Star Wars_ The Han Solo Trilogy 02_ The Hutt Gambit - A. C. Crispin [96]
“Well … congratulations!” Lando said. “That’s great news. You’re getting one wonderful woman, Roa.”
All the smugglers echoed the young gambler’s sentiments.
“I know it,” Roa agreed. “So … all I gotta do is make it through this battle …”
“Speaking of which, we ought to get back to it,” Mako said. “And figure out a way to beat these Imps.”
“We have one big advantage,” Roa said. “The element of surprise.”
Mako stared at him. “We know when they’re coming, so there’s no element of surprise there. But … they’re invading us. How are we supposed to surprise them?”
Roa smiled genially and waved a hand at the ceiling. “Think, my friends, think! What’s up there?”
“A shield that needs fixing a lot,” Mako said grimly.
“Past that,” Roa said.
“Traffic buoys,” Han said.
“Farther,” Roa said.
Han thought for a moment, then a slow smile crept over his face. Salla laughed. “I get it! Space junk! Dozens … hundreds … of junked spaceships and parts of spaceships.”
Roa was nodding at the tall lady smuggler. “Right. So much space junk in that ring around Nar Shaddaa that ships could hide behind it, or beneath it, or in its shadow—and then pop out and catch the Imp fleet by surprise.”
Chewie voiced a loud “Hrrrrnnnnnnn!”
Now it was Mako’s turn to nod excitedly. “I think you got something there, Roa,” he said. “And it might work. Especially if we staged a couple of ships frantically running for cover—freighters, they’ll think they’re civs—and got the Imps to chase ’em until they’re right where we want them, then”—he punched the air—“wham! We pop out of cover and clobber them!”
Excitedly the senior smuggler keyed the operation Roa had described into the datapad. The “High Command” watched as the ring of debris around Nar Shaddaa swam into view. As the Imperial skirmish ships zoomed in in pursuit of two small freighters, converging on the rightmost hemisphere (if one were facing Nal Hutta), suddenly a multitude of assorted freighters and other ships zipped out of concealment in the debris ring and zeroed in on the Imperial ships, lasers flashing.
“Okay, that should enable us to take care of a good percentage of those skirmish ships,” Han said. “But what do we do about the recon vessels, and that wedge of capital-class ships … the Dreadnaughts and bulk cruisers?”
A gloomy silence fell. Finally Mako spoke up. “I know the Hutts are hiring a merc force—probably pirates—to defend Nal Hutta. The slugs don’t give a hoot about Nar Shaddaa, not in comparison to their own precious hides, but if that merc captain has any smarts, he’ll recognize that we could add significantly to his firepower. Maybe we can get him, whoever he is, to take part in the battle. It’s worth a try, at least.”
Lando was staring morosely at the creeping holographic image of the bulk cruisers and Dreadnaughts advancing on Nar Shaddaa. “Those pirates are apt to have superior firepower, right?”
Mako nodded. “Right. They’ll probably have some captured Imp vessels that they’ve modified. Maybe even some heavy weaponry like proton torpedoes. But their ammo would be limited. It’s hard to just buy proton torpedoes to arm pirated Imp vessels. The Imps kinda frown on having their own ships used against ’em.”
He said this last so dryly that a chuckle ran around the table.
Han was studying the wedge of capital-class ships. “All of these ships have forward-firing main guns,” he said. “Too bad we can’t hit them with a flank attack. But we just don’t have the ships to do it, if the main part of our fleet will still be engaging those skirmish ships and the TIEs.”
“Maybe that’s where we can convince the mercs to help us,” Mako said thoughtfully. “If they attacked on the Imp flank, they’d stand a decent chance of crippling one of those big ships, and that would be a ship they could commandeer after the battle. They’d love that!”
“Yeah … provided we could create some kind of diversion so the pirates could flank them,” Han said.
Rik Duel stroked his short, elegant