Star Wars_ X-Wing 05_ Wraith Squadron - Aaron Allston [7]
“Wise of you. Younger pilots. I notice I did not recognize all their names.”
“Rogue Squadron is catching up from attrition, sir. At the end of the Thyferran mission we were down a few pilots. Since then, we’ve brought our numbers up again. We’re still one pilot light, but Aril Nunb rejoined us temporarily for yesterday’s celebration.”
“I’m sure you will employ your customary skill in finding extraordinary replacements. Well, allow me the impatience of office. What brings you to me? Your message hinted at—what was it? ‘Recommendations for a new type of unit, particularly well suited to the search for Warlord Zsinj.’ ”
“That’s correct.” Warlord Zsinj, a onetime Imperial admiral still in possession of a Super Star Destroyer, an eight-kilometer warship capable of pounding a planetary surface flat, was now the New Republic’s most important military objective. His hit-and-run missions against New Republic sites were increasing in bold effectiveness and destructiveness, and the danger that he might assume Ysanne Isard’s role as the center of an Imperial resurgence was not an empty one. “I’d like to form a new X-wing group, sir.”
Admiral Ackbar’s mouth bent in an approximation of a smile. A learned behavior—Mon Calamari did not communicate amusement that way. But Ackbar was well versed in human body language. “Rogue Squadron is no longer good enough for you?”
“Rogue Squadron will always be good enough for me, sir. But in the last several years I’ve bumped repeatedly into a glaring weakness in our military. I’ve tried to address it before and want to try again.”
“Please elaborate.”
Wedge leaned back, settling in for a lengthy discussion. “You’ll remember when I reorganized Rogue Squadron a few years back, I took the best pilots I could transfer or steal … but when it came down to choosing between pilots of equal skill, I always chose the one who had useful ground-based skills as well.”
“Yes. You wanted pilots who could also be commandos.”
“I got them. And they got quite a workout as commandos, especially in the liberation of Coruscant from the Empire and then of Thyferra from Ysanne Isard.”
Ackbar managed to smile again. “You have certainly justified our faith in your experiment. Rogue Squadron performed magnificently.”
“Thank you. Speaking for my men and women, I have to agree. But I’d originally thought that Rogue Squadron would be used opportunistically: a strike mission would reveal a ground-based weakness, and we’d have the training and supplies to go down and perform the necessary ground mission. The way it turned out, we keep landing full-fledged commando missions. So I think we need another commando X-wing squadron, one where we choose pilots so as to have a full range of intrusion and subversion skills. Rogue Squadron was designed as a fighter unit first, commando unit second; this time, I want to go the other way around.”
Admiral Ackbar’s expression, so far as Wedge could read it, was dubious. “Historically, we’ve had few problems coordinating the efforts of commandos on the ground and fighter pilots for aerial support.”
“I don’t agree. Commandos can communicate strike locations to the pilots, but the pilots still won’t have the familiarity with these locations that the intrusion team will. Commandos who’ve had their extraction plans busted might want to seize enemy spacecraft to escape; the way things stand, they can’t count on having enough pilots to make that escape, while commando-trained pilots could. Normal pilots follow orders and conform themselves to standard tactics—and should! But a commando X-wing unit might develop new tactics. New ways of mounting even ordinary raids and pursuits. New ways of anticipating assaults and ambushes.”
Ackbar abruptly leaned back from him, his eyes half closing; it looked to Wedge like a frown of concentration. “What made you say that?”
“Thinking about the subject on the long flight home, and during