Star Wars_ X-Wing 06_ Iron Fist - Aaron Allston [114]
“Goal number two is to stay alive and to take out as many of the enemy as possible. And don’t forget—the people of Kuat, in spite of the fact that they’re Zsinj’s enemy, are also our enemy. They’re loyal to the remnants of the Empire. Any damage we do them is good for the New Republic. Any questions?”
Donos raised his hand. “What are our individual roles for this mission?”
Janson tapped on his datapad and the Wraith unit roster replaced the Kuat system as the holographic projection. “We’ll be broken down into two or, we hope, three units.
“Unit One, Hawk-bats. That’s Commander Antilles, Dia, Kell, Face, Tyria, and Piggy. We fly, we shoot, we kill.
“Unit Two, Infiltrators. Lara has faked up dossiers on alternate identities for herself, Shalla, and Dia and forwarded them to Zsinj—you’ve done that, haven’t you, Lara? Good—in the hope that he’ll select one or two to accompany his advance team, the one we believe will be taking over the new Destroyer.
“Unit Three, Wraith Squadron. The rest of us will be taking our X-wings to join Mon Remonda as part of the ambush phase of the operation. We predict that Zsinj won’t want to do more than a short jump away from Kuat on untested hyperdrive engines. That means we’ll be stationing elements of the New Republic fleet—all of General Solo’s command and anyone else we can drag in—and staging them at points as close as we can manage to Zsinj’s likely escape courses. They’ll be well off the major trade and military routes—an important consideration, since we’ll be in the middle of Imperial-controlled space—and standing by for any signal from any of the transmitters.
“With any luck, if there’s enough time between the accomplishment of the Kuat raid and the come-get-me signal from Iron Fist, the Hawk-bats from the first part of the plan will be able to join the Wraiths for the third.”
“And when we hear that signal,” Donos said, “we jump in and drop the heavy end of the hammer on Iron Fist and his new Destroyer.”
“That’s it,” Wedge said. “Make your preparations. We suspect the word will come from Zsinj pretty soon, but we don’t know when—so get as much done as you can. Face, we’ll need disguises for anyone Zsinj might choose to join the advance unit. Kell, I’d like for the same folk to have some backup weapons, demolitions—we want to give them every opportunity to get back to us if things go sour. Questions, anyone? No? Then get to it.”
The word from Zsinj arrived later that day. It included a rendezvous course the Wraiths suspected led to another redirection satellite, and a request that Qatya Nassin—Shalla’s Hawk-bat identity—join Zsinj’s advance unit in the assault to come.
Hours later, the Wraiths assembled in their hangar.
Shalla was someone new. Under Face’s care her hair had been transformed into a shocking white, and her left eye was surrounded by a circle of white makeup. That, and the pads she held in her cheeks, changed the lines of her face. She was dressed in flowing street clothes; doubtless Zsinj’s infiltration crew would have more appropriate garments for her.
Dia, Kell, Face, Tyria, and Piggy were in the makeup and gray TIE-fighter-pilot uniforms of the Hawk-bats, and Janson, Runt, Donos, and Lara were in the standard orange, white, and black uniform of New Republic pilots.
“The commander’s late,” Face said. “Is anything wrong?”
“Oh, no,” Janson said. “Since he doesn’t have any additional responsibilities, no last-minute details to track, no need to do one last check of the plan, he’s just late so you’ll be that much crankier.”
“That’s what I thought.”
While they waited, the command crew aboard Sungrass completed its check and did a test firing of her repulsorlifts; the aging cargo hauler lifted a few meters into the air