swooping through the chasm. Painted like a brutal, fearsome creature, it
appeared more like a predator seeking prey than a war machine piloted by the
enemy. Without being able to identify the pilot as he flashed past, Erisi knew
it was one of her old squadron-mates.
And she knew the only way she would survive was to get back to her Interceptor
and shoot him down.
Gavin flew past the collapsing walkway and saw a hail of laser bolts streaking
past him from all angles. Small arms fire. No real threat. He smiled grimly,
pulled back on his throttle to reverse his thrust and cut in his repulsor-lift
coils. He
flipped the X-wing's lasers over to single fire, then applied enough rudder to
bring the fighter's nose around toward his tormentors. He leveled the fighter
out, killed his thrust, then let the repulsor-lift coils propel him up through
the chasm.
Using his rudder pedals, he turned the ship left and right. He dropped his
crosshairs on the stormtroopers shooting at him and returned their fire. Whereas
their laser bolts skipped harmlessly off the X-wing's shields, his shots proved
to be anything but harmless. It wasn't that they were sufficiently powerful to
pierce a stormtrooper's armored chestplate as much as they evaporated it, and
most of the person beneath it.
Part of Gavin rebelled at the slaughter. The stormtroopers had no chance of
survival facing him, but they did not break and run. They stood their ground,
giving their lives for the dead creation of a dead Emperor. They gain nothing
from this. Why? Given enough time, I will kill them all.
Gavin slowly nodded. Right, they're buying time. The Corrupter is scrambling
more TIEs. If I stick around, I'm not leaving.
He kicked his throttle in and sped up his ascent. He still sprayed knots of
stormtroopers and concentrated a lot of fire on the uppermost region, trying to
get the one black Imperial uniform lurking amid a squad of stormtroopers. Most
of them went down, but he couldn't tell if he got the officer or not. Analysis
of the sensor data may answer that question. I hope so.
Realizing he had done all he could for the people of Halanit, Gavin accelerated
the X-wing and launched it through the hole in the transparisteel shield.
"They'll pay, Cort, they'll pay dearly for this." Rolling out to port, he
pointed his fighter west and began his run home.
Erisi pulled the Interceptor's hatch shut and dropped into the pilot's seat as
the X-wing jetted up and out through the shield hole. She pulled on her helmet
and strapped in, then went for an engine start. Both refused.
Diagnostics scrolled over her primary monitor. Reactor chambers are too cold for
a start. She punched up a directory of systems software, then worked her way
down through a hierarchy of choices until she got to a list of emergency
overrides. She glanced at her weapons display, then picked a program that
drained the energy from her lasers into the reactor cores to warm them enough
for a restart. She waited until the temperature had climbed sufficiently, then
restarted the engines.
The twin ion engines roared to life and sent a gentle thrum through the cockpit.
Erisi shunted energy back into recharging the lasers, then cut the repulsor-lift
generators in, retracted the landing gear, and throttled up to head after the
X-wing. Coming up and around, she dropped her Interceptor on his tail, but saw
he already had ten kilometers worth of lead over her. Even with the
Interceptor's greater speed, I won't catch him before he escapes the atmosphere
and goes to lightspeed.
Erisi reached over and punched up a broad band frequency selection for her comm
unit. "Fleeing X-wing, this is Commander Erisi Dlarit of the Thyferran Home
Defense Corps. Land at once or be destroyed."
"Erisi?"
She recognized the voice immediately. "Gavin? Listen to me. You have to stop. If
you don't, they'll get you."
"Don't you mean you'll get me?"
Erisi smiled. "No, the Imps will get you. Surrender to me and I can protect you
from them."
"How should I do that? Give you my override codes so I end up like Corran?"
"I would if you weren't so intent on running." By shunting more energy to her
engines, she could increase her speed, but her lasers would have no power to
shoot Gavin when she caught him. If I had proton torpedoes, on the other hand .
. . Iceheart is a fool. "I never would have thought you a coward, Gavin."
Gavin laughed again. "A year ago, maybe even three months ago, you could have
gotten me to turn back with that
taunt, but not now. I'm not nearly as stupid as you'd need, for me to engage you
while Corrupter comes around and cuts me off."
"Rationalize your cowardice any way you want, Gavin." She knew she couldn't get
him to turn around, so she tried to hurt him as their ships left Halanit's
atmosphere. "Run away so you can come back later. Know you've doomed the people
of Halanit. And know I'll kill you when next we meet."
"You'll pay for what you've done here, Erisi." Emotion filled Gavin's words,
pinching their tone. "For you, getting out of this alive will be impossible."
"Impossible is what Rogues do best."
"Yeah, but you were never really a Rogue, were you?"
