you do, but we can help you bear it."
Iella nodded. "I appreciate that, I really do." Her brows arrowed in toward each
other as she concentrated. "I have decided I can't remain here on Coruscant. The
memories are mostly bad and overpowering. I have to get awayeven if it means
leaving all my friends."
"I understand. I wanted to run after my father's death, too." Corran smiled.
"The trick of it is, for you, that your running doesn't mean you lose your
friends."
lella's eyes sharpened. "What do you mean?"
Corran looked around the Sanctuary, then lowered his voice into a whisper.
"We're leaving Coruscant, and we want you to come with us. You're part of our
family, part of the squadron. We're going after the monster who warped Diric.
We're going to make sure she doesn't do that to anyone else. We need you to come
along and help us get her."
Iella pulled back and sat up straight. "The odds against success are
astronomical."
"About the same as taking Coruscant from the Empire."
Iella nodded coolly. "Odds are for those who want to minimize their own risks. I
want to maximize Isard's risks. Count me in."
5
Brushing brown hair out of his eyes, Wedge looked up at the people seated in the
small, amphitheater-style room and smiled. "I want to thank you all for showing
up for this meeting. This is our first organizational meeting, but some
decisions have already been made. They will stand unless they meet with
overwhelming protest. No one should hesitate to voice a question or make a
commentthis is going to be a bit more democratic than the squadron was,
primarily because plans and orders are originating with us, not being passed
down from above."
Everyone nodded in assent with his remarks, so Wedge continued. "Corran Horn
began this whole thing by resigning from Rogue Squadron first, but he's agreed
to let me lead this group. I've appointed Tycho Celchu as my second in command.
Lady Winter is our Intelligence Officer as well as handling part of the
Quartermaster duties. Mirax Terrik is handling the other half of those duties.
Tycho will let you know what we've got in the way of supplies."
Tycho turned around in his seat. "We have a fair number at creditsapproximately
seventeen million, give or take."
Gavin laughed. "Seventeen million, I'll take."
"So would a lot of other folks, which is precisely what they want to do." Tycho
frowned. "Rumors of what happened at the reception, despite the spin the New
Republic Information Ministry tried to put on it, have spread quickly. While we
are getting a lot of support, the folks who deal in the things we need to
accomplish our mission know how desperate we are. Right now we have one
X-wingCorran's shipand the services of Mirax's Pulsar Skate. Other ships are
fairly dear. I would imagine, to get the fighters we need, we'll probably end up
hiring mercenaries who come with their own equipment. This shouldn't surprise
anyone, though the prices might. All the little Warlords out there are looking
for fighters, so its a seller's market."
Standing at the front of the room, Wedge nodded. "That's getting a bit ahead of
ourselves, but it's worth keeping in mind. We've got some basic data to mull
over first, concerning our objectives. Winter has put them together." Wedge
pointed to the holoprojector toward the front of the room. "Winter, if you
please."
Winter stood and walked to the front of the room with a stately grace that left
no question in Wedge's mind why people on Alderaan had frequently mistaken her
for Princess Leia Organa. Though Winter wore her white hair long and, today, in
a thick braid, she carried herself with a nobility that matched her exquisite
features. Slender and stunning, she seemed somehow incongruous with the
dangerous missions she'd been on during her career as a covert agent for the
Rebellion.
Which is exactly why she was never suspected.
Winter picked up the datapad that was connected by a cable to the holoprojector.
She hit one button, dimming the glow panels in the room and bringing up a
holographic projection of a planet. "This is our objective Thyferra. It is a
fairly normal terrestrial planet with a breathable atmosphere and two moons,
neither of which has atmosphere or is inhabited. Thyferra is covered with rain
forests and enjoys a day that is roughly twenty-one point three standard hours
long. The axial tilt is negligible so there are really no seasons. Because of
its proximity to the system's star, a yellow star, and
the mildly elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it maintains a
tropical climate year round. The way Coruscant felt after the storms that took
down the power grid is pretty much what this planet experiences all the time."
Wedge frowned. To take the power grid down and eliminate the defense shields on
Coruscant, Rogue Squadron had caused a lot of water to boil off into the
atmosphere, creating a huge thunderstorm. For a week and a half following that
storm the air had been thick and heavy. No wonder the plant that goes into bacta
thrives there.
"Thyferra has three stellar-class spaceportsone at what is now being called
Xucphra City. The other two are located on separate continents and are primarily
used for the loading and unloading of bacta. Inbound ships stop at Xucphra City
first for Customs and Immigration inspections, then are sent on to the
spaceports to do business. They leave from those spaceports and head directly
out to the destinations."
Nawara Ven raised a hand. "I presume the metropolis's name change came about
when the Xucphra corporation took over. What was it called before that?"
