Chapter 37
AN: Glad to be back and I hope everyone is doing well. My trip was amazing but that is something else entirely. J Thanks again Steph. Now, onto the attack!
As Ari rounded the corner, she passed Luke and Leia. "Luke, Leia!" she called over the shouts of Rebels and the insistent alarm.
They looked up and Leia waved her over. "We have thirty minutes to get out of here. All fighters are set to meet at the rendezvous point with the droids if there is no pilot." She looked flustered and upset.
"Han is holding the Falcon for us," Ari announced.
"Then we should go," Leia nodded in response, starting towards the hanger. Ari also nodded and started back towards her room.
"What are you doing?" Luke asked, grabbing her arm to stop her. "We need to get out of here."
"I have to get something," Ari insisted, pulling her arm out of her grasp.
"Ari…" he started to protest.
"I will be there before you know it," she called over her shoulder as she ran to her room.
Ari quickly changed into her familiar tunic and pants when she got into her room, stuffing some of the other clothes into the bag along with her personal belongings.
Not even bothering to pull on her boots, she tucked them under her arm, running for the Falcon as fast as she could, her bag was over her shoulder, hitting her back with every step.
She could hear the Falcon's engines warming up, as well fighters streaking out of the hanger, the small order to it all was quickly falling apart.
Jumping over a crate in her path, Ari pounded up the ramp to the Falcon, nearly colliding with C-3PO.
"Oh my!" C-3PO exclaimed. "Mistress Arianna, you frightened me."
"Sorry Threepio," Ari answered as she ran towards the cockpit. "You better hold on."
"I shall Mistress Arianna but I would like to point out-"
"You better buckle up droids," Han came over the intercom as Ari rushed into the cockpit.
"Sorry I am late," she greeted them breathlessly. "Thanks for not leaving without me."
"You were close to needing to find your own ride," Han replied. "Those Imperial space slugs are too close for comfort."
He pulled on the controls and the ship quickly rose, Ari holding onto the doorframe since Han and Chewie were in the pilot and co-pilot seat, while Luke and Leia sat behind them.
As they neared the outer atmosphere they could see ships taking off into lightspeed while exchanging fire with the TIEs and Star Destroyers.
"Did they send the whole Imperial fleet?" Han muttered.
"Someone must have told them," Leia nodded.
"Vader," Luke growled. "I just know he would do something like this."
Ari opened her mouth to agree until Leia jumped in. "You don't know that for sure. Maybe they sent out a distress call before-"
She was cut off as the Falcon was hit by a volley of heavy blaster fire from a Super Star Destroyer.
The lights flickered and Ari was thrown from her place in the doorway onto Luke, dropping her boots in the process and her bag sliding off her arm, the journal falling out and falling into Luke's arms.
"Oof," Luke was caught off guard as Ari was unceremoniously thrown onto his lap. "Are you okay?" he asked
"Yeah…" Ari answered, quickly trying to get to her feet, grabbing to take the journal back. "You?"
"I'm fine," he answered, looking over the bounded book in his lap.
"My mother's," Ari quickly told him and grabbed it, but not stuffing it back in the bag.
Luke opened his mouth to speak but was cut off as another volley of shots hit the Falon and an alarm started to go off.
"What is that?" Leia asked Han sternly.
"The shields are almost down."
"What?" Leia voiced the concern of everyone else as they turned to him.
"The Star Fleet happens to have firepower, sweetheart," he replied, in a sarcastic tone.
"So why don't we go to lightspeed?" Leia continued.
"What does it look like I am doing?" Han countered as he flipped a few switches. "Come on baby…"
"If you get us killed I will never forgive you," Leia moaned.
Han shot her a look before looking back at the controls. "Here goes nothing…" he laughed nervously to Chewie, pulling back on the controls.
There was a moment where everyone held their breath, as the stars around them streaked as they entered hyperspace.
"See? I told you I could outrun them," Han grinned, leaning back in the chair.
"And where are we off to now?" Ari asked him.
"Why don't you ask her worshipfulness over there?" Han suggested, nodding his head to Leia as he brought the ship out of hyperspace. "I was just getting us out of there."
"We are supposed to be going to the Roche system," Leia replied.
"Why are we going to an asteroid field?" Han asked, giving her a look.
"We are just meeting there and then taking off again," Leia answered, watching as Han almost reluctantly plotted the coordinates and they were soon in hyperspace again.
"If we get hit by an asteroid…the Falcon has already been through enough," Han told her, wagging a finger at her.
"If this hunk of junk got hit by an asteroid, would it be noticeable?" Leia remarked, raising one eyebrow.
Han shot her a look then quickly got to his feet. "I'm going to make sure that those Imperial slugs didn't mess up anything," he told them and marched off, Chewie following.
"You know, he really is proud of his ship," Luke remarked.
"But he is too proud of himself and his ship," Leia pointed out.
The conversation ended quickly after that, each person looking out the windows at the passing stars.
"Does this make it a victory or retreat?" Ari asked after a moment. Luke and Leia turned to her.
"What do you mean?" Luke asked.
"Well we blew up the Death Star but yet we are running," she told them. "What does this make it?"
"It is a victory, we might have had to retreat, but we won an important battle," Leia told them both.
"So how did you get roped into this?" Luke asked.
Leia paused then began to tell her story, which was just as amazing as Luke and Ari's. She had been on a mercy mission and had come across a Rebel with information put into his mind through hypnosis. Leia had hidden the Rebel and flirted with an Imperial Officer to convince him not to search the ship. Then the young senator/princess had went home and talked to her father. They had decided to help the Rebellion, including the Rebel, who had gotten the information decoded. That was when she had first heard the words "Death Star". The officer she had flirted with came to visit and had had dinner with Leia and her father. During an argument, Leia had let the name "Death Star" slip and the officer knew she was a Rebel. He went to arrest Leia and her father and a fight ensued. The officer's blaster had gone off and he had died. Bail, Leia's father had promised to take care of the body and make it look like an accident, since weapons weren't allowed on Alderaan.
Finally, Leia had gotten the plans for the Death Star from Rebels on a controlled planet. The Empire had pursued her and she tried to make it to Tatooine but was captured. She had just gotten to the part of giving the message to R2 when an alarm went off, indicating they had arrived.
AN: As usual please R&R everyone!