"Michael Stackpole "Rogue Squadron"" - читать интересную книгу автора

The message itself had been neutral and routine in wording-even though it was
the first official notification that he'd made it into the squadron.
He'd had a pretty good idea that he'd make it, but despite assurances from the
other candidates, he'd never allowed himself to assume he would make it. In the
past he'd been burned by making un-warranted assumptions. Granted those
assumptions had eventually led him to join the Rebellion, which was not a wholly
bad thing, but it took him well away from where he had imagined he'd be at this
time in his life.
Even though he'd not allowed himself the luxury of believing he'd make the cut
before he actually
made it, he was proud of his being selected for the squadron. Corran had never
been one to hold back. He'd gone into the Corellian Security Force Acad-emy
straight out of secondary school and continued the Horn family tradition by
establishing new rec-ords in the training there. One of the last marks he
surpassed had been set by his father, Hal, twenty years earlier, and Hal had
beaten the record set by Hal's own father.
And now I'm a Rebel, an outlaw. What would my father and grandfather have
thought? A cold sensation raised goose bumps on his skin. Whatever, they would
have thought much worse things if I'd become an Imp.
Rhysati Ynr waved Corran over to the bench where she sat. "We made it, we
actually made it."
"It was nice of Commander Antilles to agree with our group consensus." He
mounted the steps up to Rhysati's row and slid in next to her. "It hasn't sunk
in yet in some ways."
The Gand, sitting behind them, leaned forward. "Ooryl learned your Redemption
run had the high-est score of our training cycle."
Corran flashed the Gand a big smile-he'd found exaggerating his expression did
indeed help Ooryl catch its import. "Who came in second? Bror Jace, I bet."
The Gand shook his head. "Gavin Darklighter beat the Thyferran."
"The kid beat Jace?" Corran glanced over at where the tall, brown-haired pilot
from Tatooine sat talking with the black-furred Shistavanen wolfman, Shiel.
Corran, with years of experience in the space-ports and stations on Corellia,
had spotted Gavin as being young despite his size. It's in the eyes-the years
just aren't there but apparently the piloting skill is!
The Twi'lek sat down next to Ooryl, looping one of his brain tails back over his
left shoulder. "Jace isn't any happier about it than he was about losing to you.
He volunteered to fly in an eyeball in Gavin's exercise and got hit with a
missile at range. He never had a chance."
Corran nodded his head and looked up toward the front of the room where Bror
Jace stood. Tall, slender, and handsome, the blond-haired, blue-eyed pilot had
proven himself to be very good during the selection exercises. The Corellian
thought he might even have liked Jace, but the man's ego was as big as an
Imperial Star Destroyer and likely to be just as deadly. The ego-cases Corran
had known in CorSec had always burned bright but burned out early. At some point
they got themselves into a situation they could have just as easily avoided had
they been thinking clearly.
Corran smiled in Jace's direction and caught a return nod from the black-haired
woman to whom Jace was speaking. "Ooryl, how did Erisi Dlarit do in the
exercise?"
"Middle of the hunt, after Nawara Ven and ahead of Ooryl. Lujayne Forge came in