Echo Base was on high alert as the Empire made its approach to the snowy planet. The rebels were making their preparations to escape towards their rendezvous point. There was a sense of urgency in the base as everyone was getting prepared for the planetary defense against the Goliath that is the Empire. Most of the staff made it to their shuttles as a few stayed behind to help the soldiers prepare for the upcoming battle.
Standing in the middle of the hangar were Princess Leia and Diana Cavendish who were surrounded by Rebel pilots, one of whom was Luke Skywalker. "All troop carriers will assemble at the north entrance. The heavy transport ships will leave as soon as they're loaded. Only two fighter escorts per ship. The energy shield can only be opened for a short time, so you'll have to stay very close to your transports," Leia explained.
"Two fighters against a star destroyer?" one of the pilots asked.
"The ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure that any enemy ships will be out of your flight path. When you have gotten past the energy shield, proceed directly to the rendezvous point," Leia answered.
"Not only that, but my friends and I have put a charm on each of your fighters that will grant you guys protection for some time until you are able to reach the rendezvous point, you guys understand?" Diana explained.
"Yes ma'am," all the pilots said in unison.
"Well, good luck," Leia said.
"And may the force be with you," Diana added.
As they finished, an officer walked towards the middle and said, "Okay, everyone to your battle stations. Let's go, let's go!" The pilots broke away from the group as they got into their snow speeders.
Outside of the base, the ground troops were preparing for the planetary defense that they are about to face. Some of the men and women were bringing down supplies and ammunition. There were a few who were on turrets and machine gun nests. Some had rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The rest of the troopers had their rifles ready, aiming at the cold wasteland. The bitterly cold weather bit at the ground troopers as tensions rise.
Back at the command center, the witches joined up with Leia as they are watching screens to see where the ground troops are. The feeling of the command center was very tense as they spotted enemy ships coming out of hyperspace.
"The Empire will aim for the power generators," Akko said.
"Understood, prepare to open the shield," an officer said.
The witches were watching a screen with Leia as they saw a rebel transport with its escort fighters departing from the icy hell of a planet on the screen. They were examining the screen and looking at any other options they might be able to use for their benefit. As the ships were nearing a star destroyer, the witches felt the vibrations of the ion cannon firing as an officer commanded it to fire. They saw an Imperial Star Destroyer fade out off the screen as the shot from the ion cannon disabled its operation. The green arrow that represented the rebel's transport flew away as it went into hyperspace.
"The first transport is away," the witches heard another officer say. The girls heard the cheers in the room as they heard the good news.
Diana and Akko were now focusing on another screen as they saw small little green arrows on one end of the screen. On the other end, there were four huge red arrows, some medium size red arrows, and a ton of small red arrows. "Echo Station 3T8, we have spotted some Imperial Walkers!" Diana heard an officer say over the commlink.
Diana picked up a headpiece and relay, "Imperial walkers are on the north ridge."
"Roger that, General," the officer replied.
As the ground battle continued, Akko and Diana notice a group of green arrows heading toward the big red arrows. "Echo Station 57, we are on our way," Luke said over the speakers.
"Copy, Luke. I do advise you to be careful of those walkers. You do not want to be caught in their crosshairs," Diana advised.
"You worried about me too much Diana," Luke said.
"It does not help that you tend to be a bit reckless sometimes," Diana said.
"I will, don't worry," Luke said with a smile.
Diana groaned in pain as she rubbed her forehead. Ever since being with the rebel alliance, the young Skywalker did some reckless flying that almost got him killed. Akko told her not to worry since his father was like him. Even though Akko kept on saying that Luke is safe with what he does, Diana still has a bad feeling about it.
The witches continued watching the battle unfolding on the screen. The green arrows were making a pass toward the big red arrows. The girls saw the formation of the moving green arrows splitting into two smaller groups. The battle was hellish as Diana and Akko noticed that the small green arrows were slowly diminishing over time. Two of the green arrows fly toward one of the big red arrows and then veered toward the left, almost missing it.
