Welcome to my alternative storyline for a Han Solo movie, another What If scenario, if Disney allowed me to do a remake. This is how I would have made the movie, or close to it at least. So if you enjoy it, or hate it, do leave a comment.

Planet of Corellia:

Stars. We move down and come a cross a half-finished Star Destroyer, people and droids hard at work like tiny ants all over the huge ship. The Star Destroyer is not in space, but in a dockyard surrounded by a large town.

In the town, a crowd of people are watching a holographic transmission of Chancellor Palpatine proclaiming the Republic as the first Galactic Empire ( the iconic scene from Revenge of the Sith ). The Corellians aren't sure what to make of it.

One of the men speaks to the people next to him. "I heard we're gonna keep building warships for the navy."

"Why?" a woman wonders. "The wars are over aren't they?"

"Please!" the man says and sneers. "The Separatists rebelled against the Republic. How many worlds will rebel now that they've created an Empire? Believe me, the wars wont be over anytime soon."

Another man, arms folded over his chest, shakes his head. "Republic or Empire, I don't care. As long as we keep building ships it means food on the table."

A young boy, 12 years old, listens to the grownups; this is Han Solo! He leaves and runs down the street and finds a platform that overlooks a street on a lower level. A regiment of Clone Soldiers marches by together with AT-PT's and even AT-ST's, the soldiers carrying banners.

"Han!" a woman calls out and walks up to the boy and grabs his arm. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"I just wanted to see the soldiers, mom" Han tells his mother.

His mother turns into a massive frown. "Soldiers? Thugs protecting the rich and wealthy, that's all they are. Look up there." She points at the Star Destroyer being built up in the sky. "You see that? Those ships might mean we all have a job, that we all have food on the table. But somewhere else in the galaxy, those ships will be a symbol of oppression and occupation. Never forget that Han. Those with power will do anything to keep that power, they will lie, cheat and abuse anyone if it means keeping their power. And all we ordinary people can do, is to take every chance we get to exploit the bastards. Turn the tables on them whenever we can. Do you understand? Let them never push you down. Always push back. Always."

Planet of Proxima:

An Imperial Zeta-class cargo-shuttle ( the quad-winged shuttle introduced in Rogue One ) flies towards the planet of Proxima. Onboard are two crewmembers; the pilot, Lieutenant Han Solo, now in his early twenties, along with his co-pilot, Ensign Munbrin.

Solo activates his communicator. "Proxima flight-command, this is shuttle Epsilon Three-Three-Zero. We're transmitting our code-clearance. Please confirm."

A voice responds over the radio. "Shuttle Epsilon Three-Three-Zero, this is Proxima flight-command. We have received your code-clearance and you are cleared to land."

"Understood." Solo says.

The shuttle flies past two Star Destroyers in orbit. The shuttle lands at an Imperial base on the ground, located not far from the frontlines of a warzone; the battles are heard and seen in the background. Solo and his co-pilot steps outside and are greeted by the quartermaster.

The quartermaster rests his hands against his hips. "Han Solo! Welcome back."

Solo grins. "How are ya, Ryq?"

"Could've been better" Ryg says. "The damned rebels on this good for nothing rock just don't know when to give up. Landed two bombs on us only three days ago. And we've been blasting them for how long? Two months? How about you?"

Solo shrugs his shoulders. "Oh, you know, same old crap. Flying from one end of the Empire to the other."

The quartermaster nods. "I can imagine. Anything I should know about concerning your cargo?"

Solo hands Ryq a small box that the quartermaster puts in his pocket.

"Get it off and my boys will unload the rest" Ryq says.

Solo and his co-pilot retrieve a crate from the cargo-hold and leaves with it and only after does the quartermaster give his crew orders to empty the shuttle.

XXX XXX

The crate is opened and Solo hands out various items to a group of Imperial officers in a warehouse.

"Some Corellian brandy. A box of magluvian spice. Nuuvian slicers. A power-charger with a Mandalorian foculizer. And a vial of pishren neuro-toxin… don't drink it all at once."

A colonel steps up to Solo. "Solo, you got what I asked for?"

Solo offers the colonel a smile. "Sure thing, colonel. Straight from Nar Shadaa. Two bottles of belindan gin. What more do you need to forget the stress of fighting rebels?"

The colonel shakes his head. "I don't know how you do it, Solo. Where the hell do you find all this stuff?"

"Hey, it's what I do, colonel. It's what I do."

XXX XXX

Later, the colonel pours himself a drink of belindan gin in his office together with a captain.

The captain studies the drink. "How can a guy like Solo continue his business? Where the hell does he find all of this stuff? It's only a matter of time before a guy like him gets caught."

The colonel shrugs his shoulders. "Solo has connections all over the Empire. Officers in the army, the navy, hundreds of bureaucrats, maybe thousands, that he trades favors with. I'll tell ya, there is no-one in the Empire that has the amount of connections as Han Solo. If you want something that is not acceptable for you to get your hands on, Solo is the guy that will get it for ya."

The captain enjoys the drink but shakes his head. "Sounds to me like the day the guy goes down, he's going down with a big bang."

"I don't know" the colonel says. "Solo was a prodigy in the Academy. Pilot-skills unlike anyone else. The way I understand it, he was singled out to fly TIE Defenders as soon as he graduated."

The captain is obviously impressed by this. "So whatta hell happened? Why's he flying cargo?"

