Authors' note: Hey guys, and welcome to Star Wars: The Last Orders, a mostly for fun experiment between three writers, both experienced and inexperienced, with myself (Jedireaper) performing the majority of the quality checks, which I'm sorry to say I didn't start doing till Chapter Six (which I will now be rectifying on a per-chapter basis for the earlier Chapters). I really hope you enjoy reading this story.
We have overhauled and updated the Prologue chapter to address concerns that we seem to be losing readers right-off-the-bat at the start of the story. Trust me, it gets better; both in writing, and in story. And we have plenty of action to come, things do get more exciting, and we'll try to have Cameos as befitting the story; so please stay with us.
And please leave us your thoughts and opinions and click those favourite and follow buttons to see when we upload our next chapter. Thank you for reading. -Jedireaper
UPDATE [17/08/2018]
Star Wars: The Last Orders
PROLOGUE
Written by ShawnMorgan
Edited, Updated, and Additional Material Written by Jedireaper
"Hey, Naii", came the familiar voice of Relica Worbash. "It looks like we're down to our last few provisions."
Naii Rofteun sagged. It actually was going to come down to eating the Tauntaun stew Venik had been threatening to make, after all. Steeling himself by the thought, he returned to his work; that of affixing many working cables that had no business being attached to each other. But they were all he had to work with.
Two Weeks Earlier: The Battle of Hoth
Imperial Walker fire pounded the rebel positions as the defenders' outclassed snowspeeders performed minor miracles against the Empire's juggernauts. These terror transports had been deployed as the Rebels had, by some other miracle, had enough time to get the shield in place, preventing them from being wiped out from orbit.
"Naii! Heads up!"
Now, thought Naii Rofteun, we're going to get wiped out on the ground instead. "Fall back!" He shouted, waving at the soldiers in his position, and layed down covering fire.
He watched as the Imperial Walkers started to discharged their passengers, and a tide of Imperial Stormtroopers began charging Rebel positions. Between the constant pounding of Imperial Walker fire and the seismic resonance created by their stamping progress, Echo Base managing any form of resistance was close to a miracle.
The attack was coming from Darth Vader, his terrifying black visage easily visible amongst the sea of white. The Rebels now knew that it would be the Sith Lord's personal fleet layin in wait for them above. The Force alone knew how Echo Base had detected its approach.
Like the other rebels in the base, Naii now knew that this meant that it was only a matter of time before the base fell. Against any other Imperial force they may have stood a ghost of a chance. But not against Vader.
As Naii and his squad retreated into the base, a filtered voice echoed through the tunnels, "Imperial Troops have entered the base. Imperial troops have entered the-"
Naii gritted his teeth and awaited his inevitable fate alongside men and women, human and alien of the resistance. His Rodian commander spoke softly but his voice carried easily. "We will buy the transports as much time to get away as our lives can give. The Rebellion will live to fight another day. May the force be with us all." He paused, "Now go!"
The Imperials swarmed through, blazing away with abandon, some aiming, others just blasting away confident that their numbers would carry the day. Naii covered his commander, putting down several Stormtroopers just as his comrades were, even as the main gun thundered away next to him.
Then the gun stopped as more than one stormtrooper managed to get grenades on target. Charred bodies dropped next to him but steeling himself, he returned fire alongside the remnant.
Someone shouted,"Keep firing. We can hold them!"
Naii never knew who had said it, as a squad of Stormtroopers, using the cover of the grenade assault had set up a cannon. With one nearby concussive blast, Naii's world went white, and it felt like he was flying. Then he lost consciousness.
Relica Worbash shuddered as yet more of the doomed base collapsed around her, even as she felt the ground shake from the thudding approach of the Imperial Walkers, and the ever closer blaster fire.
The maintenance on the damaged station had almost been completed, she glanced at the several blips that finally flickered to life on the computer screen that denoted enemy forces. There was another set of Walkers detected approaching the south side of the base. This told her the bad news; there were more than a dozen of the damned things, and she knew that each one of them would be carrying at least a platoon of bucketheads.
