"How do you know me, Wookiee?" the Jedi that Chewbacca had only addressed as General said, his lightsaber still held across the neck of Han Solo. He stretched out his mind using the Force, trying to get a reading as to the intentions of the two that had followed him. It wasn't really needed—after all these two were more than likely bounty hunters after him. There was no ill intent towards him in their minds, a fact that didn't comfort him all that much. The Clones that opened fire upon him and then chased him had no ill intent towards him—they were just following orders. Bounty hunters often had the same mindset in the Force—it was just a job they did.
Bounty hunters had always been after him after his near-death. Always after him and his family. Speaking of which, where was that son of his anyways? An additional hand at the moment would do wonders at defusing the explosive situation that was currently going on. Through the Force he could see the many possibilities that could happen: he'd be unable to talk the Wookiee out of firing, and the bowcaster quarrel would hit the other bounty hunter; a peaceful solution to the problem; the Wookiee firing and somehow miraculously hitting him, sometimes saving the human and sometimes not. Either way, only one potential solution made sure that everyone in this alley left alive.
"Tell me how you recognize me Wookiee and I'll —if it's the truth—let your friend go," he said.
I saw you on Kashyyyk, General, the Wookiee growled. Twenty years ago, when the Separatists tried to take the planet over.
"So you recognize me," The General replied, sensing no deliberate attempt to mislead him in the Wookiee's words. "Who are you and what were you doing on Kashyyyk two decades ago?" he asked, knowing that even a bounty hunter could get some quality information from time-to-time.
I am Chewbacca, son of Attichitcuk, the Wookiee began. I fought alongside Masters Unduli, Yoda and yourself on Kashyyyk along with General Tarfful.
That's a little too much information than your run of the mill bounty hunter would know, The General thought as he began to lower his lightsaber. Not to mention that there was a Chewbacca at the battle. With a movement of a finger, the green lightsaber blade was soon extinguished, freeing Han from the certain death that could have followed. "Why did you two follow me into this alley?" he asked, repeating his question from earlier.
"Well, Master Vos," Han said, finally speaking the name of his former captor, "we're here on behalf of the rejuvenated Jedi Order." The words being written by Obi-Wan Kenobi and handed down to everyone on these "Jedi Hunts" as Han called them. At this very moment, Leia was chasing down some Jedi by the name of Rahn, and then it would be on to look for some Jedi Master named Yoda.
"A rejuvenated Order?" Quinlan Vos skeptically asked. A survivor of Order 66, Quinlan had struggled greatly with the Dark Side during the Clone Wars. His attempt at going undercover as one of Count Dooku's Dark Side Adepts had nearly resulted in his own permanent slide into the Dark. Not to mention a lot of the talk about a new gathering of Force-sensitives had led to a Palpatine-led group of Dark Siders. How was he supposed to know that this wasn't supposed to be a trick? An ambush that would lead himself and Korto straight into the heart of the Empire?
It wasn't long before the Force would provide the answer for him.
"All right, Rogues," Wedge Antilles spoke into his intercom. "I've got TIEs on my sensors. Anyone else picking them up?" In the days that Commander Luke Skywalker had been called away on some highly classified Jedi mission, it had fallen onto Wedge—the Executive Officer of Rogue Squadron—to take over leadership of what was becoming one of the Alliance's premier starfighter squad.
"I confirm, Rogue Tw—I mean Rogue Leader," Rogue Seven replied. The Mon Calamari male had recently joined the squadron, and was still adjusting to life as a member. Wedge didn't even know his full name. "I'm picking up at least fifteen signals—three of them new."
"What's the Empire got up their sleeves now?" Wedge wondered aloud, and allowed the sound of silence answer him. It was a simple raid on a relatively undefended Imperial supply depot on some Mid Rim planet that hardly anyone in his squadron had heard the name of before. Of course, the phrase "relatively undefended" never implied that the job was going to be easy, a fact that the TIE fighters in front of them hammered home. A few kilometers behind them was a troop transport that was heavily converted from the original Gallofree model. All Rogue Squadron had to do was to clear a landing zone for the transport and then protect it while the commandos inside made off with valuable weapons and ammunition that was inside.
The TIEs were closer now, allowing Wedge to see the configuration of the ships. All fifteen of the starfighters were of the standard TIE construction: two ion engines connected to ball cockpit, two panels jutting vertically from the cockpit. Wedge risked a quick glance down to his flight stick and made sure that his laser cannons were properly configured. It was then that he squeezed off a shot towards the closest TIE fighter—sending two shots into the transparisteel that separated the pilot from the world outside. With a greenish-orange explosion what was left of the Imperial starfighter fell to the field below. Around him, Wedge could see the other pilots break off to pursue the enemy starfighters—each one intent in not letting a single TIE get even remotely close to the transport.
Wedge turned his X-wing hard to starboard as he overshot the large dogfight that was beginning to form, taking only a couple of seconds to quickly get back into the action. He chose one of the two unaccounted for TIE pilots and easily adjusted his course to follow, edging the ship's nose slightly upward to match the altitude of his target. He didn't stay above his target for long.
The TIE dived towards the ground, shifting around to make a headway towards the transport. A quick look at his sensor screen confirmed that his target wasn't suicidal—four other TIEs had broken away from the dogfight with two members of Rogue Squadron on their tails. Wedge lined up the TIE fighter into his digitized gun sights and squeezed the trigger; his shot flew low and right from the fighter, messing it by several meters. The TIEs dove and jinked to avoid the lasers of Rogue Squadron, staying one step ahead of the Rebel pilots.
