Star Wars_ The Han Solo Trilogy 02_ The Hutt Gambit - A. C. Crispin [123]
Greelanx stood on his bridge, watching them close on their prey, seeing the red and green trails of Imperial lasers and turbolasers blasting at the motley assortment of freighters, wondering once again how he was going to manage to stage a realistic defeat and retreat.
The smugglers had fought hard, Greelanx had to admit that, but the sight of his big ships had obviously terrified them, frightened them so badly that any fighting spirit they’d had was gone.
Now they were running like Corellian vrelts before a pack of canoids.
“Admiral Greelanx, sir!” the sensor operator spoke up urgently. “Sir, I’m getting something, but where did it—We’ve got incoming, sir!”
Greelanx took a quick glance at the sensors, then turned to look out the viewport. His eyes widened.
Coming straight at them from the direction of Nal Hutta were hundreds of smuggler ships of assorted sizes—including several Corellian corvettes! Mercenaries, Greelanx thought. The smugglers don’t have anything that large!
“Where did they come from?” Jelon demanded of the sensor operator. “Why weren’t you tracking them?”
“Sir, they must’ve just launched from Nal Hutta! Sir, I was concentrating on tracking the smuggler fleet, as ordered, Commander!”
Greelanx frowned. His instincts, honed after decades in the Imperial Navy, made him wonder if this could be some kind of a trick.
“Full sensor scan!” he snapped.
“Yes, sir!”
Moments later the sensor operator displayed the results of his check. Greelanx studied it. The Hutts must have held these mercenaries in reserve, then launched them in desperation, he decided.
Greelanx cleared his throat. “Commander Jelon, instruct the wedge and our fighters to execute a one-hundred-and-ten-degree turn, Y axis, and engage the newcomers. When they have completed their maneuver, they may fire at will!”
Mako Spince let out a yell of triumph as he watched the phantom fleet appear, and saw the Imperial ships begin their turn. “Yes! They’re fallin’ for it!” He keyed his comm. “Captain Renthal!”
“I see it,” she said tersely. “I didn’t believe it would work until now, but I gotta admit … I’m attacking, full speed!”
“Go get ’em!”
As Mako had requested, Han Solo had stayed back, behind the other smugglers, as they wove their way out of the debris during the retreat. Once past the limb of Nar Shaddaa, Han had ordered them to swing wide, and get out of the debris. That way Greelanx would have a clear view of the fleeing smugglers, and would continue his pursuit, straight into their trap.
When Han finally emerged from the shell of debris, he found himself actually trailing the Imperial fleet. He could see them ahead of him, and considered trying to loop around them at top speed, so he could take part in the attack that was planned at the IP coordinates.
Ahead of him, he spotted a pair of vessels on his sensors, and was surprised when he checked their vessel IDs and found that the wayward pair was Salla and Lando in Rimrunner and the Falcon.
Han wondered if one of them had taken a bad hit and needed help. Activating his comm, he said, “Defender Central, this is Han. Come in, Mako.”
Mako’s voice was clearer, now that Han was out of the debris field. “Mako here, Han. The Imps have almost reached the IP point.”
“I’ve got Salla and Lando on my sensors, and we’re all behind the Imp fleet, Mako.”
“Yeah, I asked ’em to take it easy, figuring you might need some help if you ran into any stray skirmish vessels,” Mako said.
“Okay, so they’re all right?”
“Far as I know.”
“Patch me through to them, will you?”
“Sure.”
In order to keep the frequencies as clear as possible, all communications had been routed through Mako, except for designated pairs like Lando and Salla. Moments later Han heard Lando’s voice. “Han, old buddy!”
“Lando, I’m behind you, wondering how to get past the