Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 07_ Shards of Alderaan - Kevin J. Anderson [33]
Jaina fired their weapons again, and missed once more. 'I should have calibrated these things... or at least figured out how they worked."
Her hands flew over the control panels. 'Too late now."
The attacker shot another time. It seemed as if he was carefiffly conserving his blasts.
'He can!t miss. Why doesn't he just blow us away." Jacen asked.
"He certainly has the capability," Tenel Ka said. "However, our opponent seems to be targeting us precisely. Perhaps he wishes to avoid errors.
Ah, aha-he hopes to disable us."
Lowie glanced down at the status report, an electronic diagram that displayed the Rock Dragon's shields, and discovered that the enemy's blows had repeatedly landed in one spot. He roared, just as Jaina saw it herself. 'Our engines-he's targeting our engines! He wants to board us."
Accelerating for all the engines were worth, Lowie raced toward a cluster of huge asteroids. The enormous drffung rocks were riddled with craters, cracked with gigantic fissures left over from the planetary explosion-places to hide.
Lowbacca growled softly to himself, wondering how he could dodge the enemy long enough to gain sufficient distance to drop out of sight. Even in this forest of orbiting rocks, it seemed impossible.
The other ship fired repeatedly, scoring decisive hits. Their shields buckled, ' and the final blow ripped open their rear starboard engine pod. The Rock Dragon spun out of control.
Lowie and Jaina fought to stabilize the cruiser before they careened into an asteroid. "Power's down by sixty percent," Jaina said. 'We could barely outrun him before now we've got no chance."
"Perhaps we do," Tenel Ka said. She crept to the armaments control panel.
"I think I know what this system is for. Find a hiding place," she said,
'and head there on my mark."
"What are you going to do, Tenel Ka?"
Jacen said.
"Observe."
"Do be careful!" Em Teedee wailed.
The attacking ship fired again, still making no effort to communicate with them.
His blow struck its target, damaging the Rock Dragon's underbelly as well as their second rear engine pod-but as the blow seared against their hull plates, Tenel Ka punched a release lever.
Canisters of ionized decoy gas and shrapnel sprayed out of their aft cargo hatch, detonating in a fireball that washed across their pursuer's screens, almost certainly blinding him.
'Now, Lowbacca!" Tenel Ka shouted Lowie reacted instantly, punching the controls and arcing around into the shadows behind one of the largest asteroids.
Then he curved up toward another. His golden eyes scanned for a large crater, a crack into which the Rock Dragon could slip.
Their ship limped along, barely able to fly, but Lowie hoped he had evaded their vicious attacker long enough to hide them from view.
Suddenly he saw it: a cave. With engines failing, all of their shields gone, and only a trickle of power remaining in the propulsion systems, Lowie and Jaina fought to control the bucking Hapan ship.
They needed to hold the cruiser stable just long enough to descend into the opening of the crater cave.
The jagged ceiling missed scraping their hull by only a meter. Lowie had a bad moment, half-expecting the cave to grow narrower, squeezing them between rock walls-but the chamber opened up, giving them just enough room to maneuver and land.
They settled onto the rugged surface deep within a large grotto, thumping to the ground as their engines coughed and died.
Rock walls surrounded them, as if the asteroid had swallowed them up entirely.
"Good hiding place, Lowie,' Jaina said, patting the Wookiee on his ginger-furred shoulder.
"Yeah," Jacen said. "Either we're safe here... or we're trapped."
IN ORBIT AROUND Ennth, safe from the powerful pull of the destructive moon, Zekk docked the Lighting Rod against the largest of the refugee stations. From the cockpit windows, he watched the planet below shiver and gasp m its death throes.
Though he felt stunned, his