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“No need to be fancy, Nine.”

“Yes, sir.” Corran’s voice drifted off for a second. “Lead, I have two hostiles coming in behind us.”

Wedge hit a switch on his console. “Power to rear deflector shields.”

“Done.”

“Mynock, bring up data on the trailers.” The monitor flashed images of two TIE starfighters. We should be faster than they are maneuvering through atmosphere here, but I’d rather they weren’t there.

Wedge keyed his comm. “Four, we have two down here. Can you help?”

Bror answered immediately. “Negative, Lead. Our plates are full, and long-range scans indicate squints coming in.”

“Copy, Four.” Wedge frowned. The intervention by Interceptors was not good. If both of the squadrons that showed up at the end of the last battle were to scramble against Rogue Squadron, no one would make it home. But that’s not the objective of this mission—blowing the conduit is.

“Nine, push your speed.”

“As ordered.”

The X-wings came out of the canyon leading into the rift valley. To the right grassy plains stretched out through the darkness. On the left a striated escarpment rose up nearly a thousand meters. Its craggy surface reflected enough moonlight to let Wedge see Corran’s X-wing in silhouette as the fighter drew almost parallel to his port stabilizer. Twenty-five kilometers farther on the valley narrowed again and five kilometers beyond that point lay their target.

Verdant laser bolts sizzled past, splitting the space between the Rebel fighters. Wedge juked up and to the starboard, while Corran’s ship sank out of sight on the left. Rolling his ship and letting it move back toward the center of the valley, he saw one TIE dive, its lasers gouging up great chunks of the valley floor in front of Corran’s jinking X-wing.

Wedge hauled his throttle back to half power and pulled a hard turn to port. Punching the throttle forward again, he rolled the ship onto its right S-foil and yanked it back in another hard turn. Leveling out to the left, he slipped into the aft wash of the TIE that had been on his tail. His finger tightened down on the trigger and scarlet laser fire exploded the Imperial fighter.

“Nine, report.”

“Go, Lead, punch it. I’m coming behind.”

“Status.”

“I’ll be good to go in a second.”

Kicking the X-wing up on the starboard stabilizers, Wedge stabbed his fighter into the narrow northern end of the valley. A brilliant flash of light painted shadows against white rock with skeletal clarity. The X-wing bucked a bit as the explosion’s shock wave caught up with it, but Wedge’s steady hand kept the fighter clear of the canyon walls.

“Nine, what was that?”

“Fuel pod exploding.”

“One more time.”

“Misses on the deck kicked up debris that hit my belly pod and I had a slow leak. I jettisoned it. The tank exploded and the guy behind me got an eyeful.”

Wedge looked at his fuel indicators. His fuel pod was still a quarter full. “Fuel status.”

“I’m okay.”

“How much?”

“Three-quarters.” Anger in Corran’s voice transmuted into resolution. “Enough to do the job.”

“Copy.” One run, then you’re out of here, Corran. You’re into your reserve. Wedge clicked his weapons control over to proton torpedoes. “One klick, arming two.”

“Got it. Armed two. Is that light up there?”

Wedge slowly nodded. “Be alert. Power to forward shields.” Banking hard starboard he brought the fighter around the final turn before the run to the conduit. Yanking the stick to the left he snap-rolled the X-wing level, then hit the right rudder pedal and started the fighter skidding to the left. Laser bolts exploded against his forward shields.

He pulled the trigger, sending two proton torpedos sizzling out, but even as he did so he knew they would miss high. As they exploded against the canyon walls beyond the ferrocrete tunnel, Wedge snapped his repulsorlift drives on and bounced his fighter up and out of the canyon. Jamming his throttle full forward, he hauled back on the stick and shot skyward.

He saw the flashes of two more explosions below him