The defense was quite fierce as the rebels were running towards goliath size walkers, firing at and trying to take it down. Diana and Akko were trying their best to put in their tactical views with Leia and the rest of the rebels. As Diana was relaying orders to the ground troops and Akko examining the locations of the opposing forces, Hannah and Barbara were talking to each other.
"Hey, Hannah, what do you think will happen when the Empire does breach our defenses?" Barbara asked.
"I do not know, but like, have you felt the darkness that is filling in this room?" Hannah asked.
"Yeah, it feels like we are back on the space station when that thing was chasing us," Barbara said shivering in fear.
The two young witches walked towards Diana and Akko as the latter was moving some pieces in order to get a better view of the battle. Diana notices her friends looking worried and nudges Akko's arm. Akko looked up and saw their worried face. Confused about their expression, Akko notice Diana had a faint spell, trying to get a footing.
"Are you ok, D?" Akko asked.
"I just feel this weird darkness surrounding us, as if we are on that terrible goliath. But I'm fine, just a little winded," Diana said taking a deep breath.
Akko looking back at the screen, turned to monitor that portrayed the orbital space area and notice one large Imperial Star Destroyer. This Star Destroyer was quite famous to Akko as she knew that it was the Executor which was Darth Vader's personal Star Destroyer. "Kuso," Akko thought. Akko herself felt the darkness that Vader was emitting toward the planet. It felt like the worst kind of pressure imaginable while the oxygen left the room.
Akko walked towards Leia relaying the bad news to her. "The girls and I have sense that Vader is here," she said.
"Are you sure?" Leia asked.
Before Akko could say anything, she had a nasty cough, that was covered in blood. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure," Akko said looking at her hand with spits of blood on it.
"Well, our only option right now is to send two transport at a time," Leia said.
"True, but then we would have to deal with those pesky Star Destroyers," Akko said.
"Although it appears risky Akko, we really do not have a choice. It appears that one of those walkers is in range of the shield generator," Diana said walking towards them.
"If we do this, we need to do this asap," Akko said, taking a deep breath.
Leia nodded and called out to one of the generals, "General Rieekan, General Kagari, General Cavendish, and I have determined it would be the best course of action to protect two transports at a time," Leia explained.
"Excuse me your highness, but may I raise an issue with that plan?" the general asked.
"You may," Leia said.
"I do not think if we go with this plan, that we are able to protect two transports at a time," the general explained.
"I know it seems risky, but if we continued like this then we would likely not to be able to hold out this much longer," Diana explained.
"We really do not have any other choice," Leia said.
The general thought for a moment and then reached for his commlink. "Launch the patrols," he said.
Leia turned to an officer and said, "Make sure to evacuate all remaining ground staff."
The officer nodded and went to complete his assignment. The battle continued as it slowly got more hectic. Everyone felt the base shake in a thunderous rumble as an AT-AT walker hit the power shield. Although the rumble was loud, everything was eerily quiet and empty. The only thing the remaining officers and staff heard were the running of human feet.
"Are you girls all right?" Han asked.
Everyone nodded as they, mainly Diana, Hannah, Barbara, and Leia were shocked to see Han sticking around.
"I thought you left," Diana said.
"Yeah, why are you still here?" Leia asked.
"I heard the command center had been hit," Han answered.
"Well you got your clearance to leave, Captain," Leia ordered.
"Don't worry, I will leave. But first, I'm going to get you girls to your ship," Han said, as he felt the base shaking.
"I have to agree on Han with this one Leia, we have to take the last shuttle in order to escape with our lives," Akko interjected.
Leia took a deep breathe and looked at her options. Akko was right that they have to go to the last shuttle in order for them to survive. She walked towards one of the controllers who is operating the screen and order them to move the troops to a different position to protect the fighters. As Leia was ordering the officers, the loudspeaker crackle to life announcing that the Imperial Empire had made their entrance. The witches unhooked their holsters, grabbing their pistols.
