Her pack loaded to the brim with groceries, Star deposited a handful of credit chips into the waiting hand of the market vendor.

"Thank you, young lady," the Rodian said politely. "You have yourself a nice day."

"You, too!"

The skyways built between the mountain peaks were relatively quiet as the Iego sun began to sink, but then again, they were always quiet. Things moved slowly on the backwater plant. Star strolled along at a leisurely pace. What reason was there to hurry?

She turned a corner, heading back toward the landing pad where the Raventalon had been parked under repair for the last week. Ahead, a building on the left housed a comms equipment repair shop. A human male was walking up to the door, pulling behind him a large crate riding on repulsors. The shop's owner, a Kajain'sa'Nikto, came out to greet him, his arms crossed. "You're late with my parts," the shop keeper said gruffly.

"I know, I'm sorry," the human apologized. "The Empire's got so many transport regulations and checkpoints now…it's getting harder and harder to carry anything."

The shopkeeper snorted. "Tell me about it. Glad they haven't shown up here yet."

"And hopefully they never will."

The shopkeeper leaned against the crate as Star passed them. "Never would have thought Palpatine could change so many things. They keep claiming it's in the name of 'peace and prosperity', but then…the things they do…" He shook his head.

"I know," said the delivery man. "You hear about what's going on on Mewni?"

Star froze in her tracks, a few paces past the conversing men. Mewni? What *is* happening on Mewni?

The shopkeeper didn't know any more than Star did. "No, what?"

"Moff Toffee's got the place practically turned into a prison planet. He's got the whole population in work camps making weapons and armor for the Imperial Army."

Star's blood turned to ice and her heart rate doubled. Work camps?

The shopkeeper shook his head again. "Unbelievable. What's this galaxy coming to?"

The two men headed inside with the crate, leaving Star standing on an almost empty street, feeling as though her feet had turned to stone. She stood for a long time, unable to move.

Rosado switched off the tiny arc welder and flipped up his goggles. "Whatdya think, Captain?"

Janna inspected Rosado's work on the underside of the hull. "I think you're not a half-bad welder, Hovis."

"Why, thank y-"

"You're not a half-good welder, either." She chuckled to herself as she strolled away toward the boarding ramp, but paused halfway as PY-HD led Tom and Marco down from the ship's cabin. "Well?"

"We've got it!" Marco reported happily. "Pony ran her diagnostics and says both hyperdrives are operational again. Weapons systems passed, too." The Padawan listed off items on his fingers. "Radar, scanners, miscellaneous sensors, life support…everything is working as it should be again." The astromech bleeped a cheerful agreement.

"Good work, you guys. Hovis and I are just finishing patching up the fractures in the hull."

"I guess we're just about done with the repairs then," said Tom. PY-HD bleeped something that made the Demonicite frown. "Huh? Pony, did you say-?"

And then the astromech jabbed him in the side with its horn. Tom yelped in pain and surprise. "Pony Head!" The droid roughly bumped into him. "Cut it- OW!" Tom scrambled to get away and nearly bowled over Marco. PY-HD gave chase as Tom ran circles around the landing pad.

Marco looked at Janna questioningly. "Did she say 'it's time for payback'?"

Janna smirked. "Something like that."

The gang had only been on Iego for a few rotations. The hyperdrives aboard the Raventalon were easily repaired with some parts cannibalized from the Xanadu Blood, and they'd replaced some of the freighter's sensors with the ones from the starfighter as well. With the Xanadu Blood now rendered mostly useless, the teenagers sold it to another teenager, one even younger than they were, a human male by the name of Jaybo Hood.

The credits from the sale paid for the use of the landing pad, which meant Janna could spare some money to purchase a new speeder bike to replace the one left behind on Orto Plutonia. As the Empire was abandoning lots of Clone Wars-era military equipment, lots of repulsorcraft was finding its way into the hands of black market dealers. Janna had found a BARC speeder in surprisingly good condition and purchased it for a very fair price (after significant haggling which ended in a not-so-subtle threat.) As an added bonus, the speeder bike had a side car attached, making it much more well-suited for multiple passengers than the old jump speeder.

