Wedge had a hurried conference via hyperwave transceiver with his commanders, and then began transmitting battle plans. Their only hope now was to do the very thing they had begun as a feint—knock out one of the interdictors. If they tried to run, the ships would just follow them.
“We’ll line up for the outsystem interdictor,” he said. “Spoke formation. We’ll cut a fire lane and hope some of the starfighters can get there in time. Pick your squadrons, commanders.”
“Wedge, do you see that?” Pash Cracken asked excitedly.
He had, and he didn’t believe it. More than half the approaching insystem force was dropping away from the fight. The interdictor was still there, and a healthy force to guard it, but now the fight was suddenly more or less even.
What were the Yuuzhan Vong up to?
“Five minutes until maximum firing range, sir,” Cel reported.
“Very good,” he said, still staring at the monitor.
The retreating ships increased their speed and suddenly vanished into hyperspace.
“What in the space lanes—?” he wondered.
Suddenly he felt a little smile carve itself on his face, and he vented a brief laugh.
“Sir?” Cel asked.
“This worked better than we ever dreamed it would,” he explained. “They’re so convinced this is a feint they’ve sent half their ships someplace else.”
“I wonder where?”
“Who cares? The odds are almost even, now. Attack groups, lining up for an insystem run. Ithor, you take the outside.”
The massive ships began turning their backs to the outsystem forces, which were now greater than those toward the shipyards.
“Accelerate half speed,” he said.
“New estimation for maximum firing range, two minutes,” Cel said.
“Thank you.” The Yuuzhan Vong in the outer system seemed to be holding their ground, perhaps suspecting he wanted them to abandon the interdictor. That was fine; he didn’t want a two-front battle.
He continued to study the tactical readouts, and saw something else strange. Some of the coralskippers were breaking formation, streaming toward the insystem interdictor, probably anticipating his push for it.
Then he saw that wasn’t what they were doing at all. They were dropping into its artificial gravity well at steep angles.
“They’re doing the Solo Slingshot!” Lieutenant Cel exclaimed.
Even as she said it, the first of the skips slingshoted around the massive spicule, whirling with terrific speed toward the Alliance battle group.
“Minimum range.”
“Fire when ready. Clear a lane to the lead capital ships.”
Laserfire stretched out between the two fleets, and plumes of plasma rushed to greet them. The coralskippers, meanwhile, were arcing in with unnatural speed on parabolic vectors that did not cross the fire lanes being opened. That meant the enemy starfighters were going to be in the heart of the fleet in just a few moments.
“Tell the starfighters to drop formation as needed. I don’t know what they’re doing, but it can’t be good.”
“I’m never going to let Dad forget this,” Jaina grumbled. “He taught them a new trick!”
And not a bad one. The skips were screaming down into the middle fleet, and at twice their usual speed, speeds the starfighters couldn’t match, with the possible exception of the A-wings. In the squadrons under her command, that meant the Scimitar Squadron.
“Is that some new sort of skip?” Alema Rar asked. “Something looks strange about them.”
“Look like plain old skips to me,” Jaina replied.
She watched as a clump of skips tore past Wraith Squadron, hammering them hard and zooming past them before the Wraiths could get off more than a couple of shots. And now their trajectory was bringing them into Twin Suns territory, where they were escorting Mon Mothma.
She did a quick calculation.
“Twin Suns, on my mark, turn to point oh-oh-seven-one and go full throttle. Scimitar Leader, we’re only going to get a few shots at them as they go past. Then they’re yours, if you can catch them.”
“Turn our tails to the enemy?” Ijix Harona asked incredulously.
“They’ll overshoot you before you reach full acceleration,” Jaina explained. “Then you’ll be behind them at almost matching speed.”
“Copy, Twin Leader,” Harona replied. “I understand. Shouldn’t have asked.”
“What about our tails?” Twin Two asked.
“On my mark, tendi maneuver. Three, you’re the fan.”
“Copy.”
“Copy,” Jag said. “We’ve got it.”
Now they were building toward full acceleration, flying along the projected flight path of the fast skips. She could almost feel them coming up behind. Three, two—
“Go!” she said.
Three cut his jets and flipped around, firing. Since she and Two were still under acceleration, he was quickly positioned as a shield between them and the approaching skips. After the skips got past him, they had time for a single quick shot at Jaina and her wingmate. She, on the other hand, had built up speed approaching two-thirds that of the skips, so she had the leisure for quite a few shots at them once they were past her and before they were out of range.
