Star Wars_ X-Wing 04_ The Bacta War - Michael A. Stackpole [132]
Drysso hesitated and that hesitation should have lost him his ship and his dreams.
Two kilometers off his bow, the Virulence lanced upward, eclipsing the station. All of a sudden the Imperial Star Destroyer began to shrink, but it was only when he saw stars flashing back into sight at the corners of his vision did he realize why it was disappearing. They’re not destroying my ship, we’re speeding away from the station—engines are still at full reverse. The Virulence broke the locks by interposing itself between us and the station.
Drysso smiled and tasted sweat in the corners of his mouth. We’re free of the trap Antilles laid for us. He thought he had found a way to destroy us, but he did not. Now we get to spring a trap on him.
The Lusankya’s Captain turned to face his bridge crew. “Rosion, plot a course back to Thyferra, as fast as we can get there. Yesti, send Virulence our thanks. Tell them their sacrifice will be remembered—a sacrifice that allowed us to destroy Wedge Antilles and hasten the Empire’s rebirth.”
Waroen looked up at him, disbelieving. “We’re not going to help them, sir?”
“They’re just doing their duty, Lieutenant.” Drysso’s mouth soured with the fear of ever engaging the station. “We now go to do ours.”
36
By the time the Lusankya reverted to realspace, Captain Drysso had constructed a complete rationalization for his actions. He knew it was just that: a thin fabric of facts, circumstances and lies that would probably crumble under Isard’s scrutiny. The fact remained, though, that he needed an explanation, and it was the best he could come up with.
It all started with the premise that Antilles’s station would kill the Lusankya. This he knew and had the sensor reports to back it up. Isard herself had made it very clear that preserving the Lusankya was vital, so disengaging when given the opportunity to do so was the only choice he had. With the station being as heavily armed as it was, the only prudent course of action would be to cordon it off and let the inhabitants starve until they chose to surrender.
Once disengagement had been mandated, the next course of action had also been obvious. He had sensor reports to indicate Antilles, the War Cruiser, and dozens of freighters had headed out for Thyferra. That was a much larger taskforce than Isard had anticipated being used against Thyferra. Only by returning home at flank speed could the Lusankya be in position to destroy that taskforce. In fact, it seemed rather obvious, that without the Lusankya’s help, the Thyferran Home Defense Corps would be overwhelmed.
He had no choice but to return to Thyferra.
He realized that abandoning his TIE fighters at Yag’Dhul could be criticized, but he could even explain that away. The TIEs were meant to supplement the Virulence’s defenses—the fighters could track and shoot down missiles before they could strike the Imperial Star Destroyer. He also expected them to get in close enough to the station to destroy launchers and then complete the destruction of the station. That his pilots were dead if both the station and the Virulence were destroyed meant little to him—they had their duty to do just as he had his. If he remained to pick them up, he would have been destroyed.
Standing before the bridge viewport, he anticipated reversion into a battlefield. As the light tunnel melted away into a scattering of stars, he saw the green-and-white ball of Thyferra above him. No X-wings swooped about. No TIEs filled the void with green laser fire. He saw nothing out of the ordinary, just freighter traffic and a few system patrols.
Drysso slammed a fist off the transparisteel viewport. He’d been had by Antilles. The feint at Thyferra had drawn him off, causing him to sacrifice the Virulence. The Rogues probably abandoned