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[Hand Of Thrawn] - 01(147)



There was a chorus of acknowledgments, and the whine of engine prestarts began to fill their corner of the Di’tai’ni Diplomatic Landing Circle. Someone wearing a maintenance coverall-a Trintic, probably, though it was hard to tell in the dim light-was lumbering across the field toward the X-wings, gesturing frantically at this no doubt unauthorized noise. Wedge gestured him back and keyed in his repulsorlifts. “What is it, another Clan Building riot?”

“Get a good grip on your helmet,” Perris said grimly. “According to the Bothans, a Leresen attack force is on the way.”

Wedge blinked. “A Leresen attack force?”

“That’s what they say,” the fighter coordinator confirmed. “A full-class war fleet, and don’t ask me what their problem is.”

“Pick one,” Rogue Three grumbled. “There are so many reasons nowadays to hate the Bothans.”

“Let’s not sink to the lowest divisory here,” Wedge admonished. The X-wings were all in the air now, forming up around Wedge as they pulled for space. “Perris, where’s the general?”

“He’s on his way up,” Perris said. “C’taunmar and her A-wings are flying escort for his shuttle, just in case. We’re going to be a few minutes behind you, though, and he said for you to go on ahead.”

“And do what?” Rogue Five asked. “Bluff the Leresai until you get there?”

“Sure,” Perris said dryly. “Unless, of course, the dazzling Rogue Squadron reputation routs them completely.”

“Oh, yeah, right,” Rogue Five came back, just as dryly. “Isn’t it lucky for the Bothans that we and our dazzling reputation just happen to be only two systems away from them?”

Wedge frowned. It was lucky, now that he thought about it. Suspiciously lucky, in fact. “Perris, can you pull the original order that brought us here?” he asked.

“Already pulled,” Penis said. “According to Coruscant, the Di’tai’ni government specifically asked for General Bel Iblis to mediate this dispute with their resident non-Tai’ni workers.”

“Any idea whether the Di’tai’ni government owes favors or large amounts of money to the Bothan government?” Rogue Nine asked.

“That’s a good question,” Perris said thoughtfully. “A very good question, in fact.”

“It’s my old CorSec training,” Rogue Nine said. “They taught us to always follow the money.”

“Well, at the moment the money’s irrelevant,” Wedge said. They had reached the deeper darkness of space now, almost far enough out to make the jump to lightspeed. “We’ve been called in to defend a New Republic member from aggression, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“Good luck,” Perris said. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

The panel beeped: the course was set. “Okay, Rogues,” Wedge said. “Let’s go.”

The flight to Bothawui took a little longer than that panic-call run they’d taken a week ago to bail out the Sif’kries and their pommwomm-plant shipment. Somehow, though, it felt a lot shorter. Wedge found his mind bouncing back and forth between questions of imminent Leresen aggression, possible Bothan duplicity, general galactic tension, and what in blazes his squadron was doing in the middle of all of it.

And all too soon, they were there.

“Form up,” he ordered as the rest of the X-wings came out of hyperspace around him. “Pick up your long-range scanners.”

“I don’t think,” Rogue Two said tightly, “that that’ll be necessary.”

Wedge grimaced. “No,” he agreed. “I guess not.”

It was a Leresen attack force, all right. And for once it looked as if the Bothans hadn’t been exaggerating. Spread out across the sky directly ahead of the incoming X-wings were six capital ships, all of alien design and manufacture but each nearly the size of a New Republic Assault Frigate. Another twenty smaller ships filled the gaps between them, with at least five squadrons of starfighter-class ships forming a defense perimeter around the whole group.

“Our reputation had better be really dazzling today,” Rogue Twelve muttered.

“Cut the chatter,” Wedge told him, studying the group. They were well outside Bothawui’s planetary shield, beyond the range of any ground-based weapons the defenders were likely to have. He couldn’t remember whether or not the Bothans had any orbital battle platforms circling their homeworld, but if they did none of them were on this side of the planet at the moment.

Which pretty much left Rogue Squadron all by itself out here. Twelve X-wings and a reputation.