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“Not for me, Lead.”

Nawara keyed his comm unit. “What about the lambs?” The two Lambda-class shuttles carried weapons and could be tougher than TIEs to handle because they also sported shields.

“We give them one chance to run. After that, they can go away, too.”

Aril again spoke. “I’m downloading tac-data to everyone. Termagant isn’t straight Imp, it’s allied with Zsinj.”

“Was allied with Zsinj.” Wedge’s ship began to lengthen its lead over the others. “Come on, Rogues. Warlord Zsinj apparently wanted the Alliance’s attention. Here’s where we make him pay for that mistake.”

Following Wedge, the squadron sped in toward Zsinj’s forces and the convoy debris. The convoy had been ambushed out beyond the Graveyard and a bit below the system’s orbital plane. Rogue Squadron had come in on the other side of the orbital plane. Because of this, and because of the way Zsinj’s forces chose to orient themselves respective to the system, by flying down to them, Rogue Squadron was, from their perspective flying in up at their bellies.

Nawara watched his tactical screen. Because the TIEs were making strafing runs on what were left of the freighters, they had no unit cohesion. With the enormous amount of debris in and around where they were flying, Nawara would have been surprised if they had any clue about Rogue Squadron’s approach. So the ambushers get ambushed. How fitting.

With the flick of his thumb he brought his weapons-control over to proton torpedoes. Another touch of a button and he linked both launching tubes. Range to the Termagant stood at 4.5 kilometers. The X-wings closed fast as Wedge led them down and around the freighter debris field, then over and in at the Strike Cruiser. Nawara’s head’s-up display went from green to yellow as the cruiser filled his sights, then blazed red as his R5’s keening wail announced he had a target lock.

“Rogues, launch now!”

On Wedge’s command the squadron fired their proton torpedoes in near-perfect unison. Twenty-two torpedoes streaked in at the lozenge-shaped Strike Cruiser, coming up toward the ventral hull. The first couple detonated brilliantly white against the ship’s shields, but the rest pushed on through. Several exploded against the hull, shredding and blackening armor plating, while still more burst inside the ship. Argent fire gushed from the ragged hole in the ship’s hull, then geysered out of several smaller openings on the upper part of the ship.

The Strike Cruisers, as a class of ship, had been highly lauded because of their unique construction. Built around a central skeleton that bound the bridge to the engines, their other components were completely modular. A cruiser configured to carry troops could, after a short stay in some spaceyard, emerge a TIE carrier like Termagant. Strike Cruisers allowed the Empire to change the makeup of the Imperial fleet without building entirely new ships.

That strength is Termagant’s weakness. As the torpedoes exploded inside the ship, the ship itself began to break apart. The prow drifted upward as if the ship had run into an invisible wall. Armored hull plates shattered where they had covered the seam between the bow and the starboard TIE hangar. The forward part of the hangar started twisting as it ripped free of the skeleton. The cruiser began to roll, then the whole front half of the ship spun off as the ship’s waist evaporated in the inferno the torpedoes caused.

“The eyes of the Warlord are upon us,” Gavin quipped. “TIEs inbound.”

Nawara flipped back to his lasers and broke to port with Pash. Coming up over the top, they climbed toward the incoming eyeballs. He punched all power to his forward shield and prepared for a head-to-head pass. He dropped his crosshairs on the growing speck that was an approaching TIE starfighter. He watched the range close, then popped a quick shot off. A pair of laser-bolts glanced off the eyeball’s port panel, imparting a spin to the ship. Nawara started to dive after it, but with his speed, he overshot it.

“I got the other half of it,