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Evasive! Salla flipped Rimrunner up on her side, but took a hit anyway. Her shields took the brunt of it, but the freighter shuddered violently.

“Get those TIEs!” she yelled.

“I’m trying!” came both Lando’s and Shug’s voices at the same time.

Salla swore grimly. Where’s the Lianna Guard? She’d lost track of the Guardian-class ship in the melee.

BAM!

Rimrunner shuddered again. Salla struggled to hold her bucking ship, narrowly missed crashing into a huge piece of space debris. They’d been hit in the flank, and her shields were weakened back there. From the strength of the blast, it must have been the patrol ship, not a TIE.

“AWriiiiight!” Lando shouted in her headset, and she saw another TIE wiped out.

Two to two. Much better odds!

Okay, now … where was the Lianna Guard? On Lando’s tail? No! Coming up directly behind her!

Lando said urgently, “Evasive, Salla!”

“Not on your life!” she bellowed. “This is what I’ve been waiting for! Rik, blast your worthless hide, get him!”

Captain Lodrel of the Imperial ship Lianna Guard smiled grimly as his ship streaked toward the mynock-shaped freighters stern. I’ve got you! he thought smugly, and opened his mouth to give the order to destroy the helpless vessel.

But before he could speak, Lodrel noticed something strange about the rear of the CorelliSpace ship. Two camouflaged gun ports had just slid open in the ship’s stern!

Instead of shouting “Fire!” Lodrel screamed, “Evasive!”

But two concussion missiles were already streaking toward him. Hey! That’s not fair! Lodrel thought indignantly.

It was his last thought …

“Yahooooooo!” shouted Salla as she saw the patrol ship blown to atoms on her rear sensors. “We got him! Sweet shooting, Rik!”

“Does that mean you’ll kiss me when we get back to base?” he demanded in her headset.

“Not a chance,” Salla said cheerfully. “But I’ll buy you a drink!”

“Congratulations, Lady Salla,” Vuffi Raa said, in his prissy, overly refined tones.

“Great going, Salla!” Lando shouted. “In all the excitement, I totally forgot about those missile launchers. Shug, you are the best!”

“Yeah, Shug, we all owe you,” Salla agreed.

“That was fun,” Shug said, chuckling. “Want to do it again?”

“Sure!” Salla and Lando chorused.

Mako Spince heaved a sigh of relief when the crippled Dragon Pearl managed to reach Illusion Point, and the relative protection offered by the bigger ships in Drea Renthal’s mercenary fleet. He checked his sensors, all the while listening to his ships report in.

The smugglers were doing well against the Imp skirmish vessels. They were taking losses, though, ships they couldn’t afford to lose. Mako frowned as he checked ship after ship. I’m losing a lot of friends today, he thought sadly. Too many good ships and people gone …

He ran a status check. Almost twenty-five percent of his smuggler vessels … gone. Even if they won this battle, the smuggling operations out of Nar Shaddaa were going to be affected for a long, long time.

But the Imps had probably lost half their TIE fighters, and nearly fifty percent of their skirmish ships.

The big question is, Mako thought, when is Greelanx gonna move in with his capital ships? The big ships were approaching steadily, but were still out of range.

Mako glanced nervously at his sensors, saw two skirmish vessels converge on a smuggler ship. Oh, no!

A panicked voice erupted in Mako’s headset. “Defender Central! Can you get me some help? I’m crippled, and—”

The voice scaled up into an agonized scream, and abruptly stopped. Mako watched as the blip on his sensors winked out. He cursed softly, helplessly.

“Commander Jelon,” Admiral Greelanx said, “order the remainder of the TIEs to deploy and engage at will.”

“Yes, sir.”

The big Imperial ships were now within five hundred kilometers of the Nar Shaddaa debris shell. Greelanx took a sip of stim-tea, then checked their sensors again. He could see the remaining twelve TIE fighters streaking toward the battle.

“Commander, instruct the capital wedge to assume an external-approach orbital pass. We’re going to