"I see your two credits, and raise you...um...this gum wrapper I found sitting on the floor." Buford said.

"That does not make any sense, you fool!" Baljeet said. "You cannot bet something that is not currency!"

"It doesn't matter anyhow." Buford replied, as he laid down his cards. "Sabacc! I win!"

Baljeet groaned. Buford started to pull the small pile of credits towards him, but Chopper stopped him by putting down his cards with one of the tiny arms attached to his square dome. Buford and Baljeet leaned in to view.

"The Idiot's Array!" Baljeet announced. Buford groaned and started to push the pile of credits towards Chopper. Candace, however had taken notice of their activities, and fired her blaster directly at the droid's winnings, sending the credits flying.

"Enough gambling." she ordered.

"We're not stormtroopers anymore. We can gamble." Baljeet protested. "I enjoy it. The probability of a good hand is enthralling!"

Candace groaned. . "Do it on your own time. We're in the middle of a mission."

"Which so far has stunk." Buford replied. "What've we persons done?"

"People." Baljeet corrected.

"When did we do people?"

"The three of you, droid included," Candace said, ignoring them, "have so far done nothing but distract the pilot."

They all looked at Bodhi. The cargo pilot was nervously attempting to keep S8-8117 on course.

"I don't see the problem." Buford grunted.

"Just leave. Go play your game in the crew lounge."

Buford and Baljeet grumbled and picked up the card chips and credits. Chopper grunted angrily and waved one of his tiny arms at Candace, and the three left.

Candace sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Bohdi...how far along are we?"

"Almost to the first probe. Nothing on sensors other than the storm so far."

"Good. Carry on."

Darthenshmirtz tried to remember the healthcare plan he had chosen when Lord Sidious had inducted him into the Sith Order.

Violent, third-degree burns from lava were covered with a cyborg suit. Weakness was treated with death. Most common stuff (pre-existing conditions, organ transfers, regular surgery) was under the umbrella of the Imperial High Command Elite MediCare coverage plan. All in all, it was better than the standard citizen healthcare program: AmeddaCare.

But wounds sustained while failing to apprehend a single rogue fourteen-year-old child? Heinz wasn't sure, but that was likely treated with a Vader force-choke.

Ferb Fletcher had walked out of the cell block calmly, lightsaber lit, and barley shown any surprise when he saw Darthenshmirtz waiting for him. In fact, the Sith Lord swore the boy insolently faked a yawn. But he was scared. Darthenshmirtz could feel that through the Force.

And he was right to be. Darthenshmirtz had brought an additional deployment of Stormtroopers, four Riot troopers, and two squads of Army Troopers. Several Kaminoan KE-8 Enforcer hovercraft, manned by officers of the Tipoca City Security Militia and retrofitted with stun cannons instead of shock batons, hovered above, and a three-legged 5M-Sec droid waited in reserve behind. Three of the Death Troopers waited directly behind their master.

"Lieutenant," Darthenshmirtz said. "Remind me; how many times have I...done this little routine today?"

Yaami thought for a second. "This is the third time you have encountered Fletcher since he crashed that gunship in the hangar this morning."

"This is getting old." Heinz growled.

"Indeed."

"Ferb!" he shouted. "It doesn't have to be like this! We were brothers in the Dark Side of the Force before, and we could make it that way again. Come, serve the Emperor!" Darthenshmirtz turned to Yaami. "See? Now he'll see the reason of the Dark Side, and-"

Ferb Force-pushed Darthenshmirtz. The Sith Lord fell head-over-heels, his helmet fell off, his cape settled over his face, and his lightsaber ignited. Fortunately for Darthenshmirtz, it only tore through his pants, and did not slice off a leg.

"Yaami!" he screamed. "Help me. And subdue the boy!"

Through the Force, Heinz realized that Ferb felt….relaxed. Was the boy becoming used to the chaos around him? He certainly wasn't afraid; the only fear was Darthensmirtz's own.

"Where's Crefet?" Darthenshmirtz growled as Yaami lifted him up. "He's supposed to be here! Where is he?" The Lieutenant grimaced.

"He's...occupied."

Crefet swallowed. Darthenshmirtz was unpredictable, violent, prone to tantrums, and had a tendency to act without thinking through the potential results of his actions, but at least he was known. This newcomer, Darth...Diminutive, was an unknown force. Despite his height being only a meter (if you rounded up), the tiny man radiated menace. He was not sitting down, instead pacing back and forth across the top of the conference table. The Shadow Trooper serving as the man's bodyguard was absent, as were Crefet's usual duo of Stormtroopers. Diminutive had requested all three wait outside.

Crefet cleared his throat. Diminutive finally turned his head.

"Do you know why you are here, Colonel?" Crefet remained silent. "You are here because you have done a miserable job as Darthensmirtz's security chief."

"That is not my position." Crefet said. "I am the military adjutant for Tipoca City. The cloning and research facility's head of security is officially Lord Darthensmirtz's aide Lieutenant Yaami."

"Officially?"

Crefet sighed. "Lieutenant Yaami has….a great many roles under Lord Darthenshmirtz. Security Chief was one that I found myself pick up the slack in. It's not entirely like I'm neglecting any major issues in Tipoca City."

"So Kan Be was nothing more than a licensed merchant with a penchant for torture and tax evasion, then?"

"Well, I…"

"I thought so. Let's talk about something else. Do you have a family, Colonel?"

Crefet frowned. Where the hell was this going?

"I have a wife. We long ago agreed on no children."

"Excellent, excell-" Diminutive cut himself short. "No, no. Too much pointless digging. I don't need to extort you. I just need your obedience."

"Obedience?"

Diminutive grinned. "I want to be sure of your loyalty, Colonel."

"I already am loyal to the Empire. I'm not sure what you mean by…."

"I want you to be loyal to me. Not to Darthensmirtz, or the Kaminoans' local Imperial government. To me. Do we have an agreement?"

Crefet gulped as he considered his options. One: Say no, and have his accounts liquidated. Or perhaps Diminutive would simply kill him. Two: Say yes, and then secretly inform Darthensmirtz at his first chance. That plan's first glaring flaw was that Diminutive could probably read his mind, and would kill him before he could betray the Sith's plans. Three: Say yes, help Diminutive, and then get killed by Darthensmirtz when he read the Colonel's mind. Stuck between an asteroid and cold vacuum, as his grandfather used to say.

"SIRS!" N0RM-3P0 said, racing into the chamber. Diminutive's Shadowtrooper appeared behind the massive droid, apparently trying it stop it. A taser, installed by Darthenshmirtz, popped out from the back neck and shocked the Shadowtrooper into submission. Crefet doubted the droid was even aware it had just deployed the nonlethal weapon.

"What is it?" Diminutive snapped. "I'm busy."

"I'm...not." Crefet said quietly, sinking back into his chair in relief. Louder, he continued. "Do you have a message for us?"

Privately, Crefet wondered how N0RM was standing in front of them. Yaami had bolted the droid into the ground to serve as a speaker during the party. The celebration was now over, the guests had returned to their offices and the caterers back to their kitchens, but Crefet had explicitly ordered N0RM be left alone.

On the point that Darthensmirtz's personal droid was the most annoying waste of durasteel the galaxy had ever seen, Crefet and Yaami at least agreed.

"A PRIORITIZED MESSAGE FROM LIEUTENANT YAAMI!" the droid said.

It seemed a priority message from Darthenshmirtz (or at least his personal assistant) was enough to trigger a subroutine in the matrix of N0RM's code that caused the droid to free itself.

"REPEAT: PRIORITIZED MESSAGE FRO-"

Diminutive gave an irritated wave of his hand. "Put it through!" he snapped. A hologram of Yaami, emanating from a projector in N0RM's torso, flickered onto the top of the conference table.

"We need support. Hello? Is this thing working?" The Lieutenant said. His appearance was...bedraggled, to say the least. His cap was missing, his hair was scorched, and it appeared the stitching on his ear, which had nearly been cut off in the battle in Kan Be's hideout, was undone with the ear hanging on by a few threads. Crefet wasn't sure, but he thought the dark splotches across the younger man's face might've been blood.

"We hear you, Lieutenant Yaami." Crefet said. Diminutive glanced at him.

"The child-Fletcher-has broken free. The supplemental forces we brought are barely enough to keep him here. As we speak, Lord Dar-AUGGH!"

Yaami screamed as what looked like a lightsaber appeared. The hologram died.

