Hanna glared at the holographic image in the centre of the crowded war room. Another Death Star? Didn't the Imperials ever try anything new?

Lando appeared next to her and Chewie, his usual flamboyant clothing replaced with a brand new Alliance uniform. He looked good.

She raised an eyebrow at her old friend. "Well, look at you. A general, eh?"

Lando grinned, white teeth flashing behind his moustache. "Someone must have told them about my maneuver at Taanab."

She raised both hands palms out toward him. "Don't look at me. I just said you were a fair pilot. I didn't know they were lookin' for somebody to lead this crazy attack."

Lando leaned toward her, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "I'm surprised they didn't ask you to do it."

Laughing, she pushed him back with a hand on his shoulder. "Who says they didn't? But I'm not crazy."

Alaric arrived, nodding at Lando and taking his place next to Hanna while Mon Mothma stood to speak. Hanna couldn't concentrate on the briefing; her eyes kept flickering toward Alaric's profile where he stood beside her. Damn it! She knew better than to let her emotions get tangled up in a pretty face. Lando was reminder enough of that.

The Mon Calamari admiral was speaking now—she couldn't recall his name. "General Calrissian has volunteered to lead the fighter attack."

Hanna turned toward Lando, impressed despite herself. "Good luck," she said. "You're gonna need it." She had gone over the plan before; it was nearly a suicide mission, flying into the superstructure of the half-completed battlestation to knock out the main reactor. Once the shield was down, of course.

General Madine was speaking now. "We have stolen a small Imperial shuttle. Disguised as a cargo ship, and using a secret Imperial code, a strike team will land on the moon and deactivate the shield generator."

Hanna nodded. Yep. And that was the other suicide mission.

"I wonder who they found to pull that off," Alaric murmured beside her.

She grinned, but kept her eyes on Madine, who turned to her. "General Solo, is your strike team assembled?"

"My team's ready." She resisted looking at Alaric, though she could feel his eyes on her, knew he was surprised, maybe impressed. Good. He would see that she could be just as foolishly heroic as Lucia could. "I don't have a command crew for the shuttle." Chewie immediately raised a hand, and she smiled. "It's gonna be rough, pal."

He waved off her concerns with a furry hand and a disgusted comment about how she could possibly have thought he would let her do this without him.

Smiling, she nodded. "That's one."

"Count me in," Alaric said.

Before she could respond, another voice rang out from the back of the room: "I'm with you too!"

The crowd parted with a murmur to reveal Lucia, a new confidence in her step as she walked toward them.

Alaric watched Lucia approach. There was something different in her gaze as she met his eyes. "What is it?" he murmured in her ear as he hugged her.

She pulled back and studied him, then smiled. "Ask me again sometime."

Lucia was right—there was no time right now for conversations, and it felt like what she had on her mind was something big. Alaric nodded and squeezed her hand. "I will."


"I want you to take her. I mean it." Hanna clapped a hand on Lando's shoulder, trying to ignore the twinge of fear that told her not to do this. "You'll need all the help you can get, and she's the fastest ship in the fleet."

Lando nodded. "I know what she means to you. I'll take good care of her. She won't get a scratch."

Hanna grinned and shoved the side of his head. "Right. I got your promise now. Not a scratch."

He shook his head, laughing. "I'll treat her like a lover."

She snorted and stepped back, pushing him away. "Get out of here."

He laughed, then said quietly, "Good luck."

"Yeah." She nodded. "You too." Quickly turning away, she strode up the ramp into the Imperial shuttle. She refused to look back.


Markus watched Solo and Skywalker board the stolen Imperial Shuttle from where he was pretending to work on a ship that wasn't being used in the attack. He should've volunteered for the mission too. But, by the time he'd realized Skywalker was back, Solo'd had a full crew complement. He would just have to look for another opportunity—if they survived today.


Hanna's fingers tightened on the unfamiliar controls of the Imperial shuttle as the Super Star Destroyer filled the viewscreen, obscuring the view of the half-built Death Star. Smaller ships and a few regular Star Destroyers made their way in and around the construction.

