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Wedge’s heart had sunk when Gate reported the launching of the Virulence’s fighters. He brought his X-wing around and resigned himself to one last glorious battle. That Impstar only carries six TIE squadrons. I always sort of figured Rogue Squadron would go out in a blaze of glory, and this looks like it is it. “Gate, target me one of Virulence’s fighters.”

The droid complied with a beep. Wedge glanced down at the image the droid painted on his monitor. “That’s an A-wing.”

Gate corrected him with a bleat.

“Okay, a Mark II A-wing.” Wedge shook his head to clear it. A-wings? Where did Isard get A-wings?

A familiar voice crackled through Wedge’s comm unit. “Ace Lead to Rogue Leader. Mind if we crash your party, Wedge?”

“Pash Cracken? Where in the Emperor’s dark heart did you come from?”

“Booster’s flagship. The gravity well pulled my unit out of hyperspace right on top of Virulence during their little standoff. Booster talked the captain into believing it was all part of the trap, so she surrendered the ship to him.”

So he finally found a ship that was big enough for him. “The Lusankya is all yours, Captain Cracken.”

“Obliged, Wedge. We’re going in.”

Inverting and rolling out, Wedge reoriented his X-wing toward the Lusankya as the Virulence fired a full broadside into the Super Star Destroyer. The smaller ship’s turbolasers and ion cannons wrought havoc upon the Lusankya’s port gunnery decks. A ribbon of fire raced along the port gunwale and secondary explosions kept it alive long after the Virulence’s weapons stopped firing.

To the Lusankya’s aft, the Valiant closed to point-blank range and blasted away at the big ship’s engines. Sparks cascaded away as turbolasers drilled deep into the Super Star Destroyer. A brilliant flash eclipsed the Valiant for a moment. A violent tremor shook the Lusankya, snapping free a blackened chunk of the bow.

Fast and nimble, Pash’s A-wings slashed in at the Lusankya. They flitted over the massive ship’s surface, shooting concussion missiles at gunnery towers and sensor domes. Fiery craters stippled the Lusankya in their wake. What few weapons did remain on the Lusankya fired ineffectively at the A-wings; all of their destructive power proved impotent against a target they could not hit.

“Rogue Lead, this is Three. We’re going in for a strafing run.”

“I copy, Gavin.” Wedge glanced at his monitors, but the only TIEs he saw were the ones escorting the shuttle. Can’t catch them now. “If you don’t mind, Three, I think I’ll join you.”

Closing with the squints Corran switched his weapon’s-control over to lasers and linked them for dual-fire. While a quad burst would be certain to burn a squint down, dual-fire allowed the guns to cycle that much faster. One shot should still be a kill, but if these guys can put the maneuverability of those squints to good use, I’ll need all the shots I can get. His X-wing still had an advantage because of its shields, but that still didn’t make him immune to damage.

“Nine, let’s be careful.”

“As ordered, Seven. Ten, on me.”

“Ooryl copies.”

“Whistler, scan comm frequencies and bring up whatever one they’re using. Squelch scrambled messages. I don’t care what they’re saying to each other. I just want to be able to talk to them.”

Whistler moaned in a low tone.

“Yes, I do think Erisi is flying with them. I want to let her know who’s coming after her.” The droid hooted derisively.

“She can decide to flame me all she wants, doesn’t matter.” Corran let himself smile. “She already knows I can play hard to get. She’s the reason I went down on Coruscant, and I’m bringing her down here.”

He picked one of the squints in the middle of the formation as a target, but kept his flight path pointed as if he were preparing to attack one of the closer Interceptors. As the close Interceptors broke, Corran rolled on his starboard stabilizers as if he were going to follow them, but then applied some rudder and spitted his target on his aiming reticle. He tightened up on his trigger.

Two sets of two bolts skewered the squint’s ball cockpit. The twin ion engines exploded,