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

well save yourself some pain."
One of the tankers began to move away from the others. Mynock, Wedge's R5 droid,
tagged it as Xucphra Rose. "This is Bors Kenlin in the Rose. We're yours,
Antilles."
"Kenlin, don't go. You have a wife back on Thyferra."
"Isard will be doing me a favor if she kills her." The Rose drifted further from
the other two ships. "Where am I go-ing?"
"Stand by, Rose." Wedge shifted his comm unit over to the squadron's tactical
frequency. "Nine, you and Ten and your two Deathseed friends will escort the
Rose to Halanit. Isard has threatened dependents on Thyferra if the crew goes
along with us, so find out who their people are so we can transmit the data to
the Ashern and try to save them."
Corran's voice came back strong. "As ordered, sir." Two X-wings broke from
formation and made a quick flyby on the Rose. In the first pass they downloaded
to the Rose's navicomp the course for their run to Halanit. As they came back
around, the Rose moved on the exit vector with them and two Deathseeds fell in
behind. In the blink of an eye all five ships went to lightspeed and vanished.
Wedge looked back at his monitor again. The remaining ships were Xucphra Alazhi
and Xucphra Meander. Wedge suspected the first voice he'd dealt with was on the
Alazhi. Since the ship was named after a key component in bacta, he assumed the
captain had seniority over the other two. Wedge shifted his comm unit back to
the Thyferran frequency. "Me-ander, what is your decision?"
A woman's voice answered him. "Meander is uncon-vinced the crew will be safe
from Isard's reprisals."
"Meander, your cargo will be bound for Coruscant. If you can't lose yourself
there, you can obtain transport to anywhere you want to go from there. I
guarantee you that your cargo will alleviate an incredible amount of suffering."
Xucphra Meander began to drift away from Alazhi. As it did so, the Alazhi began
to roll to bring its turbolasers to bear on Meander.
Wedge shifted over to his tactical frequency. "Three and Four, neutralize
Alazhi. Five and Six, pick up Meander and head to Coruscant."
Gavin and Shiel broke their X-wings out of the forma-tion and sprinted in at the
Alazhi. They kept their fighters moving in a grand spiral, which made them very
difficult to track, especially as they dipped below the turbolasers' ability to
depress sufficiently to shoot at them. Green laser bolts shot out in pairs at
the incoming fighters, but they always came in above or below the X-wings.
Coming up on a turn in the spiral, Gavin's fighter rolled and spat laserfire at
the freighter. One quad burst hit the ship's hull right in front of the
turbolaser battery, then two more caught the battery in the side. Fire tracked
up the blocky battery, blasting away at the armor plates sheathing it. Molten
globules of armor rocketed off through space, then an explosion filled the
battery with fire and ripped it apart.
Shiel's run on the aft battery proved just as effective, stripping the freighter
of its offensive weaponry. The two fighters began to orbit the Alazhi, flashing
past the cockpit one after another. Well away from them Rhysati, Inyri, and
their two Twi'lek companions led the Meander off toward Coruscant.
 Wedge adjusted his comm unit and tightened the beam to focus on the Alazhi.
"Alazhi, you are defenseless."
The man who had first answered him again spoke, but anger had replaced
nervousness in his voice. "We can and will oppose you, Antilles. This is piracy.