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Kell sheathed his blaster and raised the ramp. “Anything from Joyride Group?”

Janson, in the copilot’s seat, shook his head.

The TIE fighters were slowing to hover over the open doors of the bunker when the comm board sounded again. “Control Aleph-One, this is Central. Why did you break off pursuit of Target X-3085?”

Face grimaced and activated his microphone. “Central, the target’s escape profile suggested an ambush. It was not in an escape posture. This indicated to me that it was leading our fighters toward a superior force.”

“You decided that on your own initiative, Aleph-One?”

‘That’s correct, sir.”

“Interesting choice, Aleph-One. You know it’s subject to review.”

“Yes, sir. I stand by it, sir.”

“Very well. Your men coming in safe?”

“Two eyeballs incoming hot and normal.”

“Two what?”

Face shut off his mike and swore to himself. Then he switched it back on. “Uh, eyeballs, sir. That’s Rebel talk. I thought you’d be amused.”

“Aleph-One, recite your day code.”

Face switched the mike off and yanked it free of its housing, then keyed his comlink. “Leader, we’ve been made.”

· · ·

The two TIE fighters descended to a smooth landing. Wedge kept his cockpit dark, though his engines were hot, and waited.

The TIEs’ access hatches did not open. A moment later their engines lit up again and they roared skyward.

“Three, fire!” Wedge had a confirmed lock on his targeting computer as soon as the port-side TIE fighter rose over him. He triggered his lasers. The blast shook his grounded vehicle but hit the ascending starfighter dead-on, hulling it. The TIE fighter continued upward only another twenty or thirty meters, slowing, then stalled and dropped.

Falynn, in her TIE fighter, fired twice. Her second shot hit her target where its spherical body met its starboard wing pylon. The blast didn’t sever the pylon, but chopped halfway through it. The vehicle’s next maneuver, a dizzying spin to the side, did the rest, tearing the pylon completely free. The fighter spun out of sight.

Wedge’s target came straight down back into the bay. Wedge instictively leaned away from the descending, burning mess. It smashed down right next to his vehicle, showering his TIE fighter with half-melted debris. His starfighter shook from the impact. “Gray Eight, Gray Thirteen, I’m afraid you’re on foot; your rides are vaped.”

“Acknowledged. Narra, can you swing by for a quick pickup?”

Wedge heard Kell’s voice: “We’re already in motion.”

“Three, Leader. We’re airborne.” Wedge nudged his control yoke and was suddenly roaring skyward.

The replacement gunner swung around to try to track the rogue TIE fighters from Bunker Aleph-One. Then Central was back in his headphones: “There’s a Lambda-class shuttle moving sixty meters west of your position. We think they’re part of the same crew. Target and fire.”

The gunner almost had the lead TIE in his brackets, but the pilot was good, very good, constantly juking around, then dropping nearly to ground level to roar along behind a bunker or bulk cruiser. “I’m a little busy here,” he said. “You’re sure the shuttle is the primary target?”

“They’re not going to have their most important people on the starfighters, idiot. Do as you’re told.”

The gunner sighed, then rotated his cupola around to cover the shuttle, which was moving on repulsorlifts more or less toward the TIE ready bunker.

Toward two dark-clad figures running toward it. The shuttle’s boarding ramp was opening.

He bracketed the shuttle’s midsection—then heard the oncoming roar of a TIE fighter. A glance over his shoulder showed the starfighter swooping at him, lining up for a shot—

He leaped clear. He leaped out over fifteen meters of fall above a hard duracrete landing, and before he was halfway down he saw the cupola explode under brilliantly accurate laser fire from the TIE fighter.

Then he hit, and disobedient shuttles and starfighters were no longer his problem.

Though a squadron of TIE fighters left the city of Scohar