Audio reading for Chapters 38-39 available on YouTube:

watch?v=hMm-XoWjW9s

A line of rebels trailing behind her, Tess once again found herself trekking through the grounds of Endor. She still had not processed the knowledge of how she came to be, and she was far from ready to talk about it. Right now she just wanted to disable the shield generator. War was simple—break the Empire down piece-by-piece, fast enough that they couldn't put those pieces back together.

The squad of rebels reached the coordinates of the shield generator and took cover behind rocks, overgrowth, and trees. Chewbacca—who practically looked like a tree himself—advanced forward and waved the others to follow once he saw that the coast was clear. Han, Leia, Tess, and Threepio met the Wookie at a fallen log to survey the area. The Ewok Leia had met earlier tagged along, too.

Tess saw a three-wing fighter lift off a small landing platform. They could also see a satellite—indicating the location of the control bunker.

"Don't worry," Han assured them. "Chewie and I have gotten into places far more heavily guarded than this."

The Ewok started chirping in his language. Threepio responded to him with what sounded like a question, and the Ewok said something else.

"What's he saying?" Leia asked.

Threepio perked up in excitement.

"He says there's a secret entrance on the other side of the ridge!"

After less walking than expected, the rebels arrived at where the secret entrance should have been, assuming the Ewok was right. Fortunately, he was. Unfortunately, four stormtroopers guarded the door.

"Oh no…" Leia sighed. Han shook his head.

"There goes our surprise attack."

"You really shouldn't give up so easily," Tess advised with a smirk. She lifted her hand, focused, and within moments one of the four speeders outside the control bunker raced away.

"Who was that?!" demanded one of the white suits.

"Must have been a rebel!"

"Stop him!"

"You stay here!"

"Hey, wait!"

Tess grinned proudly as three of the four stormtroopers hopped on speeders and sped after the nonexistent bike thief.

"Not bad—there's only one left," Han said with a rare dose of real, non-sarcastic praise. The former smuggler squeezed Tess' shoulder appreciatively, looking between her and Leia. "You guys ready to handle this?"

Leia narrowed her eyes at him.

"Are you, General?"

Watching out for twigs this time, Han tiptoed behind the lone stormtrooper that guarded the control bunker. He gave the armor a few taps on the shoulder, then raced to the other side of the building.

"Hey!" the trooper called out, chasing after Han. But of course, rather than a lone rebel, half the squad waited for him around the corner with blasters in hand. Tess was in front with her lightsaber drawn.

"Good morning!" she greeted him condescendingly. "You want to let us into that bunker?"

The stormtroopers were idiots, but even an idiot knew when he was outnumbered. The hostage trooper compliantly gave them the codes to the control bunker's back entrance.

The squad cautiously entered the bunker. Han lead the way, followed by Leia, Chewie, and Tess. The youngest rebel couldn't help but notice the emptiness of the bunker. Shouldn't it have been more guarded?

"I have a bad feeling about this," Tess expressed softly. Han gave her a look. His confidence was always a bit of a fault. Leia lingered back to walk alongside Tess.

"Just keep your eyes open," the princess advised. "Stay alert. We don't know how many of them are in the main control room, so we need to be ready."

Tess nodded, shaking away her intuitions.

The rebels were absolutely silent in the last stretch of hallway before the main control room. Han held up three fingers. Then two. Then one.

Then the door opened and the rebels began to flood the mass of Imperial officers in the control room.

"Alright!" Han yelled. The officers jumped to a stand, seeing the several blasters that pushed them away from the shield generator controls. "Alright, come on! Quickly, quickly!"

Tess was one of the first to jump onto a command station, followed by Leia.

"Han, hurry!" the princess reminded General Solo. "The fleet will be here any moment."

Tess let the adrenaline rush guide her fingers, looking at the command screens and trying to figure out how the shield generator worked—specifically how to disable it. Han had one of the hostage imperials throw him a charger.

Then suddenly, Tess felt something.

"More are coming," she blurted. Not sure if the others had heard, she grabbed Han's arm. "Han, more are coming!" The smuggler immediately surveyed the rebels they had brought inside.

"You two, guard that door!" he ordered. "And you guys on that one!"

Tess bit her lip in anxiety. She frantically looked around the room. Deep down she knew that guarding the doors was not going to be enough.

Suddenly, from every entrance into the command center, stormtroopers came flooding in. Tess would have jumped forward with an ignited lightsaber if Leia hadn't grabbed her. A shake of her head reminded the Jedi in training that her lightsaber was an immediate identifier. If Darth Vader had found out that Luke was training Tess, the lightsaber would be a dead giveaway of her identity. For now, Tess had to blend in with the rebels.

The stormtroopers and imperial officers lead the rebels out of the command bunker, each one disarmed with their hands on their head. Tess was the only one who still had a weapon, considering she had stuffed her lightsaber under the belt of her tunic. With every other rebel wielding the same bulky blaster, the imperials did not think to search them for any smaller, more discrete weapons.

Unfortunately, a lightsaber would not be much help in their situation. The other half of the rebel squad was also being held hostage outside the bunker, along with at least two hundred stormtroopers, twenty imperial officers, and a few walkers looking menacingly down at them from a several dozen metres above the ground.

"Hello!" came a voice in the distance. "I say—over there! Were you looking for me?" Tess immediately recognized it as Threepio's, but it took the group a moment to find the golden beacon of a droid standing amongst the trees.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Han muttered. Chewbacca growled at the droid.

"Wait, maybe…" Leia's voice trailed off. She exchanged glances with Tess.

Then suddenly, as a group of stormtroopers surrounded Threepio and Artoo, an Ewok howl broke the silence and several of the furry aliens emerged from the brush, attacking the troopers with their handmade weapons.

Han burst into laughter, and the rest of the rebels could have jumped for joy. An Ewok horn of some sort blared in the distance and before long, there was an army of 3-foot tall soldiers fighting on the side of the rebels.

Han flipped a soldier onto the ground, Leia snagged a blaster from a trooper and shot him with his own gun, and Tess swung her feet at an officer's knees to disable him before he shot one of the rebels in the back.

The battle of Endor had begun.