Alaric knew this was foolish. He'd known it before he got on the speeder, before Lucia had chased after him. But he couldn't let the trooper get away, couldn't let him sound the alarm. Now, he could only focus on steering the bike and avoiding crashing into the trees.
Lucia was a reassuring warmth against his back, as she reached out with one hand to activate the speeder bike's weapons. Unfortunately, Alaric was unable to keep the bike steady while veering around trees and rocks, and her shots hit only vegetation. "Move closer!" she shouted in his ear.
Drawing a deep breath and holding it for a few seconds before he released it, Alaric accelerated to an even more suicidal speed. One of the scouts glanced over his shoulder and lost control for a second, scraping against a tree. As he fought to steady his bike, he slowed enough that Alaric came up beside him. Lucia immediately leapt from one bike to the other, nearly making Alaric's heart stop at her recklessness and sending the trooper off the speeder in an ungainly tumble to smash into another tree.
Lucia grabbed the bike's controls just in time to keep it steady, and flashed a grin at Alaric before accelerating into pursuit once again. Shaking his head, he followed. Sure, she'd grown up racing a speeder all over Tatooine chasing womprats, but there were no trees there. This forest was the thickest even Alaric had seen, and he'd been to Naboo.
A blast of energy flashed past Alaric's ear and he glanced over his shoulder to see two more scout troopers swinging into pursuit behind them. Fragging great. Could this mess get any worse?
"I'll take these two!" Lucia shouted, hitting her brakes to drop back behind them.
An almost immediate explosion behind him sent Alaric's heart swooping in fear, but then he realized he could still sense Lucia and her steady determination behind him, and he leaned forward, focusing on the trooper before him. Lucia was quite capable of taking care of herself and the other trooper behind him.
A thought occurred to him, and without time to consider its merits, Alaric threw the bike into a steep climb, rising above the trees, then he dove at the trooper, who had slowed in confusion when Alaric had disappeared from behind him. A shot hit the trooper's bike, slowing it even more as he fought it back under control, and Alaric came up alongside just as the trooper pulled a hand blaster. Alaric grabbed it, and wild shots hit both bikes, sending them spinning out of control in opposite directions. Flinging himself from the seat, Alaric dove and rolled into the bushes, covering his face with his arms to shield it from the branches. When he finally came to a painful stop, he lifted his head just in time to see the trooper hit a tree. The bike exploded in a gout of flame and Alaric grinned despite his scrapes and bruises. Another one down.
Lucia threw her weight to the side, ramming her bike into the scout's bike. He responded by throwing his weight back against her, tangling the workings of their bikes together. A sense of danger brought her eyes up in time to see a large tree directly in front of them. Barey in time, Lucia leapt free, rolling into the underbrush below.
As she came to her feet, the scout trooper was turning back toward her, somehow having untangled the bikes. As he reached for his weapons, Lucia snatched her lightsaber from her belt, bringing it up and activating the blade just in time to block the blasts. She could feel the Force guiding her as the trooper bore down on her, and she stood her ground as he raced toward her, intent on ramming her if he couldn't shoot her.
At the last second, she stepped smoothly to the side and swept the glowing blade of her saber through the workings of the bike, sending it spinning into yet another tree in a blaze of fire and flame. Satisfaction mixed with regret swirled through her. No matter how necessary, so much death saddened her.
Hanna paced from one side of the small clearing to the other then back again. The rebels under her command tried to pretend they weren't watching her, but she didn't care what they thought. If something had happened to Alaric and Lucia, she was going to hunt down every last Imperial and kill them with her bare hands.
As she began her eleventh crossing of the clearing, Artoo's head spun toward the trees and he beeped urgently. "Oh!" Threepio exclaimed. "General Solo, someone's coming!"
Swinging around, Hanna pulled her blaster and aimed it at the trees. "Someone" could be a whole squad of Imperials. Beside her, the other rebels copied her. The trees parted and Lucia stepped out, looked around at all the blasters pointed at her, then trudged over to a rock and sat down as everyone quickly holstered their weapons.
"Where's Alaric?" Hanna was relieved to see Lucia, but fear for Alaric held her insides in a vise. If that stupid prince got himself killed, she was going to kick his ass.
"What?" Lucia raised her head and looked around the clearing. "He didn't come back yet?"
"I thought he was with you." Hanna bit out the words, trying to keep her anger in check. She knew this wasn't Lucia's fault, but she couldn't help it.
Lucia pushed herself to her feet, her expression clouding with worry. "We got separated." She visibly pushed her exhaustion away, squaring her shoulders. "We better go look for him."
Hanna sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, nodding. She turned to the other rebels. "Take the squad ahead. We'll meet at the shield generator at 0300."
Alaric pushed himself up to sit against the nearest tree trunk, let his head fall back against the rough bark, and closed his eyes. The sense of someone approaching came to him, and he froze. But there was little feeling of danger, so he slowly opened his eyes. A short, fuzzy creature stopped in its tracks as Alaric's eyes opened. A relatively large spear swung up to point at his face, and it jabbered something in a language Alaric had never heard.
Slowly raising his hands, Alaric showed the little creature—or person, since it was clearly intelligent enough to speak—his open palms. "It's okay. I'm a friend." It—or he—growled at Alaric, waving his spear in a threatening manner. "I promise I don't want to hurt you." Moving slowly so his actions wouldn't appear aggressive, Alaric pulled a ration bar from his pocket, unwrapped it, and offered it. "Want something to eat?"
A little nose sniffed curiously, then the furry little person hopped into Alaric's lap, grabbed the food with both hands, and stuffed it into a tiny mouth. Alaric smiled. Then, he froze. His new friend dropped the ration bar and grabbed his spear as a scout trooper stepped out of the foliage in front of them.
"Freeze!" the trooper ordered, bringing his pistol up to aim at Alaric's head.
The little person said something that didn't sound polite at all, and smacked the trooper in the knee with his spear. Seeming shocked that something so small could be so brave, the trooper stared at him. Taking advantage of the trooper's distraction, Alaric drew his blaster and shot him in the head.
Alaric's new little friend jumped back as the scout trooper fell, then poked him with his spear. When the trooper didn't move, he looked up at Alaric and nodded sharply, saying something that sounded impressed and approving. Then he grabbed Alaric's arm and tugged firmly, leading him away. With a mental shrug, Alaric allowed himself to be led.
Darth Vader stood on the bridge of the command ship, staring into space. She imagined she could see to the surface of the moon below where her children were. She knew what the Emperor expected of her now, that she would go down and face one or both, and find a way to convince them to switch allegiance. Or kill them. But the Emperor was not here.
The crew around her were quiet, not only out of fear of her, but because none of them yet knew the rebels had penetrated the shield and landed on Endor. She was determined to keep it that way.
She had known of the twins' presence the moment the shuttle Tydirium had approached, but had said nothing, had done nothing. Now, though, was the time to act. Any moment now, a scout would get a message through, and the might of the Empire would descend on the moon to find and destroy the rebels. She had to stop them.
She turned and left the bridge. Her shuttle awaited.