"Kuso," Akko cursed as she had her pistol in hand. .
Han having enough said, "Come on Leia, we need to leave now!"
"Give the evacuation code signal and get to your transports as soon as possible!" Leia ordered.
Leia and the witches looked exhausted, but Diana figured they can rest once they get to their transport ships. Han grabbed Leia's wrist, leading her out with the girls and 3PO following behind them. As the gang made their way through the labyrinth maze of echo base, they heard the officer giving the order to retreat. Running through each corridor, barely missing the debris falling on them and the gold droid lagging behind, the gang finally go to the door that lead to their shuttles. However, as they got close to the door, there was a large explosion which caused a cave in, blocking the door in front of them.
"Why, can't for one second, we can have things to go right," Akko said.
Han grabbed a commlink from his pocket and spoke into it. "Transport, this is Solo, better take off. We can't get to you. I am going to get the princess and General Kagari and Cavendish out on the Falcon."
The gang turned away and started to race down the corridor towards the Falcon. As they ran as fast as they can, they caught up to 3PO, who was surprised to see them turning around. The gang was running towards the entrance, blasting at any stormtroopers that they saw. The gold droid was lagging behind due to his stiff movements. The gang made it to another door which opened, leading them through the hangar where the Falcon was residing.
"Wait, wait for me, stop!" 3PO shouted as he hurry as fast as he can. He finally reached the door, but it closed on him. "How typical," the droid said exasperated.
The door opened quickly with a hand reaching out, pulling the gold droid through. "Come on 3PO!" Akko said, a bit stress out.
The gang were running towards Falcon as an anxious Chewbacca was pacing under the landing gear, patting the ship's underbelly. He was searching for his mate and captain of the ship worrying about his fate. The giant Wookie was relieved when he saw Han running towards the ship with Leia, the witches, and 3PO in tow.
"Chewie, start the ship, start the bloody ship!" Akko shouted as she was dragging 3PO by the arm.
Chewie let a relieved roar as he lowered the ramp allowing Han, Leia, Diana, Hannah, and Barbara to climbed on board. Chewie was getting up the ramp as Akko was dragging 3PO towards the ramp.
"C"mon you damn thing, you need to hurry up or else you will become apart of a dig," Akko said, putting 3PO in front of her.
"Wait, wait," 3PO said worried as Akko was pushing him up the ramp.
"I am not waiting!" Akko said, finally getting the gold droid into the ship.
Once they were on board, Akko ran into the cockpit, seeing Han flipping switches with Chewbacca looking at the different gauges. Leia, Diana, Hannah, and Barbara were watching the captain and first mate trying to get the ship to work.
"How's this?" Han asked Chewbacca as he pressed a button.
"Would it help if we get out and just pushed this hunk of junk?" Diana asked.
"It might," Han said sarcastically.
"Captain Solo, sir, might I suggest that you," 3PO was about to say but Han gave him a death glare which shut the droid up.
"Look Han, even if we get this bucket of scraps off this planet, it is going to be suicide getting it to the rebel base with the blockade," Diana said.
"Well, this baby still has some few surprises left in her," Han said.
"Well, you have to hurry up, because we have company," Akko said looking at the cockpit window. The rest of the gang was looking at the young general's attention. There was a squad of snow troopers rushing into the hangar. One of them was carrying a portable anti-aircraft EWeb blaster. "I am going to man the top turret to give us some time," Akko said, running out of the cockpit. She was climbing up the stairs to where the top turret, strapping herself in.
"Okay Akko, you got this, it's just like playing videogames back home. Except instead of videogames, this is real life and if I lose, well yea, let's not think about that," Akko said to herself. She was able to aim the turret towards the snow troopers and fired at them. The hangar was in utter chaos as Akko was firing the turrets causing the Imperial troopers to be thrown every which way.