Rosado pulled off his welding goggles as he joined the others. He'd traded in his Imperial officer's uniform for some less conspicuous clothing: a lightweight long-sleeve shirt colored light blue, and some simple black trousers, purchased from a local store. He had, however, hung onto his light rain jacket and wore it as a windbreaker, though he'd torn off the sleeve patch bearing the Imperial insignia. "Speaking of no longer being confined to Iego, did you guys have somewhere you were planning on going next?"

Marco and Janna looked at each other. The former raised an eyebrow. The latter just shrugged. "We hadn't really talked about it," said the Padawan. "We-" He stopped as he noticed Star approaching. She was trudging, her eyes turned downward. Her expression was hard, as if deep in thought. "Star?" She stopped walking, but didn't look up. His brow furrowed with confusion, Marco cautiously stepped towards her. "Star? You okay?"

"No," she replied softly, still staring at the ground. "No, I'm not okay."

Janna took a cautious step toward her. "What's wrong?"

"I just overheard someone talking about what's happening on Mewni. It…it's horrible."

"How horrible?"

"Toffee has turned my people into Imperial slaves."

"He did what?!" Hearing Star's words as he ran past, Tom abruptly halted. PY-HD hadn't been expecting the chase to end so suddenly and crashed into him, flipping over backwards and incapacitating itself. Tom ignored the droid's annoyed squeals. "I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this point, but…"

"This is exactly why I don't want to be a part of their machine anymore," Rosado muttered, his arms crossed.

Star shook her head. "This is all my fault. I never should have left."

"Star, we've been over this," Janna said. "If we had stayed, we would have been killed."

"I know, I know! But as Princess, I have a duty to protect my people." Star let out a deep breath. "I have to go back to Mewni. I've been gone far too long." She looked at Tom and Janna. "Will you guys drop me off?"

"Star, you're crazy-"

"Janna, I have to do this! I know I still don't have an army, and I know the odds are against me, but I have to go back, and I can't wait any longer!"

Janna hadn't even closed her mouth. "…You're crazy if you think we're not going to fight with you."

"Really?"

"Of course," Tom said. "We promised you we would."

Marco gently took Star by the hand. "We'll figure something out to even up the playing field. We've overcome insurmountable odds already, several times." He gave her hand a squeeze. "Because we always have each other's backs."

"Marco's right," Janna nodded. "We've had some really close scrapes, but we always get away with it because when one of us is in trouble, the others come to the rescue." She punched Star in the arm (the mechanical one, and accidentally hurt her hand.) "If it's your fight, then that makes it our fight, too."

Star found herself overcome with emotion, fighting back tears. "Oh, you guys!" She held her arms open. "Come here!" Marco and Janna were quickly sucked into her embrace, and Tom did his best to hug all three of his friends. PY-HD squealed that it would also like to be a part of the group hug, but was still stuck lying on the ground. Rosado came to its rescue and hauled the astromech upright.

"What about you, Hovis?" Marco asked.

"You don't have to come with us," Star said. "You saved us from that Star Destroyer. If anything, we owe you."

"Yeah, if you've got a home and a family to get back to, we can surely drop you off," Tom said.

This was an interesting question for Rosado. He did have a family, and therefore did not wish to put himself in any unnecessary danger, but part of the "Holiday/bug-out" code word agreement he'd formed with his wife was that he would not know where she and the boys were relocating to ahead of time. This way, he wouldn't be able to give up their position if he were questioned and it would be impossible for anyone to learn of their bug-out destination before the time came. They had a plan for rendezvousing once the coast was clear, but if the Empire had figured out he was the one who had helped the Padawans escape (and he figured they certainly must have by now) then they'd be after him, too, and it was too dangerous to return to his family just yet.

If these kids had managed to evade the Empire for this long, his best bet was probably to stick with them. Besides, they had accepted him as part of their crew, and he liked them.