"What in the hell is going on?" Diminutive screamed. He turned around and glared at Crefet. The Imperial officer gulped. The short Sith growled and jumped onto a chair. It swiveled away from the table and towards N0RM-3P0. "You, droid!" Diminutive said. "What happened to the signal?"

Crefet knew what had happened: Ferb. The young boy was extremely dangerous. Just that morning, Crefet himself had faced the child. His leg still ached from where that wrench had smashed into it.

"IT WAS TERMINATED AT THE POINT OF ORIGIN!" N0RM replied. His usually annoyingly cheerful voice was now eerie. "I AM UNABLE TO RE-ESTABLISH CONTACT!"

"Wonderful." Diminutive snarled. He Force-pushed N0RM into the wall. The droid's great metal bulk barely missed the head of the Shadowtrooper, who was coming to, as it flew by.

"OUCH." the droid said. "MY PAIN SENSORS ARE SCREAMING A CHORUS OF SUFFERING!"

"Who in the galaxy equips a droid with pain sensors?" Crefet asked.

"Heinz Doofenshmirtz." Diminutive muttered. "I suppose if we're focusing entirely on the droid for the moment, a better question is why exactly the droid has a poetry program installed. I mean, come on. 'Screaming a chorus of suffering'? Does it fancy itself the class playwright or something."

Crefet forced a quiet laugh. "Probably, sir."

"Well, come on." the Sith Lord snapped irritably. "Your precious 'Lord Darthenshmirtz' and his secretary girl Yaami require our assistance. Come! And you-just get up already!"

The last part was directed at the still-down Shadowtrooper. Though he had avoided decapitation by N0RM, his left arm was caught underneath the droid's leg. The commando looked at his master, seemingly debating whether a Diminutive tantrum or a bruised arm would be more painful. The tantrum apparently won, and the trooper yanked his arm free.

The trio of Imperials left the conference center. Crefet's Stormtrooper guards followed. The Colonel anxiously stroked his mustache as they walked. He knew Diminutive could probably sense his fear; Ferb scared the hell out of Crefet.

The trooper who had asked him to follow had not told Phineas where exactly they were headed. Predictably, he was all right with that.

They headed into the bowels of the station, well away from the hangar bays and repair facilities of the factory station. Phineas thought he recognized their route from his path to the computer room two hours earlier, but then again, with the drab Imperial design combined with the older (yet equally drab) Trade Federation design, he wasn't completely sure.

They entered a turbolift, which rose several levels before stopping. Phineas recognized the hallway as the one outside the control center. The door to the bridge was right across from the lift. Phineas moved to enter.

The trooper turned the other way. "Come on!" he grunted irritably. "This way."

Phineas shrugged and followed. They walked through the passage for a few minutes, passing soldiers and technicians securing cargo.

The trooper paused in front of a door and waved an ID card in front of an astromech. The little droid beeped, and the door opened.

"The lock is set to auto-open only for authorized credentials. Nice system, but it leaves some to-"

"Hey, kid? I just retrieve people and escort them to where they need to be, okay? You have a problem with the door, take it up with someone in Engineering."

"I am in Engin-off!"

The trooper shoved Phineas forward. The door slowly closed. Phineas dusted himself off, and turned. He was in a small conference chamber. Sitting around the table were Cassian, a balding older man-General Draven, a confident-looking dark haired man with a Colonel's badge on his uniform, and a Bufopel officer. Another astromech sat beeping in the corner.

"Hello, Phineas." Cassian said. His tone was neither friendly nor cold.

"Cassian." Phineas said. The boy gave a lazy wave of his hand. "What's going on? Have I been accused of treason or something? A rumor out there that I'm an agent of Imperial Intelligence?"

Draven shook his head. "No."

"Well?"

The Bufopel moved to speak. "Captain Andor reported that you demonstrated an exemplary codebreaking ability. You sliced into the station's computers in record time."

Phineas shrugged. "It was nothing, really."

Draven checked something on a datapad. "Your current assignment is an engineer aboard a freighter. How did you come about this position?"

"It was given to me right after the destruction of the Death Star. I just told some officer I was good with computers and engines, and ended up serving aboard Isabella's ship."

"The ship, the…Centennial Chihuahua fought at the counterstrike at Naboo, did it not?"

"Yeah, we did."

The Bufopel harrumphed and checked his own datapad. "According to Commander Hudsol, you are currently available for transfer."

Phineas frowned. "Transfer to where?" General Draven and Cassian glanced at each other. The third man, the Colonel, coughed. Draven gestured to him.

"This is Colonel Haxen Delto, Rebel Intelligence. He runs the division responsible for breaking Imperial encryptions."

"We think your skills could be useful in deciphering Imperial transmissions." Delto said. "We would like you to accept."

Phineas thought about it. Isabella would be upset if he said yes. But then again, she was always upset about something. It wouldn't be necessary to bother her, would it?

"I'll do it."

Dr. Tanmi's personal ISP-6 shuttle pod flew high above Tipoca City. The Doctor sat at the controls of his one-being shuttlecraft. It had been gifted to him after he joined the Platypus Project, although he rarely used it. On the rare occasions he did, like today, he found himself relaxing a little.

"Attention, unidentified Imperial shuttlecraft. This is TIE Fighter Epsilon Nine. Please identify yourself and land at Tipoca City customs."

Tanmi realized he forgot to turn on the transponder. His shuttle's signature was not registering with the TIE. He shrugged and flipped it on.

"This is shuttlecraft Zeta-Four, en route to Lord Darthensmirtz's facility."

"Oh, Doctor Tanmi. My apologies. It's these lockdown protocols, they-"

"You have nothing to apologize for pilot. The lockdown should be over soon, in any case."

"Yes sir."

The lockdown would be over soon. The signs were evident. Stormtrooper counter-insurgency patrols were becoming less and less frequent. They were beginning to be replaced by lower-tier Imperial Army Troopers, under the command of officers of the Imperial Military Police, who would later hand off patrol duties entirely back to the Kaminoan officers of the Tipoca City Security Militia. The Arquitens-class light cruiser no longer hovered above Kamino' oceans, but instead was docked at one of the massive habitat domes that made up Tipoca City. Tanmi believed it was being refueled before it departed the system.

However, the travel ban was not yet lifted, so the only ships in the air were Imperial ones.

He began to think aloud. "And the ban will be shortly removed, provided Ferb doesn't-"

"Doctor Tanmi!" Crefet shouted on the geneticist's personal com. "The boy is loose! We need your passcode to mobilize the Platypus Commandos! Tanmi! Do you read me?"

"-escape. Bantha Dung." If Tanmi were the type of being to sigh, he would've.

"What? Tanmi, are you there?"

"I am here, Colonel. I am on my way to the cloning facility."

"Where were you? Did...Did you leave the party?"

Tanmi frowned. Crefet was being unusually investigative. Diminutive and Darthenshmirtz were causing the old man more stress than he let on.

"I had to, for a moment. I am returning in my personal shuttle. I will prepare the clones for you as soon as I arrive. Tanmi out."

Tanmi switched off his com, rendering any further interruptions by Crefet - or anyone else, for that matter - impossible. He pondered this new development.

Ferb was once again loose. Things were about to heat up. The Empire would clamp down again. Darthenshmirtz and Diminutive would continue to fight. Crefet and Yaami would be distracted attempting to find the boy, and keeping the two Sith from killing each other.

A perfectly fertile field for the seed of Tanmi's plan to grow to fruition.

"We're coming up on the first probe" Bodhi announced. Other than Candace, everyone in the cockpit ignored him. The monitor beeped, and K2-S0 leaned in to check it out.

"The ship is scanning a large object roughly three hundred meters from the probe." K2 said. "It appears to be caught in the storm."

"Take caution." Candace ordered. "Reroute all power to shields, and keep a safe distance from any electrical clouds."

"Downloading data from probe now. The ship...appears to be what's left of an old Carrack-class light cruiser."

"I'm reading Imperial com chatter…" Bohdi said. "I can't make much of it, but it seems they're evacuating the crew."

"Charge the turbolasers." Candace. "If we're going to be in a fight, I want to be ready. And keep our distance."

"Understood." Bodhi responded. "Should I engage the cloak?"

"This thing has a cloaking device?"

"Your brother…..went sort of overboard in upgrading the ship."

Candace shrugged nonchalantly. If Phineas wanted to go overboard, that was fine with her. "Well, yeah. Cloak."

