Star Wars_ The Black Fleet Crisis 02_ Shield of Lies - Michael P. Kube-McDowell [117]
There was no sign of enemy snub fighters, but the flight began taking some fire from the thrustship at fifteen hundred kilometers. Hinking and jinking the K-wing violently, Tuketu alerted his weapons tech to the opportunity that created.
“They’re firing through their shields, Skids—the beam scatter will give us the exact range to the boundary.”
“Working on it now,” Skids answered, his head down over his control displays.
“Hurry,” Tuketu said. “Drop point coming up fast.”
There was an induction crackle as an ion bolt passed within twenty meters of the bomber. “Red Leader, Red Five—are you hearing this stuff on the command comm?”
The moment the question was asked, Tuketu realized that there were other voices in the cockpit. “Cut the chatter, Red Flight,” he said automatically. “C One has to stay open.”
“Red Leader, that’s not us—and it’s all over the spectrum, C One, C Two, the task force frequency, the Fifth’s hypercomm—are you listening to it, Red Leader? Do you hear what they’re saying?”
The drop point was almost on them. Esege Tuketu forced himself to focus on the sounds he had been disregarding as extraneous.
“—I am the Kubaz called Totolaya. I reside in the colony Morning Bell. I am a hostage of the Yevetha. If you attack, I will be killed—”
On C2 the message was, “I am Brakka Barakas, an elder of New Brigia. I am a hostage of the Yevetha. If you attack us, I will be killed—”
“Red Leader, Red Four. Shall we break off?”
“Red Two here—Tuke, what do we do?”
The decision had to be made in an instant. “Stay on target. Make your drops,” Tuke snapped.
Just then an ion bolt from one of the thrustship batteries caught Red Four full on the port engine foil. The charge danced angrily over the surface of the bomber. Before it could reach the eggs, Red Four’s weapons tech released them.
“Eggs away!” Skids cried.
“—I am Liekas Tendo, a Morath mining engineer. I’m in a security cell on some kind of starship. They say these creatures holding us are Yevetha. They say if you attack us, I’ll be killed. Please don’t attack us—”
Tuketu pulled the stick back sharply, kicking in the big slant-mounted third engine. The power of it quickly changed the bomber’s attitude and trajectory, pushing it out and away from the ship, the shields, and the explosions to come. As always, the pullout took Tuketu right to the brink of unconsciousness.
“—I am Crandor Ijjix of the Norat Sovereignty. I have been taken hostage by invaders and held on their ship. To all vessels of the New Republic—do not attack, or we will be eradicated—”
Red Four never made its pullout move. Disabled by the ion bolt, the K-wing continued falling in toward the thrustship, trailing its own torpedoes by a fraction of a second. When the plasma eggs reached the shield perimeter, Red Four was enveloped by the double fireball. The fragments that were hurled out of the cloud were closer in size to dust than to a spaceship.
“Jojo—” Tuke closed his eyes for just a moment. “Skids, report results of bombing.”
“Negative—negative, the shield’s still up,” Skids said disgustedly. “Red Two, Three, and Five did not drop their eggs, repeat, did not drop.”
“Red Leader, this is Red Three weps. Tuke, I’m sorry—I just couldn’t do it. Not with hostages begging me not to.”
“Son of a—you’re looking at a court-martial, Condor.”
“I’ll accept the consequences. But I wasn’t going to help murder the people we came here to help.”
“Blue Leader to Red Flight—you guys had better work it out back at the barn. Target is launching its own birds. Ten on the wing and more coming.”
After one glance at the tracking display, Tuketu pushed the throttle forward and wheeled his bomber around so that the nose pointed back toward Indomitable. “Red Two, Red Three, Red Five, find a safe place to dump your bomb load. Everyone take it home, best possible speed. Red Leader to flight boss