Chapter 5 - Bespin
DISCLAIMER: We do not own Star Wars, even if we wish we did. xD
Author's Note: Sorry for the cliffhanger! (Not really. Lol.) Don't expect another chapter this week. ;)
~ Amina Gila
I feel the approaching Force presences from around the corner moments before I hear the people coming. Luke and I step back against the wall, while I carefully peak around the corner to see who's approaching.
Luke pulls out his blaster, and I can't suppress an eye roll. He thinks that is going to be more useful than a lightsaber? Although I suppose he's not very skilled with it yet so…
Someone dressed in Mandalorian armor steps into view, striding down the hallway. Behind him follow two other people carrying a long, weird-looking object that vaguely resembles a person. Two men in white armor – who remind me of clones – are following at the end of the odd procession. It appears that someone has been carbon frozen, but why would that have happened? I know in the Citadel mission, Anakin ordered everyone carbon frozen to avoid detection, but this? What exactly is happening?
"I think one of your friends may have ended up in a carbon-freezing chamber," I whisper to Luke.
"What?!" he hisses, carefully peering around the corner as the procession continues. "That must be... Han!" Oh, perfect. More questions. I just hope we can free him before it's too late, and since there aren't many people in this area, it shouldn't be too difficult.
Once they finally step out of sight around the corner, I sprint down the hallway again in pursuit, with Luke and Artoo close behind. I get the end of it in time to see the soldiers vanishing through an entrance behind glass doors. Artoo suddenly beeps behind us, and Luke motions to the droid to calm down and be quiet.
Just then, as I prepare to dart around the corner, the person in Mandalorian armor steps back through the doorway and immediately catches sight of us. I withdraw and ignite the lightsaber from Yoda as he open fires on us with his blaster. As I swing the blade, deflecting the bolts back at him, Luke uses the opportunity to shoot at him. All of the shots miss. One of the blaster shots from the figure strikes the wall right next to where I'm standing, blasting a large gaping black hole in it, from which small flames begin licking out.
Possibly realizing that this is a fight he's never going to win, the Mandalorian takes a final shot at us before stepping through the door again and lowering his blaster. He's probably going to get help. I charge down the hall towards the door he disappeared through, but by the time we arrive, the door has already slammed shut. The metal is thick, which doesn't matter much in the long run, since the blade will still cut through.
As I prepare to start cutting through it, I suddenly feel and hear people approaching down one of the side hallways.
"Leia and Chewie are over there," hisses Luke, motioning towards the hall. Turning, I see a man and an army officer leading a group of white-armored soldiers with two people, obviously prisoners, between them. One is a Wookie… Chewbacca, who for some strange reason has the parts of a golden colored droid strapped to his back. And those parts suspiciously remind me of Threepio. I'm not sure I want to know what happened to the droid this time. He always seems to attract trouble. The other is a woman, who, strangely enough, reminds me a lot of Padme. Probably Leia.
The woman turns and catches sight of Luke and I in the hall. "Luke! Luke don't! It's a trap! It's a trap!" she yells at us. The soldiers in the back whirl around and begin firing on us as the other officer who was in the front grabs the woman and attempts to drag her after the group.
Deflecting the blaster bolts, I charge them. The two soldiers closest to me are hit by their own return fire and go down. As the others begin firing at us, the man in the front suddenly draws his own blaster but shoots the person holding onto Leia. Another one of the soldiers fires at me, and I deflect it straight back to him. Luke shoots at the remaining one, killing him.
"Follow me, I'll get you out of here," the man orders, urgency obvious in his tone. Who is he anyway? Wasn't he just keeping them prisoner? Why is he now trying to help them escape?
"What do you think you're doing?" demands Leia, glaring at the man. Her disbelief is obvious in her voice.
"I'm getting you out of here," he replies, turning, "We must hurry."
She opens her mouth to argue again, but I interject. "Let's hurry. We just need to get going," I order. The Force is urging us onward. Whatever the problem is, it will have to be sorted out later.
"I knew all along this had to be a mistake," rambles Threepio from his position on Chewbacca's back. Leia continues to glare after the man but follows along behind with Luke and I taking up positions in the rear. I deactivate the lightsaber but keep it in my hand just in case.
We step into a corridor where a bunch of guards are standing. "See to it that no stormtroopers follow us, and give me two more blasters," he commands them. I file the word stormtrooper away for later consideration as the men turn and march away. Their commander steps over to Chewbacca and begins removing his binding. Luke does the same to Leia and passes her one of the new blasters.
I have no idea why he's helping us, but all questions will have to wait until later. We need to hurry and escape. If we're fortunate, maybe we can avoid confronting Vader altogether. That would be good. I have no desire to face a Sith without Anakin at my side.
The moment Chewbacca is free, however, he lunges at the man with a fierce growl, wrapping his paws around his neck, strangling him. "Do you think that after what you did to Han we're going to trust you?" snaps Leia, watching unsympathetically. What?
"What happened to Han?" asks Luke worriedly, looking over at her.
"Lando turned us over to the Empire and allowed them to carbon freeze Han," she explains. So that explains a little of what happened.
"I… had… no… choice," Lando chokes out, trying to pull free from the furious Wookie.
"You betrayed all of us," growls Chewbacca furiously in Shyriiwook, a language that I understand to a certain extent.
"What are you doing?" cries Threepio to the Wookie, "Trust him, trust him!" As if trusting someone who just betrayed you is that simple. I would be struggling as much as they are if I were in their place.
