Star Wars_ X-Wing 02_ Wedge's Gamble - Michael A. Stackpole [123]
Iella looked over at Winter. “Are the mirrors crew-controlled or ground-controlled?”
“Ground-controlled. Mirror duty is considered punishment. The crews that maintain the facilities go out to repair damage from strikes by debris, but that’s about it.”
Wedge’s eyes narrowed. “Presumably you’re suggesting we take control of a ground station and redirect one of the orbital mirrors to vaporize a reservoir. That water vapor will condense into a monster storm that will strike with lightning all over the place, taking down the power grid. As the computers try to match power to demand, we should get a complete power grid collapse.”
Iella smiled. “You got a better idea?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Wedge frowned. “The weak link here, as I see it, is taking the control station.”
“The orbital mirrors are controlled by the subsidiary computer centers.” Winter glanced at her datapad. “The nearest should be SCC Number Four, just south of the Imperial Palace.”
“Do we have enough people to assault it and get us in fast enough that we can do what needs to be done without interference?” Wedge looked around the table and saw frowns or blank expressions except on one face. “Lieutenant Horn, you have an idea?”
“Yeah, we evict folks from that center.”
“What?”
Corran leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “There’s a construction droid building a factory within a laser shot from that center, right? We get a crew in to take control of the factory and have it go rogue. It heads straight for the computer center. I don’t think anyone is going to remain on station while a Death Star’s little brother comes toward him gobbling up cityscape. It stops short of destroying the center, but our crew should be able to get in and get working on the orbital mirror. Moreover, we can have the construction droid spitting out a new central computer facility with some of our own code sliced into it. If we take the planet, we’ll be up and running even if the Imps blow the old center.”
“And if the Imps manage to stop the construction droid before it hits the abandoned computer center, they’ll think they’ve muted our attack and thwarted us.” Wedge nodded. “I see it. Emtrey, do you know how to run a construction droid?”
The droid’s head came up. “I have had some experience with smaller manufacturing systems, sir, so I believe I can determine what we need to do.”
Mirax raised a hand. “I’ve used one of the small ones to fabricate some storage areas for my father. Count me in on that crew.”
“Right.” Wedge felt a twinge of pain in his ribs. “With broken ribs I’m not flight ready, so I’ll go on that one, too. Iella?”
“I’m with you.”
“Good.” Wedge rubbed his hands together. “Winter, you’re the best slicer we’ve got here, so you’ve got to be going into the center. Tycho, Gavin, and Ooryl, you’ll round out that crew.”
Corran looked up at Wedge. “What about the rest of us?”
“You’re flying cover.”
“Commander, I don’t think you’re going to fit the rest of us in the cockpit of a Headhunter.”
“True, which is why Tycho has procured six of them.” Wedge smiled broadly. “Corran, you’ll fly with Erisi on your wing, Rhysati and Pash will fly together and …” He looked over at Shiel. “Hmmm, Nawara, you might have to fly alone.”
Asyr raised her hand. “Commander Antilles, I’m combat-qualified in a Headhunter.”
“Excuse me?”
The Bothan looked down sheepishly. “You know me as Asyr Sei’lar, but what you don’t know is that I’m a graduate of the Bothan Martial Academy. I graduated a year behind Peshk Vri’syk. He was good enough to join Rogue Squadron last year, and I was his equal when we were trained. It’s been a while since I’ve flown, but I can handle the fighter.”
Wedge raised an eyebrow. “What would a member of the Bothan military be doing here on Coruscant?”
“I’d rather not say, sir.”
“I can understand that.” Wedge nodded slowly. “Well, then, you’ve got