Today I am ordering a new charger for my laptop since the old one got a loose wire.
Sorry for the delay!
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Luke was sweating in his flight suit. The battle was fierce. There had been more then enough close calls for his comfort. He was pretty sure he had lost his gunner, Dak, in that last hit but he was too busy trying to stay alive and flying to check.
He glared at the Imperial Walker that had gotten in that lucky shot. It was a little too lucky for Luke's comfort. Whoever their gunner was seemed to be able to anticipate where the rebel ships would be before even their pilots knew and there were only three people he knew with that kind of aim - himself, Han and Vader. To add to his feelings of unease, the tow cables couldn't seem to attach properly to this Walker's feet. He had seen shots that looked as though they would stay and then they just slipped off again. It was really vexing and just a little frightening.
Luke set his mouth in a determined line. That Walker was going to fall. It had to, or there might not be enough time to evacuate everyone.
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Lady Vader smiled as the Force Sensitive pilot came within her weapons range again. She carefully maneuvered the Walker's head and let loose a barrage of blaster fire. The snow speeder dodged most of it but she had cornered the pilot and the snow speeder went down, right in her path.
Part of her was gleeful that she had defeated the perfidious Rebel scum and another was nervous. Her father had given strict orders that the pilot be brought in alive and if he was crushed by her Walker . . . well she just might be in trouble again.
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Luke ripped off his restraints and pushed up the canopy of his snow speeder. He froze for a moment at the sight of a Walker coming towards him, trying to decide the best course of action. It was going to step on him if he didn't hurry, but he didn't want to leave Dak.
He wiggled out of the cockpit, grabbed a few charges, and then tried to retrieve Dak's body, but it was quickly apparent that Dak was gone and there was no way he was going to free his body in time. Retrieving a body was not as important as saying alive to help the living.
Giving up, Luke threw himself as far from the downed snow speeder as he could just as the left front foot came down. He shivered for a moment, both from the cold and from the realization of how close he had cut it this time, but he didn't allow it to slow him down. An instant later, he had grabbed up the charges and was running after the Walker. The tow cables might not work on this one, but he had an idea, one that even this overly-lucky Walker shouldn't be immune to.
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Lady Vader smiled. The Force Sensitive had not only survived the crash but he had escaped his snow speeder. Excellent. Her father would be pleased. With the Rebel grounded, it should be child's play to capture him, especially since he was still close enough for her to sense his presence. He would not be able to hide from her.
An ugly thought occurred to her. If she had just been shot down, her first thought would be to go after the ones who shot her down... "All troops watch for charges," she ordered the troopers in the hold.
"Understood ma'am." A trooper answered. She thought she detected a hint of confusion in his voice, but he would obey. She turned her attention back to the battle. Perhaps it was time to take a more personal hand in the fighting...
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Luke used the ascension cable to hook onto the belly of the lucky Walker and then let the cable carry him into the air. Please don't notice me! Please don't notice me! Luke thought in an endless litany, sure that whoever was protecting this Walker would notice him while he was dangling there helpless.
Once he was up against the belly of the Walker, he cursed himself for not considering how he was going to get the charges in. He couldn't see any obvious openings. With a sigh he reached for his lightsaber to make a hole. Suddenly a panel opened and a lithe figure dressed for the cold slid down a rope nearly as fast as it could uncoil. He pressed himself against the Walker and his litany was as fervent as a prayer. Please don't notice me!
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Lady Vader smiled wickedly as she rappelled from the belly of the Walker she had been controlling. It was time to fight the Rebels face to face. She dropped gracefully to the ground and then she raced across the snowy ground toward the Rebel lines, pulling out her lightsaber and new shoto in one smooth motion as she went.
Panicked cries filled her ears as she closed in on the fleeing Rebels. Several of them fired their weapons at her, but she easily deflected them into the snow. "Die, Rebel Scum!" she hissed, slashing at the first of the Rebels, entirely forgetting the Force-sensitive wandering around out there in the thrill of battle and revenge.
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Luke smiled grimly when he saw that no one had closed the hatch behind the rapeller. Quickly he activated a charge and tossed it inside, unclipped the ascension cable, and fell to the snow below.
The Walker moved onward a few steps before it exploded. A somber smile came to Luke's face. He had finally downed the blasted thing. That made one less way they could kill his friends.
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General Veers watched as the Rebel Base's power generator grew closer. He asked the clone pilot how close they were to it. The Clone answered that it was close enough to hit, but far enough away that it wouldn't damage the Walker. Veers took aim, selected the highest power setting and fired.
The power generator exploded.
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Han felt like throwing his tools, preferably at someone or something. Every time he thought that he was done something else went wrong. The Falcon needed to be ready to leave yesterday.
