12

12

Luke dodged another shot from the AT-AT closing with the speeder bike and curse all Imperial technology. The speeder bike’s engine was giving out and he had to decrease speed to keep it from failing totally. The AT-AT and the smaller vehicles with it were gaining on them now and Luke knew that there was nowhere to go. They were out in the open desert, with no hills or mountains that could be used as cover. And now they could no longer outrun the Imperials. It was getting more and more hopeless.

Mara could feel Luke’s uneasiness and she wanted to comfort him, to reassure him that they would be all right, but she knew that there was nothing that she could say. She had found that recently she had worried more and more about Skywalker. He had done so much for her, rescued her on several occasions, taught her the ways of the Force, and given her the lightsaber which he had once carried, a very personal gift. But now there was nothing that either of them could do to avoid the Imperials pursuing them.

Mara grabbed her captured blaster and fired in defiance at the AT-AT coming closer. The shot glanced harmlessly off of the AT-AT’s armor and Mara noticed that the speeder bike was slowing even further. She looked over Luke’s shoulder and then saw a huge dust cloud ahead. He was aiming right for it and she knew what his plan was. If they could get into that sandstorm then they might be able to use it as a smokescreen to head off in a new direction and lose their pursuers.

Luke gunned the engine and heard it squeal in protest. He was able to milk a short burst of speed out of the engine and then they were in the cloud of sand. Only it wasn’t a sandstorm, it was another Imperial patrol. The engine on the speeder bike gave out for good and both Luke and Mara jumped off and began to run. They knew it was futile, but they had no choice.

Their change in course had taken them to another area of high ridges and cliffs. They ran for the ridges, hoping to use them to hide. The vehicles that had been following them emerged from the dust cloud and Blous saw the burning remnants of the speeder bike. He looked around and then saw the fleeing figures. Recognizing the search party, he contacted them.

“There are two Rebels heading for the mountains on foot. I want them cut off and surrounded,” Blous commanded.

“But sir, what about the other Rebels? The landspeeder?” The leader of the search party asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“We found a landspeeder with suspected Rebels aboard.”

“Forget them! The ones on foot are the ones that we want!” Blous barked and the other officer obeyed. His AT-AT swung around and tromped after the Rebels. Blous had his forces fan out to block the Rebels’ escape if they chose to try and double-back.

Leia wiped the tears from her eyes, the product of the smoke streaming from the landspeeder’s engine. She had run into an Imperial patrol and had taken a direct hit from an AT-ST’s cannons. They had been limping out of the area with the Imperials in pursuit, when they had broken off. She could feel Luke somewhere nearby, as well as Mara. She still couldn’t get a message to them, but at least she knew that they were close by. Then she heard the roar of engines and looked over at Threepio.

“Take the controls,” she said and grabbed her blaster. She turned to shoot but all that she saw was the Millenium Falcon. Never before had she been so glad to see the ugly ship. Leia took the controls back from Threepio, who was jabbering excitedly. She landed the landspeeder on a ridge and the Falcon landed beside them. Han came down the ramp and they embraced, sharing a long kiss while Threepio and Artoo had their own joyful reunion.

“Artoo, I’m so glad to see you! I’ve had a most terrible day!” Threepio moaned as the two droids went up the ramp. Han and Leia slowly boarded the ship and then they went up to the cockpit. Chewie growled an affectionate greeting and Leia took a seat.

“Han, Luke’s somewhere close by, I can feel him. He’s with Mara and I’m not sure what kind of danger they may be in. An Imperial patrol is close by, they may have gotten both of them. We’ve got to hurry!” Leia explained rapidly.

“All right. Chewie let’s get going. I want you and Leia to get into the laser turrets, we may have to fight our way out of this mess,” Han mumbled grimly and his wife and friend got out of their seats and went back to man the laser turrets. Han gulped and activated the repulsorlifts. The Falcon rose into the air, momentarily obscuring the twin suns before it leapt forward.

Isel felt the deck plates beneath him tremble as another shot rocked the ship. The Rebels and their allies were hitting the Star Destroyer with everything they had and the Ravage’s turbolasers were being overwhelmed. A freighter dropped in just below the bridge and fired two missiles into the superstructure. Isel heard the latest reports from the engineers. The patchwork repairs they had made after the Ravage’s last big battle were beginning to fall apart and the hull integrity was decreasing by the minute. The shields were also failing and the suicide shuttles were all destroyed. The situation was quickly turning more and more bleak for Isel.

He turned to Bysal as the entire ship rattled from the shots pounding it. “Concentrate all firepower on the frigate until it was destroyed and fire all ions at the smugglers to keep them busy,” Isel ordered and Bysal nodded.

Mews was standing now, and she could feel that they were close to winning. The Star Destroyer was being overwhelmed with targets big and small and she knew that they could not last forever. Only a few shots hit the frigate every now and then and engineers had been able to boost shield power a little so that they could remain in the fight longer. A smile came across the tired helmsman’s face and she knew that the Imperials were going to be beaten again. Ship by ship the New Republic was destroying the Empire’s might in the galaxy. Soon their power would be broken forever and a new era of peace would encompass all of the wartorn galaxy.

