Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [333]
“Skeck,” Jula said toward the audio pickup, “do you copy?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Are the ARCs within range of your turbolasers?” Shryne asked.
“Almost,” Skeck said.
“Anticipate the formation break. Lead them, and open up.”
Brudi ran a fast calculation on the rate at which the Imperial starfighters were gaining on the transport. “You’re good to go,” he said.
“Firing!” Skeck announced.
Dense packets of scarlet light tore from the Drunk Dancer’s forward batteries, converging on their distant targets. A quartet of fiery blossoms lighted local space.
Archyr whooped. “Pursuit squadron reduced by half!”
“Nice,” Jula said, grinning at Shryne. “What other tricks do you have up your sleeve?”
Shryne didn’t answer her. On Murkhana, and despite everything that had happened, he had tried to avoid killing any clone troopers. Now here he was, lining them up to be blown to pieces.
“Roan,” Jula said sharply.
“The remaining ARCs will regroup, forming up behind the squadron leader,” he said at last. Tapping Brudi on the shoulder, he added: “Instruct the transport to nose up over the ecliptic. When the ARCs follow suit, Skeck and Archyr should have a clear shot at their bellies.”
“Copy that,” Brudi said.
Jula was studying one of the display screens. “Transport is outward bound. ARCs are up and away.”
“Firing!” Skeck reported.
A fifth explosion blossomed over the red planet’s north pole. Other laser beams went wide of their marks.
“They’ve figured us out,” Shryne said. “They’ll scatter now.”
“Transport is angling for the mines,” Brudi updated.
“Just what I’d do,” Jula said.
The threat board loosed another alert tone.
Brudi tapped his finger on the long-distance scanner array screen. “Six more starfighters have emerged from hyperspace.”
Jula forced a short exhale. “Tell whoever’s piloting the transport to go to full throttle. He may not even be aware of the new players.”
“He won’t miss this,” Brudi said somberly.
Shryne eased out of his seat to peer over Brudi’s shoulder. “What?”
“Republic light cruiser,” Jula said. “But don’t worry, we can outrun it.”
On the console’s central screen, the scanners assembled a facsimile of the hourglass-shaped warship, highlighting its dozens of turbolaser and ion cannons.
“You won’t outrun those guns,” Shryne said.
Jula considered it. “Brudi, divert power to the forward deflectors. I’m going to try to take us behind that Lucrehulk arm.” She took a moment to glance at Shryne. “Guess the Jedi are more important than I thought, if the Empire’s sending cruisers after you.”
“Cruiser’s turbos are firing,” Skeck said over the speaker.
“Hold tight,” Jula warned.
Blinding light splashed against the viewports. Jolted, the Drunk Dancer lost power momentarily, then returned to life.
“We’re okay,” Brudi confirmed, “but the transport’s in trouble.”
“Instruct them to raise their aft shields and rendezvous with us behind the Lucrehulk arm,” Jula said. “Tell them we’ll hold off the cruiser and ARCs while they make a run for it.”
Brudi relayed the instructions and waited for a response. “They’ll try. But the transport’s shields are heavily damaged. One more hit from the cruiser and they’re dead in space.”
Jula muttered a curse. The Drunk Dancer was just dropping behind the curved fragment of docking arm when she said: “I’m going to bring us back in the open. Rig for ion cannon fire. Let’s see if we can surprise them.”
The smugglers’ ship sustained two powerful strikes as it was emerging from cover, but not enough to incapacitate it.
“Ion surprise,” Archyr said.
“Laser chaser,” Skeck chimed in.
White light flared in the distance, and blue current coruscated over the cruiser’s dark hull.
Brudi bent to one of the screens. “Solid hit. And they definitely didn’t see it coming. Their shields are dazed.”
“Taking us back into cover,” Jula said. “Where’s the transport?”
Brudi spoke to it. “Weaving through the last of the mines.