********************************
Chapter Eight: Imperial Entanglements
*
Several squads of Imperial storm troopers gathered in the landing bay just as the tractor beam set down the Millennium Falcon on the bay's deck. The troopers surrounded the access hatch to the ship, and several went up to override the lock controls. The other troopers waited with weapons set to shoot anything that made a hostile move.
The hatch opened, and the storm troopers stood and knelt with their weapons raised. A moment or two past before a small, black object rolled down the gangplank towards the storm troopers. The Imperial soldiers backed away, fearing that it was some kind of explosive. The device did explode, but only sent a cloud of smoke spewing into the air around the hatch.
"What the..." began the storm trooper commander.
Just then, they saw three bright beams of light appear in the smoke, accompanied by the sound of an electronic hum. Not taking any chances, the troopers began to fire into the smoke, only to see their blasts deflected back at them.
Then, with lightning speed, three men in brown and tunics and robes burst out the smoke with light sabers at the ready, and began cutting the storm troopers to pieces. The troopers were caught unprepared by Obi-Wan's, Anakin's, and Luke's sudden assault, and almost half of their number went down in the first seconds of the attack by a combination of deflected weapons fire coming from their own weapons and the swift and steady strikes of light sabers.
The storm troopers scattered quickly. Soon, the three light saber wielding Jedi who challenged them were joined by Padme, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca, all of whom began to fire blaster weapons at the Imperial troops.
With the storm troopers in temporary retreat, Obi-Wan turned to the others. "Right, hold them off. Come on, Anakin."
With a nod, Anakin joined Obi-Wan at a run towards one of the hatches leading out of the landing bay. Meanwhile, Luke, Padme, Leia, Han, and Chewie took cover, and readied themselves for the renewed attack, which came in a matter of moments.
**
Obi-Wan and Anakin ran at full speed through the corridors of the star destroyer. Apparently, the Imperials were too distracted by the commotion the others were making in the landing bay, because they met little resistance. The few troops they did run into were quickly dispatched by the experienced Jedi.
Anakin felt a rush as he experienced battle for the first time in many years. He had been worried how he would perform after being out of action for so long. But the years of continued practice, coupled with the time invested in keeping in shape to train Luke, paid off, as Anakin performed magnificently alongside his former Master.
Through scattered storm troopers and startled Imperial officers, the two Jedi made their way to the tractor beam control room. The hatch was sealed, but Obi-Wan plunged his light saber into it and began to superheat the metal of the door until it melted away, while Anakin held off a few storm troopers that attempted to prevent their entry.
Before long, the door melted away, and Obi-Wan and Anakin plunged into the room. Two officers at the controls rose from their seats and attempted to draw their weapons. But their efforts were fruitless as Anakin raised his hand and sent them flying into the bulkhead with the force, knocking them unconscious.
Obi-Wan went to the controls and deactivated the tractor beams. Anakin dealt with a storm trooper that came into the room as the Obi-Wan made sure the tractor beam was indeed off.
"Right," said Obi-Wan, "tractor beam is deactivated. Now, to make sure they can't reactivate it."
Obi-Wan struck at the controls with his light saber in two swift strokes, turning the control panel to ruin. Anakin smiled. "This is turning out to be easier than I expected."
The two of them ran into the corridor, and were confronted by the dark leather clad form of Darth Hister, red light saber in hand. His yellowish flash cracked into an evil grin, his dark eyes burned with pure hatred.
"Oh, shit," said Anakin, "spoke too soon."
"Well, well," said Hister with his snake like voice. "Two little Jedi have fallen into my trap."
Obi-Wan turned to Anakin. "My friend, meet Darth Hister."
"Hmm," said Anakin, looking at Hister up and down. "I thought you said this guy was scary, Obi-Wan."
"Obi-Wan," said Hister with surprise. "Not...Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Jedi that escaped along with Master Yoda 15 years ago? I would have had you then, if it were not for the other Jedi fool who held me off. A fellow Miralian, no less."
"Luminara Unduli was her name," said Obi-Wan with a slight hint of anger. "I can still remember her force scream as you killed her."