It was then that all fire from the Star Destroyer ceased and Mews knew that they were done for. But just as quickly the Star Destroyer began to fire again, directly at the frigate. Ions lit up the blackness of space and smacked against the shields of smuggler ships. A huge barrage of energy hit the frigate head-on and the shields collapsed. Around the bridge consoles blew and the few crewman around Mews flew in all directions as the ship was torn apart. Mews felt the deck buckling under her feet and she struggled to get back to the helm. She hit a few buttons and activated the withdraw course. As she was pulling back on the levers the Star Destroyer fired again and Mews’ console exploded. She took the brunt of the blow and was thrown across the bridge and into a battered console. She was conscious just long enough to feel her skin start to burn as fire swept through the bridge. Then she closed her eyes and died.

Wedge had been going in for another go at the Star Destroyer when the ions had started to fire. He had ordered the fighters to pull back, so as to not get hit and become stationary targets. He saw explosions rock the Ranger and then shielded his eyes as it exploded in a huge fireball. Debris flew in all directions, but Wedge could see no escape pods when he looked around. The entire crew of the New Republic frigate Ranger had been lost.

“Rogue Leader to all allied forces. Commence attack on the shield generators and bridge structure.” Wedge put his engines to full, seeing the fiery deaths of the Ranger’s crew in his mind’s eye. He dove onto the Star Destroyer with a vengence, targeting the shield generators with his two torpedoes. An attack on the shields had been considered too risky earlier, but without the frigate, the allies had no choice but to take the risk. One of the shield generators exploded and two X-Wings from Rogue Squadron dove onto the other one and took it out with their torpedoes. The smuggler ships followed and began pounding the bridge structure on all sides with everything they had.

Isel struggled to maintain his footing as the Rebels’ attack intensified. “Open fire on all Rebel ships! Destroy them!” He screamed and the badly depleted turbolasers began firing once again. Bysal was getting off of the lift, coming back after consulting with the engineers in engineering about the ship’s hull, when the entire bridge exploded in a cloud of debris and fire. He was propelled forward and flung into a crew pit where he hit against a console. The techs in the pit were already dead from when their consoles had overloaded and exploded. He could feel the searing heat of fire all around him, but suddenly two strong hands pulled him out of the pit. He looked up and saw that his captain had pulled him out.

“Captain, sir, I’m sorry...” Bysal moaned as Isel dragged him across the shattered bridge deck.

“It’s not over yet, Lieutenant. Helmsman! Can anyone hear me?” Isel called out across the fireswept bridge. He got a feeble response from a dying crewman, the navigation officer. “Set a course back to Ingra and get us into lightspeed as soon as possible!” The navigator slowly inputted the cooridinates, his fingers growing slower as the blood drained out of him.

“Sir, we’re retreating?” Bysal whispered increduously.

“For now, Lieutenant. Just for now. But as soon as we’ve made repairs we’ll be back,” Isel said and the navigator finished the lightspeed calculations. Shots were pounding the Star Destroyer from all sides yet, and Isel knew that his tired and battered ship couldn’t take much more.

Vnus saw the Star Destroyer beginning to move and looked over at his two companions, the two men who had become his friends in the short span of only a few days. “Starm, fire everything we’ve got at them! We can’t let them get into lightspeed!” Vnus shouted, concentrating on avoiding a random shot from the nearly-depleted turbolaser batteries on the Star Destroyer. The ship was accelerating quickly as it approached the velocity for lightspeed. Vnus looked over at Starm hopefully.

Starm’s hands flew across the controls as he aimed and then fired. The ship rattled violently as all the guns on the strange-looking ship fired. The Star Destroyer was almost ready to hit lightspeed when the Phoenix’s last two torpedoes hit the ship’s hull. The torpedoes broke through one of the spots in the hull, that had been badly weakened by the previous battles, and began a chain reaction. Circutry overloaded and sparked, starting fires all over the ship. The ship’s emergency systems had already been destroyed and the fires lit off the remaining fuel for the shuttles and TIEs in the hangar bay.

This explosion triggered more up and down the hull of the ship. It was then that the ship reached lightspeed. The forces of the continuing internal and external explosions turned the otherwise-normal lightspeed jump into an express elevator to Hell. Immeasurable physical stress was placed on the ship’s weakened hull because of the unusal forces of the explosions reacting with the natural forces that were associated with making the jump to lightspeed.

Isel smiled down at Bysal, his fellow and Ingranian and officer, and knew that they were both going to safe. When he looked back up, Isel saw that the starlines were turning into flames. The deck below him trembled and shook and the ship began to break apart. He grasped Bysal’s hand in a sign of friendship, and of acknowledging loyal service to the Empire. It was then that the deck plate heaved upwards and the ship was torn apart.

