Star Wars - The Han Solo Trilogy - Hutt Gambit, page 23
should be able to do---
Please, Father! Durga blurted. Listen to Grodo! You must mend your ways?
The Besadii Lord grunted, then sighed. Very well. I promise to exercise for at least half an hour each day. And I will give up smoking my hookah.
And the rich food! cried the physician triumphantly, seizing the moment.
Very well, Aruk growled. All except my favorite nala-tree frogs. I will not give them up.
I believe we can .allow Your Excellency one treat, Grodo said, now prepared to be magnanimous in light of his win. If you give up all other rich foods, you may have a sensible amount of nala-tree frogs each day.
Durga was so relieved to see Aruk recovering that he glided right up to his parent and placed his small hand on that massive neck. You must take care of yourself, Father. I will exercise with you. It will be more enjoyable that way.
Aruks wide mouth turned up as he regarded his off-spring. Very well, my child. I promise I will take better care of myself.
Besadii needs you, Durga said. You are our greatest leader, Father!
Aruk grumbled a bit more under his breath, but Durga could tell that he was pleased by his offsprings concern.
The young Hutt Lord left his parent to the care of the physician and his med-droid assistants, and went back to his office, badly shaken.
For a moment hed thought that Aruk was dying, and that he would wind up trying to run Besadii all by himself. Durga had received a frightening insight he wasnt ready.
Especially with this crisis coming, he thought. The Im-perial fleet may be on its way to attack Nar Shaddaa . . .
Aruk had told his offspring not to worry, that the Imper-ials would not harm Besadii, or Ylesia. We supply them with slaves, the elderly Hutt said reassuringly. The Em-pire needs its slaves. Therefore they need Besadii.
Durga devoutly hoped that his parent was right about that...
Han, Chewbacca, and Salla Zend stood together on the windswept landing platform, watching Phantasms ramp . extrude from the ship. Moments later a figure with long black hair appeared and started down the ramp. Spotting Han, she waved.
Thats her, cmon! Hah told Salla. Chewie was already loping forward, growling a friendly greeting. Solo! the newcomer cried. Chewbacca!
Xaverri? Han called back, jogging toward her. It was so good to see her again!
When they reached each other, he grabbed her shoul-ders, but she flung her arms around him and hugged him, hard. Han hugged her back, but he carefully kissed her forehead, rather than her mouth. After Xaverri greeted Chewie with a big hug and a Wookiee head-rub, she turned back to Han and Salla. Xaverri, I want you to meet Salla Zend, Hah said as the two women stood regarding each other. Xaverri, this is Salla, smuggler and expert me-chanic.
Hi, pleased to meet you! Salla said, sticking out her hand.
My pleasure, Xaverri said, shaking hands. Any friend of Solos is a friend of mine.
Han wa s vastly uncomfortable. Ive never had two girl-friends meet each other bere, he thought. The Corellian wondered whether Xaverri would want to take up their relationship wilere theyd left off, months before. Salla, he knew, would likely take a dim view of that.
But, hey, she doesnt own me, he thought defensively.
It not like were married or anything.
Still, he was careful to walk beside Salla as he picked up Xaverris bag and they started across the permacrete of the landing field together.
Later, over fiatbread and traladon-cheese appetizers at Hans favorite Corellian eatery, he explained his plan to Xaverri.
When hed finished, she regarded him searchingly. Let me get this straight. You want me to create a holo-illusion of a whole bunch of smuggler vessels coming straight at these Imperial Capital-class ships. You want the illusion to be rea] enough, and last long enough, to cause the Imp vessels to be fooled into turning to fire on the fake fleet. Have I got it right?
Thats it, Han said. As shed detafied the plan, hed realized just what he was asking. Xaverri had never created anything on this scale before. Probably no one had.
Xaverri shook her head, her long black hair sliding over her shoulders. You dont ask much, do you, Solo?
Hey, Han said, trying to grin, think of it as a chaL lenge. Your greatest illusion ever?
Any holo-illusion requires projectors, Xaverri said.
What can we use for them?
