"Wedge's Gamble": Book 2 in the X-Wing Series

[Jedi Cool]

chapter 26:

 

The warehouse where Asyr Sei’lar and her Alien Combine are holding the remainder of the Rogues loses a door as a riderless speeder bike crashes through the opposite door as the flying fortress.

 

Speeder bikes fly in with blasters firing and that fire is returned by stormtrooopers. Gavin tackles Asyr and rolls her away from the debris and out of harm’s way. A Duros falls dead on them, so he grabs a blaster from the corpse and starts firing at stormtroopers.

 

Asyr tells him to keep his head down. When Gavin reminds her she shouldn’t care as she was going to have him killed for being a bigot a minute ago, she points out that a bigot would not have saved her life just now.

 

She pulls him out and they run out of the warehouse right into Corran’s grasp. Nawara and Rhysati are already there. Ooryl and Shiel bring Dmaynel Kiph who has been wounded. Aril is nowhere to be found. Gavin insists they can’t leave her behind, but the flying fortress is moving up and they cannot risk going back inside.

 

Gavin feels guilty that he was the reason the Rogues were in the warehouse in the first place. The speeder bikes fly through, pursued by Imperial stormtroopers on their own bikes. One goes down and topples the driver. Corran pops off a few shots before they notice reinforcements coming.

 

He goes over to the toppled driver and finds that it’s Inyri Forge who tells him to leave her alone. Her leg is injured so Gavin picks her up. They cut through a supply closet into a series of corridors directed by Asyr and Dmaynel until they are admitted into an apartment by an Ithorian who gets someone to look at the Devaronian and Inyri.

 

The young woman is not grateful for being rescued considering it’s their fault she’s on Coruscant in the first place. Corran reminds her that she didn’t have to leave Kessel. Asyr notes that this appears to be a bigger story than she knows. Inyri tells her that these are the people who arranged for Black Sun to reemerge here.

 

Asyr points out that it proves they have no love for the Empire, but they won’t be very popular with the rebels either. No one thinks that will be a problem. Gavin explains they are rebels. As their mission is to liberate Coruscant, any other issue is a minor problem.

 

Aril Nunb had been hit by falling debris while trying to save a child. Now her ribs seem injured. She’d tried to feign unconsciousness when pulled from the wreckage, but the pain in her side makes it impossible. Sullustans are being herded aboard a ship. An older man directs her to a line of healthy specimens. He hollers to an orderly named Diric that he has another one. The orderly tells General Derricote that she makes 18 subjects now.

 

Derricote assures Aril that she will have the best medical care possible for the rest of her life.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 27:

Ackbar steels himself for a visit from Borsk Feylya. The Bothan is conciliatory, necessary because of General Laryn Krefeys death, which puts all fleet matters in Ackbars hands.

He asks about the incident on Noquivzor. Ackbar explains the reports detail most of the relevant information. Warlord Zsinj hit the base hard and destroyed most of the barracks. A lot of the support staff was killed, but the hangars are safe so there will be ships to fly when the Rogues get back.

Feylya suggests that, since rebel leadership met there only a few weeks ago, this could be an assassination attempt. Ackbar doesnt think so. Zsinj is notorious for taking revenge so he likely went after Rogue Squadron in retaliation for hitting his own ships not long ago.

But Zsinj is becoming a problem that they will have to deal with sooner or later. They cannot focus on him now lest he draw their attention from Coruscant and give Isard a chance to come after them. Feylya believes a hard strike against Coruscant is needed, but Ackbar doesnt think their forces are ready.

Feylya thinks they must be. After all, there is nothing to indicate that Isard knows an attack is imminent as she has not increased defenses. Ackbar doesnt think its wise to assume shes unprepared, nevertheless, he does acknowledge that she doesnt seem to be moving very quickly to increase fortifications. Further, there is some evidence to indicate that the population, though unarmed, could help disrupt and distract.

He has instructed Antilles to come up with a plan to bring the shields down. Once he does, Ackbar will tell him when to accomplish that so that the attack can commence. If Antilles fails, there is an alternative. The Imperial Interdictor cruiser Black Asp has defected after the captains protest over having her flight operations officer transferred was ignored.

The Asp will be positioned at the outer edges of the system to pull the fleet out of hyperspace early if the shields are not down. If they are, Captain Iillor will do nothing and the attack force will revert to realspace right on top of the planet.

Feylya notes that they are putting some faith in Iillor that may be misplaced if it turns out this is a trick on Icehearts behalf. Ackbar agrees, but tells him that Cracken has cleared her and her staff who were frustrated at having to deal with the interference of Imperial Intelligence.

The ship will be operating as an Alliance ship within a week under the name Corusca Rainbow. Feylya agrees to submit this proposal to Mon Mothma.
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• Ackbar tells Feylya that the base on Noquivzor was underground. Was it, really? I thought the base on Borleias was largely underground, not the one at Noquivzor.

• We will remember that Captain Iillor appeared in X-Wing: Rogue Squadron. The Major Wortin we read about in chapter 7 was likely her flight operations officer who was transferred to the Inexorable to learn how to obey orders under Thrawn.

[Jedi Cool]

chapter 28:

 

Kirtan Loor assumes that Isard will be reprimanding Derricote for going to Invisec himself to retrieve test subjects. He seized several Sullustans who spoke of an Alien Combine. Loor’s agents cannot interrogate them to find out more information or to determine if there are any dangers among them first. Isard points out she has given Derricote orders to let Loor speak to any of them.

