It was several hours before Chewbacca came back into the small cabin of Han Solo and shook the bunk that Han was in. He was slightly snoring in a deep sleep while twisted in an awkward position in his bunk. He jumped up and twirled around in one fast motion. He was facing Chewie with his blaster in his hand and blinking his eyes repeatedly to wake himself.
"Chewie! What is it?" Han said with a yawn while rubbing the blaster against the top of his ruffled hair.
"Raaargh Garrrgh Greeeegh!" Chewbacca replied.
"Okay, okay. I'm getting up," Han struggled to raise himself.
He stumbled forward and followed Chewbacca into the bridge. The ships were still far out ahead of them towing the Falcon along. There were many new ships surrounding them now, small fighters and pods of different sizes loosely assembled with rough metal patches and miscellaneous parts. Some ships were held together with rope and long strips of canvas. One of those moved in closer to the Falcon.
Han flipped on the bottom guns again and trained them on the closest ship. It had an open deck with several men in space suits manning long guns on top. They were each chained on board and each one struggled to stand as their craft jutted in and out of different oncoming ships. Han aimed at the group and thought he could easily take out the whole lot in a matter of seconds.
"Chewie, how are the shields?" Han asked.
"Naaahhhrgh."
"Oh" said Han as he switched off the guns and locked the controls over to one side. He could get several blasts off, but they wouldn't survive more than a few minutes of direct fire.
They were towed past a huge lime green gaseous planet with several moons under its very thick rings. After a while they pulled close to the edge of its dark side and right into the inner most ring. The ring was a huge expanse of large floating chucks of dark metal that glistened when the distant red sun struck it at odd angles. The tow ships navigated carefully between the large planetoids in a narrow path that zigzagged through the maze.
Finally they came upon a group of planetoids that had been assembled in a large spherical pattern. Each one was affixed with glowing pods that shot a constant stream of energy to pods on other planetoids, constructing a round grid. Inside the grid were many floating boulders of different sizes. They all had little structures on them with glowing lights. There were ropes everywhere. Men were seen pulling themselves along the ropes between the large rocks.
"It's some kind of shield," Han said looking at the massive structure as they approached.
Within a few minutes they were led through the shield and into a collection of large boulders, all fastened together with cables and ropes. There were small houses and huts everywhere supported by large wooden poles and rusted meal beams. The haphazard construction was surrounded by spaceships of all sizes which were docked by ropes and tethers. There were also small gun batteries on different floating boulders surrounding them.
Han looked closely and was surprised to see that there were men standing behind the large guns and they were not wearing any space suits at all. Some were dressed in loose clothing with large gold chains hanging the length of their pants fixed on either end. Others had the remains of various military uniforms that were ripped and tattered in different places, seemingly by design. Most of their heads were shaved or had hair cut in different odd angles with large tattoos covering the tops and sides of their heads. Some had gold and metal piercings across their face and necks.
Han leaned forward towards the glass as they passed a gun emplacement close by. He saw a man floating there in zero gravity readying a large turbo laser and aiming it at the Falcon. The man was wearing clothes very much the same as Han, same pants and boots. He had on a flightcap and goggles and a large unlit cigar jutted out of his mouth that he chomped on while he locked his feet onto the back of the gun turret.
"Oh, man- Chewie, I think I know that guy," Han said as he continued to stare at the man who put a large grin around his cigar and started to wave in a very sardonic manner.
"Okay, I definitely know that guy. These are pirates- all of 'em." Han paused as their ship was pulled in close to the largest dock with dozens of men waiting on the rock with guns and some with ropes to tie up the ship. "Not good," Han continued.
Chewie grunted as the communications panel lit up from an incoming hail.
"Yeah- sure, let's hear 'em" said Han as he waved a nonchalant hand to Chewie who switched the com panel.
"We wish to board. Do you comply peacefully?" said a strangely accented voice that crackled on a small speaker on the panel.
"Do we have a choice?" Han yelled loudly out to the room.
"Do you comply?" the voice repeated.
"Aww- nuts!" answered Han as he kicked the sidewall with his boot.
"Nuts?" said the voice.
"Who's in charge over there?" Han asked.
There was a pause on the other end, then some arguing could be heard in the background, "He said, uh, I think he said- nuts!"
"I said who's in charge?" Han yelled louder.
There was a loud bang from the bottom of the ship. Both Han and Chewie flew up and out of the cockpit. Sparks and smoke billowed up from the bottom hatch. Han drew his blaster and ran down the small hallway to see that the ramp that usually slowly descended was blown off of its hinges and it fell away it seconds. Long guns poked their way up through the smoke followed by the tattooed heads of pirates. One of them saw Han and his eyes widened as he let out a yell and fired.
Han sprang back and fired as he stepped towards the bridge. Chewbacca took out his bowcaster from behind Han and moved forward. He yelled out while taking a wookie warrior stance. He fired and bursts of energy flooded the cabin, causing explosions all around the hatchway. They stopped for a moment as the pirates disappeared. They could hear many men yelling below the opening.
"I wish there was a way out of this pal," Han said to Chewie as they moved back toward the hatch with guns drawn.
Chewie grunted slightly as he reloaded his crossbow weapon and took aim and knelt next to Han. Han crept up a little further and could see figures just beyond the hatch through the clearing smoke. Then someone darkened the hole and a half dozen little orbs came flying into the cabin and bounced all around.
"Gas!" Han yelled as he and Chewie ran back towards the bridge.
All of the orbs exploded and gaseous dark green smoke billowed and filled every crevice of the cabin. Han struggled to hold his breath and make his way towards the emergency air masks. He could barely see his hands in front of him when he was stopped. Sprawled out at his feet was his first mate, still gripping the crossbow weapon. Han's heart went out to him seeing him like that and he coughed. It was enough. The fumes penetrated in nostrils and burned down his throat. He gagged and coughed some more and went to his knees. In a second he was down next to his comrade.