Disclaimer: Disney owns it now, but I neither know nor care what they're vomiting up these days. I will continue to use only Legends.
""I warned you to stay away from Skywalker. Recall your ships and surrender into my custody or pay the consequences."
Darth Vader to Prince Xizor, shortly before the latter's death
Chapter 4:
Now...the Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace
Lando continued, "We hadn't been more than a few days on Tatooine when we got a message from Chewie that he'd escaped Xizor's Palace and that Leia was being held prisoner there by Xizor himself. So we snuck onto Coruscant using the sensor-shadow gambit."
It was a common smuggler trick; in theory, and according to the law, all spaceships were required to have at least one organic crewman. In practice, however, this law was often ignored and seldom enforced. Coruscant and many other heavily populated worlds were serviced by huge bulk freighters with all droid crews, which cut down significantly on costs but also made it possible for even a half-competent pilot to fly a ship of light freighter size and smaller close enough to the bulk freighter to avoid detection by Imperial picket and customs ships, as well as ground defense stations.
"After meeting up with Dash," said Lando, "We then snuck into Xizor's Palace through the sewers."
"The sewers?" Han said, "that's crazy. And stupid."
"Exactly what I said," Mara replied.
"And that's the problem with our opposition," said Lando "they keep thinking that nobody could possibly be as stupid as we are. Fools 'em every time."
"And really," Luke said, "aside from the stench, it wasn't so bad… except for the dianoga."
Then...Four Months Ago, Xizor's Palace, Coruscant
"Uh-oh," Luke whispered as he peered through the half-fogged coverplate. They were standing ankle deep in sewage inside a recycler that was continually pumping out more, trickling down to an open drain.
"What?" Lando also whispered
"There are six guards," said Luke. Four of them were sitting at a table a few meters away from the hatch, playing sabacc; the other two were standing near them, watching and apparently offering advice; only the two watchers held weapons, the other four had their blaster rifles stacked against the wall.
"Six? To guard a sewage plant?" Lando said.
"So what?" Dash added in a whisper as well, "There's five of us; we each kill one and whoever fires fastest gets the last one; we hit 'em fast enough, they won't even have the time to call for help."
Luke frowned. "That's six more bodies than necessary; if we move fast, we should be able to disarm them, tie them up and be on our way with no one the wiser."
Now Mara frowned and shot Luke a questioning glance.
"Whoa, wait a minute," said Dash, "What?."
"Since when did you become squeamish, Farmboy?"
"I'm not squeamish, I'm a Jedi," Luke corrected her, "Jedi only kill when it's absolutely necessary."
"So do I, but it's going to be necessary here," said Mara, "those guys work for a crimelord, they're going to have orders to shoot intruders on sight and they're not going to ignore them just because the intruders happen to include a guy with a lightsaber."
Luke gritted his teeth; he couldn't refute her argument and that was the problem. On the surface of it, it was completely logical and reasonable, but there was a very thin line between killing someone because you have no choice and killing someone just because they're in your way. A Jedi had to be prepared to take action but was also supposed to avoid violence whenever possible. Looked at with cold logic, Luke had to concede that it was unlikely in the extreme that Xizor's guards would actually surrender if given a chance; but it just didn't feel right to attack them without giving them that chance. But, seeing the others all disagreeing with him, Luke realized that he didn't have much choice anyway.
"Fine," Luke said, "But I'll still go in first, in case one of the guards is some kind of quick-draw specialist; then Mara, then Dash, then Lando and finally Chewie."
After a three-count, Dash threw open the hatch and Luke leapt out, bringing his lightsaber up to a ready stance.
The guards may have been bored but they were not slow; on hearing the hatch open, the two armed guards immediately spun around with their blaster rifles and opened fire. At the same time the other four guards threw themselves out of their chairs and then went for their own weapons.
Through the Force, Luke deflected the initial shots.
Mara leapt in but holding her blaster instead of her lightsaber; she fired quickly twice and the two standing guards went down.