 

Loor counters that Derricote has already injected them with the first strain of the Krytos virus. His agents would have to interrogate them while wearing isolation suits which would tip the Sullustans off that they are not leaving this place, thus eliminating any motivation to cooperate. By the time the incubation period is over with, they will be demented and unable to help.

 

Isard tells him that the important thing is to get this virus perfected and spread it through the population of Coruscant in time for the rebel attack. As it is, Warlord Zsinj has made that difficult by attacking the rebels himself over an issue of pride. If they focus their energies on him, they could take him out within a year. As it is, they are likely to speed up their attack on Coruscant just so they can go after him next.

 

Loor hasn’t heard of any changes in their timetables. Isard knows the rebel leadership, though. They know perfectly well that chasing after every would-be Emperor just delays the ultimate need to seize Imperial Center. They won’t do anything until they can put Mon Mothma on the Imperial Throne.

 

Loor agrees to monitor the situation. She advises him to develop what resources he needs to keep the rebels from striking for at least two weeks until the Krytos virus can spread through the water supply.

 

After the transmission ends, he heads to a room where two stormtroopers are holding Zekka Thyne in binders after he was captured during the speeder bike case in Invisec. Loor tells him that Rogue Squadron released a bunch of scum like him and then followed them to Coruscant. This means they are planning to invade.

 

He wants Thyne to go back and report to him every detail he can about their movements and shipments. If he chooses to disappear instead, Loor will make sure that Black Sun operatives get records going back to CorSec implicating Thyne as an informer who helped bring down the organization in the first place.

 

Thyne will have to pretend to have been hiding in the days since the speeder bike chase. Thyne argues that no one will believe he hid. Loor agrees that this is unlikely so orders that the stormtroopers give him a non-fatal abdominal wound as a cover story. If Loor can’t believe Thyne would hide, then neither will Corran Horn, who, by the way, Loor would not mind Thyne killing the first chance he gets.

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• I find the image of Mon Mothma sitting on the Imperial Throne very amusing.

• Also, I’ve not mentioned it thus far but the book tells us that Thyne’s nickname is “Patches”. Corran calls him that regularly and irreverantly and, to my amusement, Loor does also in this chapter.

[Jedi Cool]

chapter 29:

 

Corran leaves the Ithorian apartment and sets himself up in a small pod for a few days until he meets up with Rima.

 

She takes him to a safehouse with plasteel over the window and he tells her he was the one who sent a speeder crashing through it. He assumed that Black Sun took credit for saving a bunch of aliens from the Imperials as the Rogues knew nothing about it.

 

Rima is surprised at all of this. She’s been working on keeping Corran and Erisi safe until she can determine how much Imperial Intelligence knows.

 

Corran explains that he ran into Thyne at a cantina which started a chase which ended with him jumping out of a speeder at the warehouse. Inyri Forge is supposed to be on her way to the Headquarters where Fliry Vorru should be now. The Rogues only know that he was there, but have no way to contact him. They could use Inyri for that or, perhaps, the Alien Combine can help.

 

She doesn’t know where Aril Nunb is, but does mention there were reports of Sullustans being taken after the raid. He asks to speak to Wedge and she pretends she doesn’t know he’s here. Corran knows he must be if the other Rogues are and says he has something important related to the squadron that he can only communicate to Wedge personally. He also asks her for power packs for the blaster he swiped. She doesn’t have any but suggests he ask any stormtroopers who come sniffing around for some of theirs.

 

He waits for two days, during which time he thinks about the meeting between Loor and Tycho. He doesn’t understand why they would be meeting in a public place if Tycho is a Lusankya convert. He guesses that Tycho simply refused to meet in a facility where they might work on him more and is pressing Loor for extra credits. He knows that anything Rogue Squadron learns while here will be changing soon since they’ve obviously been compromised. The only thing left to do is to leave

quickly and go back to fighting the Empire.

 

He doesn’t have time to come up with another plan before a withdrawn Rima returns and escorts him back to Headquarters where Wedge meets with him. Wedge mentions that Winter told him that Corran wanted to meet with him personally. Corran realizes that Rima is Winter. After Wedge offers that she and Tycho knew each other pretty well, Corran tells him he’d wondered about that and it’s why he wanted to talk to Wedge personally. He saw Tycho meeting with Kirtan Loor at this very place five days ago and points to the bar where he spotted them.

 

Wedge tells him that’s impossible. Five days ago, Warlord Zsinj attacked the base at Noquivzor. They are still pulling out bodies, but it’s likely that Tycho is dead. Zraii was at the hangar which was largely undamaged, so the droids were probably there with him.

 

He’d just told Winter about it before she’d gone to meet escort Corran back. At this point, they have bigger things to worry about. The attack has pushed the Provisional Council to speed up the invasion. They will have to come up with a way to destroy or disable whatever they can to bring the planetary shields down.

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• Winter says her primary duties have been to keep Corran and Erisi safe while determine how much Imp Intel knows, but she seems to be aware of the stormtrooper raid and the disappearance of Aril despite there being no scene in which she found out about it.

• Obviously, since Corran does not know Winter’s real name and thinks of her as Rima, we are continuing to refer to her in this chapter as Rima, just as the author does.

• So this mystery Headquarters is the cantina where Corran started off the chase? Is the Alien Combine letting them use it because I don’t recall it being a very safe place? Remember that Wedge and Winter were not with the Rogues when the stormtrooper raid occurred so there is a lot of information they probably shouldn’t have!

