Kessel Nebula:
The Falcon, followed by the corvette, fly through the nebula.
L3 is checking her scanners. "Coming up on the inner perimeter" she says. "The Empire has this part of space covered by more sensors than Coruscant."
"Don't worry" Solo says. "This is the Hutt Gap. Smugglers have a ten second window to exploit a gap in the sensor-sweeps."
The Falcon and the corvette fly at full throttle through the gas-cloud.
"See" Solo says. "Qi'ras boys don't dare shoot at us cos it will draw attention. Alright, let's see what this girl can do." Solo then tries to make the Falcon go even faster, but nothing happens.
Lando leans forward. "You might wanna activate the heat-exhaust-compensator" and flips a switch.
"Shut up" Solo frowns and then pulls the lever that sends the Falcon shooting through space.
On the bridge of the corvette, the captain is furious as the Falcon increases distance. "Find out who they are… Now!"
The Falcon continues its flight through the nebula at maximum speed.
Solo checks his scanners. "Alright, coming up on second perimeter."
"According to my calculations" L3 says, "there is no gap in the sensor-sweeps at this time. If we continue on our current course we will be spotted."
Solo grins. "Don't worry. We're taking the Corellian Tunnel."
"The what?" Lando asks.
Solo flies towards a huge asteroid floating in the nebula; the Falcon flies low across the surface of the huge rock and then takes a nosedive into a large cave. Solo expertly flies through the cave-system, avoiding all obstacles even though flying at speed.
Lando is not impressed by the chosen route. "If you put a single scratch on my ship, I'll kill you!"
The Falcon continues through the cave and exits at the far end of the asteroid.
"See, nothing to it" Solo says. "Now we'll fly along the third perimeter for two days. That's when we'll reach the Smugglers Crawl. A region of the nebula filled with supercharged particles. It will protect us from being detected, but push our engines too much and then we'll ignite the entire cloud." Chewie growls irritated. "Because" Solo says, "had I told you before you wouldn't have come along. Right?" Chewie growls and sulks. "See? So you were better off not knowing." Solo gets out of the pilots-seat and pats L3 on the shoulder, "Stay on our present course and at our current speed. We should be alright for the next two days."
Sometime later, Solo is resting in a bunk-bed when Lando walks up to him.
"We're coming up on the Smugglers Crawl" Lando says. "And we've got company."
Solo and Lando joins L3 and Chewie in the cockpit, Chewie explaining the situation.
"I'm not worried" Solo says. "Many smugglers take this route through the nebula."
"There are five ships out there" Lando says. "That's a lot of ships just hanging around in the nebula, doing nothing."
"Hey, relax" Solo says as he takes over the controls. "I have a good feeling about this. Trust me."
The Falcon and the other ships enters the Smugglers Crawl. L3 looks out the cockpit and spots a ship dangerously close to the Falcon.
"With the restrictions to our speed this cloud creates, this would be the perfect spot for an ambush" L3 points out.
Chewie makes a point and Lando quirks an eye at the information. "This cloud used to be known as the Pirates Bottle-neck for that very reason?!"
"Come on" Solo shrugs his shoulders. "That was before the Clone Wars. The Hutt cartels places hefty bounties on any pirate that attacks ships in this cloud these days. That's why its called the Smugglers Crawl and not the Pirates Bottle-neck."
"I don't know" L3 says and checks her scanners. "Three of those ships are moving in too close for comfort."
Lando checks his station behind Solo. "That Barloz-class freighter keeps closing in."
"Don't worry about it" Solo says. "Even a tractor-beam is suicide in this cloud. It would cause an energy build-up within the tractor-field that could, if unlucky, ignite the field."
L3 checks her scanners. "The Barloz is moving below us."
"See" Solo says with a cocky grin. "They're just avoiding energy-pockets, just like we are."
The Barloz-freighter moves in beneath the Falcon. Then, it launches four magnetic-hooks from its dorsal that connect with the Falcons ventral hull. The sound of the hooks locking on sending a noise through the Falcon.
"Whatta hell?" Solo says.
Lando growls. "They've locked onto us with tow-cables!"
Chewie growls and leaves the cockpit and Lando follows him.
