Star Wars: The Last Orders

Chapter One - Cold Storage

Written By Jedireaper

The wind blew a gust of frigid air into his face and Venik pulled the facewrap tighter. The storm had only subsided a few hours ago, so the general balmy arctic temperatures Hoth normally got (for an ice cube) were less than friendly.

He continued clambering up the freshly formed snowdrift, leaving a trail of tumbling snow behind him. He'd been stuck out here for a few days now seperated from the others, and it'd been his own fault. He'd decided against the advice of the grizzled veteran and took the risk to come out here.

The storm was just his rotten luck. It left him stranded inside the carcass of the heavily damaged and abandoned AT-AT Imperial Walker. The good thing was that he'd even found one. The Imperials had done their normal mopping up operations but they'd left plenty of equipment behind. And considering the kind of environment it was not a surprise.

In fact, from what Venik and the Relica had been able to ascertain whilst trapped in the tunnels for those first few days, before they'd found Naii, was that the Imperial forces upped and left the planet pretty quickly. Probably off chasing the Rebel fleet, he'd imagined.

As Venik came abreast of the apex of the mountain of snow the storm had blown into place, he keyed his communicator. "Echo-" he faltered for a second, considering the use of the callsign, before continuing, "-one to base. Anyone there?"

He paused, listening to the static and the low swoosh of the wind over the snowdrift. "Echo one to base." He repeated. "Anyone read me?"

There was a subtle change to the pitch of the static and then a distinct feminine voice broke through. "Thank the Force. We thought you were gone." Even through the diffusion that the static provided, he could hear the relief in Relica's voice. "The storm came in quicker than we'd thought."

"I know, I was the one trapped out in it after all," I spent the last few days in the belly of a Walker, and my Tauntaun didn't make it past the first marker." Venik thought about the Tauntaun stew recipe he'd come up with, and was thankful he hadn't had to make it (yet). He doubted the Imperial ration packs he'd found would have really helped make the meal any more appetising.

"I'm…"

"...on my way back. You should see the amount of equipment the Imps left behind. I'm taking some stuff back with me, mostly ration packs, but you know I think we can do it."

Relica Worbash sighed and gave an affirmed nod, mostly for her own benefit. "Get back safe."

"Will do. Echo one, out."

The was a crack and flash of sparks behind her, briefly lighting up the dim hangar section they were in. She turned to see Naii Roftuen gripping the thick power cable with his insulated gloves.

Naii was thankful the burns marking them were as far as the damage had gone. "If this doesn't work," Naii muttered to himself, "it'll take the Four Hells of Corellia to find us."

"We'll be frozen long before then though." Came the inquisitive voice of Relica, stood a few meters behind him. "Because if not, then I can't think why else it would take that many hells."

"What about Sullust. It's pretty much hell right?" Naii added.

Relica smiled grimly. "If that's hell, what's this place?"

"Cold Storage." Naii stated.

"Oh haw haw, very funny, very funny." Relica waved Naii off as she turned and started making her way towards the daylight streaming through a collapse at the other end of the hangar. "I'm going to see if I can pick up Venik on the Macrobinoculars."

Naii turned back to the mess of cables and scrounged equipment, it looked like a tentacled electronic monstrosity. So ugly, he thought, it's gotta work.

Heating on the parts of the base that remained in one piece (or ten) had given out days ago, and the lighting systems had continued to dim and go dark as the days rolled on.

If this doesn't work Naii, we should try our luck on the surface. Venik had said to him. Maybe he was right. Either way he was glad the man survived.

As Naii connected up the live cable he was holding, he started muttering to himself: "It'll work, it's gotta work. I don't know how much power is left in the emergency generators, or what kind of range it might have. But it's gotta work, or it's Tauntaun stew all round. And I think Venik will carry out that threat."

Sparks brought his attention fully to his task, and the terminal and cables before him, as screens and lights started flashing. He'd cobbled together a pulsing beacon of sorts and connected it to a scrounged signal dish on the surface. Nothing fancy, and they weren't connecting to the HoloNet anytime soon but he hoped the pulse would be picked up by someone non-Imperial.

Though how long it'd take for the signal to reach anyone beyond the system was anyone's guess. Relica had mentioned that the signal would take a few days at best to reach the nearest hyperspace lanes. From there it was just a matter of actually being picked up.

He'd bet his trusty blaster pistol that the Imps had set up some kind of listening device in orbit or at the edge of the asteroid field. So only time would tell. Meanwhile they had Venik's idea.

The asteroids spun around their axis' darting and colliding and moving in synchronized chaotic harmony. Between all the rocky spacial debris was a smooth black cylindrical object that seemed apart from that which surrounded it. This object brought it's lazy spin to a halt, and a small ion jet lit up at one end.

It then sped towards the pristine white and blue marbled planet that lay before it.