 

 

[Jedi Cool]

chapter 30:

 

In a back room, Corran finds Iella, the Bothan Asyr, the Devaronian Dmaynel, Fliry Vorru and an uncomfortable-looking Zekka Thyne. Corran has a warm reunion with Iella who tells him that her husband, Diric, was picked up by an Imperial patrol a year ago so she made some contacts with the Alliance and joined the Rebellion.

 

He doesn’t tell her yet that Loor had Gil killed, but is happy to learn that Mirax Terrik is here, too. Thyne grumpily asks how long the catching up is going to take. Vorru does mention the need for timely decisions so they get to work.

 

Wedge explains that the problems caused by Zsinj require that invasion plans be sped up. They need to bring down the planetary shields and that will not be easy. He asks if Black Sun slicers have been able to get into the Coruscant central computer system.

 

Vorru wants to table that until they resolve another issue. It’s obvious that both the Alien Combine and the Rebel Alliance have a stake in getting rid of the Empire. Black Sun, however, cannot assume that they will be treated any differently under the Alliance. He wants to know what they will get in return besides their conditional freedom from Kessel.

 

He wants clemency for anyone who works on this project. He wants a world where he can relocate after this is over that will be admitted to the Alliance with him at its head.

 

The former security officers think he just wants a place where he can run a criminal organization.

 

Wedge will guarantee that they will not be prosecuted for crimes committed under the parameters of the mission. He will not allow for a violent crime wave that slaughters innocent people. That's the best he can do. Vorru agrees and explains that they have not yet sliced into the central computer. Thyne thinks they should just blow it up.

 

Instead, they discuss finding a way to retrieve the codes for the shields from the memory core of the computer systems as they are being transferred to a new core. The cores are built in a factory near Invisec so they might be able to get some assistance there.

 

After a couple of barbs from Corran, Thyne is about to get up when Wedge tells him not to. He tries anyway so Vorru hits him in the abdomen, then grabs his hair, bangs him on the desk and flings him out of his seat. For an old man with courtly manners, he packs a wallop.

 

Wedge ignores the body on the floor while he assigns Winter to get her technicians ready to slice, Asyr to check out the routines and layout of the core plant while Vorru will find out which computer technicians have vices they can exploit.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 31:

 

Kirtan Loor wonders if Zekka Thyne is a fool or he himself is one for trusting him. True enough, Thyne had reported that there had been an operational meeting that included not only Horn, but Iella Wessiri whom Loor had not known was here on Imperial Center.

 

Fliry Vorru was there, as was Dmaynel Kiph and a Bothan Loor cannot find anything about named Asyr Sei’lar. He assumes she’s part of some Bothan spynet that would indicate perhaps Isard was correct in assuming that the rebels are not as united as they would like the galaxy to think.

 

However, though Thyne insists that no planning had occurred at the meeting, it is obvious to Loor that the man has been given nothing but errand boy jobs ever since. He would have suspected Thyne’s cover had been blown if Vorru’s history didn’t elaborate on exactly what would have happened to Thyne if he were suspected of working for the Empire.

 

It made sense to Loor that Thyne had probably been ejected from the meeting before any real planning had been done until he learned the man had been unconscious for most of it. The spy in Rogue Squadron has been useless since they are keeping themselves under cover for the time being.

 

The only saving grace is that there are only four days left until Isard’s minimum deadline for keeping the rebel attack at bay. It’s been ten days since she infected the water supply with the Krytos virus.

 

He fixates on determining where the strike will happen, ultimately focusing on the shields. An armed assault would be problematic for many reasons, but he decides to put the TIE squadron there on alert.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 32:

 

Corran suspects that Gavin has an awkward question in mind. Most young men only have awkward questions about killing or sex. Since Gavin is already an ace pilot, it’s too much to hope for that his question is about killing.

 

It turns out that Gavin has questions about interspecies relationships. Though they are not uncommon, official Imperial policy tends to discourage them. Corran tells him they are not wrong, but not always necessarily right.

 

For example, some species are not compatible with humans when it comes to reproducing. This could be a problem if Gavin wants children. A more powerful species could make intimacy physically hazardous. Some species have shorter life spans. In general, though, Corran thinks that one can make it work if there’s enough motivation to do so.

 

Gavin starts to ask if Corran has ever dated outside his species when Mirax and Iella show up. Mirax makes a joke about the bacta queen. Corran explains he never dated Erisi and would have more fun with Cheryl Ruwuwoor.

 

Iella explains that Corran got stuck taking a Selonian female to the CorSec annual ball and showed her the time of her life. When things got intimate, though, they found out that his sweat was acidic enough that it produced an allergic reaction to her fur that caused problems for both of them.

 

Iella confirms that most of Corran’s relationships have not been good. Mirax asks how she feels about the bacta queen. Iella acknowledges that she’s not good for Corran; Mirax confirms she’s already told him this. Corran points out that he’s come to this conclusion himself. She may not be right for him, but even Ysanne Isard doesn’t deserve this backbiting.

 

Iella argues that, in fact, Isard does deserve this.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 33:

 

Loor reports to Isard that Derricote misled him about the incubation period which will take at least two additional days and is still airborne resistant. Isard holds him responsible for this as it’s part of his job to keep an eye on the general.

 

Loor reminds her that he is also burdened with keeping an eye on Rogue Squadron. She orders that all strains of the virus be replicated now and entered into the water supply as soon as they are ready. She also notes that Rogue Squadron may begin their assignment of liberating the planet tonight. She wants that stopped even if it means killing them.

 

When the transmission is over, Derricote, in the background, claps his approval for that performance. Loor attacks him in retaliation. Derricote’s failure to produce the desired results on time have put his life in jeopardy. Derricote protests that he has done the best he can considering he’s dealing with people who do not understand the intricacies of what they are demanding.

