Chapter 5: The Battle of Hoth

"Mara, will you marry me?" Luke looked upon the woman he loved expectantly, waiting for her answer. For the first time in her life, Mara was completely speechless. She tried to open her mouth to answer him, but the impulse was unable to make it all the way from her brain to her mouth. Luke began to panic when she hesitated to respond. 'I'm so stupid. We're too young. She's not ready for this. Of course she doesn't feel the same way. She wants her independence, not to be tied down to some farmboy from a third rate planet.' Luke turned to face the wall opposite from Mara, not wanting to see the look on her face when she rejected him.

Mara saw the hurt look begin to form on Luke's face as he turned away and was finally able to regain control of her voice. "Luke. Look at me." Luke slowly turned his head and Mara looked him directly in the eye. "I thought I lost you once and when you were out there last night, I couldn't imagine living with that pain again. You and Ben mean more to me than I could possibly express. I love you more than I thought was possible. There's no one else I would want to spend my life with. Yes. I will marry you." Upon accepting his proposal, a smile brighter than a supernova appeared on Mara's face. Luke almost leapt off the bed in excitement before drawing back in pain. Mara placed her hand on his arm to try and comfort him without disturbing the sleeping child on her lap. "Take it easy. Those wounds still need to fully heal. The 21-B said you are going to be sore for at least another day." Luke nodded to her and laid back in the bed, trying to push the pain away from his protesting muscles.

When the screaming in his muscles finally faded to a whimper, Luke turned to look at Mara once again. "Mara, I need to tell you something. This is going to sound crazy, but I want you to hear me out." Mara nodded for him to go ahead, wondering what more he had to say. "When I was out there, about to black out from the cold, I saw something. It could have just been a hallucination…but it felt so real. I…I think it may have been a vision from the Force. I saw Ben…I mean Obi-Wan, standing on the ice plain. He looked hazy, more like a hologram than a real person. He called to me and told me to take my family to the Dagobah system. He said that there we would find a Jedi Master named Yoda and train under him." Luke turned to look Mara in the eyes, awaiting her reaction as she sat there in silence absorbing his story. Luke turned away to lay his head back and look at the ceiling. "If you think I'm losing my mind, go ahead and say it. I won't be insulted. I'm not even sure I believe it."

Mara finally responded, speaking in a slow, deliberate tone. "This Jedi Master. You said his name was Yoda." Luke nodded to confirm that was in fact what he said. Mara's voice was more confident when she continued. "Luke, Yoda was the head of the Jedi Council right before the purges. I heard Palpatine speak of him from time to time. Apparently, he was one of the most powerful Jedi in the order's history." She put her hand on Luke's cheek so he would turn to face her again and looked him straight in the eyes. "Yoda was never accounted for after the Empire took over. For whatever reason, he was assumed dead, but if he's alive…Luke, if there's any chance we can find this Yoda, we have to go. He's probably the only Jedi Master left."

"Obi-Wan told me to take my family with me. He must have known about you and Ben even though he never met either of you. We'll go to Dagobah together…but first, we have a wedding to take care of." Luke pulled Mara into a soft kiss. He pulled back and groaned quietly when he heard the door open, interrupting them once again. He turned toward the door to find Wedge Antilles looking in with a worried look on his face.

"Sorry to interrupt your healing Boss, but you need to hear this." Luke and Mara's faces both turned concerned upon hearing the urgent tone in Wedge's voice. "An Imperial probe droid was found on the planet. We're preparing an evacuation. The Empire is on its way."

"Luke. Are you sure you're up for this?" Mara watched Luke gather his flight gear and was worried about what he would do in the impending battle. The stubborn young Jedi insisted on flying in the upcoming battle in spite of only having been released from medical care a few hours before.

Luke continued strapping on his flight suit as he responded to his fiancée's worries. "Mara, for the last time, I have to do this. My squadron needs me out there." Luke grabbed his helmet of a shelf in front of him and turned around to face Mara. He almost gave in when he saw the angry look on her face. 'I'm going to get it now.'

Mara exploded at him, trying desperately to change his mind. "Your squadron needs you! What about me? What about your son? Don't we need you too?" Mara knew that she had ceased fighting fair by bringing Ben into this, but she didn't care. Someone had to talk some sense into Luke and that someone was going to be her.

Luke stood silent for a moment, debating with himself. Finally, he turned to Mara and spoke to her in his most serious voice. "Take Ben and get out of here as soon as you're cleared. I wish I could come with you, but my place is here. I'll meet you at the rendezvous. I promise." Luke flashed her his best innocent smile. "You aren't getting rid of me that easily."