Dash leapt in and fired once, twice, three times; two more guards fell just as they were reaching their weapons.
Lando leapt in and shot the fifth guard.
Chewie leapt in but the the Wookiee's wet feet slid on the floor and he fell flat on his back.
The last guard wasn't holding a weapon but was yelling...yelling into a comlink. Mara shot him and he dropped. The comlink fell from his hand and skidded over to Luke's boot.
From the comlink came a small tinny voice: "Thix? What is going on down there? Thix? Come in, sector one-one-three-eight, come in—"
Chewie came to his feet and shrugged, looking embarrassed.
Luke shook his head and stomped down on the squawking comlink with his boot heel, smashing it.
"So much for sneaking in quietly," Lando said.
They took off running, following the floor plans they'd memorized, with Chewie in the lead. Now that the facility was alerted, time was of the essence. They rounded a corner and nearly ran into six more guards. Everyone with a blaster opened fire.
From Luke's comlink suddenly came Threepio's voice, sounding strident and even more nervous than usual.
"Master Luke, Master Luke!"
"We're little a busy here, Threepio," Luke yelled, leaving the comlink on his belt as he was preoccupied deflecting blaster bolts.
"But Master Luke, there are men coming toward the ship! Men with guns!"
Great. As if things weren't bad enough.
Luke deflected another bolt and leapt forward to bring his lightsaber down, severing the hand of the man who'd shot at him; Luke spun and kicked, knocking the guard flat. The other guards were all down as well. As they resumed running, Luke pulled out his comlink.
"Threepio?"
"Oh, dear, oh, dear!"
"Threepio!"
"Master Luke. Oh, what shall we do?"
"Take the ship out of there, now! Artoo knows the systems; you can operate the controls. Stay below the stratospheric security scanners, you got that?"
"Yes, Master Luke!"
"Go!"
Now… The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace
Han gaped at his friends, "You let the droids fly my ship?"
"We didn't have a choice," said Luke.
"I don't care,' Han retorted, "You let the droids fly my ship! You're damn lucky that she's still in one piece because if she wasn't, friends or no, I'd peel all your hides!"
There was a long and uncomfortable pause.
"So, anyway," Leia continued, "Luke had contacted me through the Force to tell me that they were coming; when I sensed him close, I put my bounty hunter armor back on, broke out of my room and hurried to meet up with them. Not long afterward, we ran into Xizor."
Then...Four Months Ago, Xizor's Palace, Coruscant
Luke brought his lightsaber up in time to deflect Xizor's blaster bolts. The others raised their blasters just in time to see Guri hurl a chair at them; Chewie blasted it and then Leia took a shot but missed. Xizor and Guri hurried into a nearby room and seconds later a dozen guards arrived from around a corner and opened fire. Dash pointed out another nearby door; Chewie smashed through it. Leia followed him, then Dash, Lando and Mara. Luke went last, frantically deflecting a hail of blaster bolts.
The room looked like an office of some sorts.
Mara holstered her blaster, drew and ignited her lightsaber.
"Now what?" Leia said as blaster bolts continued to fly past the destroyed doorway.
"Well," said Lando, "I think it's time for some desperate measures." Lando reached into his backpack and withdrew a round silvery ball about the size of a man's fist, "A Class-A thermal detonator," he said, "I've got three." Leia took the device and examined it as Lando explained how to use it. Then placed it inside the bounty-hunter's helmet hooked to her belt. The others all looked at her.
"Uh, Leia..." Luke said.
"You said you had more of them, right?" Leia replied, "I want to hang on to this one. It might come in handy."
Luke shrugged. "Fine. It was your money that bought it anyway."
Outside the office, the blaster fire finally halted.
"Looks like its time for a chat with Xizor," said Luke, taking another thermal detonator from Lando and activating the deadman switch. The detonator began beeping and tiny lights began flashing.
Luke stepped out into the hall and held up the detonator.
Xizor obviously recognized it for his eyes suddenly widened and he yelled, "Don't shoot! Lower your weapons."