 

Loor drags him into the research area and tells him he wants all strains injected into the water supply now, including the experimental versions. He does not trust anything the general is telling him. The Sullustans taken captive look wretched, particularly a family with very sick small children.

 

Loor wants bacta tested on the mother and one of her children to make certain that it will work to cure them. He wants them to be able to tell the rebels when they arrive how to cure the disease so they will fall into their roles quickly. Derricote’s life depends on his ability to prove that bacta will cure this disease just as Isard ordered.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 34:

 

At the memory core transfer site, there are 55 cores out of which 40 have been selected by the technician. Each box has a datacard indicating what should be in the core. All the cards are checked and a quarter of the boxes opened and probed. If they all check out, it’s assumed the rest are fine. 10 of the auxillary cores are slightly different. Of those, three have special codes on them. The Trandoshan helping Wedge was told to drop what he was carrying if none of the ones selected for transfer contained the special code.

 

One of them does. And the Trandoshan drops it.

 

The technician in charge is unhappy with the alien help Wedge has brought and insists he choose the cores to be taken. Wedge manipulates him into choosing what he wants while the technician grouses about aliens and the lack of discipline even among stormtroopers that never would have happened under the Emperor.

 

When a Hoverscout arrives and starts shooting, Wedge pushes the man aside and jumps over the line of remaining computer cores. Iella appears at his side and gives him a blaster, then calls for Ooryl and Shiel. The two Rogues appear at the warehouse door with E-Web blaster cannons and start firing at the Hoverscout.

 

There is an explosion near the exit where Corran, Mirax and some of their Black Sun agents were holding as an evacuation site. That’s not going to work now and Corran is not responding.

 

They’d taken into account that a patrol might sweep the memory core warehouse near Invisec, but so many troopers means that someone has sold them out in more ways than one. Obviously having Thyne organize the lookouts was a mistake.

 

He calls for the Rogues to move out and has Shiel give them cover fire. This firing makes the technician think they are going after the repulsorlift truck where memory cores were loaded. The truck hovers around and lands on top of the Hoverscout.

 

After cracking at least one rib, Wedge runs with Iella and Gavin, meets up with Pash, Rhysati, Erisi, Nawara, Ooryl and the Trandoshan Portha, tells them they were sold out and have to get out of here.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 35:

 

In the supervisor’s office, watching from holopad, Corran gets a bad feeling about this operation. He and Mirax watch Wedge manipulate the supervisor on the loading dock, and also watch Inyri Forge with other Black Sunners waiting with airspeeders to take them all away.

 

When a burning smell catches his notice, stormtroopers start falling from the ceiling. He and Mirax fire, taking cover behind a desk before finally racing down the stairs to try to escape. Before long, they encounter more troopers coming on speeder bikes. Corran sends Mirax off and blasts away.

 

She emerges to shoot a trooper who skids off his bike.

 

An airspeeder is spotted evading speeder bikes so he tells her to shoot in order to show the speeder there’s cover fire here. He jumps on one of the riderless bikes and uses the weaponry to take down the pursuing biker scouts.

 

The airspeeder stops and they are surprised to see Inyri Forge has come back for them. They jump in and she explains they weren’t being paid to stick around and die, but she was the last to take off and assumed she would die. Going back in the way the Imperials came out seemed to be a time-delaying tactic and she happened to see Corran shooting Imps off her tail. The least she could do was pick him up. Mirax tells her that her motivations do not mean so much as her actions.

 

Corran begins narrowing down people who could have betrayed them while Inyri mentions a place Thyne picked out for them to hide in case things didn’t go as planned.

 

Corran knows that it had to be Thyne who sold them out, but he has no proof.

 

They get to the warehouse and find a speeder bike still up on the rack. Thyne shows up with a blaster and tells them to get away from the bike and for Inyri to get their weapons. Corran points out that the bike is cold which means Thyne wasn’t at his lookout post at all. This is why they were not warned about the impending stormtrooper attack. He wonders how he was planning to get past Vorru, though.

 

Mirax guesses that Thyne was planning to sell Corran to his Imperial contact for a new identity and passage offworld. Thyne confirms it’s almost right, but Loor only wants a corpse. He is about to shoot Corran when he himself gets shot through the chest by Inyri.

 

They go over to him and he tries to get Corran to care whether or not he really ordered Hal Horn killed. Corran doesn’t care. He wouldn’t believe anything Thyne told him anyway and it doesn’t bring his father back.

 

Thyne does tell him that he may have been the one to betray them this one time, but Loor knew that Corran was here before. Someone else is feeding him information, too. Corran doesn’t know how as Tycho was killed on Noquivzor, but he tells Thyne that he let him know about an enemy he didn’t know he had before the man dies.

 

He turns to Inyri who is being comforted by Mirax. She tells him that Kessel marks you even if you are not a criminal. No one believes you if you say you aren’t, so you are not respected.

 

Thyne did respect her and made her think she was valued. He got her off of Kessel. But then he didn’t rescue her during the earlier fight, didn’t tell her about the raid on the warehouse which could have killed her, and, when she returned, was only concerned about killing Corran. He valued her only as far as she was useful to him.

 

Corran reminds her that they are hiding from stormtroopers on Coruscant and there’s a traitor among their group, so they’re all still in danger.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 36:

 

The other Rogues are trying to escape stormtroopers by heading up into a building that turns out to have no walkways or links to other buildings until the 50th floor. Getting to that floor is difficult once a gravtruck hovers at that position with stormtroopers on it.

