Star Wars_ X-Wing 01_ Rogue Squadron - Michael A. Stackpole [105]
“That makes sense. Why didn’t he approve it?”
“The world’s only moon—the Blackmoon that gave the system its codename—would be in our entry and exit vector. It would act as a natural Interdictor cruiser, which could make things a lot more dangerous.”
Corran shrugged. “The ion cannons made things dangerous enough, thanks.”
“No kidding.” Page smiled. “We would have taken them down. And we would have found the base for those squint squadrons that came in late to the fight.”
“The Bothans didn’t even know they were there.”
The infantryman winced. “And they should have. They’re very good at worming their way into Imperial networks.”
“So this time they failed.” Corran hesitated as an idea occurred to him. “Or records of those forces aren’t part of the official garrison.”
Page frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Working with CorSec I was involved in a sweep of a smuggler’s headquarters. She was very sharp and had always distanced herself from glitterstim stores, so we couldn’t pin anything on her. This one time, though, we found a couple of kilos of glitterstim in a warehouse she owned. She said she knew nothing about it and accused us of planting it. Turned out that she didn’t know anything about it. The glitterstim had been skimmed from shipments by one of her aides and hidden there until he could find a way to move it himself.”
“You’re saying the Empire doesn’t know those Interceptors were there?”
“A squadron is a rounding error for Imperial bookkeepers.” Corran leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “And the Bothans didn’t know about whatever power source was used to boost the shields back up after we took them down. Whoever is in charge of wherever Blackmoon is might be running some operation his Imperial masters know nothing about.”
Page nodded slowly. “The data on the covert operation is kept away from the Imperials, so the Bothans had no way of discovering it.”
“Not without being on the ground.”
“We had intel on the vislight from the galaxy, but we got jumped by the IR and UV.” Page rapped his knuckles on the plasteel tabletop. “If we’d been given proper background on Blackmoon, we might have been able to guess at the kind of information we really needed.”
“I understand the need for operational security—but you can bet now the true location of Blackmoon won’t be declassified until we’re all dead and gone.”
Page nodded. “Still, the simulations of an assault are only as good as the databases from which they are constructed. Bad intel gets people killed.”
Corran ran a hand over his face. “Well, now we have an inkling of what we don’t know about Blackmoon. At least two squint squadrons and a power generator are hidden there somewhere—hidden from us and Imp officials.”
“The information in the official Imperial survey files is clearly useless.”
“Right. And that means …” The chirp of the comlink on the table cut off Corran’s comment. He picked it up and opened the channel. “Horn here.”
“Emtrey here, sir.”
“Something wrong with Ooryl?”
“No, sir.”
“Is Erisi coming out of the bacta?”
“No, sir.”
Corran frowned. “Then why did you call me?”
“Sir, Whistler asked me to inform you he has completed the calculations of the wind currents you requested.”
“Wind currents?”
“On Blackmoon, sir. He said he has found some very interesting things.”
“We’ll be there in a second. Horn out.” Corran looked up at Page. “It may be raising the shields after the base had been strafed, but I’m up for learning a little more about the world we just ran from. How about you?”
“I had friends on the Modaran. I didn’t like seeing them die.”
“Good, let’s go.” Corran shot him a smile. “Maybe, just maybe we can find a way to go back in and make the Imps pay.”
Wedge wasn’t certain he had heard