"Zalxuc City, which really is not much better." Winter directed the computer to
zoom in and supply an aerial view of the city. "As you can see, it's not really
a metropolis at all. The human population of Thyferra was only ten thousand
before Isard took over. Many Zaltin families fled, and their housing is being
used for Imperial Army and Navy officers and enlisted folk on leave from their
ships. The Lusankya alone carries twenty-five times the human population of the
planet, so there is no question about the possibility of occupation when or if
Isard orders it. So far she has refrained and is using Imperial personnel and
equipment to train and supply the Thyferran Home Defense Corps."
Winter nodded to the six-limbed, insectoid alien standing in the back of the
room. "The native population of Thyferra refers to themselves as the Vratix. The
production of bacta literally the brewing together of alazhi and kavamappears
to produce an almost mystical amount of satisfaction for the Vratix. Qlaern Hirf
here is a verachena master blender who commands subordinates and creates
bacta. A verachen is
very much equivalent to a brewmaster at any Lomin-ale brewery, though a verachen
also has highly defined rights and responsibilities within the Vratix society.
"I should also note that the Vratix are neither male nor femalethose roles are
played at different times in the life cycle, so referring to Qlaern as 'he' or
'she' is inappropri
ate. Moreover, since the Vratix do constitute something of a
low-grade hive mind, they are more comfortable with a plural pronoun, so they
and them will have to suffice."
The Vratix in the back clicked its curved mandibles. "Your dissertation honors
us, Lady Winter."
"Think you. Because of their desireeven needto produce bacta, the Vratix
welcomed the influx of humans who were willing to set up and run businesses that
created a demand for more bacta, allowing and even compelling the Vratix to do
more of what they enjoyed doing. While individual Vratix are part of the
corporate ownership for both Zaltin and Xucphra, Imperial laws made it necessary
to remove them from active leadership and decision-making roles in the
companies. Zaltin and Xucphra were given Imperial monopolies on the production
of bacta, presumably in return for bribes paid to the local Moff and the
Emperor. This has made Thyferra a very rich planet and the humans who live there
very wealthy. The Vratix, on the other hand, live very modest lives in tribal
groups within the rain forests."
She typed a data request into the datapad, which switched the image of the city
for a trio of individuals. "Ysanne Isard was installed as Chief Operating
Officer and Head of State for Thyferra in a coup d'etat approximately two weeks
ago. Preparations had been made well before that, since the revolution was
completed prior to her Super Star Destroyer, Lusankya, arriving in orbit. Not
much is known about her for certainrumors abound about her having been one of
the Emperor's lovers, for example; but there is no confirmation of that. We do
know her father was the Director of Imperial Intelligence before her, but she
turned over to the Emperor evidence that her father was going to join the
Rebellion, causing his downfall and her elevation to replace him."
Nawara Ven raised a hand. "Was her father going to come over to the Rebellion?"
Winter shrugged. "If he was, I have no knowledge of his planned defection. There
is no doubt his daughter was ambitious enough to have manufactured evidence
against him, so she is very dangerous. Dislodging her will be difficult and
probably require a ground assault. She is not, as nearly as we know, a pilot, so
the chances of any of you getting to vape her in a dogfight are nil."
Winter pointed to the next figure. "Fliry Vorru, on the other hand, might well
be able to fight you in a ship. He was a former Imperial Moff from Corellia,
which this squadron liberated from Kessel. Vorru fled with Isard to Thyferra and
is now the Minister of Trade. It is unclear when Vorru began to work with Isard,
but the possibility that he struck a deal with her upon planetfall on Coruscant
cannot be ruled out. While we put much of our misfortune concerning the
operations to take Coruscant down to having Zekka Thyne and other Imperial
spies in our midst, it is entirely possible Vorru was working directly for Isard
at that point. He certainly was in her employ by the time he was appointed a
Colonel in the Coruscant Constabulary."
She waved a hand at the third individual, a tall, slender woman with black hair
worn short. "Erisi Dlarit should be familiar to all of us. She is from a Xucphra
family and was the Imperial mole inside Rogue Squadron. Her actual value to the
Empire was minimal. At best she was responsible for Corran's capture, Bror
Jace's death, and the betrayal of the bacta convoy at Alderaan to Warlord Zsinj.
While she did provide information on our operations on Coruscant to the Empire,
the fact that Wedge allowed no outside contact prior to the final attempt to
destroy the planetary shields meant she could not warn Isard of our plans. Short
of crashing her Z-95 Headhunter into the construction droid we used, she could
do nothing to stop the plan from unfolding. What she did do was transmit the
codes that allowed Isard to take control of Corran's ship and bring him down."