 

It abruptly moves, though, toppling troopers and then gets blasted by a Z-95 Headhunter.

 

A repulsorlift transport shows up and Wedge has his people get aboard. Emtrey is, apparently, flying the ship while Tycho is aboard the Headhunter.

 

Wedge explains that Whistler was filing reports for both Tycho and Emtrey back at the base so neither was there while the raid took place. Iella asks why he brought them here. Wedge explains that it might have been expedient to prove to a potential ally that they were here and ready to help, but that information might get back to the Empire.

 

Apparently, it did as they were sold out by someone.

 

Wedge wanted people on the planet that no one knew about so the Empire didn’t have all the information they needed. Hence, he kept Emtrey and Tycho in reserve.

 

Tycho contacts Wedge and tells him he’s got an urgent message. They have 48 hours to bring down Coruscant’s shields.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 37:

 

Loor tries to explain to Iceheart how disabling Rogue Squadron is just as harmful to them as destroying them. They don’t have access to their equipment or supplies. The Headhunter and transport were surprising, but it was likely mercenaries or bounty hunters involved anyway.

 

She maintains that their attack on the central computer could have been devastating. He argues that the shields could have been brought down for an hour at most. She points out that the subtle first attack could have been a precursor for one that would have taken down the entire computer.

 

He reminds her that her plan to stymie the rebel hold on Corusucant is predicated on their altruistic nature. Bringing down the entire system would deprive citizens of food, water and energy. The rebels will not put the population through that.

 

She chastises him for not telling her about his use of Zekka Thyne, not believing him when he tries to tell her Thyne was just a minor player he didn’t want to bother her about.

 

She knows that he wanted Thyne to kill Corran Horn and is interested in meeting this man who causes Loor so much fear.

 

Loor brushes Horn of as just a man with a vendetta against him for letting the bounty hunter go who killed his father. He’s dangerous enough to kill Loor if he really wanted him dead. Being a member of Rogue Squadron just allows him an excuse to murder.

 

She tells him that he’s grown a spine since she first met him and part of her wants to crush him now before he becomes a problem, but Loor may still be of use, despite all of the setbacks he’s cost her.

 

This world will soon be in someone else’s hands. She’s planning to leave Imperial Center so that she can continue her quest to bring down the Rebellion with her Lusankya facility. In her wake, she is leaving behind special operations commando and terrorist cells to keep the rebel forces busy. She thinks Loor would do a good job handling them.

 

Loor really doesn’t want to remain on this planet while it is in rebel hands, but he realizes that he would be, in essence, the master of this world in her absence. She wants him to operate under the Palpatine Counterinsurgency Front and annoy the rebels as much as they have annoyed the Empire. New of this organization will spread and the Rebel Alliance will be focused on him rather than on what’s going on elsewhere.

 

If he succeeds, he will be in a position to demand his own reward and to take it from her if need be.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 38:

 

Tycho has found a dripping hideout that everyone but Gavin, who has never been rained on, doesn’t mind. Corran arrives and is unhappy when he sees Tycho is here. He explains to Wedge that he’s glad the man is alive, but reminds him what he saw in the cantina.

 

Wedge tells him that Tycho was not meeting with Kirtan Loor, but with a Duros named Lai Nootka. He didn’t see Corran or he would have helped him out of his scrape. Corran reveals that Thyne told him there was someone else helping Loor.

 

Wedge doesn’t think they should take Thyne’s word there as he likely only knows what Loor told him. They also must consider that, with Aril Nunb missing, she could have been interrogated. Corran doesn’t think she could have told Loor much. He had to have known ahead of time.

 

Wedge maintains that he trusts Tycho to not be a spy. Besides, the Imperials have hit their other safehouses. This one hasn’t been hit and he doesn’t think it’s because they’re saving it for another time. He doesn’t think they know the squadron is here and they would if Tycho was feeding them information.

 

As it is, bringing the shields down is hard enough. Both Portha and Shiel are sleeping so they start the meeting without them.

 

Huge construction droids are already going to be building a new factory. In most cases, those droids simply evict the residents of the next building and spit out a spanking new building where the old one was. Winter tells them that, without the new cores, the central computer will begin routing data to subsidiary systems to save memory.

 

This allows for more errors to creep in. The subsidiary systems are not as well-guarded as the central computer.

 

However, it’s a smaller area to hit and a smaller area for the Imperials to defend. Further, they may only be able to bring down some shields but not all of them.

 

Gavin has an idea. His uncle Huff controls the food and water supply on Tatooine so he gets a lot of people trying to sell him get-rich quick ideas or trying to break his monopoly. Some people he pays off and one of them had the idea of seeding the atmosphere with chemical crystals to cause rain.

 

Trying to seed Coruscant’s atmosphere would be difficult as there must be water vapor already in the air. They get the idea to get into a ground-based facility that controls one of the orbital mirrors, redirect it to a reservoir which will vaporize the water and cause a storm in the atmosphere.

 

They’ve already seen how quickly storms form on this planet and how a big enough one can bring down the power grid. However, assaulting the subsidiary station closest to the Imperial palace with only 14 people may be suicidal.

 

They decide to commandeer the construction droid that will be building a new factory and have it head toward the subsidiary station which should clean it out fairly quickly. Besides providing cover for taking over the station, it should also push out a new station that they can insert some of their own code in.

 

Tycho has managed to procure a total of six Headhunters, so Corran, Erisi, Nawara, Rhysati and Pash will fly five of them. They add Asyr to the sixth ship when she reveals she trained at the Bothan Martial Academy a year behind their late comrade Peshk Vri’syk.

