Episode 4 Chapter 9
Return to Yavin IV
Disclaimer: See chapter 1.
A/N: Great news! I am now starting to work on the Epilogue for this Episode, which means updates should be somehwat regular till the end. The bad news is that FanFiction DOT Net is acting up and I am no longer recieving ANY alerts from them, nor am I able to change my e-mail address. So while I urge you to continue to review, if you have any questions please send them to the Yahoo group. Also, I whall begin putting this story up both on my site and Twisting the Hellmouth.
Thanks as always to my betas Fallenstar2 and Winterd.
As the Millennium Falcon sped away from the Death Star, the passengers sat in the hold in a state of abject shock. Leia placed a blanket around her brother's shoulders and rubbed his back comfortingly as Buffy sat across from them, her head in her hands. Once again the man who had saved her had been taken away and now she wasn't even sure if Obi-Wan was all right. All she knew was that she couldn't go back until her family was safe at the Rebel base.
Joyce has gone directly to the cockpit as soon as they had all gotten on board, a fact that Buffy was glad of when she saw Han come through the hold towards the belly gun access tunnels. He paused for a moment, looking at Luke.
"Come on, kid. We ain't out of this yet." Luke stared back with a vacant expression and Leia stared at Han angrily.
"Give him a moment, for pity's sake! Can't you see how much Quinn meant to him?" she snarled. Han stared back impassively.
"Quinn and Ben gave their lives to get us out. You want that sacrifice to mean nothing?" Han asked. Joyce's voice sounded over the com. "Incoming sentry ships!" Han looked pointedly at Luke, who now stared resolutely back. The young farmer threw off the blanket and followed Han towards the guns as Buffy and Leia headed to the cockpit. Luke headed down the access hatch and crawled into the belly gun chair. He strapped himself in and activated the targeting computer. No sooner had the display come up than Leia's voice sounded in his headset.
"Here they come!"
Four Imperial TIE fighters flew by, two on each side of the ship and all firing their twin green lasers. Luke swung the turret around and fired back, the powerful quad lasers sending orange bolts back in return. The TIEs deftly maneuvered around the shots, using their smaller size and faster engines to their advantage.
"They're coming in too fast!" Luke cried, desperately swinging the turret around and letting loose another volley. The TIE spun out of the way and swung around again, letting loose another volley that struck the side of the ship. The Falcon rocked as several conduits exploded.
"We've lost lateral controls!" Leia announced. Han touched the side of his headset.
"Don't worry, she'll hold together!" He let loose the com button as the ship rocked again. "Hear me baby? Hold together!" he mumbled. He fired his quads again and they finally struck their mark as a TIE exploded. "Ha-ha!" he cried out in victory. Luke then managed to score a hit as the TIE he was following exploded into a huge fireball.
"I got it! I got it!" he cried.
"Great kid! Don't get cocky!" Han shouted back down the tunnel, even as Buffy's voice sounded through their headsets.
"There's still two more of them out there!" Even as she said that, one TIE flew down money lane - the point in front of the ship where not only did the four quads converge, but where the two forward lasers fired. Joyce took the opportunity and fired the forward lasers, slamming into the unshielded fighter and sending it up in a fireball. "Make that one left," Buffy said, not missing a beat.
In short order, Luke spun his turret around and held down the trigger, sending burst after burst at the TIE that was heading straight for them. In no time at all, the TIE exploded.
"We did it!" Luke cried out.
"We did it!" Leia echoed in the cockpit, giving Chewie a hug.
"Help! I think I'm melting! This is all your fault!" Threepio complained to Artoo as he lay among the smoldering wires. Artoo, for his parts, just chuckled in his mechanical tone.
Darth Vader strode into the control room where Governor Tarkin stood staring at a huge, brilliantly lit screen that showed the massive star field beyond. Behind him strode Halcyon and Mara, the latter whose face bore a fierce scowl.
Bested by a farm boy! I can't believe it! She thought to herself. Her master, she knew, would not be pleased.
Tarkin barely glanced around as the trio entered.
"Are they away?" the Dark Lord demanded.
"They've just completed the jump to hyperspace. No doubt they are at this very moment congratulating themselves on their daring and success." Now Tarkin turned to face Vader, a hint of warning in his tone. "I'm taking an awful chance on your insistence, Vader. This had better work. Are you certain the homing beacon is secure aboard their ship?"
Vader exuded confidence beneath the reflective black mask. "There is nothing to fear. This will be a day long remembered. It already has end of Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi and soon it will see the end of the Alliance and the rebellion."
"If that is the case, then Mara and I will be taking our leave," Halcyon announced. "We will be sure to tell the Emperor of your success in eliminating the two Jedi, Lord Vader."
