Star Wars: X-Wing II: Wedge's Gamble

by Michael A. Stackpole

  The force of the explosion lifted Corran off his feet and blasted him into the office’s rear wall. Wallstone sagged and buckled, studs bent, but the wall did not collapse. The door leading into the stairwell crumpled and tore free of the hinges, allowing a great deal of the explosive force to blow out through it. The desk slammed back against the wall and Corran’s legs fell across the top of it. His head and shoulders tipped down, his feet came up, and he crashed to the debris-strewn floor with blood streaming from his nose and an incessant ringing in his ears.

  Through the dust and smoke he saw what appeared to be a quartet of stormtroopers dropping through a hole in the floor and standing on the ceiling. Dazed as he was it took him a moment to realize his perspective came from his still being upside down. Slightly more surprising than that discovery was the far more welcome realization that he still held the blaster carbine in his left hand.

  He let his body sag to the right, then he rolled forward onto his stomach. The world swam into focus a moment later. He slid his right hand forward and got it wrapped around the weapon’s pistol grip. His left hand moved up to grasp the barrel and he tightened down on the trigger.

  His first shots hit a stormtrooper in the knees and dropped him back into his fellows. Only one of them turned toward him, the other two looked out at the warehouse floor that was lit by back and forth fire from dozens of blasters. The stormtrooper who had made the correct guess brought his carbine up and over, but only managed to trace a line of fire across the wall above Corran’s head.

  Corran walked his fire up the stormtrooper’s midline, burning three holes navel, heart, and throat before a fourth knocked the man’s helmet flying and dumped his body to the floor. The helmet bounced off the back of one of the other stormtroopers and clipped the helmet of the last one. Both men spun, their weapons coming around with deliberate and lethal intent.

  Corran managed to rip off a burst that hit one of them in the thigh, then his blaster carbine stopped firing. The man he’d hit spun around and went down to one knee, but still appeared to be full of fight. Corran hit the power pack release button and reached down into his pants pocket for a replacement, but all he felt was tattered fabric and his own flesh.

  Next to him the desk rose two centimeters off the floor, then tipped forward. It rolled awkwardly, half eclipsing him, and caught the full force of the last standing stormtrooper’s fire. Corran rolled to his right, trying to take advantage of the cover. As he did so, Mirax rose up on one knee and scythed blaster fire back and forth across the last two stormtroopers. Her shots took the standing man in the middle, doubling him over, and blew apart the helmet of the one Corran had only wounded.

  Corran saw her look down at him and saw her lips move, but he couldn’t hear her past the ringing in his ears. He took a guess at what she was saying and forced a smile through the blood he could taste on his lips. “I’ll live. They used concussion munitions but the wall stopped us from being knocked out.” He scrambled up on his hands and knees. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Mirax crawled over to the open doorway and slid down the door to the first landing. Corran followed, then the two of them ran down the remaining flights. Corran kicked the door to the basement garage open. Mirax went through low and he followed. What they found made her curse and the only good thing about it was the fact that he heard her oath.

  Off to the right, heading out through the shadows, he saw four airspeeders going away. From the left, racing down a ramp and into the garage’s dark interior, came six Imperial stormtroopers on Aratech 74-Y military speeder bikes. Five peeled off their formation to go after the airspeeders and one swung around toward them.

  “Mirax, go!” Corran cast aside the useless carbine and drew his blaster pistol. She darted off toward the left and got behind one of the garage’s massive pillars. She waved him toward her and made to come around and cover him, but a laser bolt from the speeder bike gouged a chunk of duracrete from near her head.

  He shook his head and ran toward the approaching speeder bike. He cut to the right, snapped off two shots, then ducked his left shoulder and rolled to the side as the speeder bike’s laser bolts sizzled over his head. He came up into a crouch with only twenty meters separating him from the speeder bike. As his blaster came up he saw the stormtrooper’s right hand curl back, cranking the throttle. The bike roared forward and Corran knew the man intended to impale him on the spikes that jutted forward of the speeder bike’s vector-control surfaces.

