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

coming back up. I've got seventy per-cent of power. They'll hold while we run
away."
Sair Yonka shook his head. "We're going nowhere. Lieu-tenant Phelly, roll us so
we can bring our starboard weapons to bear."
"Begging your pardon, sir, but we're not being paid enough to die here."
"Then let's make sure we don't die." Yonka flung his arms wide open. "We all
knew that staying with Isard would get us killed. We also knew that if we left
her service, she'd hunt us down right after she killed Antilles. Now we've got
to kill the Lusankya here, or it will kill us someplace else. This isn't about
money, it's about our survival, our freedom."
He pointed out the main viewport. "Out there you have people in freighters and
snubfighters pounding on that behe-moth. They're gnats compared to the Lusankya.
They can sting it, but they can't kill it. That job is up to us and we're going
to do it because if we have to die, it isn't going to be dying while we're
running. The Empire's dead-we all know that-so this is our buy-in to whatever
follows it."
Wedge saw the Freedom begin a roll as turbolaser fire lanced from the Lusankya
at the freighters. One salvo caught a disk-shaped Corellian light freighter and
snapped it in half. He saw shields glow and shrink as other ships got hit by one
or two shots, but none exploded. He knew that was more luck than skill, and that
a lot of the freighters weren't going to survive to the end of the battle.
"Lead to Two, time for our last run."
"Negative, Lead, I have a TIE on me."
"Coming, Two."
Wedge pulled back on his stick and brought his fighter up into a loop, then
rolled out to starboard as Asyr's X-wing shot past. A TIE streaked by, hot on
her tail. As Wedge dropped in behind him, the TIE fired a volley of shots that
pierced Asyr's aft shield. Something at the back of her fighter exploded, then
she rolled down and out of sight.
"Two, report."
Asyr didn't answer his call. "Gate, assess damage on Two."
The droid beeped a response, but Wedge ignored the in-formation filling his
secondary monitor. Got something to do first.
The TIE rolled to starboard then started to climb. Wedge pulled his X-wing into
a steep climb, then snap-rolled star-board and powered the fighter over the top.
The TIE danced before him for a second, prompting Wedge to snap a shot off. The
dual burst of lasers clipped one of the TIE's solar panels, but did no serious
damage.
This guy is good.
The TIE rolled to port and pulled a tight loop back along its line of flight.
Wedge let himself overshoot the TIE, then throttled back as the TIE swung onto
his tail. The TIE closed faster than the pilot expected because of Wedge's
chopping the throttle back. Wedge tugged back on his stick, nosing the fighter
into a climb. He held it for a second, then shoved the stick forward and broke
the climb off.
Green laser fire hissed off his shields, but he didn't panic. And Gate isn't
screaming! The TIE shot past his position, having started to climb to blast
Wedge, then trying to follow him as he started flying straight again. Wedge
pulled his X-wing's nose back up and triggered two more bursts of laser fire.
Both hit the TIE in the undamaged wing, burning it free of the ship's fuselage.