10
The boulder swayed and then slowly lifted into the air. It hovered a foot off of the ground and happiness filled Mara for an instant. And then the boulder hit the ground and split in half.. Her eyes opened and she barely held back a frustrated scream. But Luke grabbed her shoulder and she calmed down.
“You did better this time. Just remember, it’s not the size that matters. Try again with this one over here,” Luke said and pointed to another boulder. Mara nodded and closed her eyes. The boulder wavered and then slowly lifted into the air. It hovered high over Mara and then she slowly lowered it back to the ground. She opened her eyes and couldn’t keep a smile from her face. “Very good, you are learning rather quickly.”
Mara sat down inside the sm cave they were using for cover and caught her breath. “I did it,” she panted.
“Yes, you’re making great progress. You’re a quick learner.”
“Thanks. I’m sure you’ll have this much fun teaching the twins. Have...have you ever thought about having children of your own? I’m sure that you’d make a great father for your own pair of Jedi twins.”
“I haven’t...I haven’t found the right person for that yet.” He looked at her and wondered if she could be the right woman for him. After all, he had come all of this way to rescue her. He sighed and thought of all of the women he had met. But nothing had ever worked out for him and he had to admit that the thought of spending the rest of his life alone didn’t really appeal to him. When he saw how happy Han and Leia were, he wished that he could have something like that.
Mara looked over at Luke and couldn’t help but remember that he had rescued her from the Imperials. No one had ever done that for her, except Talon Karrde, but he was more like a father to her than anything else. She thought of how patient he was with her, slowly teaching her about the Force. They drew closer and neither one could help themselves. Their lips met and they kissed. After only a few seconds Luke pulled away and walked out of the tiny cave. Mara sat there for a second and then ran after him.
“What’s wrong?” She called to his turned back. She came closer and tried to turn him around to face her, but he shook her off. “What are you afraid of?”
“This...this isn’t right. We’ve got a rescue mission to plan for!” Luke said weakly.
“Can’t you stop thinking about the mission for a minute! When does Luke Skywalker the Jedi Knight make time to be Luke Skywalker the person? You can’t deny yourself your life!” in anger she turned away and went back to the entrance of the cave. She concentrated on lifting a rock, anger clouding her vision. She channeled all of her Force abilities into the lift and when she opened her eyes she saw that there was nothing left of the rock except dust. Luke, trying to decipher his thoughts, felt the dark side of the Force nearby. He turned and saw Mara lifting the boulders. He watched it crumble and walked over.
“Don’t give in to your anger!” He shouted. She gave him a nasty look and then hurled a smaller rock right at him. Luke ducked and grabbed his lightsaber all in one motion. He ignited it and got into a fighting posistion. Mara snatched her own lightsaber up and lit it. Her features were clouded with hatred behind the blue blade. Overcome with rage, she charged at Luke. “Don’t do it!”
But it was too late to talk any sense into her. She had given herself to the dark side. The two lightsabers crossed and Mara pushed hard with all of her weight to try and knock Luke over. Luke was fighting only a defensive battle, not wanting to hurt Mara. He had never seen her like this before. There was raw hatred and maddness in her green eyes and he could feel the power of the dark side radiating from her. He took a step back and she swung again, the blade crashing onto Luke’s. She quickly brought it up and swung again and again.
Luke blocked each blow, but was tiring quickly. Finally he concentrated on Mara’s hand and tried to pull the lightsaber from her grip. Mara laughed hoarsely and her lightsaber arced towards Luke. Luke knew that he couldn’t get his own lightsabeer back to block the blow and instead threw himself to the ground. Mara’s arms reached over Luke and he jumped back up, throwing his shoulder into her chest. The lightsaber flew from her grasp and Luke seized the opportunity to reach out with the Force and snatch it. Mara hit the ground and Luke quickly rolled to his feet. He turned off both lightsabers and took a few steps away from Mara. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow. Then something flew at Luke and he dodged the flying rock.
Mara lay on the ground, unconscious, and Luke knew that she was wrestling with herself. She was trying to purge herself from the dark side, which was something that she only could do by herself. He sat down and watched her. He saw the twin suns falling and for a brief moment he wished that he could see his aunt and uncle again. He didn’t notice Mara stir and walk over to the rock he was sitting on. The hatred had run out of her eyes and Luke looked up to see her standing nearby, a tear in her eye.