The colonel leans back comfortably in his chair. "He punched a Star Destroyer captain. Apparently, the guy was harassing a twi'lek dance-girl and Solo knocked him out. But Solo's commanding officer at the Academy made sure that Solo avoided penal-duty and instead had him transferred and demoted. So, now, he flies cargo."

The captain shakes his head. "Poor guy. But if he has a soft-spot for lowlifes, he just had it coming. He wont get any sympathies from me."

"I don't think he cares all that much what you think of him, captain. I'm not sure he cares all that much about anyone at all."

XXX XXX

Solo and his co-pilot hangs out with fellow officers and pilots at the base, drinking and joking and gambling. One TIE pilot is exceptionally cocky.

"So I came up behind the rebel fighter, an old separatist-fightercraft, put six salvos into his starboard engine and saw it go down in flames. Nothing to it. These rebels are nothing but farmhands and drunkards."

"Drunkards, huh?" an officer says. "If that's the case, how come I've been stuck here for the past year?"

The pilot shrugs his shoulders. "Hey, what you do on the ground is none of my business. But maybe the war-effort would have gone a bit smoother if the navy was put in charge of all of it."

Solo's co-pilot, Ensign Munbrin, eyes the pilot. "You don't think that two Star Destroyers in orbit is enough to uproot some rebels? Seems to me that the navy is having as much trouble as the army here on Proxima."

"No offense, ensign" the pilot says, "but what would a cargo-pilot know about strategy?"

The officer nods in Solo's direction. "Solo here once managed to fight off two old Y-wings with his Zeta-shuttle. Shot them both down."

The pilot is a bit surprised by this. "A shuttle? Shot down two fighter-bombers?"

The officer nods. "What was that move you made, Solo? You managed to get one Y-wings torpedo to destroy the other one?"

Solo shrugs his shoulders, appearing quite nonchalant about it. "It wasn't all that difficult. As long as you know what you're doing."

The pilot looks at Solo, not believing the story. "You took out a Y-wing, using another Y-wings torpedo?"

"It's all about timing" Solo says. "I let one of them lead me on so the other could come up behind me and take his shot. As the torpedo was about to hit me, I opened my emergency-venting system and blasted the torpedo with hyper-particles, moved out of the way and when the torpedo had reset its tracking-system, it locked on to the other Y-wing. Simple."

The pilot finds the story astonishing. "You would have to hit the torpedo with the venting-blast the moment before it's gonna hit your shields if its gonna distract the targeting-system like that."

Solo simply smiles. "I know." Solo wins the game at that point, placing his hand of cards on the table. "And with that, I'll bleed you all dry and cut my losses. Keep the bottle, gentlemen. I can always get my hands on more."

Solo leaves. Solo's co-pilot, Ensign Munbrin, reaches over and retrieves the bottle of alcohol and pours himself a drink.

"Solo's from Corellia." Munbrin tells the pilot "Flying is in their blood. Corellians are mechanics before they can crawl and pilots before they can walk. Building ships, repairing ships, flying ships, it's what they do. It's all they do. And Solo was exceptional even for a Corellian. So don't worry about it, lieutenant, you'll never be as good as him."

XXX XXX

Solo is walking on his own through the base, late at night. The battles are heard in the background, speeders fly past, AT-ST's walk past, soldiers march past. Solo finds an out of the way place behind some buildings where he meets up with a civilian woman who steps out of the shadows; this is Qi'ra.

"Hello, Han."

"Qi'ra."

"You got what I asked for?"

Solo holds up a datadisc. "You need to ask?"

"Well, you never know. There has to be a first for everything."

"You thinking about making enemies?" Solo asks her.

"It's hard to avoid enemies in my line of work" she tells him.

"True, but picking fights with the Hutt's?"

Qi'ra studies Solo with intense eyes. "You looked at the disc?"

Solo grins. "Sorry. Couldn't help myself. So… patrol-schedules surrounding Kessel, huh? You planning on cutting in on the Hutt's smuggling-operation?"

Qi'ra smiles. "Kessel spice is the best there is in the entire galaxy. If I can offer lower prices than the Hutt's for Kessel glitterstim, I'm set for life."

"That's a big if. The Hutt's are territorial to the extreme. They don't like competition."

Qi'ra nods. "I think I can make a deal they can live with. The Kessel Run is close to eighteen parsecs."

"For good reason" Solo cuts her off. "The nebula makes hyperspace-jumps impossible and patrols and scanners have a tight watch on Kessel. Those eighteen parsecs are the safest route to avoid detection."

Qi'ra nods, she knows Han is right. "I intend to find a shorter route" she then says. "I'm confident I can make the Kessel Run in sixteen parsecs."

"Sixteen? What makes you so sure?"

Qi'ra grins. "I know a guy."

Solo laughs. "I see. Alright, I wont stop you. If you want to upset the Hutt cartels, be my guest. But don't expect me to come to your rescue, sister. Nal Hutta is not part of the Empire."

Qi'ra rolls her eyes. "Han, when have you ever had to come and help me?"

"Well, I do seem to recall that one time…"

"I thought you swore to never bring that up again?"

"Yeah, about that… I might have lied."

"Lieutenant Solo, First Class, I do believe you are a bit of a scoundrel."

Solo offers Qi'ra a charming smile. "Only when it's appropriate. I'm actually a really nice guy."

"Nice guys never finds it appropriate to be scoundrels."

Solo takes a step closer to her. "So they claim."

"Han Solo… will you ever change?"

"Maybe, and only maybe, if I meet the right woman."

"Is that so?"

Qi'ra takes a step closer to Solo and then they embrace and kiss.

To be continued…