"One of the C-9979S is here," Roshton said, tapping a spot on the holomap due west of Foulahn City. "Its droids and AATs are occupying western Foulahn, plus all the territory west and north of the Spaarti complex. The other one's here-" he indicated a point near the Quatreen River where it meandered its way between the city and the Triv Spaceport to the northeast of it"-where they can cover the eastern city and the spaceport. I hear some units have gone a ways up the Quatreen and into Navroc City, too, but I don't have independent confirmation of that."

Tories looked over at Binalie. The other's face looked pale, but that could have just been the lighting. With only limited power supplies available here in the depths of the Binalie family safe room-and with no desire to attract notice from the droids occupying the main house upstairs-Binalie had elected to shut down everything except the permlights. "So where does that leave us?" Tories asked.

"Basically, stuck in here," Roshton said heavily. "My troops are doing what they can to harass the droids, but we don't have nearly enough manpower to push them back to the landing ships. Master Doriana tells me Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has promised help, but that could be as much as several days away.

"And meanwhile, your clones and the droids tear Foulahn City to shreds,"

Binalie growled.

"We're keeping the war out of your plant, aren't we?" Roshton retorted.

"Isn't that what you wanted?"

"What I wanted was for the whole cursed war to stay off my world,"

Binalie shot back.

"I'm afraid those choices aren't always ours to make," Doriana spoke up calmly.

"It certainly wasn't Commander Roshton's idea to bring the war here."

"So we just sit here and let them wreck our city?"