“Let’s hope their diversion works for awhile,” Luke says. “I don’t like the idea of running into a squad of zero-g assault troopers out here.”
Gideon nods, then leads the way through the sandy tailings toward the left end of the mill. The mill is over a kilometer long and rises 50 meters off the surface. From a height of four meters above its base extend twelve wide chutes clogged with inert rivers of silver sand. The chutes dump into a huge holding trough that runs the entire length of the building. Then, every 50 meters, pumps feed the sand into lengthy hoses that carry waste out onto the tailings pile. At present, the chutes, pumps, and hoses stand idle, awaiting a resumption of operations Luke doubts will ever occur.
“Why did they do this?” Luke asks. The Tredway mine is a valuable strategic and economic asset. He does not understand why Parnell is destroying the complex instead of confiscating it.
Sidney turns his ears away from the center of his head in an expression of despair. “Because they are the Imperials. Do they need another reason?”
“Imperials or not, this doesn’t make sense,” Gideon says. “This mine pays enough tribute every year to outfit a corvette squadron, and the ol’ lady’s kind of chummy with the Governor. Parnell didn’t destroy it just to make an example of the Tredways, I’ll tell you that for sure. Something else is going on here.”
Gideon pauses at the edge of the mill, then motions the others to follow him around the corner. The building extends a quarter kilometer ahead. Two white-armored figures are just stepping out of sight around the other side of the mill. The Rebels cannot see any of the buildings in the center of the compound . But to the left, two residential buildings mark the outer perimeter of the complex. Two kilometers away, the main house sits atop its carefully sculpted terraces. Even from this distance, Luke sees half a dozen breaches in its walls. The assault troopers have wasted no time penetrating the pitiful Tredway defenses.
Luke leads the way to the next corner and pokes his head around it. The two stormtroopers are walking toward the far end of the mill. From here, the Rebel pilot can see the rest of the compound.
The complex lies in ruins. The equipment shop roof lies collapsed, burying the building’s contents under two meters of rubble. A walker-sized gap adorns the “Dry,” the locker building where the miners dress for work. The flexi-corridors have holes and tears in them every 20 meters.
Luke expected survivors. Instead, corpses of all sizes and shapes litter the complex, dragged unsuited and unprepared from the shelter of the buildings. About 100 disfigured, charred objects that might or might not have once been alive lie scattered between the buildings.
The only things that move, besides the stormtroopers, are badly damaged and confused Droids. Two maintenance Droids, one missing an arm and the other a leg, labor to repair the gap in the locker building. A medical Droid with a smashed head scurries from one charred figure to the other, performing diagnostic tests which no patient will pass.
Luke pulls back, trying to shut out visions of a similar scene back on Tatooine. But no matter how tightly he closes his eyelids, and clenches his teeth, memories flood his mind: black, oily smoke boiling out of the entrance to a subterranean housel the scorching heat that denied him entrance to the small volcano that had once been his home; two shapes smoking and unrecognizable as his aunt and uncle, crumpled on the sand they had farmed so long and at such cost. Realizing he cannot win a fight with his own mind, Luke allows the rage and sorrow he felt at the time to wash over him again. The two emotions have grown no weaker with time.
Mercifully, Gideon interrupts his meditation.
“What is it?”
“Two stormtroopers going around the other end of the building,” the prospector reports, forcing Luke’s attention back to the present situation.
“They’ll see the ships!”
The devastation is more thorough and complete than Luke had imagined possible. He landed on the far side of the mill expecting to find 50 or 100 miners holed up in the complex, badly outclassed and outweaponed, but holding some sort of line nevertheless. It had never occurred to him that the Imperials could have caught the Tredway complex so totally by surprise.
Gideon frowns, then shrugs. “Nothing we can do about it now. If they try to get inside the Rockcan, they’ll be in for a surprise.”
Artoo will keep the X-wing locked down,” Luke says. “But that doesn’t comfort me much.” He fights the rising gile in his throat, trying to keep a soldier’s perspective, to focus on the objective at hand.
“Nor me,” Sidney says. “We should return to the ships.”
If Luke goes back, Click Here
If Luke continues to the headframe, Click Here