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The TIEs fighting Rogue Squadron turned and launched themselves on an intercept course for the Super Star Destroyer. Because they were not capable of entering hyper-space themselves, if they did not rendezvous with the Lusankya, they would be stuck on Coruscant. Those who weren’t shot down would be taken prisoner. And if my ship had done that much damage heading out, I’d not be expecting very gentle treatment at the hands of my enemies, either.

“Mynock, give me the range to the Lusankya.”

The droid centered an image of the Lusankya on Wedge’s monitor, and the rangefinder showed it to be 25 kilometers distant. And it still looks that big. A shiver ran down his spine.

“Rogues, form up on me. We have three minutes at speed before we’re right on top of the SSD. Let’s harvest those remaining TIEs before she gets a chance to recover them.” Wedge waited a few seconds for the cries and shouts of assent to die down. “Remember, that thing is bristling with turbolasers, ion cannons, concussion missile launchers, and tractor beams. When I call, you break off your attacks. Got it?”

Wedge fed shield power into his engines, boosting his speed. He saw Asyr pull up on his starboard stabilizer foil. “No heroics, Flight Officer Sei’lar, I want to return that datacard to you.”

“As ordered, Commander.”

Wedge glanced at his monitor and then the TIE they were closing on fast. “I have your back. He’s yours.”

“Thank you, Commander.” Asyr’s X-wing pulled ahead, then sideslipped down and to port. She stayed below and behind the TIE fighter until she’d closed the range to within 250 meters, then she nosed her ship up into the eyeball’s exhaust. The X-wing’s lasers fired two dual offset bursts. The first grazed the inside of the port solar panel, burning two long streaks along it. The second pair of bolts stabbed in through the exhaust ports. The whole eyeball shuddered, then silvery fire jetted out through the forward cockpit canopy, killing the ship’s momentum.

The dead TIE dropped from sight with the grace of a Hutt in freefall.

“Nice shooting, Deuce.”

“Thanks, Lead.”

Wedge glanced at the Chronographic readout on his monitor. “Two-point-five minutes to range. Mynock, give me a warning at thirty seconds.”

The Lusankya continued to pour fire into the planetary shields while what little ground fire that came up at it splashed harmlessly on its shields. The midship and stern guns fought to keep the hole in the lower shield open while the bow guns blasted away at the upper shield. The ship’s assault sent waves of Rodian green energy skittering along the underside of the shields. The shields held at first, then began to erode, and finally collapsed.

Cutting his stick to the right, Wedge followed Asyr through a banking turn that put her on a pair of TIEs. “I have the leader, Commander.”

“I copy. I’ll pick up the tail, Deuce.” He widened the separation between them, then cut back hard to port as the TIEs broke and Asyr came around in a looping turn that slipped her in behind the lead TIE. She fired and melted off a third of the TIE’s starboard solar panel.

“Break left, Deuce!”

Asyr rolled to port as the second TIE fired. Its first shots splashed harmlessly on the X-wing’s aft shields, but the subsequent ones went wide. The eyeball rolled to follow Asyr, but as he leveled out he drifted straight into Wedge’s sights. One burst of scarlet laserfire and the eyeball disintegrated into one long, flaming streak in the sky.

Mynock gave Wedge the 30-second warning tone. “Break off, Rogues. The rest are just running.” It looked like a half-dozen of the TIEs had survived the battle. As a screening force they’d done their jobs and kept local fighters off the Lusankya while it emerged. While it was trapped beneath the city I bet it couldn’t power its shields up. Without them, a concentrated volley of proton torpedoes might have been able to breech the hull, disable that lift shell, or destroy the bridge.

Wedge glanced at his sensor display.