Rogue Squadron (19 page)

Even the voice sounded different to Corran. “Emtrey, are you all right? Is the moisture getting to you?”

“I’m fine, sir. The moisture is no problem.” One eye-light flashed on and off. “Touch of a virus, maybe, but nothing to worry about.”

Did that droid just wink at me?
“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir.” The droid saluted smartly. “If you have nothing further, sir, I’ll get on this right away. And I’ll have your gear sent around to your billet, sir.”

“Thank you, Emtrey.” Corran returned the salute. “Dismissed.”

The droid turned sharply on his heel and walked away. Corran stared after him, then shivered.

“Ooryl did not think it was so cold here.”

Corran spun and saw the grey-green-colored Gand standing behind him.
Another who blends in with this fog
. “Not cold, Ooryl, just fatigue. It’s been a long day, full of surprises.”

“Qrygg wanted to apologize for abandoning you.” The Gand Findsman clutched his hands together penitently. “Qrygg was too busy dodging Interceptors on Qrygg’s tail to see you were not there.”

“You followed orders, just as I would have.”

“Qrygg would give you a sign of Qrygg’s sorrow.”

Corran threw an arm around the Gand’s exoskeletal shoulders. “I tell you what. Guide me back to my billet and let me get a solid eight hours of
sleep, and we’ll call it even. Will that assuage your Gand guilt?”

“Ooryl finds this acceptable.”

“Good.” Corran swept his left hand through the fog. “Lead on, Ooryl, and this time I promise I’ll follow right behind you.”

15

The officious, bulbous officer stared laser bolts at Kirtan Loor. “I can see your orders are all properly drawn, but I have never appreciated Intelligence operatives meddling in fleet affairs.”

“I appreciate your concern, Admiral Devlia, as well as your willingness to return from retirement to Imperial service, but Imperial security must take precedence at this time which, I believe you would agree, is most critical.”

The little man brushed his grey moustache with a finger and his expression eased. “Just so we understand each other.”

“Of course.” Kirtan cared little for the Admiral’s concerns, but the Interdictor cruiser
Black Asp
was part of Devlia’s command. Its report of being ambushed by a squadron it identified as Rogue Squadron had brought Kirtan all the way from Coruscant to Vladet in the Rachuk system to speak with the
Black Asp’s
Captain Uwlla Iillor. He suspected a great chunk of Devlia’s discomfort with his visit came because it forced the Admiral to deal with Iillor, one of the women who had risen to command
to fill the gaps left in the Imperial Navy after the Endor debacle.

The Intelligence agent found himself anxious to meet Captain Iillor. He had read her file, as well as that of Admiral Devlia and most of the senior command staff during his journey out from Coruscant. The files were a welcome departure from tracking the various rumors about Rogue Squadron, but her record especially intrigued him. In studying it he caught hints of how forceful she had to have been to have risen in the Imperial Navy as far as she got before the Emperor’s death.

Devlia stood and smoothed his grey jacket over his round belly. “And I’ll tell you here and now that I’ll stop any questions I think are off the mark.”

“I understand that, sir.”
Dream all you want, Admiral
.

Devlia led Kirtan from his spacious office down a narrow hallway in the mansion that housed the command staff. The Admiral preceded him into a small study that had been converted into a conference room through the addition of a big table that dominated the room. Boxes full of datacards still lined the built-in shelves and Kirtan judged it a larger library than he would have expected to find on a planet like Vladet.

Devlia secured himself the chair at the head of the table, then waved a hand toward the woman standing at the far end. “Captain Iillor, this is Agent Kirtan Loor. He wants to ask you some questions about the ambush.”

“Yes, sir.” The brown-haired woman looked at Kirtan without a trace of the hunted look most people acquired when told Intelligence wanted to question them. “I’ll help if I am able, Agent Loor.”

Her voice had an edge to it that backed up the challenge in her dark eyes. Kirtan assumed her lack
of fear came after years of being on the Navy’s NhM track—Non-huMan. The Empire’s bias against aliens and women reached an unprecedented level of refinement in the Imperial Navy. Iillor had been sent to serve under Colonel Thrawn and a host of other alien superior officers before she had been given a ship of her own. She would have been stuck on that
Carrack-
class cruiser had not the defeat at Endor made the need for competent officers so great that the command staff’s survivors reevaluated personnel and awarded commands according to some semblance of merit.

