Chapter 71

AN: I am finally updating again. I will try to be better and update more frequently. I am also putting it in a new format. Please R&R everyone!

The next few seconds were intense as Ari turned sharply so that she and Tem would not be hit. She vaguely heard Dack over the comm

"Luke, we've got a malfunction in fire control. I'll have to cut in the auxiliary," he announced, some panic in his voice.

"Just hang on." Ari saw a shot barely miss Dack and Luke's speeder. "Hang on, Dack. Get ready to fire that tow cable," Luke told him, his voice serious and firm. Ari could see how he had risen so quickly to the rank of Commander.

Ari could hear a few other things over the comm., but was more concerned with her piloting than anything else. Tem was silent as well, which meant that he was concentrating. She was used to his sarcastic comments, so without them, it made everything feel more intense.

The young woman's attention was pulled back to Luke and Dack, when she heard a cry. She saw their speeder flew under a walker, and held her breath for a moment. Luke was still able to pilot. That had to mean...

"Dack? Dack!" Luke exclaimed, and Ari knew right then that they had lost another find Rebel, as well as a kind being. She briefly heard Tem mutter something, and she realized it was almost like a goodbye. She didn't know what was said, but she caught the tone in his voice. Even those that lived died a little each time as another comrade was killed.

The rest of the fight was a mix of blaster fire and commands from the base, ships and other personal as the walkers continued their slow, yet determined walk toward the base. They were getting closer to the Rebels in the trenches, whose weapons seemed powerless against the massive machines, like sand mites were to humans on Tatooine. No more than an annoyance.

Ari heard Luke's voice a few minutes later, and was thankful he had a plan. At the moment, she and Tem were having difficulty drawing the fire away from the trenches, being more defensive than offensive. They needed to give the transports enough time to escape.

"Rouge Three," Luke spoke up over the comm. That was Wedge's designation and Ari let out the smallest sigh of relief as he answered, glad he was still alive.

"Copy, Rouge Leader."

"Wedge, I've lost my gunner. You'll have to make this shot. I'll cover for you. Set your harpoon. Follow me on the next pass."

Ari swooped down low and saw a number of Rebels below her, running back from the walkers. She hoped they would make it before the Imperials, and then she bit her lip. She was one of the beings that could allow that. Her fight with the walkers gave more Rebels the time they needed to get onto the transports.

"Coming around, Rouge Leader," Wedge replied, which brought Ari's attention back to the maneuver that the others were attempting.

"Steady, Rouge Two," Luke cautioned him.

Luke lead another snowspeeder toward a walker and Ari skimmed by it, not just to see the maneuver, but to hopefully draw away the walker's fire from the others. She watched as Wedge piloted his speeder behind Luke's, and Ari knew he was calculating this carefully. They would probably not get many chances at this.

"Activate harpoon," Wedge instructed his gunner. Ari dove to avoid a volley of blaster shots, and heard Wedge again. "Good shot, Janson."

Daring a look, Ari gave a small cheer to herself. They had attached the tow cable to one of the walker's back legs. Now they just had to go around a few times to be sure that the cable would do its job. She watched as she missed a few more blasts from nearby walkers, continuing to spare glances at Rouge Three as it began to circle the walker's legs.

"One more pass..." Ari could hear the tension in Wedge's voice, and knew he was nervous and concentrating solely on the task at hand.

"Coming around. Once more," Janson replied to confirm the order. They circled the walker once more until Janson called out "Cable out! Let her go!"

"Detach cable," Wedge ordered.

The cable detached and Rouge Three quickly sped away from the walker even as Janson announced "Cable detached."

All the Rebels seemed to be focused on this one moment, wondering and hoping if it would work. This was the only way that they could bring down such a large and well armored machine.

The walker attempted to move but its legs could not do as commanded. The large machine teetered for a moment before falling forward and into the snow with a resounding crash.

A cheer erupted from all the Rebels, not only the ones in the snowspeeders, but also the ones on the ground.