"Oh, so we understand, don't we, Chewie?" says Leia sarcastically, "He had no choice."
"I'm… just… trying… to… help…" Lando croaks.
"We don't need any of your help," snaps Leia.
"Considering our situation right now," interjects Luke, "I think we could use more help… and we really need to be getting going."
"H-a-a-a-" Lando attempts to say, his vocal cords too crushed by the paws to properly get out any words.
"What?" asks Leia.
"It sounds like Han," announces Threepio.
"There's still a chance to save Han. I mean at the East Platform…" Lando gasps.
"Chewie," Leia commands, looking at him. Chewbacca finally releases him and as Lando attempts to catch his breath, Threepio hastily apologizes.
"I'm terribly sorry about all this. After all, he's only a Wookie."
"I'll lead the way," Lando says finally, having collected himself. He turns and hurries off with the rest of us close behind. As we're racing down the corridor, Threepio finally spots his old friend Artoo, who has been out sight this whole time due to his position on Chewbacca's back.
"Artoo! Artoo! Where have you been?" demands the protocol droid. Artoo beeps in response. Chewbacca turns to look over his shoulder for a moment, turning Threepio out of his friend's sight. "Turn around you wooly –!" he begins to rant, but stops as the Wookie turns back around again.
Artoo beeps again as we continue running down the hall. "Well, at least you're still in one piece! Look what happened to me!" complains Threepio.
"Why are they taking Han somewhere other than where they were taking you?" I ask as we enter a turbolift and Lando pushes a button.
"Jabba has a bounty on him for not paying a debt," explains Leia, "The bounty hunter here is trying to take him back to Tatooine." Oh, so he's in trouble with Jabba? Wonderful. Not.
At long last, the turbolift door opens, and we run outside to the bay that overlooks the East Landing Platform. But we're already too late. The starship is already taking off into the cloudy sky, the colors of the sunset glinting off its sides.
Chewbacca lets out a howl and begins firing at the ship, although it's too far out of range already. If it weren't so far away already, I could probably try doing something using the Force, but there's no way I can do that anymore. Han is gone.
I suddenly feel a surge of danger the same moment Threepio cries, "Oh no! Chewie, they're behind you!"
I whirl around, igniting my lightsaber, just as a blaster shot explodes right near Leia. A whole platoon of stormtroopers is charging around the corner towards us. I deflect the shots while Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca start shooting back at them.
"Oh dear," frets Threepio as he's nearly struck by a stray blaster shot.
Dodging into the safe range behind me, Lando runs for the turbolift. He motions for the rest of us to follow, but we're stuck in the battle right now. After a number of the stormtroopers have gone down, Luke finally dashes over to the turbolift, and Leia and Chewbacca finally run after. And right on time, too, because I can sense more of the enemy approaching.
Deflecting the last few shots coming our direction, I sprint after them. The door slams barely in time and as we return to the floor we were on before, I can hear the blaster shots hitting the closed door below. They're trying and thankfully, failing, to break in.
As we leave the turbolift and take off running again – this time towards the landing platform where our escape is – a group of stormtroopers moves down another corridor towards us and open fire. Leia and Chewbacca dart behind a wall to avoid being hit, while taking an occasional shot at them. This isn't working. We're being rapidly outnumbered, and I can sense the danger approaching down another one of the halls behind us this time. Another group comes into view and begins firing at all of us. Great. Now we have stormtroopers shooting at us from two directions.
"We'll have to split up if we're even going to reach the docking bay!" cries Leia.
That's when the group splits in half practically at random. Luke and I run down a nearby corridor, deflecting blaster bolts as I go, my only thought being that of escaping. More stormtroopers than I care to count pursue us. Luke steps behind another corner to avoid being hit and opens fire at them. I stand nearby to cover him, deflecting blaster bolts. Finally, all of them are down.
"Now which way do we go?" wonders Luke, looking up and down the corridor, "If we go back the way we came, we're going to run right into that group of stormtroopers again."
"I'm sure there's another way to the docking bay," I decide, "I'll just try to follow the Force." I reach into the Force, trying to determine which way we should go now. Just then, I hear footsteps approaching.
Hoping the Force is leading me in the right direction, I scramble over to the nearest doorway and step inside. I quickly push a button on the control panel, closing the huge metal door behind us. At least that way, no one will be getting in here. Suddenly, the sound of other doors slamming shut echoes throughout the chamber. What is going on? I suppose I could cut our way out, but why did they suddenly slam by themselves? Unless…
Luke carefully takes a few steps forwards amongst all the steam and pipes in the room. I have no idea where this place is, but I'm fairly sure it doesn't lead to the docking bay, or anywhere near it for that matter. We slowly walk further, stopping right below an opening. Suddenly, the platform that we're standing on begins to rise.
Steam is everywhere in here, making it somewhat difficult to see far, especially since the room is already rather dark. Other than the steam still being emitted from the pipes, the room is dead quiet. I recognize the room. It's a carbon freezing chamber. The Force whispers of danger, and the room itself seems to radiate tenseness. We edge cautiously towards the nearby staircase and then suddenly, the lights in the room flicker on.
I hastily turn and look around. Is someone else in here? On a walkway not far from us my eyes fall on a dark clad being, who appears to be a cyborg, standing there silently watching us. I know who it is without having to be told, even though I've never seen him before. Vader.