Rebel Dream: Enemy Lines I Read Online Free PDF

by the extensive tattooing or scarring he’d seen on Vong pilots; Wedge assumed that they were members of the Shamed Ones, the pariah caste of Yuuzhan Vong society, whose bodies rejected modifications and who could thus never climb the ranks of the Yuuzhan Vong social hierarchy.
    The base was a loss, and, even though it was captured, the new Yuuzhan Vong base on top of it was not the sort of place Wedge wanted to use as a ground-based operations center. It might contain numberless traps and dangers for New Republic occupants, and it certainly wouldn’t reassure the New Republic refugees he expected to begin streaming in from Coruscant.
    He keyed his comlink. “Rogue One, this is Antilles. Give me an escort. We’re going to visit the biotics facility.”
    “Will do.” A few moments later, two X-wings, one belonging to Gavin Darklighter and the other to his wingmate Kral Nevil, maneuvered to flank him. Wedge heeled about toward the biotics facility and hit his thrusters. Not long after, he hovered over the site of that base.
    General Derricote’s biotics facility was a long single building, several stories tall, its eastern facing a sheer drop, its western facing graduated downward in an aesthetically pleasing slope; the top story was a narrow strip, wide enough for a corridor along one set of rooms, the next story down wider, the next story down wider still, so that the whole thing seemed to be a gigantic wedge whose sharp edge pointed at the sky. Officially, it had been a site where Derricote preserved and studied samples of rare plant species from the world of Alderaan. Secretly, it had been used to engineer a deadly disease, the Krytos virus, which afflicted and killed members of nonhuman species. It was spread by the Imperial forces when the Alliance captured Coruscant.
    From this height, Wedge could see that the building was still intact. The jungle had grown right up to it, trees surrounding it, vines draping over the turquoise-colored banks of viewports. But those viewports were unbroken; it didn’t surprise Wedge that Derricote had used transparisteel instead of some lesser material.
    Wedge transmitted a holocam view of the site, adding coordinates to the data stream accompanying the transmission. “
Mon Mothma
, this will be our ground facility. I want an occupation force and engineers here from our battle reserves as soon as possible. I want the jungle burned away for a kilometer around on the north, east, and south faces, two kilometers to the west—with escaped Yuuzhan Vong in the jungle, I want a substantial kill zone. Once that’s done, have the ground forces enter and clear it of Yuuzhan Vong and other predators, then bring in personnel to clean it up, get its generators working, and so on. The field immediately west will be our landing zone.
    “Issue the order that all the Yuuzhan Vong dead are to be stripped of gear for study, but their bodies are to be left where they fell.” This was not an act of insult on Wedge’s part. The Yuuzhan Vong had several times in the past demonstrated a need to retrieve the bodies of their dead. By leaving the bodies, Wedge hoped to reduce the number of assaults that his troops would suffer, since there would be no assaults while attempting to retrieve bodies.
    “Keep a detachment on duty to contain the Yuuzhan Vong base while another detachment, plus Danni Quee’s people and Lando’s droids, searches it for prisoners and hiding Vong. When they’re done evacuating the site, have the engineers blow it up.”
    He sighed to himself. After a brief respite from it, hewas back to niggling administrative details. He’d rather be retired or fighting again.
Borleias Occupation, Day 2
    A day later, the biotics building was secure and operational.
    The occupation forces hadn’t found any Yuuzhan Vong hiding within the structure, but it was obvious the enemy had been here on a few occasions, breaking up machinery, smashing furniture—warrior-vandals. The bad news was