Star Wars: X-Wing I: Rogue Squadron (19 page)

Her voice had an edge to it that backed up the challenge in her dark eyes. Kirtan assumed her lack
of fear came after years of being on the Navy’s NhM track—Non-huMan. The Empire’s bias against aliens and women reached an unprecedented level of refinement in the Imperial Navy. Iillor had been sent to serve under Colonel Thrawn and a host of other alien superior officers before she had been given a ship of her own. She would have been stuck on that
Carrack-
class cruiser had not the defeat at Endor made the need for competent officers so great that the command staff’s survivors reevaluated personnel and awarded commands according to some semblance of merit.

“I’m sure you will, Captain. I would like any reports you have filed about this action, as well as any holographic records of it, along with any communication intercepts.” He walked around to the left side of the table, then turned back toward Devlia. “With the Admiral’s permission, of course.”

The old man nodded.

“Very well. If you don’t mind, please tell me what happened.”

“May I sit?”

“By all means.” Kirtan smiled but remained standing. “Make yourself comfortable.”

Captain Iillor sat and turned her chair so she gave Devlia her profile. “We had information that a smuggler running supplies to the Rebels was expected in the Chorax system at a particular time, and would be departing after picking up some supplies there. I sent a shuttle in to monitor the smuggler’s situation while I put the
Black Asp
on the fringe of the system. When the
Pulsar Skate
started to head out of the system, I jumped the
Black Asp
in and brought my G7-x gravjectors up.”

Kirtan frowned. “Intra-system jumping is a rather unusual tactic, isn’t it?”

Iillor shook her head. “I’ve seen it used with
great success out in the Unknown Sector. It worked at Chorax, too, because the
Skate
had no idea where we came from. It took them nearly six seconds to begin evasive maneuvers. I took the liberty of closing to use our ion cannons on the
Skate
during that time. Then a dozen X-wings came into the system.

“I deployed my Interceptor squadron, but none of the pilots are Academy material. They would have been eaten up, so I brought the
Black Asp
in and managed to disable one X-wing. By then, however, the remainder of them screened the
Skate
and hit my forward shield with a volley of proton torpedoes. The shield came down and I lost two laser batteries. I had to choose between reinforcing my shields or keeping the gravjectors operational. I made the former choice, recovered five Interceptors, and went to light speed.”

Devlia leaned forward. “They were waiting for the
Black Asp
. They came out of hyperspace right on top of her.”

Kirtan stroked his chin. “I don’t see that one thing establishes the other. I see no evidence of an ambush.”

Iillor’s head came up. “That’s what I’ve been telling the Admiral.”

“You’re both blind.”

“I think, sir, with all due respect, you are making unwarranted assumptions.” Kirtan began to pace around the edge of the table, passing behind the Admiral and back again. “Interdictor cruisers are
designed
to pull ships out of hyperspace. Of course, only where the route is known in advance can they be positioned in such a way that doing that is possible. In this case, since the
Black Asp
was in the Chorax system specifically to prevent a ship from
entering
hyperspace, you have chosen to discard one of its primary functions.”

“Preposterous!”

Which is precisely the kind of mistake I would have made previously
. Kirtan allowed himself a slight smile. “Check your thinking. If you chose to ambush an Interdictor cruiser, would you do so with a single squadron of X-wings?”

Devlia’s face reddened. “Perhaps
I
would not, but
I
have training most Rebel officers do not.”

“Granted, sir, yet the Rebels are not without wise leadership.” Kirtan left allusions to Yavin and Endor unvoiced, but he saw by Devlia’s expression the man had caught them anyway. “I might ask why the Rebels would waste their time attacking an Interdictor cruiser at all? No disrespect intended to you, Captain Iillor, or your ship, but the action of Interdictors is hardly crippling to the Rebellion. Our main battle fleets are garrisoning key worlds, like Corellia and Kuat, so even predation on Interdictors is unlikely to draw them out.”

Iillor did not smile, but her nod was not as stiff as before. “My assumption was that we had suffered the misfortune of pulling a convoy out of hyperspace, but the Admiral found such coincidence unlikely.”

Kirtan smiled. “The Admiral, despite this misjudgment, is formidable enough that I should think the Rebels utter fools to operate in his command sector.”

