A long time ago in a galaxy far,
far away….
STAR WARS REBELS
The Kessel Run: Escape from Kessel
Imperial Citadel, Kessel, Maw Nebula, Outer Rim Territories – 22:40 Local Time – 04 BBY
Kanan slid down the sloping outer wall of the Citadel and hit the ground. He rolled forward, taking the impact off his legs and instantly sprung upright, breaking into a sprint. Sabine and Ezra were not far ahead as they dashed towards the Citadel's landing pads with Han hot on their trail.
Without breaking stride, Kanan spoke into his comlink. "Hera! Get outta there!"
"We're cut off!" Hera's voice answered.
"Then get to cover!" Kanan ordered. "Steal a ship if you have to. Just get yourself to safety."
"And leave you all in the lurch?!" Hera replied. "That's not gonna happen."
Kanan caught up with Sabine, Ezra and Han as they hunkered against the Citadel wall close to the landing pads, the dock littered with shuttles. Sabine took a quick peek around the corner to survey the area, while Kanan eyed the smuggler suspiciously. He wasn't overly thrilled that Solo had retrieved the holocron; it meant that, like it or not, Solo was a part of their mission. At least until Kanan could persuade him to part with the holocron, or relieve Solo of it somehow. Though Kanan was loathe to use force, he was rapidly coming to the conclusion that it might be unavoidable…
Sabine turned back to the group. "The place is crawling with troopers," she whispered, gesturing to their shuttle on the far side of the landing pads. "We can't get to the Phantom without being seen."
Kanan nodded. "We need a distraction…" he began
"No problem," Han said as he drew his blaster and popped around the corner, firing repeatedly at one of the empty shuttles. After several rounds of sustained fire the fuel lines ruptured and the shuttle exploded in an orange fireball, knocking several troopers to the ground. The rest of the armoured soldiers rushed to their comrades' aid and to help extinguish the flames, clearing a path to the Phantom.
"Yeah, that should do it!" Sabine said wryly.
"Go! Now!" Kanan ordered.
They ran.
Staying low they managed to stay out of the guard's line of sight and dashed onto the waitingPhantom.
Kanan sat down at the controls and powered up the shuttle. "We're in the Phantom," he said to Hera through the comlink. "Heading to your position now."
"No!" Hera told Kanan. In the distance more TIE Fighters were being scrambled. "There are too many fighters. You'd never make it. Get back to the Ghost. Don't let the Empire take her."
"What about you?" Kanan demanded through the comm. "
Zeb suddenly called out from behind. "Hera!"
She turned to see Zeb pointing at Chewbacca. The Wookiee was growling and gesticulating madly, signalling for them to follow him. Then he turned and disappeared up into the Millennium Falcon.
The screams of approaching TIE Fighters were intensifying. Behind her, she could make out the shouts of Stormtroopers as they closed rapidly on her position. Hera reached a decision. "We're taking the Falcon," she declared.
"Wait. What?" Han's voice cut through the air. "You are not taking my ship!"
But Hera was already on the move. "It's not like we have a choice," she retorted as she followed Zeb up the boarding ramp. She dashed through a hatch and into the Falcon's tubular ring corridor, the walls lined with small cream-coloured squares of padding. Hera stopped and frowned at the ship's unkempt interior. Exposed lines of circuitry and cables ran down the length of the corridor, and looked like they'd been modified or repaired countless times. The interior was nothing like the Ghost's well-ordered corridors; plus, it smelt strongly of Wookiee! Hera wrinkled her nose. "Believe me, I'm not happy about it either!"
She followed Zeb down the access corridor to her right. Hera entered the Falcon's cockpit to see Chewbacca already sat at the controls. Like the Ghost, there were four seats – two pilots and two passenger seats – none of them standard issue. The bulkhead was covered with instrument lighting and numerous displays. Hera also noticed the master control panel had been heavily modified into an intimidating assembly of levers and switches.
"Hey, maybe I didn't make myself clear…" Solo's voice began, but Kanan interrupted him.
"Can you make it off the surface?" Kanan asked.
"I think we can do one better," Hera replied. She slipped into the left pilot seat and flicked on what she presumed to be the deflector shield. Chewbacca had already powered up most of the systems. The Falcon was much older than her ship, but since the Ghost and the Falcon were both of Correlian make, the controls were mostly recognisable to her despite the modifications. "We can take some of the heat off you. Get back to the Ghost now!"