 

Wedge, Iella, Mirax and Emtrey will be in charge of the construction droid crew, Winter, Gavin, Orryl and Tycho will be the ones who take the station while those in the Headhunters fly cover. Inyri will transport the station team.

 

Erisi suggests bringing in more people to free up Gavin, Orryl and Tycho for flying, but Wedge doesn’t want to involve anyone else until they know who is feeding Loor information.
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• Did I miss Shiel being seriously injured or something? Why was he allowed to sleep during the briefing and no assignment given to him for the takedown of the shields?

[Jedi Cool]

chapter 39:

 

Corran suits up and preps his fighter. Mirax comes along to say good-bye and to tease him about standing close to Erisi recently. He tells her that he has gotten to know her in the time they’ve spent on Coruscant and would really like to know her better once this mission is over.

 

She asks if he’s asking her out on a date. He admits that the odds are against them but Corellians don’t care much for odds anyway. They kiss each other good-bye before Corran runs into Tycho.

 

Tycho tells him he’s glad Corran’s taking the Headhunter he’d used during the rescue because he thinks it’s the best of the lot which is why he tested it on that run. He also wants to tell Corran that he’s wrong. Tycho didn’t meet with Kirtan Loor and he’s not a spy.

 

Corran thinks there’s too much wrong here. The Alliance thinks Tycho is buried in the rubble at Noquivzor, despite being seen with an Imperial agent, his time at Lusankya and the fact that Bror Jace was killed after Tycho arranged his leave and plotted his course.

 

Tycho acknowledge that circumstantial evidence looks bad, but it could also mean that he’s innocent. Corran vows he will find out the truth when he gets back.

 

Erisi approaches him afterward and asks if he’s getting sick like Shiel and Nawara. Corran admits that he believes that Tycho is an Imperial agent; he just has to prove it. She offers to help him once they return.
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• Ah, so Shiel was sick and, I would assume, so was Portha the Trandoshan.

[Jedi Cool]

chapter 40:

 

Loor notes the appearance of an Interdictor cruiser at the edge of the system and suspects it’s the precursor to an invasion. He would have panicked at such a thing months ago but now knows that the invasion is why he’s here.

 

He can find no new messages from the Rogue Squadron spy and is disturbed to find that any messages that have been sent have been routed to Isard’s Eyes Only. That would have bothered him in the past, too.

However, the spy’s information is irrelevant now and he knows who it is in case he needs more. For now, he wishes the Rebellion all the success they crave so they can get what they want only to find it’s not all they hoped for at all.

 

Emtrey flies Mirax, Iella and Wedge in his Colonel Roat disguise to the droid control center where they bully their way into commandeering the construction droid. Mirax hits the evacuation alarm that will ring in every building within ten kilometers.

 

The Ministry of Planning and Zoning contacts them to find out if there’s a problem. Wedge tells them that they are doing some redecorating since Coruscant is under new management courtesy of Rogue Squadron Contracting. If that doesn’t make them a target, nothing will.

 

Captain Iillor, who commands the ship now known as Corusca Rainbow, is ready to obey orders. If the shields stay up, she must pull the fleet out of hyperspace prematurely. If not, she lets them come out where they are and join the fight for Coruscant. Ackbar had allowed for her to continue the operation if a partial shield drop was sufficient enough to allow ships through.

 

The fact that the New Republic is entrusting her with so much illustrates the difference between them and the Empire. Her Mon Calamari first officer reports on simulation times. She thinks they are too slow.

 

The lieutenant explains there are rumors Rogue Squadron is on the ground and they have reputations for doing the impossible. Iillor reminds him that reputations are not always lived up to, lest Vader would still be alive and the lieutenant would be a slave. However, she’s been attacked by Rogue Squadron in the past and knows what they can do. She will allow for them to accomplish the impossible.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 41:

 

Inyri flies the airspeeder with Winter, Tycho, Gavin and Ooryl into the transparisteel window of the Subsidiary Computer Station in question. Inside, they find no other lifeforms here and Winter works with her datapad to open the control center door. She finds, instead, that they’ve installed gas emitters that will knock them out once they gain access to the room.

 

Gavin points out gas masks in a nearby room, but they don’t have the code for that either and, by the time they get it open, the gas will have knocked them out. Winter notes these were installed within the last two weeks, after the details had been given to them to make the attack. They can’t pull this off now.

 

Corran feels more comfortable in an X-Wing, but the Z-95 gives him some firepower as the Rogues take down TIEs, leaving 15 minutes to get the shields down.

 

In the meantime, Tycho contacts Wedge to see if they can spare Emtrey to shut down the gas impeding their progress. Wedge, Iella and Mirax decide to abandon the construction droid, especially since TIE fighters are coming at it and head over to the station with Emtrey. They get to the door when Iella has to duck firepower.

 

They are trapped there as stormtroopers have got an E-Web cannon set up on a nearby tower to cover the door.
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• The plan to attack the subsidiary station was only made within the last couple of days, not weeks. I suppose they could have been given information on the station on a preliminary basis when they first landed here, but that would have been very lucky.

[Jedi Cool]

chapter 42:

 

Tycho and Gavin are about to go help Wedge’s group when Ooryl explains that he does not respirate so the gas shouldn’t be a problem for him. He has them get into the airspeeder while he goes into the room and gets the gas masks.

 

They all board and position the jets so that it will blow the gas deeper into the building. They get a good view of both the fight and of the construction droid destroying the building in front of it. Then Ooryl returns with the gas masks and they decide it’s time to make rain.

