Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [155]
I fed him the image of a clutch melting into the shape of an X-wing with my X-wing’s markings on it. I had no idea what he would make of that vision, and I couldn’t hold it for more than a second, but I hoped it meant he knew I was out here. I let him go, allowing us both time to recover before the battle joined, then I flew into the thick of it.
Above us and around us the capital ships exchanged fire. Though the New Republic had three smaller ships present, their combined firepower fairly evenly matched that of the Invidious. Red and green turbolaser beams made space an obstacle course where one wrong turn meant oblivion. Shots that did make it through the wheeling and diving fighter cloud struck the other capital ships, but shields seemed to be holding, except in the case of the smaller ships. Both sides seemed to be targeting smaller ships with their ion cannons, trying to eliminate annoyances while leaving themselves scraps to pick up after the battle.
Rock Squadron rolled into a lightfight with an eager and aggressive Y-wing squadron. Clutches were faster than wishbones, but these bone pilots weren’t bad. I nailed my first one on a high-angle deflection shot that caught it in an engine nacelle. The bone rolled immediately to starboard, causing me to roll that way as well, I popped my throttle off, reversed thrust and dropped it back on, anticipating a similar move by my foe. He realized that I’d outguessed him after only a second or two and started a full-throttle climb. I hit the rudder, swung my nose around to port and hit him a second time right behind the cockpit. His shields collapsed and the ship continued on, his climb carrying him away from Xa Fel.
I throttled up and rolled into a dive that vectored me in on the tail of a bone trying to light up one of my clutches. “I’ve got him, Five. Break port.”
“Careful, Lead!”
Blue ion bolts flashed back at me from the bone’s cockpit, splashing against my forward shield. I rolled right and came down, using the bone’s own engine nacelle as cover, then pumped more energy to my shield. “Heads-up, Rocks. Some of these bones are deuces and have a gunner in back controlling that ion cannon.”
Staying low, I cranked the throttle up, then climbed and triggered a shot into the Y-wing. The pilot had begun to roll the bone to give the gunner a shot at me, but I hit him first. Rolling out to port and applying some rudder, I kept him in my sights and shot again. I only got a partial hit, which took his aft shield down, but kept him flying.
Another ion bolt nailed the bone in the tail, leaving it spiraling through space. I saw Caet’s clutch go shooting past and commed a quick thanks to her. She replied with a yip, then I found myself flying out the other side of the battle and a bit closer to the New Republic capital ships than I had any desire to be. I rolled and dove, then turned and climbed, breaking as many planes as I could and holding no path longer than a second or two. None of the capital ships took a shot at me—they had bigger prey to shoot at—but I didn’t want to make myself an easy target to tempt them.
I wasn’t easy to hit, which is why, I suppose, I attracted Rogue Squadron’s attention. On a very basic level I found this attention very flattering. My peers had decided I was a worthy opponent, and since they didn’t know who I was, it was the sort of honest evaluation that was only possible in an anonymous situation.
The problem I had with it, of course, was that their method of showing their appreciation for my skills could likely get me killed. This would not do, but I was stuck. While I could dial up their comm frequencies, I wouldn’t know the encryption codes. If they reached me on a widecast, every other ship in the fleet could pick it up, and that wouldn’t do me much good either. I couldn’t even