There they go," Roshton commented as the last of the droids piled into the transports. The first vehicle, the one with the Neimoidians aboard, had already left the ground and was clawing for distance, the STAP escort forming up around it. "They won't be trying that again for awhile."

"Probably not," Doriana agreed, his eyes still on the remains of the D-

60s that had taken Tories maybe half a second to turn to scrap. He'd been around Jedi much of his life, but never before had he actually witnessed one in full combat mode.

And for the first time he began to truly see why Sidious wanted them eliminated.

"Estate units, secure," Roshton was saying into his comlink. "City, forest units: stand ready."

With an effort, Doriana pulled his attention back to the military situation. "What do you mean, stand ready?" he asked. "And how did you manage those shots?"

"Don't be dense," Roshton chided. 'That was nothing but a set of strategically placed, remote-controlled land mines. You must not have noticed all the landscaping being done around the grounds the past two days."

"I had other things on my mind," Doriana said tartly, watching the fleeing transports. Instead of taking the straightest route back to Spaarti Creations, they were swinging far to the east. What in?...

And then, he got it. 'They're avoiding the south lawn," he said. 'They don't want to risk anything else crashing on it and irritating the Cranscoc."

"Exactly what I thought they'd do," Roshton said with grim satisfaction.

"Forest unit: secure. City unit: fire at will."

Abruptly, a dozen blaster bolts sizzled up from the northern edge of Foulahn City, blowing apart STAPs and peeling chunks of armor from the transports.

"What are you doing?" Doriana demanded. "You've chased them away. Isn't that enough?"

"No," Roshton said. "City unit: take them down."