"These guys are good," Wes Janson said, his voice almost sounding eager at the challenge.
"Too good," Hobbie reported in. "They're not behaving like standard TIE pilots. It's almost as if they're used to more complicated machinery."
Rogue Seven looked at his sensor screen, unable to believe the new readings that he was getting. The humid air inside of his canopy hung thick, and the Mon Calamari pilot knew that if he was mammalian he would be sweating at the moment, but not from the conditions inside of his fighter. It was the new TIE signals that had emerged that frightened him. "Lt. Antilles!" he frantically called over his intercom. "I'm picking up five extra signals coming from the north." Four of the new combatants had quickly fallen behind him and were already well on their way to overtaking him. The five new fighters were different from the rest: instead of the typical twin panels on a regular TIE fighter, four vanes jutted out in front of the craft, each one containing a laser cannon. In addition to double the firepower of a standard TIE, these starfighters were slightly faster and much more maneuverable than the norm.
Green laser blasts tore into Rogue Seven's X-wing, quickly shredding the s-foils off of the main body of the rebel starfighter and making numerous holes in several vital places. His droid let loose a final scream of fright and "pain" as one of the green bolts slammed into his dome. Rogue Seven quickly adjusted himself in his seat before triggering the ejection seat. The now unaerodynamic X-wing's canopy exploded outward as the miniscule charges placed in it exploded, and Rogue Seven felt the forces of gravity turn against him as the rockets in his seat fired, sending the pilot towards the ground. His last thoughts before he began his safe descent to the ground was a question of how one of the worst TIE Interceptor squadrons in the Empire had struck so quickly.
"We've got company!" Janson reported as the five Interceptors blew through the dogfight and headed straight towards them—or rather straight towards the transport. Rogue Squadron was just in the way…
"I see them," Wedge confirmed. "Adjust your deflectors to double-back," he ordered, already in the process of angling his shields to provide maximum protection to the rear of the starfighter. It wasn't a moment too soon, as Wedge's X-wing rocked with the impact of two laser blasts hitting the shields. Wedge quickly juked to port, trying to evade the laserfire as it poured out from the Interceptors behind him. Another shot hit his shields, soon to be followed by another.
"Break away," Wedge ordered as his shields reached a dangerous level. "We need to retreat before we're all killed!" In front of him he could see the transport begin to follow his orders, beginning its slow turn and ascent. He risked another glance at his sensor screen. He had lost three pilots already, either by being shot down or desertion prior to the order to retreat.
Derek "Hobbie" Klivian studied the TIE Interceptor in front of him, analyzing every move that the pilot made. Every attempt to get a solid missile lock on fighter resulted in the enemy pilot easily—almost instinctively—evading him. Hobbie had seen maneuvers like this before. He had studied under the man in the other ship, and was quite certain that if the other of Rogue Squadron's recent additions was nearby, he would recognize the TIE pilot as well.
"Fel," he fearfully whispered.
Blaster fire surrounded Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Quinlan Vos as the unlikely team backed their way into the alley. Han and Chewie fired at the bounty hunters from behind Quinlan, who was deflecting the blaster fire away from the group. There were at least five bounty hunters working together to take them down, all of which were greatly covered by various obstacles. An almost lucky blaster shot hit the wall next to Han's head, causing him to flinch slightly before returning fire. Han's shot hit the small metal cart that the bounty hunter was using as cover, only blowing a small hole into the cart.
Another pair of eyes watched the bounty hunters from afar as they continued their attempt to bring Quinlan Vos to "justice." They wouldn't succeed if he had anything to do with it. He studied the area in great detail, using the Force to get a feel when the less than decent artificial illumination wouldn't allow it. There were few opportunities to end the stand-off easily—and none of them were completely promising. He obviously couldn't leap down into the crowd and begin slicing away at them; he wasn't well-trained enough for something like that—yet. Seeing no other option but to choose one of the options that he had been dreading.
He closed his eyes, hoping that his target wasn't too heavy. The dumpster shook slightly on the ground as Korto Vos pushed at it with the Force. The sound of metal scraping against duracrete was surely loud enough to get the attention of his targets, but the blasterfire had to have been drowning out the sounds of inevitable destruction. Concentrating harder, Korto mentally saw the dumpster lift a few centimeters off of the ground and was rewarded with the site of the actual dumpster doing the same. Lifting and holding aloft the several hundred kilogram object was difficult and he knew that hurling it towards the bounty hunters would be even more difficult. A slight mental touch of encouragement from his father gave him the edge that he needed.
The dumpster was sent rocketing towards the bounty hunters, a slight sound emitting from it as the light amount of garbage in it shifted slightly due to the new acceleration. It hit the bounty hunters head on. With little warning, the unfortunate scoundrels were hit by the impromptu missile. After finishing its odd journey, the dumpster slipped out of the control of Korto and rolled throughout the street, causing several loud crashing sounds.
"I do hope that was a friend of yours," Han Solo said after witnessing the disabling of the Jedi hunters that were trying to kill them.
"Someone better," Quinlan replied as he closed down his lightsaber. "Where's this ship of yours?" he asked. "There's someone else that has to come along besides myself and my son."
Great, Han thought as he fell into step behind the Jedi. I came to find one man and I end up having to transport his entire family. I'm turning into the Jedi Taxi Service…