I was thinking we could get all the tri-dee projectors from the casinos, Hah said. You know, the ones that they use to project shows onto the screens in the gambling ar-eas, so people can watch the shows while they lose their shirts.
Xaverri frowned. Maybe, she said. But even if we could create the image of the fleet, the Imp sensors would tell them right away it was an illusion. Theyd ignore it.
Maybe we could jam their sensors? Salla suggested. After all, we can jam transmissions going out. Isnt there some way to jam whats going in?
The magician was looking at the smugglers with her eyes wide. You know something, she said, I think Im getting an idea . . .
Han leaned forward. Yeah? What?
She sipped her drink, thinking, then replied, I think we may be able to use the traffic-control buoys to send false data to the Imps. So theyll see the holo-illusion, at the same time as their sensors pick up data that tells them what theyre seeing is real?
Salla was excited. Great! That sounds perfect? Xaverri smiled at her. But Ill need help building all this. Slicers to help reprogram the traffic-control buoys, techs to build the projectors for the illusion. Do you know any good slicers and techs?
Salla grinned back and impulsively reached out a hand. The two women clasped hands over the table. You bet I do, Xaverri, the tall smuggler said. Shug and I will help.
Chewbacca let out a loud, emphatic roar that caused a passing wait droid to drop a food tray and scuttle back into the kitchen.
Chewie says, include him in, too, Han supplied the translation with a grin. Xaverri . . . I know you probably gave up a fancy booking to come here and help us. I want you to know I-we-all appreciate it.
Hey, Solo, its a chance to hurt the Imperials, the ma-gician said. How could I refuse?
When Han and Chewie arrived for the promised big briefing of their combat pilots, they found most of the smuggler pilots and crews assembled in the auditorium of The Chance Castle. Mako was already onstage, exchanging jokes and jibes with his audience. When he saw Hah and Chewie, the senior smuggler rapped his knuckles on the rostrum to get his audiences attention.
Okay, all of you, listen up! he shouted.
Silence descended. Listen good, you spacebums, Mako said, the pride and affection in his voice as he re-garded his troops taking away any possible sting from his words. Cause your lives, and the lives of those youre flyin with, may be at stake here.
Mako paused, surveying them all, seeing that he did, indeed, have their full attention.
Heres how were gonna pull this little trick off. We cant be sure when the Imps are going to attack, but weve got a pretty good idea of the battle plan theyll follow. Thats cause the Imperial Navy has standard battle plans for just about any situation, and theyre trained to follow them, no matter what. Old Han here used to be an hnp officer, and hell back me up on this. Right, Hah?
Han walked out onto the stage and nodded exaggerat-edly. Makos right! he shouted, because his voice wasnt amplified the way Makos was. The senior smuggler mo-tioned to the Corellian to come over and share the podium. Hah did so.
So, the standard plan for this kind of operation has them rendezvous and deploy fairly far out. If were lucky, well pick them up on our sensors. If not, we may have to scramble to get to our ships. Everyone prepared to do that?
All the smugglers agreed, with a shout, that they were prepared.
Good, Hah said. So theyre gonna deploy, maybe fix any last-minute problems. Then the Imps should make a microjump through hyperspace, so theyll arrive pretty close to the far side of Nar Shad daa, but well out of weap-ons range. By that time, well be in our ships and launched. Each ship is gonna go to its hiding place among the debris, or lose itself in regular space traffic. A couple of smaller fighters, like Roa in his LwyU, are gonna do recon. The bigger ships will fly false transponder codes, and the fight-ers will be either in cargo bays of the big freighters or clamped on to their hulls. The rest of us will just be inno-cent litfie spacers, and properly panicked when the Imps zoom into view. Right, gang?
Yeah! Right! they yelled, loving the idea of getting the drop on the arrogant Imperial Navy.
Mako took over again. Okay, at that point the Imps will send in their pickets for a quick look around.
One of the captains in the front row waved a taloned paw. Vhats a picket, Mako?
Han and Mako looked at each other and sighed. Sorry, Mako said. Pickets are the bigger reeon ships and their reeon TIE fighters, okay? We expect there will probably be two bigger recon ships, probably Carrackclass light cruisers. Each can carry four recon TIE fighters. Taken together, theyre called the pickets. OkayY Okay! yelled the smuggler.