"Ha, I remember," said Hister. "Her two halves made an agreeable sound as they hit the ground, after I sliced that pretty fool in half." Then, Hister drew his red light saber. "Which I will do to you, and this other fossil, now."
***
Meanwhile, back in the landing bay, the rest of the Millennium Falcon's crew and passengers were dealing with their own troubles. A force of about thirty storm troopers poured into the landing bay, blasting away at the star destroyer's intruders.
Padme, Leia, and Han laid down blaster fire. Luke deflected away laser blasts with his light saber, while occasionally using his force powers to throw crates and other heavy objects at advancing enemy troops. Chewie had gone back inside the Falcon, and was now operating the ship's ground defense weapons to aid in the defense against the Imperial troops.
The Rebels were fighting their Imperial antagonists bravely, but more storm troopers joined the attack. The small group of Rebel fighters knew they would be overrun in a matter of minutes.
"We're running out of time," said Padme. "They should have been back by now."
"If their still alive," said Han rather thoughtlessly.
"Oh, shut up, laser brain!" yelled Leia in between shots.
"Watch your language, Leia," yelled Padme at Leia over the sounds of laser blasts. "And if you say that one more time, Solo, I'm going to take this blaster and shove it up your ass!"
"Sorry," said Han in a weak attempt at an apology, feeling instantly intimidated by the two women fighting alongside him.
Padme pulled out a communications device. "Anakin, can you hear me," said Padme into the communicator. No response. "Anakin, please come in." Still, no response.
"Great, what a time for him not to answer the phone," said Han.
****
Anakin could not respond to the communicator buzzing in his robe because he and Obi-Wan were busily engaged in mortal combat. Hister was a strong fighter with a skilled technique, and the two Jedi who opposed him were having a hard time fighting him. They blades of light sabers clashed in a melee of humming noises and sharp sounds of saber strikes as the trio faced off in a heated battle.
"We can't keep this up," said Obi-Wan to Anakin. "We could defeat him, but it would take time, and time is something we don't have."
"I know," said Anakin.
"Thinking of going somewhere," said Hister. "Do I frighten you that much?"
Hister struck at Anakin with his light saber, but the latter handily deflected the blow as Obi-Wan struck out with his own weapon, his blow also adeptly deflected by Hister. As they fought, Anakin caught a glimpse of the open blast doors they were approaching as they fought. It was in the direction of the corridor back to the landing bay.
Obi-Wan seemed to notice Anakin's train of thought, and sought out the control mechanism to the doors with his eyes. Meanwhile, Anakin took up more of the burden of holding off Hister. Finally, after a few moments, Obi-Wan located the mechanism. He reached out with the force and activated the controls to close the blast doors.
"Now," said Obi-Wan.
The two Jedi broke off abruptly from Hister and seemed to fly through the quickly closing doorway. Hister, caught momentarily off guard by the sudden retreat, did not react fast enough to follow them through the door. The Sith warrior slammed his fist into the hatch that now separated him from his prey.
On the other side of the door, Anakin and Obi-Wan turned momentarily towards the door. "I've jammed the mechanism," said Obi-Wan, "but it won't hold Hister for long. Come, we must hurry back to the ship."
The two Jedi ran at full speed back towards the landing bay. As they ran, Anakin took out his communicator. "Padme, can you hear me?"
"Ani!" yelled Padme's voice through the device. "Where are you? I've been trying to reach you! We're about to be overrun!"
"Hold on for another minute or two, we're almost there," said Anakin.
But as Anakin and Obi-Wan got to the door to the landing bay, they ran into a problem. The hatch was closed and locked. Anakin found the mechanism for the door, but it wouldn't work. Obi-Wan put his hand up to the door.
"This is very thick, Anakin," said Obi-Wan. "We could use our light sabers to melt through it, but it would take several minutes."
"I've got a quicker way," said Anakin. He pulled out his communicator. "R2. This is Anakin. We need you at the landing bay hatchway right away. Let us know when you get there."
