Star Wars_ Allegiance Part 27

"What if they leave some s.h.i.+ps behind as backstop?" Luke asked. "I mean something bigger than those TIEs, like a patrol boat or two."

"That would be smart," Han agreed. "But I don't think this captain's bright enough for that."

"Definitely not," LaRone confirmed. "Luckily for us."

"Do we have a track on him?" Ozzel bellowed across the bridge. "Sensor officer! Do we have a track on him?"

"We have a track, Captain," a voice called back. "Computing probabilities ... no." "No what?" Ozzel demanded. "The bell centers on the Alderaan system," the officer said, sounding confused. "But there's nothing there.

Not anymore."

Ozzel smiled tightly. Clever sc.u.m. But not clever enough. "Which makes it the perfect place to hide," he told the officer. "Set course to follow."

"What about the pirate base?" Somoril asked, gesturing toward the planet below. "We haven't finished with that yet."

Ozzel peered out at the fires blazing away on the planet's surface.

"We've beaten the fight out of them," he said. "The TIEs can finish the demolition."

"But there may still be survivors," Somoril said, lowering his voice.

"Particularly . . . you know."

"If she isn't dead already, she will be soon," Ozzel a.s.sured him. "The TIEs will see to that. But if you're that worried-" He turned back to the crew pits. "Give me saturation fire on those landing areas to the south and east of the complex," he ordered. "Destroy all the s.h.i.+ps. Correction- destroy all of them except the Rendili heavy freighter." "Sir?" Somoril asked, sounding confused. The Happer's Way still has fifty of His Excellency's AT-STs aboard," Ozzel reminded him impatiently. Was he the only one aboard this s.h.i.+p who could think these things through? "We'll come back for it-and the TIEs-after we deal with this Corellian pirate."

"Sir, I really don't think-"

Deliberately, Ozzel turned his back. Somoril might know more than he did about treachery, a.s.sa.s.sinations, and lurking in shadows; but he, Ozzel, was the expert here on s.h.i.+ps and real, genuine combat.

And that Corellian was not going to get away from him. Not after helping those stormtrooper deserters once again slip through his fingers.

Not a chance.

"Course to Alderaan laid in, sir." Ozzel sent one last look in the direction of the traitors' s.h.i.+p, silently mocking him out there in the distance.

He would get them, too, he promised himself. Sooner or later, he'd get them, too. "Go."

The words were barely out of LaRone's mouth when the huge wars.h.i.+p flickered and vanished. "And there he goes," Han said, relief and contempt vying for dominance in his brain. This captain really was dense.

"Didn't even bother to bring his TIEs back aboard first."

"Which just means he's planning to come back," Marcross said. "If we're going to search that pirate nest, we need to get in there before then."

"Not going to be easy with those TIEs standing guard," Luke warned.

But instead of circling outward into a guard formation, the seven remaining fighters turned inward toward the planet. "Only they're not here to keep us away," Quiller said grimly. "Ozzel left them to finish blasting the BloodScar base."

"That tears it," Han said, getting a grip on the yoke again. "We're going in. Quiller, give me control."

Quiller looked over his shoulder. "LaRone?" he asked, an odd edge to his voice. LaRone hesitated.

"What's the problem?" Han demanded, looking back and forth between them.

"You want to fly it? Fine. But let's go."

LaRone's eyes flicked to Marcross. "I don't know," he said uncertainly.

Han frowned at him-and suddenly he got it. "That was your s.h.i.+p, wasn't it?" he asked quietly. "You know all those TIE pilots."

"We don't exactly know them." LaRone seemed to brace himself. "And it isn't our s.h.i.+p. Not anymore."

"That's okay," Han said, trying to keep his voice casual as he looked at Luke. The kid had a sort of pinched expression on his face, but he looked willing enough.

"No problem. Luke and me can handle it." It was the easy solution, he knew, but somehow he didn't think these guys would take it that way.

Sure enough, they didn't. "No," LaRone said, a new firmness to his voice.

"This was our decision. It's our job."

"Hold it," Luke cut in, pointing out the canopy. "Look."

Han turned, and felt his mouth drop open a little. Where there had been seven TIEs a minute ago, there were now only five . . . and as he watched, a blast of laserfire from somewhere in the hills above the pirate base took out two more. "I guess they aren't all dead down there,"

he commented.

"I guess not," LaRone said grimly. "But if we want any information, we still need to go in. Quiller?"

"Right," the pilot said, bringing the Suwantek around. "Grave, Bright.w.a.ter-try to get a lock on those laser cannon positions."

"We're on it," Bright.w.a.ter's voice came back promptly. "Still way out of range, of course."