“I’m sure you will, Captain. I would like any reports you have filed about this action, as well as any holographic records of it, along with any communication intercepts.” He walked around to the left side of the table, then turned back toward Devlia. “With the Admiral’s permission, of course.”

The old man nodded.

“Very well. If you don’t mind, please tell me what happened.”

“May I sit?”

“By all means.” Kirtan smiled but remained standing. “Make yourself comfortable.”

Captain Iillor sat and turned her chair so she gave Devlia her profile. “We had information that a smuggler running supplies to the Rebels was expected in the Chorax system at a particular time, and would be departing after picking up some supplies there. I sent a shuttle in to monitor the smuggler’s situation while I put the
Black Asp
on the fringe of the system. When the
Pulsar Skate
started to head out of the system, I jumped the
Black Asp
in and brought my G7-x gravjectors up.”

Kirtan frowned. “Intra-system jumping is a rather unusual tactic, isn’t it?”

Iillor shook her head. “I’ve seen it used with
great success out in the Unknown Sector. It worked at Chorax, too, because the
Skate
had no idea where we came from. It took them nearly six seconds to begin evasive maneuvers. I took the liberty of closing to use our ion cannons on the
Skate
during that time. Then a dozen X-wings came into the system.

“I deployed my Interceptor squadron, but none of the pilots are Academy material. They would have been eaten up, so I brought the
Black Asp
in and managed to disable one X-wing. By then, however, the remainder of them screened the
Skate
and hit my forward shield with a volley of proton torpedoes. The shield came down and I lost two laser batteries. I had to choose between reinforcing my shields or keeping the gravjectors operational. I made the former choice, recovered five Interceptors, and went to light speed.”

Devlia leaned forward. “They were waiting for the
Black Asp
. They came out of hyperspace right on top of her.”

Kirtan stroked his chin. “I don’t see that one thing establishes the other. I see no evidence of an ambush.”

Iillor’s head came up. “That’s what I’ve been telling the Admiral.”

“You’re both blind.”

“I think, sir, with all due respect, you are making unwarranted assumptions.” Kirtan began to pace around the edge of the table, passing behind the Admiral and back again. “Interdictor cruisers are
designed
to pull ships out of hyperspace. Of course, only where the route is known in advance can they be positioned in such a way that doing that is possible. In this case, since the
Black Asp
was in the Chorax system specifically to prevent a ship from
entering
hyperspace, you have chosen to discard one of its primary functions.”

“Preposterous!”

Which is precisely the kind of mistake I would have made previously
. Kirtan allowed himself a slight smile. “Check your thinking. If you chose to ambush an Interdictor cruiser, would you do so with a single squadron of X-wings?”

Devlia’s face reddened. “Perhaps
I
would not, but
I
have training most Rebel officers do not.”

“Granted, sir, yet the Rebels are not without wise leadership.” Kirtan left allusions to Yavin and Endor unvoiced, but he saw by Devlia’s expression the man had caught them anyway. “I might ask why the Rebels would waste their time attacking an Interdictor cruiser at all? No disrespect intended to you, Captain Iillor, or your ship, but the action of Interdictors is hardly crippling to the Rebellion. Our main battle fleets are garrisoning key worlds, like Corellia and Kuat, so even predation on Interdictors is unlikely to draw them out.”

Iillor did not smile, but her nod was not as stiff as before. “My assumption was that we had suffered the misfortune of pulling a convoy out of hyperspace, but the Admiral found such coincidence unlikely.”

Kirtan smiled. “The Admiral, despite this misjudgment, is formidable enough that I should think the Rebels utter fools to operate in his command sector.”

Devlia had opened his mouth to protest the first half of Kirtan’s statement. The second half, which Kirtan had added as a sop to the man’s vanity, killed the Admiral’s comment and clicked his jaw shut.

The Intelligence agent again focused on Captain Iillor. “How did you identify them as Rogue Squadron?”

