Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Rebel Dreams_ Enemy Lines I - Aaron Allston [42]
“Mon Mothma,” Tycho said, not bothering to refer to the hologram or his console. “Rebel Dream. In one to two minutes, we can have another six ships ready to jump.”
“Danni Quee reports detection of two yammosk kills,” Iella said. “One minute apart. The Yuuzhan Vong are not battle-coordinated now.”
“Very well.” Wedge lowered his voice. “Of course, they don’t need to be coordinated to destroy Lusankya and the Falcon.”
Tycho nodded.
The tactic he needed clicked into Wedge’s mind. In the span of a second, he evaluated it, tested it for major weaknesses, dismissed the weaknesses as irrelevant because of the Yuuzhan Vong’s current state of confusion, and decided that he could probably use the tactic again—once—at a later time.
He reached into the hologram and indicated an area of space next to the Yuuzhan Vong reserve fleet, just on the far side of that engagement zone from the direction of Borleias. “Have Mon Mothma make a microjump to appear here. When she arrives, she’s to broadcast a homing beacon on open fleet group frequencies and defend herself. One minute after she arrives, she’s to activate her gravity-well generators and keep them up for one minute. Issue that to Mon Mothma directly.”
Tycho turned to his console.
Wedge turned to the room. “Attention,” he said, and the clamor dropped a couple of notches. “All ships and hyperdrive-equipped starfighters that can get clear of enemies within the next two minutes are to do so. Inform Rogue Squadron and Twin Suns Squadron that they’re to abandon their current action and get clear. They’ll jump in the direction of a homing beacon they’re about to detect. Gravity-well generators will pull them out of hyperspace in the Falcon’s and Lusankya’s engagement zone. Their orders are to form up on Lusankya and escort her to Borleias. Let’s do it, people.”
Tycho straightened from his console. “Mon Mothma has jumped.”
“Good.” Wedge sighed and lowered his voice. “Tycho, we’re about to achieve a tremendous victory we don’t want.”
Tycho gave him a thin smile. “We’ll put that in your biography. General Antilles was so good he couldn’t fail when he tried to.”
“Thanks.”
SEVEN
Borleias Occupation, Day 9
Han put the Falcon into a dive toward Lusankya. It was like diving into an erupting volcano; Lusankya’s hull was incandescent with firing ion cannons and laser batteries, making nearspace around her a blinding kill zone.
But her kill zone was safety compared to what was on the Falcon’s tail: half a dozen coralskippers, their pilots determined and vengeful. Plasma cannon ejecta flashed by the Falcon’s viewports and hammered into her stern shields.
The Millennium Falcon’s own guns fired, sending their damage aft against the coralskipper pursuit. From the shouts bouncing forward from the gunport accesses, it sounded as though Ganner and Alema Rar were in control of the guns. He thought the other Jedi in the passenger area, all survivors of Anakin’s raid on the Yuuzhan Vong worldship above Myrkr, were cheering them on.
As the Falcon dipped in closer to Lusankya, Han could no longer hear the cheering—laser blasts and explosions flashed by close enough to rock her, to batter her shields. Somewhere astern, machinery came free of its housing and smashed to the Falcon’s deck, and as Han continued to roll, juke, and dive, he could hear the distinctive sound of shrapnel impacts as components of the machinery began slamming into bulkheads.
“Sounds expensive,” Leia said.
Han shot her a betrayed look. Then they were clear of the kill zone, astern of Lusankya, where the Super Star Destroyer’s lasers no longer crisscrossed over their heads.
The sensors showed no skips on the Falcon’s tail, though