Tales From The Empire

by Peter Schweighofer

  while the thrummed rumble of Saricia's return-fire filled the

  cockpit.

  "Our armor will hold them back for a little while, but not long."

  "Can we make the jump to lightspeed?"

  "In the time we have left?" Nootka asked. "Not even if I knew where

  we were going and had the course already plotted into the nav

  computer.

  It looks now that where we are going is to the grave."

  Corran Horn eased the X-wing's throtde forward and his speed started to

  climb faster as he left Garqi's atmosphere." You should have told me

  sooner, Whistler, that's all I'm saying. It doesn't matter now,

  though. We can talk about it later. Now we have to get those TIEs."

  The droid replied in a muted whistle that Corran found almost as

  depressing as the four-to-one odds on the fight. Not how I wanted to

  do this, but I have no choice.

  Corran hit the thumb-switch on the X-wing's stick. The proton torpedo

  targeting system came up and painted a big yellow box around the

  slowest of the TIE starfighters.

  "That's target one. Give me the next closest one and mark it as target

  two."

  Whistler complied instantly, then keened a question.

  "Yes, if they're in range, get me comlink contact." Cor

  ran heard the hiss of static from the speakers in his helmet, then a clear channel

  opened up. "Star's Delight, the key-code for your shields is 349XER34,

  repeat 349XER34."

  "Who is this?"

  "Someone who just gave you your shields back. Eamon Yzalli sold you

  out. He's dead. What he knew, I know."

  In the background he heard a voice excitedly shout, "It's Xeno!"

  The deeper voice, the one he decided belonged to Lai Nootka, overrode

  the shout. "349XER34 is the code."

  "Exactly." corran smiled. "Tell your gunner not to shoot the X-wing

  and I'll make his life easier. X-wing Ollt."

  Whistler tooted triumphantly.

  "Not yet, buddy, not yet. Give me target one and lighten my

  acceleration compensator. I want to feel it when I move around."

  Nudging the stick over and back, he settled the box around the lagging

  TIE. The droid beeped intermittently as he tried to get a target

  lock.

  The target box went from yellow to red at the same moment Whistler's

  tone went solid and Corran hit the trigger.

  The proton torpedo shot away from the X-wing and curved only slightly

  to port before it slammed into the TIE's ball-cockpit. The explosion

  shattered the star-fighter's hexagonal solar panels. It sent their

  shards spinning away from the roiling, red-gold plasma ball spreading

  out from where the cockpit had once been.

  "Acquire two."

  Brief beeps melded into an uninterrupted tone as Corran hit a pedal and

  the etheric rudder brought the X-wing's nose around to port.

  He hit the trigger again and saw a proton torpedo burn into and through

  the second TIE. The torpedo hit it solidly on one of the solar panels

  and blasted through. The projectile glanced down, crushing the

  fighter's ion engine exhaust port and clipped the far side solar panel

  before exploding. The

  TIE whirled off on a wobbly course before exhaust pressure from the engines tore the ship apart from the

  inside.

  "Two down." Corran flipped his weapons control over to laser fire and

  linked the lasers for dual-fire. "Whistler, even out the shields."

  The droid complied with the order as Corran brought the X-wing up in a

  quarter snap-roll. The maneuver stood the fighter on its port

  stabilizer foils. Tugging back on the stick, he brought the nose up

  and cruised onto the tail of one of the two remaining TIEs. It had

  broken left while its wing man had gone right--a strategy that was

  usually discouraged and went a long way toward confirming Corran's

  opinion of the Garqi garrison.

  Whistler's excited hooting made Corran look up at his rear sensor

  monitor. Coming in behind me. Not as bad as I thought. "I see him,

  Whistler. Now you know why I didn't want to fight them at all."

  The TIE in front of him began a slow loop to starboard.

  The move was slow enough that Corran was tempted to follow and light

  the ship up, but he knew giving in to temptation would have a price.

  In this case it will be the TIE back there shortening the loop and

  melting my ship's tail. Not for me.

  Corran chopped his thrust back and pulled the stick to his

  breastbone.

  He looped the X-wing, then punched the throttle full forward and rolled

  out to port. That dropped him in on an attack vector to the TIE that

  had been following him. Tightening up on the trigger, he tracked ruby

  laser bolts across one solar panel, through the cockpit and into the

  other solar panel.

  The TIE didn't explode. It rolled slowly to port, little blue tendrils

  of energy playing over its myriad surfaces.

  The X-wing overshot the ship, so Corran rolled and dove down through a

  loop to keep an eye on it. The TIE did not react and just continued

  spiraling along on its previous course, bound for a fiery collision

  with Garqi's atmosphere.

