Star Wars_ X-Wing 04_ The Bacta War - Michael A. Stackpole [74]
The people of Halanit however … He shook his head. “They were never meant to find themselves in that situation.”
Mirax leaned heavily against him. “I know, but Isard put them there, you didn’t.”
The glow panels in the small briefing room came up, in no way easing the severe expression on Wedge’s face. “First I want to state publicly that, in my opinion, Gavin could have done nothing more than he did at Halanit. While he has felt he somehow led the Corrupter to Halanit, we know that isn’t true. Halanit stopped asking anyone but us for bacta after our first run, and the tanker pilots knew where they had dropped off a supply. It was easy for Iceheart to tag them as a target—I’m fairly certain she would have found out who we had supplied no matter how we got the bacta to the worlds, but we could have made it tougher for her. The fact is that Iceheart has publicized what happened at Halanit to frighten others into paying Thyferra for the gift of bacta we made to them.”
Wedge’s brown eyes narrowed. “Since Gavin’s departure, there has been no direct communication from Halanit. According to the messages Iceheart has sent out, the Corrupter initiated a planetary barrage that expanded upon the damage the bombers and stormtroopers had inflicted. It is my assumption that no one was left living in the colony. I’m fairly certain that after all was said and done, the place was sown with mines and other boobytraps to kill survivors or rescuers.”
Nawara Ven’s braintails twitched. “So you’re saying we’re not going to try to save any of the people there.”
Wedge shook his head, his reluctance to forgo such a mission thick in his voice. “We do not have the ships we need to help them. If even one-tenth of the individuals there survived, that would dwarf our transport capabilities. I do know the New Republic is sending some ships to Halanit, but they don’t expect to find survivors either.”
He opened his hands. “I know that’s not easy for any of you to hear. Innocent individuals have suffered because of something we did, but what we did meant they lived just that much longer. Had we not acted, that colony would have been dead weeks ago. We kept it going that much longer. We were able to lift a blanket of oppression and misery from them, and this disaster cannot devalue what we did. Iceheart made choices that raised our conflict to another level.”
“She has to pay.” Gavin hammered a fist down onto the arm of his chair. “Iceheart and Erisi and all of them have to pay.”
“And pay they will.” The edge sliding into Wedge’s voice brought Corran’s head up. “Ysanne Isard has forgotten the lesson she taught the Rebellion by giving us a sick Coruscant. She’s forgotten that our strength is our freedom and her weakness is her link to the sources of production for bacta. We can go anywhere and be anywhere, but she’s limited. She is limited in how much she can cover, so we can hit her where she’s open and run when she has our targets protected.”
Inyri Forge raised a hand. “But we ran this time, and she hit an innocent world. How do we prevent that from happening again?”
“Two ways. First, with Booster’s help, we’ll deal the bacta we capture to traders and let them sell it. The price is high enough for them to accept the risks. We can have them undercut Isard’s prices or we cut them off from future shipments. In return we can get the arms, munitions, and spare parts we need to continue doing what we’re doing. We’ll insulate places by allowing them to deny knowing where the bacta came from and we’ll make traders very happy with us. The