"While omitting your failure to eliminate Skywalker, no doubt," Vader responded snidely. Mara's eyes narrowed, but she bit her tongue and the two Hands turned and walked out of the control room. Vader smirked and turned back to Tarkin.
"What do you say we go destroy a rebellion?" he asked nonchalantly.
"What do you think, sweetheart? Not a bad bit of rescuing." Han gloated as he came into the cockpit. He dropped down into Chewie's chair - the Wookie was inspecting the damage - and gave a cocky grin to Leia who was sitting in his. Joyce sat in the rear seat by the navi-computer, her grin hidden behind her helmet as Han continued. "You know, sometimes I amaze even myself."
"That doesn't seem too hard," Leia quipped, leaning closer to Han. "They let us go. That's the only explanation for the ease of our escape."
"Easy? You call that easy?"
"Yes," Joyce remarked, not looking up from her console. "The station was as big as a moon, and they only send four small fighters? And, by the way - the station was as big as a moon? What the frak did I miss?"
"Oh, superlasers, storm troopers, kamikaze Jedi - the usual," Han replied nonchalantly, drawing a snort from his sister. "How about you?"
"Oh, I got to see where Mom's been. Nice place, by the way." She turned to Leia. "So, where are we headed?"
"Yavin IV," Leia replied. "Once we get there, we can have my people extract the information from Artoo."
"What's the little droid carrying that's so important?" Han asked, a little curious.
"The complete technical readouts from that battle station," the Senator replied. "I can only hope that, when the data is analyzed, a weakness can be found." She smiled wryly at the smuggler. "It's not over yet."
"It is for me, sister," Han said defiantly. "Look, I'm not in this for your revolution and I'm not in it for you. I expect to be well paid - I'm in it for the money!"
Leia harrumphed and rose from her seat. "Well, you needn't worry," she said. "If money is all you care about, then that's what you shall receive." She moved to the door - and ran into Luke, who was coming in. "Your friend's quite the mercenary. I wonder if he cares about anything…or any one."
"Well I care," Luke said as his sister moved past him out the door. He moved into the cockpit and took her vacated seat, throwing a glance at Joyce. He wanted to ask her about the 'cousin' remark she threw at him during their escape, but he held his tongue - there would be time later. Instead he turned to Han and looked at the smuggler shrewdly.
"So…what do you think of her, Han?"
"I'm trying not to," Han replied, checking the status on his board. Luke nodded.
"Good."
Joyce smiled behind her helmet. Overprotective brothers, unite!
Han looked over to Luke and assumed the farm boy was interested in the Senator. Smirking, he decided to wind him up a little. "Still…she's got spirit." He turned to Luke. "I don't know, you think a guy like me and a girl like that-"
"No," Luke said quickly and then turned away. He didn't notice Han's grin and neither heard Joyce's quiet laugh as she left the cockpit.
A few hours later the Millennium Falcon landed in the ancient Massassi temple that was serving as the base for the Rebellion. Leia was met by Commander Willard and several Rebel officers, who quickly led them and the droids away. Only Buffy hung back - a fact that Joyce noticed.
"What's up, Buffy?" she asked, leaning against the speeder that had brought them into the temple. Buffy smiled.
"Well, while the rest of the kids are off playing, I wanted to give you something."
Joyce stared at her mother through the visor of her helmet. "I thought Jedi didn't have personal possessions?"
Buffy smirked. "I've never been a conventional Jedi."
The two walked down the hallways of the ancient temple until they reached a series of abandoned corridors. They walked for nearly ten minutes before Joyce spoke up.
"Do you even know where you're going?"
"It was around here somewhere…ah, here it is." They stopped at the end of the hall in front of a sealed door. Buffy tapped several keys on an old control panel, and the door slid open - to reveal an empty room.
"Here you are!" Buffy said happily. Joyce took a look into the empty room and then looked back to her mother.
"Have you completely lost it?"
"Look closer," Buffy commented with a smirk. Joyce turned back to the room and switched on several filters in her visor - infrared, electromagnetic, sonic-
Nothing.
"Yeah…I got nothing."
Buffy's smirk got wider as she hit the small controller in her pocket and, for the first time in twenty years, the Prometheus shimmered into view.
"What the hell!" Joyce exclaimed, staring in shock at the old ARC fighter. She pulled off her helmet and stared at the ship with her own eyes, then turned her astonished gaze to her mother. "You must be joking. Where in the nine Corellian hells did you get a working cloaking device?"
