around a Hutt, and nearly always as fatal. Coming out of hyperspace, he made a
quick read of the area and had his R2 unit plot another short jump. He put his
ship through a series of seven such small jumps, doubling back and forth, then
took a long jump out toward the Rim. He landed on a small planet, got
into and out of some trouble there, and then began his run back to Yag'Dhul.
Because astronavigation had never been his strength, he was limited in his
choices of destinations. To make the trip back as quickly as possible, making a
long run to Halanit was his best route because, from there, the trip to Yag'Dhul
could be accomplished with several short hops. He also thought there might be an
off-chance that Corran and Ooryl wouldn't have left Halanit by the time he got
there. Traveling to Halanit would run him pretty much out of fuel. He hoped the
Halanits would give him some in return for the bacta they'd been given, and with
Corran being there he was certain they would fuel him up.
Despite Corran's absence, the Halanits had been more than happy to give Gavin
fuel, but the problem was that they needed to synthesize it first. The process
of refueling his fighter was to take two days, during which they tried to make
him feel as much at home as possible. On a world sheathed in ice, with abundant
amounts of water and a cuisine based on fish, making a Tatooine native feel at
home was not easy.
And now Corrupter has tracked me here, so I repay their hospitality with death.
Gavin growled incoherently, then stopped and forced himself to think clearly. He
thumbed on the comlink clipped to the lapel of his flightsuit. "Jawaswag, give
me a system start, now!"
His R2 tootled something back at him.
"I don't care, just do it. Turn on the fuel pumps and suck their synthesizer dry
if you have to. Gavin out." He lifted Cort away from his slump against the wall
and set him on his feet. "Get me to the utility hangar, now!"
Cort's brown eyes unglazed. "Utility hangar, yes. Come, it's on the other side
of the chasm."
Cort led Gavin from the apartment he'd been given and out into one of the
subterranean corridors running toward the chasm. Screaming people had.begun to
fill the corridor, but the small man deftly cut through them. Gavin shouldered
his way through the thickening crowd and caught up with Cort as they reached the
walkway across the chasm.
Gavin grabbed the back of Cort's cloak and yanked him
back out of the way of a green laser bolt. More of them played out in a line
across the walkway, chasing down and burning the legs from a running man. The
man's screams were swallowed by the whine of a TIE Interceptor as it streaked
past and he rolled from the walkway to fall to oblivion.
"Now, go!" Gavin's shout carried above the screeching of the other Interceptors
strafing the chasm. Gavin started running, letting his long legs devour the
distance. He let every ounce of panic he felt fuel his run, and he knew he was
running faster than he ever had before. His lungs burned and his breath
steamed, but the echoed whines of Interceptor engines wouldn't let him stop
until he reached the far side and the safety of the tunneled corridor.
Cort arrived two steps after he did, adrenaline having lent him speed enough to
almost match the taller man's pace. Cort moved into the lead, cutting and
weaving through corridors and down ramps until they came out into a huge
subterranean cavern with a huge steaming lake, two bacta-storage cylinders, a
variety of old Zenomach and other tunneling devices, and Gavin's X-wing.
His fighter had been painted gold, with light red-orange crescents creating a
scalelike pattern. Near the front of the fighter, a mouth had been painted with
large, white, daggerlike teeth; the proton torpedo launching ports had become
the pupils of eyes. When asked how he wanted his X-wing decorated, he'd chosen
to make it over in the image of a krayt dragon, the most fearsome predator on
all of Tatooine.
He turned back to Cort. "Look, this is my fault. They're here after me. I'll
take off and lead them in a chase away from here. Get your people into
defensible positions and hold out. These tunnels will make it tough on
stormtroopers, so they'll withdraw when I'm gone."
Cort shook his head. "We have no weapons."
The plaintive tone in his voice punched Gavin straight in the heart. "I never
should have come here." H e drew his blaster and pressed it into Cort's hands.
"Take this, do what you can. I'll do something."
Gavin ran to his X-wing and clambered up on a mole-
miner to boost himself into the cockpit. Cort disconnected the refueling lines,
then backed away and tossed Gavin a salute. Gavin returned it, then pulled on
his helmet and fastened his restraining straps. He left his life-support gear on
the floor of the cockpit, disdainful of the time it would take to pull it on. If
I go down out there, I'm dead anyway, so it doesn't much matter.
He cut in the repulsor-lift generators, retracted the landing gear, and
feathered the throttle forward. The X-wing headed toward the retracting metal
doorway built into the mouth of the cavern. Beyond it, Gavin saw a translucent
glowing wall of white that he realized was snow that had drifted in against the
door. He thumbed his fire-control to lasers and linked them for dual fire, then
hit the trigger. The snow barrier evaporated, so Gavin kicked his throttle
forward and shot out into the Halanit sky.
