Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 01_ Onslaught - Michael A. Stackpole [57]
Gavin reversed thrust on his fighter, then ruddered the nose around to point at the black hole. The screaming engines fought the black hole’s pull, but surrendered precious centimeter after centimeter to it. He flicked the weapons control over to proton torpedoes and emptied his magazine of six into the black hole. One after one the torps dived into the gravitic anomaly, and somehow the black hole managed to contain the vast energy their explosions released.
But, Gavin noticed, his rate of descent into the black hole slowed.
He flicked his thrust forward. The fighter picked up speed, attracted by the black hole and pushed by the engines. Then he pulled back on the stick and used the velocity he’d acquired to shoot past the black hole’s edge.
More sparks shot through the cockpit, and his shields collapsed. His sensor screens blinked for a moment, then came back on full, but he couldn’t see the coralskipper. “Catch, where is it?”
Nevil’s voice came through the comm speakers in his helmet. “Thanks for distracting it, Lead. Seven and I angled in and got it. Not a pretty kill, but a kill.”
“Thanks, Deuce. Flight leaders, report.”
“Five here, Lead. Eight lost an engine and will have to be picked up, otherwise we’re fine.”
“Good, Five. Nine, what about Three flight?”
Alinn Varth’s voice came through heavy with emotion. “Lost two, Lead. The one that almost got you dropped that big black hole on his tail as Eleven was closing. Dinger flew into it and never knew what hit him. Twelve got ripped up by it. Tik is extravehicular, negative life signs.”
“Do a tight flyby to check. We’ll have the Ralroost recover him.” Gavin glanced at his sensors again. “Snoop, got any more skips in the area?”
“Negative, Lead, but those hulks could be full of them.”
“I copy that, Snoop. Reel in the pods and go back to the admiral. Give him the data, have him send someone back for us.”
“As ordered, Lead. May the Force be with you.”
“Thanks, Snoop.” Gavin watched the X-wing recover the sensor pods, then accelerate and vanish into a bright flash in the sky. “Listen up, the rest of you. Keep your eyes open and sensors scanning. We don’t know why there were only a half-dozen skips here, or if there are more in hiding. I don’t want to be surprised. We did okay for our first engagement with them, and I don’t want Admiral Kre’fey to show up here to discover we somehow managed to turn a victory into a defeat.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Leia intended to be the first person to disembark from the Lambda-class shuttle, Fond Memory, when it touched down on Dubrillion, but her Noghri bodyguard, Bolpuhr, beat her to it. He growled at the two men in body armor who came running at the freighter along the narrow causeway that led to the main landing tower. Ignoring him, the two of them turned and set up a position on the causeway to hold people back, then they parted and let a harried Lando Calrissian slip past.
Leia ran down the landing ramp and hugged Lando fiercely. “I’m so happy to see you’re not hurt.”
“I’m not, but my world is.” Lando freed himself from her arms, tossed his cape back over his shoulder, and waved a hand out over the cityscape. “It’s all over, Leia.”
The pure anguish in his voice arced pain through her heart. She followed his gaze and looked out over a city that she remembered as being pristine during her first visit, with high towers that made this portion of Dubrillion look as if it had been transplanted from Coruscant. The gentle sweep of archways and the elegantly worked decorations on the buildings had reminded her of images from Coruscant while her father was yet a child.
Now it is Coruscant after Thrawn and the Emperor’s return. The proud towers had been shattered, with fires guttering from the tops of some. Buildings had holes melted and blasted into them. Faint breezes teased draperies that hung out through broken transparisteel viewports, and down below, on the various causeways and streets,