An incoming transmission crackled over the comm: "Please identify yourselves."

Flicking the mic on, Hanna leaned forward. "Shuttle Tydirium requesting deactivation of the deflector shield."

"Shuttle Tydirium, transmit the clearance code for shield passage."

"Transmission commencing." Hanna turned the mic off and pressed the button to send the codes.

"Now we find out if that code is worth the price we paid," Alaric said, an undercurrent of tension in his voice.

"It'll work." Hanna tapped her fingers nervously on the edge of the control panel. "It has to work."

Lucia leaned forward to stare at the huge ship looming over them. "Vader's on that ship."

Hanna closed her hand into a fist to stop her nervous tapping. "Don't get jittery, kid. There are a lot of command ships. Keep your distance though, Chewie, but don't look like you're trying to keep your distance."

Giving her an unimpressed look, Chewie asked her how the hell he was supposed to manage that.

"I don't know!" She ran both hands back through her thick hair. "Fly casual?"

"I'm endangering the mission." Lucia's voice was somber. "I shouldn't have come."

"Come on, kid." Hanna turned around to meet Lucia's gaze, trying not to roll her eyes. "Really? How?"

Lucia let out a breath and closed her eyes. "Vader will know I'm here."

Hanna rolled her eyes. More Force mumbo jumbo. Great.


Lucia breathed slowly, trying to make herself smaller and quieter. Maybe Vader wouldn't notice her. Maybe Vader wasn't looking for her. Maybe Jawas could fly.

The shuttle's comm unit crackled to life. "Shuttle Tydirium, deactivation of the shield will commence immediately. Follow your present course."

Twin sighs of relief from Hanna and Alaric, but Lucia couldn't allow herself to relax. Not yet. She imagined pulling the Force around herself like a cloak, hiding herself within it. She had no idea if it would work, or if it was even possible, but she had to try something. If Vader knew she was here, all was lost.

"I told you it would work. No problem." Hanna grinned over her shoulder, but there was an edge to her smile that belied the confident words.

Despite their fears, landing went smoothly, and they were soon making their way through a thick forest on foot. Chewie took the lead, while Lucia brought up the rear. As he reached the crest of a hill, Chewie dropped to the ground, lifting a hand to signal the others for caution. Alaric and Hanna immediately dropped as well, crawling up next to the wookie. Lucia's hand dropped to the lightsaber at her belt as she followed.

Below them, a small valley lay quiet beneath the heavy overhanging branches. Two Imperial scout troopers stood near a pair of speeder bikes, conversing quietly.

"Shall we try to go around?" Alaric murmured.

Hanna pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Chewie and I can take care of this."

"Quietly?" Lucia asked. "There might be more of them out there."

Hanna's teeth flashed in a grin. "Hey… it's me."

Before anyone could respond to that, Hanna was sliding back down the rise with Chewie right behind her. Alaric shook his head and followed more slowly.

As Hanna crept up behind the scouts, Lucia chewed on her lip. She had a bad feeling about this. Then Hanna's foot slipped, crunching onto a twig, and the scouts whirled around. One yelled to other, "Go for help!" and Hanna jumped him while the other ran for his speeder.

Chewie lifted his bowcaster almost lazily and shot the speeder bike out of the air just as it rose from the ground, sending bike and scout into a tree. Hanna pummeled the other scout with her fists, keeping him on the defensive with a wild and fast flurry of punches.

"Good job," Lucia muttered under her breath. "Just great." One of these days, Hanna's bravado was going to get them all killed.

Alaric caught Lucia's arm and pointed into the trees to the left. "Over there! Two more of them!" He dropped her arm and ran towards the speeder abandoned by the trooper Hanna had attacked.

"Wait!" Lucia chased after him, and leapt onto the speeder just as Alaric threw it into the air. She wrapped her arms around his chest and ducked against his shoulder as branches whipped by her face. "Jam their commlink," she shouted against the wind, pointing at the switch on the controls before them.

Alaric flipped the switch and leaned forward, every muscle tense as he tried to coax more speed out of the bike.

Behind them, Hanna shouted something, but it was lost to the wind.