Keeping the X-wing low enough to skim the drifts, he headed out in a long loop
through a valley that curved around to the north. Three kilometers out from the
cavern he rolled up on the starboard S-foil and began to climb. As his sensors
began to pick up Imp fighters, he reached up and flipped the switch that brought
his S-foils into attack position and locked them.
A glance at his fuel indicator told him he had ten minutes for fighting before
he made his run out of the system. Halanit itself created a fairly insignificant
gravity shadow in hyperspacehe needed to get away from the gas giant around
which it orbited. No problemten minutes is more than enough time to make the
Imps angry enough to chase me.
Jawaswag beeped at him and Gavin smiled. "You're right, the Imps are flying in
formation. They want to make this easy. Acquire One, Two, and Three." With the
sensor signature of each locked into his fire-control computer, Gavin kept his
fighter on the deck and closed to proton torpedo range. That course had him
flying directly at the rising column of smoke and steam coming from the holed
canopy.
"Jawaswag get me a sensor record of all this, visual and everything."
The droid hooted his assent.
back out of the way of a green laser bolt. More of them played out in a line
across the walkway, chasing down and burning the legs from a running man. The
man's screams were swallowed by the whine of a TIE Interceptor as it streaked
past and he rolled from the walkway to fall to oblivion.
"Now, go!" Gavin's shout carried above the screeching of the other Interceptors
strafing the chasm. Gavin started running, letting his long legs devour the
distance. He let every ounce of panic he felt fuel his run, and he knew he was
running faster than he ever had before. His lungs burned and his breath
steamed, but the echoed whines of Interceptor engines wouldn't let him stop
until he reached the far side and the safety of the tunneled corridor.
Cort arrived two steps after he did, adrenaline having lent him speed enough to
almost match the taller man's pace. Cort moved into the lead, cutting and
weaving through corridors and down ramps until they came out into a huge
subterranean cavern with a huge steaming lake, two bacta-storage cylinders, a
variety of old Zenomach and other tunneling devices, and Gavin's X-wing.
His fighter had been painted gold, with light red-orange crescents creating a
scalelike pattern. Near the front of the fighter, a mouth had been painted with
large, white, daggerlike teeth; the proton torpedo launching ports had become
the pupils of eyes. When asked how he wanted his X-wing decorated, he'd chosen
to make it over in the image of a krayt dragon, the most fearsome predator on
all of Tatooine.
He turned back to Cort. "Look, this is my fault. They're here after me. I'll
take off and lead them in a chase away from here. Get your people into
defensible positions and hold out. These tunnels will make it tough on
stormtroopers, so they'll .withdraw when I'm gone."
Cort shook his head. "We have no weapons."
The plaintive tone in his voice punched Gavin straight in the heart. "I never
should have come here." He drew his blaster and pressed it into Cort's hands.
"Take this, do what you can. I'll do something."
Gavin ran to his X-wing and clambered up on a mole-
miner to boost himself into the cockpit. Cort disconnected the refueling lines,
then backed away and tossed Gavin a salute. Gavin returned it, then pulled on
his helmet and fastened his restraining straps. He left his life-support gear on
the floor of the cockpit, disdainful of the time it would take to pull it on. If
I go down out there, I'm dead anyway, so it doesn't much matter.
He cut in the repulsor-lift generators, retracted the landing gear, and
feathered the throttle forward. The X-wing headed toward the retracting metal
doorway built into the mouth of the cavern. Beyond it, Gavin saw a translucent
glowing wall of white that he realized was snow that had drifted in against the
door. He thumbed his fire-control to lasers and linked them for dual fire, then
hit the trigger. The snow barrier evaporated, so Gavin kicked his throttle
forward and shot out into the Halanit sky.
Keeping the X-wing low enough to skim the drifts, he headed out in a long loop
through a valley that curved around to the north. Three kilometers out from the
cavern he rolled up on the starboard S-foil and began to climb. As his sensors
began to pick up Imp fighters, he reached up and flipped the switch that brought
his S-foils into attack position and locked them.
A glance at his fuel indicator told him he had ten minutes for fighting before
he made his run out of the system. Halanit itself created a fairly insignificant
gravity shadow in hyperspacehe needed to get away from the gas giant around
which it orbited. No problemten minutes is more than enough time to make the
Imps angry enough to chase me.
Jawaswag beeped at him and Gavin smiled. "You're right, the Imps are flying in
formation. They want to make this easy. Acquire One, Two, and Three." With the
sensor signature of each locked into his fire-control computer, Gavin kept his
fighter on the deck and closed to proton torpedo range. That course had him
flying directly at the rising column of smoke and steam coming from the holed
canopy.
"Jawaswag get me a sensor record of all this, visual and everything."
The droid hooted his assent.
