"Michael Stackpole "Rogue Squadron"" - читать интересную книгу автора

Good, looks like three klicks between the eyeballs and the bombers.
Corran's right hand again brushed the coin be-neath his flight suit. He took a
deep breath, exhaled slowly, then settled his hand on the stick and let his
thumb hover over the firing button. At two klicks the heads-up display painted a
yellow box around the lead TIE fighter. The box went green as the fighter's
image locked into the HUD's targeting cross and Whistler's shrill bleat filled
the cockpit. Corran's thumb hit the button, sending three bursts of laser bolts
at the lead fighter.
The first set missed but the second and third blasted through the spherical
cockpit. The hexag-onal solar panels snapped off and spun forward through space
while the ion engines exploded into an expanding ball of incandescent gas.
Corran kicked the X-wing up in a ninety-degree snap-roll and sliced through the
center of the explo-sion. Laser fire from the second fighter lit up his for-ward
shields, making it impossible for him to get a good visual line on the TIE.
Whistler yowled, coo-plaining about being a target. Corran hurried a shot and
knew he hit, but the TIE flashed past and con-tinued on in at the Korolev.
Time to write a new chapter for the book on the Requiem scenario. Corran
throttled back almost all the way to zero and let the X-wing decelerate.
"Whistler, bring up target one."
The image of the first TIE bomber filled his monitor. Corran switched over to
proton torpedo target control. The HUD changed to a larger box and Whistler
began beeping as he worked supplying data to the targeting computer for a
missile lock.
"Green One, your velocity is down to one per-cent. Do you need help?" "Negative,
Green Two." "Corran, what are you doing?" "Making the book a short story." /
hope. The HUD went red and Whistler's tone became constant. Corran punched the
button and launched the first missile. "Acquire target two." The HUD flashed
yellow, then red, and the pilot launched the second missile.
Numbers scrolled away to zero as the missiles streaked in at their targets. Two
kilometers away the first missile hit, shredding the first TIE bomber. Sec-onds
later the second missile hit its target. A novalike explosion lit the
simulator's cockpit, then melted into the blackness of space. "Acquire target
three."
Even as he gave the order he knew the rate of closure between the bomber and his
ship would make the last missile shot all but impossible. "Can-cel three."
Corran throttled up again as the third bomber sailed past and brought his ship
around. He switched back to laser targeting and climbed right up on the bomber's
stern.
The dupe's pilot tried to evade him. He juked the double-hulled ship to the
left, then started a long turn to the right, but Corran was of no mind to lose
him. He cut his speed, which kept the bomber in
front of him, then followed it in its turn. As he lev-eled out again on its
tail, he triggered two laser bursts and the targeting computer reported hull
damage.
The bomber's right wing came up in a roll and Corran did the same thing. Had he
continued to fly level, the X-wing's lasers would have passed on ei-ther side of
the bomber's fuselage, giving the bomber a few seconds more of life. Keeping the
bomber cen-tered in his crosshairs, Corran hit twice more and the bulky craft
disintegrated before him.
Pushing his throttle to full, Corran scanned for the fighter he'd missed. He