"Your father designed it," Buffy said softly. "He helped put her together shortly before…well…" she trailed off for a moment and then cleared her throat. "She's old and not as fast as some of those new fighters I saw, but the cloak gives it a hell of an advantage. I also upgraded the shields and weapons package before I stored it here. And there're a lot of things you can do with this baby to get it up to speed." She smiled at her daughter. "Your father would have wanted you to have it. I want you to have it." Buffy exhaled as her daughter looked over every inch of the ship. "Anyway, I wanted to give this to you before I headed back again. The time is approaching, but I still have a lot of work to do…"
"Mommy!"
The raw emotion in that one word brought Buffy up short and she looked up at Joyce to see her daughter with an almost frightened and vulnerable expression on her face.
"Will…will I see you again?' she asked hesitantly. Buffy felt her eyes watering as she moved over to Joyce and pulled her into a fierce hug.
"Now that I know you're alive, I swear to you that I will see you as often as I possible can. More, even," Buffy said and, for the next few minutes, mother and daughter truly reunited.
Luke sat with the rest of the pilots in the main briefing room of the temple, waiting anxiously as General Dodonna took the stage and activated the view screen behind him. A schematic of the Death Star appeared on the screen and the room quieted down. As soon as it was silent, the General spoke.
"The Imperial battle station you now all have heard of is approaching from the far side of Yavin and its' sun. That gives us a little extra time, but it must be stopped—once and for all—before it can reach this moon, before it can bring its weaponry to bear on us as it did on Alderaan." A murmur ran through the crowd at the mention of that world, so callously obliterated.
"The station," Dodonna went on, "is heavily shielded and mounts more firepower than half the Imperial fleet. But its defenses were designed to fend off large-scale assaults. A small, one-or two-man fighter should be able to slip through its defensive screens."
A slim, supple man who resembled an older version of Han Solo rose. Dodonna acknowledged his presence. "What is it, Red Leader?"
The man gestured toward the display screen, which showed a computer portrait of the battle station. "Pardon me for asking, sir, but what good are our snub fighters going to be against that?"
Dodonna considered. "Well, the Empire doesn't think a one-man fighter is any threat to anything except another small ship, like a TIE fighter, or they would have provided tighter screens. Apparently they're convinced that their defensive weaponry can fend off any light attacks. But an analysis of the plans provided by Princess Leia has revealed what we think is a weakness in the station's design. A big ship couldn't get near it, but an X- or Y-wing fighter might." The schematic rotated until it showed a small opening on the surface of the station.
"It's a small thermal exhaust port. Its size belies its importance, as it appears to be an unshielded shaft that runs directly into the main reactor system powering the station. Since this serves as an emergency outlet for waste heat in the event of reactor over production, its usefulness would be eliminated by particle shielding. A direct hit would initiate a chain reaction that would destroy the station."
Mutterings of disbelief ran through the room. The more experienced the pilot, the greater his expressed disbelief.
"I didn't say your approach would be easy," Dodonna admonished them. He gestured at the screen. "You must maneuver straight in down this shaft, level off in the trench, and skim the surface to—this point. The target is only two meters across. It will take a precise hit at exactly ninety degrees to reach the reactor systematization. And only a direct hit will start the complete reaction. The target is ray-shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes."
A few of the pilots laughed humorlessly. One of them was a teenaged fighter jockey seated next to Luke who bore the unlikely name of Wedge Antilles. Artoo Detoo was there also, seated next to another Artoo unit who emitted a long whistle of hopelessness.
"A two-meter target at maximum speed—with a torpedo, yet," Antilles snorted. "That's impossible even for the computer."
"But it's not impossible," protested Luke. "I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters."
"Is that so?" the rakishly uniformed youth noted derisively. "Tell me, when you were going after your particular varmint, were there a thousand other, what did you call it, 'womp-rats' armed with power rifles firing up at you?" He shook his head sadly.
"With all that firepower on the station directed at us, this will take a little more than barnyard marksmanship, believe me."
"Remember," the General went on, "you must achieve a direct hit. Yellow squadron will cover for Red on the first run. Green will cover Blue on the second. Any questions?"
A muted buzz filled the room. One man stood, lean and handsome—too much so, it seemed, to be ready to throw away his life for something as abstract as freedom.
"What if both runs fail? What happens after that?"
Dodonna smiled tightly. "There won't be any after that." The man nodded slowly, understandingly, and sat down. "Anyone else?" Silence now, pregnant with expectation.
"Then man your ships and may the Force be with you."
As Luke walked back into the hanger towards his ship, he noticed Han and Chewie over by one of the armored landspeeders, loading several strongboxes into it. Luke looked over the pair sadly, a myriad of emotions playing over him. On one hand, he was the brave and courageous smuggler that had helped him and his friends, his family, off of Tatooine, who had helped to rescue his sister. On the other hand, he was cocky and arrogant and cared more about the money than the people behind it. It was all so very confusing.
"So, you got your reward, and your just leaving?" he asked the smuggler. Han looked back at him, his own emotions playing across his face before a mask of indifference settled across his features.