Rosado flashed a determined grin. "Well…seeing as how I've made myself an enemy of the Empire now too…how can I pass up an opportunity to stick it back to them? I don't think I'll be much use in a fight, but I'll do whatever I can to help!"

Star couldn't help but smile ear to ear. Her friends, old and new, were the best. "Then what are we waiting for? We've got a planet to save!"

Janna was happy to be back at the helm of the Raventalon. In spite of Star's unexpectedly skillful flying during their escape from the Moonshadow, she wasn't particularly keen on letting anyone else handle her ship. Her arm had healed well during their week on Iego, and it felt good to have the control yoke in her hands once again.

"We're coming up on Mewni." Tom, seated beside her, relayed the information on his console readout.

Star, behind Janna, stared out the viewscreen, awaiting the appearance of her home world from the swirls of hyperspace. Something nudged against her boot, which turned out to be Marco's foot as he subtly tried to get her attention. She tore her eyes from the viewscreen to meet his gaze. "Are you ready for this?" he asked.

Star sighed. "Honestly? I'm not really sure."

"Alright, people, look alive," Janna ordered. "Here we go." She and Tom grabbed their respective hyperdrive levers and pulled them down. Star got to her feet, anxious to see Mewni come into view as hyperspace fell away and the Raventalon dropped back into real space.

What neither Star nor anyone else aboard was expecting to see was a trio of Imperial Star Destroyers silently standing at the ready between them and the planet.

Rosado, standing behind Star and Marco, jumped in surprise. "The Empire's got the planet blockaded!"

"Sir!"

Captain Gittinger, commanding officer aboard the Star Destroyer Annihilator, turned toward the officer who had called for his attention. "What is it, Corporal?"

"Our scanners just picked up a small craft dropping out of light speed."

"The model?"

"Corellian YT-560 light freighter, Sir."

Gittinger grinned. "So the Moff's prediction was correct. Princess Butterfly has returned home at last." He stepped up to the viewport, spotting the freighter several klicks off the Destroyer's bow. Out of range of the turbolasers to be sure, but that was of no concern to him. "Contact the Interdictor. It's time to welcome the Princess home."

"Yes, Sir!"

Janna shook her head. "We'll never make it past three Destroyers," she said, already angling the control yoke and banking the Raventalon through a sweeping turn. "I'm sorry, Star, but we gotta turn around."

"Uh, Janna?" Tom squeaked nervously as he eyed something on his console readout. "I'm picking up someth-"

Before the Demonicite could finish his sentence, an Arquitens-class Imperial light-cruiser materialized in front of them, dropping out of hyperspace no more than a hundred meters beyond the viewscreen.

All five beings occupying the cockpit of the Raventalon screamed.

Janna yanked the controls hard to port. "It's a trap!"

"Should we get on the canons?" Marco asked, already jumping to his feet.

"We're not going to be here long enough to need them," Janna said as she twisted the Raventalon about to dive beneath the cruiser. "Pony, program the navicomputer for the jump to lightspeed!"

The droid bleeped.

"Who cares?! Tell it to take us back to Iego! Just get us out of here!"

"Captain! The freighter is dodging around us making for the hyperspace lane! Shall we open fire?"

Captain Treacle shook his head. "No, let them run. I'm anxious to try out our new toy. Power up the gravity generators."

"Yes, Sir!"

"Um…why aren't they shooting at us?" Star asked. "The Empire usually enjoys doing that."

"I don't know," Janna said as she skirted the Raventalon along the underside of the cruiser. She noticed the strange dome-like structures, one on each side of the ship's keel, but she didn't dwell on them. "And that doesn't make me feel any better."

PY-HD twittered that the navicomputer was ready.

"Good! Let's get outta here!" Janna set her hand on the hyperdrive lever, and Tom grasped his. "Three, two, one, go!" They pushed the controls forward and the stars beyond the viewscreen stretched into streaks as the Raventalon accelerated to lightspeed.

For just over a second. Then the streaks turned into pinpricks of light once again as the freighter spun out of control and dropped back into real space.

