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The darkness above his head parted as his X-wing’s camouflage—a cargo container bolted to the transport’s top hull, immediately before the command pod—parted and folded down to either side. All around, the other eleven snubfighters of Rogue Squadron were also being released, also hitting thrusters as they hurtled toward the Yuuzhan Vong frigate.

The Yuuzhan Vong were quick on the uptake—Gavin could allow them that. Almost as soon as Rogue Squadron cleared the transport, the frigate’s plasma cannons were opening up, directing streams of superheated material at his X-wings. “S-foils to attack position,” he said, “and fire at will.”

The wings of the twelve snubfighters opened into their characteristic X shape. Before Gavin’s were even locked into place, Nevil and two other Rogues had fired proton torpedoes.

Gavin and the rest waited for a handful of seconds, slewing their snubfighters around in an effort to keep the plasma cannon trails off them, then opened up with their lasers. Twelve sets of quad-linked lasers flashed, sending their destructive energy across twenty klicks of space in an instant, bypassing the proton torpedoes, hurtling against the frigate—

Hurtling into the voids projected before the frigate. The vessel’s dovin basals, responding to the threat of the first attacks to arrive, created their gravitic singularities in front of the laser attacks and swallowed the majority of their energy.

They were still swallowing, in fact, when the late-arriving proton torpedoes flashed between them and struck the frigate’s hull. They detonated, one, two, three brilliant explosions, and as the last of them began to fade Gavin could see the mighty frigate cracked in two, each half spitting forth flaming debris. The plasma cannons no longer aimed their energies at Rogue Squadron; two of them still fired, sending burning blobs randomly into space.

“Confirmed kill,” Gavin said, “no friendly losses. Do you read, Gambler?”

Lando Calrissian’s smooth tones were preserved across the comlink. “We read, Rogue Leader. Likewise, no friendly casualties here. A beautiful execution all around.”

“We’ll see you back at base, then. Rogue Leader out.” Gavin led the Rogues in an easy loop around until they were oriented toward Borleias. A few moments later, his squadron made the jump into hyperspace.

Lando looked over the battlefield that had been a cargo hold. Twenty Yuuzhan Vong warriors lay dead, some of them no longer recognizable as bipedal humanoids, all over the deck plating. Lando’s fifteen war droids and Alema Rar, the Twi’lek Jedi, moved among them, dispatching wriggling amphistaffs and the occasional thud bug and razor bug set free by the blaster damage that had killed their owners. Alema whistled to herself as she worked.

Lando consulted his datapad. He sent a signal to query a device elsewhere in the vessel. “Not good. Danni’s device isn’t indicating any weird gravitic fluctuations. Meaning that there probably isn’t a tracking creature on this vessel.”

Alema nodded and switched her lightsaber off. “Refugees have to be turning one another in. I’m not sure for what. Violence threatened against their loved ones, maybe. Maybe some sort of bribe.” She shrugged. “We’ll figure out what they’re doing.”

Lando turned his attention to his droid aide. “One-One-A, let’s get this cleaned up. Get rid of the biological remains only, don’t worry about the blaster scorches. Load representative weapons and gear into a barrel and seal it tight, then load it onto the shuttle.”

One-One-A saluted. “Acknowledged.”

“Would you like to celebrate?” That was Alema. She wore a curious smile, artificially demure.

Lando turned back to her. “What did you have in mind?”

She just continued smiling.

“Oh.” He gave her his best smile in return, modulated his voice to its smoothest register. “I find myself flattered. But I am a married man.”

She cocked her head as though the answer were incomplete.

“So I have to decline,” he concluded.

She shrugged as though it were of no concern.