As Winter dispassionately outlined Erisi's involvement with the Empire, Wedge
watched the faces of his people. Erisi
had been one of them, fighting alongside of them in numerous engagements. She'd
been shot out of her X-wing, and Tycho had risked his life to rescue her. Even
though her aid to the Empire was, as Winter had indicated, really insignificant,
it had been enough to kill people who didn't deserve to die.
In himself, Wedge found anger mixed with chagrin and a little admiration. Erisi
Dlarit had successfully played through some very difficult situations without
revealing her role. Until she was fleeing Coruscant, Wedge hadn't known she was
a spy. Some signs were there, but not all of them.
Wedge caught Corran looking in his direction and half-smiled. "She played the
game well."
"True, but she's going to have to play much better when we come to visit."
Corran's only concession to the emotions he was feeling came in the edge to his
voice and the thin-lipped smile he offered. "As a spy she was good, but the next
contest is one of pilots, and in that one she'll lose."
Winter changed the holographic image again. "If she loses it's not going to be
because she's lacking the equipment she needs to win. Defending Thyferra are
four Imperial warships a Super Star Destroyer, two Imperial Star Destroyers,
and one Victory-class Star Destroyer. Lusankya, Avarice, Virulence, and
Corrupter, respectively. Lusankya is the ship that blasted its way out of
Coruscant. It was previously unaccounted for, causing us to raise our estimates
enough, both places claim to have produced Vader's flagship, Executor. It
appears two ships were manufactured under that name, with one having been turned
into Lusankya and buried on Coruscantprobably to serve as the Emperor's
get-away ship. The other Executor, the one from Fondor, was destroyed at Endor."
She circled a finger through the hologram, encompassing the trio of smaller
ships. "Avarice, Virulence, and Corrupter have hardly had sterling careers, but
the crews are competent. I'm in the process of assembling files on all the staff
officers, but the most dangerous of them, Captain Ait Convarion, commands the
smallest ship. Corrupter has done very well in
the Outer Rim hunting down pirate groups which, for better or worse, we
resemble."
Wedge stood as Winter shut the holoprojector down. "As you can all see, we're
dealing with a fairly formidable foe that is well armed. One of the things we
have to face is that we may be unable to accomplish our goals in this operation.
Unseating Isard may, in fact, turn out to be impossible."
Seated behind Gavin, Corran reached out and tapped the younger man on the head.
"Gavin, this is where you're supposed to tell us that unseating her isn't tough
and relate the whole thing to varminting on Tatooine."
Gavin blanched. "I didn't hear anyone mention a trench or canyon or womp rats.
Taking a planet is beyond me."
Wedge smiled. "It's beyond most of us. I've sent communications out to some
individuals who might be able to help. The problem is enormous. First we have to
eliminate the ships, then take the world. The key to nailing the ships is
to get
them spread out so they can't support each other. We can do that by forcing
Isard to use them to cover bacta convoys, but to kill the ships we need weapons,
and a lot of them."
Riv Shiel, the Shistavanen wolfman, curled his lips up in a snarl. "It sounds as
if we need the Katana fleet."
"That would be nice." The legendary ghost fleet of warships was supposed to be
skipping through hyperspace, just waiting for someone to come and claim it.
Wedge frowned. "We could also hope that the Outbound Flight Project finally
produces results, with a host of nonhuman Jedi Knights coming from outside the
galaxy to help us, but I don't think it's likely."
Gavin raised a hand. "What about that ship that Alderaan loaded all of its
weapons on when it demilitarized? I can't remember the name, but I thought it
was supposed to go through space and return if needed. Maybe Princess Leia has a
way to summon it or something."
Winter shook her head. "You are thinking of Another Chance. While it is not as
much of a legend as the Katana fleet, or Jorus C'baoth's mission outside the
galaxythe ship did existit is not the solution to our problem. The Another
Chance was actually recovered by Rebel sympathizers prior
to the debacles at Derra IV and Hoth. The weapons recovered were all of Clone
Wars vintage and suited for use by infantry. They were useful in filling the gap
caused by the loss of the convoy at Derra IV."
Gavin's shoulders slumped. "Oh, I never knew all that."
"Not that you should have, Gavin." Winter smiled. "Aside from the individuals
who found the ship, a few smugglers who helped transport the merchandise, and
higher-ups in the Rebellion, no one does. The Empire devoted resources to trying
to find and take it, diverting them from pursuing us."
"Finding a miracle ship is not our only hope, people." Wedge held a hand up.
"One of the things Winter has done for the Rebellion is locate old Imperial
supply dumps. Most of them have been thoroughly stripped, but not everything is
accounted for. We're going to go back over some of those sites and see what we
can find. In fact, we have one mission that will be heading off tomorrow. Mirax
will be taking Corran and you, Gavin, to Tatooine. One of the arms caches we
found a couple of years ago had been plundered by Biggs Darklighter's father."