- - - - - The Forest Moon of Endor - - - - -

Tess Naberrie looked down at the thick vines on the Endor ground. She was already a victim of condescension amongst the group, so the worst thing she could do was fuel the fire by being the first to trip. A drop of sweat trickled down Tess' ear. The helmets they wore were hot and sweaty. Only Han went without one—apparently his hair was too good for that.

Tess suddenly felt her feet leave the ground as Chewbacca lifted her over a tripping hazard. Her face turned red when she heard the rebels behind her chuckle. Despite her age, Tess had probably been at this longer than they had, and her blaster accuracy was only second to Leia. Besides, the Rebellion wasn't exactly the most funded of organizations, and pilots aside, the requirements were not extensive for a person to fight for the rebellion.

"Might as well ride on the Wookie's back," a woman muttered from behind Tess.

Han Solo—who was leading the group a few soldiers ahead—turned around just enough to keep the woman from adding another patronizing comment.

"Sure," he said with fake enthusiasm. "Put a gun in her hand and we've got a 10-foot turret with a thousand times more accuracy than any of you combined. And the Wookie is on her side, so you piss her off and that turret's coming after you." It almost sounded like a joke, but there was something in Han's tone of voice that seemed to put the rebels in their place. Chewbacca chuckled, and Tess grinned to herself.

Tess scanned the heads for Leia. With everyone's hair up in helmets and body covered in loose camouflage, there was little to tell the soldiers apart other than height. Fortunately—like Tess herself—Leia was one of the shorter ones. And of course it helped that she was normally near hat-a-phobic Han.

Just before Tess grew bored enough to count steps, Han lifted a hand, signaling the group to stop. Everyone had been almost trance-like in their walking by now so each soldier almost ran into the one in front of them. Han and Leia both glanced back at the rest of the soldiers to enforce the sudden halt, though Leia looked more like she was making sure everyone was still there. Tess made a face at her sister, making the princess reveal the tiniest smirk.

"Oh, I told you it was dangerous here," Threepio whined, throwing his golden arms up in his dramatic way.

"Shh!" Tess snapped.

Han motioned downwards and the troops—Tess included—took a knee in the tall mess of vines and leaves. General Solo waved Luke, Leia, and Chewie to follow him, and Leia motioned for Tess to do the same. The fifteen-year-old was used to that by now. This had only been her third real battle but that was enough to realize that even if it was moving from behind one tree to behind the next, Leia insisted Tess stay with her. At first, it was as annoying as the rest of Leia's protective tendencies, but Tess soon realized that being at Leia's side meant she got to do all the cool stuff while everyone else just waited.

Han lead the group of five around an astoundingly thick tree towards a fortress-like growth. They knelt behind it and peeked their heads over the moss. Kneeling beside Luke, Tess could see some speeder bikes and a small group of stormtroopers—not that they were hard to spot.

"You'd think with all of the money the Empire has," Tess thought aloud. "They would be able to buy camouflage suits." Luke chuckled, if only to appease her while her sister and carbonate boy finished counting the troopers and bikes.

"Should we try and go around?" Leia asked no one in particular.

"It will take time," reasoned Luke unenthusiastically. Though he was ever the dutiful follower of the Force and the ways of a proper Jedi, deep down he still could not shake much of his childish impatience.

Han seemed to be concocting something in his head. That, or he was thinking dirty thoughts about Leia. Tess could never tell those two faces apart. Finally, he added, "This whole party will be for nothing if they see us."

Chewie—too tall to manage a stealthy crouch—growled a suggestion from behind some branches. Han nodded and started to get up.

"Chewie and I will take care of this," he decided. "You three stay here." He looked from Leia to Luke to Tess—lingering just a moment on the last and most likely to disobey.

"Quietly!" Luke reminded his friend in a hushed tone. "There might be more of them out there."

Tess saw Han's cocky grin coming a mile a way.

"Hey, its me."

Luke, Leia, and Tess all watched him go, then faced forward to watch Han and Chewie's plan either crumble or succeed by some miraculous stroke of smuggler luck.

It seemed crumbling was the Force's decision for Han today, because one of the stormtroopers heard Han behind him and whipped an arm out, sending their friend into a tree. The stormtrooper called to the rest to go for help.

"Great," Luke groaned. Though like Tess, he probably saw it coming. "Come on!"

Luke pulled Leia to a stand. Tess jumped up to follow, but was nudged back down by Leia.

"Stay here," ordered the princess. "If anything happens or you think we should be back and we're not, take everyone at least a thousand metres back, if not more. I think one of the troopers was telling the others to get reinforcements, so they know we're here."

The group heard at least one of the stormtroopers race out on speeder bikes.

"Over there!" Leia alerted the Jedi. "Two more of them!"

Tess instinctively whipped out her blaster and shot one of the stormtroopers right in the back only seconds after he boarded the speeder bike.

"Make that one," Tess corrected. "Now go!"

With no time to thank her, Luke and Leia raced in the direction of the speeder bikes. Tess turned her attention back to Han, who was still wrestling with the stormtrooper. She pulled out her blaster, aimed, and fired. Only after hitting the trooper right between the eyes did she realize that as far as she was from the target and as close as he was to Han, she just as easily could have blasted his head off.

"Thank the Force for my genetic blaster accuracy," she muttered to herself, waving down to Han, who was reeling in search of the miracle blast from the sky that saved his life until he saw Tess.

"You're welcome," she yelled down, raising her blaster to clarify that it was where the shot came from.

Han grinned. He shook his head a bit and wagged a finger at her.

"I owe you one, kid."