“I’m sorry Luke, I don’t know what came over me. I was just so angry...” Her voice broke off and now she was sobbing. He couldn’t really blame her. He had fought the dark sides many times himself and he knew all about how it felt to nearly kill someone you cared for. He had nearly killed his own father on the second Death Star because he had given into his hatred. She sat down next to him, face buried in her hands. He held her and knew that they still had a long way to go.
Blous watched the battered smuggler be hauled away and smiled. Even though he had gotten no important information from them, Blous had enjoyed watching them beg and plead for their lives to be spared. He looked over at the stormtrooper commander.
“We’re finished here for now. I want a status report on the search for those two Rebels,” Blous said and the commander nodded. A few minutes later the commander handed Blous a data pad. He looked at the latest report and saw that nothing had changed. There was still no sign of the Rebels. They had disappeared since slaughtering the speeder bike patrol. Blous hadn’t expected them to pick up the trail quickly. Tatooine was a large planet and it would be hard to track down two people on it.
But he still wanted to find them before they had to leave the planet. He leaned back in his chair and thought of where they could go. There were few large cities on the planet and many smaller towns that the Rebels could use to hide in. The search party would have to search the hills and each of these communities. He knew that the Rebels couldn’t run forever, eventually they would be caught. And then he would have the pleasure of killing them himself. No one could escape him, no one. He laid the data pad on the desk and couldn’t wait until he left this dustball of a planet. There was an entire rebellion to crush and he, General Mychelvek Blous, would crush it.
Wedge stepped into the bridge of the frigate and saw that it was still badly damaged. Large metal plates had been welded onto damaged areas and the lights were dim, making it hard to see. So this is my flagship? Wedge thought to himself. He shook his head and surveyed the instruments. Replacement crew members manned the bridge stations. Wedge stopped at the weapons station and saw that only half of the ship’s weapons were operational. The shields were only at half strength now and slowly building up. It would be a long time before they could launch any sort of attack.
Lieutenant Mews walked behind Wedge silently. Only a few hours ago she had been an the navigation officer, now she was second-in-command of the entire ship and serving under an officer she didn’t even know. She had of course heard of Wedge Antilles, who had been in attacks on both Death Stars and had been instrumental in the battle at the -------------- Shipyards. But he had never commanded a frigate against a Star Destroyer. She wished that Captain Ayhem was still here, he was an experienced starship captain and had commanded a Corellian Corvette during the fight against the Emperor. His experience would be sorely missed now, when they needed all the help they could get.
Wedge finally took the chair that had been hastily installed as the captain’s chair. “Are the engines working?” Wedge asked. Mews took her station and checked the instruments.
“Our engines are at full power, sir,” Mews answered.
“Good, pull back a few kilometers and then cut all power to engines. That Star Destroyer has stopped coming at us, so let’s get farther away to recharge our batteries. Transfer as much power as possible to the guns and the shields. Also have all missiles on standby. We also need two fighters on patrol at all times until our sensors are fully operational again. Contact Blue Squadron’s commander and have him get up here so that we can set up a rotation,” Wedge commanded and leaned back in his chair.
Mews nodded to Wedge and carried out the orders. Wedge knew then that it was going to be a long day, and night.
Han checked the instruments again, seeing that Artoo’s repairs had managed to get the engines running at seventy-five percent power. That was still very slow for the Falcon. He sighed and wondered what he had been thinking, making a head-on run at a Star Destroyer. But he knew the answer; he had been trying to help the
“Chewie, let’s take her down. We’ve got to find Luke,” Han looked over at his partner and then pushed the nose of the freighter down. The ship plunged through the atmosphere and then Han pulled up, so that the ship was high in the skies of the planet. The sensors were soon scanning the planet and Han looked at the readings. Mos Eisley was gone, except for the hangars. He couldn’t see at this altitude where Luke was though. He saw that so far Artoo had not been able to get the shields working. He put the ship on autopilot and walked back to find Artoo, they had to get the shields up.
As he stepped out of the cockpit, Leia stumbled into him. She was still a little dizzy from the cut on her head, but she could feel that Luke was close. Han kissed her on the cheek and then helped her stand up straight.
“We’ve got to go down and find him, we’ve got to find Luke!” It was obvious that Leia was still dazed.
