11

11

Wedge made it to the bridge and found a nervous Mews sitting in the command chair. She stepped aside and Wedge sat down. “What’s up?” He asked uneasily.

“Sir, we have reports of at least two dozen shuttles launching from the Star Destroyer. They appear to be lightly armed, but I don’t know why the Imperials would send shuttles against us,” Mews shrugged and took the helm.

“Order all fighters out of their bays and intercept the shuttles. Lieutenant, you’re in charge while I’m gone,” Wedge ordered and jumped out of his chair. He hurried to the launch bay and to his X-Wing. He quickly put on his gear and then strapped into the fighter as the R2 unit was loaded. The bay was mostly empty already and Wedge was the last one to launch. “All fighters, you are to intercept and destroy those shuttles.”

Wedge heard the acknowledgment as he wondered what the Imperials could be up to. They definately weren’t abandoning ship, that was for certain. The shuttles must have a different mission. He put the engines to full throttle as he leapt out into the dark void of space. Against the brown background of Tatooine Wedge could see the shuttles racing towards the New Republic fighters. He could see the first A-Wings and X-Wings blasting apart the shuttles and then he noticed how much larger than usual the explosions were.

“Lieutenant, get the ship out of here now! Those shuttles are boobytrapped!” Wedge called over the radio. “Make the first jump and I’ll signal you when we clear the area.”

“Aye sir,” Mews responded and a minute later the frigate went to lightspeed. Wedge sighed with relief and then fired upon the first shuttle. The shuttle exploded and Wedge banked away to avoid the debris. He looked all around and saw X-Wings and A-Wings easily blowing away the mindless suicidal shuttlecraft. Suddenly, something hit his shields and Wedge turned to see a TIE Fighter on his tail. The remaining fighters on the Star Destroyer had come from the far side of the planet, using the shuttles as a distraction. All six TIEs opened fire with a barrage of missiles and Wedge heard several New Republic pilots scream in agony as their fighters were hit.

It was a trap, Wedge thought. But he had been through two traps before and the New Republic had won on both occasions. He spun his craft around and blasted the TIE Bomber to bits and turned to shoot another one. But the shuttles were still flying all over the place, deadly mines that collided with two maneuvering Rebel pilots and obliterated them. The badly depleted starfighter squadrons were being worn down even further, and Wedge wasn’t sure if they could hold out much longer. They couldn’t retreat though, they couldn’t leave the shuttles to launch themselves at the Ranger as soon as it returned.

“All fighters, this is Rogue Leader. Concentrate on the shuttles, we’ll use their own trick against them,” Wedge said over the radio and hoped that this worked. He shot two of the shuttles in one shot and caught a TIE between the explosions. It spun out of control, out of the fight for good. The New Republic pilots blasted as many shuttles as possible, forcing the less-skilled Imperial pilots to dodge explosions and laser blasts. Soon all that was left was a single TIE Interceptor and a handful of shuttles. Wedge shot the lead shuttle and it exploded, setting off two more. The Interceptor flew through a cloud of flame and debris and when it emerged the remaining New Republic starfighters were on him. They unmercifully dogged him and finally shot his fighter to pieces, very small pieces. Wedge finished off the shuttles and then signaled the frigate. It was time for them to take the offensive.

Luke didn’t like carrying the blaster, he hadn’t used one in years, but to keep up with his disguise he had to. He and Mara were in the hangar where the smugglers were kept. The fighting outside seemed to have intensified.

“We’d better hurry,” Luke said and Mara nodded a little, the helmet virtually nullifying the motion. They strolled amongst the smugglers and then Luke mentally gave Mara the signal to begin firing. They threw off their helmets and opened fire on all the guards in the room, the surprised stormtroopers falling before they could sound any alarms. Luke threw the blaster down and snatched his lightsaber, igniting it and leaping high into the air. He came down near a stormtrooper and slashed it with the blade. Mara kept firing and looked around at the smugglers. Most were standing, but some were still too dazed to move.

“Let’s go everyone! Get to your ships and take off!” Mara shouted and the smugglers began to rush for the doors, some grabbing fallen blasters on their way out. Reinforcements arrived and Luke and Mara stood surrounded on all sides. Luke deflected the first shots aimed at him and then he flung the lightsaber. By using the Force, he was able to direct the lightsaber through a series of maneuvers that cut down most of the Imperial soldiers and allowed him and Mara to break for the door. He called the weapon back to his hand and they backed out of the door, Mara firing a steady stream of shots that kept the Imperials’ heads down. Then they hurried back to their speeder bike, their mission accomplished.