"Not for long," LaRone said. "Quiller, take us in."

Chapter Seventeen.

ABRUPTLY, THE AERIAL BOMBARDMENT FELL SILENT. Still pressed against the big ground-mover, Mara stretched out with her senses. The air was filled with acrid smoke, and she could hear the crackle of flames coming from at least three places in the near distance. But the turbolaser fire from the sky had definitely ceased.

She didn't know why, but with the respite came the chance to get moving.

Stepping carefully over the piles of rubble around her, she headed for the corridor. The firetrap Caaldra had sprung on them had mostly burned itself out, leaving its own contribution of eye-stinging smoke drifting through the air. Blinking a few times, Mara crossed back to where she'd left Tannis.

He was still there, lying motionlessly on the smoking floor. "Tannis?"

she said, shoving her lightsaber back into her belt and crouching down beside him.

There was no answer, but at least he was still alive. Mara took a moment to a.s.sess the damage-mostly burns from Caaldra's firetrap-then made her way back to the wrecked command center to retrieve the room's emergency medpac.

There was no time to deal with the burns themselves, not with their attackers presumably preparing for Round Two. Selecting a set of military-grade painkillers and stimulants, she injected them into an undamaged section of Tannis's arm. Within half a minute he was awake, blinking up through the smoke at her. "How do you feel?" Mara asked.

"Like I'm dying," Tannis murmured, his voice sounding eerily dream-like.

"What happened?"

"Caaldra left us a little surprise," Mara told him, deciding for the moment to skip over the bombardment. "You feel up to a little walk?"

"I don't know," Tannis said. "How far are we going?"

"I thought we'd stop by your emergency bunker for a minute, then head back to the s.h.i.+p and get you to the medical capsule."

"I can try," Tannis said. Grimacing with the effort, he got a hand on the floor and tried to push.

"It's okay," Mara said, stretching out with the Force and raising him up.

"All you have to do is point. I can do the heavy lifting."

"I forgot," Tannis said, smiling weakly. "Where are we again?"

"Outside the main control center."

"Right." Tannis peered around. "It's that way," he said, pointing down the corridor in the direction they'd been heading when Caaldra had sprung his trap. Pulling the injured pirate to her side, Mara got a steadying arm around his waist and they set off.

The base was a mess. At least five of the buildings had been completely demolished, a couple of them still burning furiously, the others nothing more than smoldering debris. There were plenty of bodies scattered around, too. Some of the pirates were fully dressed, but others seemed to have been asleep in their bunks when the attack came. At first Mara wondered about their lack of preparedness and sensor protection until it occurred to her that the three men Brock and Gilling had killed in the control center had probably been the ones responsible for spotting trouble and sounding the alert. The two ISB men either hadn't noticed the approaching attackers or else hadn't particularly cared. Or else had been expecting them. If not, there'll be others along to finish the job, Brock had said back in the control room.

"There," Tannis murmured, pointing ahead toward one of the demolished buildings.

Demolished except for a large room in the far corner of the lower floor that was still intact. "Okay," she said, breathing heavily as she eyed the field of broken masonry ahead of them. This wasn't going to be easy.

Tannis had apparently noticed the jagged debris, too. "Just leave me here," he said. "Go get your data and come back for me."

"Forget it," Mara said, resettling her grip around his waist. The barrage could begin again any minute, and there was no way she was going to leave him out here in the open. Especially not with the safest place in the base barely fifty meters away. "Watch your step."

They began picking their way through the rubble. Even with Mara handling most of Tannis's weight, he struggled with the uneven ground, and eventually she had to use the Force again to lift him completely into the air, carrying him over the obstacles like a sack of fruit. She kept her eyes moving, hoping fervently that no one would take a potshot at them while she was too burdened and focused to react.

The corner room Mara had seen turned out to be merely the access air lock to the bunker itself, a much larger complex of rooms two stories underground. Clearly the Commodore had taken the possibility of enemy attack seriously. Not that it had ultimately done him any good. His shattered body was there, slumped in a seat by the comm panel. Dead. "So that's it," Tannis muttered as Mara eased him down into one of the other chairs. "It's gone. It's all gone."

"Looks that way," Mara agreed soberly, looking around. The comm system would be a good place to start, she decided. Unless the Commodore and his shadow ally had been paranoid enough to conduct all their business face-to-face, there should be records of their HoloNet calls to each other.

Going to the panel, she gently moved the chair and the Commodore's body aside.

He'd been in the process of setting up a HoloNet communication, she saw, when his broken body had finally given out. The contact number and frequency were meaningless to her, but the destination system was not.

Shelkonwa. Shelsha sector's capital.

