Star Wars_ X-Wing 08_ Isard's Revenge - Michael A. Stackpole [29]
A similar series of explosions lit up the main building. Wedge saw a figure climb out of a second-story window and run along the terrace. The figure looked over and saw the X-wing, then raised a blaster and triggered off two shots. Both of them hissed and sparked against the fighter’s forward shield, prompting a smile from Wedge. “Nice shooting.”
The figure ducked down behind the low wall that edged the terrace. Wedge dropped his crosshairs onto the wall and popped off a quick burst of laserfire. The quartet of shots blasted into the brick and mortar, chewing great holes in it. He saw his quarry get up and start running, but bricks blown from the wall cut the figure’s legs out from under him, and the running man went down hard.
Wedge switched his comm unit over to the ground tactical frequency. “Katarn leader, Rogue leader here. I have one man down on the main building’s second floor.”
“Anything left of him, Wedge?”
“Seems all in one piece, Page. I was gentle.”
“I copy. I’ll send someone up. Kapp reports the barn is clear, so the ground situation is stable. I’m calling in our pick-up crews. You might want to get down here, too.”
“Got it. Incoming.” Wedge flicked his comm unit back to the squadron’s frequency. “Two, I’m going down there. Assign us some air cover and send Two Flight back to guide the transport in.”
“As ordered, Lead.”
Wedge guided his X-wing down to the midway point between barn and main building. He set it down gently and let the X-wing’s landing gear sink a bit into the soft soil before popping the hatch and shutting the fighter down. He doffed his helmet, then crawled out onto the edge of the cockpit and leaped down. He headed toward the main building, but a man dressed in black intercepted him.
“I can show you that stuff later, General.” Captain Page gave Wedge a grim smile and took his elbow to steer him around in the other direction. “Kapp suggested you’d want to look in the barn first.”
“I’ve seen what an X-wing can do to an E-web, thanks.”
“I know, but that’s not what you’ll be looking at.”
The two men jogged across the compound to the barn and between the Ithorian and the Sullustan standing guard at the doorway. A little smoke from smoldering straw filled the air with a sour scent. Beyond that, Wedge caught a whiff of burned flesh. Someone had tossed a ragged blanket over a human outline that Wedge assumed was the E-web gunner.
Once deeper into the room, he realized why Kapp Dendo had wanted him to visit the barn first. The Devaronian, wearing blackened stormtrooper scout armor and a helmet cut to allow his horns to stick up through it, crouched beside the skeletal figure of a man. Wedge saw the rest of the commando team working in stalls meant for housing nerfs, freeing the people who had been shackled in the small enclosures. As gently as possible, the commandos were carrying the people to the barn’s main floor.
The stench that came from the stalls nearly over-whelmed Wedge. These people have been forced to live in their own filth. The wrists of the man near Kapp were raw from where his manacles had cut into his flesh. The man’s long nails were caked with dirt, as were the lines on his face. Bending down, Wedge thought he saw something moving in the man’s gray beard and hair, but he didn’t pull back.
A Twi’lek commando standing by a water spigot held up a small vial and swirled it around. The clear liquid turned blue. “Seems potable.”
Kapp nodded. “Good. Fill me a flask and bring it over here. Get water to the rest of them.” He glanced down at the man before him. “You’ll be okay now.”
The man reached out and clutched weakly at Wedge’s flight-suit leg. “Am I dreaming? I know you.”
Wedge crouched beside the man and patted his hand. “Could be. You were with the Rebellion?