The Bacta War (44 page)

The droid whistled mournfully. “No, it’s okay that they’re all out of range. I didn’t want them wasting any torps.”

Just to be on the safe side, he hit the switch that turned the telemetry transponder off, then shifted his weapon’s-control over to proton torpedoes. Coming about, he picked Erisi up and started after her again. He nudged his nose up and to port, getting a stuttered beeping from Whistler as the droid tried to get a firing solution for the Interceptor. The tone went constant as the reticle went red.

Corran hit the trigger and launched both torpedoes at Erisi. His last two proton torpedoes streaked out at her and she immediately began maneuvering to avoid them.

I have thirty seconds to kill her
. Corran switched back to lasers, then drained energy from his aft shield and fed it into his engines. That kicked his speed up to better than that of an unhurt Interceptor, allowing him to close the gap between their ships fast.

As the missiles approached her Interceptor, Erisi rolled to port and broke hard toward Thyferra’s largest moon. The missiles overshot where she had been, then turned and started in pursuit again. She kept her ship pointed straight at the bone white moon and as the torpedoes closed with her again, she rolled to port and pulled her fighter into a glide path that followed the rough terrain of the lunar surface.

One torpedo, unable to fight inertia and lunar gravity both, slammed into the moon and exploded. The second sailed through the gout of lunar dust and started closing with the Interceptor. Erisi bounced her squint up and over a ridge-line and back down again, interposing it between her and the torpedo.

The ridge shielded her from the torpedo’s blast.

It also blinded her aft sensors to Corran’s presence.

As Erisi pulled her squint up to climb away from the moon’s surface, Corran came up over the ridge and pounced. Pairs of scarlet bolts burned into the squint, shredding both solar panels. As the stabilizers disintegrated, the Interceptor’s climb became a loop into a dive that brought it in on a collision course with the moon. Both engines thrusting fully, the Interceptor plowed into the lunar surface, gouging out a huge furrow. The Interceptor hit the edge of a small impact crater, skipped up, then battered itself again and again against the
moon. Finally, crushed into a shape that was unrecognizable as any part of a fighter, it rolled to a stop as the engines sputtered out.

Corran circled the spot once. “No explosion, nothing spectacular. Erisi would have hated it.”

Whistler blatted harshly.

“Right, who cares what she would have wanted.” Corran pulled his X-wing away from the moon. “Find me that shuttle, Whistler. I don’t care who’s on it, we’re going to stop it.”

Another salvo from the
Virulence
ripped into the
Lusankya
as Wedge swooped low over the Super Star Destroyer and peppered its hull with laser bolts. The
Lusankya
tried to defend itself, but the surface-mounted turbolaser cannons simply made themselves targets for strafing runs by X-wings, A-wings, Twi’leki
Chir’daki
, and the Gands’ curious ships. What shots the Super Star Destroyer did get off at the
Virulence
failed to penetrate the smaller ship’s shields.

The
Lusankya
is fast becoming defenseless. Much more of this hammering and the ship could begin to break up, and that would jeopardize the prisoners we want to rescue from her
. Wedge pulled up and flashed past the bridge. “Gate, get me an open comm channel to the
Lusankya.
”

The droid complied with the order instantly. “This is Commander Wedge Antilles to the Captain of the
Lusankya
. We’ll accept your surrender at any time.”

An angry, shrill voice arced through the comm unit. “This is Captain Joak Drysso—no,
Admiral
Drysso—of the
Lusankya
. We will never give up.”

“Captain …”

“How dare you insult me!”

“Admiral, then, even Grand Admiral, if it will make you see sense. Your shields are down. Your engines are hit. You have no fighter cover, you can’t hurt your opposition.” Wedge let his damage assessment sink in for a moment. “It’s hopeless. No one else needs to die. Give up.”

“Give up? An Imperial Grand Admiral
never
gives up. If you think one would, you’ll rue the day you engaged one!”

“That could be, sir, but
that
day isn’t
today
! We’ll treat all your people with all due respect.” Wedge fought to keep his voice even. “Surrender.”

“Never! We are all loyal sons of the Empire. We are not afraid to put death before dishonor. Helm, give me all speed. We’re going to ram the planet! There, Antilles, see, a Grand Admiral never …” The comm unit popped and abruptly went silent.