“We are, we are. You just get back into bed and I’ll take care of it,” he took he arm and steered her towards the bunk she had been laying on. She tried to resist him, she wanted to go to the cockpit and find Luke. She went limp in Han’s arms and he picked her up. He carried her back to the bunk and set her down. He sat on the bunk and stroked her hair as he wished that they were back on Coruscant with the twins. He shook his head, kissed her again and then went back to see Artoo.
It was dark now, but Luke knew that they were getting closer. It wouldn’t be long until they were at Mos Eisley and their rescue mission would begin. Mara was lagging behind him and they walked in silence. He knew that she had grown stronger from the experience, and next time she would know better than to give into her anger and hate. It was a hard lesson, and Luke hoped that he didn’t have to fight her again.
They stopped near a cliff and looking down, Luke could see lights from the Imperial forces at Mos Eisley. They were only a few miles away now, and they would now have to sneak into the city to rescue the smugglers. He turned to look for Mara, but saw that she had disappeared. She had walked behind a boulder to look around. Then he heard a loud roar, sandpeople! He remembered the last time he had fought with them. That had been a long time ago and Ben Kenobi had had to save him. This time he would have to save Mara.
He dashed away from the cliff to find her and then heard a scream. He literally leapt over the boulder and landed with his lightsaber ignited. He could see right away that three sandpeople had jumped her. Her lightsaber had fallen and she was on the ground, unconscious. He ran to her side and stood over her to protect her from the sandpeople, who were a little surprised by his appearance.
They soon came out of their shock and charged at him, grunting fiercely. He swung the lightsaber and landed a blow on the first sandperson, sending the creature sprawling to the ground. Then he swung again and sliced the second sandperson’s weapon in half, he lashed out with his foot and knocked the sandperson over. He quickly whirled around and cut the third sandperson in half. Mara stirred and he helped her stand. She called her lightsaber to her hand and lit it. They stood side-by-side as the two remaining sandpeople struggled to their feet. Luke nodded to Mara and then brought the lightsaber down on the first sandperson’s head, cutting it off. Mara swung her blade and the remaining sandperson was killed. They both sighed and Luke wished that they hadn’t had to kill the sandpeople. They weren’t evil creatures, just very afraid of strangers. He closed down his lightsaber and looked around.
A few seconds later a dark shape came charging at Mara and him. It was one of the woolly creatures the sandpeople rode. He knew that his lightsaber wouldn’t do any good against such a large creature. He jumped into the air, did a flip, and landed squarely atop the creature. He pushed the sandperson riding it off and then slashed the creature’s neck with the lightsaber. The creature howled and Mara dove out of its way as it stampeded towards the cliff. Luke jumped off of its back and it ran over the cliff and smashed into the ground. He brushed himself off as he stood. Mara walked up next to him and peered over the cliff. Seeing the carcass of the animal, she took a step backwards.
“We’d better hurry before more coming looking for them,” Luke indicated the sandpeople with his boot. Mara nodded and then they looked for a way to descend the cliff. It was too sheer to climb down without any sort of equipment. It was then that Luke heard the now-familiar sound of a speeder bike approaching.
Vnus lay on the bunk, trying to sleep. Starm stood watch while Vnus and Jibuv slept, only that Vnus couldn’t sleep. He thought of how the other smugglers were probably being tortured by the Imperials even as the three of them tried to fix the ship. He may not like all of the smugglers, but they were smugglers like him, his comrades-in-arms. He had to save them, but he also knew that he needed sleep so that he could be at his best when he went to rescue them.
He looked up at the ceiling and wished that he could leave right now, but the ship’s weapons still weren’t fully operational and without the weapons he had no chance of getting the smugglers free and getting into orbit. He sighed and thought of the plan that he and the others had made. After a few minutes his comlink beeped and Vnus got up to relieve Starm. He pulled out his blaster and sat in the cockpit, turning on the sensors and hoping that no one found them. He leaned back in the captain’s chair and checked the weapons and shields.
The weapons were now hotwired into the backup systems. Unfortunately, the backup systems charged very slowly and once the weapons were drained it would take a long time to get them recharged. That would leave them with only the missiles if they met any resistance in orbit. And with a Star Destroyer in orbit, they were almost guaranteed to meet some resistance. So something needed to be done to get more power to the weapons. But there was no other power available, so what they needed to do was get more power.
