Chapter 4
Han and Chewbacca made their way through a dimly lit corridor. Chewbacca suspected that it was a service tunnel of some kind, probably used by maintenance workers and engineers. They continued down the tunnel for about twenty minutes or so, until they came to a large open room. The room was better lit then the tiny tunnel and was filled with containers and parts from old ships and droids. It looked more like a storage yard then a hanger.
The smugglers walked, cautiously, into the room. They didn't see anyone else around but they couldn't afford to take any chances.
"Does this room look familiar to you, Chewie?" Han asked his partner.
Chewbacca gazed around the room again. It didn't seem familiar to him at first, and then he noticed what was in the middle of the room among the piles of junk. It was their ship, the Millennium Falcon.
Chewbacca roared in excitement. He knew they now had a chance of getting off of this planet alive. Perhaps Han's plan would actually work.
"I told you my plan would work, Chewie." Han said laughing.
A few minutes later they had disabled the security locks and Chewbacca had hurried aboard the Falcon and had started prepping the engines for their escape. The ship seemed to be working fine, but it all just seemed too easy. They had gotten into the hanger without running into any patrols, they'd disabled the locks without setting off any alarms and they'd fired up the engines and still no one had come to see what might to be going on.
Not that either of them were complaining, it would be fine with them if they were able to get out of the system without having to worry about being noticed by the Imperials.
Han Solo was just outside of the ship, standing next to the lowered ramp. He was a little nervous, he had almost hoped that they would encounter some kind of resistance by now, but they hadn't. It was really making him wonder where the stormtroopers that he knew were in the hanger were at and what they were doing that would keep them from noticing a freighter powering up.
He turned and shouted up the ramp. "Hey, Chewie, how does she look so far?"
Chewie howled back impatiently, he was trying to get everything ready on the Falcon as fast as he could. He had no desire to be stuck here in case the Imperials suddenly noticed what they were doing.
"As soon as the main engines are online let me know and I'll open the hanger doors." Han told his Wookiee companion. "At this rate we'll be out of here and all the way to the Core before the Imperials find out that we took the Falcon."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you, Captain Solo." Han heard a voice say from the other side of the room.
Han swung his Blaster around aiming it at the source of the voice. He was surprised to find that it came from Gyb Ruhtann, the Twi'lek spice dealer who had hired them for the job that had gotten them into this mess.
"Ruhtann? What are you doing here?" Han asked.
"What I'm I doing here? I think a better question is what are you doing here?"
"What?" Han asked confused.
"I'm not the one trying to commandeer a freighter from Imperial custody." Ruhtann stated.
"It's my ship and I'm just trying to get it back." Han explained.
"Oh I know that, but unfortunately my employers would not be happy with me if I just let you get away."
"And just who are your employers?" Han demanded.
Ruhtann laughed. "Why don't you ask them yourself?"
Just then, a dozen stormtroopers flooded into the room from behind the Twi'lek. They surrounded Han and the Falcon. Two of them rushed up the ramp to find Chewbacca.
"Chewie look out!" Han shouted. The words barely left his mouth before one of the troopers struck him in the back of the head with his blaster. Han fell to the ground and his world slowly went dark. The last thing he remembered hearing was the familiar sound of a Wookiee roar.