Vnus, Starm, and Jibuv were ready to turn around when a huge supernova of light blinded them all. Shockwaves shook the ship and Vnus was barely able to keep control. When the explosion was over, there was nothing left of the Star Destroyer, except for debris that had been flung in many different directions and would be found throughout the galaxy. The three men on board the strange-looking freighter unstrapped, hugging and cheering.

Wedge gave a sigh of relief and then he saw the ship that had finished he Star Destroyer off, the cobbled together ship called the Phoenix. The one that had led the smugglers into the battle in the first place. The New Republic air group formed up and Wedge saw that nearly half of Rogue Squadron was destroyed. They had paid a heavy price for this victory, but they had won nonetheless.

“This is Rogue Leader to the Phoenix. That was some very good work you guys did back there. You just bagged yourselves an entire Imperial Star Destroyer,” Wedge laughed and ended the transmission. He knew that his fighters had no home, but he hoped that the smuggler ships could make room for them until New Republic reinforcements arrived.

Mara scrambled up the ridge, with Luke trailing behind her. They were being pressed on all sides by the enemy walkers. Shots whizzed past Mara and she narrowly missed being hit. She reached the top and then looked for cover. Luke scrambled up after her and now all of the walkers were in perfect firing posistion.

“Surrender at once Rebel scum or we will be forced to destroy you!” Blous announced over loudspeakers. Luke looked back at Mara gravely.

“Run Mara, you must save yourself! Remember all that you have learned,” Luke said and took his lightsaber in hand. Mara saw the look of defiance in his face and she grabbed her own lightsaber.

“I can’t leave you here,” she said and then added, “I love you.” Luke didn’t even flinch, he seemed to have expected her to say that. She cast her gaze down, not wanting to see the rejection in his eyes. To her suprise he took a step forward and reached out, bringing her chin up.

“I love you too, but you must go. I cannot ask you to stay here and die, someone must preserve the Jedi.”

Mara felt a renewed inner strength and ignited her lightsaber. “I won’t leave you. We’ll just have to die together,” she smiled and he sighed, knowing that he couldn’t dissuade her. They turned to face the AT-ATs and AT-STs with their lightsabers ignited and the two of them in fighting stances. Blous scoffed at the pitiful display.

“Ready all weapons, fire on my command,” Blous ordered and then he made sure that the sights were centered on the Rebels that had eluded him for so long. He was just about to give the command to fire when something rocked the walker. He looked around and then he saw the ungainly Correllian freighter. It was firing at his walker, the shots being absorbed harmlessly by the vehicle’s armor.

Han flew over the walkers and dropped down on the ridge, next to where Luke and Mara were standing. They ran towards the ramp that was lowering, the walkers starting to fire at them now. The Falcon took a few hits and Han winced, but only a few seconds later Luke and Mara were aboard and he lifted off. He turned the shields back on and they absorbed most of the heavy bombardment brought forth by the enraged Imperials.

Luke and Mara embraced each other just inside the hatch and engaged in a long and passionate kiss. Neither of them could stop their feelings of love at the moment, they had been through too much together. Leia stood nearby, watching them and smiling. She had always hoped that Luke could find someone to love. For over five years he had concentrated more on his Jedi training than his love life and Leia was glad to see that he could still love someone. After they were done kissing, Luke hugged his sister and then they went up to the cockpit.

When they got there, Luke heard Wedge Antilles’ voice over the speakers. “You can come into orbit, the Star Destroyer is destroyed. Unfortunately, so was the Ranger.” There was an uneasy silence for a moment and then Wedge continued. “Have you got Mara Jade with you?”

Han looked back and saw her standing there with Luke and Leia. “Yeah, she’s right here,” he responded.

“The smugglers up here would like to know when they can get together and approve the alliance with the New Republic. It seems that after how they were treated by those rogue Imperials, most of the smugglers are more than willing to accept the New Republic’s offer.”

Mara took a step forward and said, “Tell them to land on the far side of the planet and then they can come aboard.”

“Well thanks for asking me,” Han said, his voice feigning that he was hurt.

“This is official New Republic business Solo. Am I right?” Mara looked over at Leia.

“That’s right Han. She has the right to use your ship as long as it’s official business. And since the Ranger was destroyed, there’s nowhere else to sign the agreement,” Leia answered.

“I’ll be sure to pass that on. It’s good to hear from you guys again,” Wedge broke in.

“It’s always good to hear from you Wedge, just like old times,” Luke said.

“Yeah, just like old times. I’ll see you when we land.” Wedge broke the connection and then Han looked over at Mara.

“So, Your Highness, where would you like me to put it down?” Han asked with a smile.

“Keep talking like that, Solo, and I’ll fly this thing myself,” Mara returned and then pointed out the coordinates. Chewie brushed past them and took the co-pilot’s seat, grumbling a question to Han.

“She’s taking over my ship, that’s what she’s doing here,” Han replied as the Falcon headed towards the rendeavous point.