"What the heck?!" Janna yelled as she wrestled with the controls to correct the Raventalon's tumbling spin.

"What happened?" Marco asked. "Did the hyperdrive malfunction or something?"

"No," Tom said as he checked the sensor data. "Something pulled us out of hyperspace."

Rosado stiffened. "Oh, no." He rushed forward up between the pilots' seats as Janna brought the ship back under control. The viewscreen was facing the cruiser, which was turning about to face them. He spotted the dome-shaped structures Janna had noticed on the hull's underside, and a second pair topside mirroring them. His blood ran cold. "It's an Interdictor."

Star raised an eyebrow. "A who now?"

"A ship equipped with a gravity well projector. Capable of pulling a ship out of hyperspace. Or, in this case, preventing a ship from going INTO hyperspace."

"Wonderful," Janna quipped as she turned the ship around and gunned the sublight engines as the cruiser gave chase. "How do we escape it?"

Rosado shrugged. "I have no idea."

"I don't know anything about gravity well projectors…or what a gravity well is," said Star, "but can't we just get far enough away from that ship that we'll be out of range?"

"Sure, but if they start shooting, I doubt we'll last long enough to outrun that thing," Janna said. "It's keeping up with us pretty well."

"That's not even our only issue." Tom pointed to his console. "The hyperdrive overloaded when we were pulled out of hyperspace. We need to reboot the power to cycle the system."

"Which means…?" Marco inquired.

"We basically have to stop."

Marco slumped down in his seat. "Well, it's been nice knowing you guys."

"We have them on the run, Sir. Shall we open fire?"

Captain Treacle pursed his lips in thought. "No. We have prevented their escape, now we will capture them. Engage the tractor beam."

A harsh jolt brought the Raventalon to a dead stop, sending Rosado, the only one in the cockpit not seated, sprawling forward into the control panel. "Oof!"

"Now what?" Janna groaned in frustration.

"They've got us caught in a tractor beam!" Tom exclaimed.

"And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse."

With the freighter's engines still at full power fighting against the tractor beam's pull, the Imperial ship could only reel in its prey a few centimeters at a time. Captain Treacle crossed his arms.

"This is taking too long. Target that ship's engines and fire," the executive officer called.

"Belay that! Moff Toffee will have our heads if we kill anyone aboard that ship." He turned his attention back to the window, watching the freighter creep close. "Patience. Soon enough they will realize that there is no escape, and then they will power down their engines. Just watch."

"Any chance we can shoot our way out?" Star asked. "It's a lot smaller than a Star Destroyer, maybe we have a chance."

Tom nodded. "Maybe the scanner can pick up a weak spot in their deflector shield." He punched a few commands into his console. He frowned at the results. "Uh…their shields aren't up."

It was Janna's turn to frown. "Like, not at all?"

"Nope. No shields."

Rosado, still rubbing his head where it had smacked the controls, suddenly snapped his fingers. "Of course! They can't use the gravity well projector with the shields up, it creates too much interference!"

"And we haven't given them a reason to put the shields up yet."

Tom turned his attention back to the console. "I'll power up the turrets."

"Our only chance is to destroy the gravity well projector," said Rosado, "And I doubt our canons are heavy enough to pierce the armor on those domes."

"Forget the canons, Lucy. I've got a better idea." Janna grabbed Tom by the arm and pulled him from the copilot's seat. "Come over here and take the controls. Pony, get ready to power down the ship and cycle the hyperdrive when I give the signal." The droid bleeped an affirmative as Janna headed for the doorway. "Star, you come with me."

"Uh…okay?"

Janna broke into a dead run as she cleared the cockpit and Star had to hurry just to keep up.

"Where are we going?"

"To get my ace in the hold."

"You mean 'ace in the hole.'"

"I meant what I said."

They made their way down to the cargo hold.

"Ohhhh, you meant that literally."

"Yup."