Chewbacca yanked the engine start levers on the console. The sublight engines came alive. Hera grabbed the control yoke and pulled back, lifting the ship off the landing pad just as a TIE Fighter flew over the ship, firing its guns relentlessly.
"Are you sure about this?" Kanan asked.
"Don't argue, Kanan!" she ordered. Another salvo of laser bolts strafed across the hull. "We'll draw their fire. You save my ship!"
"Alright, Hera. Stay safe," Kanan replied. She wasn't sure if that was an order or a plea.
"You too."
The Millennium Falcon yawed around as Hera brought up the landing gear and closed the boarding ramp. She hit the throttle; the engines whined and the ship surged forward, flinging Zeb back into the seat behind Hera. Chopper trundled up to settle next to Zeb as Hera powered the ship away from Kessendra Spaceport.
She glanced down at the display monitor to watch the growing number of Imperial fighter craft following them.
"That's it, you Bucketheads. Come and get me!"
Han Solo was, to put it mildly, a tad livid. "What the hell does she think she's doing?" he yelled at Kanan.
"She's buying us some time," Kanan replied tersely.
Kanan banked the Phantom towards the Spaceport. Through the view-screen they could see a large number of TIE Fighters lifting into the air in pursuit of the Millennium Falcon, and effectively emptying the spaceport of the majority of its fighters.
"Well, she can clear a spaceport I'll give her that," Han grudgingly accepted.
Kanan flew low over the runways and landing pads, brushing the tops of the buildings as he dived towards their ship. The Phantom's wings folded into its body as the attack shuttle settled into the Ghost's aft docking port.
A second later, the Ghost's interior dorsal hatch flew open. Kanan slid down the boarding ladder, closely followed by Sabine and Ezra with Han bringing up the rear. Kanan burst into the main corridor. He knew the Empire had likely left a few Stormtroopers to guard the ship, but hoped speed and the element of surprise would overcome the Imperial soldiers. As luck would have it, only two Stormtroopers had been left to guard the ship, and they had been posted outside the boarding ramp to prevent anyone gaining access from the ground. When the guards saw the Phantom docking, they'd hurried aboard, only to be met with a surprisingly spirited resistance from a group of heavily armed rebels. There was a brief struggle before the two guards were overpowered and quite literally thrown off the ship, landing in a dazed heap at the bottom of the boarding ramp.
One of the prone guards lifted his head to see a young woman in Mandalorian armour waving at them from the inner hatch. "Better luck next time, boys!" she called out happily. The Mandalorian hit a switch by the hatch. The boarding ramp rose, and the guard passed out just before the Ghost lifted off from the dock.
Hera adjusted the Millennium Falcon's flight path as they passed through Kessendra's magnetic shield, trying to compensate for the ship's modified power core and its surprising manoeuvrability.
The ship had the agility of a snubfighter half its size. Hera suspected that whatever Solo and Chewbacca had done to the Falcon to increase its responsiveness it wasn't exactly recommended by the manufacturers, but she couldn't argue with the results.
"Whoa! This thing can move!" she exclaimed.
Chewbacca barked out a warning.
"I see them," she replied glancing at the threat screen.
"See what?" Zeb asked behind her.
"There's another squadron of fighters heading straight for us."
"I thought they were all behind us? How'd they scramble so many fighters?" Zeb queried.
"It's from the Star Destroyer," Hera replied as she pointed through the transparisteel window. A dagger-shaped capital ship was coming into view directly in front of them. Even from a distance they could make out a swarm of TIE fighters being released from the ship's ventral hanger.
"Where's the other one?" Hera asked, her query answered by Chewbacca pointing towards the entrance to The Pit. Another Star Destroyer was positioning itself close to the asteroid field, and effectively blocking their escape route.
Hera quickly summed up the situation. "We've got fighters tailing us, fighters ahead, and our way out of the nebula is blocked. Suggestions?"
Chewbacca and Zeb stared at the approaching TIE fighters. Zeb's eyes darted off to the one region of space that wasn't currently being blockaded: The entrance to the Maw.
"What do you think?" Hera asked again.
