ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I've been blessed with the best help any writer could wish for. My grateful thanks go to the editors who know no fear—Keith Clayton (Del Rey), Shelly Shapiro (Del Rey), and Sue Rostoni (Lucasfilm); my agent Russ Galen; the Lucas-Arts Republic Commando game team; Bryan Boult, Simon Boult, Debbie Button, Karen Miller, and Chris “TK” Evans—insightful first readers; and Ray Ramirez (Co A 2BN 108th Infantry snipers, ARNG) for technical advice and generous friendship.

And without the following, there would be no book: Jesse Harlin—inspirational composer and lyricist of the Vode An theme, which focused me as surely as it did the clone army; Ryan “ER” Kaufman—my professor in GFFA Studies, mentor and friend; the many Star Wars fans who've made this the most enjoyable job I've ever had; and the 501st Legion, Vader's Fist—my boys!

It's been a privilege. Thank you.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Sergeant KAL SKIRATA, mercenary (male Mandalorian)

Sergeant WALON VAU, mercenary (male Mandalorian)

Null ARC Trooper Captain N-11 ORDO

Null ARC Trooper Lieutenant N-7 MEREEL

Republic Commandos:

Omega Squad:

RC-1309 NINER

RC-1136 DARMAN

RC-8015 FI

RC-3222 ATIN

Delta Squad:

RC-1138 BOSS

RC-1162 SCORCH

RC-1140 FIXER

RC-1107 SEV

Clone Trooper CT-5108/8843 CORR

General BARDAN JUSIK, Jedi Knight (male human)

Captain JALLER OBRIM, Senate Guard, seconded to Coruscant Security Force Anti-Terrorism Unit (male human)

General ETAIN TUR-MUKAN, Jedi Knight (female human)

General ARLIGAN ZEY, Jedi Master (male human)

ENACCA, associate of Skirata (female Wookiee)

QIBBU, entrepreneur (male Hutt)

LASEEMA, employee of Qibbu (female Twi'lek)

BESANY WENNEN, a GAR logistics employee (female human)

PROLOGUE

Republic Commando covert insertion on Fest, Atrivis sector, Outer Rim, ten months after Geonosis

Private journal of RC-8015, “Fi”

You have to see the funny side of things in the army. I think they have a real sense of humor in Defense Procurement, too.

“So,” I ask. “How long ago did you put in a request for black stealth armor?”

“Seven standard months,” says Darman, staring out the gunship's crew bay onto an unbroken plain of snow. White snow. The freezing wind is whipping flurries of it into the open bay. “When we got back from Qiilura.”

“And now they issue it to us? To do a raid on Fest? The whole planet's covered in snow from pole to pole.”

I can hear the gunship pilot laughing over the comlink circuit. He can't resist it. “Want to borrow my armor? It's nice and white.”

Yes, they've deployed us in black Katarn armor. It'll take a direct hit from laser cannon to put a dent in us, but it would be nice to have the comfort of camouflage when we hit the ground.

Even Atin's laughing. But Niner, who tries to take the place of Sergeant Kal and reassure us it's all going to be okay, is not. He's worried that we've run out of luck for this mission.

And so am I. Republic Commando losses in the first year of the war are running at 50 percent. Today we have to infiltrate a Separatist factory developing some new supermetal called phrik—whatever that is—and carry out a little asset denial, known in the trade as blowing stuff up. It's not a complicated mission: avoid droids, get in, lay charges in the processing plant and the foundry, avoid droids, get out. And then press the detonator.

One of Captain Ordo's Null ARC trooper brothers found this place: Clone Intelligence Units, they call them. I must write to thank the di'kut sometime.

So I try to keep the squad laughing, because it takes our minds off calculating the odds.

“Okay,” I say. “What do we all want most right now?”

“Roba steak,” says the pilot.

“White-clad camo,” says Niner.

“A really thick slice of uj cake,” says Atin.

Darman pauses for a moment. “To see an old friend again.”

Me? I'd like to go back to Arca Company Barracks on Coruscant. I want to see Coruscant before I die, and so far I've seen next to nothing of the place. Someone promised to buy me a beer there once.

The pilot is skimming a couple of meters above the snow, taking us through a narrow pass to avoid detection. It's all mountains and ravines now. And snow.

“I've got visual on the factory,” the pilot says. “And you're not going to like it.”

“Why?” Niner asks.

“Because there're an awful lot of battle droids out there.”

“Are they made of phrik?”

“I don't think so.”

“No problem, then,” says Niner. “Let's spoil their entire day.”

The gunship slows enough for us to jump clear, and we scramble through knee-deep snow to take up a position in the lee of an outcrop. There's nothing like a quick hello from a Plex rocket launcher to show droids who's boss. No, they're definitely not made from phrik.

I reload the Plex and keep turning the droids into shrapnel while Darman and Atin make their way to higher ground to reach the factory.

Yeah, a nice beer on Coruscant, on Triple Zero. Dreams like that keep you going.

1

Find Skirata. He's the only one who can talk these men down. And no, I'm not going to obliterate a whole barracks block just to neutralize six ARCs. So get me Skirata: he can't have traveled very far.

–General Iri Camas, Director of Special Forces, to Coruscant Security Force, from Siege Incident Control, Special Operations Brigade HQ Barracks, Coruscant, five days after the Battle of Geonosis

Tipoca City, Kamino, eight years before Geonosis

Kal Skirata had committed the biggest mistake of his life, and he'd made some pretty big ones in his time.

Kamino was damp. And damp didn't help his shattered ankle one little bit. No, it was more than damp: it was nothing but storm-whipped sea from pole to pole, and he wished that he'd worked that out before he responded to Jango Fetes offer of a lucrative long-term deployment in a location that his old comrade hadn't exactly specified.

But that was the least of his worries now.

The air smelled more like a hospital than a military base. The place didn't look like barracks, either. Skirata leaned on the polished rail that was all that separated him from a forty-meter fall into a chamber large enough to swallow a battle cruiser and lose it.

Above him, the vaulted illuminated ceiling stretched as far as the abyss did below. The prospect of the fall didn’t worry him half as much as not understanding what he was now seeing.

The cavern—surgically clean, polished durasteel and permaglass—was filled with structures that seemed almost like fractals. At first glance they looked like giant toroids stacked on pillars; then, as he stared, the toroids resolved into smaller rings of permaglass containers, with containers within them, and inside those

No, this wasn't happening.

Inside the transparent tubes there was fluid, and within it there was movement.