Star Wars: X-Wing II: Wedge's Gamble Read online

  Leia nodded thoughtfully. “You said you needed to pinpoint targets. In what way does your piloting skill enhance your ability to do this?”

  Easy questions with important answers—hitting Coruscant should be this simple. “Councilor, it is one thing to identify the locations we need to hit, but hitting them is another thing entirely. As a pilot I can identify and evaluate the possible approaches to a target. I can also help determine how much in the way of firepower will be necessary to eliminate it.

  “I should also point out that we really do need to be running a precision operation because we have to take into account the possibility of Warlord Zsinj or some other Imperial leader trying to take Coruscant from us while we are trying to bring its defenses back up. For example, hitting a power conduit is preferable to hitting the reactor creating the power it carries because the conduit is much easier to replace.”

  The Bothan smoothed the fur on his chin with his left hand. “Bribing a custodian to shut the power down would be much easier, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yes, sir, but handling that sort of thing is outside my area of expertise.”

  “I see.” Borsk Fey’lya sat forward and clasped his hands together. “Despite my reservations about this mission, I do agree with my Mon Calamari compatriot that the gathering of information is necessary if the conquest of Coruscant is to happen. I would also vouchsafe that any interim disruption of normal Imperial functions on Coruscant by Rogue Squadron, or General Cracken’s people, would not be seen as a negative.”

  Ackbar blinked once, slowly, then clasped his hands behind his back. “Disruption is not necessary, but it could be effective and even helpful.”

  “I would think it could be very helpful, especially if it served as a distraction for Imperial authorities who might be working against Rogue Squadron.” Fey’lya opened his hand. “That seems reasonable, does it not?”

  Ackbar nodded. “Perhaps.”

  Wedge sensed in the slow delivery of Ackbar’s reply an extreme reluctance to grant the Bothan his point. Leia suggested Admiral Ackbar would have to compromise, and he has retreated from the blockade. It would seem Borsk Fey’lya wants him to concede more.

  “Good, for I have a little operation that I think will function very well as an adjunct to what you want to do.”

  “And that is?”

  Fey’lya hit a button on his datapad and the holoplate in the middle of the table displayed a small, dirty red ovoid planet whose atmosphere escaped into space like smoke drifting from dying embers. A single large moon orbited it, plunging in and out of the wispy tendrils of atmosphere trailing from the planet. Wedge didn’t recognize the world until the Bothan sigils running down the edge of the image area resolved themselves into Basic letters and strung themselves together at the planet’s southern pole.

  Kessel! Wedge shook his head. He knew that the Empire had maintained a penal colony there and used the prisoners as slave labor to harvest spice. One of Rogue Squadron’s recruits—the first of the new members to be slain—had come from Kessel and still had family there who worked as educators. After the Emperor’s death, the inmates had overthrown their masters and had taken control of the planet. They administered the mines and the vast atmosphere factories that freed enough oxygen and other gases from the rocks to let people exist on the surface using nothing more elaborate than a rebreather. It was a brutal existence with very little in resources being available to the residents—that the world was considered viable was more a testament to the tenacity of the residents than any measure of scientific analysis.

  Borsk Fey’lya stood. “Kessel was one of the detention centers the Empire used to house dissidents as well as hardened felons. When the inmates took control of the center they chose a Rybet by the name of Moruth Doole to administrate. He was a minor official at the prison and appears to have been connected to the spice trade, hence his easy alliance with the prisoners. The Imperials and the political prisoners were sent to work in the spice mines. A few of each have been released, but only after off-world friends and family have paid a substantial ransom.”

  Threepio again translated for the Wookiee Councilor. “Kerrihrarr wishes to know what criminals and Kessel have to do with Coruscant?”

