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

Corrupter, respectively. Lusankya is the ship that blasted its way out of
Coruscant. It was previously unac-counted for, causing us to raise our estimates
of how many ships the Kuat Drive Yards and the Fondor Yards produced. Oddly
enough, both places claim to have produced Vader's flagship, Executor. It
appears two ships were manufactured under that name, with one having been turned
into Lusankya and buried on Coruscant-probably to serve as the Em-peror's
get-away ship. The other Executor, the one from Fondor, was destroyed at Endor."
She circled a finger through the hologram, encompassing the trio of smaller
ships. "Avarice, Virulence, and Corrupter have hardly had sterling careers, but
the crews are competent. I'm in the process of assembling files on all the staff
officers, but the most dangerous of them, Captain Ait Convarion, commands the
smallest ship. Corrupter has done very well in
the Outer Rim hunting down pirate groups which, for better or worse, we
resemble."
Wedge stood as Winter shut the holoprojector down. "As you can all see, we're
dealing with a fairly formidable foe that is well armed. One of the things we
have to face is that we may be unable to accomplish our goals in this operation.
Un-seating Isard may, in fact, turn out to be impossible."
Seated behind Gavin, Corran reached out and tapped the younger man on the head.
"Gavin, this is where you're sup-posed to tell us that unseating her isn't tough
and relate the whole thing to varminting on Tatooine."
Gavin blanched. "I didn't hear anyone mention a trench or canyon or womp rats.
Taking a planet is beyond me."
Wedge smiled. "It's beyond most of us. I've sent commu-nications out to some
individuals who might be able to help. The problem is enormous. First we have to
eliminate the ships, then take the world. The key to nailing the ships is to get
them spread out so they can't support each other. We can do that by forcing
Isard to use them to cover bacta convoys, but to kill the ships we need weapons,
and a lot of them."
Riv Shiel, the Shistavanen wolfman, curled his lips up in a snarl. "It sounds as
if we need the Katana fleet."
"That would be nice." The legendary ghost fleet of war-ships was supposed to be
skipping through hyperspace, just waiting for someone to come and claim it.
Wedge frowned. "We could also hope that the Outbound Flight Project finally
produces results, with a host of nonhuman Jedi Knights com-ing from outside the
galaxy to help us, but I don't think it's likely."
Gavin raised a hand. "What about that ship that Alder-aan loaded all of its
weapons on when it demilitarized? I can't remember the name, but I thought it
was supposed to go through space and return if needed. Maybe Princess Leia has a
way to summon it or something."
Winter shook her head. "You are thinking of Another Chance. While it is not as
much of a legend as the Katana fleet, or Jorus C'baoth's mission outside the
galaxy-the ship did exist-it is not the solution to our problem. The Another
Chance was actually recovered by Rebel sympathizers prior
to the debacles at Derra IV and Hoth. The weapons recovered were all of Clone
Wars vintage and suited for use by infantry. They were useful in filling the gap
caused by the loss of the convoy at Derra IV."
Gavin's shoulders slumped. "Oh, I never knew all that."
"Not that you should have, Gavin." Winter smiled. "Aside from the individuals
who found the ship, a few smug-glers who helped transport the merchandise, and