Aboard the closest destroyer on the lowest decks there were several artillery operators and the lieutenant in charge who noticed the new tactic of the small fighter. It was obvious that they were now lining up for a jump. The wall of TIE fighters ahead of them would make sure that wasn't possible, and leave them vulnerable. The lieutenant had been ordered to merely disable the ships, not destroy them. That was a fine line, and at this point the officer didn't really care if he crossed it. He ordered the full bore of all the guns to open up, and put an end to this game.
Luke could sense something, a familiar feeling. It was Ben. It felt like he had been with him all along.
"Jump Luke! Get away!'" came the voice clear as crystal ringing in his head.
Luke pounded another round of blasts and took out the last TIE fighters ahead of him. More were closing fast.
"Han, we have to move!" Luke yelled out. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah- hit it!"
"On three! One, Two..."
As Luke was about to count to three the small space around the ships exploded with light from above. Raw laser energy from the closest destroyer overloaded their shields in an instant. Fire was everywhere. Luke reached up as more lasers hit his ship. He reached for the red hyperspace lever and pulled. All around turned a cool blue glow. Long trails of stars streaked pass his canopy.
His relief quickly turned to worry as he scrambled to look back for Han. His scopes were useless in the wormhole, so he strained to see him. He looked into the small mirrors that lined the sides of his cockpit. There was nothing. But he thought maybe he could see a small speck. He slightly eased the controls by a small fraction to reduce his speed. Quickly the speck grew and approached. It was the Falcon.
The ship was a mess. There were fires burning all across the topside. Luke struggled to see into the vessel. The side cockpit was completely dark. Small chemical flames were flowing over its edges. He thought he could see flames or sparks inside. Was the hull intact? He tried to raise them on the radio.
"Han? Han, Chewbacca? This is Red 5 to Millennium Falcon. Do you read?"
There was still a lot of static coming through, and Luke tried to fine tune.
"Artoo, see if you can't isolate that signal. I think I heard something!" he said back to his small companion. Then Luke thought of something. Try to use the force.
He focused on the Falcon behind him. He closed his eyes and slowly he could see the ship appear in his mind's eye out of the darkness. It was floating before him. He was free to circle around it. He could make out all of the slightest details on the ship. He saw so much detail it was almost painful. His mind strained to take it all in, causing his head to ache. He saw the damage inflicted by the last parry of cannonfire that landed on its topside. He saw the hull was still together. He sensed the cabin. It was dark. It was difficult to make out what was going on. He sensed tremendous confusion, even anger- but that meant there was life!
"Han, come in Han!" Luke yelled into the small microphone that stretched out past his helmet.
"This is Solo, we're alright", a weary voice scratched across the empty static. "We had a couple of fires, but we're alright."
Luke was relieved. He looked back and could see some interior lights were just now starting to pop back on inside the small side cockpit. The exterior structure was bruised and beaten. Tubes and components seem to be hanging and some were still smoldering with fire.
"Han, you've got some loose fires on the exterior. I don't know what it is, fuel or something. You should probably do something-" Luke had to stop. He was startled at what he saw.
The Falcon bumped up a bit as a small explosion lit up the underside. Flames engulfed the ship for a brief moment. Then it started to tilt to one side and did a very slow tumble forward.
"Chewie! Aw, c'mon! Are you kiddin' me?" Han groaned on the radio.
"Han?" Luke knew something was going terribly wrong.
He saw the Falcon drop a little, then in a flash it flew back and disappeared. In an instant it was gone.