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

liked.
He knew Jace had been in the bomber, and Jace was the only pilot in the unit who
could have stayed with him. Except for our leader. Corran smiled broadly. Coming
to see how good I really am, Com-mander Antilles? Let me give you a clinic.
"Make sure you're in there solid, Whistler, because we're going for a little
ride."
Corran refused to let the R2's moan slow him down. A snap-roll brought the
X-wing up on its port wing. Pulling back on the stick yanked the fighter's nose
up away from the original line of flight. The TIE stayed with him, then
tightened up on the arc to close distance. Corran then rolled an-other ninety
degrees and continued the turn into a dive. Throttling back, Corran hung in the
dive for three seconds, then hauled back hard on the stick and cruised up into
the TIE fighter's aft.
The X-wing's laser fire missed wide to the right as the TIE cut to the left.
Corran kicked his speed up to full and broke with the TIE. He let the X-wing
rise above the plane of the break, then put the fighter through a twisting roll
that ate up enough time to bring him again into the TIE's rear. The TIE snapped
to the right and Corran looped out left.
He watched the tracking display as the distance between them grew to be a
kilometer and a half, then slowed. Fine, you want to go nose to nose? I've got
shields and you don't. If Commander Antilles wanted to commit virtual suicide,
Corran was happy to oblige him. He tugged the stick back to his ster-num and
rolled out in an inversion loop. Coming at you!
The two starfighters closed swiftly. Corran cen-tered his foe in the crosshairs
and waited for a dead
shot. Without shields the TIE fighter would die with one burst, and Corran
wanted the kill to be clean. His HUD flicked green as the TIE juked in and out
of the center, then locked green as they closed.
The TIE started firing at maximum range and scored hits. At that distance the
lasers did no real damage against the shields, prompting Corran to wonder why
Wedge was wasting the energy. Then, as the HUD's green color started to flicker,
realiza-tion dawned. The bright bursts on the shields are a distraction to my
targeting! I better kill him now!
Corran tightened down on the trigger button, sending red laser needles stabbing
out at the closing TIE fighter. He couldn't tell if he had hit anything. Lights
flashed in the cockpit and Whistler started screeching furiously. Corran's main
monitor went black, his shields were down, and his weapons con-trols were dead.
The pilot looked left and right. "Where is he, Whistler?"
The monitor in front of him flickered to life and a diagnostic report began to
scroll by. Bloodred bor-dered the damage reports. "Scanners, out; lasers, out;
shields, out; engine, out! I'm a wallowing Hutt just hanging here in space."
With the X-wing's scanners being dead, the R2 droid couldn't locate the TIE
fighter if it was outside the droid's scanner range. Whistler informed Corran of
this with an anxious bleat.
"Easy, Whistler, get me my shields back first. Hurry." Corran continued to look
around for the TIE fighter. Letting me stew, are you, sir? You'll fin-ish the
Korolev then come for me. The pilot frowned and felt a cold chill run down his
spine. You're right, I'm no Luke Skywalker. I'm glad you think I'm not bad, but
I want to be the best!
Suddenly the starfield went black and the simu-