Solo Command Read Online Free PDF Page B

place just in front of her temple. “He hasn’t been the same since.”
    “It’s not a problem,” Lara said. “He was very nice.”
    “Thank you for understanding.” The woman turned and trotted along in her father’s wake.
    Lara turned and bumped into Face and Dia, who had returned during the conversation. “Oops.”
    Face looked at her intently. “Gerwa Patunkin?”
    “No.”
    “Totovia Lampray?”
    “No.” She smiled. “Stop it.”
    “Dipligonai Phreet?”
    “Shut up.” She pushed past him, laughing, and headed for the exit. “Let’s get that drink. I need it.”
    “Moploogy Starco?”
    “Face, I’m going to shoot you.”

2
    Starfighters swarmed from the sides of the Mon Calamari cruiser Mon Remonda like insects from a deep-space nest. They formed up in four groups—two X-wing, one A-wing, one B-wing—and descended toward Levian Two, the world Mon Remonda now orbited. From this altitude, it seemed stony and orange and impossibly inhospitable, but the comm chatter the pilots were picking up suggested otherwise.
    “Entering Delta Sector. More of the same. I’ll map-flag locations of survivors.” “Ravine Six here. Repulsorlift is out. I’m going to have to attempt a high-speed landing.” “Ravine Six, switch to ten-oh-three. You’ve got your own controller standing by.” “Beta Sector Base, this is Beta Ten. I read unknowns descending, four groups.” “Beta Ten, this is Base. There are some TIEs in the unknowns but they’re mostly friendlies.”
    Wedge sighed and activated his comm unit. “Beta Sector Base, this is Rogue Leader. You’ve got Rogue, Wraith, Polearm, and Nova Squadrons in descent to your position. Looks like we’re a little late to the party.”
    “ ’Fraid so, Rogue Leader. You’ve missed a Raptor raid. They blasted out of here half an hour ago. We’ve got settlements and facilities hit all over this hemisphere. Could we interest you in some search-and-rescue action?”
    “Glad to oblige. Give us vectors for twenty search pairs and we’ll get on it.”
    “Ships dropping out of hyperspace!” It was Mon Remonda’ s sensor officer, Golorno, a human young enough not to be able to keep his voice level in times of stress. “I count four, five, six capital ships!”
    Han Solo abandoned his armature-mounted chair and moved to stand behind Golorno. He turned to his communications officer. “Recall the starfighters now.” Then he leaned over Golorno’s shoulder. “Details, I need details,” he said.
    “Uh, uh, two Star Destroyers, one Imperial -class, one Victory-class. One heavy cruiser, a Dreadnaught, I think. Two light cruisers—telemetry says probably Carrack -class. At the back of the formation …” The young officer’s voice dropped. “One Super -class Star Destroyer.”
    “Iron Fist.” Solo straightened and slapped his hands together. “He’s finally decided to come in for a scrap.”
    He calculated unit strengths. His flagship was Mon Remonda , one of the most powerful of the Mon Calamari cruisers, and its pilot complement, led by Wedge Antilles, couldn’t be better. Also in this portion of his fleet were Mon Karren , a Mon Cal cruiser of more normal strength, Tedevium , a frigate recently converted from a training ship back to a combat vessel, and Etherhawk , a Marauder -class corvette that was just one restoration job ahead of being dilapidated. Not nearly enough strength to handle the fleet Zsinj had assembled against him … but Zsinj didn’t know that Solo’s Group 2 was standing by outside the Levian system. One holocomm call and Solo’s strength would be doubled, making this more of a fair slugging match. “Call in Group Two,” he ordered. “How long before Zsinj’s force reaches us?”
    “Three minutes, sir.”
    “How long before the starfighters return?”
    “They’re grouping. Four or five minutes, sir.”
    Solo sighed. “Slugging match” was to be the correct phrase for it.
    An impulse caused him to turn back to the