“Drysso!”

“Captain Drysso isn’t here anymore, sir. Ah, this is acting-Captain Waroen.”

“Are you going to crash your ship into the planet, Waroen?”

“Not if I can help it, sir. If you could get the War Cruiser to stop shooting my engines, and if
Virulence
will pull us a bit further out into orbit so we don’t crash of our own accord, we’ll accept any conditions for surrender you want to offer us.”

“I’m happy to be working with you, Captain Waroen. What you’re doing is no dishonor.”

“I know that, sir, and I think it beats death all hollow.”

Corran found the shuttle easily enough and brought his X-wing in on its aft without a problem. He flipped his lasers over to quad fire. “Whistler, see if you can open a comm channel to the shuttle.” Corran fired his lasers across the
Thyfonian
’s flight path when Whistler announced he’d found the two frequencies the shuttle was using.

“Just pick one.” Corran punched the button on his comm unit. “This is Corran Horn to shuttle
Thyfonian
. Stop now and turn back to Thyferra, or I’ll be forced to destroy you.”

A moment’s delay ended with a voice Corran had never expected to hear again coming through the comm channel. “I should have known it would be you, Horn. Go away. You can’t stop me with your lasers.”

“Maybe this will warm your heart, Ysanne.” Corran dropped his aiming reticle on the shuttle’s rear and pulled the trigger. Burst after burst of laser fire splashed against the spacecraft’s shields, but did not penetrate them.
What? Shuttle’s shields aren’t that good
.

“You can thank Fliry Vorru for me, if he’s still alive. He ordered heavy-capacity shield generators for his shuttle. Cuts down on the passenger room, but I don’t mind. Quite simply, your X-wing lacks the power to burn through them.”

Maybe one will
. Corran shifted his comm unit over to the squadron’s tactical frequency. “Nine could use some help here. It’s Isard. I can’t get through the shuttle’s shields.”

“Seven here, Nine. Coming as fast as I can. Keep her from jumping to lightspeed.”

“I’ll do my best, but I need your lasers to stop her.”

“I copy, Nine. I’ll hurry.”

“Whistler, project how long it will be before she’s clear to go to lightspeed.”

The droid splashed an image of the solar system up on Corran’s secondary monitor. He used overlapping circles of color to indicate the boundaries for gravitational effects of the bodies in the system and showed the shuttle as a pinpoint of light at the edge of Thyferra’s hyperspace mass shadow.

Sithspawn, she’s almost there
. Corran triggered another burst of laser fire, but it only washed a bloody hue over the aft shield.
What if she’s bluffing and just has all power going to the aft shield! That’s just the sort of thing she’d do
.

He punched power to his throttle and let the X-wing surge forward. He brought it around in a loop that would give him an oblique shot at the shuttle’s port side. As he sailed in, the shuttle shifted direction and came about to face him. Corran hit his trigger and pulsed energy into the shuttle’s shields.

The shuttle fired back. Green energy darts blew through the X-wing’s forward shield and hit the port stabilizer. Corran rolled immediately and dove, then came back up in a weave that took him in behind the shuttle. “Whistler, what just happened?”

Isard’s voice crackled over the comm channel. “Did I mention that Vorru also upgraded the lasers on this ship?”

I’ll give you an upgrade, Iceheart
. Corran snarled as he looked at the diagnostics listing Whistler scrolled up on his main monitor. He winced, then looked to his port S-foil. Where once there had been a pair of laser cannons he had melted metal.
And about a meter less of S-foil
. A glance at the secondary monitor showed Isard had a kilometer before she could begin the run to lightspeed.
Once she gets clear, it’s just level flying and she’s out of here
.

Corran slowly smiled.
Upgraded that thing, did he, Iceheart?
The Corellian pilot flipped his weapon’s-control over to proton torpedoes and dropped it on the shuttle’s outline. Whistler began to beep as he tried for a firing solution. Out ahead of the X-wing the shuttle began to juke, broadening Corran’s smile.
Yes, he supplied the shuttle with a missile targeting lock warning system. Only good thing you’ve done in your black life, Vorru
.

“So your shields won’t stop a proton torpedo, eh, Iceheart?”

“You’ll find out if you ever get a lock on me, Horn.”