Darthenshmirtz brought his lightsaber up, and Ferb parried the blow. The blades swung down, digging into the floor.

The two had been battling for several minutes now, and neither had gained any ground. Ferb had eliminated many stormtroopers, but the KE-8 Enforcers had provided enough cover fire to allow Darthenshmirtz to move in and engage him. The trio of Death Troopers, at Darthensmirtz's orders, held back around the base of the 5M-Sec droid, which clicked and whirred as it observed the duel.

Ferb and Darthenshmirtz locked sabers again. Ferb could sense the man's rage like heat seeping from a radiator set on too high a setting.

"You can't win!" Darthenshmirtz screamed. "A nerf calf has no chance of beating a rathtar!"

"Nice metaphor, sir!" shouted Yaami from the sidelines. The Lieutenant, with a Stormtrooper sergeant as a bodyguard, was removed from the action and seemed to be observing like one would a game of grav-ball. He was even eating popcorn from a small bag.

"You feel my anger!" Darthenshmirtz screamed. "You can feel the rage giving me strength!" Ferb blinked, choosing not to dignify that comment with a response.

Darthenshmirtz swung his blade again, and Ferb blocked the blow. He forced Darthenshmirtz back a little bit, and the man dug his feet into the floor.

"Join me!" Darthenshmirtz continued! "Join me in the truth and freedom that is the Dark Side!" Ferb moved his lightsaber so that it was near Heinz's leg. The red blade blocked the old Jedi lightsaber for the moment, but it seemed Darthenshmirtz was losing his grip.

"Death Troopers….?" Darthenshmirtz asked. "Little help?"

The three commandos raced behind Darthenshmirtz and started firing. Ferb twisted his small body to keep from getting hit.

Ferb ducked slightly, and Darthensmirtz pressed his lightsaber forward. However, he moved so that one blast caught the edge of his helmet. The force of the blast caused the helmet to spin around until it stopped-with the back covering Darthensmirtz's face. Panicked, he started shouting and waving his lightsaber wildly.

"Ahh! I can't see! I can't see!"

Moving to avoid Darthensmirtz's erratically moving blade, Ferb force-pushed the man back. The helmet bounced off, and Darthenshmirtz came to rest at the feet of the Death Troopers.

As Stormtroopers began to fire at him, Ferb leapt on top of the 5M-Sec droid. The droid moved wildly to dislodge him, and Ferb drove his lightsaber through the top of the head. While the massive war robot fell to the ground, Ferb jumped even higher, nimbly landing on the side of one of the KE-8 enforcers. Ferb tore the hatch open and threw the Kaminoan pilot out to the ground below. He felt briefly guilty about condemning someone who likely was an unwilling participant to die, and used the Force to soften the alien's landing.

Climbing into the Enforcer ship, Ferb took the controls. He aimed the vessel at Darthenshmirtz; the Sith Lord had been helped to his feet by the Death Troopers and was now retrieving his helmet.

Ferb fired the stun blasters. Several low-energy blasts hit the Death Troopers, but miraculously Darthenshmirtz remained upright. He threw his lightsaber at the small ship, and Ferb had to yank the Enforcer to starboard. The other KE-8s started firing at Ferb, and he had to avoid them too. The stun blasts would short-circuit the craft's systems and cause a crash.

Dodging blaster fire from all directions, he moved the Enforcer further above the floor of the prison building. Stormtroopers on the catwalks that lined the wall shot at him, but he fired the stun cannon. A few fell over the railings.

Ferb began looking for an exit point. There was a large hallway that Darthenshmirtz had taken the troopers and the tripod droid through, but the Enforcer ships had to have arrived from a larger opening.

The inside of the Imperial prison complex was roughly cylindrical, though it began to narrow towards the top like a cone. Walkways ringed the chamber, with doors leading into other cell blocks, guard barracks, and interrogation rooms. The KE-8's limited scanners indicated some bio-readings in a lighter-security area. Ferb inferred that was where Kan Be's syndicate had been taken.

The short-range radio in the cockpit beeped. In the middle of evasive maneuvers, Ferb flipped the 'respond' switch.

"Ferb!" Darthenshmirtz screamed. "Power down, I beg you! I don't need you to get hurt!"

Ferb started to laugh, but caught himself and managed to pass it off as an irritated snort. "In the past twelve hours, the only members of your entourage who have not attempted to end my life are your geriatric lab tech and the overgrown adding machine."

A silent moment as Darthenshmirtz tried to figure out who exactly Ferb was referring to. "Dr. Tanmi is not a fan of fieldwork, and N0RM...well, I have yet to equip him for combat. Please, just surrender."

Ferb considered sharing what he knew of Tanmi's apparent 'fieldwork', but opted to let Darthenshmirtz wise up to that on his own, or more likely, let Yaami do it for him.

"If you're so set on ensuring my survival, you could order your goons to cease fire." Another KE-8 appeared and fired. Ferb shot back, and hit the thing. The ship sparked and fell.

"You know I can't do that."

"Why do you need me alive anyway? As far as I know, there are no plans to create an army of 'Ferb Fletcher Clone commandos', as flattered as I would be if that were the case."

"The Emperor gave me instructions."

Ferb's heart skipped a beat. Obi-Wan had talked about the Emperor and how powerful he was. If the Emperor had taken an interest in him….

He pushed the thought out of his head. Right now he needed only to think about staying alive.

"Listen to me, Ferb!" Darthenshmirtz shouted. "If you surrender now, I promise you will not be harmed. What do you say?"

Ferb took his wrench and smashed the cockpit radio.

"There's your kriffing answer, Heinz."

Like everything else in the Empire, evacuations were procedural.

The wreckage of the Intruder, the Carrack-class light cruiser that Admiral Ozzel had sent into the electrical storm ahead of the rest of Death Squadron, was partly submerged in a cloud of energy. A couple of Lambda-class shuttles were docked with still-accessible areas, and a Gozanti floated nearby, with the cargo bay doors open. Heavily armored Spacetroopers floated cargo from the wreckage into the open bay. A squadron of TIE fighters flew in a defensive screen around the operation.

"Looks like they're halfway through the evacuation." Candace murmured.

"No, they just started." Bodhi said. "Look, some of the Spacetroopers are still organizing themselves."

"Ah, true."

"Hey!" Buford shouted. "How 'bout you clue those of us who didn't serve in the Imperial Navy in on what you're talking 'bout!"

Baljeet frowned. "Buford, you served in the Imperial Navy."

Buford's eyes misted over, and he seemed to grow distant. "That was during my war years. I don't like to talk about them much."

"Your war years are right now! This is the war!"

"Fake HoloNet news."

"Shut up."

"Do they ever stop bickering?" Bodhi asked.

Candace took her eyes off the Imperial ships to look at the duo. "Well, usually-" She was interrupted as Baljeet gave a sharp scream; Buford had just kneed him in the groin. "-something like that happens."

"Something is happening?" K2 announced. A glitch in his vocabulator caused the remark to sound like a question.

Candace did not care for the droid, but a malfunctioning voicebox could affect their mission. "Your voice alright there?" she asked.

"Just a glitch." the droid responded in a tone that, if he were an organic, Candace would've called defensive. "Cassian mentioned to you that an ion converter fell on my head while we were on our way to rendezvous with you after you captured this ship. It's because of that."

Candace shrugged. "You said something was happening?"

"The TIEs are adjusting position." the droid replied. "I believe something might be approaching."

"He's right." Bodhi said. "I'm scanning several Imperial ships. Mostly fighters and smaller cruisers."

"Take us closer. I want to get a look." Candace ordered. Bodhi obliged, and brought the cloaked ship in closer. The warships slowly became visible navigating their way through the electrical clouds. Candace felt herself become nervous.

"K2, go to the communications suite and contact command on a secure channel. Stream them this telemetry. Baljeet, go with him."

The droid and the soldier left the cockpit. Buford watched Baljeet go, shrugged, and started eating a pie that had been 'liberated' from Commodore Brittho's personal mini-fridge. The cockpit remained silent for about ten minutes. Candace tried to focus on cleaning her blaster, but every other minute Bodhi would demand her attention with an update on the imperial ships.

"They have TIE Defenders!"

Oh, joy.

"That attack cruiser just got zapped by an electrical cloud!"

Force knows who cares.

"Those interceptors are flying dangerously close to us! I'm adjusting the ship to avoid them."

Go ahead.

"According to com chatter, a star destroyer is headed this way. About twenty minutes away from our position."

