Chapter 2

"Move! Move now!"

Blasters began to fly through the gap in the shuttle doors before they had even opened half-way, and all around Garin bodies started to fall quickly. The Alliance soldiers had moved large metal crates to provide them with cover, but the Jedi deflected much of their gunfire, allowing the bulk of the rebel soldiers to make it to cover as well. The hangar bay on the lead ship wasn't big, but there must have been five or six dozen men and women firing their weapons on both sides. The room itself was vast – it had been designed not just to hold small fighters, but much larger shuttles as well. Though there were dozens of soldiers now in the hangar, it was not overcrowded.

Within seconds the shuttle bay that the soldiers had emerged into was filled with smoke. The blaster shots which missed their targets burned away at whatever they did hit, and the smoke was making it difficult to see. The two Jedi had no difficulty sensing their enemies, and they cut their way through the middle of the Alliance soldiers, light sabres in hand. The woman screamed at her companion to get down, and just as he did a section of the far wall exploded towards him missing his head by inches. He looked at her and smiled.

"I would have seen that", he said.

She pulled a face that said she didn't believe him, and absent mindedly deflected a blaster shot with her light sabre. "You are so full of yourself, Gabe", she said.

He cut down four of his attackers almost without having to think. "That's because I'm so amazing, Jani", he replied.

Jani laughed. She turned around, motioned towards Garin, who was busy shouting orders and trying not to get killed while doing so. "Garin", she shouted. "We'll head further in. Try to draw as many of them as you can here and away from us". The man raised an arm to say that he understood, and got back to shouting orders.

The man called Gabe put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you ready for this?" he asked.

She brushed some of her dark hair away from her eyes and stared into his. "It's a little late to be asking me that", she said, and smiled. "But yes, I am. Are you?"

He nodded. "Don't let us get separated", he said, his face serious.

Jani smiled widely. "Why?" she asked. "You know that you can always find me".

Gabe grinned and, without answering, moved over to the wall and used his sabre to slice a hole. He motioned towards Jani. "After you", he said, while the blaster fire flew between them. She strolled through the gap in the wall and he followed.

They found themselves in between the walls, and had to crawl through the metallic bowels of the ship. It was like a maze – maintenance tunnels would shoot off in a dozen directions, and they were all practically identical. They knew which direction they needed to head in – the Force was guiding them – but the maze of tunnels were such that they encountered dead ends on many occasions. It took them almost twenty minutes to find a route to the water processing unit – barely fifty yards away from the hangar bay in which they had entered the ship.

The water processing unit, they knew, was directly below the bridge. Now that they had found their way there it was simply a matter of climbing up several floors. At least, they assumed that it would be simple. When they actually saw the water processing unit they had to rethink.

It was vast – they emerged onto a thin walkway, barely wide enough for a person to walk across, which led precariously over a massive tank of water. A large metal whisk – there was no other way to describe it – whirled about underneath them, churning the water relentlessly. Though they were nearly forty feet above the water they could still feel droplets hitting their faces.

The two looked at each other, wordlessly communicating their exasperation, and then they began to make their way across the footbridge. Jani grunted as her foot slipped over the edge.

The sound of gunfire reverberated around the ship. "Sounds like they're having fun", Gabe said as he looked down. Jani had quickened and was now several yards ahead. "Hey", he called after her. She stopped and looked around and an impatient look appeared on her face. "Hurry up", she said.

He strolled nonchalantly over to her. "Haven't you been complaining all of the journey here that we haven't had any time to ourselves?" he asked, as a mischievous grin spread across his face.

"Now is definitely not the time", she said, although a smile crept across her lips as well. "Can't you wait until after we're saved the day?"

He grabbed her arm gently, and kissed her deeply on the lips. She was surprised at first but her eyes closed and she raised her hand and put it gently on the back of his head. After what seemed like a long time he moved back. "No", he said softly. "I can't". He moved his hand down to her chest, and kissed her again. She moved as though to embrace him but instead she threw him to the floor – he nervously grabbed the sides of the walkway as he hit it, worried that he might drop over the edge. Jani saw this and let out a loud burst of laughter. Then she dived onto him, and they made love.

The battle in the hangar bay was not going well. Before the Rebel shuttles opened the Alliance troops had time to not only fortify their own position but sabotage any possible cover the Rebels had. When the Jedi were fighting alongside them the Rebels held their own, but since they moved forward for every Alliance soldier killed three or four Rebels fell.

Garin knew that they could not keep this up. He reasoned that their best chance was to move the battle out of the hangar bay to give them a chance to regroup. This put him in a difficult situation. There were heavy weapons on their shuttles but Admiral Connor had given orders to avoid using them because of the risk of depressurisation, which would kill everyone there. With the Alliance soldiers directly between them and the only exit, however, the only way out was to blast a hole through them or the wall.

He told the men around him to hold until his signal, and moved into the nearest shuttle. The constant weapons fire had turned it into a wreck, but he knew that the weapons systems in these shuttles were reinforced, and should still be operational. The problem would lie in manoeuvring the shuttle into a position where it could safely blast a hole through the ship. He reached the cockpit and checked the thrusters. It was no good – they were completely ruined. That this meant they had no chance of escape did not interest him – they had known beforehand that going on this missions meant victory or death. It did leave him with only one option. The shuttle was facing towards the enemy soldiers, and used the control panel to aim the shuttle's blasters directly at them. He knew that there was a risk that the blast would catastrophically damage the Endor's structural integrity, and the mission was to capture the ship with as little damage as possible, but if he didn't then they would all be killed.