Zeb looked left and right as he weighed their options. "'Pick between One and Fourteen,'" he replied.
Chewie growled in what she assumed to be agreement.
Hera nodded. "I hear that!"
A barrage of laser blasts struck the hull both forward and aft. TIE fighters surged towards them. Hera pitched the Falcon to starboard, barely managing to evade and outpace the squadron of attack craft as she set a course towards the Maw.
The Ghost powered out of Kessel's orbit. The sky was alive with Imperial ships. A number of Star Destroyers were gathering at the entrance to the official Trade Route, moving to intercept several civilian freighters which had broken off from the main convoy heading out of the nebula – presumably in an attempt to jump ahead of the logjam – while one of the Imperial Destroyers that had been hovering above Kessendra was currently guarding the entrance to the Pit, and the other was moving rapidly off in the direction of the Maw.
In short, it was chaos.
"The ships are clearing a path. We have an opening," Han said as he checked the Ghost's display monitor.
"Yeah, apart from the Star Destroyer blocking our way," Kanan pointed out.
"Details, details," Han muttered.
"I don't see them," Kanan added urgently.
Kanan and Solo sat at the Ghost's controls; Han was in the co-pilot's seat, while Kanan had slipped into Hera's seat, refusing to let Solo take her station. Ezra and Sabine sat behind, watching the enfolding action through the cockpit window.
"Tracking multiple signals, but there's too much interference," Kanan stated. He was watching the display monitor carefully. "I can't pinpoint the Falcon's location. Not through all this traffic."
"I just hope they made it out safely," Sabine said.
"We've got incoming fighters!" Han announced. Several TIE fighters were approaching directly aft.
Sabine pointed at the Star Destroyer guarding entrance to the Pit. "It's moving away!"
They looked up. The Destroyer was turning in their direction as it manoeuvred into an intercept position.
"No, it's coming towards us," Kanan said.
Kanan tried to roll the Ghost to port, away from the incoming Destroyer, but the ship juddered violently as it remained on the same trajectory. Behind them, the TIE fighters opened fire, peppering the hull with laser bolts.
"They've locked on with a tractor beam," Han yelled.
Kanan uttered a silent curse and turned to Solo. "Take the helm," he ordered. "I'll man the gun."
"You want to attack a Star Destroyer?" Han asked in astonishment.
"That's the plan," Kanan insisted He turned to Sabine and Ezra. "Sabine, get on the dorsal canon. Ezra, monitor the power core."
"Couldn't I fly the ship?" Ezra asked.
"No!" Kanan and Han said together. "Just get moving," Kanan insisted. Sabine had already disappeared through the doors. Ezra followed her out while Kanan quickly exited the cockpit to man the main turret.
"This is a bad idea," Han muttered. The Star Destroyer was looming ever closer in the window.
After a few seconds Kanan's voice piped through the comlink. "Spectres, report in."
"Spectre 5 in position," Sabine replied.
"Spectre 6 here. I'm ready," Ezra's voice said.
"Spectre 1 ready," Kanan confirmed.
"'Spectres'," Han repeated in mild derision. "You think you're Special Forces or something?"
"Cut the chatter!" Kanan ordered. "Just hold our course."
"Not like I can do anything else," Han replied.
The Star Destroyer seemed to grow larger in the window. Kanan aimed the main gun directly at the tractor beam projector in the Star Destroyer's open ventral hanger.
"Steady," Kanan muttered.
The capital ship was almost upon them. At the last second, Kanan fired. The powerful blasts ripped into the vulnerable belly of the enemy ship, damaging the hanger and destroying the tractor beam. The Ghost swayed as the tractor beam went down.
They were free.
Han veered the Ghost away from the Star Destroyer, almost scraping the hull of the capital ship as he accelerated.
They sped past the Destroyer and reached the Pit. Han piloted the Ghost into the asteroid field, shaking his head in amazement. "How much firepower do you guys need?"
The passageway to the Maw surrounded the Millennium Falcon like a nebulous tunnel leading into the bowels of some monstrous warren. Several Tie fighters were in pursuit, firing repeatedly. Hera imagined the TIE pilots were not exactly enamoured with the idea of entering the Maw, and judging by the exclamations coming from people beside her, neither was anyone else.
Chewie made a series of grumbling snarls as he gestured wildly with his arms.