A few of the Rebels in the trench started to run in that direction, toward the walker, even as Ari received the order to fly in, along with Rouge Three, and destroy the walker completely instead of just disabling it. Flying close, Tem and Janson fired at it and the large war machine exploded, causing snow and metal to fly out as a large flame engulfed the entire walker.

Wedge let out a triumphant shout as he pulled to one side, while Ari's speeder flew turned the other way. "Whooha!! That got him!"

"I see it, Wedge. Good work," Luke complimented him, and Ari noticed that while his voice held praise, his tone was missing the usual spark he held from Tatooine. Back home, he would have sounded just as excited as Wedge. Not this time. War made everyone grow older before their time and for a moment, Ari wondered if the same was happening to Luke.

The fighting continued and Ari saw Rebels fall as the walkers got closer. It seemed like their shots never did damage to these machines, while the walkers had killed Rebels and destroyed some of their large assault weapons.

Then her eyes fell on another vehicle. It was smaller and much faster than the AT-ATs. "What is that?"

"An AT-ST. All Terrain Scout Transport. They don't look as tough as AT-ATs, but they are still dangerous," Tem answered her.

Ari nodded as she heard Luke over the comm. "Rouge Two, are you all right?"

"Yeah. I'm with you, Rouge Leader," Zev told him, flying alongside Luke's transport.

"We'll set harpoon. I'll cover for you," Luke announced and Ari gave a small sigh. She knew why they were doing it again, but she felt her nerves become even more intense as she heard this.

She watched out of the corner of her eye as the speeders flew toward the walkers very quickly. For a moment she thought of racing back in Beggar's Canyon. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

"Coming around," Zev announced. Ari's eyes were torn to the walker firing on herself and Tem, who was returning fire. She listened to them over the comm., the rest of her senses focused on piloting.

"Watch that cross fire, boys."

"Set for position three."

"Stay tight and low."

A cry caused Ari to turn, just in time to see Rouge Two, Zev's ship, explode into a ball of flame. She felt a painful burn of unshed tears in her eyes but wiped them away. "Force be with you," she whispered. Zev had been a good guy.

She couldn't focus on that for long, because the next thing she knew, she heard works she never wanted to hear. And they were coming from Luke. "Hobbie, I've been hit!"

Ari turned quickly and saw the speeder crash into the snow. "Luke!" she screamed, and received no answer. She felt her throat tighten and felt her entire body go cold. However, the feeling passed as she saw the canopy lift off the speeder. She let out a deep sigh and watched as Luke tried to get something or in this case someone. He was trying to get Dack out of the speeder.

"Luke..." she whispered and could only watch hopelessly, trying to keep herself and Tem from being shot down as well.

The walker was almost upon them, and Ari saw Luke barely escape from being crushed, his snowspeeder now destroyed.

Her relief was short lived as she heard the announcement than had all feared. "Imperial troops have entered the base." Moments later, the evacuation code signal was given. Glancing at the Rebels in the trenches, she saw them running back toward the base, just slightly to the side, where the final transport was waiting. She saw some of the Rebels get shot down by walkers and could not do anything more to help. Ari's eye caught Luke as she scanned the crowd.

It didn't take too long to find him. He was going in the opposite direction than the others. He was running toward the walkers, which were quickly advancing toward the retreating troops. "Luke, what are you doing?" she whispered.

She wanted to watch, but found it was not that easy since she was swooping toward another walker, trying to draw the fire away from the other Rebels while Tem shot at it. Everyone knew the shots would not damage the walker, but they had to try. They had to make sure everyone was able to evacuate. She just hoped it was possible. If Imperial troops had entered the base, each second counted.

Ari saw Luke run under a walker, and then lost sight of him for a short time. What was he thinking? He was on foot with only a few basic weapons, including his lightsaber. How could that take on a huge, heavily armored Imperial walker.

She gave a sharp turn and ended up close to walker that Luke had disappeared under. She saw him drop from where he had seemed to have been hanging underneath the walker. He hit the ground hard and for a moment did not move, and one of the back legs was coming done close to him. Too close for comfort.