Gavin waited until he hit the outer fringes of range, then popped his weapons
control over to proton torpedoes. He set them for single fire, then acquired the
first Interceptor. His head-up display went from yellow to red and the R2's
keening wail filled the cockpit. He hit the trigger, shifted to the second
target, got a tone, and fired a second torpedo.
The first torpedo lanced up from the snowy landscape and smashed full into the
Interceptor's cockpit. The subsequent explosion shredded the Quadanium solar
panels, sowing chaff and debris in the path of the other two TIEs. The second
torpedo blasted into the left wing of its target, snapping it off, then
exploded right behind the cockpit. The Interceptor just disintegrated, its
scattered pieces clipping the last Interceptor.
That squint immediately heeled over in a roll and dove for the planet. Gavin
tried to get a lock on it, but it fell too quickly. Slight adjustments to its
course told him it was still under power, but he doubted the pilot could recover
from that sharp a dive. He's going in.
Gavin braced for the explosion and fireball as he came up over a little crest,
but the Interceptor didn't crash. Instead it plunged in through the base of the
steam plume and into the chasm that was the heart of the Halanit colony.
No one gets away that easy. Gavin switched back to lasers and brought the
X-wing up in a lazy loop that he took over the top. The black hole in the
planet's white blanket loomed before him like the mouth of a krayt dragon. He
ignored the spark of fear in his guts and evened out the power to his shields.
The people of Halanit might be defenseless, but I'm not. Now you pay for the fun
Erisi spotted the two Lambda-class shuttles flying down. Their wings began to
retract as they prepared to land near the colony's surface entrance. She brought
her Interceptor around and vectored in toward the landing site. With the flick
of a switch she cut in her repulsor-lift coils and extended the Interceptor's
landing gear, even though she expected them to sink into the snow. Nice to have
a ship with the hatch on top.
She keyed her comm unit. "Bascome, you have command of the flight. Continue to
orbit but do not make another chasm run unless it is specifically requested of
you."
"As ordered, Commander."
The first shuttle landed and disgorged two squads of stormtroopers in their cold
weather gear. The stormtroopers dashed into the opening of an ice cavern the
colony used as a shelter for visitors' personal spacecraft. Red lights flashed
from within, bathing the snow with the color of blood, then some black smoke
slowly drifted up through the narrow opening.
Looks like they're in. Erisi waited for the second shuttle to land before she
popped the hatch on her fighter. The cold immediately cut through her
flightsuit; yet despite it, she removed her heavy helmet. The sweat in her hair
froze immediately, but she ignored it. Climbing up out of the hatch, she slid
down the curve of the cockpit and found the snow crust sufficiently solid to
bear her weight. Leaving her blaster in the shoulder holster she wore, she
strode across Halanit's frozen face and fell in beside the black-clad Captain
Ait Convarion.
The Imperial officer acknowledged her presence with a nod she felt was
&nb
sp; calculated to be mildly dismissive of her even though she towered over him.
Sandwiched between stormtrooper phalanxes, they wordlessly made their way into
the ice cavern and to the heat-lock beyond it. The doors had been blasted open,
and the rush of warm air filled the cavern. Steam and smoke hovered in a low
cloud, trapped by the cavern's roof.
Convarion preceded her into a rough-hewn tunnel, stepping over the sprawled
body of a civilian. They continued on until they reached a vista point at one
end of an elevated walkway bridging both sides of the chasm. Stormtroopers held
both sides of it, with the pair guarding that end bringing -heir blaster
carbines up across their chests when Convarion appeared.
Fists planted on his hips, Convarion surveyed the damage. Screams echoed
through the chasm, chased by the piercing whine of blaster fire. Red lights lit
previously dark
transparisteel viewports and red laser bolts reached out to knock fleeing
figures from some of the other bridges.
Convarion looked back over his shoulder at Erisi. "You were unopposed in here?"
"Yes, Captain, we were. Flying in here was not easy, but we made our passes
without mishap."
"Good. Wouldn't want your people to get bloodied in their first engagement." He
waved his right hand around to take in the whole of the colony. "My
stormtroopers will neutralize the major pockets of resistance, then your people
can come down and finish things up."
Convarion's condescension could have been cut with a vibroblade, but Erisi chose
to ignore it. "As you will, Captain Convarion. Those of us from Thyferra much
appreciate your diligence in helping us prosecute those who would victimize us."
The scream of an Interceptor diving into the chasm overrode Convarion's reply.
As it passed the bridge, a pair of red laser bolts pierced the ion-engine
exhaust vector system, spraying half-melted louvers out in its backwash. The
Interceptor began a roll that ended in a brilliant explosion as it hammered one
of the lower walkways. The ferrocrete decking undulated out away from the impact
point, crumbling with the wave front. It held for a moment or two, then, piece
by piece, began to rain stone into the depths.
As terrifying as that was, it was nothing compared to the sight of the X-wing