"Yeah, that's right," he replied, placing another box onto the transport. "I got a lot of old debts to pay off with this stuff." He eyed Luke for a moment. "Why don't you come with us? You're pretty good in a fight, I could use you."
"Come on!" Luke exclaimed, "Why don't you take a look around! You know what's about to happen, what they're up against! They could use a good pilot like you! You're turning your back on them!"
"What good is a reward if you ain't around to use it?" Han shot back. "Besides, attacking that station isn't my idea of courage. More like suicide."
Luke shook his head and sighed. "All right, well take care of yourself, Han. It's what your best at," he shot, before turning and walking away.
Han watched him go, then called out, "Hey Luke!" Luke turned around and Han offered him a small smile.
"May the Force be with you."
Luke nodded, then turned and walked away. Han went back to loading his reward, patently ignoring the looks that Chewie was giving him.
"What are you looking at?" Han asked. "I know what I'm doing."
Luke walked towards his fighter, deep in thought. So deep that he almost missed the figure that was leaning against the wing of his ship, admiring the lines of the sleek X-Wing.
"Not a bad ship," a familiar voice rang out, drawing Luke out of his thoughts. He stared in amazement as his father, clad in an orange flight suite, turned to face him.
"Father?"
Anakin smirked. "What? Did you think I'd let you have all of the fun?"
Joyce made her way back into the central hanger of the complex, looking for her brother. She couldn't wait to tell Han about the Prometheus - and she was also eager to take a look at that cloaking device to see if she could make one for the Falcon. She didn't fancy taking apart the Prometheus - even old, it was still in great shape; and having a fighter to cover the Falcon on her runs these days wasn't a bad idea. So deep was she in her thoughts, she didn't notice the pilot walking across the hanger until she ran right into him.
"Whoa!" Wedge cried as she slammed into him. He reached out and grabbed a hold of her arm to steady himself and was about to say something when he finally noticed the Mandalorian armor.
Never make a Mandalorian angry. His father had always told him and that was one lesson he intended to live by. He didn't fancy being beaten up before the most important mission of his young life.
Joyce, for her part, was mortified. A Mandalorian is never surprised - and yet she didn't even see him coming.
And I'd notice someone that good looking. She thought and then frowned. I didn't just think that, did I? Out loud she merely took a step back and put her hand up slightly in a placating gesture.
"My apologies," she said, "I wasn't looking where I was going."
Wedge was surprised - Mandalorians didn't apologize as a rule. He tried to cover up his discomfort by flashing that old Corellian smile. "No problem. I wasn't watching where I was going, either."
"You flying today?" Joyce asked. Wedge nodded.
"Yeah. You?"
Joyce shrugged. "Might be. Depends on my idiot brother, really." She held out her hand. "Good luck up there."
Wedge grasped her hand and shook it. We winced slightly at her grip, though he tried to cover it up. Behind her helmet, Joyce smirked. Finally hey released hands and Wedge subtly shook his hand. "Well, I hope to see you around sometime."
"Same here," Joyce replied, turning and walking away from the young pilot. Wedge couldn't help but notice how – shapely - she was, a fact that Joyce wasn't oblivious to thanks to the 360 degree field of vision in her helmet.
"Eyes up, flyboy," she said, and smirked as she saw him blush.
Buffy arrived back in the hanger and let the Fore guide her towards her niece and nephew. Imagine her surprise when it also guided her to her brother.
"Anakin!" Buffy hissed, eyeing Anakin's flight suit. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm a fighter pilot, Buffy," he replied calmly. "I belong up there."
"Up there? You shouldn't even be here!"
"He knows you're alive, Buffy. And if you're alive, then I'll still be alive. It doesn't mater anymore..." Anakin looked over to his kids. "I haven't been here for my kids nearly enough. That stops today. I'm flying up there, I'm covering my son and nothing you say is going to stop me."
"He's right, Aunt Buffy," Leia said. "We need all of the pilots we can get."
"Please, Aunt Buffy," Luke added. Buffy rolled her eyes and sighed.
"I never could say no to the two of you when you ganged up on me. All right, fine! But I'm going to." She looked around. "Where are the flight suits?"
"I don't think they make them in Ewok size," Anakin said, earning a slap on the back of his head. "Ow!"
"Keep it up, smart ass. There's more where that came from."
Luke and Leia looked at each other and smiled. Maybe they would pull this off after all…
TBC
Next chapter - The attack on the Death Star. For the record, I'm setting up a romance between Wedge and Joyce - they will be married by Empire, though no one will know that. After this, it looks like only - three more chapters. The attack, the aftermath and the set up for Episode V - tentatively titled 'Trials of the Empire'.