  “Coming to that point directly.” The Bothan smiled, but Wedge read a hint of threat in the toothy grin. “On Coruscant there are substantial remnants of the Black Sun organization. As did many of you, I thought Prince Xizor’s grab for power was doomed from the start, but it was the Black Sun organization that allowed him to contemplate opposing the Dark Lord of the Sith. I propose selecting and freeing certain Black Sun officers from Kessel and bringing them into Coruscant. There they would bring the disparate parts of Black Sun together and work to sabotage the Empire.”

  Ackbar sat down slowly and gave Fey’lya a wall-eyed stare. “You want to revive the scourge of the Black Sun?”

  “Not revive, just focus. The enemy of our enemy is our friend. Isn’t that the principle behind Councilor Organa’s approaches to the Hapans? That certainly was the principle that guided our alliance with Imperial forces at Bakura to fight the Ssi-ruuk.” Fey’lya stared incredulously at Ackbar. “By granting selected felons their leave of Kessel—in effect taking Doole’s obvious rivals for power off his hands—we can also ransom some of our people who are trapped there. And to guarantee Black Sun’s compliance with our wishes, we can trade them more of their people when they perform as we want them to.”

  “I don’t like this.” Ackbar shook his head adamantly. “You are talking about unleashing thieves and murderers on Coruscant.”

  “To let them steal Imperial goods and kill Imperial officials, or do you want to reserve the killing for your people, and the dying, too? Shall that be a privilege reserved for the military, or will you take help where you can find it?” Fey’lya crossed his arms. “You have already admitted that added distractions could be a help to Rogue Squadron’s mission. Certainly having an army of irregular troops at your disposal to disrupt Imperial operations when the invasion begins would reduce bloodshed.”

  Doman nodded. “It seems Councilor Fey’lya is merely suggesting you fight fire with fire.”

  The Mon Calamari half closed his eyes. “I do not like fire analogies. As we say on Mon Calamari, ‘Frolic in the surf and get drowned by the undertow.’ ”

  Leia stood. “I would agree, as one Corellian has put it, if you anger a Wookiee, you shouldn’t be surprised at having an arm torn off, and it may well be that in the future we regret any sort of alliance with the remnants of Black Sun. On the other hand, I think none of us can truly comprehend the difficulty of neutralizing the Imperial forces on Coruscant. Indeed, as you have said, Admiral Ackbar, until you have Rogue Squadron on the ground to assess the situation, we cannot be a hundred percent certain what taking Coruscant will entail. The fact is, however, that winning the goodwill of at least part of Coruscant’s underworld cannot hurt us.”

  Mon Mothma nodded. “I would also point out that some of our greatest leaders were thought to be nothing but ruffians, confidence men, and spice smugglers. In being given the opportunity to join us, they have managed to redeem themselves.”

  “But if they are the exceptions that prove the rule?” Ackbar slapped his hands impatiently against the table’s surface. “I do not like this operation at all, but I believe many of you see merit in it where I do not. If this Kessel run is to be authorized, I want to go over every detail to make certain what we want to happen is what actually happens. No one, not even an idiot like Zsinj, has been foolish enough to free the dregs of the galaxy from Kessel. I do not want a situation to arise where my people are taken hostage and our equipment is converted to the use of the criminals. This will be a strictly military operation and I will not have it turn into the sort of disaster we faced on Borleias.”

  Councilor Fey’lya’s fur rose on his neck and formed a crest between his ears before he smoothed it back down. The first assault on Borleias had been planned and led by General Lary
n Kre’fey, a Bothan who, according to scuttlebutt, was distantly related to Borsk Fey’lya. The mission had gone from bad to worse, costing General Kre’fey his life and putting almost half of Rogue Squadron out of commission. Had General Salm not violated a direct order, all of Rogue Squadron would have been destroyed and the Rebel Alliance would be in no position to even consider a mission to Coruscant.

  Fey’lya’s voice began soft and low, causing Wedge to strain to hear him. “Far be it from me to wish a repetition of Borleias on anyone. You are the military leader here, Ackbar—I have no wish to supplant you. You should handle the military details, but I have prepared a list of people I think should be our targets. I have appended full files to my list so you may determine what efforts and precautions need to be taken.”