R2D2 bleeped in response. The two men waited for a few moments. Finally, R2 bleeped into the communicator. "Good, R2," said Anakin. "Can you find a way to open the door?"
R2 bleeped into the communicator with an affirmative sounding tone. After a few more seconds, the door to the landing bay came open.
Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped through it, and immediately had to deflect away laser blasts. The two Jedi ran at full speed across the landing bay while deflecting the blasts from the Imperial troops. "Get into the ship!" yelled Anakin at Padme, Leia, and Han.
"Let's go!" yelled Padme.
"Don't have to tell me twice!" yelled Han.
As the three of them ran into the ship, Anakin and Obi-Wan came up to the side of the Falcon, with R2D2 close behind them. But all of a sudden, R2 was hit by several blasts from the storm troopers. He shrieked in what sounded like agony, while Anakin and Obi-Wan turned to look.
"R2!" screamed Anakin.
The little astro droid caught fire and parts exploded off of R2 right before Anakin's horrified eyes. He moved to try and save his beloved droid, but Obi-Wan grabbed his arm. "No, there's no time!" yelled Obi-Wan. "The droid is done for, and too far away to save! And look, more trouble!"
Obi-Wan pointed to the doorway he and Anakin had come out of. Anakin looked and saw Hister coming through the door with about fifty storm troopers. "We have to get to safety!"
"I can't just leave R2!" yelled Anakin.
"He did his duty," said Obi-Wan. "Now do yours! We can't help it! Come on!"
Anakin reluctantly followed Obi-Wan into the ship. An explosion wracked through R2's midsection, sending the little droid to the ground in a heap. After the two Jedi boarded the ship, they closed the hatch.
"Solo! Go! NOW!" yelled Anakin.
With a huge shudder, the Millennium Falcon lifted off of the landing bay and plunged out into open space. Han and Chewie maneuvered the ship through volleys of weapons fire coming from the star destroyer, while the computer calculated the jump to light speed. Finally, after a few minutes of dodging Imperial weapons fire, the Falcon's computer calculated the jump. Han activated the hyperdrive, and sent the Falcon into light speed.
Chapter Eight: Imperial Entanglements
*
Several squads of Imperial storm troopers gathered in the landing bay just as the tractor beam set down the Millennium Falcon on the bay's deck. The troopers surrounded the access hatch to the ship, and several went up to override the lock controls. The other troopers waited with weapons set to shoot anything that made a hostile move.
The hatch opened, and the storm troopers stood and knelt with their weapons raised. A moment or two past before a small, black object rolled down the gangplank towards the storm troopers. The Imperial soldiers backed away, fearing that it was some kind of explosive. The device did explode, but only sent a cloud of smoke spewing into the air around the hatch.
"What the..." began the storm trooper commander.
Just then, they saw three bright beams of light appear in the smoke, accompanied by the sound of an electronic hum. Not taking any chances, the troopers began to fire into the smoke, only to see their blasts deflected back at them.
Then, with lightning speed, three men in brown and tunics and robes burst out the smoke with light sabers at the ready, and began cutting the storm troopers to pieces. The troopers were caught unprepared by Obi-Wan's, Anakin's, and Luke's sudden assault, and almost half of their number went down in the first seconds of the attack by a combination of deflected weapons fire coming from their own weapons and the swift and steady strikes of light sabers.
The storm troopers scattered quickly. Soon, the three light saber wielding Jedi who challenged them were joined by Padme, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca, all of whom began to fire blaster weapons at the Imperial troops.
With the storm troopers in temporary retreat, Obi-Wan turned to the others. "Right, hold them off. Come on, Anakin."
With a nod, Anakin joined Obi-Wan at a run towards one of the hatches leading out of the landing bay. Meanwhile, Luke, Padme, Leia, Han, and Chewie took cover, and readied themselves for the renewed attack, which came in a matter of moments.
**
Obi-Wan and Anakin ran at full speed through the corridors of the star destroyer. Apparently, the Imperials were too distracted by the commotion the others were making in the landing bay, because they met little resistance. The few troops they did run into were quickly dispatched by the experienced Jedi.
