Chapter 2: Strategy

In spite of appearing quite confident, Luke's doubts followed him into the war room, where twenty new recruits turned as he and the messenger entered. His arrival heralded their abrupt and eerie silence as they openly gawked at him.

Luke instinctively knew that they were gazing at Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight and magical savior of Captain Solo, not Luke Skywalker, farm boy from Tatooine, the one man sure to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and to get his hand sliced off in the bargain. Doubt roared through him like a merciless fighter attack.

He didn't deserve to be in charge of anything, didn't want to be responsible for so many lives, didn't want to be the one known to have all the answers, and especially didn't want to be known as something he wasn't.

The sudden appearance of Leia at his side interrupted his dismal thoughts. She beamed up at him. "Commander Skywalker; just the man we need."

"Leia!" Doubts abruptly gave way to delight. Even though he had seen Leia just the day before, he gave her an enthusiastic hug right in front of the twenty gaping witnesses. "I thought you were on your own ship?"

"And be absent for this strategy session?" Leia rhetorically teased. "I wouldn't miss this for anything!"

Concealed by the second hug he gave her, Luke whispered into Leia's ear, "I'm a pilot, Leia, not a strategist. Tell me what to do."

"Perception is all that's important, Luke," the princess whispered back. "It doesn't matter what you are, only what they think." She leaned back then, and as if they hadn't just spoken to each other in guarded whispers, smiled a closed-lipped smile once more and said, "Han's in good hands."

Ugh... not her, too. At least she hadn't called him 'Jedi Skywalker.' "Han's my friend. You know I'll do my best."

Leia sat on one of the benches lining the wall. "I'm too close to this mission to plan it. What do you suggest?"

The cool quality in her voice would have fooled just about anybody else into thinking that she was only marginally interested in this strategy session, but Luke had known her too long. She was counting on him to rescue her one true love and bring him back to her unscathed. For a moment, Luke felt the pressure of the position he'd been thrust into become a weighty rock balanced on his shoulders. And not only was Leia counting on him, so was Han, in his own quiet way.

Again the doubt surged over him. He didn't know anything about strategy, not really. He was bound to fail, to get them all killed, to...

No!

One mental shove later, Luke took back control of his thoughts, and hence, control of the proceedings. He didn't think anybody had been aware of his fumbling, and he wanted to keep it that way.

He took a deep breath, recalling what Leia had just told him. To that end, he automatically eyed Lando sitting between Chewie and the princess. The former Cloud City Administrator had forsaken his fancy cloak and was now dressed in the serviceable pants and vest typical of a pilot. The fact that Lando was a pilot reminded Luke that he too was a pilot, and recalled all those years that he had been in command of Rogue Squadron. This type of strategy briefing was really not much different than the briefings he had done for that group.

The second he had that thought, he knew exactly what to do. He'd begin with intel. "We know that Han owed money to the gangster Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine, and was on his way to pay off his debts when he was captured and carbonized by Darth Vader in Cloud City at Bespin. He was given to the bounty hunter Boba Fett, who, as far as we know, took him straight to Jabba on Tatooine, where both he and Captain Solo remain. So that's where we have to go if we have any hope of rescuing Han. Lando, you just returned from scouting out Jabba's Palace: what are your perceptions of the place?"

As if Luke hadn't just scoped out the exact same location, Lando leaned forward in his eagerness to report. "Jabba's Palace is definitely well named. It's a true fortress, with a throne room, death pits, dungeons... the works. Major Derlin circumvented Jabba's security forces by pretending to be a smuggler, and got all the way into the throne room, where our biggest coup went down; he saw Captain Solo with his own eyes. He's there all right, hanging on the West wall of Jabba's throne room." As he spoke, he shot apologetic glances towards Leia, especially when he said the word 'hanging.'

Lando's comments were met only by the blank expression that Leia openly showed to her comrades. Luke, however, knew from past experience that the more unemotional Leia became, the more she cared about the topic under discussion. There was no getting around the fact that Han had been carbonized, and was currently nothing but a slab of rock. The man's heart was beating, and Luke assumed that there was minimal brain function, enough to keep the captain alive, but beyond that... Luke wasn't even sure if his friend could breathe, to say nothing of thinking, or if his time spent in carbon freeze was nothing but a dream to him.

And really, did it matter? It didn't change the fact that it wasn't going to be easy to take on Jabba's forces in order to get Han back.

When Leia remained silent, Lando continued, "He managed to take a video of the interior. We're having a simulation made based on it even now."

Luke nodded at Lando, then meaningfully eyed his recruits. "I want to note that this is a rescue mission, not an outright attack, and on a volunteer basis only." He knew that it had taken all of Leia's persuasive powers with the Rebel Council during the last month to get even that status. "You've heard the recon report; you know what we're up against. Anybody who wants to bow out should do it now... no hard feelings."