Mara turned away and crossed her arms over her chest. "That's no fair, using the Farmboy smile. You know I can't stay mad at you when you do that." Mara finally turned back to him with worried eyes. There wasn't anymore she could do than wish him luck. "Be careful out there."

"I will. Take care of yourself and Ben while I'm away."

"I will." Mara put her hand behind Luke's neck and pulled his head down for a slow lingering kiss. When they came up for air she looked at him with a small, seductive smile on her face. "You sure I can't change you mind?"

"Mara…"

"I know." Mara gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "For luck…and may the Force be with you."

Luke gave his future wife a small smile. "You too. Now get going. You have to go take care of our son."

Luke couldn't help but second guess his decision throughout his walk across the hangar to his speeder. Finally, he stopped his stride and took a deep breath, regaining his resolve. 'No. I'm doing the right thing. I'll be fine. They'll be fine. We'll all be fine. I'll see them again soon.'

Luke reached his speeder to find his gunner, Dack Ralter, already waiting for him. As Luke began climbing up the ladder into the cockpit of his snow speeder, Dack asked him "Feeling alright sir?"

Luke settled into his seat and reassured his gunner. "Just like new Dack. How about you?"

"Right now I feel like I could take on the whole Empire myself."

Luke found Dack's sense of optimism infectious. "I know what you mean." Luke keyed the switch to close the hatch and activated the speeder's repulsorlifts. He was ready for anything at this point.

After numerous runs on the Imperial AT-AT's that were spearheading the assault on the base, Luke began to get frustrated. 'Those things don't have a weak spot. Blasters just can't get through their armor plating. Even the joints are too heavily guarded. We're going to be decimated if we don't do something soon.' Then, a flash of inspiration hit Luke. "That armor's too strong for blasters. Rogue Group, use your harpoons and tow cables. Go for the legs. It might be our only chance of stopping them." Luke brought his speeder low to the ground at full throttle, weaving slightly, trying to make his speeder as hard a target as possible for the laser blasts that were lighting up the battlefield all around him. "Alright, standby Dack."

"Luke, we've got a malfunction in fire control. I'll have to cut in the auxiliary."

"Just hang on. Hang on Dack. Get ready to fire that tow cable." As Luke maneuvered himself into position to allow Dack a clear shot at the walker's legs, he heard an explosion behind him. "Dack? Dack!" Luke turned around to find that a stray blast had made it through the cockpit's shielding, killing Dack. 'No. This can't be happening.' Before despair could set in, Luke steeled himself. 'I can't lose focus now. I promised Mara that I would return and I plan on keeping that promise.'

Luke brought his speeder in a wide arc behind the line of attacking walkers and made his way back to his flight group. Once he had settled back into formation, he called for one of his squad mates. "Rogue 3."

Wedge's voice came in through the comm system. "Copy, Rogue Leader."

"Wedge, I've lost my gunner. You'll have to take this shot. I'll cover for you. Set your harpoon. Follow me on the next pass."

"Coming around, Rogue Leader." Luke slipped his speeder through the legs of the AT-AT followed by Rogue 3. Luke saw the harpoon from Wedge's speeder attach to one of the walker's back legs. 'Now to see if this crazy plan actually works.' Luke flew off to cover the other speeders as Wedge wrapped the tow cable around the walker's mechanical legs. He heard a loud crash and turned to see the walker on the ground, its legs crumpled beneath it. Two speeders quickly swooped in and blasted the now crippled vehicle, causing a cloud of black smoke to burst from the AT-AT's carcass.

Wedge's pleased voice came in over the tactical frequency. "Wow. That got him."

Luke commended his friend. "I see it Wedge, good work." Luke turned his attention back to more immediate concerns. 'Now to take care of those other walkers.' "Rogue 2, are you alright?"

"Yeah. I'm with you Rogue leader."

"Set harpoon. I'll cover for you." As Rogue 2 moved into position behind him, Luke noticed that the firefight was more intense at the center of the advancing Imperial line than it was near the edge with Wedge. "Watch that crossfire boys." Luke turned up his throttle and dodged cannon fire from the massive walkers. "Stay tight and low. This is it." As soon as Luke finished his command, a blast from one of the AT-AT's took out Rogue 2. Momentarily distracted, Luke was unable to avoid being grazed by a blast himself. He found himself unable to maintain altitude and called to one of his nearby squad mates. "Hobbie, I've been hit." Luke did everything in his power to steady his landing and, luckily, landed in some of the more powdery snow. 'Mara's going to kill me.' Luke began to scramble out of his wrecked speeder when he saw a walker bearing down on his position. He saw the grappling cable and grenade in the speeder's emergency kit and his face formed a small smile. He had an idea.

