"Michael Stackpole "The Bacta War"" - читать интересную книгу автора

into the port shield. They exploded into a silvery firestorm that billowed up
and out, then pressed in on the shield. Unlike the Corrupter's shield, however,
the Aggregator's did not collapse all at once. Gaps appeared at a couple of
points, allowing a handful of torpedoes to skip through and blast into the
ship's hull. Armor plates peeled away like dead, dry skin and secondary
explosions ripped gaping holes in the Interdictor's hull.
Without waiting to pick up TIE fighters or escape pods, the Aggregator suddenly
jetted forward. On Wedge's console, the range finder scrolled off numbers; then
the cruiser van-ished into hyperspace. Running was his only choice.
Wedge glanced at his sensors and saw no hostile fighters near him. Safe for the
moment, he keyed his comm unit. "Tapper, don't run very far. Booster, report on
your fleet."
"We're all still here, Wedge. We took some hits from TIEs, but shields mostly
held so we're all operational."
"I copy, Booster. Rogues and Chir'daki, protect your-selves, but hold back from
killing anyone who isn't being
actively hostile for a moment." Wedge glanced back over his shoulder. "Mynock,
scan comm frequencies and get me the command frequency the TIEs are using. I
also need the escape pod frequency."
The droid's muted beep acknowledged the command, and data began to scroll up on
the main screen.
"Thanks." He punched up the frequency for the TIE fighters. "Imperial pilots,
this is Wedge Antilles. You have a choice: get killed here, stranded here, or
surrender. If you want to surrender, power down your weapons and engines. If
you're moving under power we will consider you hostile. We've got no more reason
to want you dead than I would hope you have to be dead."
A lone male voice came back over the comm unit. "Cap-tain Ardle from Corrupter
here. We're Thyferran Home De-fense Corps pilots. Does that make a difference in
your offer?"
"Is Erisi Dlarit flying with you?"
"No, sir. I was in her command, but was picked to head up one of the two
squadrons coming here with the Corrupter. Mostly trainees. I've got eight left.
The Aggregator's squad-ron only has four left and they're THDC, too."
"I copy, Captain Ardle. Follow the instructions I gave you and you'll not be
hurt."
"What about the escape pods?"
"We'll recover them, too."
"And the Corrupter?"
Wedge switched his main screen to a plot of ship posi-tions in the system over
time and set his viewpoint from within the Graveyard. "The Corrupter is
currently not under power and is drifting down into the Graveyard. Inside two
hours the Graveyard's asteroids will chew it up into un-recognizable bits."
"Oh." Ardle sounded subdued. "Alderaan has its re-venge on the Empire."
"And exacts revenge for Halanit. We don't have the trac-tor beams to pull it
back up, and I sincerely doubt it could be made operational again. Running as
fast as possible to Corus-cant we couldn't get anything back here in time to
save it."
Wedge knew the run to Corellia would be shorter, but he expected no help from
his homeworld and the Diktat. "The Corrupter is gone."
"I copy, Antilles. I'll give the order to my people, and we'll wait to be