speed. He saw them streak to the edge of the engagement zone, reverse, then
begin to shoot back through the thickest portion of the zone. All along the
line of their passage, the blips representing Blades on the lightboard began
blinking or vanished altogether. All along their flight paths, as Wedge
checked visually, burning fighters began their final descents to the forest
floor.
Two dark red Blades rose up to join Wedge and
Tycho. "Red Three and Four reporting in," Janson said, his voice cheery.
"Good timing," Wedge said. "Come about with me to one-eighty degrees." He
began a hard loop around. "We're putting ourselves in the way of trouble."
On his lightboard, the four streaks representing the TIEs reached the
edge of the engagement zone and looped around once more for another pass.
Wedge calculated their likely path, just an estimate, and climbed higher to be
in that path. "Here's the rules. This is not a one-on-one, not a duel. When
the TIEs come in range, everyone hit the lead TIE. If you can, as soon as they
flash past, switch to rear lasers and target the rear TIE. We'll see how much
damage we can do them."
"Good." That was Hobbie's voice, more intent than usual. "Damage."
"Three, is Four all right?"
"He's fine, chief. Still deliriously happy from his missile barrage, I
think."
The path of the oncoming TIEs changed slightly, continuing from what must
have been an evasive move. Wedge sent his Blade into a hard vector to
starboard. Now there was no way to get in the path of TIEs, but they could
still fire upon them
And there they were, two wing pairs streaking in from port. Wedge opened
fire with his lasers, concentrating on the lead TIE, and was gratified to see
three other pairs of lasers joining his.
The Interceptor exploded as if hit by a missile, leaving only an orange-
and-yellow fireball and a spray of shrapnel behind. Wedge's Blade shook as he
crossed in the wake of the TIEs and was hit by the explosion shock wave. But
because of their changed flight plan they hadn't concluded the exchange with
their rear lasers pointed toward the TIEs. Wedge saw the three remaining enemy
fighters split off, two one direction and one another, and begin to loop
around at impossible speeds toward his Blades. "Whoops," Wedge said. "Red
Flight, scatter." He rose and vectored to starboard, toward what looked like
an incoming wing pair of friendly Blades.
A TIE Interceptor rose in his wake. He fired upon it, but the nimbler
craft juked and jinked far too quickly for him to get a fix on it. It
responded with lasers that hammered away at his rear fuselage; he felt his
Blade shudder and text suddenly started scrawling across his diagnostics
board.
"Red One, come to one-six-five." That was Iella's voice. He complied, as
hard a turn as he could manage, the TIE adhering to his tail as if glued
there.
As Wedge completed his maneuver, he found himself heading almost due west
and into the path of something huge.
Shaped like a single curved wing, with a dozen laser cupolas atop the
wing and a dozen below, the Meteor-class Aerial Fort was the largest flying
vehicle the Adumari made, and among the most punishing. Each cupola held
paired lasers the equal of the ones on the Blades and could turn 360 degrees
around and depress to cover an entire hemisphere.
As Wedge turned into the craft's path, a half dozen of its gunners opened
up on himor so it looked, for their laser fire flashed all around him, above
and below.
The TIE on his tail broke off with an almost ninety-degree turn and
flashed out to the side faster than the Meteor's gunners could turn their
weapons. In a second he was out of sight.
"Thanks" Wedge tapped the lightboard"Meteor Six. Much appreciated."
"Our pleasure, Red Leader."
The Cartann Blades were not yet approaching the Meteor. Wedge saw some
forming up into half squads, presumably for strafing runs at the enormous
aircraft, but they weren't ready yet. He took the opportunity to catch up on
his breathing. He also checked visually for the other members of his flight,
couldn't spot them immediately. Into the lightboard microphone, he said, "Red
Flight."
Three blips lit up.
Three.
He tapped each one in turn. Red Leader. Red Four.
Red Three.
"Red Two, come in. Tycho, where are you?" Janson's voice came back,
strained. "I think he's gone, Lead. I saw him hammered by a TIE's laser fire,
really bad. He banked away from me, not maneuvering well, and then a Blade's
missile took him."
"Four to Red Flight, negative, negative. I was just queried by a Yedagon
Blade-28, Sandstorm Six, who's following him down. Tycho punched out. No
serious damage."
Wedge nearly slumped. Fear for Tycho had tightened every muscle in his
body like they were an instrument's strings being tuned. "Red Leader to Eye
Three."
"Eye Three."
"Please track Sandstorm Six. He's following Red Two down; Two is
extravehicular. Send whatever you can to pick him up. We want him back in the
air and with us, whatever it takes."
"Understood. And we have good news on another front. Cheriss with Holdout
reports that her group has found your X-wings."
"That was fast."
"She said it was simple. They picked up your astromech's broadcasts."
"Tell her group to stand by. That just doesn't make any sense." The first
thing an enemy would have done would be to disable the astromechs with
restraining bolts and then go to work cracking the security measures limit -
ing cockpit access only to authorized personnel. The astromechs would never be
allowed to continue transmitting.