  Corran twisted to the right, willing his body to flow out around the sharp spearhead mounted on the front of the craft. The vector-control surface shredded the left side of his jacket, passing just beneath Corran’s left arm. He tried to bring his blaster around to get a shot off at the stormtrooper, but all he managed to do before the stormtrooper’s knee caught him in the hip and spun him to the ground was slam the weapon down hard on the driver’s left hand.

  The blow to the man’s hand jerked the vector-control back making the speeder bike’s nose veer sharply upward. It struck sparks from the ceiling and a moment later the bike’s tail joined in producing fireworks as it scraped along on the ground. The forward control surfaces buckled and curled in as the bike jammed them hard against the ceiling. The bike began to invert, spilling the rider, then bounced against the floor and ceiling before it stopped and hovered.

  The stormtrooper skidded along on his armored back, spinning around like a top. His legs finally smacked up against a pillar stopping his spin. He shook his head and tried to climb to his feet, but Mirax stepped out from behind the pillar and dropped him with a kick to the head.

  “Now what, Corran?”

  A muffled explosion from above shook the garage. Dust and peeling paint fell from the ceiling. Smoke and dust billowed out of the doorway from above. “I know we’re not going back up there.”

  She frowned. “Okay, one choice down. Care to pick another?”

  He shrugged, then saw blaster bolts darting through the garage. One of the airspeeders had turned off at the last moment and was racing back toward them, with a speeder bike in pursuit. The airspeeder’s driver neatly wound the vehicle around and through a complex course, never giving the stormtrooper a clean shot. Even so, because of the speeder bike’s shorter turning radius, it ate up the distance between them, making it only a matter of time before he drew close enough to cripple and kill the airspeeder.

  Corran pointed toward the pursuit. “Fire at the speeder bike. Let the airspeeder know there’s cover over here.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Get luckier than I’ve been already, I hope.” Corran ran over to the hovering speeder bike, grabbed the control handles, and started pushing it toward one of the open rows between columns. He swung into the seat and checked the weapon’s control monitor. It’s good to go. Now I just need a target. He hit the thumb switch on the vector-controller and sent a ruby laser bolt screaming out into the distance.

  Mirax laid down a solid pattern of fire that hemmed the speeder bike in and the airspeeder driver took full advantage of it. She whipped the wheel to the right and shot straight down a row toward the end where Mirax and Corran stood.

  The airspeeder passed in front of the hovering speeder bike and the second it was clear, Corran hit the firing switch. The speeder bike’s laser cannon spat out a steady stream of scarlet energy darts. He expected the pursuing stormtrooper to fly his speeder bike right through the hail of bolts, but the pilot cut sharply to the left and swung wide of Corran’s trap.

  Fortunately that left him in the open for Mirax. Her burst of fire caught the man in the left flank and knocked him from the saddle. He hit hard, with his helmet splitting like the rind of an overripe meiloorun. His body rolled along, almost coming upright again, when it collided with a pillar and fell back to the ground slowly.

  The airspeeder came to a stop between Corran and Mirax. “C’mon, get in.”

  Corran looked somewhat agog at the pilot. “Inyri, you came back for us?”
r />   “Stay if you like, Horn, or come with me.”

  Mirax grabbed Corran by the shoulder and dumped him into the rear seat, then hopped in beside Inyri. “I think he got hit in the head. Go.”

  Lying in the back of the airspeeder, Corran swiped a hand across his mouth and it came away bloody. He tore a chunk of the lining out of his jacket and started mopping up the blood. “What happened back there?”

  “I don’t know.” Inyri brought the airspeeder out of the garage and immediately started it climbing. “We were below waiting the way we were supposed to, then we heard a couple of small explosions and one big one from the office at the head of the stairs. There wasn’t any percentage in staying around, so we took off.”

  Her voice took on an edge. “I wasn’t really coming back for you. The speeder bikes had an angle on exit and I figured that being last in line I’d be the first to die. I broke off and thought to run back to the way they came in, then I noticed you were shooting at the bike on my tail. When you got him, the least I could do was pick you up.”

