Attack of the Clones Read Online Free PDF Page A

determined.
    “She is alive and we cannot leave her to them,” Owen said with a strange, almost supernatural calm.
    Cliegg wiped away the last of his tears and stared hard at his son, then nodded grimly. “Spread the word to the neighboring farms.”

T here they are!” Sholh Dorr cried, pointing straight ahead, while keeping his speeder bike at full throttle.
    The twenty-nine others saw the target, the rising dust of a line of walking banthas. With a communal roar, the outraged farmers pressed on, determined to exact revenge, determined to rescue Shmi, if she was still alive among this band of Tusken Raiders.
    Amidst the roar of engines and cries of revenge, they swept down the descending wash, closing fast on the banthas, eager for battle.
    Cliegg pumped his head, growling all the while, as if pleading with his speeder bike to accelerate even more. He swerved in from the left flank, cutting into the center of the formation, then lowered his head and opened the speeder bike up, trying to catch the lead riders. All he wanted was to be in the thick of it, to get his strong arms about a Tusken throat.
    The banthas were clearly in sight, then, along with their robed riders.
    Another cry went up, one of revenge.
    One that fast turned to horror.
    The leading edge of the farmer army plowed headlong into a wire cleverly strung across the field, at neck height to a man riding a speeder bike.
    Cliegg’s own cry also became one of horror as he watched the decapitation of several of his friends and neighbors, as he watched others thrown to the ground. Purely on instinct, knowing he couldn’t stop his speeder in time, Cliegg leapt up, planting one foot on the seat, then leapt again.
    Then he felt a flash of pain, and he was spinning head over heels. He landed hard on the rocky ground, skidding briefly.
    All the world about him became a blur, a frenzy of sudden activity. He saw the boots of his fellow farmers, heard Owen crying out to him, though it seemed as if his son’s voice was far, far away.
    He saw the wrapped leather of a Tusken boot, the sand-colored robes, and with a rage that could not be denied by his disorientation, Cliegg grabbed the leg as the Tusken ran past.
    He looked up and raised his arms to block as the Tusken brought its staff slamming down at him. Accepting the pain, not even feeling it through his rage, Cliegg shoved forward and wrapped both his arms around the Tusken’s legs, tugging the creature down to the ground before him. He crawled over it, his strong hands battering it, then finding the hold he wanted.
    Cries of pain, from farmers and Tuskens alike, were all about him, but Cliegg hardly heard them. His hands remained firmly about the Tusken’s throat. He choked with all his considerable strength; he lifted the Tusken’s head up and bashed it back down, over and over again, and continued to choke and to batter long after the Tusken stopped resisting.
    “Dad!”
    That cry alone brought Cliegg from his rage. He dropped the Tusken Raider back to the ground and turned about, to see Owen in close battle with another of the Raiders.
    Cliegg spun about and started to rise, putting one leg under him, coming up fast …
     … And then he fell hard, his balance inexplicably gone. Confused, he looked down expecting that another Tusken had tripped him up. But then he saw that it was his own body that had failed him.
    Only then did Cliegg Lars realize that he had lost his leg.
    Blood pooled all about the ground, pouring from the severed limb. Eyes wide with horror, Cliegg grabbed at his leg.
    He called for Owen. He called desperately for Shmi.
    A speeder bike whipped past him, a farmer fleeing the massacre, but the man did not slow.
    Cliegg tried to call out, but there was no voice to be found past the lump in his throat, the realization that he had failed and that all was lost.
    Then a second speeder came by him, this one stopping fast. Reflexively, Cliegg grabbed at it, and before he could even begin to