Mako grinned evilly. Now, the Imps arent expecting us to put up any kind of organized resistance, and we dont want to disappoint them, do we, fellow sentients?
No! shouted the smugglers.
Okay, then. We want to keep the Imps where we want
them, right? Right!
Okay, then. To do that, weve got to show them exactly what, they expect to see. That way we can predict what theyll do, because theyll follow those Imp guidelines I told you about. When the Imp Admiral sends in his recon ships and then the skirmish vessels, which will follow a few min-utes behind the recon ships, hell be expecting us to think that this is the big attack.
Hes going to sit back with his big Capital-class ships in their nice little regulation wedge, and hell expect this dis-organized band of bozos to come out fighting with every-thing weve got, since were not smart enough to hold back. That Admiral is figuring well take the recon pickets the Carrack-class vessels-and the skirmish ships-most likely customs corvettes-to make up his whole attack force.
Well show em were not dumb! yelled a smuggler from the back.
Thats right, were gonna show cm. What were gonna do is make it look like weve thrown everything we have against the first Imp ships to cruise up to Nar Shad daa. Thatll be those recon ships and, approaching more slowly, the skirmish ships. Look here, and well show you.
Mako nodded at Han, and he took up the narrative, while Mako used a holographic image and pointer on the large tri-dee screen to illustrate the battle plan for their troops.
All right, Hah said, as you can see from Makos dia-gram, were gonna split up our ships into two groups, the First Strike Element and the Main Strike Element. The First Strike Element will be all the small ships without exceptionally heavy armament, plus a couple of the merc captains with those modified Customs patrol ships. So, lis-ten up. Im going to read the ship and captain names of the First Strike Element, while Mako puts your names up on the display.
ttan read off the list. Okay, then. Before were through, you people will know where you have to go, and what you have to do, and when you have to do it. What were here for today, as we said, is to show you what part youre going to play in the Big Picture.
Mako handed Han the pointer, and then took over. Okay, now for the Main Strike Element. Thats gonna be all our big ships, plus the freighters with heavy weapons, and the starfighter squadrons. Weve got six Y-wings, some Cloak-shape fighters, and assorted types of Z-95 Headhunt-ers. Heres the list.
As Mako read off the list of the Main Strike Element, Han kept augmenting the holographic display. Soon the huge tri-dee screen in the casino auditorium looked like an elaborate pattern of different colored lines and squiggles, interspersed with three-dimensional representations of ships.
Okay, so now you people know which Strike Element you belong to. Anyone not know?
Several newcomers raised their hands, or paws, or tenta-cles, and were hastily assigned to one or the other element. Mako then went on The First Element will attack first, just like it sounds. Stay in the pairs weve assigned you to, please! Two ships can cover each other and are more than twice as effective as two single ships!
Han leaned close to the podium. And, everyone . . . watch out for the turbolasers on the Imp cruisers. They can blast you out of space with one shot. Keep your ships dodg-ing whenever youre in range of the bigger Imp vessels. Got that?
Yeah! the pilots shouted.
Mako resumed. Remembe r, fellow smuggle, that mixed in with these bigger Imp recon and skirmish ships will be dozens of TIE fighters. Theyre fast, real fast, and they have okay lasers, but theyre fragile. One good hit, and theyre blown to pieces. Theyre too fast for a lock-on, so youll have to shoot by eye. Take your time and lead your targets. Since most of your freighters have some weapon that can shoot behind you, use that one to keep the TIEs off you while you hit the picket ships. You with me?
Yeah! the crowd yelled. Kfil those TIEs!
Okay, so this is still early in the battle. Were gonna hit
the recon pickets with what theyre going to think is every-thing weve got. With luck, well drive off a couple of these Imperial picket ships, kill some recon TIEs, maybe even disable one of the Carrack-class ships, though even Lando wouldnt bet on our chances to do that.
Mako paused for the general laugh this remark occa-sioned. Someone yelled at the young gambler, Hey, Lando, what odds are you giving?
