Chapter 1: Indomitable Base
"This place reeks." Luke Organa's voice broke the silence he had observed since leaving Indomitable Base hours earlier. He was riding a F-22 Speeder-bike, the sound of the engine the only sound he could hear aside from the foul wind that flowed around him.
Luke as well as his fellow members of the Rebel Alliance took turns exploring the junk fields and strewn wreckage wastelands of Raxus Prime, gathering information about their new home. They all returned to base with mixed feelings of comfort and disgust. The only other intelligent lifeforms on the planet were the little Jawa's from the Meeknu clan that had willingly joined the Rebel Alliance. While there were countless small creatures and dianogas and other scavangers on the planet, not many of them posed a threat to a well prepared individual, although Luke had heard rumors that another patrol in the outer sectors had discovered a rather large Sarlacc. All Luke had seen on his solitary expeditions were large mountains of garbage, wrecked ships from ages past, and the ditritus of countless generations deposited on one world.
Luke smiled behind the breathmask that protected him against the worst of Raxus Prime's nearly toxic air. Peering out at the long stretches of wreckage through his windvisor, he surveyed his surroundings. One corner of his mouth curled upward as he remembered how excited his friend Davin Felth had been when some of the Meeknu clan had assisted them in salvaging some of the vehicles they had discovered on the planet. Davin 'Trooper' Felth had been a Stormtrooper at one time, until he came to discover that the Empire he served was evil, and had joined with Leia Skywalker, her uncle Ben Kenobi, her Jawa 'bodyguard' and friend Het Krex and their faithful droids. Joined by the Corellian Smuggler Han Solo, and his Wookiee partner Chewbacca, they formed a rather ecletic bunch of heroes that Luke was proud to call himself a part of.
The Rebel Alliance had established an outpost on the junk world almost two months before. Luke was well-known on the base. Being the son of one of the leaders of the Rebel Alliance he was addressed as Prince Organa by other Rebel Warriors. The title made him feel a little uncomfortable. Nonetheless, he took it in stride as his position demanded, but that did not stop him from doing what every other soldier in the Rebellion was capable of doing... like doing this patrol.
He turned the F-22 towards the east, and his mind wandered as he drove. He recalled his jedi training at the hands of his K'jtari Master Ylenic It'kla, the Caamasi that had been a loyal aid to Bail Organa for years. He and Leia Skywalker and the little jawa Het Krex were being trained to become the next generation of Jedi Knights, and Luke was honored to carry on that great tradition. Other Jedi were arriving nearly every other day, and Luke had even heard that a group of Mandalorians were coming, which both excited and frightened him. Mandalorians were not to be trifled with... especially purebloods.
Suddenly his attention was diverted by the appearance of an object streaking across the sky, leaving behind a lingering trail of smoke as it dipped toward the jagged horizon. Luke flashed his hand to his hand to his utility belt as he pulled the speeder onto a rise of wreckage to get a better vantage point. Apprehensive, he felt a chill that was strange in the humidity of the surrounding air. What he had seen could have been man-made, perhaps even something launched by the Empire. The young prince finally stopped the bike and stepped off, standing on the wreckage and adjusting the macrobinoculars to get a better view of the fiery course of the falling object and watched as it crashed far off in the distance, lost in the wreckage of the world.
Luke lowered his macrobinoculars and brought his communicator to his mouth. "Echo Three to Echo Seven. Han 'ol buddy, do you read me?"
Static crackled from the reciever Then a familiar voice cut through the interference. "Is that you, your highnessness? Whats up?"
Luke grinned at the Corellian smugglers nickname for him. Of all the Rebels in the base, Luke valued Han Solo the most because unlike the others, Han did not treat him like royalty. He treated him like a friend. "I've finished my circle and all Ive seen is a meteorite hit the ground. Im going to go check it out. I wont be long."
"Well, my sentry markers are in place. I'm heading back to base." the corellian said. "You take it easy, you hear me?"
"Very well, sir." Luke said with a grin, clicking off his comlink. He stepped back towards the speeder bike, and suddenly he began to feel uneasy, for the first time since he had set out from the hidden Rebel Base. He took another step towards the speeder when there was a loud crack, and suddenly the entire section of wreckage he had been standing on gave way beneath him. He flailed about trying to find a purchase on the wreckage and tumbled away into darkness. A hard peice of metal struck him hard and flat against his face. Unconsciousness came swiftly to Luke, so swiftly that he never felt his body hit the bottom of the hole he had tumbled into...
He also never felt his own ankle gently gripped by a mechanical claw, or his body gently dragged towards a waiting light lit hatchway of a buried Corellian vessel.
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Black smoke was still rising from the crater in the wreckage where the air-born thing had fallen. The smoky clouds had thinned considerably since the object had crashed into the side of an ancient Mandalorian supercruiser. Suddenly, something stirred in the crater.
First there was only a sound, a droning mechanical sound that filled the hollow of the time ravaged supercruiser. Then the thing moved, something that glinted in the bright afternoon light as it slowly began to rise from the wreckage.
The Arakyd Vyper class Probot had a head of multiorbed dark lenses and blister eyes that trained their cold gaze across the wreckage strewn horizon. The machine hovered over the smoking supercruiser and extended its appendages in various directions. Then a signal was set ff within the probot's mechanical systems, and the machine began to float across the ground.