Just wonderful.

"That light cruiser is stopping and docking with the Carrack-cruiser's evacuation shuttles."

And why the hell should I care?

"Lieutenant! The cloak is going to fail!"

Wait, what?

"Repeat that, please."

"The cloak is going to fail! It wasn't designed to operate for this long under such stress! We have very little time left."

Panic briefly flared inside Candace, but her military discipline forcibly replaced it with an eerie calm. "Move us out of here! Charge the weapons!"

"On it!"

"Buford, grab Baljeet, and get to your assigned turbolaser stations."

"I don't remember where they are."

Candace suppressed a growl. "Baljeet will. Go!" Buford ran, pausing only to grab a fistful of his pie. "Bodhi, did my brother equip our ship with anything else?"

"Sure. Cable television, WiFi, torpedo tubes, deep-space holonet transponder, enhanced shields-"

"Prime the torpedo tubes then. And prepare the shields. Any other weapons?"

A pause.

"None that I know of."

"Alright. Start moving out of the storm, and stay as far ahead of the Empire as you can."

"Understood."

They were going to have to fight eventually. It was inevitable. Candace wanted to prove herself to Rebel command, but she could not deny the fact that it wassmarter to engage the Empire closer to the rest of the rebel fleet outside the Armengoltiax cluster.

And all she could do now was hope Phineas' little cloaking device would not fail too soon.

Leia walked onto the bridge of the Freedom.

Cassian, Dodonna, Han, Draven, and a few more officers and pilots were gathered around the holo-table. Isabella was leaning against a nearby box, drinking from a canteen. Leia hoped it was water; COMPNOR'S propagandists would have a field day if they found out the rebellion allowed children to drink alcohol.

"The first of the Imperial forces will arrive outside the nebula in thirty minutes, forty-five at best." Dodonna said gravely. Every day, the burden of command seemed to wear down the old man more and more.

"Where's Candace?" Leia asked.

"Her last position put here, just ahead of the Imperial forces." an officer said. "She reported in two minutes ago, and claimed that a cloaking device installed in her ship was failing."

"I thought she was flying a Gozanti." Han said. "No ship that small has a cloaking device."

"This one did, apparently." Dodonna said. "The engineer, Lieutenant Flynn's brother, installed several...upgrades on the ship."

"Oh really? Isabella asked. Her expression remained disinterested, and her tone was restrained, but everyone on the bridge knew her stake in the discussion. "Where is he now?"

"He accepted a transfer transferred to one of my decryption units this morning." Draven said. "He-"

The rebel General was interrupted as Isabella, in a brief rush of shock, spewed the liquid she had been swigging (it was water, thank the Force) from the canteen over the holo-table. The holograms flickered for a second as the water started to react with the table's circuitry, but the secondary systems took control and the table remained operating. Everyone turned to look at the girl, and she blushed.

"Sorry, sorry. I think I..uh..picked up a virus when I extracted Bodhi from the cargo depot on Sriluur."

Draven folded his arms. "That mission was over a week ago. You expect us to believe you are just now displaying symptoms?"

Isabella adopted a defensive stance and scowled. "I don't dig through trash to find evidence of whatever personal troubles motivate you to plan assassinations on behalf of the rebel council, nor do I steal your boyfriend, or girlfriend, or whatever the hell it is-"

"Lieutenant Garcia-Shapiro, is there a point to all of this?" Dodonna asked. Isabella bit back a retort.

"No, sir."

Watching all of this, Leia could see how Candace seemed to take issue with the girl. Despite her borderline-anarchistic anti-Imperial tendencies, the ex-stormtrooper's academy training left her with a deep respect for authority and the chain of command, something Isabella lacked completely. There was also Candace's problem with Isabella dating her brother, but that was not Leia's issue to worry about.

The group returned to normal, though Isabella was even more distant, both physically and emotionally, than usual.

"The Venator-class star destroyer is almost completely rebuilt." a Duros supply officer said. "Most of the other ships have been either repaired or attached to hyperdrive pods, loaded with weapons, and sent on to our shipyards."

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Dodonna said. "Now, with the Empire upon us I feel it is prudent to adjourn and prepare for battle. The ships and pilots we have here are all we have to fight with as we make our escape."

"No one else can help?" someone asked.

"All other fleets are occupied." Dodonna replied. "Admiral Ackbar and the Home Fleet are currently undergoing a training exercise near the remote Metalorn system, while Admiral Raddus has just engaged an Imperial fleet above Mykapo. Any other fleets are too far away or otherwise unable to help."

As the assembled rebels begin to scatter to whatever starfighter or duty station their presence was required at, Dodonna called Leia over.

"Do you know where Commander Skywalker is?" he asked. "We cannot not raise him on any frequency."

Leia frowned. "No, but I'll look for him."

"Alone?"

Leia grinned. "No. I know just the team."

After a minute of searching Ferb located the exit he was looking for in the massive prison atrium. He flew his KE-8 up and over. Ferb smiled as he felt the tremors of a Darthenshmirtz-level temper tantrum echo through the force. He had escaped.

Then he was shot down.

Dragging himself from the flaming wreckage of the Kaminoan hovercraft, Ferb glanced around. He immediately saw what had hit him; a towering, two-legged AT-DP walker. The area outside the prison that he had entered seemed to be a massive entrance hallway, a hundred meters wide, and twice as tall. At the other end was a hangar bay with several prisoner transports and speeders. If Ferb could make it there, he could steal one, fly it to whichever hangar Kan Be's captured smuggling transport was impounded in, and rendezvous with AZI.

But between him and the prison exit were several stormtroopers, some armed with blasters, and some armed with stun batons. Oh, and the AT-DP walker.

Reacting quickly, Ferb darted across the floor and slashed his lightsaber through the left leg of the walker. As the walker fell, Ferb used the force to throw the wreckage on top of several of the stormtroopers. One ran towards him, and Ferb summoned the unfortunate trooper's blaster.

"It's nothing personal." Ferb assured the stormtrooper as he shot him.

Two riot-control stormtroopers came at him, batons buzzing with electricity. Ferb used the force to pull one trooper back behind him, all the way off the ledge and down to the main prison below. A soft 'thump' could be heard, and Ferb swore he heard Darthenshmirtz shout "Not again!"

The other soldier swung his baton, and Ferb met it with his lightsaber. As the trooper parried the blow, Ferb shot him in the groin.

Ferb jumped on top of the wreckage of the AT-DP. The walker shifted slightly under his weight, and Ferb lost his footing and fell. A stormtrooper moved to detain him, and Ferb force-pushed the soldier across the chamber. He ignited his lightsaber, and cut his way through the thinning crowd of soldiers. A few small auto-turrets popped up from hatches in the floor, but Ferb quickly dispatched them.

As he entered the prison hangar, another stormtrooper approached him. Ferb shoved him against the wall with a lazy wave of his hand. The trooper's blaster went off, and fired inches from Ferb's face. Startled, Ferb staggered back and was unprepared when an Imperial patrol gunship landed in the hangar. The ship fired one of its cannons at him, and the force of the explosion threw the young Jedi back. It turned and landed, the side doors flipping out to reveal Darth Diminutive, his Shadowtrooper, the Thirteenth Brother, Crefet, his two stormtroopers, and a single stormtrooper armed with a rocket launcher. The rocket launcher stormtrooper fired the artillery they were holding directly at Ferb. Ferb leapt out of the way, and took refuge behind a large box. He could not take a moment to plan, however, as a dozen stormtroopers entered the hangar from a side hallway. Cursing, Ferb used the Force to hurl a crate at the head of one trooper, shot a couple more, and jumped back out to face Diminutive and Crefet.

He heard a blast, and almost instantly bright light flooded his vision. Pain shot through every limb, and Ferb struggled to keep his balance. He heard the blaster shots and Diminutive's elfish whoops of glee, yet both seemed so far off, as if he was hearing them underwater. A blaster bolt clipped his shoulder, and he screamed. As his vision began to return, he could make out several stormtroopers surrounding him.