The guards looked confused but obeyed.
"Good idea," Luke said. The others moved out into the hall behind him. The beeping was suddenly very loud in the ensuing silence. "You know what this is?"
"A bomb on a deadman's switch," Xizor said. "What do you want?"
"To leave with my friends."
"If you release that bomb, you'll all die."
Luke shrugged "We're dead anyway, so we've got nothing to lose. How about you? Are you ready to all of this up?" He waved at the building around them. "This is a Class-A thermal detonator; the entire building will collapse if this thing goes off."
"You're bluffing."
"Do you want to find out?"
Xizor was silent for a long moment; then finally said, "Fine. Leave. No one will stop you."
The others came out and began edging past the guards, who fell over themselves making room as if that would make a difference. Luke stepped backwards with them, keeping an eye on Xizor. But then they stopped and Lando reached into his pack and produced another thermal detonator.
"What are you doing?" Xizor asked.
Lando just grinned and opened a garbage chute next to him, which led to the recycling bins down in the buildings sub-subbasement where they'd entered.
"No!" Xizor yelled.
Lando activated the detonator, which started beeping, and tossed it in
""You've got five minutes," said Lando, "I suggest you get moving."
Now… The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace
"So," said Lando,"Xizor's guards all panicked; he fled to his ship on the roof while we went to a landing pad on the fiftieth level."
"Guri caught up with us on the way there," said Luke "where she told me that she'd always wanted to test her skills against a Jedi."
"And let me guess" Han said, "despite the ticking bomb, you indulged her anyway."
"You know me too well," said Luke with a sigh. Mara snorted and let a humph.
Then…Four Months Ago, Xizor's Palace, Coruscant
Leia and the others paused at the door and glanced back down the corridor at Luke, who'd paused to check something out. Luke was facing Guri with his lightsaber and Leia wondered what he was waiting for. Was taken aback when Luke shut off his lightsaber. What was he doing? This whole building was going to blow up in three minutes.
Guri leapt at Luke with incredible speed but Luke nonetheless dodged.
"That kriffing idiot," Mara snarled, "if we survive this, I swear—,"
"Luke!" Leia called out to him as Guri circled. Leia immediately regretted it when Luke glanced back at her and gave Guri an opening.
Guri stepped forward and punched Luke in the belly, then followed up with an elbow that Luke dodged; he rolled away, turned and came up again. Guri hit him again near his ear and Luke went down. Guri raised her arm in a killing blow and brought it down but Luke suddenly moved impossibly fast, rolling aside, standing, and pivoting, shoving aside the descending chop and then using his left leg in a sweep that brought Guri down to the floor.
Luke pulled out his lightsaber again and ignited it, but he still didn't use it to kill her. For a few seconds he just stood there, what was he doing now?
"Luke! Come on!"
Finally Luke shut off the lightsaber again, said something to the downed Guri, then turned and jogged towards them.
They made it outside to the landing pad; when there was no sign of the ship, Mara rounded on Luke:
"What the kriff was that?"
"What were you thinking?" Leia demanded
"You give him too much credit," Mara retorted, "he wasn't." She was now inches away from his face. "You ever pull a stupid stunt like that again and I will shoot you."
Luke opened his mouth to reply but before he could say anything, Dash yelled out:
"Mother of Madness!" They looked at him and then at where Dash was Millennium Falcon was coming in, but it was much too fast and spinning and corkscrewing like a demented gyroscope; finally, it straightened out but was still moving too fast.
"Duck!" Lando yelled; the six of them dropped flat to the ground. The ship almost hit them and pulled up only a meter from the pad's deck; it veered off to starboard and the port edge hit and shattered a nearby sensor array, spraying pieces in every direction. "Threepio, I'm gonna kill you!"
Luke got out his comlink. "Threepio, use the repulsors to bring it in! And hurry!"
"I'm trying, Master Luke. The controls are somewhat sensitive."