“Communication intercepts used ‘Rogue’ call
signs. Visual data is not very good, but there is a unique unit crest painted on the S-foils. Preliminary searches correlate it with a crest said to be that of Rogue Squadron. Also the
Pulsar Skate
is a ship with Corellian connections, just like Wedge Antilles. And the pilots were hot—they took off seven of my Interceptors, with the last two falling to an X-wing that was dead.”

Devlia leaned back. “Interesting, but circumstantial, as I am sure Agent Loor will agree.”

“Circumstantial, yes, but persuasive.” Everything she had said about the squadron that attacked the
Black Asp
did seem to point to Rogue Squadron. Kirtan doubted any other unit in the Rebellion would sport Rogue call signs, and the crest data would have to be checked. Still and all it was not conclusive.
It is, however, a start
.

“Captain, did your shuttle stay in-system and monitor the squadron for outbound vector and speed?”

Iillor scowled. “No, and Lieutenant Potin has been reprimanded for fleeing when not threatened. I do have entry vector and velocity data, and it is triangulated with the data from the shuttle.”

“That’s something, then.”

“I will make certain you have it in time for your return to Imperial Center, Agent Loor.” Devlia stood. “Assuming you want nothing else here.”

“I
do
want to speak to the pilots who flew against the X-wings as well as review any data recorded from the Interceptors that were destroyed.”

“I’ll see the interviews are arranged right away.”

“Take your time, Admiral. The next two or three days will be soon enough.”

The old man’s expression soured. “Staying that long are you?”

“Longer, I suspect.” Kirtan smiled broadly for the Admiral. “If Rogue Squadron is operating in this area, and I believe it is, I’ll leave only after we’ve found them and destroyed them, and not a moment sooner.”

16

In only two weeks, while the official request for a new phi-inverted lateral stabilizer languished in red-tape limbo, Emtrey found a pair of phi-inverted lateral stabilizers that the
Pulsar Skate
dropped off on its second run to Talasea. The Rogues’ Verpine tech used the new parts to replace the older, damaged parts. In synchronizing them, Zraii managed to smooth things out so Corran noticed a five percent increase in power at full throttle, with a three percent reduction in fuel consumption.

Corran throttled back slightly, matching his speed to that of Ooryl. “Three Flight to lead—we’re all in formation, sir.”

“I copy, Nine. Stand by.”

“As ordered, Lead.” Corran smiled broadly in spite of himself. Back when he was with CorSec he had hated escort duty, but after two weeks on the ground he would have volunteered to go after Death Stars even if they were strung around a system like pearls on a necklace. Even during his time on the run from Corellia he’d managed to fly at least once
a week, even though that was well outside the profile of the identity Gil Bastra had created for him.

He turned and looked back at Whistler. “Has Emtrey come up with any information based on his analysis of the ID Gil made up for me?”

A mournful hoot came in reply as the word “No” appeared on his display.

“Yeah, I don’t like the idea of never seeing Gil again, either.” He glanced at his sensor monitor. “Twelve, trim it up a bit there, you’re slipping behind. Trouble?”

“No difficulty. Compliance.”

“Good. Keep close. This mission should be easy enough that a nerf-herder could do it, but the other side will be shooting back, so we have to be careful.”

Despite the light tone in his voice he knew things could get nasty. Alliance operatives had been conducting surveys of Core worlds to assess the political climate and determine the strength of Imperial forces protecting them. On one run back toward their operations base—known to the pilots only as “Black Curs Base,” with no location specified for security reasons—they ran into the Strike cruiser
Havoc
. The Rebels went to ground on a small jungle planet in the Hensara system. They sank their ship, a modified Imperial Customs frigate, in a deep lake and lacked the equipment needed to repair damage that would allow them to move it again.

The
Havoc
grounded an Imperial walker and two scouts along with two platoons of stormtroopers. While their reported progress in searching out the Rebels had been slow, they started relatively close to the lake, so the ship’s discovery was a matter of time. The Alliance had reconciled itself to the loss of the ship and had intended a covert extraction of the operatives, then the
Havoc
left the system,
providing a window for repair and escape of the frigate
Battle of Yavin
.