"You like that flash bang?" Diminutive asked. "Heinz can have all the death troopers he wants, but I personally prefer the Shadow Troopers." Ferb got to his feet. His shoulder still smarted. "Do you know why? Not just for the flash bangs-those are nice too-but do you know what I really like?" Ferb suddenly became aware of a shimmering shape standing next to him. "The stygian polymers in the armor." Was the shape humanoid? "They can cloak and sneak up on any target." The Shadow Trooper decloaked and punched Ferb's jaw. Reeling, the young Jedi rolled between the commando's legs, quickly stood up behind him, and kneed him in the groin. The trooper grunted and swung his rifle around. Before he could fire, Ferb sliced through the weapon with his lightsaber. Dropping the remains of his blaster, the Shadow Trooper punched Ferb in the gut. Clutching his middle, he dropped his lightsaber and fell to his knees. The lightsaber rolled across the room.

Diminutive's bodyguard moved to grab the collar of Ferb's stained prison fatigues, and Ferb rolled to the side. Jumping up, he brought his wrench down on the trooper's leg. Though it caused little pain, the Shadow Trooper lost some of his balance, and stumbled backwards. While dodging shots from other stormtroopers, Ferb summoned his lightsaber with the Force, and so fast he hardly realized what he was doing, he shoved his blade through the trooper's chest.

The Shadow Trooper made a choking sound. The stygian polymers on his suit glitched and activated randomly across the armor, making it look like Ferb had caused parts of the soldier to disappear into thin air. Ferb drew his lightsaber back and the he collapsed to the ground. He had just used a lightsaber to kill an unarmed combatant. By the Force….

There was no time to dwell on the ethical nature of the Shadow Trooper's death, as an enraged Diminutive ordered the Demolition trooper to fire the rocket launcher again. As he dodged blaster fire and missiles, Ferb noticed a small Imperial combat speeder sitting near Diminutive's gunship. If he could just get to it…

An auto-cannon on the ceiling fired a low-intensity spray of blaster bolts at his position, and Ferb had to move. He deflected stormtrooper blasts with his lightsaber, and hurled crates towards Diminutive's gunship. Each box was either sliced through by the Sith Lord's lightsaber, or destroyed by the rocket launcher. Crefet, the demolition trooper, and Diminutive remained safe in their gunship.

Wait a second. That wasn't right. Wasn't one of the Inquisitors with….

Ferb's train of thought was interrupted by the Thirteenth Brother throwing across the room with the Force. He picked himself up and again was thrown backwards.

"How...how's the arm?" Ferb asked. The Inquisitor growled and telekinetically threw Ferb across the room. He landed on the wound in his shoulder, and screamed.

As the Thirteenth Brother approached his position, Ferb stood up. A stormtrooper attempted to apprehend him, but Ferb shot the soldier. The Thirteenth Brother stepped callously over the man's corpse.

"There is no escape." Diminutive shouted from his gunship. Ferb couldn't see the small man, but he could imagine the disturbed grin on his face. "Surrender!" The Inquisitor levitated a crate towards him, and Ferb ducked. The box burst under the force of the impact, and thermal detonators spilled out. Bouncing and rolling across the hangar bay, several of the spherical explosives activated themselves.

At the same moment, Ferb, the stormtroopers, and the Thirteenth Brother all realized what was happening. The Inquisitor ran across the hangar, shoving troopers out of his way as he did. Running as fast as humanely possible, Ferb was dimly aware of the beeping of the explosives, the screams of the stormtroopers, and Diminutive ordering his pilot to 'Close the damn door!'

The Thirteenth Brother stopped as the gunship lifted off, doors closed. With the Inquisitor distracted by his fury, Ferb leapt onto the nearby speeder. He flipped the ignition switch and sped out of the hangar just as it was consumed by fire.

He laughed, despite the pain. He was free again! He and the speeder became one as they soared over Tipoca City. Someone in Diminutive's gunship noticed him and began firing, but he avoided the blaster bolts with ease. He hit the deceleration switch on the airspeeder controls, and as the gunship soared past him, ignited his lightsaber. The blade cut through the patrol transport's engines like butter. The ship made it a couple hundred meters before the reactors exploded and it fell below. Ferb looked down, and could see it crash-land on an airstrip, ground crews already running to douse the flames. Ferb wasn't sure, but he thought he heard Diminutive scream.

He smiled. Darthensmirtz probably would've laughed at his rival's predicament.

"You're stepping on my foot, Solo." Isabella growled.

"Shut up." he muttered. "Hey, Leia – that's my arm. Please release it from between your ankles."

"Sorry." the Princess grunted. "I can't move right now. Somebody's stepping on my back!"

"Oh, my apologies Your Highness!" the protocol droid said. "I am quite sorry, as Chewbacca's posterior is currently blocking my visual sensors, and as such I cannot see where my limbs are in relation to the rest of our group. If he could move, perhaps-" Chewbacca growled and gnashed his teeth. C-3P0, for the first time in his thirty-two years of operation, stopped talking. R2-D2, upside down and between Leia and Isabella, laughed in his chittering binary way.

A half-hour earlier, Leia's group had set out into the depths of the station to find Luke. They started their search at the location of his last check-in. After nothing had been found, a malfunctioning door nearly sent Isabella to the Great Beyond, and the deck's atmospheric pressure regulators glitched, they had been forced to don oxygen masks and take refuge in what they thought was a closet. It had, however, turned out to be a fully functional cargo elevator that dropped three decks and rose five, then dropped six more when Chewbacca's rear rubbed against the controls.

After dizzily spilling out, taking off masks, and, in Han's case, vomiting the remnants of the previous night's bantha steak out onto a nearby bulkhead, they encountered a group of stormtroopers in a poorly lit factory chamber. The Imperials were entrenched and waiting for support from comrades they believed had not fallen yet.

After a firefight, the remaining stormtroopers fled further into the depths of the shipyard, though during the retreat, one trooper activated a 5M-Sec droid that had been standing in the corner of the room. The massive war droid proved difficult to deal with, but eventually they got lucky when Isabella accidentally switched on some machinery. The droid was soon crushed between two partly repaired Aquritens-class command cruiser turbolasers. Unfortunately, the lack of a supervisor for the industrial machinery proved costly as Leia and her team were grabbed by gigantic droid arms and shoved into a large crate that was sent down a conveyor belt heading towards a hangar bay, leaving them trapped inside.

"How large is this station anyway?" asked Isabella. "We've been in here ten, fifteen minutes now, and this thing hasn't changed direction yet."

As if the gods of her homeworld were toying with her, the container suddenly gave a quick lurch, and fell a foot. Everyone, droid and organic, cried out in shock.

"What the-?' a voice from outside shouted.

"Get down!" another said. A blaster shot rang out, and the container shook a little.

"You fool." a robotic voice chided. "It could have been rigged to explode."

"The blasted rebel scum would do something like that." the first voice said.

"Agreed."

"I am scanning several heat signatures. You, take cover and ready your weapon. You, since you were so eager to destroy this box, you open it."

"I don't take orders from you, rustbucket."

"Uh, we did kinda agree to take orders from that other hunter, and he left the droid in charge when he went to bring his ship around, so…."

"Bounty hunters!" Han whispered.

"Can you reach your blaster?" Isabella asked. "Mine's in my holster, but one of the droids is pressing into that side of my body." R2 beeped an apology.

"It's in my hand, but Chewie is front of me. Won't be able to shoot." Han replied. The wookie roared. "He says his bowcaster's on the floor of the box."

"I think mine's down there too." Leia said.

"And I, alas, being a simple etiquette and translation droid, am not equipped to engage in-"

"Shut it, goldenrod." Han growled.

The door to the crate flew open. Standing there was a stormtrooper with a raised blaster. Behind him, an IG series assassin droid with an elongated blaster rifle aimed at them. Behind a small box of thermal couplings, another trooper crouched, his blaster also raised. The rebels tumbled out. The lead stormtrooper grabbed Han by his collar and pressed a blaster to his head.

"Surrender if you value his life." the stormtrooper said.

Reluctantly, the others dropped their weapons and raised their hands. The imperials fitted R2 and C-3P0 with restraining bolts.

Isabella looked around at the room they found themselves in. It was a hangar bay, not unlike the one S8-8117 had landed in seven hours prior at the beginning of their attack. Several stacks of crates lined most of the room. Isabella noted that they were of the same model as the box she and her companions had been imprisoned in. Several Omega-class freighters, unsightly things that resembled an AT-AT missing its legs and the cockpit, lay dormant nearby, and a Lambada-class Imperial shuttle was parked next to their position.

And, behind the second stormtrooper, lay Luke, bound and gagged. Isabella turned to regard her friend's faces and saw that they had noticed him too.

"Who are you working for?" Leia asked. The stormtroopers turned to look at the assassin droid, who did not offer a reply. "Why did you want him? However much you are being paid, I promise you that the rebellion can offer more."

