Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [116]
A numbing explosion jolted the ship.
Jaina glanced out the right side of the triangular canopy to see the mated ends of the starboard S-foils disintegrate, and the laser cannon go whirling off into space. The power of the blast sent the starfighter into a wing-over-wing roll that the fusial thrusters and attitude jets were unable to correct. Flights of coralskippers pinwheeled in front of her, and fireballs geysered inward on spiraling trajectories.
The out-of-control tumble reeled her out of a follow-up deluge of plasma from the core formation of capital ships. The E-wings took the brunt of it, along with Ijix Harona’s Scimitar Squadron of highly vulnerable A-wings, and Gavin’s Rogues. Caught by the inferno, two dozen craft were blown clear of the tentacles, half of them vanishing before they reached clear space. Farther out, Star Destroyers and attack cruisers raced alongside the armada, but with so many star-fighters churning between them and the enemy war vessels, they couldn’t risk firing without destroying countless Alliance craft.
Jaina’s flailing right hand found the inertial compensator and dialed it to maximum. As the cockpit instruments came back into focus, she saw that the display screens were white with noise. The battle net was unadulterated static.
“… around to bearing … ecliptic …”
Jaina tweaked the comm controls to find a clearer frequency.
“… on squadron leaders and withdraw.”
Withdraw, Jaina thought.
Fine for those pilots who could. But scores of fighters were incapacitated, many in worse shape than Twin Suns One. Only by virtue of their marginally intact shields were they bearing up under the constant barrage, like bar brawlers curled on the floor against repeated kicks from gangs of opponents.
“Dovin basal singularities have been diverted to the forefront of the armada,” Alliance control was saying. “Destroyers will be attacking the flanks in an attempt to induce the dovin basals to shift focus, so that Harbinger, Guardian, and Viscount can resume fire. All pilots, try to maintain formation on withdrawal. Rally at six-six-one ecliptic with battle groups Iceberg Three and Four.”
By then the armada had moved well past the system’s captured comet and was bearing toward Sep Elopor, a ringed gas-giant with more than thirty small moons.
Auxiliary battle groups in advance of the tentacled cluster were already beginning to disperse, in part to deflect the battle from Mon Calamari itself, but also to convey the impression that the Alliance had recognized that it was outmatched and was on the run, determined to save as many of its ships as possible.
A third surge of plasma spewed from the armada core.
Jaina called on the exhausted thrusters to propel the X-wing out of its tumble and through a broad bank. At the same time, she reset the inertial compensator and got her bearings. She was still inside the kill circle of coralskippers and pickets, but Chiss clawcraft and Y-wings were hammering away at the slowly contracting perimeter, creating exit holes for the trapped starfighters. Jaina saw Jag’s clawcraft destroy three coralskippers in a blur of corkscrewing maneuvers and laser-fire.
She sent him silent gratitude.
With firing zones opening once more, bombers followed the rescued starfighters into the gaps they fashioned. In response, coralskippers were commanding their dovin basals to deploy defensive voids to counter the infiltration. No sooner did the gravitic anomalies shift, however, than Harbinger and Guardian strobed salvos of ranged-weapons fire against the least defended of the tentacles. Coralskippers were lanced and vaporized, pickets fractured and cracked open like seedpods, expressing puffs of atmosphere and more.
Free of the enclosing tentacle at last, Jaina searched for the rest of her squadron. Twin Suns Four, Five, Six, Nine, and Ten were nearby,