It was then that the sensors started beeping and Vnus looked down to see what was going on. Something very big was approaching, although at this distance he couldn’t tell if it was a walker or not. He waited until it closed before he turned on the engines. Whatever it was, it was coming his way. He didn’t bother turning on the weapons and activated the repulsorlifts to get the ship airborne.
The hulking vehicle was coming closer and Vnus crossed his fingers, hoping it didn’t fire at him. It was then that he saw that the sensors weren’t showing an AT-AT walker, but a Jawa Sandcrawler. He sighed with relief and set the ship back down. Jibuv and Starm stumbled into the cockpit and looked around.
“What’s going on?” Starm asked.
“We’ve been found by a Sandcrawler,” Vnus replied with obvious relief. Jibuv took a seat next to Vnus and scanned the instruments.
“We’d better get out of here. If the Imperials home in on that crawler we don’t want them to find us too,” he explained and Vnus nodded. He slowly turned the ship around and headed away from the Jawa craft. Jibuv monitored the sensors and then they found a place to land. It was a flat area of desert that was less than an hour away from Mos Eisley. There was still a lot of work to do on the ship before it could rescue the smugglers. Vnus got out of his chair, stretching his muscles before he opened the access panel under the main console. He looked at the maze of wire and wished that he had more time.
Isel paced the bridge, willing the turbolasers to charge more quickly. He looked out one of the bridge windows and saw the Rebel frigate hanging a few kilometers away, blackened and battered. Bysal was nowhere to be seen. The ion barrage had been less than effective, the batteries had been drained of sufficient power before the frigate had been disabled. Now they could only watch the other ship and wonder what was going on. There weren’t even enough TIE fighters to mount a strike on the ship.
So all Isel could do was wait and watch. He had thought about pulling back to recover Blous’ men and the smugglers, but that would give the Rebels a chance to escape. And he knew that if he ordered Blous to rendeavous with the ship then those blasted X-Wings and A-Wings that the Rebels flew could intercept the transports and eliminate the few starfighters he could scramble to protect the transports. So until he could get some more fighters or eliminate the Rebels, Blous would have to stay put.
Bysal finally came into the bridge, looking tired and showing the stubble from days without time to sleep, much less shave. It was unprofessional, but at this point Isel didn’t care about regulations imposed by the shattered Empire. This was his ship and right his crew needed to only worry about destroying Rebel scum. He collapsed mightily into his captain’s chair and looked around him, reassured to see that everyone was busily working at their stations. Bysal handed him a new data pad, and Isel scanned with no particular interest.
Little had changed over the past few hours. The turbolasers were not yet charged enough to finish off the frigate and there were less than six TIEs left; three TIE Fighters, two TIE Interceptors, and a single TIE Bomber. Isel knew that such a puny strike force could no more stop the Rebels than a flea could stop an angry bantha. As he scanned the data pad, Isel began revolving a plan in his mind. One that could decimate the Rebels if it worked.
“Lieutenant, how many shuttles are in the hangar bay?” He asked quickly.
Streaking over the desert, the Millenium Falcon looked for a place to land. Han scanned the sensor readouts, looking for somewhere where he could set down and drop Leia off. She was still in no shape to participate in the search for Luke. Over her protesting Han had told her in no uncertain terms that he was going to find somewhere to drop her off before he searched the vast landscape for his friend. Finally he saw a small farm and knew that it was as good of a place as any. In the darkness, the large freighter set down with repulsorlifts screaming. An old farmer emerged from an igloo-shaped house, a rifle in his gnarled hands.
Han opened the ramp and Chewie scooped Leia up and joined him. Han met the farmer halfway to the house. “Please sir, I need your help,” Han began.
“I won’t give help to any strangers,” the farmer protested.
“My wife, she’s hurt and she needs to recover. Please, could you put her up?” Han was begging and he knew it. But he didn’t have Leia’s diplomatic skill and he was only concerned with getting his wounded wife to relative safety. By this time Chewie had reached Han’s side, roaring angrily at the stubborn farmer, and the farmer’s wife had reached her husband’s side. “Look, she would be in great danger if she stayed in my ship. We have a very important mission to do for the
The farmer looked impassive and asked bluntly, “Who are you looking for?”