"Oh, I doubt that." the droid said.

"Leia, that's IG-88." Han said. "It won't let itself be reasoned with, so don't bother."

"I have to try, don't I?"

"Really, don't bother."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. One of the stormtroopers would cough every now and then, but other than that there was no noise.

Just Isabella felt that then and there, she would just die from the tense boredom, a Firespray-class patrol ship landed in the hangar.

Han went pale. "Slave One." he choked.

"Slave One?" Isabella asked. "But that's-"

"Solo! How nice of you to drop in, wook-lover. Looking for your friend no doubt. Droid, how did you find him?" Boba Fett stepped off the now-lowered boarding ramp.

"A crate arrived by way of the conveyor belt. The smuggler Solo and his friends were locked inside, no doubt the result of a firefight that was taking place several minutes prior to their arrival in a nearby turbolaser repair facility."

"We could hear it in here." One of the stormtroopers said. "It was loud. And then they showed up right as we were preparing to leave. "

"Convenient." The bounty hunter said.

"You know Fett, I'd love to tell you it was some nerfshit thing to do with the Force to satisfy your religious beliefs, but in all reality it was just a really strange coincidence. So tell your Jedi prophets sorry, but that you're in reality now." Isabella said. He laughed and turned to face her.

"So the rumors are true. Isabella Garcia-Sharpio runs with the Rebellion now. Still as sharp-tounged as ever, I see. You really should take classes in communications and personal relations. Snarky behavior is so unattractive, girl."

Isabella scowled.

"We should get moving, Fett." IG-88 interjected. "It will not be long before the rebels send more meatbags down here."

"I agree." replied the bounty hunter. "You two, start dragging the prisoners into my ship's holding cell. Start with the boy." The two stormtroopers grabbed Luke and dragged him over and into Slave I.

"Who is paying you?" Leia asked again. The droid remained silent but Fett turned towards her.

"Leia Organa. Princess of the dead world of Alderann." At his words, Leia lowered her gaze. "There are those in the galaxy who believe the rebel propaganda and see you as a heroic liberator. There are others who believe what the Empire says and call you insurgent, terrorist, zealot. But I alone, more than anyone in this room at least understand where you come from." Leia looked back at him again. "You seek to avenge your fallen world. I was like you once; desperate to strike back at someone who took something dear to me. I was just a boy when my father died at the opening of the Clone Wars. For a long time, the only goal I held was bringing justice to the Jedi who killed him. It consumed me to the point it became all that mattered in my life. I eventually came to terms with my father's death, though I never forgave his killer. After the dust settled and I was locked away in some Republic prison, I had time to think back. There was where I was reborn, free of attachments and restraint. And when I broke out, I lived a life freer than most would let themselves believe is possible. You too, could've lived that life. Now, you get to meet the only person in the galaxy who scares me more than me."

Leia spit on his helmet. Boba Fett regarded her for a moment, raised his blaster, and stunned the Princess.

"Leave her for later. Take the Wookie next." The stormtroopers moved to grab Chewbacca. Harder than Isabella thought possible, the Wookie head-butted one trooper across the hangar. The other relied on his military training and rolled behind a stack of battle droid torsos. With her captors distracted, Isabella removed her hands from her head, dove backwards, and grabbed her blaster pistol. Han did the same, but stopped to drag Leia's unconscious body behind a large box of blaster rifles.

The stormtroopers moved back, covering Fett and IG-88 as the two engaged the smugglers. R2-D2 and C-3P0 were shoved to the side, their restraining bolts limiting any major movement. Fett ignited his jetpack, and flew above the skirmish. A rocket launched from his wrist detonated near Isabella, and she was thrown backwards. Her blaster skidded across the floor. She quickly got to her feet, and noticed that a nearby crate had been damaged in the fighting. It was broken open, with the stun batons inside spilled out over the floor. Stun batons! Isabella had never used the modern Imperial batons, but on the streets in Satrivan City on Lexrul she and the other urchins had built makeshift ones from spare parts found in the trash.

After she dropped her pistol and grabbed the baton, she launched herself at one of the stormtroopers. The trooper shouted in surprise. Before he could bring his blaster up to fire, Isabella knocked it out of his hands and brought her baton down on his head. The trooper groaned and collapsed.

"Foolish organic!" IG-88 said. One of the droid's metal claws retracted and modified itself into a stun baton. Isabella steeled her gaze. "Defeating me will prove a tougher challenge!"

"We'll see about that." She grunted. She swung her baton and made contact with the droid's electrified arm baton. The droid gave a mechanical laugh, and kicked Isabella in the shin. She screamed and ran. The assassin droid followed her. She climbed up a ladder onto a conveyor belt, and reached for her blaster pistol. Her hand grabbed empty air. Eyes going wide in fear, she saw it lying on the floor next to the stun baton container. She had dropped it when she grabbed her new baton!

IG-88 continued to climb up the ladder. "You cannot escape, girl."

Panicked, Isabella threw a nearby Navy Trooper helmet at the droid. The black helm simply bounced of IG-88's chassis and fell to the hangar deck. The bounty hunter looked down at it for a moment before laughing again.

Isabella backed on to the conveyor belt, moving between stationary boxes. The droid clambered up, raised his baton-arm and their fight began again. Somehow the conveyor began moving (Isabella would later learn Solo had unwittingly activated it while trying to turn on an electroshock security grid that would've incapacitated Boba Fett), giving their duel a bit of a climactic feel.

As she fought desperately with the assassin droid, Isabella noticed where the conveyor belt was heading. It was built to drop cargo right out into open space, where ordinarily a large ship would be waiting immediately outside to receive it.

IG-88 noticed this too, and the fight became more frantic. It felt to Isabella they were hurrying it, like a working father doing his best to finish a twelve-page report on a Friday afternoon so he could spend Saturday with his son instead of coming into the office.

At the last second, Isabella ducked and slid under the droid's legs. She turned around, and kicked with all the force she could muster, before jumping five meters to the deck below. IG-88, off-balance and damaged in the fight, could only scream as it was hurled into open space.

Isabella got up, checked herself for open wounds, rubbed her bruised arm, and walked back over to Solo and Chewbacca.

The older smugglers were still fighting with Boba Fett, though the two humans looked tired. Han could barely stand, and Fett was visibly slumping in his jetpack. One of the stormtroopers lay dead, and the other was crawling up the ramp into Slave I. A cargo crane lay between the rebels and the bounty hunters. Chewbacca was firing at Fett, who was still hovering above them.

Isabella took one look at the situation her longtime rival was in, and hurled the stun baton at Fett. It caught his jetpack and disabled it. The bounty hunter fell to the floor. Han collapsed, either from exhaustion or relief.

"Isabella, I owe you a drink." He shouted.

"I'm holding you to that." She replied. "Now toss me my blaster. It's near the open crate of stun batons." Han obliged, and Isabella caught her weapon in midair. She joined Chewbacca in surrounding Boba Fett, who lay dazed on the floor. The Wookie growled as they approached him.

"Ready to surrender, Fett?" Isabella asked Suddenly, the bounty hunter's legs shot out, and knocked her over. Chewbacca raised his bowcaster, but Boba Fett punched it out of his paws. He stood up, grabbed his blaster rifle, and began to walk away.

"Though I would love to do this all day," he said, "I have a schedule to keep. People to meet, things to do, battles to avoid." He turned halfway to look at them. "Solo, Organa, Wookie, Garcia-Sharpio, until we meet again." He walked up the ramp, and it closed behind him. Slave 1 lifted up and away, shooting off into the Armengoltiax Cluster. Isabella fired off a few shots, failing to hit anything.

"He took Threepio as well." Han said, breathless.

"Good riddance." said Isabella. Han shook his head.

"No. As much as all of us despise golden-ass, that protocol droid has invaluable data in his memory banks. Even if we didn't need to retrieve Threepio, Fett grabbed the kid."

"Commander Skywalker." Han nodded.

"Come on." He grunted as he stood up. "Remove the rustbucket's restraining bolt, and help me wake up Leia. Chewie!" The Wookie barked. "Prime that Imperial shuttle. We need to get back to the Freedom quickly, and we don't have the time to backtrack through a shipyard filled with heavily armed bucketheads waiting to shoot us."

"Look at you." Isabella snorted. "Finally taking command."