The ship suddenly surged upward a hundred meters, accompanied by a loud whistle from Artoo. The Falcon then lurched, canted sideways, and fell. Managed to right itself just before it would have plowed into a roof. Finally it lost speed and floated in placed fifty meters above them, then began drifting downwards toward them.
They backed up; the ship was now hovering over the landing pad two meters up when it suddenly dropped like a stone; the landing struts groaned from the strain but held and then the ramp lowered.
Chewie picked up Leia and ran, with Dash and Lando right on his heels and Mara not far behind. Luke made it inside just as the ramp was closing and followed the others to the cockpit.
"Move!" Dash yelled at Threepio and shoved the protesting droid out of the pilot seat, dancing his hands over the controls before he was even fully sitting down. Threepio fell into a heap against the copilot's seat. Artoo whistled frantically.
"You don't need to be so rude, Master Dash—"
A deep rumble echoed from beneath them and the Falcon shook.
"That's it, time's up!" Lando declared.
"We're going, we're going," said Dash. With a sudden lurch, the Millennium Falcon lifted and roared away.
As it did, they saw Xizor's Palace shake. The landing pad collapsed and began dropping straight down. Smoke erupted with a horrific screech, followed by blasts of fire and sparks from giant electrical conduits. The ship rocked under the impacts of shrapnel as below them Xizor's Palace collapsed into a smoking, flaming ruin.
Now… The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace
"Dash called up his droid and transferred over to the Outrider," said Luke, "We made orbit easily enough but then, well—,"
"That," said Mara, "was when things got a little hairy."
Then…Four Months Ago, Coruscant
The Millennium Falcon and the Outrider raced up and out towards open space.
"Thanks for the ride," Dash said over the comm.
"Want to race to the jump spot?" Luke said at the controls. Lando was in the co-pilot seat; Chewie, and Leia were in the seats behind them, Mara was standing in the doorway.
Dash laughed and said, "You want a parsec head start?"
"No, I—"
A green turbolaser beam flashed between the ships, startling both pilots.
"We've got company," said Dash as more bolts blinked at them, none close enough to hit. Luke punched it and the Falcon raced for the jump spot. The Outrider kept pace.
Lando glanced at the sensors, "Unmarked corvette at two-seventy; four fighters at three-five-nine; they're not Imperials."
"Bet you a credit that they're Xizor's," said Mara.
"Makes sense," Luke said, "Get on the guns." Leia stood and she and Mara disappeared from the cockpit. "Good luck, Dash!"
"You, too, Luke."
The two light freighters ran for open space but Corusant was Core World, with a huge amount of civilian traffic going in and out, along with wheelworlds, skyhooks, space stations, solar mirrors, satellites, defense platforms and who knew what else.
The Falcon rocked as turbolaser blasts splashed against the shields. Luke flew hard, bobbing, twisting this way, jinking that way, power diving, climbing, and weaving into and through all the other traffic and orbital clutter. But no matter which direction Luke turned, more and more unmarked ships kept coming in and, unlike the Leia and Mara, Xizor's pilots didn't care who they hit; several of them missed shots and lit up a passenger liner, wrecking its engines and forcing Luke into a radical turn to avoid a collision. The other civilian ships tried to scatter, but this only added to the chaos and made Luke's evasive maneuvers even more difficult.
"How the hell are we supposed to hit something with all this swerving?" Mara demanded over the comm.
"We're surrounded," Luke fired back at her, "How can you miss?"
A dark fighter zipped ahead of them and was blasted by the Outrider's cannons.
"See," Lando said, "that's how you do it."
"Shut it Calrissian," Mara snapped.
"I can't shake them," said Luke, "We're boxed in." Their attackers had formed a sphere in space around them and it was all Luke could do to avoid hitting anyone. And it was only a matter of time before the Imperial navy woke up and further added to the confusion; it was strange that they already hadn't.
Things were starting to look bad. Really, really bad...
A charging fighter, firing furiously, suddenly exploded right in front of them. The Falcon drove right through the debris, which smashed against the shields.
