"Michael Stackpole "The Bacta War"" - читать интересную книгу автораcarrying a dozen TIEs at best, and the freighters can maneuver out of the
effective range of its guns. Going after two squadrons of snubfighters, half of us with proton torpedoes, means this cruiser has gotten itself into a fight it really can't win. Before Wedge could begin to issue orders, two things happened. The first, the lighting-up of a red warning light on his console, was something he expected. It told him that the Interdictor Cruiser had powered up the gravity well projec-tors and that none of the ships in the system could jump to hyperspace to escape. Not a wise move to trap us here. The second thing squeezed an icy fist around his heart. One third larger than the Interdictor Cruiser, the Corrupter appeared to interpose its bulk between the cruiser Aggregator and the snubfighters. Its turbolaser batteries and ion cannons immediately began spraying green-and-blue energy bolts out toward the waiting freighters. Wedge knew instantly the bar-rage was untargeted, meant more to inspire panic than do damage. As TIE fighters started pouring from the Destroyer's belly, Wedge immediately started snapping orders to his peo-ple. "Booster, scatter freighters. Move! Tal'dira, give me a flight to orient on me and another to orient on Tycho. Use the others to vape those TIEs, but don't close with Corrupter. Rogues, slave your torpedo targeting to my signal. Transmit-ting now. Tycho, I go first, then you follow." "I copy, Wedge." Wedge's droid, Mynock, shrieked furiously as Wedge punched the throttle forward and drove straight at the Victory //-class Star Destroyer. "Shut up, Mynock. Distract me with your screaming, and we'll both end up dead!" The droid fell the droid's memory wiped and ; rename it something suitably heroic. Though the droid lacked courage, his assessment of the current situation was dead on. And worth screaming about. The Destroyer and cruiser carried, between them, three squadrons of TIEs. Wedge's confidence in his people knew no ; limits, but the Rogues were standing off to shoot their proton torpedoes, which left the Twi'leks to fight against the TIEs. The chances that some TIEs would get through to harass the freighters were overwhelming. The TIE threat was the least of the problems they faced in the system. The only way to counter the Corrupter's threat was for the X-wings to hit it with a spread of proton torpe-does. The squadron, firing double shots, could pump out twenty-two proton torpedoes. If they hit-and missing a nearly kilometer-long ship was tough-they could blow through the shields and do some damage. Wedge would fly in close to target the ship for the first volley, then have Tycho follow up for a second, hopefully catching the Corrupter without shields in place. If the second spread hits the Star Destroyer in an unshielded area, it could rip it apart. We'll get damage on the first spread, but it will be the second that knocks it out. Wedge pushed all power to his forward shields as he hit a wall of TIE fighters six kilometers out from the Corrupter. Once past them he evened his shields out with a flick of his thumb and then started draining his lasers of energy and pumping it into his shields. At two and a half kilometers he would get a firing solution for the Corrupter. He'd hold it until his squadron had launched, launch himself, then pull up and out. "Coming up on targeting. On my mark. Five, four, three, two, one. Get ready." |
|
|