Star Wars_ X-Wing 02_ Wedge's Gamble - Michael A. Stackpole [131]
He rolled the Headhunter ninety degrees to port, hemming himself in on either wing, then he pulled back on the stick. At the same time he punched all the power being generated by his engines into the repulsorlift drive. The Headhunter’s nose popped up, leveling him out a hundred meters above the canyon’s bottom. Momentum from the dive kept him going forward and away from the TIEs.
One eyeball pilot made a serious mistake by not rolling before he tried to follow the Headhunter. His maneuver was intended to bring the TIE around in a sharp, right-angle turn—a maneuver that would have worked in the vacuum of space and placed him right on Corran’s tail with a killing shot. In atmosphere, however, the maneuver brought his starboard wing around in direct opposition to his previous line of flight. The hexagonal panel snapped, with the top half sheering through the ship’s ball cockpit. Still going full out, the TIE fighter hammered the ground and exploded.
The second TIE pilot rolled first, then swooped in after Corran’s Headhunter. The speed of the dive forced the pilot into a wider turn than he clearly wanted. The lower edges of his wings struck sparks from the duracrete street. Fighting inertial forces, the pilot did everything he could to make his fighter climb. Finally the ship began to win in its battle with gravity and began to come up.
Up into one of the numerous walkways connecting one building with another. The TIE plowed into a central portion of the span, splintering the permacrete section it hit. The fighter exploded, shattering windows and sowing shrapnel throughout the area.
Reversing thrust and applying some rudder, Corran brought the fighter around in an end for end swap that left him looking at the fires burning in his wake. Not a bad start, four down, but it’s only a start. He eased the throttle forward and started a gentle climb to the unobstructed reaches of Coruscant’s atmosphere. He glanced at the shipboard chronometer and fuel gauge.
“Fifteen minutes to get the shields down and a half hour of flying time. That’s forever if we succeed and little more than a heartbeat if we do not.”
Wedge’s comlink buzzed at him. “Antilles here, go ahead.”
“Tycho here. We have a problem—gas in the computer center. We need Emtrey. Now.”
“I copy.” He looked up at Mirax. “Will this thing keep going by itself?”
She nodded. “The droid will stop at the outer edge of the computer center if”—she pointed at external view monitors showing TIEs on strafing runs—“they don’t stop it first.”
“If we can leave this thing alone, they need us in the computer center.”
Mirax held her hands up. “Let’s go.”
Iella led the way back into the entryway. She started to push the door open, then quickly ducked back. A spray of blaster bolts dotted the interior of the door with burn marks.
Wedge ran over to where she sat on the floor. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
“What was that?”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t see clearly but given the size of those burn marks I’d say some stormtroopers have an E-web heavy blaster set up on one of the nearby towers. They’ve got the door covered and covered well.” Iella shrugged. “Unless we get some help, we’re going to be stuck here for the rest of our lives.”
42
Gavin’s stomach began to fold in on itself as he heard Wedge’s voice come out of the comlink. “Sorry, Tycho, we’re pinned down here. Unless we get some help, we’re going nowhere.”
“I copy, Wedge.” Tycho looked over at Gavin. “You and I will go see if we can help them out.”
Ooryl raised a three-fingered hand. “Ooryl …”
Tycho shook his head. “I want you here to help Inyri guard Winter. The kid and I will go.”
The Gand nodded, then his mouth parts snapped open. “Ooryl does not question your orders, Captain. Ooryl merely wants to know how this Fex-M3d works.”
Winter slowly straightened up. “You breathe it in, it gets into your bloodstream and binds to neuroreceptors, preventing