[Thrawn Trilogy] - 02(48)

“Great,” Han growled, kicking in the main drive. Using it this close to the ground wasn’t going to do New Cov’s plant life any good, but that was the least of his worries at the moment. “Luke?”

“I see it,” Luke’s voice came back through the comm speaker. “Any ideas besides running for it?”

“I think running for it sounds like a great idea,” Han said. “Lando?”

“Calculating the jump now, the other said, busy with the nav computer. “It ought to be ready by the time we’re far enough out.”

“There’s another ship coming up from below,” Luke said. “Right out of the jungle.”

“That’s ours,” Irenez said, peering over Han’s shoulder. “You can parallel them by changing course to one twenty-six mark thirty.”

The Star Destroyer was picking up speed, the scope now showing a wedge of TIE fighters sweeping along ahead of it. “We’d do better to split up,” Han said.

“No-stay with our ship,” Irenez said. “Sena said we’ve got help coming.”

Han took another look at the ship climbing for deep. A small transport, with a fair look of speed but not much else going for it. Another look at the approaching TIE fighters-

“They’re going to be in range before we can make the jump,” Lando murmured, echoing Han’s thought.

“Yeah. Luke, you still there?”

“Yes. I think Lando’s right.”

“I know. Any way you can pull that Nkllon stunt again? You know-scramble the pilots’ minds a little?”

There was a noticeable hesitation from the comm. “I don’t think so,” Luke said at last. “I-don’t think it’s good for me to do that sort of thing. You understand?”

Han didn’t, really, but it probably didn’t matter. For a moment he’d forgotten that he wasn’t in the Falcon, with a pair of quad lasers and shields and heavy armor. The Lady Luck, for all Lando’s modifications, wasn’t anything to take on even confused TIE fighter pilots with. “All right, skip it,” he told Luke. “Sena just better be right about this help of hers.”

The words were hardly out of his mouth when a flash of brilliant green light shot past the Lady Luck’s cockpit canopy. “TIE fighters coming in from portside,” Lando snapped.

“They’re trying to cut us off,” Luke said. “I’ll get rid of them.”

Without waiting for comment, he dropped his X-wing below the Lady Luck’s vector and with a roar of main drive swung off to the left toward the incoming TIE fighters. “Watch yourself,” Han muttered after him, giving the rear scope another look. The pursuing batch of fighters was still closing fast. “Your ship got any weapons?” he asked Irenez.

“No, but it’s got good armor and plenty of deflector power,” she told him. “Maybe you should get ahead of them, let them take the brunt of the attack.”

“Yeah, I’ll think about it,” Han said, wincing at the woman’s ignorance of this kind of fight. TIE pilots didn’t much care which ship was first in line when they attacked; and sitting close enough to another ship to hide in its deflector shield was to give up your maneuverability.

Off to portside, the incoming group of TIE fighters scattered out of the way as Luke drove through their formation, wingtip lasers blazing away madly. A second wave of Imperials behind the first closed to intercept as Luke pulled a hard one-eighty and swung back on the tails of the first wave. Han held his breath; but even as he watched, the X-wing managed somehow to thread its way unscathed through the melee and take off at full throttle at an angle from the Lady Luck’s vector, the whole squadron hot on his tail.

“Well, so much for that group,” Irenez commented.

“And maybe for Luke, too,” Lando countered harshly as he jabbed at the comm. “Luke, you all right?”

“I got a little singed, but everything’s still running,” Luke’s voice came back. “I don’t think I can get back to you.

“Don’t try,” Han told him. “As soon as you’re clear, jump to lightspeed and get out of here.”

“What about you?”

Luke’s last word was partially drowned out by a sudden twitter from the comm. “That’s the signal,” Irenez said. “Here they come.”

Han frowned, searching the sky outside the front viewport. As far as he could see, there was nothing out there but stars—

And then, in perfect unison, three large ships suddenly dropped out of hyperspace into triangular formation directly ahead of them.