Star Wars_ X-Wing 04_ The Bacta War - Michael A. Stackpole [33]
He nodded slowly. “Okay, we’ve got to start planning this all in earnest. We’re gathering weapons and the ships we need already, but now we’re going to have to designate mission goals, outline parameters, set rules of engagement, and establish just how far we’re willing to go to accomplish the end we desire: the liberation of Thyferra. I take it that the fact that you’re here means you’re willing to help us do this, Elscol?”
She winked at Wedge. “Actually I was coming here to give you folks the joy of flying cover for me while my people handled the problem, but I think throwing in with you is the only way to get this done. We’re in.”
“Great.” Wedge clapped her on the shoulders. “So, where do you suggest we begin?”
Elscol’s smile blossomed. “I think the first thing we want to do is to make Isard very mad.”
10
Corran made one last check on his instruments, but everything seemed fine. His screen showed him to be fifteen seconds from reversion to realspace. “Hang on, Whistler, this could be very strange.”
He knew it shouldn’t be at all out of the ordinary, but he couldn’t escape the feeling that something odd would happen. He felt it was not because of any unknown factors attached to the mission, because there really were none. Their intelligence about the bacta convoy had been very good and double-checked. The squadron should be able to hit it and get away well before Iceheart could mount any sort of rescue operation.
Corran’s uneasiness came from the fact that in this mission he was being asked to do something against which he had fought all his life. His father and grandfather had fought against it all their lives. Even Nejaa Halcyon had ventured out against pirates who preyed on interstellar convoys. Corran, who had once been an officer in the Corellian Security Force’s antismuggling, division, had become a pirate.
Rationalizing and justifying what he was about to do was simple in the extreme. Elscol Loro had said from the start that getting Isard angry was important, and stealing a convoy of bacta certainly would do that. It would also force her to devote some of her resources to safeguarding future convoys. Even if Rogue Squadron never engaged any of Isard’s troops, the sheer volume of runs the destroyers would have to make would tax the crew and the equipment, forcing her to obtain more supplies from the black market at inflated prices.
All the while wearing her down for us.
The counter in the upper corner of his screen spun down to zero, then the white tunnel outside his cockpit shattered into pinpoints of light that resolved themselves into stars. Out ahead of him, the yellow sun at the heart of the Chorax system took up a quarter of the sky, while the single large planet in the system stood silhouetted against it like the pupil in some huge yellow eye.
Streaming away from the planet like tears, the ships of the bacta convoy headed out, their exit vector identical to Rogue Squadron’s entry vector. Though closing fast with them, Corran could not make out any visual detail on the Thyferran ships, yet Whistler flashed a schematic of them on his screen in short order. Three hundred meters in length, from prow bridge to hyperdrives, the bacta tankers had an almost insectoid feel about them. The ship’s central section had two parts, each of which held six cargo cylinders. In the various systems where the convoy stopped, smaller ships would fly up to the convoy, tease one of the cylinders free from the tanker’s belly, then slip a return cylinder into its place. The returned cylinder might be empty, but most of them contained the world’s native goods, to be sent back to Thyferra or traded yet further along the line.
Corran keyed his comm unit. “Nine here, Rogue Leader. The convoy