Han frowned. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Everybody always said you were a natural born leader. Well, almost everybody. Lando and Sana always shook their heads whenever somebody suggested it, and the Muftak was always more interested in the cargo you brought him for Doctor Evazann than your personality."

Han shook his head. "I'm just a smuggler. I'm sticking around until I get what the Princess owes me."

Isabella snorted. "You want a lot more than just money from her." Han started to say something, but seemed to think better of it.

"Just…just shut up. I don't. She's Luke's."

Isabella rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever you say. Let's just get back to our normal lives and go rescue some rebel farmboy who believes in a long-dead space religion that worships wizards with laser swords from a clone bounty hunter who partnered with a death robot to track us down."

"Sounds like an ordinary day in my book." Han grumbled.

The cloak failed two klicks before they would have been safely in sight of the rebel fleet.

Fortunately, for Candace and her crew, they were caught in some sort of sensor dead zone where the Imperial ships could not scan them. Unfortunately for Candace and her crew, the engines stalled, and while Baljeet, the battle droids, and Chopper made hasty repairs, Candace held a meeting with Bohdi and K2-S0. Buford, despite not being invited, was also present. The mood was somber.

"We are not going to be able to get the engine working before the Imperial fleet reaches us." She announced. No reaction was given by the attendees. "We are going to have to fight our way through the task force and make it to the fleet outside the Armengoltiax cluster. I cannot guarantee our survival."

"There is another option." Bohdi said. Everyone looked at the cargo pilot. "The Empire was unaware this ship was hijacked, and logs show it arriving at the shipyard as planned. We could convince them we simply fled the station after the rebels took control and then became caught in the storm. Then, we wait for an opportunity, and hightail it back to the rebel fleet."

"I like it." Buford said.

"I give it a 69.72 % chance of succeeding." K2 said. Candace smiled.

"Those are the best odds the droid has given all day." She said. "Let's do it."

Thankfully, Tipoca City's main outdoor highway was nearly empty when Ferb's speeder touched down. A flying lorry belonging to a local power company and a swoop-bike ridden by a Kaminoan sped past him going in the other direction. They both took an exit ramp into one of the hemispheric structures that made up the city. Ferb guessed the Empire had notified them to get the civilians out of the way before the fighting resumed.

Barring Darth Diminutive, Darthensmirtz, and their respective entourages (though the former's was rapidly dwindling), the Imperial presence on Kamino was for the large part, relatively benevolent and tolerant towards the planet it occupied, a stark contrast to the rest of the Empire. Perhaps, he mused, that was why they were relegated to the backwater Wild Space ocean planet.

Four Imperial combat speeders flew onto the freeway and opened fire. Ferb looked around and saw all exits sealed off. The highway entered a massive habitat dome two and a half kilometers in front of him, but the entrance was blockaded by Imperial forces. Two AT-DPs, several Stormtroopers and Army troopers, and a mobile turbolaser blocked his path. Ferb began to grin, surprising himself. Was he really starting to enjoy this that much?

Dodging shots from the combat speeders, he pulled his speeder closer and closer to the wall on the lefthand side. Letting his speeder drift slowly to the right, he fired his blaster over his shoulder at the speeders. The Imperials intensified their fire, and Ferb ducked. He ignited his lightsaber and cleaved through a lampost on the side of the road. It fell right in the path of the combat speeders.

The first one stopped just before it hit the metal rod, however the two directly behind slammed into it. Rather than crashing, the fourth jumped over the burning wreck of its comrades like a professional stuntman driving his speeder over a row of old hoverbuses. Ferb almost admired the Imperial pilot.

He hit the deceleration switch, waited until he was close, and then jumped on top of the speeder. Balancing on top of the vehicle, the young Jedi cut his way inside with his lightsaber.

"What the-?" the pilot shouted. Ferb levitated him out of the speeder with the force and dropped him on the road. He hopped inside and grabbed the controls.

"TH-A113!" the com screamed. "What the hell is going on over there?" Ferb deactivated the com.

The Imperial officer in charge of the barricade apparently figured out what was going on soon after, because Ferb began taking heavy fire. Flak from the mobile cannon hit his right engine, and the teenaged Jedi lost control of the vehicle. Ferb aimed it at the cannon, and then dived out the hole he had created not half a minute earlier.

He landed on the freeway on all fours. The storm pounded the road, and Ferb almost slipped trying to stand up. The boy rubbed the back of his neck. It was beginning to ache back there. He very nearly was knocked over again when his speeder hit the cannon and exploded. Shrapnel rained in all directions, and Ferb used the Force to project any metal away from his body.

The momentary lapse in organization brought by the explosion ended, and the soldiers woke up to the fact that Ferb was standing there. The AT-DP's began to lumber forward and the infantry started firing.

Ferb was the most outnumbered he had been all day, but he held his ground and deflected energy blasts with his lightsaber. Stormtroopers and Army troopers surrounded him. He pushed one trooper off the highway into the ocean and shot another with a pistol he had grabbed from inside the speeder.

He cut through three stormtroopers with his lightsaber, jumped over an Army trooper, and stabbed a riot trooper.

"Freeze!" a stormtrooper shouted. Ferb shot him, rolled behind the flaming remains of the cannon. Two Army troopers attempted to stun him, but Ferb used the Force to knock their heads together and they fell to the ground.

Ferb paused to catch his breath, but had to move when one of the AT-DP's nearly stepped on him. He yelped as the other walker fired its cannon near him. As he tripped over the corpse of a stormtrooper, his blaster misfired. The force of the shot sent the rifle skidding across the highway, knocking over an Army trooper.

Ferb threw his lightsaber at the knee joint of one walker. The gigantic waste of doonium heaved and collapsed with only one leg to support it. While the other one tired to turn around and shoot at him, Ferb dispatched more Stormtroopers.

Shooting another Army trooper, Ferb gazed up at the AT-DP. He wondered what it must be like to pilot one of those things. Stepping over everything in your path on two ungainly legs, shooting to your heart's (or hearts', depending on how many your species had) content.

But then he remembered it was in his way, and used the force to throw the remains of the cannon at the walker's 'head', unbalancing it, and causing the thing to crash into the sea.

The remaining Imperial soldiers were scattered and leaderless. Ferb correctly guessed that whoever had been in charge was inside one of the walkers. He picked them off with ease.

With the battlefield cleared, Ferb took time to salvage what he could from the fallen soldiers. He stole an Army trooper helmet, and was surprised to find it fit his head comfortably. He inferred that this meant it was too small for the larger heads of the Empire's lowest grunt troops. He also grabbed a few stormtrooper thermal detonators, attaching them to a utility belt he also stole. His luckiest find was a perfectly undamaged datapad sitting near where the cannon had been.

As he walked into the habitat dome, he heard the roar of engines behind him. He turned and saw a TIE Reaper, escorted by two patrol transports, moving in from the prison complex. In the distance on the highway, he saw patrol stormtroopers on their wedge-shaped Interceptor bikes speeding towards his position.

Sighing, he turned on his new datapad. It took him half a minute, perhaps less, to slice into Tipoca City's systems. He lowered the blast door for the dome he was in, sealing himself off from the Sith Lord, and deactivated all the security holocameras for the entire city.

Then, confident he finally had a moment to himself, he accessed the customs and immigration records of the Tipoca City Security Militia. He scanned the list for the previous week, and found what he was looking for.

"A Correllian YT-2400 freighter, a literal piece of space junk, washed up on Kamino's shores today." Ferb smiled. Whoever wrote the report did not seem to believe in masking their feelings, in a professional setting or otherwise. He continued reading. "The dingy ship refused to respond to hails as it entered local space, and had no transponder identity. It swooped low over the ocean, and appeared to making for some sort of drop point to deploy its illicit cargo. It was intercepted by a joint Tipoca Security/Imperial patrol, and the crew was arrested. It is the belief of this officer, supported by the ship's log, that this transport belonged to the smuggling ring of notorious local criminal Kan Be." The write-up ended there. Ferb read the rest of the report.

Name: None-transponder is missing or destroyed.

Model: Correllian Engineering Corporation YT-2400 Light Freighter

Captain: Kaminoan male who refused to divulge name. Attempts to cross-reference with intergalactic criminal databases, Imperial customs reports, and most recent local census were fruitless.

Crew: 5 (not including captain); two humans, one Kaminoan, one Zygerrian, one Kuyuzo. All are currently in custody, and no names given. See entry for captain on attempts to discover identities.

Port of origin: Likely Handooine, also possibly Nar Shadda.