Mara finished the preflight check of the small transport Leia had been given her to take off planet. She was about to bring the flight systems on-line when she felt something wrong. Reaching out with the Force, she found the source of the feeling. 'When I see that boy again, I'm going to kill him. Can't he stay out of trouble for just once in his life?' She again reached out to Luke and sensed that he was unharmed. Relieved, Mara was about to fire up the repulsorlifts, when she felt something cold pass through her via the Force. Curious, she stretched out her senses and noticed a presence she was familiar with. She narrowed her eyes and spoke to herself through a clenched jaw. "Vader." Mara checked the blaster pistol and lightsaber at either hip and marched down the ramp of the transport with determination in her eyes. "This ends once and for all. No more running." Mara reached the exit to the hangar and palmed open the door only to run into Han and Leia on their way in.

Han looked Mara over and noticed the grim expression on her face and the lightsaber in her hand. "Mara, where are you going?"

Mara tried to elbow her way through the door, set on not allowing the Emperor to send his henchmen after her anymore. "To face Vader. I'm through running."

Leia grabbed Mara by both arms and turned her to face her. "Mara, that's suicide!" Mara's expression was unchanged by Leia's plea and she stood in the doorway, defiant. A change of tactics was in order. "Mara, think of Ben. You need to get him out of here… and do you want him to grow up without a mother?"

Mara's face quickly morphed into a mask of regret. She was blinded by her anger that she hadn't even thought of the consequences. "I wasn't thinking. How could I have been so reckless?" Before anyone could respond to her rhetorical question, Mara picked up a familiar sense of danger in the Force. "Stormtroopers are on their way. We have to get out of here now." Leia and Han ran to the Falcon where Chewie was waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp with C-3PO trying desperately to keep up. Mara ignored all of this and sprinted to her own craft where Ben was already safely strapped in. She slammed the actuator pad for the ramp as she entered and hurried to the cockpit, flipping switches to get the flight systems up and running as she sat down. Once all the necessary systems were on-line, she turned to her central display noticed that the Millennium Falcon was not started. She opened up a comm frequency to the nearby ship. "Han, what's wrong? Those stormtroopers will be here any second."

A frustrated voice crackled in return over the comm's speaker. "Don't worry. This bucket of bolts still has a few surprises in her." Mara caught the sight of stormtroopers entering the hangar out of the edge of the cockpit's viewport. She quickly trained her transport's repeating cannon on the advancing stormtroopers and fired just as Han did the same on the Falcon. The smuggler's insistent voice came over the comm. "We're getting out of here."

"Right behind you." Mara's small craft lifted off seconds after the Falcon. Just as she turned her shuttle to face the exit, Mara caught the sight of a familiar figure in black entering with a cape billowing behind him. "And not a moment too soon." Mara exited the hangar with a burst of speed and sensed Luke nearby. She activated the comm. "We'll split up and meet at the rendezvous point. I'm going to meet Luke."

Leia's voice came through over the comm. "Be careful. We'll see you soon."

"You too. Jade out." Mara maneuvered her shuttle over the fighter launch pad just as an X-Wing with the familiar blue and grey dome of R2-D2 sticking out of its top left the ground. Mara changed her comm frequency to that of Luke's starfighter. "Do you think a lady could find an escort off this ice cube?"

Luke responded with a worried voice. "Mara? What are you still doing here? I thought you would be long gone by now."

Mara shook her head, even though Luke couldn't see the gesture. 'That boy worries about everyone but himself.' "Well, I was about to go, but a certain Farmboy who can't stay out of trouble distracted me. What happened back there?"

Luke let out a deep breath, not wanting to bring out Mara's ire by telling her that his speeder was shot down or explaining his stunt with the grappling cable and grenade. "I'll tell you later. First, we're getting out of here." Luke pushed the nose of his X-Wing above the horizon to leave the atmosphere of the ice planet and Mara followed suit, flying on his wing.

As they began to break into Hoth's upper atmosphere, Mara flipped the comm back on and spoke with a slightly unsettled voice. "Luke. I need to tell you something. Vader was in the base. I think the Emperor may have sent him after me. I don't know if it's safe to go to the rendezvous."

Luke was surprisingly calm when he responded. "That's ok, I was thinking of somewhere else anyway."

Mara's curiosity was piqued and it could be heard in her voice. "Really? Where?"

"Dagobah."