Back at the cockpit, Han was pressing every button and flipping every switch he can. Chewbacca ran out of the cockpit trying to fix the engine. As he came back, the Wookie saw a laser hitting the window.
"Come on! Come on baby, don't let me down!" Han said as he continued pressing buttons. Chewie was settling in his chair, sitting down. "Chewbacca, I need you to switch over. I just hope we don't have a burnout," he continued.
As Chewie was pulling on the controls, with the engine fire roaring to life, Han flash the biggest grin he can towards the girls. "You see, I told you she still has some surprises left," Han said.
"Yeah, but I feel like you just tempted fate there," Hannah said.
"Why don't you have some fate in me?" Han asked. A green light was flashing as Han looked at Chewie and shouted "Punch it!".
The mighty engines of the Falcon roared causing the ice to fall off the caves as it race outside, towards the sky. The white snowcapped mountains were shrinking down as the clear blue sky turned to a black starry night. The black starry night was colored with green blaster and red blaster bolts as the Falcon is being chased down by Tie Fighters and two goliath size Star Destroyers.
"Kuso, Han we have company at 6:00," Akko said towards her headset, trying her best to shoot down the Tie Fighters.
"I saw them, Akko. You do not have to remind me," Han said.
"Saw what?" Leia asked.
"The star destroyers tailing us," Han said.
"Sir, might I suggest," 3PO said, barging his way into the cockpit.
"Someone, shut that goldenrod up or shut him down!" Han shouted, "Chewie, I need you to check the deflector shield! Barbara, go help that friend of yours out with shooting down those TIEs!"
Barbara nodded as she got up from her seat and ran towards the bottom turret, climbing down the stairs and settling in her seat. This is her first time using a ship's turret, but hey it's no time like the present to learn. Chewie barked at Han, letting him know the status of the shield.
"Oh that is just great. Well, we can still outmaneuver them," Han said.
The Falcon soared through the vastness of space as it made its way toward one of the godly size star destroyers. As it got close to the Destroyer, the Falcon stalled into a deep dive, causing the Tie Fighters to follow by as the Destroyer collided with the other Destroyer, brushing its side as it veers to the left. The Falcon was racing away from the colliding Star Destroyers as four TIE Fighters were still following them. The mixture of red and green laser bolts lit up the black, starry sky.
"Akko, Barbara, get those TIEs off of us!" Han said over the microphone.
"Don't you think we are trying to? They are coming in too fast," Akko said over the microphone.
Even though the TIEs were following the ship, the small crew did not have to worry about the Destroyers. However, they are not out of the woods yet. Leia, Diana, and Hannah were still recovering from the steep dive Han made with Chewie barking at Han.
"Then buckle up you two, I am preparing to make the jump to light-speed," Han said as he pushed some buttons.
"But, sir!" 3PO cried out but was ignored.
"They're getting closer!" Leia cried.
"Oh yeah, well watch this," Han said with cockiness in his eyes.
As Han pulled the lever to go into hyperspace, the sound of the hyperdrive failing was heard throughout the ship. The ship did not go into hyperdrive, with the captain and his first mate trading looks of concern to each other.
"Watch what?" Leia asked.
Han tried again but it gain the same result. "I think we're in trouble," Han said worried.
"No, really what gave you that idea," Hannah said.
"If I may interject sir, I noticed earlier that the hyperdrive motivator has been damaged. It's impossible to go to light-speed," 3PO explained.
"We're in trouble!" Han said racing out of his seat. "Hannah, I am going to need your and Chewie's help," Han said.
Hannah got out of her seat and joined the smuggler and the Wookie. She grabbed some tools and opened up a panel, dropping inside it. Han followed suit as both of them were working in unison trying to fix the hyperdrive. They both were working in a furious rhythm as the ship was taking fire from the enemy fighters.
"Han, can you give me that magnetic screwdriver? Hannah asked.