  Pilot's gone, ship's running on momentum. Corran shiv

  ered, imagining

  for one second what it was like to spend your last seconds of life in

  pain, in a breached cockpit with all the atmosphere leaking out while

  cold poured in. Not the way I want to go.

  Whistler's indignant yowl and the hiss of laser fire splashing against

  his aft shields shocked Corran. He immediately hit the right rudder

  pedal, whipping the X-wing's tail to port and out of the line of

  fire.

  Pushing the stick hard left, he rolled out to port, then pulled back a

  nd brought the ship's nose up and around in a loop.

  Halfway through that he rolled right and dove, but his sensors showed

  the TIE was still with him.

  Why are the best guys always the last? Corran smiled at his own

  question. "Because the pilots who are bad die first.

  They were all probably daydreaming just like you." He sideslipped the

  X-wing to the right and the TIE followed him.

  "Whistler, get me the Delight again."

  "Nootka here, X-wing."

  "Captain, this guy on me is good. Kill your shields and tell your

  gunner to shoot high."

  "We just got our shields back."

  "I know. Kill your shields."

  "I do not understand."

  "You will."

  Corran rolled the fighter out to port, then kept a light hand on the

  stick. Nudging it left and right, up and back, he made the X-wing

  dance almost unpredictably. After every third or fourth move, when the

  ship had drifted to port, he'd push the stick down, then up right and

  right again. He'd level out and fly straight for a couple of seconds,

  then after that the random pattern would begin again.

  When he saw the TIE begin to anticipate his pattern, corran pulled the

  X-wing back through a big loop and dove straight in on an intercept

  course for the Delight. "Full shields aft, Whistler." Corran dipped

  and jerked the fighter through its pattern. Laser fire came in from

  the Delight, passing over his ship, b
ut only by a margin of

  decimeters.

  The TIE kept to Corran's tail as the X-wing turned and swooped down

  into a run that took it from bow to stern on the Delight. The TIE came

  in tight and sank below the level of the ship's fire. He's low enough

  to strike sparks! This Imp's very good. Corran smiled. I gotta hope

  I'm better.

  As Corran's pattern ended, the X-wing drifted into a gentle glide along

  the Delight's spine. The TIE dropped in behind him and lined up for a

  shot. The first laser blasts hit the X-wing's aft shield and rocked

  Corran in the cockpit. Now or never!

  Corran killed his thrust and cut his repulsorlift drives in at full

  strength. Acceleration jammed him down in the cockpit couch as the

  X-wing bounced up and away from the freighter's mass. The TIE

  starfighter shot through beneath the X-wing, pulling up abruptly to

  miss the freighter's engine cowling.

  Punching the throttle forward and killing the lift drives, Corran

  sailed in on the TIE's aft. His targeting box went green. He pulled

  the trigger and filled the last TIE with laser fire.

  The scarlet energy darts shredded the ship, puncturing the cockpit and

  melting their way through the twin ion engines. The TIE exploded

  brilliantly. The glittering plasma sphere burned like a star going

  nova, then im-ploded, leaving the void in its wake.

  "X-wing, this is Delight. May we put our shields back up?"

  "Affirmative, Delight." Corran smiled. "Captain Nootka, have you got

  a course plotted out of here?"

  "We have a course, X-wing."

  "If you don't mind, I'll slave my navigation to yours and tag along.

  After all, I still owe you for the debris extractor."

  "Consider the debt paid, X-wing, but come on along."

  Corran heard gratitude in the Duros captain's voice.

  "This adventure will be a tale to tell, and I would have you there

  when I first tell it."

  Prefect Mosh Barris bowed graciously amid the applause from his

  guests.

  The series of bright explosions and the spectacular light show of

  debris streaking through the upper atmosphere had been far more than he

  expected. If you arranged that on purpose, Eamon, I shall give you

  rewards in excess of what I had already planned.

  He held a hand up. "Thank you, thank you all. I am pleased you have

  enjoyed how we have eliminated the Rebel threat to Garqi." Bards

  smiled proudly. "I was the architect of this event, but another

  carried it out. My aide, Eamon Yzalli. Eamon, where are you?"

  "Indeed, where is he?"

  Bards' head came up as a sharp voice asked the question from the

  balcony doorway. "Who are you?"

  A tall, hatchet-faced man stooped slightly to make it through the door,

  then fixed Bards with a harsh stare. "I am Kirtan Loor, Imperial

  Intelligence. You have been expecting me?"

  "Of course." Barris gestured up at the sky, spraying choholl from the

  glass in his hand. "You came too late to see what happened to the

  Rebels."

