[Chapter Fourteen]
Two escorts flanked them and cleared obstacles from the path. Sometimes they took detours around battles too violent to thread. They received clearance to land on the planet surface, and soon did so. The shuttle came to rest on a landing pad fixed to the needle top of a skyscraper. Twenty-four soldiers rushed out and split into three groups of eight.
Leia ran to the edge, her seven trailing. The cruiser traffic were dust streams between endless towers twinkling countless lights. Stars glittered the clear sky, complemented by fireworks of war.
Someone handed her macrobinoculars, and she searched out the Imperial Palace. The closest generator was a few klicks southward, positioned where the Emperor could have made use of the extra defense, had Vader remained faithful. She found the second, and knew the third was behind the palace and out of sight.
"We're as close as the Empire would permit," Leia said to Group A. "Speeders are out of the question, for now, with air traffic patrol breathing down citizens' necks. Our one option is to hop a lift down this structure to midway. And then we take a bridge across to the next. This is the most heavily guarded sector of Coruscant, so keep your wits and blasters at the ready."