Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 07_ Fury - Aaron Allston [65]
And Luke…did not hate. He fired again, his laser cannons chipping away at the top of Jacen’s fuselage as his target, through brilliant evasive flying, kept his attacks from striking a more vital portion of the starfighter.
Luke remained calm, reactive, ready to defend, ready to kill. He felt the other two StealthX wing pairs approach his position. Soon, they would be in firing range. Soon, this would be over.
Shields, then.
Caedus disengaged the electronic countermeasures and activated his shields. Since he could not evade detection by his enemies, he would have to elude them for a while.
Nor was there any need to maintain comm silence. “Solo to Anakin Solo. Am under starfighter attack. Get me some starfighter support here now. Bring the Anakin Solo, as well.”
Tebut’s smooth, controlled voice answered him. “At once, sir.”
Caedus heeled over to commence a sprint back to the capital ship formation. But he could feel Kyp and Corran vector to place themselves in his path, while Luke remained close behind.
Caedus stifled a curse. Blast, but they were good, herding him away from his safe haven. If anything, his rage grew.
And with each increase in his anger, Allana’s sobbing grew louder, her body shaking against his.
He could not comfort her. To comfort her now would be to die.
Juking and jinking, his own skills and Force insights making him an unpredictable target, he moved away from the Alliance formation, driven by his pursuers, his maneuvers eating up so much of his speed that he had no chance of outdistancing them. Luke’s lasers, sometimes joined by Kyp’s or Corran’s, came perilously close to him, occasionally brightening his shields and rattling his Blur.
He became lost in time, lost in his rage, existing in the moment. He could not have remembered his name, only that he had to fly, that he had to protect his daughter. Sweat poured from him. His flight suit had ceased absorbing his sweat long ago. Now it pooled in his boots and drenched his pilot’s couch.
Then there was…intrusion. More presences. Kyp and Corran were suddenly farther away, reducing the number of inbound attacks.
Caedus hazarded a glance at his sensor board. It showed a changed battlefield.
He was now far away from the Alliance formation. In fact, it no longer was an Alliance formation. The Alliance and Corellian capital ships had merged into a single formation, one in which the antiquated Corellian vessels were taking a horrible beating but fighting on. Most of the engagement’s starfighters were away from that zone, the Corellians leading the Alliance away in the distance.
Closer, there were Alliance-marked starfighters in Jacen’s vicnity, trading fire with the StealthXs, tracking them by their laser emissions.
As Caedus watched, the StealthXs ceased laserfire. Now they would rely solely on shadow bombs, launched with use of the Force and therefore undetectable by ordinary sensors.
Not Luke. He stayed on Caedus’s tail, still pouring laserfire at the Blur, as did Luke’s wingmates. But a trio of Alliance starfighters—two XJ7 X-wings and one of those ungainly round-nosed Aleph starfighters—now harrassed Caedus’s pursuers.
Some distance away, a red blip representing an enemy the size of a small transport was inbound. Its transceiver signal showed it to be the Love Commander. Beyond that, the Anakin Solo was also inbound.
Caedus nodded. He returned his attention to his flying. A moment’s distraction now would kill him, but the end of this engagement was in sight. The Anakin Solo would arrive, its turbolasers and ion cannons would chase the Jedi away, and he could return to safety.
Luke stayed on Jacen’s tail, but the situation was worsening. Sanola Ti had dropped back to engage the enemy X-wings and Aleph, but if their pilots were good, she couldn’t hold them. And without the other two Masters to help herd him, Jacen would be able to turn back to the Anakin Solo. Luke had to finish this fight now.
He opened himself