  "Oh, I think I already know what happened to them."

  The Imperial officer's lip curled in a sneer. "As I came into the

  system, I was sent a report by this Eamon Yzalli. It indicates you

  arranged for the escape of the local Rebel organization on the Stars

  Delight. The report indicates this action was the preliminary gambit

  in your bid to usurp Governor Tadfin and transfer Garqi to the Rebel

  Alliance."

  Barris' stomach slowly wriggled into a knot. Kirtan Loor reminded him

  of a young Grand Moff Tarkin, and the resemblance did nothing to stop

  the fear flooding Barris' mind. "This is wrong. This cannot be.

  Eamon must have planned this. Ask him, the accusations are not

  true."

  "I would ask him, but I cannot find him." Loor's blue eyes

  narrowed.

  "An appendix to his report said he feared for his life at your hands.

  When I arrived here I read that you had ordered and carried out his

  elimination. That message came from you, directly, I've checked."

  "Yes, but it was all part of the plan, don't you see?"

  Kirtan Loor shook his head solemnly. "I don't see what you want me to

  see. What I do see is a Rebel collaborator with much to tell me about

  the enemy."

  "But I know nothing about them."

  "I doubt that very sincerely, Barris." Loor smiled with a cold

  superiority that weakened Barris' knees and sent his glass crashing to

  the floor. "By the time your interrogation is barely started, you will

  wish you knew even more, so you could tell me everything. You will be

  surprised how much information there truly is in your nothing---and you

  will learn to dread your punishment whenever you seek to feign

  ignorance as a shield."

  Corran had fully expected the look of surprise on Dynba Tesc's face

  when she first saw him. "Greetings, Dynba. I'm glad you made it.

  I apologize for the rough time the Delight had."

  The war between horror and joy in her expression even proved

  entertaining, though the ultimate victor in the struggle proved to be a

  stunned look. "Y-you're dead . . . at least you said you were dead.

  You're Eamon Yzalli, but you can't be."

  Corran winced as hurt entered her voice. He scratched at his beard for

  a second, then shrugged. "I'm sorry for the deception. I intended for

  you to assume Barris had killed me and take off. I knew the TIEs would

  head out after you. I wanted to use you as a diversion one more time,

  so I could get away while the TIEs were busy with you."

  A Twi'lek walked up behind Dynba and draped a head tail over her

  shoulder protectively. "The TIEs almost did

  us in because you disabled the shields. You tried to have us killed."

  "Not my intention at all." Corran sighed. "I meant to have a message

  sent to you that would give you the code to bring the shields back

  up.

  I wanted to blame the shield tampering on Burris and have you

  protected, but the old fool went and deactivated my message account

  when he entered his death declaration about Eamon."

  Dynba dug a gentle elbow into the Twi'lek's midsec-tion.

  "Arali, if he wanted us dead, he'd not have come after the TIEs and

  given us the code. He still could have gotten away."

  "Right." Corran nodded. "Exactly."

  "So what did you mean about using us as a diversion 'one more time'?"

  "Setting up the Star's Delight's escape allowed me to get the spare

  parts I needed for the X-wing. I told Barris they had been stolen from

  storage, but I really just had the guys who helped me load the things

  put them in the back of my speeder. They were the TIE pilots, so now

  we're the only ones who know where the parts ended up."

  Dynba smiled. "The parts, of course. The phantom X-wing flights ended

  about a month before the Delight showed up and was taken."

  "I needed a debris extractor."

  "So, then, you're Xeno. You got us together to eventually steal those

  parts for you."

  "No, I'm Corran Horn, late of the Corellian Security Force." He smiled

  as Whistler came rolling up and patted the droid affectionately on the

&nbs
p; dome. "The droid here was Xeno."

  Arali's head tails twitched with surprise. "A droid organized our

  little group?"

  Whistler chirped emphatically and corran beamed.

  "He worked with me in CorSec. In addition to astrogation programming,

  he's a fairly good codeslicer and had a facility for putting together

  sting operations. He was grooming you to get the parts for me, but he

  didn't men

  tion it because he knows I don't really want anything to do with the Rebellion and the New Republic."

  "It is a little late for that." Captain Nootka came walking over with

  two Republic officers in tow. "Helping us escape will lead Barris to

  figure out who you were, and you will be branded a Rebel."

  "I don't think so. Barris is in plenty of trouble himself."

  Corran smiled broadly. "I once worked with Kirtan Loor, the Imperial

  Intelligence agent heading in to Garqi. This beard and dye job

  wouldn't have fooled him, so I had to move. That's the reason this

  whole operation got put together and involved you and your friends,