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

Corran looked down at his display. Scrolling up the screen, sandwiched between
the reports of mis-sile hits on the three bombers, he saw a notation about Green
Two. "Green Two, report."
"He's gone, One."
"A fighter got him?"
"No time to chat ..." The comm call from the Twi'lek in Green Four ended in a
hiss of static.
"Rhysati?"
"Got one, Corran, but this last one is good."
"Hang on."
"I'll do my best."
"Whistler, acquire six."
The R2 unit hissed. The last bomber had already shot past the intercept point
and was bearing in on the Korolev. The pilot had the wide-bodied craft slowly
spinning, making it a difficult target for a
missile lock. The Korolev, being as big as it was,
would present large enough of a target that even a rolling
ship could get a lock on it.
And once he has that lock, the Korolev is so much space junk. Corran switched
back to lasers and pushed his X-wing forward. Even though two klicks separated
them, he triggered a couple of laser
blasts. He knew his chances of hitting were not good at that range, but the
light from the bolts would shoot past the TIE and give the pilot something to
think about. And I want him thinking about me, not that nerf-vette grazing
there.
Corran redirected all power back into the en-gines and shot forward. Two more
laser blasts caused the TIE bomber to shy a bit, but it had pushed into
target-acquisition range. The ship's roll began to slow as the pilot fixated on
his target, then, as Corran brought his lasers to bear, the bomber jinked and
cut away to port.
The Corellian's eyes narrowed. Bror Jace has got to be flying that thing. He
thinks it's payback time. The other pilot, a human from Thyferra, was-in
Corran's opinion-the second best pilot in the train-ing squadron. He's going to
kill the Korolev and I'll never hear the end of it. Unless ...
Corran pulled all his shield energy forward and left his aft as naked as the
shieldless TIE bomber. Following Jace through a barrel roll, he kept the
throttle full forward. As they leveled out again Corran triggered a snapshot at
the bomber. -It caught a piece of one wing, but Jace dove beneath the X-wing's
line of fire. Here we go!
Corran shoved his stick forward to follow the bomber's dive, but because his
rate of speed was a good twenty percent faster than that of Jace's ship, the
X-wing moved into a broad loop. By the time Corran inverted to finish the turn
off, Jace's bomber came back up and banked in on the X-wing's tail.
Before the bomber could unload a missile or two into his aft, Corran broke the
fighter hard to port and carved across the bomber's line of fire. Basic maneuver
with a basic response. Without even glancing at his instruments, and paying no
attention to Whistler's squealed warning, Corran cut engine
power back into recharging his shields. One more second.
Jace's response to Corran's break had been a reverse-throttle hop. By bringing
the nose of the bomber up in a steep climb, then rolling out in the direction of