Star Wars_ X-Wing 04_ The Bacta War - Michael A. Stackpole [124]
Nawara Ven raised a hand. “Forgive me, Commander, but do you think having all of us fighters scramble and then run away will fool the Thyferran commanders?”
Bror Jace turned in his seat to look at Nawara. “If they were Thyferran commanders it wouldn’t, but these are Imps. They’re used to imagining that Rebels run at the sight of them.”
Wedge smiled at Jace’s answer. “Just as you’ve been simming a lot of antiship attacks, we’ve been simming the likely reactions on the Thyferran command level. We’re pretty certain they’ll believe our retreat, especially when we jump to lightspeed on a vector bound for Thyferra. Captain Drysso will assume, in our desperation to save the station we’re going to strike at Thyferra. Because our snubfighters are twice as fast as the Lusankya, we’ll have twelve hours there to batter Thyferra unopposed. He knows he can’t beat us back there, so he’ll finish our station off, then come after us.”
Corran frowned. “What if his people pick up on the fact that we rendezvous with our freighters before we head out?”
“Still no cause of alarm for him. The Lusankya still out-guns our entire fleet. More ships just provide his gunners with more practice.” Wedge shrugged. “I know there are dozens of unanswered questions you have right now because I’ve been fairly vague about our overall plan and have just concentrated on your roles in what is going to happen. Your squadron leaders have more specific orders on which they will brief you at the appropriate time. Right now I just wanted to let you know that action is imminent, so you should take care to put your affairs in order and prepare any holograms you want sent in case of death.”
Gavin smiled. “But you’re not going to leave those things on the station here, are you?”
Wedge laughed. “No, we’ll have them sent to Coruscant. Make no mistake about it, people, this won’t be easy. A lot of us won’t be coming back. There will be a terrible price to pay to liberate Thyferra, but an even greater one if we don’t liberate it. We’ll be taking a lot of risks, but we have no choice because this will be our best chance to destroy Isard. If we fail now, it could very well be that no one else will ever dare to oppose her.”
Asyr let a little growl rumble from her throat. “So failure is not an option, eh, Wedge?”
“Not for us, Asyr, not by a long shot.”
Fliry Vorru looked at the data scrolling up through the air above his holopad. Beyond the glowing green numbers he watched Erisi Dlarit study the information. “Rather ingenious of them, wasn’t it, my dear, to choose the Yag’Dhul station as their base. You might have guessed.”
Erisi nodded once, curtly. “I did guess and did some checking of my own. The station was ordered and reported destroyed. Pash Cracken signed the report indicating the station had been destroyed, so perhaps I should have been suspicious.”
Vorru waved her remark away. “Don’t berate yourself, Erisi.”
“No, Madam Director will do that for me, won’t she?”
Vorru smiled. “Ah, you know her so well. She does seem to visit injustice upon you with fair frequency. I think that is a situation that should change.”
Erisi arched an eyebrow over an ice blue eye. “What did you have in mind?”
“See if your reasoning parallels my own. It strikes me that after the Lusankya is sent off to destroy the Yag’Dhul station, someone in the New Republic is going to have to take notice of how much firepower she possesses. While Zsinj has been more of a direct threat—and is why the New Republic fleet is out there hunting him down and, with any luck at all, destroying him—Ysanne Isard has succeeded in raising her profile rather considerably. The New Republic will be forced to deal with her sooner or later, and I’m inclined to think they will opt for sooner.