A rumbling noise filled the air and the station comms went dead. Han looked at the ceiling nervously. Clearly the outpost had taken severe damage and he rather suspected that the roof had become unstable. The last thing they needed was for the roof to collapse on the Falcon. Though it was nice not to have to listen to constant reports of doom and endless repetitions of instructions to evacuate immediately in an orderly manner.
Han hoped that all personnel had already evacuated whatever area had been hit. Then an unpleasant thought occurred to him. The one giving the evacuation orders had been Ana. Han looked at Chewie. "You finish up here. I'm going to go and see if the princess is still here." He hurried out of the ship and down the corridor that led to the control room.
It took awhile. Many of the corridors were blocked with debris already. He was about ready to give up when he found her stumbling through debris with 3PO trailing faithfully behind. "Why aren't you on your transport?" Han asked her.
"I had to give the evacuation signal and then the tunnel to my transport nearly collapsed on top of me. I've been trying to find another way to a ship," Ana explained, "but there is too much damage."
"Do you have a way to communicate with your ship?" he asked urgently.
She nodded and showed him the commlink she carried. Han snatched it out of her hand. "This is Han Solo. Princess Ana has been cut off from reaching her transport, but there is still a clear path to the Falcon. I'll get her out and we can rendezvous later," he informed the pilot as he yanked Ana toward the hangar where the Falcon was docked.
"Understood, Captain Solo," the pilot answered. "See you on the other side." Han just grunted in reply. He had a feeling that he would be more than ready for that rendezvous in a few hours. He just hoped both ships made it to the rendezvous point. Ana was a nice enough girl, she just had a way of getting on his nerves. Add to that 3PO's incessant whining and he would be lucky if he made it to the rendezvous sane.
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Lord Vader entered the Rebel Base with several squads of storm troopers dressed for cold weather.
He reached out with the Force and smiled. Princess Ana was still here along with a very familiar presence. He led his troopers through the base towards the two Rebels. The roar of a ship's engines reached his ears and he entered a hangar just in time to see a YT-1300 fly away.
He felt a moment of annoyance, but he pushed it aside and reached for his commlink. "Admiral, there's a YT-1300 that just left the Rebel Base, you are to detain it," he ordered. "Try not to destroy it. I would like to have a few words with the passengers."
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Luke trudged tiredly through the snow towards his fighter. The sound of a ship had him turning his head, immediately followed by a relieved smile as the Millennium Falcon flew across the sky then angled upwards for space. Good, Han got the Falcon working again.
Luke broke into an equally tired jog as he reached the place where the remaining fighters and ships waited for the last of the troops and pilots. "R2, get her ready for takeoff." Luke called to the little droid as he got closer to his own fighter. R2 beeped an affirmative and the X-Wing hummed to life.
"Bye Luke, see you at the rendezvous!" a fellow pilot called out.
"You too!" Luke responded before climbing into the cockpit and strapping in. A few minutes later they were headed for deep space.
Where are we going? R2 asked through the X-Wing's computer when it became apparent that they were not heading for the rendezvous.
"We're going to the Dagobah System." Luke told his friend.
Why there? R2 asked.
Luke replied, "There's a Jedi Master living there. He'll teach me how to use the Force."
Ah! R2 answered. You will be a Jedi. That is good.
Don't like auto pilot? R2 queried after a few moments of silence.
"I like to be in control of my ship as much as possible." Luke responded.
Okay. R2 said.
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Ana was less than impressed with Captain Solo's flying. She grudgingly had to admit that a large part of the problem was that they were being chased by TIE Fighters and Star Destroyers. If he took a path that was less risky, they would be killed or captured in moments. But that just made her more edgy. She knew that a single miscalculation on Han's part would be the death of them and the longer they stayed, the more likely that became.
"Just make the jump to lightspeed!" Ana yelled at the insane Corellian.
"In a moment!" He yelled back, equally as irritable.
After a few hair-raising maneuvers, Han finally seemed to feel that it was time. "Prepare for the jump to lightspeed," Han told Chewie.
"But sir!" 3PO wailed.
"Shut up!" Ana snapped at the droid. How she hated 3PO, but there wasn't a way for her to get rid of him safely. She should have let Luke keep him. Luke seemed to actually like the whiny pessimistic personality the droid had been programmed with. If not for Luke, she would have had the golden droid wiped and reprogrammed with a more pleasant attitude.
Han pulled down the lever, the engines hummed...then died. "I tried to tell you, sir; I noticed that the hyperdrive motivator has been damaged!" 3PO informed Han. "It is impossible to go to lightspeed!"
Ana gasped in dismay while Han immediately leaped from his seat and raced for the back of his ship, cursing in a mixture of languages. Chewie took on the evasive flying, while she took up the position of copilot. At least now she had something to occupy her mind. It left less room to ponder her imminent death.
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Hopefully the time between this update and the next will be shorter.