They reached the cargo hold and Star followed Janna as she blazed a path between supply crates to the rearmost bulkhead. Without breaking stride, Janna slammed her shoulder into one of the durasteel sectional panels between the ship's vertical ribs. The panel popped out and Janna quickly shoved it aside, revealing a hidden space behind it. It was from this same hidden cache she had provided Buff Frog with a MWC-35c repeating blaster canon as they fled from Mewni, so long ago it felt as though it were another lifetime. The MWC-35c was not the only heavy weaponry hidden within the bulkhead.

"Help me with this thing, Star," Janna said, squeezing into the gap behind the adjacent panel and hoisting up one end of a long, rectangular case. "And be careful."

Star picked up the other end. The case weighed a ton. "What the heck is this thing?"

"A rocket launcher."

They carefully maneuvered the case out from the bulkhead and began making their way out of the cargo hold.

"I've seen clone troopers with rocket launchers," Star said, the strain in her voice obvious as she hefted the heavy load. "They carried them like nothing. The clones must have been stronger than I thought."

"This is no ordinary rocket launcher," Janna said as they made their way back up to the main deck. "The Republic outlawed this thing long before any of us were born. Worth a fortune on the black market."

"Then how do you have one?"

"Don't worry about it."

They carried the case to the emergency airlock and set it on the floor. Janna popped the latches and flipped open the top, revealing a massive piece of hardware longer than either of the girls was tall.

"Open that storage locker," Janna said, pointing to the locker built into the bulkhead.

Star did so, and was surprised at what she found inside. "Space suits?"

"Yup. Put one on while I figure out how this thing works."

"Haven't you used it before?" Star asked as she pulled on the thin pressure suit over her clothes. She left her lightsaber in the storage locker.

"Nope. Always wanted to, but never had a reason. And I've only got one rocket, so I couldn't exactly test it for fun."

By the time Star had fastened the helmet to her pressure suit, Janna had loaded the ordinance and deciphered the controls.

Janna's commlink tweeted and she answered the call before setting the device on the rocket launcher case. "Yeah?" she asked as she began pulling on a spacesuit of her own, Star assisting her to speed up the process.

"What are you doing back there, Janna?" Tom asked frantically. "We're getting closer to that cruiser!"

"I'm almost ready. Give me a second."

"We don't have many seconds to spare!" Marco's voice this time.

Janna pulled on her helmet and opened the interior airlock door before grabbing the commlink. "Help me get this thing into the airlock," she said to Star, her voice now coming through the built in private comm channel linking the space suits. They stood the rocket launcher on end and heaved the heavy weapon inside before closing the door behind them. "I'm gonna open the airlock," Janna into the commlink. "As soon as it's open, cycle the power."

"You're doing WHAT?!"

The exterior airlock door opened to the topside of the hull, with a short ladder providing access. A control panel beside the ladder operated the airlock functions.

Star wrung her hands nervously. "You, uh, wanna tell me the plan here, Janna?"

"You just help me get this thing up through the door and help me hold it steady so I can fire it at that cruiser." She answered while keying an activation code into the control panel. There was a loud hiss, followed by a whoosh as the air was evacuated from the airlock. Star noticed that she, Janna, and the rocket launcher were all slowly floating up off the floor.

"Okay, Tom," said Janna as she punched in one more sequence. "Count to five and power down."

"Okay, but what are you-?"

Janna killed the transmission and shoved the commlink into a pocket on her spacesuit. She pressed the last button in the code and the exterior airlock door popped open with a hydraulic hiss. As Janna hurriedly pulled herself up the ladder, the lights blinked off and the engines, still straining against the tractor beam, fell silent. A single red emergency light now illuminated the airlock.

"Keep one hand on the ship at all times," said Janna as she pushed the airlock door open. "We don't have anything to keep us tethered."

"Oooookay." This tip did nothing to ease Star's nerves as she placed her hands against the downward facing end of the rocket launcher and pushed it upward, carefully guiding it up the ladder until Janna could grab hold of it. Then she pulled herself up the ladder as quickly as she dared, trying not to let herself or the rocket launcher gain too much momentum, lest they fly off into space.