Corran glanced at his monitor and saw Tycho’s X-wing eight kilometers back and closing slowly.
As long as you keep dancing, Iceheart, you can’t run up to lightspeed. That means we can burn you down
. “I’ll get a lock on you, then you’re done.”

He painted her with a target lock again, but allowed her to break it. He reacquired it again and shifted his ship around to herd her back toward Thyferra’s mass shadow. The shuttle rolled in the other direction, breaking the lock, but Corran came in and got it again fairly easily. “You can’t escape me, Iceheart.”

Isard’s reply came almost languidly voiced. “I’ve stopped trying, Horn. You’re bluffing. If you had torpedoes, you would have used them already.” The shuttle leveled out and prepared for the run to lightspeed.

“I was hoping to take you alive, Isard. I’ll shoot if I have to.”

“Please, Horn, do your worst. Know that when we meet again, to you I shall do
my
worst!”

She
can’t
get away. I can’t let her get away!
Corran punched his comm unit with a closed fist. His mind reeled as fury and a fear of failure raged through him.
My lasers can’t get through her shields and I don’t have any missiles to batter them down. There’s nothing I can do … nothing … wait, maybe there’s something
 …

“Quick, transfer all power to the forward shield!” Corran smiled grimly and reached for the throttle. “Hang on, Whistler, we’re going to ram her.”

The droid began hooting loudly, but Corran ignored him and focused on the shuttle. “Your logic boards are fried. There’s a chance we can survive, but that doesn’t matter. If we cripple her ship … we have to cripple her ship …”

Before Corran could jam the throttle full forward, two blue darts streaked past either side of his cockpit. The first exploded against the shuttle’s aft shield and collapsed it. The second drilled through the engine housing, skewing the ship to port. The proton torpedo detonated inside the shuttle’s fuselage. Corran saw the angular ship puff up and out before fire lanced out the cockpit viewports, then a golden fireball ripped the ship apart from the inside out.

Corran’s X-wing passed straight through the center of the explosion and by the time he brought his ship around the sparks from debris hitting his shields were the only indication that the shuttle had been there at all.
Consumed by fire. Somehow fitting
.

Corran keyed his comm unit. “Who did that?”

“Seven here, Nine. Thanks for giving me the target lock.”

“What?” Corran glanced over at the transponder switch and saw it was lit.
When I punched the console, I must have hit it by accident
. The image of Luke Skywalker came to mind.
He’d tell me that wasn’t an accident, wasn’t luck, just the Force
. Corran slowly nodded. I
prefer to believe it was justice
.

“It was a great shot, Tycho. If I couldn’t get her, well, your claim predated mine.”

“Corran,
we
got her. That’s all that counts.”

Tycho’s X-wing came into view as Corran headed his X-wing back toward Thyferra. “I don’t see any more squints, Tycho. You got a workout.”

“I got my share, but Ten vaped the bulk of them. He accounted for six Interceptors all by himself.” Tycho chuckled lightly. “And it looks like the
Lusankya
isn’t shooting anymore.”

Corran smiled. “A tyrant dead; a traitor dead; a Super Star Destroyer dead; and, if Elscol, Iella, and the Ashern have done their jobs, a planet liberated. Not a bad day at all.”

41

“Looks different, doesn’t it, Corran, when you’re walking on the ceiling?”

“Yeah, but not any better.” Despite having the lights strung throughout the
Lusankya
prisoners’ quarters, the warren’s rough-hewn walls still pressed in on Corran. He turned toward Tycho Celchu as he climbed over the low wall into what had been Jan Dodonna’s cell. “It’s very strange to have mounted this whole operation to try to get Jan and the other prisoners out, just to get in here and find Isard had them shipped out by shuttle to other places months ago. Deep down she must have known we’d win, so she did this to frustrate us.”

“You’ve got it all wrong, my friend.” Tycho patted Corran’s right shoulder with his left hand. “When you escaped from the
Lusankya
, you ruined it for her. She could no longer view her little prison without thinking about how you beat her. Whereas anyone else would have beefed up security, she decided to scrap the whole facility. And it’s just as well, because this section of the ship lost atmosphere—everyone would have died in here. Had Isard really been on her game, she would have let them die that way and would have us
blaming ourselves for killing a bunch of the Rebellion’s heroes.”