Kilometers began to scroll up impossibly quickly on Erisi's range finder as the
X-wing ran up to lightspeed and entered hyperspace. Erisi watched it vanish,
then pulled back on the Interceptor's yoke and looped the fighter back toward
Halanit. No, / was never a Rogue, Gavin. I never relinquished my grip on
reality.
She smiled as the Corrupter came into view around the curve of the moon. "I know
where the true power in the galaxy is, and I know that if you keep trying to
defy the impossible, eventually you fail. This is your time to fail."
20
The feeling in Corran's gut was as cold as Wedge's narration of the holographic
imaging from Gavin's X-wing. At various points in the presentation Winter hit
keys on the datapad connected to the holoprojector. The image froze, then the
computer enlarged and enhanced an image from the background. They're all of
dead bodiesdead civilian bodies.
Corran shivered and felt Mirax gently rub her hand along his spine. / was there
not a week before this happened. I probably talked to some of those people, ate
with them, joked with them. Corran realized that, as he had with his comrades in
CorSec, he had mentally prepared himself for losing friends who were in the
squadron. AH of them accepted the risks of warfare and all of them had the same
things at stake. Riv Shiel's death had surprised him, but he was able to tell
himself that Shiel had died well, in combat, just as he would have wanted to go.
The people of Halanit however . . . He shook his head. "They were never meant to
find themselves in that situation."
Mirax leaned heavily against him. "I know, but Isard put them there, you
didn't."
The glow panels in the small briefing room came up, in
no way easing the severe expression on Wedge's face. "First I want to state
publ
icly that, in my opinion, Gavin could have done nothing more than he did at
Halanit. While he has felt he somehow led the Corrupter to Halanit, we know that
isn't true. Halanit stopped asking anyone but us for bacta after our first run,
and the tanker pilots knew where they had dropped off a supply. It was easy for
Iceheart to tag them as a targetI'm fairly certain she would have found out who
we had supplied no matter how we got the bacta to the worlds, but we could have
made it tougher for her. The fact is that Iceheart has publicized what happened
at Halanit to frighten others into paying Thyferra for the gift of bacta we made
to them."
Wedge's brown eyes narrowed. "Since Gavin's departure, there has been no direct
communication from Halanit. According to the messages Iceheart has sent out,
the Corrupter initiated a planetary barrage that expanded upon the damage the
bombers and stormtroopers had inflicted. It is my assumption that no one was
left living in the colony. I'm fairly certain that after all was said and done,
the place was sown with mines and other boobytraps to kill survivors or
rescuers."
Nawara Yen's braintails twitched. "So you're saying we're not going to try to
Wedge shook his head, his reluctance to forgo such a mission thick in his voice.
"We do not have the ships we need to help them. If even one-tenth of the
individuals there survived, that would dwarf our transport capabilities. I do
know the New Republic is sending some ships to Halanit, but they don't expect to
find survivors either."
He opened his hands. "I know that's not easy for any of you to hear. Innocent
individuals have suffered because of something we did, but what we did meant
they lived just that much longer. Had we not acted, that colony would have been
dead weeks ago. We kept it going that much longer. We were able to lift a
blanket of oppression and misery from them, and this disaster cannot devalue
what we did. Iceheart made choices that raised our conflict to another level."
"She has to pay." Gavin hammered a fist down onto the
arm of his chair. "Iceheart and Erisi and all of them have to pay."
"And pay they will." The edge sliding into Wedge's voice brought Corran's head
up. "Ysanne Isard has forgotten the lesson she taught the Rebellion by giving us
a sick Coruscant. She's forgotten that our strength is our freedom and her
weakness is her link to the sources of production for bacta. We can go anywhere
and be anywhere, but she's limited. She is limited in how much she can cover, so
we can hit her where she's open and run when she has our targets protected."
Inyri Forge raised a hand. "But we ran this time, and she hit an innocent world.
How do we prevent that from happening again?"
"Two ways. First, with Booster's help, we'll deal the bacta we capture to
traders and let them sell it. The price is high enough for them to accept the
risks. We can have them undercut Isard's prices or we cut them off from future
shipments. In return we can get the arms, munitions, and spare parts we need to
continue doing what we're doing. We'll insulate places by allowing them to deny
knowing where the bacta came from and we'll make traders very happy with us. The
traders become a cutout for us and Isard can't complain too loudly about them
because if she does, she loses access to the supplies she needs to maintain her
forces.
"Second and more important, we have a score to settle with her. Thyferra has
dozens of small bacta-producing colonies out there. We're going to pick one and
destroy it. The mission will be dirty and dangerous. What bacta we can't haul
away we'll destroy. And we'll let her know that we'll continue to hit her
colonies every time she takes her war to an innocent party."