Anakin felt a rush as he experienced battle for the first time in many years. He had been worried how he would perform after being out of action for so long. But the years of continued practice, coupled with the time invested in keeping in shape to train Luke, paid off, as Anakin performed magnificently alongside his former Master.
Through scattered storm troopers and startled Imperial officers, the two Jedi made their way to the tractor beam control room. The hatch was sealed, but Obi-Wan plunged his light saber into it and began to superheat the metal of the door until it melted away, while Anakin held off a few storm troopers that attempted to prevent their entry.
Before long, the door melted away, and Obi-Wan and Anakin plunged into the room. Two officers at the controls rose from their seats and attempted to draw their weapons. But their efforts were fruitless as Anakin raised his hand and sent them flying into the bulkhead with the force, knocking them unconscious.
Obi-Wan went to the controls and deactivated the tractor beams. Anakin dealt with a storm trooper that came into the room as the Obi-Wan made sure the tractor beam was indeed off.
"Right," said Obi-Wan, "tractor beam is deactivated. Now, to make sure they can't reactivate it."
Obi-Wan struck at the controls with his light saber in two swift strokes, turning the control panel to ruin. Anakin smiled. "This is turning out to be easier than I expected."
The two of them ran into the corridor, and were confronted by the dark leather clad form of Darth Hister, red light saber in hand. His yellowish flash cracked into an evil grin, his dark eyes burned with pure hatred.
"Oh, shit," said Anakin, "spoke too soon."
"Well, well," said Hister with his snake like voice. "Two little Jedi have fallen into my trap."
Obi-Wan turned to Anakin. "My friend, meet Darth Hister."
"Hmm," said Anakin, looking at Hister up and down. "I thought you said this guy was scary, Obi-Wan."
"Obi-Wan," said Hister with surprise. "Not...Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Jedi that escaped along with Master Yoda 15 years ago? I would have had you then, if it were not for the other Jedi fool who held me off. A fellow Miralian, no less."
"Luminara Unduli was her name," said Obi-Wan with a slight hint of anger. "I can still remember her force scream as you killed her."
"Ha, I remember," said Hister. "Her two halves made an agreeable sound as they hit the ground, after I sliced that pretty fool in half." Then, Hister drew his red light saber. "Which I will do to you, and this other fossil, now."
***
Meanwhile, back in the landing bay, the rest of the Millennium Falcon's crew and passengers were dealing with their own troubles. A force of about thirty storm troopers poured into the landing bay, blasting away at the star destroyer's intruders.
Padme, Leia, and Han laid down blaster fire. Luke deflected away laser blasts with his light saber, while occasionally using his force powers to throw crates and other heavy objects at advancing enemy troops. Chewie had gone back inside the Falcon, and was now operating the ship's ground defense weapons to aid in the defense against the Imperial troops.
The Rebels were fighting their Imperial antagonists bravely, but more storm troopers joined the attack. The small group of Rebel fighters knew they would be overrun in a matter of minutes.
"We're running out of time," said Padme. "They should have been back by now."
"If their still alive," said Han rather thoughtlessly.
"Oh, shut up, laser brain!" yelled Leia in between shots.
"Watch your language, Leia," yelled Padme at Leia over the sounds of laser blasts. "And if you say that one more time, Solo, I'm going to take this blaster and shove it up your ass!"
"Sorry," said Han in a weak attempt at an apology, feeling instantly intimidated by the two women fighting alongside him.
Padme pulled out a communications device. "Anakin, can you hear me," said Padme into the communicator. No response. "Anakin, please come in." Still, no response.
"Great, what a time for him not to answer the phone," said Han.
****
Anakin could not respond to the communicator buzzing in his robe because he and Obi-Wan were busily engaged in mortal combat. Hister was a strong fighter with a skilled technique, and the two Jedi who opposed him were having a hard time fighting him. They blades of light sabers clashed in a melee of humming noises and sharp sounds of saber strikes as the trio faced off in a heated battle.
"We can't keep this up," said Obi-Wan to Anakin. "We could defeat him, but it would take time, and time is something we don't have."
