Star Wars_ X-Wing 08_ Isard's Revenge - Michael A. Stackpole [47]
The four laser bolts converged on the Interceptor’s starboard wing, slicing down through it. Sparks exploded from the blaster cannons and the panel disintegrated. The squint flew on, slowly rolling over and over, functionally out of the fight.
Asyr’s X-wing flashed past Wedge’s, so he dropped in behind and starboard of her fighter. She rolled onto her port S-foil as she dove at a climbing Interceptor. The two fighters twisted around, each one’s energy weapons firing above and below the target. Then Asyr’s X-wing snaprolled ninety degrees and clipped off a quad burst before she began to climb up and out of the way.
Her four bolts hit. Two burst through the inside of the starboard wing, melting long gashes in it. The other two pierced the transparisteel bubble between the pilot and the vacuum of space. Something burned red and hot in the cockpit for a second, then a roiling gold explosion ripped the dead craft apart.
Wedge rolled out to the right to avoid the explosion and pulled the stick back to his chest. He brought his X-wing around, ready for another pass up through the Interceptor formation. Liinade III loomed above him for a moment, then a trio of daggerlike ships filled his vision of the sky. All three had moved into range and cut loose.
Moonshadow’s gunners concentrated their fire along Direption’s port edge, seeking to destroy the other ship’s weaponry. Heavy turbolasers, heavy turbolaser cannons, and ion beams all played out, splashing red and blue energy across the Direption’s shields. The weapons’ energy bled into the sphere of the shields, nibbling away at it, shrinking it like a balloon with a slow leak. Then suddenly the shields collapsed and beams played along the hull. Turbolaser batteries exploded and hull plates evaporated. Fire jetted into space as shots burned through the hull and consumed the atmosphere within.
Direption’s return salvo proved no less deadly to Moonshadow. The Hegemony’s gunners concentrated their fire on several points, driving energy wedges deep into the shields. Breaches opened and beams ripped long, jagged scars over Moonshadow’s surface. Sensor towers exploded and ion cannons melted beneath the withering assault.
Swift Liberty had swung down and around beneath Direption on a sharply angled course that took the ship across the Hegemony ship’s line of flight. When the gunners cut loose, half of them pounded on the pristine ventral shields, while the forward gunners hit bits of the ship left naked after Moonshadow’s assault. The Victory-class Destroyer’s weaponry was neither as extensive nor as powerful as that of the larger ships, but the turbolasers and double turbolaser batteries still ate away at the Hegemony Deuce. Liquefied weapons congealed into metal threads, and at least one secondary explosion blasted a small chunk of Direption into space.
The joyful spike that sent Wedge’s spirits soaring as he watched the damage inflicted on the enemy crashed back down as another ship materialized in the system. Smaller and blocky, it appeared slashing across Swift Liberty’s aft. That’s a Dreadnaught. It’s not that powerful, but in that close, in Bell’s aft, it can cripple her.
Tycho’s voice filled the comm channel. “Direption has a friend. Shall we introduce ourselves?”
“Squints and eyeballs first, Rogues. The big ships play with the big ships.” Wedge felt a knot tightening in his stomach. “When it comes to the point where they depend on us for a rescue, we’re all in worse shape than we ever wanted to be.”
13
Admiral Bell staggered for a second when the Dreadnaught’s attack blasted into Swift Liberty’s aft. “Did their attack breach the shields?”
“Negative, Admiral.” The Twi’lek sensor officer, Commander Tal’kina, looked up from his sensor array. “We lost gravity for a second because I had to shunt power to reinforce them.”
“Well done, Commander.” Bell flicked long locks of red hair