi Council. The Halleck may already be destroyed. The clone soldiers are coming in aboard the surviving landers. They will be pursued by Trade Federation droid starfighters: faster, more maneu- verable, and better-armed than the landers. If our men are pi

"You can make a choice." She looked from the lightsaber to his eyes and back again; she stared at the handgrip as though her reflection in its portaak amber-smeared surface might whisper the future. "But you don't understand," she said faintly. "No choice of mine can matter here." "It does to me." "Have you learned nothing on this world? Even if we do save them-it doesn't matter. Not in the jungle. Look around you. This isn't something you can fight, Mace." "Of course it is." "It's not an enemy, Mace. It's just the jungle. You can't do anything about it. It's just the way things are." "I think," Mace said gently, "that you're the one who has failed to learn the lessons of Haruun Kal." She shook her head hopelessly.

"Don't tell me you can't fight the jungle, Depa," he said. "That's what Koru

The Koru

Why are they enemies of the jungle?" "A riddle for your Padawan?" she said bitterly. "A lesson." "I am done with lessons." "We are never done with lessons, Depa. Not while we live. The answer is right before your eyes. Why do Koru

Her eyes fixed on the handgrip of her lightsaber, floating between them, and something entered them then: some faint whisper of breeze from a cool clean place, a breath of air to ease her suffocating pain.

"Because." Her voice was hushed. Reverent.

Awed by the truth.

"Because they are descended from Jedi." "Yes." "But. but. you can't fight the way things are." "But we do. Every day. That's what Jedi are." Tears streamed from her reddened eyes. "You can never win-" "We," Mace corrected her gently, "don't have to win. We only have to fight." "You can't. you can't just forgive me." "As a member of the Jedi Council-you're right. I can't. As your Master, I won't. As your friend-" His eyes stung. The smoke, perhaps.

"As your friend, Depa, I can forgive everything. I already have." She shook her head speechlessly, but she lifted a hand.

Her hand shook. She made a fist, and bit her lip.

He said, "Take your weapon, Depa. Let's go save those men." She took it.

UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE L

ie militia landed in waves.

Before the plume of dirt and smoke had subsided from the last impact of a DOKAW into the mountain, gunships swooped over the jungles below the pass, disgorging dozens, then hundreds of arpitroops: airborne soldiers equipped with disposable repulsor packs, which lowered them briskly through the canopy below. They fa

The gunships' laser ca

By the time the grasser tu

Ten thousand more followed close behind.

The militia bore arms that the Grand Army of the Republic itself might envy; provided by the Separatists, which was backed by the financial might and industrial capacity of the Trade Federation and the manufacturing guilds, this armament had been financed by a generous slice of the thyssel bark trade.

Standard combat equipment for the regular militia on Haruun Kal included the Merr-So

Fifteen thousand regulars. Thirty-five GAVs (ground assault vehicles: converted steamcrawlers, retofitted with chemical ca

Seventy-three Sienar Turbostorm close-assault gunships.

All this converged on the cavern base at the Lorshan Pass.

To oppose them, the Korun partisans had roughly four hundred actives, of whom two-thirds were walking wounded, and over two thousand noncombatants, consisting mainly of the elderly and the very young. They were armed with a variety of light slug rifles, a very few light and medium energy weapons, a small stockpile of grenades, two Krupx MiniMag shoulder-fired proton torpedo launchers, and one Merr-So

The partisans on Haruun Kal excelled at guerrilla operations, but they were less successful in conventional actions. In fact, in conventional engagements between regular militia and the Koru