Luckily, it missed him. And a few seconds later, as she turned to take on another walker, Ari heard an explosion. As she turned, she saw black smoke and flames coming from the walker. It smoldered for a moment before falling forward, crashing into the snow like its already fallen companion. Whatever Luke had done, had worked. He had done the impossible, destroying a whole walker, without a vehicle and or even a blaster. She would have to ask him how he did it.

Then another explosion caught Ari's eye, and she immediately knew it was a bad sign. Without any sound from its occupants, another speeder had been shot down. So many were falling during this battle that it made her feel sick to her stomach to even think about it.

She saw the AT-AT that had hit the other speeder and watched as it prepared to fire on the main generator. And there was nothing that any of them could do, but watch at the walker fired, destroying the generators.

As most of the Rebels reached the point of safety, upon a hill of ice and snow, where the walkers could not see them, or reach them, an announcement came over the communicator. "All speeders, this is the final evacuation. Get to your ships and the transport. I repeat, final evacuation."

"You heard the man. Let's get out of here," Tem announced and Ari could hear the heaviness in his voice, from the loss of so many and the stress that seemed to scream through every fiber of his being. She knew, because she felt it as well.

Along with the other remaining speeders, she flew toward the meeting area. She saw Luke walking there and when she slowed down ever so slightly, he waved her forward. He would meet her there. She was thankful that he had survived. She was almost afraid to find out who had not been as fortunate.

Landing, she pulled back the canopy and gave small nods and quick hellos to the others. While they had some time before they had to worry too much about troops coming to find them, none of them wanted to press their luck.

She rushed forward though to get to Luke. He must be exhausted and she was worried that he had gotten injured in the crash or his fall from the walker.

A sound came from the base and she turned, as did a few other pilots, including Luke. It was the Millennium Falcon. Han and Chewie were alright. That helped slightly. She had worried about the smuggler due to all the problems he had been having with the ship. It did make her sad though. Would she ever see those two again? She hoped so.

"Luke!" Ari rushed to him and threw her arms around him in a tight hug. They met with such a force that their helmets to collided with a small jolt. He gave a small smile as they hugged and they stayed like that for a moment. Luke pulled back first, looking exhausted but his eyes shone with a hint of relief.

"Are you alright?" he asked, looking over her.

"Yes, are you?" she asked, doing the same thing. He looked a bit banged up, but nothing too serious.

"I am fine," he assured her. "I will be at least. Come on. We better get ready."

Ari paused then nodded and gave him another quick hug before going to her fighter. "R4, get ready to take off."

The droid confirmed and in just moments the ship was ready. The pilots all climbed into their cockpits and put on their helmets.

All the fighters, minus three, flew with the transport. It was likely that there would be no attack made by the Star Destroyers, since they were out of range. However, no one could afford to be careless. Ari, Wedge and Luke were the only two left.

"Are you two ready?" Wedge asked, scanning the area, glancing once more at the transport and fighters, who had made it past the Star Destroyers. "We still have some time, but I would rather meet up at the rendezvous as soon as possible. Especially since have to make a number of different drops out of hyperspace." To keep themselves from being tracked, the ships would make three separate jumps. One from Hoth to another place in space and new coordinates would be entered into the navicomputer. From there, they would make another short jump before making the final jump to the rendezvous point.

"I am ready," Ari replied.

"You two go ahead, I will follow behind you to make sure the Destroyers stay off of your tails."

"Luke, they are too far out of range, they shouldn't be any trouble," Wedge spoke up.

"I just want to make sure; the transport is still not in hyperspace. Honest, I will see you both at the rendezvous point. I will only be a few minutes behind you."

"Luke..." Ari started, and then sighed. He was her commanding officer, so he could order her to go. "Just don't do anything crazy," she finally spoke and Luke gave her a salute.

"This is me, Ari. Now, you two get going so I can follow."

Ari smiled slightly as she and Wedge took off. True to his word, Luke followed behind them, only about a minute or two of flight time separating him from Wedge and Ari.

They were quiet over the communication channels and flew past the Star Destroyers without them even a shot being fired at them. Ari gave a quick wave to Wedge, who gave her one in return, and the two entered hyperspace.