Ferb frowned. The box the Togruta's lightsaber had been found in was inlaid with metal mined out on Handooine. He shrugged. A different mystery for a different time.

Manifest: Ship had none, but a thorough search by Military Police discovered vials of glittersim spice and stolen exlplosives. Under orders from Col. Crefet, spice vials were destroyed. Lord Darthensmirtz attempted to grab one to, and I quote, "See what a high feels like," but was dissuaded by Lt. Yaami. Explosives impounded.

Ferb stifled a laugh.

Ship currently rests impounded in Hangar 23.

Ferb smiled. So that was where his new ship would be found. He sent the vessel's location on to AZI via a secure com channel, opened an air vent, and disappeared once more.

Soon, freedom would be his.

"Freighter S8-8117, this is Rear Admiral Rae Sloane of the ISD Vigilance. Please explain your reason for being in this area."

"This is Captain Erril of Imperial Freighter S8-8117." Candace began. So far, their improvised plan had worked. As the storm was beginning to break up (it would be another hour before it was gone entirely), the star destroyer's scanners discovered their battered Gozanti cruiser. "We were on the station when the insurgents attacked, and barely managed to escape with our lives! Damned vindictive rebel scum shot at our tail as we ran away. Then we got caught in the storm and our ship was damaged. My crew is currently making repairs."

Twenty seconds passed. Candace worried the Admiral wasn't buying it, and, with a quick glance at her pilot, she could see Bohdi was too. Then;

"Very well." Candace breathed a sigh of relief. "I will send a ship to tow you to the Executor. Their mobile berths are sufficient enough for a ship your size, and I doubt the rebels will venture to close to a Super Star Destroyer." Candace's heart stopped dead for a second. Bohdi began to shake ever so slightly. K2, in an uncharacteristic move, kept quiet, though Candace could imagine the security droid had some unhelpful comment he'd love to add.

"Thank you, sir, but we're really quite fine here. Our repairs are almost finished."

"As Captain your first duty is to your crew and your ship. Stranding them in the middle of a battle places them at risk. I will send a ship to tow you to the Executor, and you will receive a demerit. Dismissed, Captain Erril."

Silently, Candace collapsed into the late Captain Erril's command chair. Bohdi and K2 looked first at each other, than at her.

"What happens now, Lieutenant?" Bohdi asked.

Candace sighed. "We get screwed."

"We have taken heavy losses, Admiral." Captain Piett shouted. Ozzel looked down at him from the command walkway. He stumbled a little as the ship shook-turbulence from the electrical storm. Piett had to steady himself by grabbing onto a handle on the wall of the starboard pit. The Super Star Destroyer's captain continued. "Rear Admiral Sloane reports the forward task force has been almost completely destroyed by the rebel fleet amassed outside the Armengoltiax cluster." The Admiral shook his head, as if the casualty report did not bother him.

"Anything else?" Ozzel asked. Piett bent back down over the console.

"The bounty hunter Boba Fett has docked with the ship. He claims to have completed his bounty for Lord Vader, as well as having captured a droid supposedly privy to rebel secrets."

"Are these claims substantiated?"

"…No."

"Very well. Let Lord Vader know the bounty hunter has arrived. Keep me informed on the state of the battle, Captain. Tell me everything that happens." Piett gritted his teeth at the redundancy of the command.

"Yes sir."

The battle had begun.

The Mon Cala warship had destroyed several light cruisers, but the arrival of a Star Destroyer had forced a change in tactics. The shipyard had been stripped bare, all supplies loaded, and the Freedom, escorting the mostly-repaired Venator cruiser, the Tantive V, and a few other transports, had joined the fray as the electrical storm had slowly withered away to nothing.

Candace, her ship, and her crew had been assumed lost by the few officers who knew of their mission. The majority of the rebel commanders were focused on Rear Admrial Rae Sloane's offensive and the impending doom that the Executor would bring. For the moment, Sloane and her 'vanguard flotilla' were occupying their strategizing.

One ISD had sustained critical damage when a squadron of Y-Wings had pummeled the shields to the point they lowered long enough to allow a few well-placed shots from the DP20 frigate. Another destroyer had been harassed so heavily by the MC80 cruiser and several squadrons of X-Wings that it was slowly being forced back towards one of the remaining electrical clouds, somewhat reminiscent of Commander Garavle's retreat seven hours earlier. Two strategically-placed light cruisers tried to protect it, but the snubfighters dodged the Imperial ships' cannons.

The remaining rebel capital ships were engaged with Sloane's Vigilance and four Razor-class frigates. They would have been outgunned if not for the arrival of the Freedom, which was firing all cannons. The Venator star destroyer was also helping-its temporary skeleton crew was eagerly firing the older ship's turbolasers as heavily as the limited repair job would let them.

Despite the appearance of momentarily holding their own against the Imperial Navy, the rebels knew their time was running short. Two Interdictor-class cruisers, covered by another light cruiser, hung behind the Vigilance. The small ships projected gravity wells that prevented any ship-Alliance or Imperial-from jumping into the safety of hyperspace. An entire squadron of A-Wings had already been lost trying to destroy them. Furthermore, more TIE fighters continued to spill out of the dying interstellar storm. Scans indicated that more Star Destroyers and light cruisers were on their way, and Vader's Executor itself was less then forty-five minutes away.

The Rebel fleet clustered itself around the entrance the Armengoltiax Cluster. The Freedom, the MC80, the DP20, and most of the CR90s formed the outer defensive line, protecting the transports, the still-damaged ships Imperial ships seized from the facility, and a lone Correllian corvette that had sustained heavy damage and had withdrawn to the end line to make limited repairs.

It was this scene that Leia and her team entered into in their stolen Imperial shuttle.

She found him in the Freedom's reactor room. His recent transfer to Draven's decryption team notwithstanding, Phineas' wide area of technical expertise was well known among the crew of the star destroyer, and it appeared he had been asked to help keep the ship running during the battle. He wasn't the only one; Isabella recognized the old Ithorian from Corellia who had been Chief Engineer on the Tantive V directing the repair of a power relay on a catwalk below her. Other technicians welded parts together or sat at consoles, monitoring power outputs. A faint smell of ozone and exhaust lingered in the air.

After landing, Leia had gone off to update Draven and Dodonna on the recent developments while Han and Chewie took a break. Isabella had set out to track down her boyfriend.

"Yo, farmboy." she said. "Can…we talk?"

"Aren't we already?" he grunted. His tone was not exactly friendly, though it seemed that was more due to the stress of in-battle repairs than anything else. Like for example, a girlfriend he had recently walked out on unannounced.

"You didn't tell me you were going to get a transfer."

Phineas shrugged. He still had not turned around to face her. "I did not know I needed your permission."

"We were living together. You can't just walk out without letting me know." Now Phineas turned. He wore technician's overalls and a pair of goggles. "I called you several times."

"I've been busy." Isabella sighed. This was going nowhere.

"Look, you should've told me. I worry about you, you know."

"Enough to act like a pleasant human being for a change?" Isabella paused as she tried to think up a reply. "Exactly." Phineas said. He turned back to his workstation. Sparks flew as he welded in a wall panel.

"Hey, Isabella." She turned. Han was standing there, dressed in an Imperial officer's uniform. "Bring your engineer boyfriend and get moving. We're going to break into one of the biggest warships in the galaxy and rescue Luke from the clutches of the most feared being in existence."

"What?" she called back. Phineas stood up, equally confused. Han sighed.

"We tracked Fett's ship to the Executor. It's a pretty good bet the kid was taken to Vader."

"Kriffing wonderful." She said joylessly. "Where's my disguise?"

I'm sorry it's been so long. I got busy, but hopefully this long, action-filled chapter makes up for it. To any of the original readers who are somehow still here: thanks for sticking through.

I have chapter 20 finished, a draft of an interlude for chapter 21 done, and am working on chapter 22, but honestly I'm not quite enjoying the writing as much as I used to. If anyone's seriously interested in the story, please leave a review so I can gauge how worthwhile it would be to keep writing.

One thing I am quite certain of is that most of the preceding chapters require major overhauls. The direction of the story thus far is fine, but a lot of the writing is quite shit and many pieces of dialogue, and even entire scenes, need to be rewritten to reflect the development of the story. I've already done so with chapter one, but all up until at least chapter twelve require some work too. I'm honestly not that sure I have the energy to do that, or even care enough about this story to keep seriously working on it, but it's good writing practice I guess.