  Mirax patted Inyri on the shoulder. “Intentions don’t count, what you do does.”

  Corran sat up in the back seat. The only way Imperials could have gotten to the memory core factory and raided it when they did was if they had inside information about what was happening there and when it was going to take place. Without thinking too hard on the matter he could identify twenty people who knew about the operation and that number could have expanded exponentially if someone stupid started bragging.

  From those who might have sold the operation out he immediately discarded any of the Rogues, Mirax, Winter, and Iella. All of them, save Winter, had actually been in the factory. Wedge said Winter was incorruptible. While it was not in Corran’s nature to believe that about anyone, the fact that Pash Cracken and Iella also vouched for her let him clear her.

  Mirax looked out through the windscreen. “Where are we going?”

  “Zekka picked out a location for us to meet if things didn’t go as planned. We’ll link up there and then see who else has survived this debacle.”

  As Inyri whisked them along a twisty, mind-boggling course through the city, ascending and descending through levels and around buildings, Corran continued considering suspects. In the back of his mind he knew the exercise was futile because there was no way he could prove his suspicions. He also knew that the first person on his suspect list, Zekka Thyne, would also be the last person on it. Corran knew Thyne had betrayed them, he knew it in his heart, and he didn’t really need proof for that conviction.

  His being placed in the position of lookout was perfect from the Imp point of view. He protested that he wanted something more important but Vorru forced him to keep that job. Even though I thought letting him organize lookouts was a bad idea, I was relieved since I wouldn’t have him with a gun in a place where my back might be turned. Heck, I was even glad he was disappointed with his assignment. Unfortunately, without proof I’ll have a hard time convincing others he’s the Sithspawn who gave us up to the Imps.

  Inyri swooped the airspeeder down and brought it in through a small round portal on the shadowed midlevel of a building. A round plug of a door rolled in place after they entered. Lights came on in a hangar, revealing it to be empty except for a racked speeder bike off to the right. Inyri brought the airspeeder to a stop, letting it settle on the hangar floor.

  “I guess we got here before the others.” With her hands on the top of the windscreen, Inyri pulled herself up out of the airspeeder. “I hope they make it.”

  “I can vote for that.” Corran clambered out of the back of the airspeeder and walked over to the speeder bike. He pressed a hand against the cold metal of its engine housing, then turned as the doorway into the interior of the building opened.

  “You’ll want to get away from the speeder bike.” Zekka Thyne emerged from the building with a blaster carbine leveled in Corran’s direction. “Get your hands up. Hmmm. I can see why you security types like saying that, such a feeling of power. You, too, Terrik. Inyri, take their blasters.”

  Mirax frowned. “What’s going on here?”

  Corran raised his hands to shoulder height as Inyri collected his gun. “Patches sold us out.”

  Inyri shook her head. “Impossible. He hates the Imps as much as you do—as much as any of us do.”

  Corran jerked a thumb toward the speeder bike. “The engine’s cold. We got no warning because he wasn’t there. Didn’t want to take a chance the Imps would shoot him up.”

  “I knew you’d figure it out, just the same way I knew they wouldn’t get you.” Thyne sneered at him. “You and your father always were lucky. That’s the only way you got me, your old man was luckier than I was.”

  “It wasn’t luck. My father was smarter than you were. He still is.”

  “He’s dead.”

  “My point stands.” Corran shrugged. “What did you figure you’d tell Vorru after everyone else got wiped out in the raid? Or did you figure it wouldn’t matter?”

  Mirax slowly nodded. “He’s got a plan to get away, Corran. He’s going to sell you to his Imperial contact for safe passage and a new identity on a new world.”

  Thyne’s smile broadened to hideous proportions. “Close, very close, except in one detail.” The carbine rose to shoulder height. “Kirtan Loor just wants a corpse.”

  The whine of a single blaster shot filled the hangar and the bolt tinted everything with the color of blood. Thyne staggered, then slumped back against the wall. His legs collapsed and his carbine clattered to the ground. With both hands he tried to stem the steaming blood dribbling from his belly.

