Star Wars_ X-Wing 04_ The Bacta War - Michael A. Stackpole [90]
Wedge pushed all power to his forward shields as he hit a wall of TIE fighters six kilometers out from the Corrupter. Once past them he evened his shields out with a flick of his thumb and then started draining his lasers of energy and pumping it into his shields. At two and a half kilometers he would get a firing solution for the Corrupter. He’d hold it until his squadron had launched, launch himself, then pull up and out. “Coming up on targeting. On my mark. Five, four, three, two, one. Get ready.”
The targeting reticle on his head-up display went red. “Mark!” Wedge pulled the trigger on his stick, launching two proton torpedoes. Launch report after launch report from his squadron scrolled up on his screen. Hey, even the Gands got off two concussion missiles.
Preparing to break off and run, Wedge glanced at his sensors and saw four TIEs in his rear arc. Realizing that pulling up and away would allow them to pounce on him, Wedge rolled his X-wing to port, then took the snubfighter down in a long loop that would carry him below the Corrupter’s hull. If they want to come after me, they get to brave their own fire, too. Juking right and left, Wedge bounced the fighter back and forth between streams of turbolaser fire.
A brilliant incandescence blossomed above him. The proton torpedoes slammed into the Corrupter’s shields all along the ship’s length. The shields acted like huge, invisible parasols to ward off the fierce energy unleashed by the proton torpedoes’ detonations. Roiling plasma curved up and around, following the arc of the Corrupter’s port shields as if some energy creature were trying to take a bite out of the ship. Then several torpedoes arrived late and pierced the shield at its heart, causing it to collapse. The tardy torpedoes and two concussion missiles pounded the destroyer’s hull, blasting apart armor plates and crushing turbolaser batteries.
“Beginning my run now!”
Wedge felt a moment’s joy at the collapse of the Corrupter’s shields, but it died as the big ship began to maneuver. It rotated in space above him, executing a roll that swapped up for down and presented the squadron with its undamaged starboard shields as a target. Convarion knows we have a limited supply of proton torpedoes. If he survived this salvo, we’ve got one last shot to take him down. If he repairs his shields and rolls again, we’re done, because then he can take all the time he wants to come after us.
Wedge keyed his comm unit. “Corran, set up for the third run.”
“I copy, Wedge. Lots of eyeballs out here.”
“Here, too.” Wedge pulled back on his stick and brought his X-wing up between the Aggregator and the Corrupter. He got a good look at the damage the torpedoes had done to the Destroyer and saw fire in the ship’s interior. He knew bulkheads had already been sealed and the fires would go out as soon as the atmosphere drained away. So it’s time to see if I can add to the problem. He started to angle in at the Corrupter, but green laser bolts slashed past him from behind, causing him to break off the run, roll, and dive.
Tycho’s voice boomed over the comm unit. “On my mark. Five, four, three, two, one. Get into firing position.”
Right. The pair of TIEs on Wedge’s tail had no intention of letting him set up on the Corrupter. Wedge chopped his throttle back, then reversed his thrust and ran it up to full. The TIE fighters immediately closed and snapped off quick shots, then bypassed him. Hitting the right rudder pedal, Wedge brought the X-wing’s nose around on the track of one of them. Switching over to quad-fire lasers, he hit the trigger. Three of the bolts hit the TIE. Two lanced through the cockpit while one boiled away a corner of a solar panel. The fighter immediately went into a flat spin and arced out toward the system’s outer orbits.
More rudder brought the X-wing around to point back up at the Corrupter. Wedge killed his reverse thrust and started it forward as Tycho said,