Han wanted to tell the farmer to mind his own business, but thought better of it. “Have you ever heard of Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Knight? That’s who we’re looking for,” Chewie growled something in support of Han’s words and the farmer’s wife looked surprised.
“Luke! Of course we know Luke! His uncle was a friend of ours. He used to come over here when he was little, to play with our son Garret. Garret signed up with the Imperials and last we heard, he was serving in a fighter squadron on Darth Vader’s own ship!” The woman beamed and Han knew that her son was dead.
“I’m sorry ma’am, but...Darth Vader’s ship was destroyed over the moon of Endor over five years ago,” Han said sympethetically.
“No! No! I can’t believe it, I won’t believe it! Liar! Liar!” She screamed and ran back into the house. The farmer watched her go and turned to Han.
“I’ve known about his death for some time now, so has she. But she won’t come to grips with it. If you are friends of Luke Skywalker then you may stay here,” the farmer said slowly and quietly. Han nodded and took Leia from Chewie’s arms. She was still pale and Han wondered if there might not be something else wrong with her. Threepio emerged from the ship, he would watch Leia while the others searched for Luke.
Han carried Leia into the farmhouse, setting her on a small yet comfortable bed. She moaned softly and her eyes fluttered open. He had thought that she had just banged her head, but it looked as though something else was wrong, something that the Falcon’s medical facilities couldn’t handle.
“Han...” She breathed.
“It’ll be all right, Threepio will take care of you. We’re going to find Luke,” he held her hand and tried to sound as soothing as he could. He lightly kissed her and she seemed to moan contentedly as she closed her eyes. He let her hand go and turned away to look at Threepio. “Take good care of her,” Han said sharply as he walked back to the ship.
Chewie was in the copilot’s seat, checking over all the instruments as the ship prepared to take off. Artoo twittered something as Han ran up the ramp. The astromech was hooked into a computer terminal and would monitor the sensors to aid in the search. Han sat in the pilot’s seat and fired up the repulsorlifts. The farmer waved at them as they took off into the darkness of Tatooine’s night.
Luke stood absolutely still as the speeder bike approached. He could also hear the one and he stretched out with his senses and could feel that only one bike was coming. It was the opportunity they had been waiting for. Mara was prone and ready, clutching her lightsaber. Luke also stood ready and without speaking they made their plan.
The bike had broken down and had been ordered back to base. The young soldier riding atop it wished that he could have been part of the search, to see some real action. Instead he was nursing a wounded speeder bike back to base. At this rate he would never see promotion. As the soldier rode along, he never thought to keep his blaster within easy access.
He neared the cliff and suddenly a black shape was spinning towards him. It landed on his shoulders and knocked him off of the bike. The soldier hit the ground and desperately tried to reach his pistol. But the dark shape was pummeling him and just before he died the whole world lit up with green light. Luke stood up, looking down at the young face of the soldier. His cracked helmet lay nearby and Luke couldn’t help but think of that first time in the
They were again riding a speeder bike, this time into the city. Mara nudged the bike over the cliff, and they both silently screamed as the repulsorlifts sputtered and died. Luke tried to stay calm, but another part of his mind was overwhelming him with fear. Mara stabbed at the starter button and Luke looked over her shoulder, his hands digging into her sides. They were falling quickly and Luke could see the desert, his native land, rushing up at him. Mara was going into a frenzy and with one last attempt she pounded on the controls.
The repulsorlifts kicked in and less than a hundred feet off of the ground the bike hung in the air. They both sighed with relief and Mara eased the bike to the ground. “Let’s find somewhere to rest,” Luke suggested and Mara nodded wearily. They had gone only a kilometer when the bike’s engines quit for good. Luke hid the bike and Mara looked for somewhere where they could sleep. She saw an overhang of rock and they set up camp below it. They both relaxed and Luke looked over at her and smiled.
“What?” Mara demanded.
“I was just thinking of how your skills have grown since we started this adventure. If you keep this up, you’ll be a Jedi in no time.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get too attached to it. Let’s get some sleep, huh.” She laid down and rolled over. Luke sighed, suddenly feeling weary. All of the activities of the past few days were catching up to him. He slowly nodded off to sleep, his head resting on his chest.
The hangar bay of the Star Destroyer was a mess as crews rushed to finish preparing the shuttles for their task. Isel and Bysal supervised the work from a catwalk. Isel watched as crews loaded heavy space bombs into each shuttle. He smiled grimly as he thought of striking back at the Rebels.