He brought his hands together. "There are analogies that can be drawn between
Halanit and Alderaan, and I wish neither incident had happened. What's
important to remember is that both worlds died because evil has been allowed to
run unchecked. In our pleasure at defeating the Empire, it's all too easy to
ignore the nasty bits and pieces of its evil that survived. The New Republic is
out hunting down Warlord Zsinj. I'm sure, out there, somewhere, there are still
people
who will yet come forward to overthrow what we've done and try to reestablish
the Empire. This war is really far from over, but if we don't realize that and
act accordingly, there will be more Alderaans, more Halanits.
"All of us have tried to keep this idea uppermost in our minds, but we saw a
diminished Isard as a diminished threat. I know I was doing that, not
consciously, but I still was doing it. No more." Wedge's hands folded down into
fists and crashed against each other. "Isard is killing innocents, extorting
money, enslaving the Vratix, and holding prisoners we want freed. Each and every
single thing we do from this point forward is going to be part of the plan to
bring her down."
"However." Wedge's voice took on a huskiness. "This war isn't going to be over
fast. After this strike at a bacta colony, we'll be moving into a protracted
conflict where we'll be more pirate than we are army. It will be exhausting but,
as long as she doesn't get her hands on an Interdictor Cruiser, we'll be able to
stay ahead of her and wear her down. We'll frustrate her and make her impatient.
Then we'll have her."
Corran found himself smiling. Wedge was correct in that without an Interdictor
Cruiser to prevent the X-wings from running and hiding in hyperspace, Iceheart's
navy would be ineffective against them. We're okay unless someone jumps in on
top of a ship the way the Corrupter did. Barring that, we can fly in, shoot off
a bunch of proton torpedoes, take out some freighters, and flee before Iceheart
can stop us. As long as we don't run out of torpedoes, we should be fine.
Wedge's head came up. "Tycho and I are working with Bror Jace on compiling a
list of viable targets for our punitive strike. When we have a selection made
we'll convene another meeting and begin planning of the operation. Until then,
your time is your own, but stay here on the station. We'll go when we have a
plan in place, and I'm hoping that will be sooner than later. Thanks. You're all
dismissed."
Corran sat back for a moment, then let Mirax tug him to
his feet. "Lots to think about."
She nodded in agreement and slipped her left arm over
his shoulders. "I don't know about you, but I want a drink and something to eat.
Do you want to hit a tapcaf?"
"Sure. How about the Hype?"
"Food's better at Flarestar."
"Actually the service is better at Flarestar, but I prefer the decor at
Hyperspace." Flarestar tended to be rather dark and quiet, while Hyperspace was
as brilliantly lit as its namesake. "The mood I'm drifting into isn't one I want
to aid and abet with dim light."
Mirax gave his shoulder a squeeze. "Lead the way."
They walked to the station's core and took the turbolift up to the first of the
docking ring's decks. Hyperspace's well-lit opening beckoned to them from
opposite the lift. The decor consisted mostly
of pinks, yellows, and white
jumbled together in an odd, asymmetrical manner that Corran found somehow
comforting. He'd decided it was that the color selection was repulsive, but the
strange angles and mixing prevented any of it from being overwhelming. The
Trandoshan who ran the place seemed to have a quasi-mystical respect for shape
and form, often seating people in the tapcaf in a way that accentuated the
establishment's visual chaos.
They followed the large sauroid to a corner booth big enough for the entire
squadron. Corran considered.it wishful thinking on her part. The booth was far
enough away from the other patrons that he felt he could talk with Mirax
without surrendering privacy, so the Trandoshan's choice suited him perfectly.
A motley silver-and-gold 3PO droid came over to take their order, then bounced
off to fill it.
Corran picked at a chipped area of the duraplast table's edge with his
thumbnail. "Wedge made some good points in there. I think he's right that all of
us had really stopped thinking about the seriousness of what we were doing.
Face it, since Blackmoon, aside from me, the squadron had really lost no one. I
showed back up and that helped reinforce our feeling that we were invincible.
Tycho joined us, then Bror reappears, and we're suddenly reinforced by some of
the best pilots the Rebellion ever had."
"The unit has felt more relaxed." Mirax shrugged. "I think that's only partly
because of the successes you've had. You are good, but I think you've all
underestimated your opposition. Sure, Isard had to run, and she's trapped
herself
on Thyferra; but she's still tough. Captain Convarion is very aggressive.
Avarice's Captain Sair Yonka is very smart and calculatingthe antithesis of us
Corellians because he does care what the odds are and does everything he can to
maximize his chances of survival. He's spent much of his career on ships in the
Outer Rim chasing down pirates and protecting convoys, so he understands very
well what Isard has him doing.
"The Virulence's Joak Drysso is a stalwart Imperial. I think he's working with
Isard as much to strike back at the Rebellion as he is for any other reason. I
was talking with my father, and it's his guess that Drysso will move over to
take command of the Lusankaassuming, of course, Isard was in command of it to
this point. Drysso's Executive Officer is Captain Lakwii Varrscha, so she'll be