 

Corran asks if they need help and Wedge tells him about the E-Web. The Z-95 fires a couple of missles which takes care of that problem.

 

Inside, Winter begins moving the orbital mirrors into position. Tycho asks if they can bring up the Golan battle stations on a display, but she doesn’t want to attract too much attention.

 

Lt. Virar Needa’s life could be worse. After his cousin Lorth’s execution at the hands of Darth Vader, most of his family disappeared, but he was at least allowed to continue his studies. Of course, now he’s in charge of an Orbital Mirror station that most consider to be a dead-end.

 

But it’s noble work giving the people of Coruscant what they need so he assures his men when they hear a tremor that it’s alright and that the mirror is just being adjusted to a new site. They calm down. He does notice a longer than usual jet burn, but dismisses it as they are probably focusing on a new top-secret site. Very likely, his hard work is being rewarded.

 

He tells them they are giving someone everything they want and that their contributions to this day will not be forgotten.

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• After Xizor had Dash Rendar’s brother’s speeder sabotaged, the entire Rendar family was exiled and Dash was expelled from the academy. So, I do suppose that Virar Needa is lucky he was allowed to continue his studies on top of not disappearing or being killed like the rest of his family.

[Jedi Cool]

chapter 43:

 

As the Rogues in the Headhunters continue to fight TIEs, Corran notices a large building beginning to melt and catch afire. A lightning bolt hits the Imperial palace.

 

Iillor watches from the edge of the system as a huge storm erupts over Coruscant. It would appear that the Rogues have caused the storm. The shields start coming down but they aren’t all the way down. She orders the gravity well projectors fired up in case they are needed. The ships are not due for another five minutes, after all.

 

At the station, they note the inner shields are coming down but power is being shunted to another conduit to reinforce the remaining shields. The conduits were not noticed before because there was no power running through them.

 

Frequent lightning bursts show them where the general location of the conduit is and it’s obvious impervious to lightning, but not missles. Wedge decides to send Corran in to destroy it.

 

Corran notes that there are literal sheets of lightning in that area. Wedge tells him it’s twice as big as the conduit on Borleias and he has four minutes to hit it. Flying through turbulence, Corran has to evade TIEs, too, and misses the conduit on his first run. He does, however, manage to destroy a monument to the Emperor on the way to another run.

 

Winter tells Wedge that Corran’s first hit wasn’t powerful enough. Wedge asks if she can’t get that TIE off his back and she tells him that she’s getting the data on the conduit from his systems since she’s tapped into the Imperial database.

 

Wedge tells her to tap into Taxi, Hangar and Maintenance programs and set them up with the TIE’s id number. He contacts Corran and tells him what they are going to do.

 

Corran is tired of providing his data feeds to Wedge, but keeps the TIE tight on his rear-end without letting it hit him. He spies where the first hole was caused and fires his missle. Winter establishes a link.

 

In space, Iillor has 30 seconds before the fleet arrives.

 

Corran’s missle flies away, its targeting computer sending data back to him which is sent back to Winter’s datapad which is sent through Taxi, Hangar and Maintenance through the Imperial network back to the TIE interceptor on his tail. It tells the ship where to go and, in this case, it’s directing the ship toward the missle’s target at the same relative speed. The pilot can override this, but it requires about two seconds of concentration to punch in a code that this particular pilot cannot focus his attention to do.

 

The missle hits the conduit and explodes, the TIE hits it shortly thereafter with greater mass that destroys the cable and fibers that were never meant to be hit in the first place. With less than ten seconds to go, Coruscant goes black and the fight is on.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 44:

 

Virar Needa isn’t overly concerned when the planet goes dark. Certainly those responsible for that will be banished and he might be able to take their places. At that moment, ships enter from hyperspace. He recognizes them as the Star Destroyers Accuser and the Adjucator, but does not remember that both of them were captured by rebels at Endor until he notes the Mon Calamari ships joining them.

 

The Golan Defense Platform begins firing and takes return fire. Needa does, however, notice the shield shrinking. He orders his men to battle stations. After being reminded that their orbital mirror does not have battle stations, he tells them to arm themselves. They are not going down without a fight.

 

Back up generators restore light to the subsidiary computer station but Winter can confirm the shields are down. She slices into traffic control and they can see several Star Destroyers gearing up to battle the rebels alongside a Golan Platform that is going to be nasty, but she cannot get a visual feed on the ships that have left ground. They also do not have access to any ground weaponry either.

 

On the mirror station, Needa doesn’t understand why they aren’t trying to help him. His subordinate points out that they cannot do anything and, if they try, they will be destroyed. The Empire might be able to utilize a bunch of dead heroes, but it won’t do much for the heroes themselves. On the other hand, the rebels might appreciate a working mirror with a live crew who’ve been waiting for them all their lives.

 

After all, they all know that Lorth Needa was killed by Vader after he let Solo escape because of the rebel sympathies he’d only confided in his cousin, Virar. Needa doesn’t know if they’ll believe such a nonsensical story, but he’s reminded that being dead won’t give him the chance to convince them of anything. He decides that, since he can’t do anything, he won’t make a choice. One is made for him as the mirror begins to move again.

 

Ackbar is sickened by the sight of his smaller ships being taken by the Golan Defense Platform. Then the mirror begins to move again, reflecting a solar beam into the station, cutting through metal and bulkhead. He advises to have ships prepare to evacuate any survivors to the other Golans where they tell the commanders what happened to theirs.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 45:

 

Corran has ten minutes of fuel left so he starts to head in for refueling since his area is clear. Ships are starting to leave the planet, some of them frightened citizens who believe Imperial propaganda about the vicious rebels, some of them frightened Imperials who don’t want to be brought to justice.

