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

Most of his duty stations were Rimward. He was diligent in his duties and
virulently anti-Rebel, but beyond that unremarkable. He was not at Endor and
remained nominally loyal to the Empire until Coruscant fell."
As nearly as Corran knew, Teradoc's history was not unique. A few brave
individuals declared themselves War-lords as soon as they heard of the Emperor's
death, but many of the others-especially those in the military-remained loyal to
the Empire. Sate Pestage, an Imperial Advisor, held power for six months until a
cabal of Imperial Advisors ousted him from power. Most of the military backed
this group because it seemed disposed to taking action. It was only after Ysanne
Isard supplanted them that members of the military began to grab for power
themselves. Even so, a fair number of military leaders and politicians
proclaimed their loyalty to the Empire until Coruscant fell.
At which point they had to fend for themselves, since they no longer had access
to the bureaucracy that made the Empire run. While there were administrative
areas and sec-tors that held themselves together-a tribute to the
resource-fulness of their Grand Moffs-Corran expected that within two years
nearly three-quarters of what had once been the Empire would be under the New
Republic's control.
Winter looked up from the datapad. "If I had to guess how Isard got her hands on
the Aggregator, I would guess she traded bacta for it. The fact that the
Aggregator's TIEs were being flown by Thyferran Home Defense Corps pilots
sug-gests that Teradoc is running low on trained personnel. With a supply of
bacta he can keep them alive a bit longer. Without unlimited Imperial resources,
he's having to conserve people the way we did."
Booster narrowed his eyes, both electronic and natural. "I'd also read into the
pilot change a lack of confidence by Teradoc in Isard. Right now you have to
figure that Teradoc is getting gigabytes of stories from the Aggregator's crew
about how we ambushed the ambushers. I think if I have my people start asking
around what someone is willing to pay for a slightly used Interdictor Cruiser,
word will get back to Ter-adoc. He'll assume we're suggesting we're planning on
cap-turing the next one he loans to Isard, so he won't be free with his ship."
Wedge nodded. "That's worth a try. From this point for-ward we're going to have
to assume, however, that it is possi-ble another Interdictor Cruiser could jump
us. Actually, we have to assume it is probable that we might be jumped again.
We'll continue hit-and-run attacks and will just have to make our exchanges more
covert. We can do that by having the incoming freighters guided to a location of
our choosing, which means they won't know where they're going until the last
minute."
Mirax raised her right hand. "Perhaps you can't remem-ber back when you were
hauling cargo, but I'd never go to a rendezvous without knowing where it was."
"Good point, but I suspect Quelev Tapper can convince Karrde that we're
trustworthy."
Booster laughed. "Continue paying in advance, and Karrde will believe it."
"That we'll do." Wedge straightened up. "Remember, we've now eliminated one of
Isard's four ships."
"Sure," Corran sighed, "but it was the smallest of them all."
"Agreed, but Ait Convarion was probably the most ag-gressive of the commanders
Isard had working for her. He knew how to fight a Star Destroyer-what chances
you could take with it and what chances you couldn't. He expected us to scatter
and we didn't, which is why he died. The com-manders of the larger ships are