The dark probe droid soon vanished over the distant horizon.
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Another speeder bike raced across the slopes of metal and garbage toward the Rebel Base of Operations. The driver's eyes, like points of cold metal, glanced without interest at the domes of dull gray, the myraid gun turrets and the colossal power generators that were the only indications of civilized life on this world, but the funny thing was, the domes, the guns and even the power generators had been camoflaged to appear like discarded junk. He knew that with a flick of a switch, all pretenses of wreckage would be gone, and the weapons of the Alliance would swing to life.
He dismounted the speeder-bike, then glanced around to watch the activity taking place inside the mammoth wrecked battlecruiser. Wherever he looked he saw things being carried, assembled, salvaged or repaired. Rebels in grey uniforms rushed to unload supplies and adjust equipment. Jawas helped salvage and repair ships and vehicles almost everywhere. And there were droids, mostly astromech units of various types and power droids that seemed to be everywhere, rolling or walking through the metal corridors, efficiently performing their innumerable tasks.
Han was beginning to wonder if he were mellowing with his age. At first he had no personal interest in or loyalty to this whole Rebel affair. His ultimate involvement in the conflict between Empire and Rebel Alliance began as a mere business transaction, selling his services and the use of his ship, the Millennium Falcon. The job had been simple enough: Just pilot Ben Kenobi, plus young Leia Skywalker and her friend Davin Felth, her little jawa bodyguard Het Krex, and three droids to the Alderaan system. How could Han have known at the time that he would also be called upon to rescue a Prince and Viceroy from the Empire's most feared battle station, the Death Star?
All Han had wanted originally was to collect his reward money and rocket off to other adventures. Never had he intended to become a hero.
And yet, something had kept him around to join Leia Skywalker and her crazy Rebel friends as they launched the now legendary space attack on the Death Star. Something. For the present, Han couldnt decide just what that something was.
Now, long after the Death Star's destruction, Han was still with the Rebel Alliance, and was even a Captain in their Ranks! He grinned as he rubbed the captains bars on his lapel. He had always wanted to be a captain when he had been a part of the Imperial Academy... before he had been kicked out for saving a Wookiee's life. He never regretted his decision, and now, maybe he had found his place after all. Even now Chewbacca, with the help of the Jawa Het Krex and Davin Felth, as well as an old 'friend' Dash Rendar were preparing the Falcon for a mission to Corellia to find the lost Rebel Leader Garm Bel Iblis. Han was looking forward to seeing his homeworld, and maybe making a quick buck in the process.
He walked rapidly through the hanger deck where several Rebel fighters were docked and being serviced by men and Jawas assisted by droids of various designs. Of greatest concern to Han was the saucer-shaped freighter ship resting on its newly installed landing pods. Sitting next to Dash Rendar's Outrider, the Falcon was the largest ship in the hanger and it had garnered a few new dents in its metal hull, since Han first hooked up with Skywalker, Kenobi and Felth. Yet the Millennium Falcon was famous not for its outward appearance but for its speed: This was the freighter that made the Kessel Run in less than Twelve Parsecs.
Much of the Falcon's success could be attributed to its maintenance, now entrusted to the shaggy hands of a two-meter-tall mountain of brown hair, whose face was at the moment hidden behind a welders mask, assisting the huge wookiee was a little jawa, hanging upside down from the open hatch holding the peice of metal Chewie was struggling to weld into place. The little Jawa noticed Solo approaching and pointed him out to Chewie, who stopped his work and raised his face shield, exposing his furry countenance. A growl that few non-wookiees in the universe could translate roared from his toothy mouth.
Han Solo was one of those few. "Yeah, everythings done out there. As soon as you get those loaders finished, and Luke gets back, we're out of here."
On top of the Falcon, he heard a human voice call out to him. "Damn, Solo, where did you get those turbolasers?" Dash Rendar called down.
Han smiled up at the other Corellian and shrugged. "Had a friend named Doc install em. You should look him up, The man can make a hyperspace engine spin on a decicred... and give you change."
Dash nodded appreciatingly. "I might just do that. Where's he located at?"
Han smiled. "He's in the Corporate Sector. Look for a girl named Jessa Vandengante.. she'll guide you to him."
Dash nodded down to the other smuggler. "Hey, thanks Solo."
Han waved back as he headed towards the main control deck. Alive with electronic equipment and monitoring devices reaching towards the ancient ceiling. As in the hanger, Rebel personnel filled the command center. The room was full of controllers, troopers, maintenance men - along with droids of varying models and sizes, all of whom were diligently involved in converting the chamber into a workable base to replace the one on Yavin.
The man Han Solo had come to see was busily engaged behind a great console, his attention riveted to a computer screen flashing brilliantly colored readouts. Rieekan, wearing the unform of a Rebel General, straightened his tall frame to face Captain Solo as he approached.
"General, Sensors are in place, you'll know if anythings coming. As soon as Prince Organa returns, we'll be heading out to Corellia to find Garm Bel Iblis."
General Reikan nodded and saluted. "Good luck, Captain Solo. I'm sure you wont really need it." He then smiled and shook Han's hand. Han accepted and smiled, feeling more at home every day. "Thank you sir, I appreciate it."