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

stick forward to correct his aim, but before he could shoot again, the hiss of
laser fire hitting his aft shield filled his cockpit. Jamming the stick to the
left and shoving it forward, Corran kicked his fighter into a cork-screw dive
that took him well away from the wounded TIE.
A glance at his aft sensor readout showed the remaining TIE was staying with
him. This guy is really good. "Ten, I have one on my tail."
"Ten is shaking a lock."
"I copy, Ten." Corran frowned. "Whistler, find out what has a lock on Ten." He
knew it had to be one of the freighters that had a concussion missile battery or
proton torpedo launcher on board. Most freighters did not carry such weap-ons
systems just because of the space needed for storing the missies and the sensor
equipment, but those that did could be very effective against pirates, because
they could engage them at the missiles' longer range.
Whistler shrilled at him.
"Yes, I know I have a fighter on my, er, our, trail." Cor-ran pulled up into a
climb, then rolled and shot off at right
angles to the line of his climb. "I'll take care of him, you just tell me what I
want to know."
The TIE stuck with him. This guy is very good. His fighter can match mine in
speed and maneuvering. He's not going to let me go head to head with him because
my shields give me an advantage in doing that. He has to stay in my aft arc and
keep nibbling away at my shields to get me, so that's what I'll let him do.
Corran switched his fire controls from lasers to proton torpedoes and prepped
the fighter to shoot them one at a time. He kept a loose hand on the stick and
jinked a bit, but allowed his pursuit to take a couple of shots at him. They
sizzled in on the aft shield, but didn't penetrate it.
This better work. Corran chopped his throttle back to zero, then yanked his
stick back to his breastbone. The X-wing's nose came up and over, pointing
straight back at the TIE. The TIE immediately shied to port, so Corran hit his
left etheric rudder pedal and tracked the X-wing's nose along the TIE's flight
path. The aiming reticle went from yellow to red, and Whistler screeched out a
solid tone indicating target lock.
Corran fired a missile.
The proton torpedo rode a jet of blue flame as it streaked out after the TIE. It
actually overshot its target when the TIE pilot rolled the fighter and pulled
the starboard solar panel out of the torpedo's range. The proximity sensors on
the pro-ton torpedo caused it to detonate, filling the area around it with a
rapidly expanding cloud of shrapnel. Before the TIE pilot could react, tiny bits
of metal pierced the transparisteel cockpit canopy, shattering it into a million
razor-edged frag-ments, that proceeded to reduce everything in the cockpit to
debris.
Corran watched the TIE fighter begin to spin off lazily through space. When I
go, I hope it's that fast. No lingering tor me.
Whistler's mournful tone seemed to echo that sentiment.
"Nine here, I'm clear."
"Seven here, Nine. We're all clear."
Corran brought his ship around and saw two of the
freighters hanging in space with fires raging internally. "Or-der, sir?"
Tycho replied quickly. "Wedge has convinced the convoy that once it makes
delivery runs for us, it can go free. Form up with Ooryl, and take two tankers