Janna slid around the outside edge of the airlock opening, pulling the rocket launcher down again as it cleared the ship and turning it horizontal, with the barrel end pointed toward the Interdictor cruiser, keeping one foot hooked around the lip of the doorway. Star stayed on the ladder end, and kept her left foot wrapped around the top rung of the ladder. She could see the Interdictor growing steadily closer as the tractor beam drew them in. The Imperial ship was now about a hundred meters off the stern of the Raventalon.

"We only get one shot at this," Janna said as she brought the rocket launcher to rest on her right shoulder. Behind her, Star balanced the weapon on her own shoulder in the same fashion. "I imagine this thing is going to have a lot of kickback," she said as she flicked a switch to deploy the sight, which folded down from the body of the launcher and positioned itself directly in front of her eye. "So hold on tight when I hit the trigger."

"Tell me when you're lined up," Star said. "I can try to hold it in place with the Force."

"Got it." Janna took careful aim, leading her target, the port underside dome of the gravity well projector, by a good bit, holding the rocket launcher as steady as possible. "Okay, ready? Firing in three…"

Star quickly reached out into the Force and gathered her focus on the rocket launcher. Despite being in zero gravity, Janna could feel the heavy weapon's sway stiffen, as if it were bolted down. "Two…" It was difficult to see the targeting sight through the glass of her helmet, and Janna remained perfectly still to keep her eye positioned where she could actually see through the sight. The dome of the gravity well projector slowly drifted across the edge of the sight glass. Janna hit the toggle switch to arm the armor-piercing ordinance and shifted her hand to the grip, finger shadowing the trigger.

"…One…"

Even with Star holding the weapon fixed in place with the Force, the massive rocket launcher jolted backwards a few centimeters as Janna pulled the trigger. The ordinance erased the distance between the Raventalon and the Interdictor almost imperceivably fast. The rocket struck the dome nearly dead-center, and the girls watched the explosive detonate on the surface. At first, the fireball created seemed disappointingly small, certainly nowhere near large enough to create significant damage capable of crippling the gravity well generator. Janna felt her heart sink.

And then the entire dome was violently ripped in half by an explosion originating from within, and within seconds the other three domes had erupted with columns of blue fire. The entire cruiser seemed poised to split down the middle.

"I think that did it!" Janna exclaimed. "Back inside, quick!" She shoved the rocket launcher away as she pulled herself down through the airlock opening.

"What about the rocket launcher?"

"Leave it! I only had the one rocket anyway!"

Not one to argue, Star shrugged and let the huge weapon go, following Janna back inside and yanking the airlock door closed behind her. Just as she reached the bottom of the ladder, the emergency lighting flickered off and the power came back on. Janna keyed her commlink as she began punching buttons on the airlock control panel to seal it. "Lucy, we're in! Get us outta here!"

The explosions shredding the Imperial cruiser just outside the viewscreen had Tom dumbstruck as the lights and control panel indicators blinked back to life.

Behind him, Marco stared wide-eyed. "Oh…so that was Janna's plan."

So engrossed were they that they didn't even hear Janna's voice over the commlink resting on the control panel.

"Uh, guys?" Rosado called. "Janna said go."

"Right!" Tom shook off the shock and quickly began flicking switches to bring the hyperdrive back online. "Pony, navicomputer programmed again?"

The astromech twittered that it had indeed set a course, and that the scanners showed the three Star Destroyers had broken their blockade formation and were rushing toward them at full speed.

"As if we didn't have enough problems. Marco, I need your hand! Get over here and take the other hyperdrive lever."

"I'm on it!" Marco jumped into the copilot's seat and grabbed hold of the lever.

Tom put his right hand to the pilot's hyperdrive control, his left still flicking switches up until the last second. "Okay, no time to waste. Ready, steady, go!"

The boys pushed the hyperdrive controls forward and, just as the Star Destroyers came within range and opened fire, the Raventalon jumped to lightspeed.

Sometimes action sequences are difficult to write, but this one was a lot of fun. Hope you all enjoyed it!