Devlia had opened his mouth to protest the first half of Kirtan’s statement. The second half, which Kirtan had added as a sop to the man’s vanity, killed the Admiral’s comment and clicked his jaw shut.

The Intelligence agent again focused on Captain Iillor. “How did you identify them as Rogue Squadron?”

“Communication intercepts used ‘Rogue’ call
signs. Visual data is not very good, but there is a unique unit crest painted on the S-foils. Preliminary searches correlate it with a crest said to be that of Rogue Squadron. Also the
Pulsar Skate
is a ship with Corellian connections, just like Wedge Antilles. And the pilots were hot—they took off seven of my Interceptors, with the last two falling to an X-wing that was dead.”

Devlia leaned back. “Interesting, but circumstantial, as I am sure Agent Loor will agree.”

“Circumstantial, yes, but persuasive.” Everything she had said about the squadron that attacked the
Black Asp
did seem to point to Rogue Squadron. Kirtan doubted any other unit in the Rebellion would sport Rogue call signs, and the crest data would have to be checked. Still and all it was not conclusive.
It is, however, a start
.

“Captain, did your shuttle stay in-system and monitor the squadron for outbound vector and speed?”

Iillor scowled. “No, and Lieutenant Potin has been reprimanded for fleeing when not threatened. I do have entry vector and velocity data, and it is triangulated with the data from the shuttle.”

“That’s something, then.”

“I will make certain you have it in time for your return to Imperial Center, Agent Loor.” Devlia stood. “Assuming you want nothing else here.”

“I
do
want to speak to the pilots who flew against the X-wings as well as review any data recorded from the Interceptors that were destroyed.”

“I’ll see the interviews are arranged right away.”

“Take your time, Admiral. The next two or three days will be soon enough.”

The old man’s expression soured. “Staying that long are you?”

“Longer, I suspect.” Kirtan smiled broadly for the Admiral. “If Rogue Squadron is operating in this area, and I believe it is, I’ll leave only after we’ve found them and destroyed them, and not a moment sooner.”

In only two weeks, while the official request for a new phi-inverted lateral stabilizer languished in red-tape limbo, Emtrey found a pair of phi-inverted lateral stabilizers that the
Pulsar Skate
dropped off on its second run to Talasea. The Rogues’ Verpine tech used the new parts to replace the older, damaged parts. In synchronizing them, Zraii managed to smooth things out so Corran noticed a five percent increase in power at full throttle, with a three percent reduction in fuel consumption.

Corran throttled back slightly, matching his speed to that of Ooryl. “Three Flight to lead—we’re all in formation, sir.”

“I copy, Nine. Stand by.”

“As ordered, Lead.” Corran smiled broadly in spite of himself. Back when he was with CorSec he had hated escort duty, but after two weeks on the ground he would have volunteered to go after Death Stars even if they were strung around a system like pearls on a necklace. Even during his time on the run from Corellia he’d managed to fly at least once
a week, even though that was well outside the profile of the identity Gil Bastra had created for him.

He turned and looked back at Whistler. “Has Emtrey come up with any information based on his analysis of the ID Gil made up for me?”

A mournful hoot came in reply as the word “No” appeared on his display.

“Yeah, I don’t like the idea of never seeing Gil again, either.” He glanced at his sensor monitor. “Twelve, trim it up a bit there, you’re slipping behind. Trouble?”

“No difficulty. Compliance.”

“Good. Keep close. This mission should be easy enough that a nerf-herder could do it, but the other side will be shooting back, so we have to be careful.”

Despite the light tone in his voice he knew things could get nasty. Alliance operatives had been conducting surveys of Core worlds to assess the political climate and determine the strength of Imperial forces protecting them. On one run back toward their operations base—known to the pilots only as “Black Curs Base,” with no location specified for security reasons—they ran into the Strike cruiser
Havoc
. The Rebels went to ground on a small jungle planet in the Hensara system. They sank their ship, a modified Imperial Customs frigate, in a deep lake and lacked the equipment needed to repair damage that would allow them to move it again.