Hera stared to him in shock. "Whaddya mean this isn't what you were suggesting?!" she demanded.
The Wookiee growled and grunted in response, his eyes wide.
"So, my Shyriiwook isn't that good. So sue me!" Hera fired back.
The veil of clouds parted to reveal a vast expanse of space. Darkness surrounded the area, as if all the stars or any other forms of light had been forcibly removed from the entire region. Hera realised that wasn't far from the truth. A series of incredibly dense gravitational wells clustered around the region, visible only when a ring of ionised gas ignited around one of them, the inferno of superheated gases blazing with the heat of a miniature sun, or when gravitational lensing distorted an object behind the black holes. Meteorites and asteroids swarmed around them in a chaotic frenzy as the singularities tore the rocks and gases apart.
It was both beautiful and utterly terrifying.
The crew stared out at the maelstrom of swarming debris. Behind Hera, Zeb gripped his seat. "I've got a bad feeling about th…"
"Oh, belt up!" Hera yelled cutting him off.
She hit the throttle. The Millennium Falcon surged forward at maximum velocity.
TheFalcon coursed into the teeming mass of asteroids, the TIE fighters hot on their tail. Hera banked and pitched, trying to evade the roaming asteroids. The Falcon responded better than she could have dreamed; its manoeuvrability outperforming anything she'd flown before.
Behind them, one of the TIE fighters flew too close to the gravity wells, losing several solar collectors from it right wing. Then the wing itself flew apart, tearing the craft in two as it spun away to be sucked into the debris.
Hera rolled to port, avoiding another large asteroid. Huge rocks were being ripped to pieces. Hera spun the ship; soaring between tumbling rocks and planetoids, narrowly avoiding being crushed against the shattered surface.
A band of ionised gas sliced through the field, almost striking the Falcon. Hera banked to avoid the deadly pulse of plasma. The TIE fighters were not so lucky. The superheated gases tore through the craft, evaporating their hulls in an instant. Other fighters simply crashed headlong into the asteroids. Very soon, all the pursuing enemy fighters had succumbed to the hostile region.
The Falcon made it through the debris field to fly into a calmer region free of asteroids. They were now in the heart of a storm at the very centre of the Maw cluster.
Suddenly, a voice sounded over the comm.
"Hera? Can you hear me?" Kanan pleaded.
"We read you, Kanan," Hera replied, grateful to hear his voice.
"We don't see you on the scanners. Where are you?" he demanded
"We're, err… we're going through the Maw!" Hera responded hesitantly.
"You're what?" Kanan exclaimed.
"Are you crazy?" Han's voice yelled.
"What…? Didn't I…? Is that your idea of 'staying safe'?" Kanan bellowed.
"Okay!" Hera interrupted. "Just so you know: The yelling is really not productive!"
"Chewie, are you okay?" Han enquired.
Chewbacca grunted in response, shaking his head.
"The Falconbetter not have a scratch on her!" Han yelled.
"She has the aesthetics of a brick and you're worried about a few dents in the hull?" Hera snapped.
"Yeah, 'cause she's mybrick! I want her back in one piece," Han insisted.
As if on cue, a small section of the duralloy plating suddenly broke away from the Falcon's right mandible and bounced off the cockpit window with a resounding clang.
"What was that?" Han exclaimed.
"Nothing that won't buff out!" Hera replied as she quickly switched off the comm.
Han sat at the helm of the Ghost, his face creased into a scowl. Almost without thinking, he rolled the Ghost between two asteroids as he attempted to evade the TIE fighters chasing them. He was feeling slightly flustered, which usually never happened. At the moment, he was fighting a confusing blend of emotions: There was deep admiration for the fact that Hera was piloting his ship through the Maw, combined with pure indignation because Hera was piloting his ship through the Maw!
Han shook his head trying to clear his head and barked at Kanan through the comm.
"Your girlfriend is something else!"
"Who said she was my girlfriend?" Kanan's voice replied petulantly.
Han sat up slightly, his interest piqued. "You mean she's available? Right, so, what's her thing? Clothes? Jewellery? Moonlight dinners? Do you know if she likes engines?"
"Focus, Solo!"
Zeb pointed down at the Falcon's console. "What's that flashing?" he demanded.
Hera looked down at the console. The threat screen was going crazy!