To the recruits' credit, only one soldier guiltily slouched out of the room. Luke realized that these new recruits didn't really have any idea what was being asked of them in this rescue mission, or how difficult it was going to be, or how likely they were to become bantha fodder sometime in the near future. But since new recruits were what was being offered, and since Captain Solo was only one man, and since the Alliance really didn't have the manpower to operate a rescue mission right now, they had happily taken what was offered, firmly shelving their complaints.

"Nineteen soldiers, huh?" Luke now noted, counting them.

"Nineteen isn't going to be enough," Lando quickly predicted. "Both Chewie and I think that we'll need at least 2000."

2000! Holy shades of the Force! Luke's eyes shot to Leia to see what she thought of this pronouncement, only to see that she was staring in bleak despair at the floor. He doubted that she was even aware of him. There would be no help from that quarter, as much as Luke would have appreciated it.

Momentarily bamboozled, Luke swallowed the bitter taste of his mounting horror. Recoiling in a mental stumble, Luke finally recalled Leia's sage words and instinctive faith in him. It matters what they think. At the memory, Luke reflexively straightened. If he was horrified at Lando's prediction, those under his command didn't need to know it. "2000 soldiers would be nice, but we only have nineteen; let's make each one count."

But Lando wasn't done. "That's a nice speech, Luke, but Jabba has an army made up mostly of Gammorians bent on killing, then dying a glorious death in order to attain their concept of immortality. Going up against something like that without careful planning will be suicide."

Luke shrugged, lifting his brows in invitation. "Then I'm open to suggestions."

Before anybody spoke, one brave voice echoed from the back of the room. "We don't need any army to fight our way in; we have a Jedi Knight! They won't know what hit them!"

Ugh... enough with the Jedi thing. Luke didn't need to be reminded of what he wasn't, no matter how innocent the reminder. "Maybe, but we shouldn't..."

"We may be a small force, but we're strong! And they won't expect a Jedi!"

"It's perfect!" a third soldier enthused. "Just get me within blaster range, and pow!" She pantomimed vaporizing an invisible enemy with an invisible weapon.

Crinkles of doubt encased Luke's eyes. "Have you even fired a blaster?"

"Of course I have," the new recruit confidently replied. "On the farm, I did all the shooting."

"The farm? You're from..?"

"Baveer," she proudly informed. "You'll probably eat animals we raised at your next meal." Her pride in Baveer was obvious just by her haughty tone.

However, haughtiness led to overconfidence, which often led to death. "Animals don't fight back."

Clearly surprised, the girl nevertheless remembered to nod, and managed to respectfully say, "I know that, Sir." Yet that edge of haughtiness remained.

Luke swallowed his resignation at her naivete. "They also aren't intent on killing you before you kill them."

The girl bristled unconsciously. "Are you saying that I don't know what I'm doing?"

There was no point in making an enemy of her, but there was also no point in not being honest. "Of course not," Luke instantly placated. "What I'm saying is that we're outnumbered, outgunned, and none of us really have the experience necessary to repel forces like Jabba the Hutt's. We can't let overconfidence minimize our chances of success. Lando's right; we need to have a great plan."

"Forgive me for saying so, Sir, but won't the fact that we have a Jedi be..?"

"I don't want to rely on that," he cut in, irritated with so many mentions of his Jedi status. "Careful planning and preparation will go a lot further in guaranteeing success than reliance on what one person can do."

"But can't we try..?"

"No! Do, or do not. There is no try." The words were out of Luke's mouth before he even had the time to think about what he was saying. Yoda would have been delighted at his involuntary behavior, but such an abruptly unforgiving manner was unsettling to the new recruits. Attempting to soften his demeanor, Luke went on to gently argue, "A man's life is at stake. To say nothing of that, your fellow soldier's lives depend on what you do. I'm sure you don't want to let them down. We have to be honest about our skills, to practice, to be as precise as we can be about the layout of the palace, to not overestimate our chances, then plan our attack down to the last minute detail. Preparation is the key," he recited, quoting one of the mantras of Rogue Squadron, oft repeated, and firmly entrenched in his mind. "So, are you all sure you still want to volunteer for this mission? I won't lie to you; it's not going to be easy at all. At the same time, Captain Solo has done so much for the Rebellion. I owe him my life too many times to count. Princess Leia owes him her life. So does Lando, and Chewie. Losing him now would be a major blow in the war with the Empire. Besides, whether he knows it or not, he's counting on all of us. I, for one, don't plan on letting him down."

Silence met that appeal, but it was the quiet of veneration at the unexpected pep talk. The soldiers looked at each other, their mouths agape, their awe palpable.

Princess Leia broke through that hushed emotion with a reverent gratitude that she had never displayed. "Thank you."