Star Wars_ The Han Solo Trilogy 02_ The Hutt Gambit - A. C. Crispin [126]
He keyed his comm, spoke to the pirate gunner aboard the Y-wing. “Mako here. You ready?”
“We’re ready!”
“Go for it!”
Mako watched the Y-wing on his sensors. The little ship made its run, slamming four proton torpedoes into the designated target before sheering off. “Okay, Mako,” the gunner said, circling back to join the yacht, “shields are either down or barely holding. Your turn!”
“My pleasure!”
Mako turned to Blue and gave her a nod. She increased speed to maximum (which still wasn’t very good) and headed for the Liquidator, turbolasers blasting away.
With their first blast, Mako knew the bulk cruiser’s shields were already down. The Pearl’s gunners pummeled their target repeatedly with the two remaining turbolasers, before the cumbersome Imperial vessel could turn to bring her heavy forward guns to bear.
Moments later the Imperial ship’s right flank, and the engine room beneath it, was a blown-out wreck. The Liquidator spun slowly in space, helpless, leaking atmosphere.
Captain Drea Renthal leaned forward excitedly in her command seat. Finally! A little action of my own! Guiding her ships throughout the battle had been challenging, but not like this. Now she was flying her own vessel, and she was going in for the kill.
Her target was another of the big bulk cruisers, the Arrestor. These ships were outdated, clumsy, and not heavily shielded enough. By comparison with Arrestor, Renthal’s Fist was a heavily armed, sleek engine of destruction. In addition to its two twin turbolasers in top and bottom turrets her Corellian corvette had four twin laser turrets on the sides for shooting fighters, and a pair of capital-ship proton torpedo launchers in the front, beneath her bridge.
Her supply of proton torpedoes was limited, as Han had predicted. Renthal had only four. They were extremely hard to come by.
But as she closed in on Arrestor, Renthal was determined to make every one of them count.
As she neared firing range, she spoke to her gunnery crew. “Prepare to launch torpedo one and two. Target her stern. I’d love to get a reactor overload going!”
“Yes, sir!”
Renthal smiled. She liked being called “sir.”
As Renthal’s Fist swooped by, she shouted, “Fire!”
Her ship lurched slightly, once, twice, as the proton torpedoes went streaking out in a blaze of blue fire.
The first torpedo took out the cruiser’s shields. The second bored into the hull and caused damage.
“Fire turbolasers!” Renthal ordered, coming around for another pass.
The Arrestor was lurching now with the impacts. The turbolasers bored ever deeper into her vitals, seeking her heart—the reactor that powered her engines.
Renthal was never quite sure what warned her. Instinct, perhaps, developed after twenty years of fighting. She turned her ship sharply, and accelerated away at top speed.
Behind her, Arrestor exploded as thoroughly as any fragile TIE fighter.
Renthal smiled seraphically. My, that was fun!
Mako cheered as he watched five of Renthal’s Y-wings strafe the Dreadnaught Peacekeeper’s stern, targeting its vulnerable engine area, volleying it with proton torpedo salvos.
The Dreadnaughts were a lot tougher targets than the clumsy bulk cruisers, but he thought they might have a chance to kill this one.
Apparently Han, Salla, and Lando had pulled some typically harebrained stunt to keep the Peacekeeper occupied until the Y-wings could move in. Mako could make out their blips, following the Y-wings, waiting for those proton torpedoes to deal with the shields before wasting shots on the big vessel.
Mako found himself doing some mental figuring as the Y-wings strafed the Imperial Dreadnaught. Two salvos of two torpedoes each, from five Y-wings … that equals twenty torpedo hits!
It sounded like a lot, but Mako had trained aboard an Imperial Dreadnaught, and knew how tough the old ships were.
There goes the first salvo … ten torpedoes … ten hits …
Mako did some rough calculations, figured that the Peacekeeper