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

"Yes, Captain, we were. Flying in here was not easy, but we made our passes
without mishap."
"Good. Wouldn't want your people to get bloodied in their first engagement." He
waved his right hand around to take in the whole of the colony. "My
stormtroopers will neu-tralize the major pockets of resistance, then your people
can come down and finish things up."
Convarion's condescension could have been cut with a vibroblade, but Erisi chose
to ignore it. "As you will, Captain Convarion. Those of us from Thyferra much
appreciate your diligence in helping us prosecute those who would victimize us."
The scream of an Interceptor diving into the chasm over-rode Convarion's reply.
As it passed the bridge, a pair of red laser bolts pierced the ion-engine
exhaust vector system, spraying half-melted louvers out in its backwash. The
Inter-ceptor began a roll that ended in a brilliant explosion as it hammered one
of the lower walkways. The ferrocrete decking undulated out away from the impact
point, crumbling with the wave front. It held for a moment or two, then, piece
by piece, began to rain stone into the depths.
As terrifying as that was, it was nothing compared to the sight of the X-wing
swooping through the chasm. Painted like a brutal, fearsome creature, it
appeared more like a predator seeking prey than a war machine piloted by the
enemy. With-out being able to identify the pilot as he flashed past, Erisi knew
it was one of her old squadron-mates.
And she knew the only way she would survive was to get back to her Interceptor
and shoot him down.
Gavin flew past the collapsing walkway and saw a hail of laser bolts streaking
past him from all angles. Small arms fire. No real threat. He smiled grimly,
pulled back on his throttle to reverse his thrust and cut in his repulsor-lift
coils. He
flipped the X-wing's lasers over to single fire, then applied enough rudder to
bring the fighter's nose around toward his tormentors. He leveled the fighter
out, killed his thrust, then let the repulsor-lift coils propel him up through
the chasm.
Using his rudder pedals, he turned the ship left and right. He dropped his
crosshairs on the stormtroopers shooting at him and returned their fire. Whereas
their laser bolts skipped harmlessly off the X-wing's shields, his shots proved
to be anything but harmless. It wasn't that they were sufficiently powerful to
pierce a stormtrooper's armored chestplate as much as they evaporated it, and
most of the person beneath it.
Part of Gavin rebelled at the slaughter. The storm-troopers had no chance of
survival facing him, but they did not break and run. They stood their ground,
giving their lives for the dead creation of a dead Emperor. They gain nothing
from this. Why? Given enough time, I will kill them all.
Gavin slowly nodded. Right, they're buying time. The Corrupter is scrambling
more TIEs. If I stick around, I'm not leaving.
He kicked his throttle in and sped up his ascent. He still sprayed knots of
stormtroopers and concentrated a lot of fire on the uppermost region, trying to
get the one black Imperial uniform lurking amid a squad of stormtroopers. Most
of them went down, but he couldn't tell if he got the officer or not. Analysis
of the sensor data may answer that question. I hope so.
Realizing he had done all he could for the people of Halanit, Gavin accelerated
the X-wing and launched it through the hole in the transparisteel shield.