A truncated warning echoed over the the base speakers, and Relica froze, no longer able to focus on her task. It was over. Swallowing hard, she gathered her gear, and fled along with the rest of her assigned squad, listening to the ever closer blaster fire.
Her squad up ahead turned into a corridor that was suddenly awash in blaster fire. Relica skidded to a halt short of the corner and started back tracking, everyone she knew already gone. She turned, and ran in the opposite direction, hoping to find a cut through that'd allow her to get to the last transports.
Venik Tyorran ran down the ice corridor. He'd been in a Snowspeeder but his craft had malfunctioned due to the cold; he'd had to footslog it from the forward station, back to the main base as he'd been asked to fly one of the last transports. He was almost there, rounding a turn in the corridor, when a large section of the ice ceiling fell in front of him. The young Rebel gaped, That was too close. If I'd been one second faster…
His communicator beeped. "Tyorran, where are you? We can't wait much longer, Imperials are already in the base!"
"I'm cut off," Venik admitted, studying the chunks of ice blocking his way, "Just get out of here, and good luck!"
"You too! Transport out."
Another voice sounded briefly over the line and Venik recognised the voice of Han Solo, who was apparently having similar issues. At least he has the Falcon, Venik thought, shame that's through this ice wall.
He turned and started running for the other end of the tunnel, dodging dropped crates, and packs, and even weapons. Just maybe there'll be a way through, he thought.
Just as he turned a corner he almost collided with a soldier who'd been running the other way, and it sent them both off-balance. "Whoa!" He grabbed for her arm before they both went over, and steadied them.
Breathing heavily she exclaimed, "The transport!"
"It's gone, tunnel collapsed, we need to go around-"
The woman grabbed Venik's arm, her eye's wide, her voice shaking, "But the tunnel back that way, the Snowtroopers used concussion grenades. It collapsed. We're-"
"Hey," Venik gave her arm a squeeze, "what's your name?"
"Relica," she managed, "Relica Worbash."
"Venik Tyorran." He let go of her arm and stood back. "We're just going to have to wait it out in here. Plenty of stuff laying around."
Relica followed his gaze to the abandoned supply crates and packs that were strewn about, and nodded. "Yeah, okay. What about the Snowtroopers?"
"Ah," Venik smiled, "there's plenty of go around…"
Six Days After The Battle...
He came round to see nothing but a dim white sheet, and a distant voice. A minute later he could see a worried (and orange garbed) Rebel Pilot knelt over him, staring at him. Naii sat up, blinking as his sight cleared. "Ugh, what hit me."
"Imperial weapons fire I imagine," said a female voice whose owner he couldn't see, "we dug you out two days ago, I think. We got left behind when the fleet evacuated. That's the bad news."
Naii tried to focus on her, giving up as a burning pain in his skull forced him to close his eyes as he managed to ask, "There's good news?"
"No more Imperials, they pulled out a couple of days back ago, seemed in a pretty big hurry," answered the Pilot, Naii could see the mans hair was tousled and mostly unkept. "And you're the only other Rebel we've found alive so far. And I can tell you that it was a bit touch and go with you, but we did what we could. You'll be alright."
Naii sat up slowly, and winced with pain, his voice took on a dark edge, "I'm the only one?"
The Pilot sighed, "There's nothing left of your unit," he spoke softly. "I'm sorry."
Naii was quiet for a few moments, seemingly soaking in the information given to him. "I see," he said at last, "so it's just us? And who are us?"
"I'm Relica Worbash." The woman who had been out of his sight now moved into it, both her and the Pilot looked none the worse for wear, her hair was matted, and the Pilot's uniform was scuffed and scraped.
"And this," she continued, "is Venik Tyorran."
"Naii," he breathed in and out slowly, "Naii Rofteun," Pausing to look around at their location, his eye's focussed on Venik. "Now, either of you happen to have some Terranian Brandy? I could use a drink."
Venik shook his head, "I'm sure we can find something, but it looks like we're down to the last orders."