"Good shot, who was that?"
"Not me," said Leia.
"Nor me," Mara added.
"Then who was it?"
From the comm came a familiar voice: "Hey Luke, mind if we join the party?"
"Wedge!" Luke blinked "What are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you. Dash's droid sent us a distress signal. Sorry it took so long to get here." Another of the Xizor's fighters exploded."
"Better late than never," said Luke with a grin. The odds were now not so bad. He swung the Falcon into a wide turn and then into a belly-twisting power dive at a nearly ninety-degree angle. Three of Xizor's fighters stayed with them, firing all the way. But it soon became clear that even with the Rogues, they were still outnumbered more than fifteen to one, not counting the frigates and corvettes; they were losing this fight.
Leia blew up another attacker on the port side but two more came in. Luke punched the Falcon into a steep turn.
"Okay, I think we've got a problem here," Dash said, sounding calm but resigned.
"He's right," said Wedge, "these guys aren't that good but they've got numbers and those frigates backing them up; we can't run, can't maneuver, and they don't have any scruples."
Luke took a deep breath, "Well, I guess we take as many with us as possible. Unless someone wants to surrender?" Wedge and Dash both laughed, "Yeah, that's what I thought; may the Force be with you."
Luke flew as he had never flown before, weaving, rolling, stalling, and diving. He threw them through power turns that nearly blacked them all out, but even with the Force as his ally, they were still losing. But just when things didn't seem like they could get any worse, they suddenly did.
"Luke," Lando said, "we've got TIE's incoming, a dozen and counting."
"I was wondering when they would show up," Luke said, "Listen everyone, thanks for everything, you've all been great friends. Mara, I just want to say that—"
"Shut up," said Mara, "Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it now."
Luke looked at the incoming TIE Fighters. He took a deep breath as the TIE's flashed past—and took out two of Xizor's fighters.
"Huh?" said Lando
"Luke," Leia said, "I just saw—,"
"We all saw it, what's going on?"
"Look out!"
"I see it!"
Luke put the Falcon into a steep climb and then veered off to starboard. The space around them was a hailstorm of energy bolts and debris. But the TIEs were all concentrating on Xizor's ships, completely ignoring the Falcon and only occasionally shooting at the X-Wings. Luke was about to ask why when he felt a familiar cold presence in the Force.
'Vader'
"What's Vader got to do with anything?" Lando asked. For a moment Luke thought he'd said it aloud but then realized that Mara had actually said it.
"I can sense Vader's presence," Mara said, "And trust me, he definitely doesn't like Xizor. It's one of the few things he and I ever agreed on."
"So how does that help us?"
"You said it yourself," Mara said, "Vader wants to capture you alive; that can't happen if Xizor kills you."
Lando said, "Well thank our lucky stars for small favors. Look out!"
Luke zagged and just barely missed the incoming ship. He could see above them a giant Super Star Destroyer approaching a skyhook that was directly in front of them. Suddenly the Star Destroyer opened fire and the skyhook exploded with the brilliance of a nova for an instant.
"Oh, man," Lando said softly. "Someone must have made somebody really mad."
"That's our escape hatch," Dash said, "Follow me."
"He's crazy," Lando said.
Luke was inclined to agree but nonethless took the Falcon in after the Outrider; it would be tricky and dangerous, but Dash was right, it was their only opening.
"Yeeeehaww!" one of the Rogues yelled.
Luke laughed. He knew just how they felt. They headed for the debris and it seemed as if they were going to get through hit.
"Look out, Dash!" Lando suddenly exclaimed.
Luke spared a glance just in time to see a piece of debris the size of a skyscraper right in the Outrider's path, too close to avoid.
"Dash!"
There was a sudden burst of light, too bright to look at; Luke turned away and Lando threw up an arm to block the glare. When the light faded, the Outrider was gone.
"Oh, man," Lando said. "He's gone."
Triumph turned bittersweet in Luke's mouth but he shoved aside; there wasn't time for that now. He fell into the Force and flew.