The Force Unleashed Read Online Free PDF Page B

the gale drag him closer to the hole where the viewport had once
    been. Catching a bent stanchion with one Rind, he carefully leaned out and looked
    down, lightsaber at the ready for any final deception.
    Kota's body was already far below, spread-eagled and dwindling among the skylanes of
    the Vertical City. A large transport intersected his path; thenceforth his body was
    invisible. The apprentice imagined it being swatted like a bug on a transparisteel
    windscreen and told himself to feel the satisfaction of a task completed.
    It didn't come.
    General Rahm Kota was blinded and gravely wounded. He couldn't possibly be a problem
    any longer. But the apprentice couldn't assume he was dead until he had the old
    man's body in front of him-and there was no chance of finding that body now.
    He was profoundly disinclined to report failure to Darth Vader.
    What to do?
    "This place is going to tear itself apart at any moment!" came Juno's voice over the
    comlink. "Are you almost done here?"
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    "On my way." With a vehement look on his face and no triumph in his heart, he
    retreated from the viewport and headed for the door, pausing only to scoop up the
    fallen Jedi Master's lightsaber on the way.

CHAPTER 4
    Juno knew better than to expect a rapturous reception upon their return, but even so
    she was disappointed. The secret hangar was empty when the Rogue Shadow docked. A
    successful mission deserved some sort of acknowledgment, surely. Even after
    Callos...
    She pushed that thought away. The job was done. What more needed to be said? She had
    done it well-in her eyes, at least, although Starkiller had barely acknowledged the
    fact on returning to the ship-and they had lived to fight another day. Or to kill
    more Jedi Knights, if that was what Lord Vader's scruffy, incommunicative agent was
    really up to. She had seen the second lightsaber hilt hanging from his belt, and she
    knew what that probably meant.
    It had taken thousands of clone warriors to completely wipe out the Jedi. That was
    the official version-ignoring the rumors she'd heard about Darth Vader's ongoing
    hunt for the last survivors of that strange and deadly sect. From the stories her
    father had told her as a child, she'd imagined them to be monsters four meters high
    sucking the lifeblood out of the Republic. Now it turned out they still existed, and
    young men went forth to do battle with them alone.
    Could they really be so reduced, these villains that had once held the galaxy in
    their thrall?
    Or... could the young man who was now her traveling companion possibly be so
    powerful?
    The landing struts had barely touched metal when he was on his feet and heading for
    the door.
    She leaned back into her seat and ran her hands across her temples. Her skin felt
    oily and covered in grit, as though she had been the one running around in the smoke
    and the mess above Nar Shaddaa instead of watching it from the feeds she'd managed
    to slice into from one of the facility's security cams. She wanted to check over the
    ship and get into the refresher and scrub the dirt away.
    She hadn't felt clean for weeks...
    The voice of Starkiller almost made her jump out of her skin. She had thought him
    long gone.
    "Good work, Juno," he said. "I'll leave PROXY here to help you run through the
    checklist."
    "Thank you, but I..." By the time she turned her seat around, the cockpit was empty
    of anyone but her and the droid. PROXY stared back at her with unwinking
    photoreceptors. She didn't want to admit that he made her slightly nervous, so she
    flashed her warmest smile and hauled herself out of the seat.
    "Well, let's get to it. I've got a report to write before I get any rest-if anyone
    other than me will ever read it..."
    * * *
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    PROXY proved an efficient and unobtrusive co-worker. He followed instructions,
    showed initiative, and did his level best to stay out of her way.