Enemy Lines II_ Rebel Stand - Aaron Allston [106]
Somewhere out in the jungle beyond the kill zone, Yuuzhan Vong observers would be seeing this, reaching in alarm for their villip communicators, speaking in rapid, agitated language to their commanders.
One after another, the elite squadrons, those that had been stationed out of the biotics complex all these weeks to reinforce the notion that this was the most critical point of Borleias’s defense, announced readiness and lined up: Gavin Darklighter’s Rogue Squadron. Jaina Solo’s Twin Suns. Saba Sebatyne’s Wild Knights. Luke’s Blackmoons. Wes Janson’s Taanab Yellow Aces. Shawnkyr Nuruodo’s Vanguard Squadron. The Millennium Falcon. Less than two kilometers away, squadrons off Lusankya dueled with coralskipper squadrons and capital ships moving in on the facility, but the elites wouldn’t be reinforcing them, wouldn’t be confronting the planet-level attackers; they’d be lying to the enemy instead.
At General Antilles’s command, the Rogues, Twin Suns, and Blackmoons lifted off. The Starlancer pipefighters lifted off in their wake. Then the other elites rose. It was a convoy of starfighters, blastboats, and one light freighter, and in some ways it was among the deadliest armadas the New Republic had ever launched.
On the holocam screen, Wedge watched the squadrons of the last Starlancer sortie take off. “Alert Lusankya,” he told Tycho. “As soon as the pursuit is on, he’s to initiate Operation Emperor’s Spear.”
“Done,” Tycho said.
“This,” Czulkang Lah informed Harrar, “is it. Their all-out attack to destroy my son.”
“How will it play out?” the priest asked.
“All their best pilots protect the lambent vehicles. They expect us to send overwhelming hordes of coralskippers against that fleet. Once our fighters are poised to attack, they will initiate whatever means they have to confuse our yammosks, to destroy communication among our forces.” Czulkang Lah offered up a nearly lipless smile. “But it will not happen so. Moments after our forces engage, mobile dovin basal mines will enter the area and begin stripping the enemy shields. All the fighters assigned to that engagement have been carefully drilled in individual pilot initiative. A disruption of yammosk control will not inconvenience them in the least. Their most famous fighters will be overwhelmed and destroyed. The menace the crystal represents will be ended. And with the ground-based fighters weakened by exhaustion and loss, the ground facility will fall within an hour.”
Harrar nodded. The old warmaster’s confidence was welcome in these uncertain times. “All these individual-initiative fighters … they know not to harm Jaina Solo?”
“They do.”
“The gods smile upon you, Czulkang Lah.”
“May it be so. Now, I must turn my attention to the battle to come.”
Harrar bowed and withdrew. He gave no sign of it, but he was most pleased. At last, the Yuuzhan Vong goals in the Pyria system were within their grasp.
Danni Quee switched over the Wild Knights’ blastboat comm board to unit frequency. “This is Wild One. Gravitics suggest a large formation of coralskippers moving our way. It looks like a minimum of one hundred skips. Estimated time of interception, ten minutes.”
“Wild One, Ace-One. That’s enough for the Yellow Aces, but what are the rest of you going to do?”
“Ace-One, Rogue Leader. Pipe down.”
“Correction, sensors are bumping those numbers up. One hundred and fifty minimum.”
“Ah, that’s getting better.”
“Now?” Tycho asked.
Wedge considered, still focused on the sensor display correlating all the data from the various squadrons. He nodded.
“Lusankya, commence Operation Emperor’s Spear.” Tycho listened to the response, then lowered the earpiece. “Lusankya’s away.”
“Start evacuation of this facility.”
Tycho returned to his comlink. “Commence Piranha-Beetle. Repeat, commence Piranha-Beetle.”
“Get on up to Mon Mothma, Tycho. If at any time you lose contact with me, whether it’s while I’m in transit or for any other reason, you take command of the operation.”
“Done.”
“And make sure my shuttle is standing by. I don’t want to come trotting