Han took over again. Somewhere in liere the Imp com-mander will commit his lighter skirmish vessels, order them to increase to full speed and attack, cause hes thinking that hes seen all weve got, and now hes going in for the kill. Hell most likely hold the big cruisers back for now, saving them, planning to bring them in when he goes to strafe Nar Shaddaa. When the pickets, then the skirmish vessels, engage you, its critically important for everyone to stay in your assigned position! Heres where you get your chance to hit them hard from one side to overload a shield. Then you or your partner can score some damage and then both of you get out! Those of you with missiles or torpedoes can really hurt these light Customs corvettes.
Han gave his troops a long, serious look. Guys, by now itll be pretty confused up there; civilian ships caught up in thisll be trying to run, and all of our lighter stuff except the fighters will be mixing it up with the Imps. Dont lose track of whats going on! Stay in position! Stay focused! Be sure to keep someone on your ship listening to the corem for instructions, in case we have to move you off your assigned positions. You got that?
Yeah, we got it! came a few voices. Han put on a very shocked face and cupped his ear.
Hey, am I gettin old and going deaf, or what? I asked if you guys got that?
Yeah! We GOT it! they yelled, much more forcefully.
Thats better, Mako said, taking over again. Okay,
lets move on. Frankly, fellow sentients, were expecting
you to clean up on the Imp picket and skirmish ships; well
have the advantage of numbers and this is our home
ground. Were expecting to kill at least half of them, which
is gonna surprise the blazes out of that Imp Admiral. But
when he gets over being shocked and upset-and has
gained a little more respect for us---
Mako paused dramatically, and the hall was filled with shouts of Oh, yeah! and Well teach him some respect!
We sure will! Han yelled, then stood back to let Mako continue.
Okay, but this Imp Admiral aint gonna stand there with his jaw dropped for very long, I hate to tell you. No, what hes gonna do is think, How DARE they? and hell send in his heavy Capital-class ships. We can expect at least two or three big bulk cruisers, with maybe a Dreadnaught or two to help. These big boys will have thicker shields and armor, and more and bigger guns. Frankly, fellow sentients, weve only got a handful of ships that are even capable of challenging em, let alone hurting them.
A considerably sobered sfienee fell over their audience. Han had worried that at this point they might lose them, but nobody got up and left, much to his relief.
But, Mako said, heres the trick. If we can really hurt even one or two of those heavies, the Imps will almost certainly withdraw, since they wont be able to complete their job, and its standard Imperial doctrine to cut your losses and run if you cant win.
So how do we hurt them, Mako? yelled a human smuggler.
Good question. Weve worked out a strategy that we think will do the trick. Listen closely, guys. When those big guys come at us, well pretend to give way. Ill pass the word over the comm to fall back between Nar Shaddaa and Nal Hutta. But by Doellins halter, dont everyone turn in formation and zoom away the instant the Imp cruisers at-tack! No, weve got to make this look good, or the Imps11 get suspicious!
So what do we do? yelled one wag-a Bothan. Hang around and invite them over for a drink?
Mako glared at his heckler. Get serious, clown. What were tellin you to do is to fall back, but do it like it was your own idea, not following orders. Turn tail and run like terror-stricken rabble, thats just fine. We want them to chase you. Got that?
Yeah! they yelled.
Hey, yelled the wag, we can fake bein scared, spe-cially if we are!
Laughter followed.
Okay, good, Mako said, right around heremhe used the pointer to indicate a point in space close to Nar Shad-daa, on a straight line between the moon and the planet-
were going to have our own big ships waiting. And we have a little surprise for our Imperial friends. He turned and gestured into the wings of the stage. Xaverri, please step out here.
Xaverri came out onto the stage, dressed in a pilots coverall. Her black hair was braided tightly to her head, and she wore little makeup. Han had suggested she wear her stage magicians costume for this part of the presenta-tion, but she had demurred. No, Han. If theyre going to trust me and what I can do, I want to seem like one of them.
Pilots and crews ... I want to introduce you to Xaverri. Shes the person whos going to win this battle for us. Some of you already know her. For those of you who dont know her, let me tell you that shes the best in the galaxy at what she does. What she does is make illusions. Xaverri?