"Nothing to worry about, huh?" L3 says to Solo.
"How was I to know?!" Solo defends himself with and then hurries after Chewie and Lando.
L3 would have sighed had she been able to. "Organics should not be entrusted with risk-assessment. Useless meat-bags."
The Barloz uses the tow-cables and magnetic-hooks to pull itself in to the Falcon until their hull touch. Solo catches up to Lando and Chewie who are waiting by the ventral-hulls airlock.
"Great plan, Han!" Lando growls, blaster ready. "Take the route that slows us down to a crawl so that any fool in the galaxy can catch up to us and board us!"
"Stop your whining" Solo snaps and pulls out his blaster, "and defend your damn ship."
The airlock opens and Solo, Chewie and Lando opens fire down into the hole, multiple salvoes. They stop firing after a while, smoke rising from the airlock.
"Did we get 'em`?" Lando wonders and Chewie gives him a response.
Solo climbs down the ladder and enters the other ship. Taking up a defensive-position, Chewie and Lando climb down after him.
In the Falcon's cockpit, L3 checks their surroundings. "You better be quick about it" she says. "Two more ships are closing in and I'm willing to bet they plan to crash this little party."
Lando, Solo and Chewie walk through the other ship, a ship that appears abandoned.
"Where the hell is everybody?" Lando wonders.
"I don't know" Solo says. "But I have bad feeling about this."
Chewie growls and walks over to some controls and pulls on four levers; disconnecting the magnetic-hooks, one by one.
"Great job, Chewie" Solo says whilst providing cover. "Let's get the hell out of here."
"Yeah" Lando nods. "This place gives me the creeps."
That's when a humanoid droid appears, hand in the air, and Solo and his friends instantly take aim at the droid.
"Forgive me, gentlemen" the droid says. "I mean you no harm. I am merely the pilot of this vessel. I am Double X-Oh-Six, navigation and co-pilot droid. I was tasked to intercept you to bring you a message."
"A message?" Lando says, a bit confused.
"What sort of message?" Solo asks.
"Establishing connection now" XX-O-6 says and a hologram flickers into view.
It is a hologram-transmission of Qi'ra and Solo and the others realize she is able to see them too.
"Well, well, well" Qi'ra says, a frown on her face. "I might have known. Only you are stupid enough to try and steal from me, Han."
"Well, to be fair" Solo says, "Lando didn't really argue against the whole idea."
"Always with the comeback" Qi'ra says, unimpressed. "Well, your charm wont save you this time. I want my droid back. Leave it on this ship and I promise you that the bounty I will put on your head wont attract the attention of people like Bossk and Boba Fett. It will be a small enough bounty to give you a fighting chance. If you give me my droid, that is."
"You know what, Qi'ra" Solo says. "I've heard so much about Boba Fett, I'm a bit curious to find out if he's as good as they say he is."
"I'm not" Lando cuts in and Chewie agrees.
"You aint getting that droid" Solo then tells Qi'ra, eyes hard as stone. "You tried to end me on Vandor One. Now, I'm gonna put an end to everything you ever dreamed of. I'm handing over your Kessel operation to Black Sun, and all your dreams with it. Enjoy your high-society lifestyle while you can… because it's over."
"Han!" Qi'ra growls.
Solo shoots XX-O-6 in the head and the transmission is cut. Solo then turns to the others.
"Let's get the hell out of here."
The Falcon detaches itself from the other ship and flies off. Solo, Chewie and Lando enter the cockpit and take their seats.
"We're about to exit the Smugglers Crawl" L3 says. "I would like to point out that two of the other ships have positioned themselves directly behind us and will be able to open fire on us the very moment we leave the Smugglers Crawl behind."
"Got it" Solo says. "Hang on, it might get a bit tricky."
"Tricky?" Lando wonders.
The Falcon makes a sharp turn and the other ships are quick to pursue.
"We are heading for a region covered by Imperial sensors" L3 says.
Solo glances back at Lando. "You're sure about this ship flying as fast as you claim it does?"
"Why?"
"Cos I only have a half-second window to fly past the sensors-sweeps up ahead" Solo explains. "So, are we as fast as you claim we are?"
