Star Wars_ X-Wing 04_ The Bacta War - Michael A. Stackpole [16]
As Winter dispassionately outlined Erisi’s involvement with the Empire, Wedge watched the faces of his people. Erisi had been one of them, fighting alongside of them in numerous engagements. She’d been shot out of her X-wing, and Tycho had risked his life to rescue her. Even though her aid to the Empire was, as Winter had indicated, really insignificant, it had been enough to kill people who didn’t deserve to die.
In himself, Wedge found anger mixed with chagrin and a little admiration. Erisi Dlarit had successfully played through some very difficult situations without revealing her role. Until she was fleeing Coruscant, Wedge hadn’t known she was a spy. Some signs were there, but not all of them.
Wedge caught Corran looking in his direction and half-smiled. “She played the game well.”
“True, but she’s going to have to play much better when we come to visit.” Corran’s only concession to the emotions he was feeling came in the edge to his voice and the thin-lipped smile he offered. “As a spy she was good, but the next contest is one of pilots, and in that one she’ll lose.”
Winter changed the holographic image again. “If she loses it’s not going to be because she’s lacking the equipment she needs to win. Defending Thyferra are four Imperial warships: a Super Star Destroyer, two Imperial Star Destroyers, and one Victory-class Star Destroyer. Lusankya, Avarice, Virulence, and Corrupter, respectively. Lusankya is the ship that blasted its way out of Coruscant. It was previously unaccounted for, causing us to raise our estimates of how many ships the Kuat Drive Yards and the Fondor Yards produced. Oddly enough, both places claim to have produced Vader’s flagship, Executor. It appears two ships were manufactured under that name, with one having been turned into Lusankya and buried on Coruscant—probably to serve as the Emperor’s get-away ship. The other Executor, the one from Fondor, was destroyed at Endor.”
She circled a finger through the hologram, encompassing the trio of smaller ships. “Avarice, Virulence, and Corrupter have hardly had sterling careers, but the crews are competent. I’m in the process of assembling files on all the staff officers, but the most dangerous of them, Captain Ait Convarion, commands the smallest ship. Corrupter has done very well in the Outer Rim hunting down pirate groups which, for better or worse, we resemble.”
Wedge stood as Winter shut the holoprojector down. “As you can all see, we’re dealing with a fairly formidable foe that is well armed. One of the things we have to face is that we may be unable to accomplish our goals in this operation. Unseating Isard may, in fact, turn out to be impossible.”
Seated behind Gavin, Corran reached out and tapped the younger man on the head. “Gavin, this is where you’re supposed to tell us that unseating her isn’t tough and relate the whole thing to varminting on Tatooine.”
Gavin blanched. “I didn’t hear anyone mention a trench or canyon or womp rats. Taking a planet is beyond me.”
Wedge smiled. “It’s beyond most of us. I’ve sent communications out to some individuals who might be able to help. The problem is enormous. First we have to eliminate the ships, then take the world. The key to nailing the ships is to get them spread out so they can’t support each other. We can do that by forcing Isard to use them to cover bacta convoys, but to kill the ships we need weapons, and a lot of them.”
Riv Shiel, the Shistavanen wolfman, curled his lips up in a snarl. “It sounds as if we need the Katana fleet.”
“That would be nice.” The legendary ghost fleet of warships was supposed to be skipping through hyperspace, just waiting for someone to come and claim it. Wedge frowned. “We could also hope that the Outbound Flight