"Hand!" Tannis croaked. "Tac display-there."

Mara turned. The visual display was off, but the main tactical display above the defense console was up and running. On it were seven red triangles: enemy fighters, closing rapidly with the base. Round Two, apparently, was about to begin.

Only this time, unlike Round One, there would be two sides to the battle.

Mara crossed to the defense console and sat down, a quick glance over the controls showing her options. The main lasers could handle three targets simultaneously, and there were more of the BloodScars' favored proton torpedo launchers waiting in reserve. The lasers were already on standby; bringing them fully active, she got a grip on the firing sticks and waited.

The attackers were nearly to optimal range when they suddenly split formation, fanning out like a Victory Day air show. Mentally, Mara shrugged. Optimal range would have been nice, but then optimal merely meant preferred. Lining the double crossmarks on two of the attackers, she fired.

The lasers turned the targets into instant clouds of shrapnel. Mara s.h.i.+fted aim, a small corner of her mind wondering about this rival gang whose members were careless enough or overconfident enough to field fighters without even minimal s.h.i.+eld capability. She fired again, and another pair of attackers went the way of the first.

Perhaps they were relying on their maneuverability to evade destruction, she decided as she again s.h.i.+fted aim. Certainly they had more than their fair share of nimbleness, twisting around madly as they tried to throw off the lasers' computerized targeting lock. One of the banks of indicators, in fact, went a rapidly flickering red as they succeeded.

But Mara didn't need the help of such technological toys. She had the Force, and all the maneuverability in the universe wouldn't help her attackers now. s.h.i.+fting the lasers to manual, she continued firing, coolly and methodically destroying the fighters one by one. In the distance she noticed that the sensors were picking up another incoming s.h.i.+p, this one freighter-sized, but the numbers showed it would arrive far too late to a.s.sist.

The last two fighters had turned to the attack now, and above her Mara could hear a crackling of laserfire as they made a final desperate strafing run against the bunker. Stretching out again to the Force, she felt the subtle antic.i.p.ation of their future maneuvers and s.h.i.+fted her aim in response. She fired again, and now only a single attacker was left.

Once again she adjusted her aim ... and paused. The fire control would be compiling all the relevant tech data on the attackers as the battle progressed, which she could take with her and study at her leisure. But a direct visual contact would be good to have, too. She s.h.i.+fted her attention briefly away from the combat, recognizing as she did so the inherent risk involved in allowing an enemy even a brief breathing s.p.a.ce, and activated the visual display.

The sensors had taken a severe beating during the earlier bombardment, and the image that appeared on the screen was dark and grainy and badly distorted. But it was good enough. There was only one fighter anywhere in the galaxy with that profile and architecture.

The pirate base was being attacked by Imperial TIE fighters.

She stared at the image, her mind refusing at first to believe the evidence of her eyes. It was impossible-the Empire's attention was completely absorbed with the Rebellion and domestic instability and alien unrest. By direct order from the Emperor himself, pirates and other raiders had been recla.s.sified as a local and system enforcement problem.

This couldn't be any sort of official operation against the BloodScars.

Unless it was against Mara herself. She felt her face hardening as she turned back to her fire-control stick and blew the last TIE fighter away.

So that was how it was. This wasn't just about some grand scheme to unite Shelsha's pirates into a single ma.s.sive gang. It wasn't even about a link between pirates and the Rebellion. This one went straight into Imperial territory. Straight to the top.

She looked at the tactical display. The unknown freighter was too far out to be a threat, but it was still coming. Time to go.

Tannis was slumped in his seat, his breathing rapid and shallow. "You up to one more short walk?" Mara asked as she crouched down beside him.

"I can try," Tannis said weakly. "You get what you came for?"

"Oh, yes," she said softly. Stretching out to the Force, she lifted him from the chair as gently as she could. "Just a few more minutes," she said as she carried him toward the door. "We'll get you into the Happer's Way's medical capsule-"

She broke off as he groped at her shoulder. "If I don't make it," he rasped, his eyes half closed as he gazed into her face, "bury me in s.p.a.ce. You hear me?"

"You're going to make it," Mara said, the lie coming automatically to her lips even as a surge of frustration ran through her. She'd been taught a dozen Force techniques for self-healing, but nothing that could be used on others.

But while there was still life, there was still hope. "Just hang on," she said, heading up the stairs.

They were across the field of rubble and nearly to the sh.e.l.l that had once housed the main command room when Mara heard the distant roar of a sublight drive.

And as she watched, the Happer's Way rose from the ruins of the landing area. It turned leisurely around, as if the pilot was surveying the damage around him, then turned again and headed for s.p.a.ce.