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Wedge smiled. “I think you’ll recall that no one at our first meeting had any good idea about how to go about overthrowing a planetary government. Elscol has had more practice at it than anyone I know. She’s never been much of a joiner, so she’s been working outside the New Republic.”

She shrugged. “Haven’t formed an opinion about the New Republic yet, though during Tycho’s trial my thoughts were none-too-positive. The Empire, on the other hand, left me without my family, so I’m doing what I can to strip them of theirs.”

“Have you had a chance to review the material I sent you?”

Elscol nodded. “If the ratio of loyal humans to Vratix is at all accurate, the actual conquest of the world should be simple. The big problem there is the presence of those Imp ships. Anything we do can be undone by a planetary bombardment. If those ships can be scattered or neutralized—preferably both—we can stage an uprising that should topple Ysanne Isard. I’m confident we can do it, but I’ll have a better idea of exactly what we’re going to do after I get in there and take a look.”

Mirax raised an eyebrow. “You’re talking about going to Thyferra?”

“Yes, the sooner the better.” Elscol held up a hand and started ticking points off on her fingers. “We have to liaise with the Ashern, or we’ll fight them as much as we’ll fight the Imps and their Xucphra allies. We have to determine the nature of the targets we’ll hit, so we can be properly supplied for the strikes. We need to gauge the reaction of the populace to a countercoup, and we have to find a local leader who can handle being put in charge. If this were just some backwater world that no one cared about, we could be a bit more hasty. Thyferra, however, is of vital importance, so we have to be careful and surgical in what we’re doing.”

“Agreed.” Wedge folded his arms across his chest. “We don’t have enough in the way of personnel or equipment to allow us to be sloppy.”

Sixtus rested his fists on his narrow hips. “How long do you anticipate being able to keep the location of this station a secret from Isard?”

Wedge shrugged. “I have no way of judging that. We’ll take all precautions possible, but we’re as vulnerable here as the Alliance was on Hoth or Yavin 4. If Isard finds us, we’re in for a difficult time.”

“Then the sooner we’re on Thyferra, the sooner she’ll have to think about leaving at least part of her fleet at home.”

Gavin frowned. “But I thought the fleet needed to be scattered.”

“True enough, but scattered in a way that you can nibble it to death. I know you Rogues are hot hands on a stick, but a dozen snubfighters can’t take four capital ships all by themselves. Isard has to be induced to send the ships out so you can eliminate them, but she also needs a reason to leave some of them at home so you don’t get overwhelmed.”

Corran raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you’re suggesting the only way we win this thing is if Iceheart starts getting stupid.”

“Not at all, flyboy. What we need to do is to give Isard too many things to think about. She likes to be in control—that’s clear—and she’ll do outrageous things to remain in control.” Sixtus smiled in a way that made it seem as if smiling were an effort for him. “We have to present her with enough problems that she’s reacting to what we do, not acting by herself. We set the pace and determine what she does.”

Tycho’s eyes narrowed. “And if she doesn’t dance to the tune we call?”

Elscol opened her hands. “Then we dance around her. Make no mistake about it, defeating her is going to be neither pretty nor swift, but it can be done. People are going to die, but if she remains in charge of the bacta supply in the galaxy, that’s a given anyway.”

Wedge nodded and felt his shoulders begin to ache as if someone had settled a lead-lined cloak across them. While none of the Rogues had ever attempted to minimize the difficulty of what they had set out to do, neither had they taken a close look at the realities of it. It is almost as if we began to believe in the legend