The shuttles were each carrying a single space bomb that was set to detonate when the shuttle impacted against anything. The controls were modified to be remote-piloted from the Star Destroyer itself. Isel went down into the hangar bay to find the chief technician at work. The technician was conferring with a group of technicians on the shuttles when Isel and Bysal found him.
“Captain!” The chief exclaimed and everyone went to rigid attention.
“I need a status report on the shuttles,” Isel growled to the chief.
“Well sir, we been having some trouble modifying the avionics of the shuttles, but they should all be ready to fly within six hours,” the chief stammered.
“I need as many as you can prepare in two hours. I expect at least seventy-five percent of these shuttles to be ready by then,” Isel spun on his heel and marched away from the hangar bay. His fists clenched and he gritted his teeth. He couldn’t wait to finish the Rebels off once and for all.
Wedge and Mews met in his quarters to discuss the situation. So far, things seemed rather bleak. Wedge leaned back and listened to Mews’ disheartening news.
“Given the situation of the ship, and our lack of spare parts, our engineers estimate that we can get the ship only sixty percent operational within the next twenty-four hours. But, they said that weapons and shields will be at full strength within the hour. Also, our X-Wing patrol has reported no activity from the Star Destroyer. It seems that we have a stalemate for the moment,” Mews reported grimly.
“Not for much longer, Lieutenant. That Star Destroyer will be back on us as soon as its turbolasers recharge. Is there any way that we could evacuate the ship to the surface?” Wedge asked, knowing that the Ranger couldn’t last much longer.
“No sir, not unless that Star Destroyer leaves orbit and decides to leave us alone. Also, we’ve had damage to many escape pods, I’m not sure that theyre would be enough for everyone.”
“All right then, we can’t run, so I guess we’ll have to stay and fight. We do have lightspeed operational?”
“Yes sir. I thought you said that we couldn’t run away?”
“We can’t, but we can jump a little ways away and then come back again within firing range of that Star Destroyer. Then we can fire and quickly enter hyperspace again.”
“That’s some pretty tricky flying.”
“I’m sure you can handle it Lieutenant.”
“Me?”
“You were the navigator of this ship, weren’t you?”
“Yes, but...”
“Well, I’m sure you can fly this thing one last time.”
“Yes sir.”
“All right, I want to know as soon as the weapons and shields are ready. Keep the patrols out until the last possible moment and have the lightspeed jumps already calculated. I’ll give you the coordinates after I look over the charts and decide where we should go. Dismissed,” Wedge ordered and Mews left. Wedge paced his quarters, examining the charts and plotting the ship’s course. He wished that he didn’t have to command this ship into battle. Finally he made his descion as the red alert sounded.
“What’s going on?” Wedge asked silently as he raced out the door and to the bridge.
Vnus put the last access panel in place and wiped his forehead with a rag. He breathed in slowly through the cloth covering his face, trying not to breath in too much of the blowing desert soil. The work on the
Vnus opened the hatch and climbed into the ship, meeting Jibuv and Starm just inside. “We’re all set,” Vnus said and they all three smiled.
“Let’s go get ‘em!” Starm exclaimed.
“Right!” Jibuv added. Vnus nodded and rushed to the cockpit, flipping switches and activating systems, crossing his fingers and hoping the ship would fly. Starm took the co-pilot’s seat and Jibuv took the seat behind him. All the indicators showed that the ship was ready to launch as Vnus stapped into the pilot’s seat. He activated the repulsorlifts and the ship began moving up. The three smugglers cheered in unison as Vnus activated the main engines and put the ship on a course directly to Mos Eisley.
Luke and Mara awoke to the sounds of engines. Luke stood up and looked wearily around. He could feel that a ship was approaching, although he wasn’t sure whose ship it was. He scrambled outside and looked around. Then he saw an ungainly hulk heading towards Mos Eisley, kicking up a sandstorm in its wake. Mara joined him at the cave’s entrance and looked up at the sky. The ship flew past them at high speed and contiued towards the city.
“That’s Hak Vnus’ ship! I’d recognize that cobbled together hulk anywhere!” Mara shouted to Luke.
“What’s he going to do?” Luke asked.