No, waitthat was the first thing an Imperial enemy would have done. It
was the people of Cartann who'd seized the X-wings.
He tried to think like his enemy, and the answer was there almost
immediately.
The perator ruled Cartann, not some diplomatic council. He could hand the
X-wings over to the military, certainly, but as an ex-pilot himselfand an
autocratic rulerhe might well have decided to keep them for himself.
But he didn't have time to investigate them. He was planning a war
against those arrayed against Cartann. So he'd put them somewhere secure and
worry about them when the war was done, or at least offered him some
recreation time. He might not even be aware of the astromechs' capacity for
self-motivation and action.
He switched to Red Flight frequency. "Red Leader to Gate, do you read?"
His communications board's text screen lit up with words. I READ YOU.
"Report your situation, please."
I AM IN A HANGAR SUITED FOR TWO OR MORE SQUADRONS OF STARFIGHTERS. RED
FLIGHT'S X-WINGS AND FOUR BLADES, VARIOUS TYPES, ARE HERE. THE OTHER
SNUBFIGHTERS' ASTROMECHS ARE HERE. WE ARE GUARDED BY SIX GUARDS WITH BLASTER
RIFLES. THEY ARE TALKING, AND LISTENING TO DISTANT EXPLOSIONS AND THE SOUNDS
OF LASER BATTERIES. WE HAVE NOT BEEN INTERFERED WITH AND THE X-WINGS HAVE NOT
BEEN OPENED. WE AND THE X -WINGS HAVE SUFFER
ED ONLY COSMETIC DAMAGE.
" Cosmetic damage?"
THEY PUT STRAPS ON THE X-WINGS TO WINCH US OFF THE BALCONY AND TAKE US TO
THE HANGAR. THE STRAPS RUBBED PAINT OFF ON BOTH THE SNUBFIGHTERS AND US.
"Stand by, Gate. We'll get someone to you soon." The Cartann half
squadrons preparing their runs on the Meteor banked and headed toward the
gigantic aircraft. Wedge vectored to be away from the Meteor when it happened
not that the enemy odds worried him, but so that the Meteor's gunners would
not have to worry about hitting him.
"Eye Three, when Red Two is picked up, assign the rescue craft to Red
Flight. Red Flight, as soon as Tycho rejoins us, we're heading into Cartann to
pick up our snubfighters."
He heard a wild, undisciplined cheer that had to be Janson's. Then
Iella's voice came back "Red Leader, if you head out in advance of the group,
you'll be flying into antiaircraft laser barrages. They don't have to cut back
on those until their own forces drift out over the city."
"Understood, Eye Three, but that's the plan. Red Leader out."
Wedge switched frequencies to that used by the insertion team in charge
of finding the X-wings. "Red Leader to Holdout."
The response was immediate, but hard to hear; the voice was Cheriss's,
and she was whispering. "Holdout to Red Leader."
"By any chance, did you end up with one of the New Republic datapads from
our quarters?"
"No, Red Leader. All I have is standard Adumari gear."
"Including a flatscreen?"
"Yes."
Wedge pondered that. Gate could be told to transmit to a flatscreen, but
anything he broadcast to Cheriss could be picked up by other flatscreens in
the area. Unless...
"Can you adjust the frequency it receives on?"
"Yes, of course."
"Good. Set it to the most unusual or ill-used fre - quency you can think
of and tell me what it is. Then, in a few minutes, your team is going to
receive some very helpful visual images from within your target area."
"Understood." A moment later, she responded with a numeric sequence
corresponding to one of the standard flatscreen reception frequencies.
"Acknowledged. Red Leader out." He sat back. He'd have to get Iella, who
knew more than anyone else on all Adumar about translating between New
Republic and Adumari systems, to get in communication with Gate to instruct
the R5 unit in interfacing with the Adumar flatscreens. Then Gate and the
other astromechs in the X-wings' hangar could broadcast 360-degree views of
the hangar interior, with the holocam data reinterpreted to two dimensions and
translated to the format understood by the flatcams.
It would be another desperately needed edge for his people. If only they
would survive long enough to employ it.
In five minutes, the aerial situation had changed, though not in
unexpected ways.
Cartann's fleet of Meteors and most of her Scythes had been caught on the
ground and largely destroyed the larger craft, requiring numerous crewmen,
were not in a position to lift off by the time the united Adumari craft roared
across the sky above them. Even at this distance, Wedge could see the columns
of flame that marked where Cartann Bladedrome and Giltella Air Base had been.
The united Adumari force's Meteors were doing substantial damage in the air,
their lasers actually optimized to shoot down incoming missiles and used only
when the opportunity arose to fire upon enemy fighters.
