Star Wars_ X-Wing 04_ The Bacta War - Michael A. Stackpole [138]
“Nine has double-lock. I’m firing.”
“Launch, Nine, then get clear.”
“As ordered, Lead.” Corran pulled the trigger on his stick and watched two proton torpedoes streak away at their target. “Pull the Lusankya’s fangs and hope we don’t get gummed to death on the way out.”
38
Drysso stared down at his aide. “How many incoming torpedo tracks, Lieutenant Waroen?”
“Twenty, sir.”
Two per X-wing. Survivable. “You see, only twenty.”
“Wait, sir. I have twenty-four.”
“No matter.”
“Now I have forty, no, eighty. Eight zero.”
Drysso’s jaw dropped as he saw a nova flare blossom up over the horizon of his starboard bow. The shields held for a second or two, then collapsed. Warning sirens started shrieking on the bridge as multiple torpedo and missile hits exploded six kilometers away on the ship’s bow. The brilliant fire gnawed at the clean lines of his ship, shattering armor plates and triggering dozens of secondary and tertiary explosions.
Even before the tremors reached the bridge, Drysso started shouting orders. “Waroen, kill those sirens. Give me damage control reports. Guns, what have you lost and why haven’t you gotten me the Freedom yet?”
Waroen’s voice rose above the din. “Captain, we have full bow shield collapse.”
“How did they get that many missiles off, Lieutenant?”
“Sir, I don’t know, sir.”
“Sithspawn! Find out how!” Drysso watched as the Freedom fired down at the Super Star Destroyer. Salvos of red turbolaser bolts pulsed out from the smaller ship, savaging the Lusankya’s unprotected bow. Vaporized armor immediately condensed into metal clouds that hid the full extent of the damage done, but Drysso had no hopes that his bow would look like anything but a blackened, battered lump. Still, that damage is nothing compared to what we can do.
Over a hundred starboard ion cannons fired back at the Freedom in a display so massive it appeared as if sheets of blue energy had erupted from the Lusankya’s side. The Imperial Star Destroyer’s shields imploded, leaving azure lightning to skip and arc all over the ship’s surface. Drysso saw secondary explosions ripple through the smaller ship’s port gun decks, letting him know the Freedom had been badly hurt.
“Captain, I’ve lost fifteen percent of my starboard firepower.”
“Thank you, Guns. Lieutenant Waroen, where did those missiles come from?”
“The freighters, sir, they’re launching missiles that appear to be using the starfighter telemetry to target us.” Waroen glanced at his monitors. “Sir, I can reestablish the bow shield, but it will lower our protection elsewhere.”
“Do it, Waroen. Guns, forget the Freedom. Kill the freighters.” Drysso clasped his hands at the small of his back. “The freighters are our main threat now. Kill them, and this battle is over.”
Tycho Celchu rolled his X-wing to port, then pulled back on his stick. He cruised in on the tail of a TIE fighter and pulled the trigger. Two bursts of dual-fire lasers shot out, stabbing deep into the engine assembly. He rolled quickly to starboard and dove, clearing the exploding TIE’s blast radius.
“You still with me, Eight?”
Nawara Ven’s voice came back a little less calm than Tycho would have wanted. “With you, Seven, just barely.”
“New flight, Eight, then our second run on the Lusankya. You take lead.”
“As ordered, Seven.”
Tycho throttled back a bit to let Nawara Ven pass him, then he sideslipped to the left and took up a position in Nawara’s port aft arc. Coming back off the first run on the Super Star Destroyer, the X-wings had boiled into the fourth TIE flight. Between them and the Twi’lek Chir’daki, the TIEs never had a chance. As they closed on the fifth flight, it lost unit cohesion as four of the pilots pulled away and headed back toward the incoming Interceptors.
“Only