Star Wars_ X-Wing 01_ Rogue Squadron - Michael A. Stackpole [83]
Ackbar rested a hand on Wedge’s shoulder. “It is never easy to let your people go.”
“No, and it never should be.” Wedge gave the Mon Calamari a firm nod. “If it is, then we’ve become the enemy, and I’m not going to let that happen.”
21
Corran’s first glimpse of Vladet after coming out of hyperspace revealed a blue ball streaked with white and stippled with dark green. “I think we ought to take it and keep it, Whistler. It looks a lot more pleasant than Fog-world ever did.”
The astromech piped agreement, then brought the tactical screen up on Corran’s monitor.
Corran glanced at it, then keyed his comm. “Three Flight is negative for eyeballs.” He raised his left hand and flipped a switch above his head. “S-foils locked in attack position.”
“I copy, Nine. Stand by.”
“Standing by, Control.” Ahead of him, speeding in at the planet, two of Defender Wing’s Y-wing squadrons flew with an escort of four X-wings each. Because his flight was two ships shy of full, he and Ooryl were assigned to Warden Squadron. Champion, with General Salm flying lead, and Guardian squadrons were to go in first and soften things up so Warden, with its “understrength” defenses, could sweep through unmolested.
From the briefing Corran knew the base on Grand Isle would be no match for two squadrons of Y-wings. In addition to two laser cannons, the Y-wings sported twin ion cannons and two proton torpedo launchers. Each ship carried eight torpedoes, which meant either of the squadrons packed enough firepower to turn the lush, verdant landscape of Grand Isle into a black, smoking mass of liquid rock.
“Rogue Nine, continue to follow Two Flight, then orbit at Angels 10K.”
“As ordered. Call us if you need anything.”
“Will do, Control out.”
Corran thought he caught a hint of his own frustration reflected in Tycho’s voice. The orders he had just given Corran were being relayed to the members of Warden Squadron by Salm’s own controller. The dual command chain was supposed to guarantee good command and control during the operation, but Corran doubted it would do anything of the sort. In CorSec, when we were working a joint operation with Imperial Intelligence, the dual control became duel control, and that didn’t work well at all.
The ride down through the clear atmosphere got a little bumpy, but having a little resistance to fight with the controls felt good after six hours of doing nothing during the hyperspace run. Corran leveled the X-wing out at ten kilometers above the surface of the planet. “Control, Three Flight on station. Can you send me tacvisual from below?”
“Here you go, Nine. From Rogue Leader—returning the favor.”
Corran’s cheeks burned as he recalled his sensor data being used by the rest of the squadron on Folor. “Relay my thanks.”
The visual feed from Wedge’s X-wing showed four Y-wings swooping in at the northern face of the volcano’s crater. From about a kilometer out, each of the slow craft launched a pair of proton torpedoes, then peeled off. The blue balls streaked out toward the mountainside. They exploded against it at a point where the abundant rains had already eroded and weakened the rock.
The rippling series of explosions cast smoke, rock, and burning plants into the air. The visual feed went vector, with green grids representing the land hidden by the smoke. Where there had been a gentle, curved dip in the crater’s rim there now existed a sharp, jagged rift that looked as if some titanic vibro-ax had been used to chop the rock away. As Corran watched, the gap grew larger and he suddenly realized it was because Wedge was going in.
“Tighten it up, Deuce.” Wedge’s X-wing plunged through the smoke. “Mynock, make sure Control is getting a topo-scan of this trench.”
The smoke cleared almost instantly, showing him a bristle of shattered volcanic rock a