"The first transport is away," an announcement throughout the Echo Base announced. Tess could hear cheers coming from the hangar. Everyone—dressed in their orange bodysuits—seemed to be heading there. One stopped and ruffled Tess' hair.

"Hey, Tess," he called, walking backwards as he made his way to the hangar with the rest of the pilots. "Missed you at Princess' transport speech!"

"Aw I missed it?" Tess groaned, laughing slightly, waving goodbye to him. "Good luck, Dack!"

"You, too! Get yourself a transport, kid!"

Tess reached the command center and scanned the heads of people on the information systems until she found Leia. She knew enough about the technology in the command center to know that everything on Leia's screen pointed to multiple non-rebellion arrivals on Hoth. "Is it the Empire?"

Leia looked up in surprise, removing her headset.

"Tess, I told you to get on the transport," she sighed. "We caught some imperial transmissions. It's not safe here anymore, and I can't worry about you while I'm handling this."

"You don't need to worry about me," Tess reminded Leia, sitting down in the seat beside her. "And I'm just as stubborn as you are. I'm staying until we can leave on a transport together."

Leia groaned in frustration.

"Tess—" she began. Then Leia caught a glimpse of Tess' face and realized she had more important things to do than argue. That, and Leia knew this was Tess' way of making sure the princess got on a transport, too, rather than spending so much time wrapped up in finalizing things at the command center. It was actually pretty smart of the kid—and it sure didn't hurt to know you were cared about when rebellion efforts as dedicated as Leia's were often left unnoticed.

Knowing she had the temporary okay to be there for now, Tess sat back in her chair.

"Sorry I missed the transport speech," she whispered with a grin.

"Just the first group, I still have one more," Leia said, smirking. She was clearly aware of Tess' insincerity. "I'm sure it was torturous knowing you missed hopping on Wedge's shoulders and making faces at me."

"Just because I like your beautiful smile better than your speech face," Tess reminded her innocently. "And maybe a slight bit of revenge for every time you left me to be babysat by Threepio when we were on the Minos Cluster last year."

"Sure," Leia chuckled.

Amused, General Rieekan grinned slightly from behind the princess. He was always surprised that after years of knowing Leia, the only person that could ever suppress her stress so effectively in situations like this was a fourteen-year-old kid.

"General?" said a rebel across the room. Tess and Leia listened in as Rieekan walked over and stood over the man's screen. "General, there's a fleet of star destroyers coming out of hyperspace in sector four."

"Reroute all power to the energy shield," the general ordered. He then crossed to another officer and lowered his voice, but not so low that Tess and Leia could not hear him. "We've got to hold them until all transports are away. Prepare for gunned assault."

Tess and Leia exchanged knowing glances. That wasn't the first time they heard that phrase from Rieekan. They knew those words meant the Empire was closing in on their rebel base.

It did not take long for the echo base to become officially under attack. At this point, the command center was nearly in ruins and rumbled periodically like an upset stomach.

For at least the twelfth time, Leia gave Tess a familiar look.

"Nope," Tess retorted. "I told you, I'm not leaving until you are." The teenager crossed her arms stubbornly. Lines of worry and frustration showed up on Leia's face. Tess did not want her to be so frustrated, but after a close call like nearly being frozen to death a week ago, she wasn't about to be apart from Leia even for one flight.

Suddenly, the base shook heavily and a quick red flash could be seen down the hall. They heard a cascade of loud thumps as if several large rocks were dropped to the ground one after the other. Leia immediately pulled Tess closer to her as a large command screen detached from its dock and crashed to the ground.

Leia sat Tess down in the nearest chair.

"Stay there," she ordered her. Tess knew now was not a moment to distract Leia by arguing back. The princess looked over the shoulder of an officer at an information screen just as Tess noticed Han showing up in the control room doorway. His eyes searched the room nervously until he found Leia and Tess.

"Are you two alright?" he asked. Leia's head whipped around.

"Why are you still here?" the princess demanded.

"I heard the command center had been hit," Han explained, genuinely concerned as he made his way through the rubble. Only then did Tess realize just how severely the front half of the command center was damaged. It almost looked caved in.

"You got your clearance to leave," Leia snapped back. Han reached Tess' side and put a hand on her shoulder, nudging her to a stand.

"Sure, I'll leave," he grumbled, clearly not in the mood for Leia banter. "But first I'm going to take you and Tess to your ship."

"Take Tess with you," Leia ordered.

"What?!" Tess snapped. "No, I'm leaving with you. I told you that."

"Han, please!" Leia begged. "Take her out of here! I need to handle this, but I can't do it until I know she's safe!"

"What about your safety?!" Tess shot back. Han nodded in agreement.

"Listen to the kid."

Threepio, covered in white debris, tapped Princess Leia's arm with his golden hand.

"Your Highness, we must take this last transport. It's our only hope!" he begged. But Leia was all business, stuck in battle mode. She stomped over debris to a neighboring information screen.

"Send all troops from sector twelve to the south fold to protect the fighters!"

Suddenly, another explosion sounded and once again the room shook. A pathetic Threepio fell backwards with a cry out and had to be caught by Han. An announcement sounded throughout the base.

"Imperial troops have entered the base! Imperial troops have ente—" And the announcement broke off with a burst of static. Tess, worry widening her eyes, waited nervously on the other side of the room.

"Leia, we have to go! We've both been captured by imperial troops before," Tess reminded her. "And I'd rather not meet Darth Spontaneous-Force-Choke today."

Han reached Leia's side and grabbed her arm.

"Come on," he said. He wasn't going to take no for an answer, and Leia knew this really was her last chance to get her and Tess off the base safely. She turned to give one last note to the officers who remained in the command center.

"Evacuate the remaining ground staff," she told them as Han pulled Leia forward and Tess lead the way out.

By the time Han, Leia, and Tess had reached the hallway leading to the hangar, the echo base seemed to be under full attack. Tess was leading, but then she looked behind her and groaned with frustration.

"Threepio took a wrong turn," she muttered, turning around. "I'll be right back."

"Hurry!" Leia said.

As soon as Tess found Threepio and put him back on the right track, she heard a rumble, a crash, and familiar scream.

"Leia!" Tess cried out, running back down the hall.

"We're okay!" the princess cried back. Looking behind her, the fourteen-year-old saw that the hallway had collapsed and blocked their exit.

Han started pulling both girls in the opposite direction while speaking on his comlink.

"Transport, this is Solo," he said diplomatically. "Let her take off, I can't get to you. I'll get them out on the Falcon."

Tess was running too fast to express her excitement. Not only was the Falcon a thousand times better than the standard transports, but Chewie owed her 72 credits and Tess knew she could double that by beating him at yet another game of Pazaak.