Star Wars_ X-Wing 07_ Solo Command - Aaron Allston [111]
The Wookiee spared a moment to glare at him.
“What did I say?”
The last of the TIEs finished their first pass. Behind the Falsehood, they began looping around for a second run. The squadron of TIE fighters that had escorted them out of the planet’s atmosphere was on an approach back toward the planet, doubtless ordered away so the Reprisal and the interceptors could have all the glory arising from the Millennium Falcon’s destruction. Donos watched his sensor board with concern. The Falsehood had been lucky to survive one run through that gauntlet.
First to return would be Lara and her wingman. They were only seconds from optimal firing range. “Commander?” Donos said. “Opinions about Lara?”
“When we do the breakaway move,” Wedge said, “when we vector away from the Dreadnaught’s bow, she may overshoot us. Try for one of her wings. Disable instead of kill.”
The next voice was Squeaky’s. “If you’ll pardon me, sirs, I think you should let Flight Officer Notsil continue shooting us.”
Laser fire from Lara’s interceptor and her wingmate’s began pouring down on the Falsehood again. Out of the corner of his eye, Donos saw a hydrospanner rocketing down the access tube toward him. He tried twisting up and out of the way; it slammed into his rib cage instead of his head, and he grunted from the sudden pain.
“What?” Wedge’s voice suggested the frown Donos could easily imagine him wearing. “Squeaky, have you shaken loose your logic circuits?”
“No, sir. It’s rather complicated. It will take too long to explain. Just trust me.” The droid’s voice was surprisingly confident. “This is something I know about. What? Oh. Chewbacca says thirty seconds to release-and-turn.”
Donos twisted and swept his arc of fire across Lara’s TIE, but didn’t begin firing until his crosshairs were just past her wing. His series of blasts flashed between her and her wingman, then one grazed the second TIE. It jumped up, gaining relative altitude, and was suddenly out of sight.
Then it was a bright, expanding ball as Wedge’s shot hulled it.
On the bridge of Iron Fist, Zsinj and Melvar watched with interest the holocomm broadcast from the bow of the Reprisal. It showed the Millennium Falcon’s suicidal charge, the horde of TIE interceptors converging upon the Corellian freighter.
“Come on, come on,” Zsinj breathed. “Bring in Mon Remonda. You’ll die if you don’t.”
“Ten seconds to breakaway,” Squeaky said. “Nine … Eight …”
Chewbacca rumbled at him.
“You want me to do the jettison? Very well.” Squeaky’s metal hands sought out the large switch that had been bonded to the main console earlier today. “Four … Three …”
Chewbacca ceased the freighter’s spinning motion. The Falsehood shuddered as a vicious shot from Fel’s interceptor slammed into its top hull.
“One …” Squeaky threw the switch.
All along the starboard side of the Falsehood, seals holding the new extension, the mock-up that made the ship better resemble a YT-2400 freighter, opened with little flashes of explosive charges. The extension drifted half a meter from the Falsehood’s hull.
Chewbacca yanked the controls hard to port. The freighter’s inertial compensators shrieked as they tried to accommodate the nearly ninety-degree maneuver. TIE interceptors, their pilots caught momentarily off guard by the surprise move, overshot the Falsehood. The jettisoned portion of the ship continued on, laser-straight, toward the bow of the Reprisal.
Squeaky said, “Flight Officer Konnair, you are free to detach when ready.”
Lara and Fel looped back quickly, getting back into position behind the Falsehood. They continued their erratic, side-to-side motion, which made it all but impossible for the ship’s gunners to target them.
Lara heard Fel report, “There’s something attached to the Falcon where that piece of debris just detached. It’s—oh.”
Lara saw the “something” break free of the Falsehood. It was an A-wing fighter. It drifted free of the freighter with the puff