Lando grins. "Faster, baby. We're faster."
Solo grins. "Buckle up."
The Falcon continues and the ships in pursuit veers off.
L3 checks her station. "Coming up on a region thick with Imperial patrols."
"What's the plan?" Lando asks.
"There should be a pocket up ahead" Solo says.
"A pocket?" Lando wonders. "What sort of a pocket?"
"A pocket of empty space" Solo explains. "About the size of a BBF-1 bulk-freighter in the middle of the nebula. It should be enough for us to activate the hyperdrive."
"But the cloud will shut down the motivator the moment we fly into it" Lando says.
"It sure will" Solo says. "But it will give us a speed-boost that will allow us to move past two sensor-perimeters without the Imperials knowing we were ever here."
L3 turns to look at Solo. "You intend to pilot the ship, manually, at velocities close to the speed of light?"
"There's no other way" Solo says.
L3 is a bit astonished. "You do realize you organics built droids for this very reason?"
"Maybe" Solo grins. "But, it's also the reason we Corellians built these kinds of ships. Coming up on the pocket…" Solo puts on a pair of racing-gloves. "Ready the hyperdrive."
L3 is once more astonished. "Ready it? Ready it for what? I need a destination if I am to calculate a trajectory."
Solo looks as L3, shakes his head and sighs as he looks out the cockpit. "I hate droids."
Solo pulls the hyperspace-levers and the Falcon makes the jump to hyperspace. But as soon as the jump is made, the Falcon returns to real-space with Solo at the controls.
"90% of the speed of light!" L3 points out.
The Falcon blasts through the nebula.
"70% of the speed of light!" L3 says.
"How far until we reach the Kessel Graveyard?" Solo asks.
"Fourteen seconds!" L3 says. "Forty% of the speed of light!"
"Look Out!" Lando shouts.
The Falcon makes amazing moves as it dodges floating debris from a thousand old ships; ships that used to transport goods to and from Kessel but are now outdated.
"Twenty% the speed of light!" L3 says.
"If you kill us, I will kill you!" Lando yells.
Chewie growls and howls as he checks his station behind L3.
"Asteroids?!" Lando says, part horror part disbelief.
"5% the speed of light!" L3 informs.
Solo is tense. "Hold on!"
The Falcon shoots through a thinly spread asteroid-field in the middle of the nebula. Thanks to some amazing maneuvers, the Falcon comes through and flies out the other end of the asteroid-field.
L3 turns to Solo. "You have reflexes fast enough to fly a pod-race."
Lando grabs Solo's shoulder. "Don't you ever do that again. Ever!"
Solo merely grins. "Told'ya I could do it."
Sometime later and they are all gathered in the lounge-area of the Falcon.
"Alright" Solo says. "Final stretch. The outer perimeter. We leave the nebula and hyperspace the hell out of here."
L3 turns to Solo. "I calculate that your route through the nebula, should you succeed, will complete the Kessel Run in eleven point nine, eight, nine parsecs. An astonishing record, I might add."
Lando shakes his head. "You'll be a living legend."
"Not me" Solo grins. "The Falcon. The Falcon will become legend. The ship that made the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs."
"Eleven point nine, eight, nine" L3 corrects him.
Chewie growls.
Solo nods as Chewie. "Yeah, IF we make it."
Lando is impressed. "You planned this route three years ago?"
Solo nods. "Just for fun. Never thought I'd actually do it."
"Well, you haven't done it yet" Lando tells him. "But I'll be honest with you; I've never seen anything like it. And I'm guessing I never will again."
"You might be right" Solo smiles. "Cos I have no plans on trying That again." Chewie growls. "Well" Solo says and shrugs, "if the pay is good enough."
Lando grins. "May I remind you that you need my ship if you're thinking about doing this all over again. And I have no plans of letting you borrowing the Falcon anytime soon."
"Who says I'll borrow it?" Solo says.
Lando turns serious in an instant. "Don't go there, Han. That is a place you don't wanna go."
Solo chuckles. "Relax, Lando. The day I take this ship from you, it'll be fair and square. Right, L3?"
L3 and Lando look at each other and then at Solo. Solo gives them a wink and has a drink.
To be continued…