He turned a corner and entered a long wooden corridor lined with two-dimensional ceramic artwork. Two stormtroopers and Imperial Guard stood watch over a locked door at its end. Tin-troopers raised their blaster rifles as he came into sight. The guard's saber-staff was already activated.

"Hold on," he told Kota. "I think I'm getting warm."

The troopers started firing before he had taken two paces toward them. They were dead long before he reached the door, killed by their own reflected fire. The Imperial Guard lasted barely as long, felled with four swift lightsaber strokes then shocked with lightning as he dropped backward to the ground. The apprentice' nodded, satisfied that his skills had improved since Nar Shaddaa.

Chapter 19