  Corran looked over at Inyri, his gaze drawn to her because of the blaster pistol falling from her hands, then ran over to Thyne. Squatting down he could tell from the way blood soaked the man’s clothes that there wasn’t anything he could do for him. “Unless you have a bacta tank in there, you’re dead.”

  “Then I’m dead. Just like your father.” A wet cough wracked Thyne. “You want to know if I had him killed, yes?”

  Corran shook his head. “No. I wouldn’t believe whatever you told me and it wouldn’t bring him back.” And since you really want to torture me with it, I won’t give you the satisfaction of thinking I do want to know.

  Thyne grimaced against the pain that contracted his muscles. “Let me tell you this. Loor knows about you. He knew about you before he forced me to betray you. I sold you out this time, but someone else sold you out before me.”

  Corran’s jaw dropped open. Tycho! But Wedge said he’d died on Noquivzor so I couldn’t have seen him here. Someone else? Who?

  Thyne forced a laugh. “There, I will haunt you.”

  “No, you’ll just be dead and you’ll die knowing you’ve warned me about an enemy I didn’t know I had.” Corran patted the man on the shoulder, pulling his hand back before Thyne could bite weakly at it. “You’ve just saved my life, Zekka Thyne, and that’s something we’ll both remember until death takes us.”

  Thyne’s head lolled to the left and his body slackened. Corran stood and saw Mirax comforting Inyri. He started to open his mouth to say something, but Mirax caught his eye and shook her head to forestall his comment. He closed his mouth again realizing that the question he would have asked, though simple, probably would not have a simple answer. Nor an answer I really have a chance of understanding.

  He didn’t even know if he should thank Inyri for saving his life by shooting her lover. Corran admitted to himself that he’d not have thought she’d do that for all the stars in the galaxy. Her reaction toward him had been hostile from the moment they’d met on Kessel. Corran clearly remembered Inyri dispassionately handing Thyne a blaster so Thyne could kill him at the Headquarters. Later she had seemed to resent his helping her escape from the Imperials after her speeder bike had been shot down.

  Every clue she’d given him suggested that if Thyne had been slow in shooting him, she’d have gladly done the job rather speedily.

&n
bsp; Inyri eased herself free of Mirax’s embrace and sat back against the airspeeder’s hull. The front end of the vehicle hid Thyne’s body from her view though a thin rivulet of blood was meandering toward a drain in the center of the hangar floor. She hid her face in her hands, sobbed silently a bit, then wiped away her tears.

  When she looked over at him, despite the red rimming her eyes, she looked eerily like her sister, Lujayne. “You want to know why.”

  Corran nodded. He’d heard enough preambles to confessions to know that she needed to talk more than he wanted to have her actions explained. “If you want to tell me.”

  “Coming from Kessel, it marks you. No one respects you because they assume you’re a criminal. When you tell them you aren’t they just assume you’re a liar. Even the prisoners don’t respect you—they all come from worlds that have more going for them than spice mines and a prison. If you’re born there you can never escape Kessel.”

  Corran felt a tight knot forming in his stomach. When he’d first met Lujayne Forge he’d prejudged her because of where she had come from. Everything Inyri said was true, but her sister hadn’t let that stop her. Lujayne had confronted Corran with his bias and made him see what he was doing. That experience with Lujayne had changed him. It had made him ready to look beyond where Inyri came from, but she’d prejudged and rejected him.

  “Thyne helped me escape Kessel. He respected me. He made others respect me. He made me respect me. Yet in all the time I was with him I knew that he was not the sort of person I had been raised to respect. He was the antithesis of everything my parents had taught me was good and right in the galaxy.”

  Mirax nodded. “But he respected you and valued you in a way you never thought you’d find.”

  “Exactly.” Inyri looked up at Corran. “Every time you would show up I’d be reminded of what I’d been raised to believe. I tried to keep you away, but in the middle of a lightfight you and Gavin run out and pull me out of the street. Thyne didn’t do that. He didn’t turn around and come back for me, but I missed the signs even then.