Vnus finished his work on rerouting the engine power and leapt out of the maze of wires just as they came to life. He lay panting on the deck and the engines finally came back to full power. He struggled to his feet, but the forces of gravity kept him pinned as Starm put the ship into a vertical climb. Vnus finally got to his feet and made his way to the cockpit to see that the ship was high in the atmosphere.

“What’s going on?” He asked Starm.

“The others someone got out of there. I figured we’d better get out of there before we were fried,” Starm replied and Vnus took his seat.

“Someone else busted them out? How?”

“I don’t know, we don’t have any details, but we did receive a few complimentary messages. The most interesting one was from Mazzic. He sounded pretty surprised when we told him that it was us making all of this commotion up here,” Jibuv said with a smile. Vnus nodded and then saw other smuggler ships rising into the air. They had done it, they had really done it! He wiped his sweaty brow and checked the weapons power. They still had to get out of orbit with that Star Destroyer waiting up there.

Blous was furious. His AT-AT had taken damage to its legs and could barely move. Not only that, but the smuggler ship that had attacked him had remained undamaged. The bulk of his forces defeated by a single smuggler ship, it was unreal! Then he had received a call that the smugglers had broken out of the hangar and were making for their ships. The worst part was that the two escaped Rebels had broken them out singlehandedly! Blous knew that Isel would have his head unless he did something quickly.

“Move all of our forces around the main hangar where the smugglers’ ships are beind detained. I don’t want any of them to escape alive. Give all forces permission to fire as soon as they get into range. Also have all search parties return here and set up a perimeter around the city. No one gets in and no one get out, understood?” Blous commanded angrily.

“Yes, sir!” The crewman responded and Blous surveyed the area. It was then that he saw a speeder bike with a man and a woman, wearing stormtrooper armor, flying straight at him.

“Concentrate firepower on that speeder bike and fire immediately!” Blous shouted and all the guns on the AT-AT fired. Luke was at the controls of the speeder bike and he saw the shots heading right for him. He put the bike into a steep climb and could see that the Imperials were blocking entrance to the hangar. Although most of the smugglers were gone, the Imperials were destroying the hangar, pounding it with a tremendous volume of firepower. He knew that his A-Wing was probably destroyed, and they had no choice now but to go back on the run. He put the speeder bike to full throttle and it spen away from the city, with Blous’ AT-AT following. Blous was determined not to let the Rebels escape again.

Leia awoke in the farmer’s house with Threepio at her side. She felt much better now and she sat up without any problem. “Mistress Leia, you’re awake!” Threepio exclaimed joyfully.

“Where’s Han and Chewie?” Leia asked groggily.

“They left to find Master Luke. Captain Solo thought it best to leave you here to recover while he conducted his search.”

“How very thoughtful of him. Have the Imperials left yet?”

“I’m afraid not yet. The last reports indicated that they had captured and leveled Mos Eisley.” Leia got to her feet and suddenly she could feel a disturbance in the Force. She could feel that Luke was in danger, and reached her fledgling powers out to search for him. Hundreds of miles away, Luke heard her call. He could only hear her voice echoing her name, there was nothing more. Leia stumbled backwards a bit and then caught herself. She reached for her comlink and tried to contact Han. All she heard was static and threw it down in disgust.

The farmer came into the room and Leia asked him, “Do have a vehicle we may borrow? It’s very urgent.” The farmer sighed and nodded. He led them outside to an old landspeeder, which was similar to the one Luke had once owned. Leia thanked him and climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Oh dear,” Threepio moaned as he climbed into the old vehicle and strapped in.

“I wish you good luck on your search. And tell your husband that he’s welcome to stop by here any time!” The farmer said as the landspeeder’s engine came to life.

“I will! Thank-you for all your help!” Leia called over the engine’s droning. The farmer took a few steps back and the landspeeder lifted off and was soon miles away. Although it was old, it was still in decent shape and Leia could handle it easily. She only wished that it was armed; for she knew that Luke was in big trouble.

Han checked the sensors again and shook his head. They had scanned almost everywhere and still there was no sign of Luke. It was then that he looked up and saw a group of AT-ATs and AT-STs approaching. Remembering Hoth, he immediately pulled up and hoped that he could dodge them. But a speeder bike scouting ahead of the main force spotted him and thought him to be one of the escaped smugglers. He climbed in pursuit and soon all guns were pointed skyward. Chewie roared discouragingly and Han nodded.