He grabbed his communicator and told his sergeant to move everyone out of the way. Through the broken cockpit windows he could see them scurrying to the side. As soon as they were clear, and before the enemy noticed them moving, he opened fire.

The blast reverberated through the ship, causing it to shake violently. Jani looked up. "Did the floor just move?" she asked.

Gabe looked up at her and grinned. "I have that effect".

She playfully hit him on the shoulder. They paused for a moment, contemplating what could have caused such a violent shudder. "We need to get moving", Jani said reluctantly.

Gabe thought about arguing, but saw the serious look on her face and knew that their moment had passed by. The smile fell from his face. He stood up, and Jani tidied herself up and did the same. She motioned to the ladder in front of them. "The bridge should be six floors above us", she said. "We take out the leaders first; the rest of them will follow".

Jani pulled out her light sabre. "Hopefully", she added.

Garin and his troops had managed to move themselves into an adjoining corridor. The explosion from the shuttle's gunfire had taken out almost all of the Alliance troops in the hangar bay but the corridors were full of reinforcements. It seemed to him as though there were many more Alliance troops on board than was standard for this class of ship, and they had not encountered any other staff – no engineers or pilots - almost as though the ship had been packed with soldiers in readiness for an attack. Though this bothered him greatly, the battle was still raging and he had no time to further contemplate its significance.

There were fewer than twenty Rebel soldiers still alive, and that number was falling quickly. Garin would never admit it but he was starting to think that they stood no chance of success. He positioned himself in a corner and tried to contact the Admiral. "Admiral", he said into his communicator. There was no response. They must be jamming them, but there was a chance that the outgoing signal was still getting through. "Admiral, I don't know if you can hear me, but the mission is not going well". He paused, as though trying to decide something. The soldiers nearest to him had overheard him, and were now listening to his every word. "I think it's time we switched to plan B", he said reluctantly.

The original mission was to capture the Endor intact so that the Rebels could repair it and use it against the Alliance. The ship was very heavily armoured and would be a great asset. Now that Garin had convinced himself that capturing the ship was no longer possible, they had to switch their objective to destroying it. A dozen Rebel ships were waiting in a nearby sector, ready to jump into the battle and attack the Endor. This meant that Garin's immediate objective had switched from attack to retreat – they needed to get off the Endor before it was destroyed. He needed to find a way to get the Rebels left alive off the ship, and inform the Admiral of the situation if his earlier broadcast had not gotten through.

Gabe and Jani finished their long climb through the bowels of the ship. The bridge was now just beyond the wall in front of them. Gabe extended his light sabre and wordlessly moved to the wall, preparing to cut a hole through it. He nodded to Jani, and she extended her own light sabre and nodded back. Gabe cut through the wall and the pair dropped down onto the bridge.

They had expected the gunfire to open up immediately. They had expected to have the element of surprise. They didn't. A group of soldiers – maybe twenty or twenty five of them – all stood with their guns pointed straight at them. The enemy Admiral – instantly recognisable not only due to his uniform, but because of the smug expression on his face – stood behind them. But neither the soldiers nor their leader were the focus of the two Jedi's attention, because either side of the Admiral were four cloaked figures, each with a light sabre drawn. They were Jedi.

Gabe and Jani looked at each other, wordlessly communicating their concern. They could sense that the Force was strong with these Jedi – senior members of the Order, no doubt. They had concealed their faces – an insult in Jedi culture. The soldiers they could have dealt with, but if these Jedi were even half competent they would struggle. How did they know we were coming? Jani thought to herself, panicking. Did someone betray us? Why are there Jedi here?

Her thoughts were cut short. The enemy Admiral strode forward, smug grin still in place, and began to speak. "Welcome, Grey Jedi", he said. "We've been expecting you. Lower your weapons." Gabe looked at Jani, who sighed and reluctantly lowered her light sabre. Gabe did the same. "Good", the Admiral continued. He began to pace around the bridge. The four Jedi had not moved. "I am Admiral Odena, and this is my ship. Did you really think that we would send our flagship – our most important military weapon – unescorted through space?" He paused, his grin getting even wider. "This was a trap. And we have our new friends in the Jedi Order to thank for helping us to spring it".

He walked over to a communication terminal, pressed a button and said "Now".

"Dear God!"

Admiral Connor looked out in disbelief as Alliance ships began to jump into the area, one after the other until the view screen was filled with dozens of them. He turned to his communications officer. "Get our reinforcements here now!" he screamed, as the Alliance ships began to open fire.

A few seconds later more ships, this time from the Rebel fleet, began to arrive. They had been waiting in position as back-up in case the mission went badly and they had to switch objectives to destroying the Endor. Now they were the only chance any of them had of getting out of there alive.

On-board the Endor Garin and his squad were desperately trying to make their way to the escape pods, unaware of the chaos erupting outside save for the violent shudders which had begun to rock the ship. All around him his men were being cut down by Alliance forces. By the time they'd forced their way to the escape pods there were only six of them left. They climbed into one of them and ejected the pod.

The pod was thrown clear of the ship in a fraction of a second. The sight that greeted him through the pod's windows was horrific. Dozens of ships floated by, many broken into pieces, and Garin could make out hundreds of frozen bodies floating between them. Dozens more ships continued the battle, but it was clear to him that the Rebel ships were outclassed – they stood no chance, and it was just a matter of time before they were beaten completely. As though to prove his point, the few remaining Rebel ships, including the cruiser that they had arrived on, jumped out of the battle, defeated.

The escape pod was left to float in the wreckage.