They were approaching another chaotic debris field that stretched out before them like an impenetrable wall. The threat screen indicated several dangerous swirling eddys in the field preventing safe passage through it. There was currently only one safe route, and that was being blocked by a planetary body.
Hera looked up. Ahead of them, a small moon was spinning lazily within the debris field as it was caught in the gravity wells.
Hera's eyes widened. She looked on in horror as the gravitational stresses started to tear the moon apart!
A great seam opened up along the satellite's equator as the gravitational pull of the black holes split the moon open like an egg. Magma and mountain-sized chunks of rock exploded into the freezing void of space.
"Can you get any more power to the shields?" Hera called out to Chewbacca.
The Wookiee growled and flicked a few switches on the console.
"Guess that'll have to do," Hera muttered setting the repulsorlift engines to maximum.
"Hera! What are you thinking?" Zeb asked with suspicion.
"If we can't go around, we go through!"
Hera accelerated the Falcon towards the shattered world, taking the only path available to her.
The split in the moon widened to a yawning abyss. It was so large now that Zeb could see clear through the planetoid. He grabbed the back of Hera'a chair and called out to her in growing panic. "Herrraaaa!"
The Falcon disappeared inside the moon.
They were surrounded by rock. The red glow of the moon's interior illuminated the various levels of strata. Hera rolled the Millennium Falcon to avoid three spinning chunks of molten rock. The moon was no longer active but the planetary core still burned intensely.
Hera chucked the controls violently back and forth, pitching and rolling the Falcon between continent-sized masses of magma.
The moon's strata rushed past them; the environment becoming a blur.
In the distance, beyond the intense glow of the mantle, was the other side of the moon. The engines groaned under the strain as Hera made a final spin to avoid another vast mass of crust before the Falcon finally burst out from the disintegrating moon.
When Hera was satisfied they'd covered enough distance between them and the debris field she throttled back the engines. There was a long moment of stunned silence in the cockpit until Zeb finally broke the quiet.
"Did we just…?" he began.
"Yes!" Hera replied flatly.
"You're not planning on doing that again…?"
"No!"
Zeb nodded absently. "Good. Just thought I'd check."
Chewbacca released a few hushed growls, his eyes staring much wider than normal.
"Nervous?" Hera asked him.
Chewbacca gave a nonchalant shake of his head, attempting to seem aloof, although she noticed he was gripping the console so hard he'd left claw marks.
"You can let go of the controls now," she suggested.
Chewie shook his head vigorously as he barked out a sharp refusal.
The TIE fighters were nothing if not persistent.
The Ghost rounded a smaller asteroid, closely pursued by a squadron of Imperial fighters. In the dorsal turret, Sabine was doing her best to keep the TIE's off their back, but was fighting a losing battle. There were too many fighters and the Ghost was lurching around so much she couldn't get a decent aim.
"Keep her steady!" she roared at Han over the comm.
"Hey, if you think you can do better, be my guest!" Han fired back.
"The problem is most of the power goes to the Ghost's forward guns," Ezra pointed out.
"The Ghost is an attack craft," Kanan agreed.
"Yeah," Han murmured thoughtfully. An idea suddenly occurred to him. "Spin the dorsal gun forwards!" Han told Sabine.
"What? But they're behind us!" Sabine protested.
"Just turn it around!" Solo ordered.
Sabine hesitated.
"Do it, Sabine," Kanan told her.
"Alright, you're the boss," she muttered as she swivelled the dorsal turret forward.
"You better have a plan, Solo," Kanan said.
"Just get ready to fire when I give the word," Han ordered over the comm.
Han steered towards one of the larger asteroids. He waited until the Ghost was skirting the planetoid, then he cut power to the main thrusters!
At the same moment, he turned off the repulsorlift engines. The Ghost lurched sideways as it was caught in the asteroid's gravitational pull.
"What are you doing?" Kanan demanded.
"Showing you how a smuggler does it," Han replied.
The Ghost curved to port as it sped into the asteroid's orbit. A quick burst from the landing thrusters sent the aft spinning out. The ship rotated 180 degrees until the bow was facing towards the enemy. The TIE Fighters sped around the asteroid directly into the scope of the guns.
"Fire!" Han yelled.
Kanan and Sabine let rip!