"Here you go," Han said, giving the tool to Hannah, "Chewie I need the Alluvial dampers!"
Chewie gave the tool to Han who tried to use it on a specific area on the console. "Well that's not it," Han said to himself, "Bring me the hydrospanners!"
The Wookiee hurried to where the witch and smuggler were and placed a box of tools on the edge for both of them. Han came out of the little area, picking one of the tools. "I wonder how are we going to get out of this one," the smuggler said to himself.
The ship suddenly rocked violently as the box of tools fell into the small area on top of Han and Hannah. "Oww!" both of them screamed in pain. They both got out of the pit, with Hannah rubbing her head.
"What the hell was that?" she asked.
"I don't know," Han said confused. The ship rocked violently again. "But whatever it was, it is no laser blast! Something hit us," Han said getting up from the spot.
"Han, get up here!" Leia said over the speaker.
"Come on you two!" Han said running to the cockpit. Chewie and Hannah followed behind.
They bolted into the cockpit, as the trio spotted asteroids racing outside of the window. "Asteroids!" Leia and Diana said in unison.
Han and Chewie switched places with Leia and Cavendish, both of whom were working the controls. As the smuggler and first mate were working on the console, a huge asteroid crossed in front of the ship, almost colliding with it.
"That is not good, Chewie, set 271," Han said, pushing a button.
"Wait, are you doing what I think you are doing?" Leia asked.
"Please, by the nine old witches, do not tell me you are planning to go into an asteroid field," Diana said.
"They will be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?" Han said, as he flew through the ship into the asteroid field.
The intercom buzzed to life as Akko spoke into it. "Hey by any chance, why are we heading to where the asteroids are?" Akko asked.
"I am going to see if I can lose those pesky TIEs," Han said into the intercom.
"You do realize we might get killed out here," Barbara chimed in.
"Well, it is better here than it is back where the Star Destroyers are," Han said.
The ship shook violently as asteroid after asteroid kept on hitting the Falcon, almost crashing into it. "You know, you do not have to do this to impress me," Leia said in fear.
"Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1," 3PO said in a panic.
"Never tell me the odds!" Han said firmly.
Han steered the Falcon into the asteroid storm. The asteroids were coming toward the cockpit and turret windows, as the ship made its turn. A large asteroid tumbled into the ship's path at top speed. Several smaller asteroids were crashing into the big one with Akko shooting down any of the small asteroids that were coming their way. The miniature Falcon veered around the big asteroid, racing past it through the shower of rocks. The four TIE Fighters who were chasing them followed them through the asteroid field, weaving in and out of the asteroids, almost colliding with them.
Akko was able to lock onto one of the TIE fighters. Smiling, Akko said, "Got you, you kuso yaro." She pressed the trigger, shooting the Tie Fighter, destroying it. The remaining fighters were not phased by one of their own getting destroyed instead, getting pelted by the small components of the destroyed fighter.
Two gigantic size asteroids were tumbling towards the Falcon, which flew through it, almost scraping the space rocks. The remaining enemy fighters were following in hot pursuit until another of its fighters scrape past an asteroid. The controls were destroyed as the fighter was spinning out of control, exploding into a million pieces.
As expected, the Executor, which was following the Falcon's tail, went inside the asteroid field. It was blasting the oncoming asteroids as it was crawling its way toward the ship. The Millennium Falcon was twisting on its side as Han was racing around some oncoming asteroids. Han was piloting the ship, weaving in and out of the asteroids as best as he could. As the smuggler and his copilot were flying the ship, the rest of the crew were watching the asteroids narrowly missing them.
Chewie was barking in terror as a slightly smaller asteroid came extremely close to the ship, bouncing off of the Falcon. 3PO was covering his eyes with his hands, Hannah looking very tensed and terrified, and Diana and Leia was giving strong stone faces, staring at the recklessness Han is doing.