  “Your understanding in this matter is most appreciated, Councilor Fey’lya.”

  “Good. We really are on the same side here, Admiral. I want the conquest of Coruscant to proceed as swiftly and efficiently as you do.” Fey’lya smiled, but Wedge found no warmth in the expression. “I would hope you will use your best people to see that this mission comes off perfectly. Perhaps if you were to employ Rogue Squadron as part of the operation, their efforts will establish a rapport with those they free and that will work in their favor.”

  “I will take that suggestion under advisement, Councilor.”

  Wedge leaned forward in his chair and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Sir, freeing criminals from Kessel is not a mission Rogue Squadron wants to perform.”

  The Mon Calamari turned his head enough to watch Wedge with one eye. “And Ysanne Isard does not want to surrender Coruscant to us. We all have to do things we don’t want to do, Commander. Let us hope we can just make the best of them.”

  9

  Wedge hit a button on the datapad, causing the holoprojector in the center of the pilot’s briefing room to recreate the long-distance view of Kessel he’d first seen at the Provisional Council meeting. “All right, people, let’s get this briefing under way.”

  The various members of Rogue Squadron took their places. Wedge noticed that Corran Horn and Nawara Ven, a Twi’lek who had been a lawyer before he joined the Rebellion, were sitting together in the back. When going over the initial planning stages of the operation with Captains Nunb and Celchu, he’d anticipated the greatest resistance to the operation coming from those two. One sent people to Kessel; the other tried to keep them from being sent there. They’ve both got connections to the population there, and that could mean some complications for me.

  Wedge shifted his shoulders around to loosen them, then began. “This operation is going to be accomplished in three distinct parts. Each one has to go according to plan or we abort the whole thing. Admiral Ackbar is leaving the decision to proceed or stop to me. I may not like what we’re being asked to do—and I don’t—but the Provisional Council wants this done, so we’re doing it. But we’re doing it our way.”

  He pointed to the moon orbiting Kessel. “The Imps used to keep a base on that moon. It is supposed to be abandoned, but we don’t know what the Imps may have left behind in the way of automated defenses or booby traps. Our first step is to run a flyby on the base, neutralize automated defenses, and knock down anything launched at us from there. Lieutenant Page and his commandos will then come in and secure the base. Alliance Security will follow up and relieve his troops. That’s phase one. Everyone got it?”

  The pilots before him all nodded with degrees of enthusiasm going from great to none.

  “Phase two is a repeat of phase one, but it takes place on Kessel. We do a flyover and clear a landing zone for Page’s people. The commandos will secure the LZ. When they do, Horn, Ven, and I will land. Captain Nunb will be in charge of the rest of you and you’ll fly cover for the LZ and for Tycho. He’ll be using the shuttle Forbidden to ferry our people from Kessel to the moon. On the moon the people will be processed, then shipped out on a number of different ships for insertion into Coruscant, or for repatriation to their own worlds or exile communities.

  “The processing and out-shipping is phase three. It will run concurrently with phase two. Trouble with outbound people will cause the termination of the operation.” Wedge crossed his arms. “Two key points here. The first is that this is an extremely sensitive and dangerous mission. The people we are dealing with will be very dangerous. Our rules of engagement will be simple: We offer a general warning when we come in, then we use whatever force we need to preempt problems.

  “The second point is this: We’re getting some of the good along with the bad. We have our want list of scum, but they won’t know who it is that we want. Our job is to ransom as many people from political lists as we can for those on the criminal list we’ll be taking away. Doole is the key to this strategy working. We’ll be taking his enemies away and lowering the general population. This will ease his resource strain and increase his control over the spice operation. He’ll see this plan as better for him than it is for us.”

  In the back Corran raised a hand. “Commander, what will we do in the very real situation of some of these people threatening to kill innocents if we don’t take them? Lujayne Forge had … has family on Kessel. The people sentenced to Kessel are likely to do anything to get off that rock. For all we know, Doole wants to leave, too.”