The Ghost's weapons tore into the squad of enemy fighters as they rounded the asteroid, blasting the unshielded craft to pieces. Under the sustained fire of the main guns the TIE fighters didn't stand a chance.
Han activated the repulsors and hit the throttle. The sublight engines came alive and the Ghost accelerated away from the debris of enemy craft and the pursuing Imperial fighters.
"That should take some of the heat off us," Han commented.
"Okay, that was impressive!" Sabine admitted. "And quite colourful!"
"It was okay," Kanan grudgingly admitted.
"You need to fit a window down here," Ezra's voice complained from the engine room. "I couldn't see anything!"
"There's the edge of the nebula. I see it!" Zeb called as he pointed out the window.
"We're almost out," Hera confirmed with no little excitement.
The wall of cloud that was the Maw Nebula was rapidly approaching. They had made it through the cluster of black holes. Some distance to the right, a small passageway in the cloud was clearly visible.
"There," Hera said. She rolled the Falcon in the direction of the wormhole-like opening. The wall of cloud loomed ever closer until the Falcon sped into the break in the nebula.
There was a collective sigh of relief from the crew.
Hera managed to relax her shoulders and sat back in her chair. She'd been hunched over the controls almost the entire journey and she knew her muscles would ache later.
"Not bad, Hera," Zeb said approvingly. "I'll never complain about your flying again."
"You've been complaining?" Hera queried. Zeb grinned wryly. "After this I think I'm gonna need a vacation!"
"Assuming Kanan gives you the time off," Zeb chuckled.
The cheerfulness was short-lived. A strange grinding noise resonated throughout the ship. Hera sat up again, her shoulders tensing.
"What now?" Zeb demanded.
Chewbacca and Hera checked the Falcon's systems.
"We're losing speed," she said. "The sublight drives are going offline."
"As if we didn't have enough problems," Zeb muttered.
The Millennium Falcon exited the nebula passage and managed to join the smugglers route before the sublight engines finally failed, leaving theFalcon dead in space… In the middle of the Kessel Run!
"We're drifting. Must have been the strain of going through the Maw," Hera said. Chewbacca growled in agreement.
They stood and left the cockpit at speed. Chewbacca led the way as they dashed down the corridor towards the main hold. Chewie pulled up by an engineering console and checked the readings from the sublight drive.
Hera looked around the large hold. It was empty save for the engineering station and a circular holographic board game with a crescent shaped bench to her right. Exposed pipes and looms of cables lined the wall. The hold had the same dilapidated appearance as the rest of the ship. Judging by how well the Falcon had handled in the Maw it was obvious to Hera which systems Solo had spent most of his time and credits upgrading.
"You guys actually live like this?" she asked in astonishment.
Chewie turned and growled several times, his snarls sprinkled with soft yelps.
"What'd he say?" Zeb asked.
"The fuel intermixer's are offline," Hera translated. She turned to Chopper. "Chop, see if you can get them working."
Chopper warbled in agreement and trundled off in the direction of the engine room.
"Let's hope we aren't drifting for too long," Hera added. "We certainly don't want to attract any unwanted attention if we're here for…"
But she never got the chance to finish her sentence.
The ship juddered. A ringing thud echoed through the hull. Chewie looked up from his station and roared.
"What was that?" Zeb asked.
"Smuggler ships!" Hera replied. Chewie turned and bayed as he tried to power up some of the systems. "They're trying to board us," Hera added.
Another jolt almost took them off their feet. Sparks flew from the station. A loud bang echoed down the corridors. Hera and Zeb heard the sound of the port docking hatch being forced open. Booted feet reverberated from the far side of the hold. They drew their blasters. Chewie grabbed his bow-caster rifle from beside the engineering station, but it was too late. Eight figures came storming into the hold. The smugglers were heavily armed. They levelled their weapons at the crew. Hera recognised one of them. A Transdoshan with a missing eye was staring at her.
The Transdoshan stepped forward and grinned viciously as he levelled his blaster at Hera's face.
"Easssy pickingsss!"
Author's Note: If you have it, I might suggest you crank up The Empire Strikes Back soundtrack as you're reading this chapter – especially track six: 'The Asteroid Field'.
The final chapter will be released tomorrow. Thank you all for reading and may you have a very happy New Year. :-)