[Thrawn Trilogy] - 02(159)

Closer now, he could see that two of the Imperial starfighters were the faster and more advanced TIE interceptors. Picking one of them for himself he broke formation and headed after it.

Whatever erosion the Empire had experienced in the way of ships and trained personnel over the past five years, it was quickly clear that their starfighter training program hadn’t suffered a lot. Wedge’s target TIE interceptor slipped adroitly away from his initial attack, doing a sideways skid that simultaneously braked him out of the X-wing’s way and swiveled his lasers around to track along its flight vector. Wedge threw the X-wing into a drop loop, wincing as the other’s shot came close enough to trigger the starboard engines’ heat sensors, and turned sharply to starboard. He braced himself for a second shot, hut it didn’t come. Bringing the X-wing out of its combination loop/turn, he looked around for his opponent.

“Watch your back, Rogue Leader!” the voice of Rogue Three snapped in his ear; ana Wedge again threw the X-wing into a drop loop just as another laser blast sizzled past his canopy. Not only had the Imperial not been fooled by Wedge’s corkscrew maneuver, he’d even managed to follow him through it. “He’s still with you,” Rogue Three confirmed. “Go evasive-I can be there in a minute.”

“Don’t bother,” Wedge told him. Through the spinning sky outside his canopy he’d caught a glimpse of another Imperial moving past him to portside. Hauling hard on his controls, he broke out of his loop and drove directly toward it. The TIE fighter jerked slightly as its pilot suddenly became aware of the threat bearing down on him and tried to veer out of the way.

Which was exactly what Wedge had counted on. Ducking beneath the TIE fighter, he threw the X-wing into a upward rolling turn, swinging perilously close to the Imperial’s canopy and bringing his nose around to point back the way he’d come.

The TIE interceptor, which had instinctively swerved off Wedge’s tail to keep from ramming one of his own ships, was caught flat-footed. A single point-blank blast from the X-wing’s lasers blew it out of the sky.

“Nice flying, Rogue Leader,” Gold Leader commented. “My turn.”

Wedge understood. Throwing power to his drive, he shot away from the TIE fighter he’d used for cover, getting clear just as Gold Leader’s lasers caught it. “How we doing?” Wedge asked as his canopy lit up briefly with the reflected light of the explosion.

“We’re done,” Gold Leader said.

“We are?” Wedge frowned, bringing his X-wing around in a wide circle. Sure enough, the only things visible nearby were X-wings. Apart from expanding clouds of glowing debris, of course. “What about the drop ships?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” the other admitted. “Gold Three, Gold Four; report.”

“We got six of them, Gold Leader,” a new voice said. “I don’t know what happened to the seventh.”

Wedge swore under his breath, switching comm channels as he glanced back toward the Star Destroyer. The new group of TIE fighters was coming up fast. No time for him to do anything for the Katana except maybe warn them. “Luke? You’ve got company coming.”

“We know,” Luke’s tight voice came back. “They’re already here.”

They came out of the drop ship with lasers blazing, laying down a heavy cover fire as they moved toward the two sets of blast doors that led forward from the docking bay. Luke couldn’t see them from where he was, any more than he could see Han’s group waiting silently for them behind the edge of the portside blast doors. But he could hear the Imperials’ blaster fire, and he could sense their approach.

And there was something about that sense that set the back of his neck tingling. Something not quite right about them :

His comlink beeped. “Luke?” Lando’s voice came softly. “They’re coming. You ready?”

Luke closed down his lightsaber and gave his handiwork one last check. A large section of the corridor’s ceiling was now hanging perilously by a few strands of metal, ready to come crashing down at the slightest provocation. Beyond it, two sections of the wall were similarly boobytrapped. “All set,” he told Lando.

“Okay. Here goes :

And suddenly, the pitch of a different class of weapons joined the cacophony as the defenders opened up on the Imperials. For a few seconds the two groups of weapons vied with each other. Then, with a screech of strained metal, the sounds were cut off.

The four techs were the first around the corner to where Luke waited, their faces showing the mixture of fear and nervousness and exhilaration of men who’ve just survived their first firelight. Lando was next, with Han and Chewbacca bringing up the rear. “Ready?” Han asked Luke.