 

He could disable the ships and keep them here, but he knows what it’s like to have to run and hide, never really being himself. He decides that they can run, but cannot hide forever.

 

A blip on his screen shows an anomalous reading and he asks if Pash sees anything at those coordinates. Pash doesn’t see anything. Corran decides to do a quick flyby before he heads in.

 

Reports had two more Star Destroyers at Coruscant, but the rebels find only the Triumph and Monarch. This concerns Ackbar as neither ship has a great reputation. As his ships pound both Destroyers, he sends orders to Captain Onoma of the Mon Remonda to get a tractor on the Triumph before it falls into the atmosphere. They may be able to capture the ship and add it to their arsenal.

 

Onoma reports that the captain of the Triumph is calling for a truce, the conditions of which will be insignificant. Ackbar orders him to begin negotiating and to find someone on Coruscant who can surrender that planet.

 

Wedge reports that they do not see anything on this contact Corran reports. The latter says it’s oscillating back and forth. Then he yells that his throttle control is gone and he has to shut down the fuel injectors. He needs Winter to shut down the override control.

 

She tells him she isn’t using one. He says he’s locked up, nothing is working, he cannot eject. The holographic image of the Headhunter hits a building and Wedge feels a pit in his stomach. He slams his fist down and brushes off Tycho, lamenting that he’s lost another one.

 

Tycho reminds him that they don’t know if Corran was able to eject at the last second. He’s a Rogue, after all. They will have to go find out.

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[Jedi Cool]

chapter 46:

 

The rain has washed a lot of dust away, but the debris pile is still high and, somewhere in there, contains Corran’s remains.

 

The building his ship had crashed into had been one in the construction droid’s line of destruction so it had been evacuated. Wedge, Mirax and Iella find it hard to celebrate the fall of Coruscant under these circumstances, even though Aril Nunb has been found alive.

 

He is consumed with how easy it was to take the planet. He can only assume that Isard wanted them to succeed. There's been no trace of her found. Taking Coruscant gives the rebels the symbolic right to rule, but it also bottles them up here where every self-styled ruler will try to hit them.

 

There is some virus floating around. Nawara and Shiel have already been treated with bacta. Aril appears to be doing well after being exposed to it. It’s been found in the water supply, but it looks like the boiling of a lot of water from the reservoir has probably killed off a lot of it.

 

Wedge is approached by Pash and his father, General Cracken, who lets him know his people have gone over sensor traces and comm. transcripts from everyone who heard the crash. Wedge wants to bring Tycho in on this, but they tell him that Tycho has been arrested for treason and for killing Corran.

 

When Wedge protests this, Cracken tells him that Captain Celchu was absent without leave from Noquivzor which he left with the M-3PO in tow. Wedge’s orders were left at the base. Cracken plans to look at them when they get there, if they can be found in the rubble left behind after the raid. But also Tycho had access to the command codes for Horn’s Headhunter, something that he had for all of them, but only Horn had threatened to investigate Tycho after the mission was over.

 

Cracken admits that his son overheard a heated conversation before the flight in which Horn suspected Tycho of being a spy and was going to look into it. Though Tycho said he’d welcomed it since he had nothing to fear, some might take it to mean that he knew that the investigation would never come. After all, the ship had been tampered with and Tycho had told Horn that he’d checked out the ship ahead of time.

 

Wedge reminds him that there is no evidence Tycho is working for the Empire. Cracken believes that will come in time. They have enough for a trial now. Wedge argues that convicting a man on circumstantial evidence is something the Empire would do.

 

Cracken tells him angrily that the Empire would have arrested Tycho, tortured a confession out of him and then executed him. The right to a trial is something they all fought for and it’s something Captain Celchu will have.

 

Wedge has to admit that they did fight for justice, but it seems to be eluding them anyway.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Jedi Cool]

Epilogue:

 

Corran awakens to find himself naked, bound to a bed and in pain. Coruscant must be free, the Imperials were fleeing. If they were fleeing, why is he a prisoner? He is greeted by Ysanne Isard who tells him that the rebels have seized Coruscant but have bitten off more than they can chew with a poisoned world.

 

Corran remembers Shiel, Nawara and Portha being ill. He asks her if she got the command codes for his ship from Tycho. She refuses to deny it and tells him that Celchu has been arrested for treason and murder. She plans to let them try and execute Celchu and then return Horn to them so their collective moral consciences can be troubled by a wrongful execution.

 

Corran tells her he’ll just tell them the truth when he gets back. She assures him that by the time he is finished at Lusankya, his heart and mind will be hers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• I saved this comment for now because I am perplexed by the arrest of Tycho. It’s not that I don’t understand that it is believed he betrayed his comrade and arranged for his death. However, the Alliance’s position up to this point has been that Tycho was brainwashed at Lusankya and wasn’t in control of himself. Would they really execute him for something that he may not have been able to stop?

• Further, what does Corran understand about Tycho? Isard does not deny that Tycho betrayed Corran, but she also refers to his wrongful execution. At that point, Corran tells her he’ll reveal the truth. So he believes Tycho betrayed him but his execution would be wrong? Does Corran also think Tycho was brainwashed and, consequently, an execution would be wrong? I would hope so! There just isn’t any dialogue to clarify what Corran knows for certain about Tycho’s situation.

 

 

The End