  “That’s all possible, but there are contingency plans to prevent that from happening. You’ll note in the supplemental material in your briefing bytes I have a list of strategic sites on Kessel. They include the atmosphere plants and, most importantly, a list of spice storage facilities. Moruth Doole has supplies hidden away so he can meet demand well into the future. I will make it very apparent to him that if he cannot exert control over his people, I will be forced to destroy his storehouses. Since greed seems to drive the local economy there, I think he’ll see his way clear to working with us.”

  Corran nodded. “When persuasion fails, coercion works.”

  “I hope so, Lieutenant Horn.”

  Nawara Ven sat forward, letting his brain tails dangle over his shoulders. “Commander, I’ve reviewed the list of ransom candidates. Am I mistaken, or do I notice a significant portion of them are Bothans?”

  “Is there a problem with that, Lieutenant Ven?”

  “On the surface of it, no, sir. On the other hand I noticed that a number of people—many of whom were my clients, in fact—people who truly are political prisoners, have been left off the list. I don’t mean that there was any campaign to keep my clients from being pulled off the planet, just that the list of ‘good’ people has some people on it who could easily be on the other list, and some very deserving, innocent people have been left off the list.”

  Wedge smiled, a response that seemed to surprise his pilots. “I’m glad you pointed that out. In presenting this plan to the Provisional Council Admiral Ackbar made very clear that we’d have to be dealing from a position of strength. Councilor Fey’lya provided some deal packages indicating who should be asked for in exchange for this or that person on the ‘bad’ list. With your help and experience in negotiations, Lieutenant Ven, I intend to win more people for each of our prisoners than the Council suggested we might. I do have clearance to supplement my lists to account for marriages and children. I intend us to exploit that latitude as much as possible.”

  He looked around. “Any other questions before I deal with Lieutenant Horn’s next objection to the plan?” No one said anything, so Wedge nodded to Corran. “Be my guest, Lieutenant Horn.”

  “Not really an objection, sir, but a question—can we exclude any of the people on our ‘bad’ list?” Corran winced. “There are a few on here who really shouldn’t be allowed off Kessel, unless we’re going to dump them in the Maw on our way out of there.”

  The image of spacing any number of the criminals into the black hole near Kessel brought a smile to Wedge’s face, but he killed it quickly enough. “These are the people that have been determined to be useful to us. Who did you have in mind?”
/>   “Zekka Thyne—he’s also known as ‘Patches,’ but not to his face. He’s on Kessel because my father and I got him on a smuggling pinch, but he’s been tied to the murders of nearly a dozen people—all of them rivals of Black Sun. Patches was being groomed as Prince Xizor’s man on Corellia. Xizor tried to slice some files to get Thyne shifted back off Kessel but he couldn’t because Corsec’s Imperial Liaison, Kirtan Loor, had accidentally altered the structure of the files with Thyne’s information. But for that bit of incompetence, Thyne would have been long gone from Kessel—it was the only good thing Loor ever did.”

  “If we’re lucky, Lieutenant Horn, Thyne will be dead.”

  Corran smiled. “We could see to it that he is.”

  “Murder, Lieutenant Horn?” Wedge frowned. “Even if he is as bad as you say …”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Corran held his hands up as everyone turned to stare at him. “I’d be the first person who would be glad to dance on his grave, and if he steps out of line at all, I’d be happy to vape him, but I’m not suggesting murder. It does strike me, though, that we could slice some files and report some deaths that prevent us from taking certain people.”

  Corran’s suggestion sorely tempted Wedge. The list of criminals Borsk Fey’lya had supplied did scan like a directory of organized crime. Wedge had no love for the Empire, but it had been fairly ruthless at dismantling the upper levels of Black Sun. Black Sun was a cancer. The Empire hadn’t been able to cut it all out, but they had forced it into a pretty serious remission. Reviving it to distract the Empire had some merit, and Corran’s suggestion offered a possible way to excise some of the more malignant elements from the group.