"I know," said Anakin.
"Thinking of going somewhere," said Hister. "Do I frighten you that much?"
Hister struck at Anakin with his light saber, but the latter handily deflected the blow as Obi-Wan struck out with his own weapon, his blow also adeptly deflected by Hister. As they fought, Anakin caught a glimpse of the open blast doors they were approaching as they fought. It was in the direction of the corridor back to the landing bay.
Obi-Wan seemed to notice Anakin's train of thought, and sought out the control mechanism to the doors with his eyes. Meanwhile, Anakin took up more of the burden of holding off Hister. Finally, after a few moments, Obi-Wan located the mechanism. He reached out with the force and activated the controls to close the blast doors.
"Now," said Obi-Wan.
The two Jedi broke off abruptly from Hister and seemed to fly through the quickly closing doorway. Hister, caught momentarily off guard by the sudden retreat, did not react fast enough to follow them through the door. The Sith warrior slammed his fist into the hatch that now separated him from his prey.
On the other side of the door, Anakin and Obi-Wan turned momentarily towards the door. "I've jammed the mechanism," said Obi-Wan, "but it won't hold Hister for long. Come, we must hurry back to the ship."
The two Jedi ran at full speed back towards the landing bay. As they ran, Anakin took out his communicator. "Padme, can you hear me?"
"Ani!" yelled Padme's voice through the device. "Where are you? I've been trying to reach you! We're about to be overrun!"
"Hold on for another minute or two, we're almost there," said Anakin.
But as Anakin and Obi-Wan got to the door to the landing bay, they ran into a problem. The hatch was closed and locked. Anakin found the mechanism for the door, but it wouldn't work. Obi-Wan put his hand up to the door.
"This is very thick, Anakin," said Obi-Wan. "We could use our light sabers to melt through it, but it would take several minutes."
"I've got a quicker way," said Anakin. He pulled out his communicator. "R2. This is Anakin. We need you at the landing bay hatchway right away. Let us know when you get there."
R2D2 bleeped in response. The two men waited for a few moments. Finally, R2 bleeped into the communicator. "Good, R2," said Anakin. "Can you find a way to open the door?"
R2 bleeped into the communicator with an affirmative sounding tone. After a few more seconds, the door to the landing bay came open.
Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped through it, and immediately had to deflect away laser blasts. The two Jedi ran at full speed across the landing bay while deflecting the blasts from the Imperial troops. "Get into the ship!" yelled Anakin at Padme, Leia, and Han.
"Let's go!" yelled Padme.
"Don't have to tell me twice!" yelled Han.
As the three of them ran into the ship, Anakin and Obi-Wan came up to the side of the Falcon, with R2D2 close behind them. But all of a sudden, R2 was hit by several blasts from the storm troopers. He shrieked in what sounded like agony, while Anakin and Obi-Wan turned to look.
"R2!" screamed Anakin.
The little astro droid caught fire and parts exploded off of R2 right before Anakin's horrified eyes. He moved to try and save his beloved droid, but Obi-Wan grabbed his arm. "No, there's no time!" yelled Obi-Wan. "The droid is done for, and too far away to save! And look, more trouble!"
Obi-Wan pointed to the doorway he and Anakin had come out of. Anakin looked and saw Hister coming through the door with about fifty storm troopers. "We have to get to safety!"
"I can't just leave R2!" yelled Anakin.
"He did his duty," said Obi-Wan. "Now do yours! We can't help it! Come on!"
Anakin reluctantly followed Obi-Wan into the ship. An explosion wracked through R2's midsection, sending the little droid to the ground in a heap. After the two Jedi boarded the ship, they closed the hatch.
"Solo! Go! NOW!" yelled Anakin.
With a huge shudder, the Millennium Falcon lifted off of the landing bay and plunged out into open space. Han and Chewie maneuvered the ship through volleys of weapons fire coming from the star destroyer, while the computer calculated the jump to light speed. Finally, after a few minutes of dodging Imperial weapons fire, the Falcon's computer calculated the jump. Han activated the hyperdrive, and sent the Falcon into light speed.