Enemy Lines II_ Rebel Stand - Aaron Allston [114]
But there were still squadrons of enemy starfighters out there, mostly concentrated at Lusankya’s stern, maintaining a savage defense over that area of the ship.
Kasdakh Bhul moved to stand beside him. “Our pilots report that the Lusankya abomination is almost destroyed. Lack of responsiveness indicates that most of her crew must be dead and most of her weapons eliminated. She will not be able to send her lasers and bolts against us.”
Czulkang Lah carefully positioned his feet so that the blow would not cause him to lose his balance; that would be unseemly. Then he swung his arm. His vonduun crab armor correctly interpreted his haste and snapped his arm forward. His armored forearm cracked across the back of Kasdakh Bhul’s helmet, sending his second-in-command staggering forward.
Kasdakh Bhul regained his balance and spun. Czulkang Lah could see the younger officer’s features graduate from an expression of anger to one of surprise.
“You see, but you do not understand,” Czulkang Lah said. “They never intended to use their weapons upon us.”
“Oh.” The younger officer’s voice became unreasonably reasonable, a type of mockery useful in that it could be persuasively denied afterward. “So this was simply an infidel sacrifice? An apology? They are saying, We are sorry for being bad; here, have our greatest weapon?”
Czulkang Lah offered him a smile nearly devoid of teeth. “You persist in being an idiot. I am proud to say I did not train you; you would have been my most repellent failure. Did you not notice? They never protected their weapons. They only protected their engines. What does that tell you?”
The younger officer scowled. “That they wanted the thing to get here quickly?”
“That their engines are their weapons. Are you sure you are not an ooglith masquer with nothing actually inside?”
Kasdakh Bhul ignored the undisguised insult. “Then their intention—is to ram us?”
“Wisdom. At last. So, even an ooglith masquer can learn a little when submerged in knowledge.”
“Then we must make sure the abomination is incapable of reaching us. Of maneuvering adequately to ram us.”
“Very good. Issue the orders, Ooglith Masquer.”
Three coralskippers, all that remained of the latest wave, turned and sped away.
Doubtless they’d regroup with reinforcements in a minute and return. Luke checked his sensor and status boards. He was now two pilots down, and the remainder of his units were battered; he had some plasma scoring on his starboard top S-wing and engine. “Blackmoon Leader to squadron,” he said. “We have a moment. Anyone with stripped shields, now’s the time to commence a power restart.” He goosed his thruster to come up behind and below Lusankya’s port-side thruster banks; he kept well to port of them. This position gave him a good view of the Yuuzhan Vong worldship ahead. “Anything I should know?”
“We have Blackmoon Eleven back on the status board.” That was the voice of Lieutenant Ninora Birt, Blackmoon Ten, the squad’s new communications specialist. A freelance smuggler, she’d loaned her expertise and her freighter, Record Time, to the cause of this operation. Her freighter had been half destroyed during the taking of Borleias, and the job had been completed above Coruscant weeks later; now, with a new military officer’s commission, she was still fighting the good fight.
Luke glanced at his status board. It did indeed indicate that Blackmoon Eleven was active. Distance and direction suggested that the X-wing was on Borleias.
“No way.” That was Blackmoon Five. “Koril’s in bacta somewhere. I saw the medics haul him off.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Luke said. “Concentrate on what’s at hand.”
“Blackmoon Leader, this is Twin Suns Leader.”
“Go, Goddess.”
“Sharr is detecting skips regrouping in a bunch of different units. All at a uniform distance away from Lusankya.”
“We’ll set up for a new wave, then. Thanks, Exalted One.”
Finally Jaina could see the incoming squadrons on her sensors. There were a lot of them, eight