Star Wars_ X-Wing 05_ Wraith Squadron - Aaron Allston [52]
“Falcon, sorry, you’re on your own. Go to ground, get to cover. We’ll meet up with you at, uh, New DownTime.”
“I read you, Rogue Two. Be strong in the Force. Falcon out.”
That was their bug-out signal. Kell instructed Thirteen to cut the power boost to the X-wing’s transponder and shields; Runt would be doing the same, and this would drop the signal strength to that appropriate to a pair of X-wings instead of two groups of them. The A-wing pilots would now be shutting down the program that oscillated the energy going to their own shields, which had yielded the odd signal Blue Nine had hoped would attract the Implacable. If this all worked, a presumed Millennium Falcon and six or eight X-wings would magically transform, on the Implacable’s sensors, to a mere four fighters.
The four rolled to port and blasted their way to the Pig Trough, now only half a klick away, then dropped back into the fissure and headed southeast again.
The sensors officer looked confused. “The signal changed. I think they’re trying to jam us. They’ve certainly gone into that prominent canyon formation.”
“Pilot, new course, due south. When you get to these coordinates”—Trigit tapped the point where their southern course would intercept the fissure—“hover. Weapons, prepare the tractor. We’ll pluck them out of that ravine like a Gamorrean plucks morrts.”
“Admiral, this is Tactical. The Rebel fighters at the main engagement are breaking off. We also show another transport well out ahead of them, clearing Folor’s gravity well.”
“Tell the interceptors to keep on their tail, pick off stragglers, plot their jump course if they jump.”
“Sir, the interceptors are all gone.”
Trigit looked up. “Wait. There was another transport?”
“Yes, sir.”
The admiral felt his stomach begin to sink. “Pilot, bring us to flank speed. I want us over that canyon now.”
“Coming to flank speed, sir.”
· · ·
Janson’s voice crackled over the comm unit, “Borleias reports she’s away and within a couple of minutes of entering hyperspace.”
Then Crespin’s voice; Wedge was pleased to hear that the aging pilot was still among the living. “Blue Squadron, Wraith Squadron, break off and regroup. We’ll reunite at Rendezvous One.”
“Blue Leader, Wraith Leader. Acknowledged. Best of luck.” Wedge, just having completed another head-to-head run-through of the most energetic swarm of fighters, began a long circle. “Wraiths, you heard him. Break off. Form up on me.
The surviving TIEs, reduced in number by half and never reinforced by the presence of the Implacable, let them go—all but a pair of overeager eyeballs who pursued and were vaped almost immediately by Janson and Piggy.
Wedge brought Wraith Squadron around to a southward course, toward base. “Wraith Five, Wraith Six, do you read?”
“We read, Leader. We’re coming. Too busy to calculate ETA.”
The Implacable slowed to a full stop with its main tractor array poised over the fissure.
The sensors officer immediately spoke up. “Four ships incoming along that geographical formation. But they’re not target Folor-Three.”
Trigit frowned. “What do you mean? Who are they?”
“Two X-wings, two A-wings. No Corellian YT-1300s.”
No Millennium Falcon. Trigit closed his eyes. Twice. He’d been fooled twice in one day. Not even his own children, bright and malicious as they were, had ever done that to him. He rubbed his forehead, at the headache that had suddenly appeared there. “Forget the tractor,” he said gently. “Maximum laser bombardment. I want them dead.”
· · ·
Kell finished his transmission with the Implacable almost directly overhead. Then the Star Destroyer’s laser cannons began raining columns of pure destruction down on them.
The first blast hit the fissure wall less than a hundred meters ahead, filling the fissure and sky above with blinding light and melting stone debris. Kell headed to starboard of the blast’s center, flying by memory while his sight and sensors were useless, and cleared the blast field, only to run right into another one. He heard stone shards hammer against his cockpit, against the side of