The
Havoc
grounded an Imperial walker and two scouts along with two platoons of stormtroopers. While their reported progress in searching out the Rebels had been slow, they started relatively close to the lake, so the ship’s discovery was a matter of time. The Alliance had reconciled itself to the loss of the ship and had intended a covert extraction of the operatives, then the
Havoc
left the system,
providing a window for repair and escape of the frigate
Battle of Yavin
.

Wedge sent the squadron the coordinates for the trip to the Hensara system. To cover the location of their base, the journey would be undertaken in three parts. The first jump, a short one, would take them to their first transit point, an uninhabited star system not far from the Morobe system. From there they would jump back out Rimward to the second transit system and back in to the Hensara system.

While the multiple jumps and changes of direction would add hours to the flight time, obscuring their point of origin was vital. The Alliance had learned that spreading out its forces meant it was all but impossible for the Empire to land a deathblow to the Rebellion. But for the efforts of a courageous few on Hoth, the Rebellion’s headquarters would have been destroyed and the Rebellion along with it. Without taking precautions, they would pinpoint the location of their base and invite retaliation.

They made the first jump on Wedge’s mark and came out in the fringes of the transit system all in one piece. The X-wings maneuvered around to the exit vector quickly, then had to mark time as the
Skate
and the Corellian corvette
Eridain
came about. Corran nudged his throttle back a notch, shortening the gap between him and the Gand.

The larger ships reported they were ready, so the whole convoy shot into hyperspace and came out in the second transit system intact. The course adjustment there was not as radical as the one from the first system, so they headed out quickly and arrived in the Hensara system just outside the gravitational tug of the third planet.

Corran heard Tycho’s voice come through the comm. “Rogue Leader, Captain Afyon reports a clean scan of the system. You’re clear for your run.”

“Copy, Control. Three Flight, you fly CAP. Two and One, on me.”

Corran let a low snarl resound in his throat. Flying Combat Aerospace Patrol meant his flight would remain at the edge of Hensara Ill’s atmosphere against the possible incursion of any Imperial forces. The other eight fighters in the squadron were going to escort the
Skate
down and strafe the Imperial mudbugs and the durasteel dogs they had hunting Dirk Harkness and his compatriots on the planet. Strafing runs against ground troops—even stormtroopers—wasn’t much in the action department, but it was better than skipping across atmosphere, shooting at nothing.

He shrugged. “Maybe slagging an AT-AT will sweeten Jace’s disposition.”

Whistler gave a stuttered chirp that sounded as close as the droid could manage to a laugh.

Corran matched it with some laughter of his own. “Jace clearly figures that because his name rhymes with ‘ace’ he should be one. He can’t understand why TIE pilots don’t just line up for him to vape them all in one pass.”

Tycho’s urgent comm call cut off Whistler’s trilled comment. “Control to all Rogues. We have a Strike cruiser that just jumped in-system. Profile matches
Havoc
, but two fighter bays have been added. TIEs are launching.”

“Three Flight, lock S-foils in attack position.” Corran glanced at his sensor display. “Come to a heading of 272 degrees.”

“Control here. I have thirty-six, repeat, three-six TIEs launched. Six Interceptors, six bombers, and twenty-four, repeat, two-four starfighters.
Eridain
beginning evasive maneuvers. Wait. Confirm, bombers are heading to ground.”

“We copy, Control.” Wedge’s voice came
through strong despite being nibbled upon by static. “Rogues Three and Four, the bombers are yours. The rest are ours. Keep them off the
Eridain
.”

“As ordered, Rogue Leader.” Corran shoved his throttle full forward. “Go all out, Three Flight. Into the middle, shoot at anything that isn’t an X-wing. Call if you need help.”

Under normal circumstances Corran knew that flying into the teeth of an enemy formation would have been suicidal, but odds of thirty-to-four weren’t all that conducive to long-term survival anyway. Since running wasn’t an option, doing what the enemy didn’t expect would buy him a second or two of surprise, and that would keep him alive just that much longer.

Hauling back on his stick and canting it ever so slightly to the side, he brought the X-wing up into a lopsided corkscrew maneuver. While the jerky motion of the ship’s nose meant he didn’t have a flame’s chance on Hoth of hitting anything, he was that much harder to hit himself. He pumped more power into his shields, then shot through a flurry of laser bolts before he penetrated the Imperial formation.