She got one in her sights and used a proton torpedo while it still made sense, then needled it with laserfire until the torp got there and blew it into molten slag.
Jaina narrowed her eyes. There was something strange. The vessel she had just destroyed looked like every other she had ever put her sights on—except that something was trailing behind it.
“Twin One,” Rar asked, “did you see what that was attached to it?” Her tone very much said, “I told you so.”
“Don’t know,” Jaina replied. “I didn’t really see it until the detonation. Looked like a tail.”
“Skips don’t usually have tails,” Rar responded.
“It might have been a cofferdam.”
“Mine’s got one, too,” Jag said. “I thought I saw something bleeding out of it.”
Stifling an uneasy feeling, Jaina used lasers as the skips pulled ahead, and nailed one right through the dovin basal. In the flare she saw that this one had a tail as well. Or a big sack of some sort, now empty.
Several more skips flared as they approached the A-wings.
Now the skips had a choice. They could either retain their speed, but end up with A-wings on their tails, or they could—
“They’re slowing down,” Jag said.
“Yep. Scimitars, break off. You don’t want them behind you now. Come back to the party.”
“Copy, Sticks,” Harona confirmed.
The A-wings peeled out of formation and scattered. Jaina dropped in behind a skip and started firing, lasers only. The skip juked and jinked, its dovin-basal-generated voids absorbing her shots. So intent was she on getting the skip firmly in her sights that she almost didn’t see the thing in time. Her reflexes did, though, yanking at the stick as what she thought was a half-meter-wide chunk of rock was about to smash through her cockpit. She rolled, and it scraped centimeters from her screen.
It kicked as it went by.
Cursing silently, she chinned her microphone. “Be advised, Mon Mothma control. The skips are dropping grutchins.”
Grutchins were insectlike creatures the Yuuzhan Vong had developed that could survive for a time in vacuum. Their mandibles secreted a solvent that could cut through hull metal.
“That explains the suicide runs,” Jag said. “There must be grutchins everywhere, and the fleets haven’t even engaged. They’re probably going for the Star Destroyers.”
“Advised,” the voice of control said.
Jaina, meanwhile, had flown straight into one of the release trails. She kept up a steady stream of laserfire, blazing any of the bugs that got in front of her. The remaining skips suddenly broke formation, curving up from her operational horizon.
Something thumped against her hull, and Cappie, her astromech, reported a grutchin on the hull. Snarling, Jaina pulled the stick, hard, and pushed the drive to maximum, then rolled like crazy, trying to detach it before it could start making a meal of her starfighter.
Why couldn’t the Yuuzhan Vong use normal weapons? Concussion missiles, lasers. Why did it always have to be miniature volcanoes and giant bugs?
To her satisfaction, her particular bug-nemesis of the moment lost its grip and fried on the way through her ion trail.
In the meantime, of course, one of the skips had taken the opportunity to latch onto her tail, so now it was volcano time …
“We’ve got close to two hundred grutchins on the hull, sir,” Cel informed him.
“Electrify it,” Wedge said.
“They’ve already tried, sir. It’s not working.”
“Not working—great.” Yes, the Yuuzhan Vong were adapting. Not good.
“Seal off the outer sections and get people in vac suits with blasters in there.”
Of course, that wouldn’t stop them in the engine areas.
The Yuuzhan Vong capital ships had drawn up in a defensive formation and were no longer pushing forward. Wedge had his ships nearly stationary as well, and both sides were keeping their starfighters close, the grutchin carriers aside. For the moment, it was a long-range game. That would probably change soon—the Yuuzhan Vong were waiting to see how well their grutchin stunt had worked. When they knew, they would renew their attack.
That meant his starfighters would be free for a short time.
“Have some starfighters make close runs on our capital ships,” he told control.
“Sir, with all due respect, the grutchins are attached to us. Some of the pilots are bound to miss, and they could easily do as much damage as the bugs.”
“I don’t want them firing. I want them to singe the things off with their exhaust.”
The officer’s eyes widened. “That will take some pretty precise flying.”
“Then pick the squadrons well. And fast, because soon we’ll need them against skips.”
“I have him, Twin Leader,” Jag said. Even as he did so, glowing chunks of yorik coral bloomed out into the void.
Jaina breathed a sigh of relief. That pretty much did it for the fast-skip wave.
“Thanks, Four.” She glanced down at the new battle orders scrolling.
“Uh, guys,” she said. “You aren’t going to believe this, but …”