Star Wars_ X-Wing 06_ Iron Fist - Aaron Allston [122]
“I did.” She rose, staring intently beyond him, and came a few steps forward.
“What are you looking at?”
“The door, stupid. That’s where the noise came from. The other side of the door.”
“No, it was behind me. Toward you.”
“Idiot, your helmet is fouling you up.” She nodded significantly toward the door. “Something’s on the other side.”
He moved to the nearest security console, just three seats down from the seat where her datapad lay, and brought up its main screen. It was a holocam view of the hall just outside the main door. “There’s nothing going on out there.” He turned back to the door.
Shalla quickly picked up her datapad, yanked the cable free and pocketed it, and joined him beside the door. She took a good look at the main and secondary screens, gauging which portions of the hall outside were under direct holocam observation. “You’re right. It looks clear.”
“I told you.”
She shook her head. “I don’t trust it. They’re trying something. Let me through. I’ll give it a look.”
The stormtrooper thought that over, then apparently activated his comlink. “Captain, we’re hearing some things at the main door, but holocams show nothing. Qatya has volunteered to act as forward reconnaissance in case there actually is some activity out there.”
A moment later he said, “Captain says it’s a good idea.”
“Can I have a sidearm?”
“You won’t need one just to report activity. Do you have a comlink?”
“Yes, but I don’t have your frequency.”
The stormtrooper handed her a comlink. “Good luck.” He keyed the main door open for her. Then she was through, the door shutting behind her. And though the air was the same here, suddenly she could breathe it more easily.
She was still under holocam observation, though. She moved forward with slow, steady confidence, as though she actually were moving in on a possible enemy emplacement, until she was beyond the range of the holocams they were monitoring.
She waited there a couple of minutes, then keyed her comlink and whispered, “Qatya here.”
Bradan’s voice: “Report.”
“There’s a security detail a few meters up the corridor. They have munitions. Looks like they’re rigging a shaped charge to blow the door.”
“Good work. Fall back and we’ll set up to repel.”
“No, wait. Their demolitions team is closest to me, and not guarded. They’re not expecting an assault from this direction. I can eliminate one or two and then set off the charges they’ve brought. The next group they send is going to be a little put off by the mess I leave.”
Moments of silence. Then: “That’s authorized. The captain will put you in for a bonus if you pull this off.”
“Qatya out.” From the datapad she shook the four explosives Kell had rigged for her. She set two of them down on the floor against one wall. She drew the blaster she’d taken, fired three shots into the ceiling, depressed the buttons that would begin the explosives’ ten-second countdowns, and began running.
Now it was time to find an escape pod and safely wait out the conclusion of this battle … and the one to come.
Zsinj’s fleet dropped out of hyperspace well within the Kuat system, where the gravity well of Kuat herself made hyperspace progress impossible, and the sensor displays transmitted from Sungrass’s bridge showed an oncoming Super Star Destroyer and alarming numbers of starfighters from all directions.
“Launch,” Face said, and roared out of the cargo bay as soon as the opening door gave minimal clearance. His temporary wingman, Kell, followed in his own interceptor and the others emerged rapidly.
Emerged into a star system very different from the one they were supposed to have expected, of course. The sun was not quite the shade of Coruscant’s, and the oncoming Imperial Star Destroyers were not complemented by Mon Calamari cruisers. The comm waves suddenly became crowded with shouts and infuriated questions. In character, Face keyed his comlink. “Hawk-bat Leader to Iron Fist. What is this? Where’s Coruscant?”
The chuckle he received in response was a familiar one; he recognized it as Melvar