“I know we’re outnumbered! We’ll just have to ditch these jokers,” Han grinned grimly and put the Falcon’s engines to full. The speeder bikes were able to follow for a few seconds, but there was no way they could keep up with the fastest ship in the galaxy. A few badly-aimed shots were absorbed by the rear shields and then Han heard something from the back. This was one of the rare times he wished Threepio was here to interpret for Artoo.

Artoo was chirping furiously and Han unstrapped and went back to see what he was jabbering about. When he got there he saw that Artoo was trying to show him something the sensors had picked up for just a few seconds. It was a speeder bike with two humans on board being picked up somewhere around Mos Eisley. He would have dismissed it except that it seemed to be going away from the Imperial forces in the area. Han ran back to the cockpit and turned the ship towards Mos Eisley. It was then that he heard someone trying to hail them.

“Han, this is Leia can you hear me?” He heard her say over the static.

“Leia! I hear you! What’s going on?”

“Luke’s in deep trouble, I can feel it. We’ve got to help him!”

“Right, I know. Look, I think I know where he is. Where are you?”

“I’m not sure, but Threepio and I are in a landspeeder. We’ll try and find...” The link was suddenly broken and before it went out Han thought he had heard the sound of shots being fired. He turned back towards the Imperial patrol, fearing the worst.

Mews sat at the helm station, waiting for Wedge’s signal to reenter the battle. She was worried about what these short jumps were doing to the ship’s structure, if the hull was put under too much stress it could rupture and rip the ship apart. She couldn’t help but be a little afraid about the whole plan. They were taking a battered frigate, with half of its weapons and only a few fighters, against one of the mightiest class of ships the Empire had ever produced. The battle would be nearly impossible with a fully operational frigate, but the Ranger was in no shape for combat.

Still, she knew that they couldn’t run, couldn’t abandon Tatooine until help arrived. She rechecked the computer’s calculations, hoping that they were right and the ship would end up next to the Star Destroyer, not in it. There were only a handful of people left on the bridge, most to monitor weapons and shields. All nonessential personnel had already taken to the escape pods and evacuation plans had been made to get as much of the crew off as possible.

“Ranger, this is Rogue Leader. You are cleared to make your grand entrance. Good luck,” Wedge said and Mews’ hand shakily pulled the handles that took the ship into lightspeed. The jump was short and only a few seconds later the ship came out of it.

The New Republic vessel was juxtaposed with the Star Destroyer, and Mews was quick to make sure the two ships didn’t collide. “Fire all batteries! Shields up!” Mews commanded and the frigate’s weapons began pounding the Ravage. At such close range, the Star Destroyer’s shields were much less effective and soon Mews could see pieces of the hull flaking off.

Isel stood bolt upright from his command chair and saw the Rebel frigate right next to them. “Status on turbolasers?” Isel inquired.

“Fully charged and ready,” Bysal reported.

“Very well, target the Rebel ship and fire with all starboard batteries. Have all remaining shuttles launch and attack,” Isel commanded and Bysal hurried and carried out the orders.

On the bridge of the Ranger, Mews saw the awesome display of firepower as the Star Destroyer’s turbolasers fired. The frigate was firing every gun and missile it had at the other ship, but like the Ravage, the Ranger’s shields were less than effective at such close range. The ship rocked from the turbolaser shots hitting it and Mews put the ship in full reverse to try and get some distance between them.

Wedge led the remnants of the Ranger’s air wing on an attack against the Star Destroyer. He dove past the bridge tower and down to the main hull of the ship. Turbolaser batteries were firing rapidly and he jinked past the shots and boldly fired at some of the guns. He wanted to try and get as many of the turbolaser batteries as he could to try and even the odds. It was only then that he saw the suicide shuttles rushing out of the hangar. He banked his X-Wing away from the Ravage and went after the shuttle. Only seconds later it impacted against the hull of the frigate.

“Concentrate all firepower on those shuttles!” Wedge shouted as he fired and sent one shuttle careening out of control. The space battle continued and Wedge could see that the frigate was nearly done for. “Lieutenant Mews, retreat to a safe posistion.”

He heard no response and slapped his console in frustration. One of the shots must have hit the bridge, or taken out the communications link. He quickly nailed another shuttle and then he noticed that the Star Destroyer’s fire had decreased in intensity. He turned towards it and saw that someone was shooting at it from the other side, it was another ship!

“You guys need a hand?” Vnus’ unfamiliar voice asked. A flotilla of angry smugglers trailed the Phoenix and began firing on the Star Destroyer.

“You bet we could! Let’s get ‘em!” Wedge shouted and began picking off the shuttles once again, this time with a sense of hope. They might just pull this one out!