V: Anoat Again

Dax exited hyperspace a number of parsecs away from where he had jumped after the battle had ended. It appeared that the Imperials were done in this sector, and with good reason: any Rebel personnel who weren't killed or captured would have escaped hours ago.

F3 beeped and showed Dax something on the targeting computer. Apparently, the Imperials weren't done here, yet. A pair of TIE Fighters and a damaged TIE Bomber was still in the area. Dax checked his scopes, found them at 11 o'clock. He spun, brought his line of fire on them and blasted them. It took very few laser blasts to destroy the TIEs. "Let's hope those were the only ones. F3, we're going to search Anoat first."

F3 started scanning the sector as they approached Anoat. Nothing Imperial appeared on the sensors, but both knew there were other dangers on the planet's surface. F3 beeped worriedly. "I know, I want to stay off Anoat as much as you do, but if we do we'll never know if the Millennium Falcon is hiding down there. Continue scanning while we make reentry."

Dax looked around. It took him a while to find a decent place to land. There was only one way to go from where he had landed, and all he could really do was follow a thin walkway. It didn't look like he would find any place where the Falcon could have landed unless he did a full search of the planet. He didn't have time to do that.

He sighed as he considered his options. "This place is so full of sludge an astromech droid couldn't go more than twenty meters." He addressed the communicator on his left wrist. "Has the scan finished yet?" F3 beeped an affirmative: the scanned areas showed no human life signs, apart from Dax's. Dax sighed again. "Alright, I guess I'll..." He heard something move in the sludge. "…Hold on, I heard something. I'm going to try and find out what it was." He admitted to himself he was almost too afraid to find out; he had never been on Anoat before and didn't know what to expect.

A tentacle, colored nearly the same as the sludge, shot out and wrapped itself around Dax's ankle. It attempted to retreat back into the sludge, which would take him with it. Dax tripped. He managed to grab the other edge of the walkway with his left hand. He knew he couldn't hold on for long, though. With his right hand, he drew his DL-44 blaster and fired a number of bolts into the sludge. He heard a hellish scream as the tentacle released his ankle. He panted, stood up on the walkway and holstered his blaster. He readdressed F3 through his communicator. "I f-found out what it was…" He coughed, attempted to calm himself. "It was a dianoga, and it was hungry. I'm getting the hell out of here before I find any more." He didn't wait for F3 to respond before he started off back to his X-wing.

Shortly after he left Anoat's orbit, Volk contacted him again. "Corporal, where are you?"

Dax seemed surprised. "I just left Anoat, sir, why? Did you get any more info?"

"Did we ever—the Falcon found us! Commander Skywalker and his astromech droid were in the ship, too. There's something odd, though. Someone else was piloting the Falcon, one Lando Calrissian. Solo wasn't onboard."

"Well, do you know where the general is, sir?"

"We believe Boba Fett has him. Leia is in the process of hiring a mercenary to find out where Fett went. In the meantime, we need you to head to Bespin. We need you to perform air strikes on Imperial installations in and around Cloud City."

"Roger that, sir, but there's one problem. I don't know where Bespin is."

"You said you're in the Anoat system? You're practically right next door to it. Your astromech should have GPS data on how to find Cloud City once you get to the planet. Be careful."

"Roger that, sir. Corporal Urland over and out." He closed the link. "Alright, F3, calculate the distance from here to Bespin. I want to know if we need to use lightspeed to get there in time."