But that was almost the only good news. As the leading edge of the
engagement zone began to drift over the western edges of Cartann, attrition
was beginning to swing the tide of battle in Cartann's favor. Despite the fact
that Wedge's tactics seemed to be keeping the united Adumari force focused,
despite the fact that Adumari pilots and gunners were outfighting their
enemies, the greatly superior numbers of Cartann defenders were taking their
toll. Squadrons and partial squadrons were still lifting off from the city,
doubtless composed of retired pilots and the aircraft they personally owned,
and the Adumari force was growing low on fuel, owing to the hundreds of
kilometers they'd had to cross before firing their first shots. Too, the three
remaining TIE Interceptors were racking up a gruesome kill score, and had
adjusted their strategy to head off the sort of mass-fire tactics Red Flight
had employed against them. Any formation moving against them caused them to
flash off at a new and unpredictable angle, making the TIEs impossible for the
Blades to target and hit. It wouldn't be too much longer before the attrition
from the TIEs made the Adumari force too weak to have any chance at victory.
A two-seater Blade-30, the canopy over its rear gunnery position
shattered and its fuselage patched from numerous previous military
engagements, rose to join Red Flight. The gunner wore New Republic orange and
gestured at Wedge, a thumbs-up.
"Welcoming Blastpike Ten to Red Flight," Wedge said. "Pilot, be ready to
fly low and evasive. We're entering Cartann."
"Understood, Red Flight."
The four Blades broke away from the engagement zone and headed east over
Cartann City... and the sky lit up like a celebration for them, as countless
ground laser batteries unloaded their energy into the sky. Wedge and his
pilots dove almost to rooftop level to give the enemy gunners less time to
spot and track them. "Red Leader to Holdout."
"Holdout here."
"We're inbound." A bank of lasers cut in just to starboard of Wedge's
Blade. He felt heat from the flash of light, then his Blade rocked as the
minor shock wave from expansion of superheated air hit him. The shock wave
nearly slid him into Blastpike Ten, flying to his port; he corrected hastily.
Til transmit your destination." A moment later, a map of a portion of
central Cartann City appeared on Wedge's main display. He gave it a quick
look. Their destination, marked by a blinking X, was only a block from the
perator's palace. He whistled.
Before he could comment, Cheriss continued, "The area is very heavily
defended. You can see why. And we need you to do something. To arrive at a
particular time... and shoot something."
" Happy to oblige, Holdout." Red Flight flashed over a street; below, he
could see a standard repulsorlift transport, this one with a small laser
battery permanently mounted in the bed. The operator pointed up at him but had
no time to fire before Red Flight was safely over the rooftop. Wedge glanced
at his main board; the map graphic now included a countdown.
The permanent and mobile laser batteries were becoming more numerous, and
were better-advised of Red Flight's course. Twice Wedge reacted to the body
language of people on balconies, sending Red Flight into a sudden veer in a
new direction, barely eluding a laser emplacement's sudden fire from street
level. He sent Red Flight on a more unpredictable and dangerous course,
dipping down to street level and flying just above the mostly empty avenues,
risking the cables but making it that much harder for laser batteries to get
word of their path.
On
ly once were they threatened by fighters. A pair of older Blade-28s,
classic machines lovingly maintained by their owners, dropped down behind Red
Flight and opened up with lasers. Hobbie and Janson destroyed them with
sustained rear laser fire. The ruins of their
Blade-28s, burning, arced down to crash into the streets, They slid to
smash into building fronts. "Old men," Jan-son reported, a catch in his voice.
"Old men wearing big smiles."
As they reached the royal and governmental quadrant of Cartann City, the
defenses become more capable and more numerous. Laser batteries arose from
pods within building tops and could swivel to target enemies from the skies to
the streets below. Reluctantly, Wedge rose to rooftop level again so as to see
the pop-up batteries before they could target him. Red Flight fired upon and
were fired upon by twenty of the installations before he lost count, and
Wedge's Blade, though not even grazed, was so badly rocked by shock waves from
laser blasts that he could hear mechanisms shattering within the craft.
Then it was before him, the gray, innocuous building beyond which was the
perator's palace. Laser batteries atop the palace tried to target him, but on
this final portion of the run Wedge stayed down at street level, allowing the
target building to shield him. Ahead, he saw hangar-style doors grinding open
on the gray building, saw flashes of laser fire as men and women in dark,
innocuous garments were fired upon by defenders within it.
A pair of laser batteries rose with breathtaking speed from within the
gray building, turned to target Red Flight. All four Blades fired, three at
the battery to port, Hobbie at the battery to starboard. The port battery
exploded in a shower of sparks and fire. The starboard battery, though chewed
and blackened by Hobbie's lasers, continued to sweep around and orient toward
them; Hobbie launched a missile instead and the installation detonated,
leaving behind only rubble and smoke.
Now they only had small-arms fire to contend with; shooters atop the gray
building and clustered on balconies all around poured blaster fire into the
four Blades.
The impacts rang like off-key musical notes; Wedge felt as though a
brigade of mechanics were hammering on his hull with hydrospanners, but the
armored fuselage held up against the barrage. Still, there was an ominous new
Star Wars - X-Wing - Starfighters of Adumar Page 26