"The more we are out here, the more likely we are going to get killed!" Hannah said in fear.
"Well, your highness here said she wanted to be around when I made a mistake. Well, sweetheart, I think this would be it," Han said, smirking as he was looking at the Princess.
"When I said that, I did not think you would do something as crazy as this. So, I take it back. I agree with Hannah, if we stay out here any longer, we will be pulverized," Leia said.
"Well, that is something we can agree with. I am going to see if I can get in closer to one of those big ones," Han said.
Hannah laughed out loud, hearing the absurdity that the smuggler said. Seeing as Han was not laughing back, Hannah said, "Wait, you're not serious, are you? You want to get in closer?"
Han nodded his head as everyone else in the cockpit shouted, "Closer!" with Chewie barking the word out a bit louder.
Han piloted the Falcon down, as it took a dive toward the surface of one of the gigantic asteroids. The mix of explosions and asteroids exploding filled the dark sky of space as the two remaining TIE fighters were following the Falcon. The smuggler's ship was skimming on the surface of the asteroid, dodging the smaller asteroids. As the enemy fighters approached the Falcon, a goliath size of asteroid hurtled towards their path, only leaving the wreckage of what was the Empire's TIE Fighters.
"Oh, this is suicide!" 3PO cried out in hysterics.
"There, that looks pretty good," Han said.
"What looks pretty good?" Leia asked.
Diana, seeing what Han was talking about, asked, "So now we are going to just land on an asteroid?"
"Yeah, we are," Han said.
Han piloted the ship as it approached a large crater. Making a loop, the Falcon dived into the huge crater and disappeared. The Falcon slowly approached the crater, turning on it's head lights as the cave was pitch black with darkness. A small cave appeared on one side of the crater as the Falcon slowed down, turned, and enter the cave.
"I do hope you know what you are doing," Leia said.
"Yeah, me too," Han said.
Han landed the starship in a dark area, deep inside the cave. The cave was pitch black, with no visible light in it. The dimensions were not visible as it was impossible to determine where the walls of the cave were. Han, Akko, and Chewie were being busy, shutting down the engine and all electronic systems, with everyone else watching in worried.
"We are going to shut down everything but the emergency power systems," Han said.
"Sir, I'm almost afraid to ask, but will that mean shutting me down, too?" 3PO asked.
"Yes, it probably does," Barbara said, with Chewie agreeing with her.
"Actually, no, I need you to talk to the Falcon, find out what's wrong with the hyperdrive," Han said sarcastically.
All of a sudden the ship rocked from side to side, causing all the loose items in the cockpit to go flying. Chewie howled in fear.
"Excuse me, but I think it's quite possible this asteroid is not entirely stable," 3PO said.
"No, really. Not stable you say, what gives you that idea?" Hannah asked sarcastically.
"Come on 3PO, let's plug you into the hyperdrive," Diana said, taking 3PO out of the cockpit.
"Oh, sometimes I just don't understand human behavior. After all, I am only trying to do my job," 3PO said.
"Yeah, yeah, let's just go," Diana said, pushing the droid out of the cockpit. The rest of the witches and Chewbacca followed after her. The cockpit door closed behind them, with Han just sighed in relief.
The ship suddenly lurched again, throwing Leia across the cockpit, into Han's arms. The motion stopped abruptly. With a bit of surprise, Han and Leia looked at each and saw that they are in each other's arms.
"Let go," Leia ordered. Han hushed Leia, which caused Leia not be too happy about it. "Let go, please," Leia said.
Leia's face was red with embarrassment as she averted her eyes. Leia did not really want to fight Han to get herself freed. But of course, Han was being Han and said, "Don't get too excited."
"Captain, being held by you isn't quite enough to get me excited," Leia said as her anger was rising within her.
"Sorry, sweetheart, but we have not got time for any of that," Han said, grinning wickedly at Leia. He turned and exited the cockpit, with Leia being left confused.