“I’m not sure, but he can’t do it alone! Let’s go!” Before he could stop her, Mara was on the speeder bike and kickstarting the engine. Luke sighed and raced after her, jumping onto the back of the bike as it lifted off.
Luke knew that this was foolish, going back into the heart of occupied Tatooine, but he hoped that the smuggler ship would at least provide a good enough diversion for him and Mara to break the rest of the smugglers out. He peeked over Mara’s shoulder and saw that the ship was being fired upon by AT-ATs, AT-STs, and speeder bikes all over the city. Mara took the speeder bike down to a ground-skimming level, hoping that the gunners would be too busy with the ship to worry about a lone speeder bike.
They whipped around one corner and two stormtroopers threw themselves out of the way. They hurriedly drew their rifles and fired, bolts glancing off rubble and rocks, but missing the bike. The lead trooper activated his comlink to call Blous.
“General, I’ve spotted those escaped Rebels. They’re right here in the city and are riding a speeder bike,” the stormtrooper said unemotionally. The stormtrooper turned to look for his partner and was grabbed from behind. Luke threw him to the ground and pulled off his helmet. He knocked the man out with the hilt of his lightsaber and then groaned.
“This is getting real tiresome,” he mumbled as he began pulling on the stormtrooper’s armor. Mara was silent as she looked around through the restricted view the stormtrooper helmet provided her. She clutched the stolen blaster tightly in her hands and hoped that they would soon break the smugglers free. She looked over at Luke and wished that she could see his face, to be reassured that they were going to be successful. She could feel him reassuring her in his head and nodded before hopping onto the bike. She activated the controls and Luke climbed on behind her. She was starting to sweat in the armor, but she knew that it was necessary to disguise themselves to avoid detection.
The speeder bike shot into the air and Mara could see nothing but smoke ahead. She feared the worse for Vnus and headed for the hangar that held the smugglers. Silently she thanked Vnus for the distraction as the smoke rose higher and higher in the air.
Vnus saw lights go red as he banked right to ditch a pair of speeder bikes on his tail. He pulled up just shy of hitting a sand dune and headed straight for an AT-AT with the speeder bikes lagging a little ways behind him. Starm armed the turbolasers and placed on the AT-AT’s vulnerable neck as they streaked over it. The next exploded and the AT-AT swayed uncertainly. The speeder bikes sped through the debris just as the AT-AT exploded. Their fiery machines spun out of control and impacted against the legs of the AT-AT as they teetered and collapsed. Starm gave a whoop as Jibuv took control of the smaller laser cannons.
Several AT-STs stood in a line and fired upwards at the intruding vessel. Starm pounded them with the turbolasers and Jibuv fired the smaller cannons. Vnus expertly piloted around the walkers, giving the ship the clearest shots possible. He checked the gauges and then unstrapped from his seat. The engines were losing power and the ship would have to land unless he got them back on-line quickly.
“Starm, take over!” Vnus called as he ran to the rear of the ship and began working on the engines. The ship rocked and rattled and Vnus struggled to keep his footing. He tried rerouting the engine power, but still the engine power declined. He knew that the ship was going down, and would soon be easy prey for the Imperials. He closed the access panel he was working in and then opened another and literally dived in it. He was up to his neck in wires and circuits and grabbed his tools.
Blous stepped into the AT-AT’s cockpit and surveyed the battle. Some smuggler ship was attacking his forces, taking out a precious AT-AT and several smaller walkers. Plus the two escaped Rebels were lose in the city, and so far his men had been unable to find them. No help could be sent from the Ravage, which had problems of its own. His patrols that had been looking for the Rebels had not come back yet and he was left with a much smaller force to combat this crazy ship with.
The ship design was one that was easily recognizable as a cobbled together conglomeration of parts and technologies, the type of ship only a smuggler would use. This smuggler was flying his ship like a madman, strafing walkers head-on and flying at very low-level. So far his AT-ATs had not been able to get a shot at the invader and the smaller craft hadn’t put a dent in it. Blous clenched his fists in disgust. The might of the Empire being defeated by these traitorous swine! Blous thought angrily as he looked over at the gunner.
“Intercept that ship and throw everything we have at it,” Blous commanded. The crewman nodded and the walker began to move. Blous knew that he could crush this ship if he could get his walker into firing range. He gritted his teeth and waited for the ship to come into view.
No comments:
Post a Comment