Endor's beauty was not to be taken lightly. Within its dark forests, dangerous creatures dwelled, as well as the Imperial scouts. The camp gear that they had been given prior to departure was supposed to help them blend in, but there were creatures who didn't rely on movement alone to sense where their enemies are.
The shuttle that had carried them to the forest moon sat in a small clearing, overshadowed by the huge trees. Han and Leia walked ahead of the strike team, trying to keep themselves quiet as they moved along a steep trail. At the very back, with the droids, Anna walked along, looking around constantly. It was an old habit of hers, to be constantly watching. When you lived most of your life in fear, it was a tough habit to get out of.
Beside her, Artoo beeped.
"Oh, I told you it was dangerous here," Threepio said, and Anna looked up to see Chewie, Leia, Han and Luke all crouching at the top of a hill. Carefully, she made her way up to the top of crest, just enough so she could see the Imperial scouts below.
"Shall we try and go around?" Leia asked.
"It'll take time," Han said. "This whole party'll be for nothing if they see us."
Leia looked over her shoulder and motioned for the team to stop. Anna too held out her hand, watching as they disappeared to the edge of the clearing. She shifted her weight so that she was leaning on the trees next to her, and smoothed out the camouflaged poncho that the rest of the team wore. She lifted her head and saw Han and Chewie scrambling down off of the ridge, and Luke roll his eyes at Leia.
Suddenly, the sound of blaster fire could be heard. Her head shot up and Luke and Leia quickly climbed down from the edge of the clearing. She followed, seeing that Han had gotten himself into trouble with the Imperial scouts. One of the scouts had jumped on his speeder bike and was taking off into the forest, followed by Luke and Leia. Two more scouts on bikes trailed them, and Anna knew it was no use going after them. She jumped down from the ridge, rolling easily to where Han and the other scout were fist fighting. She hopped back up onto her feet and watched as Han flipped the scout over his back. She walked up to Han and rolled her eyes.
"Your technique is laughable," she said, and delivered a swift kick to the scout's head.
"At least it's not barbaric," he said, disgust trailing in his voice.
"Don't worry, he's just knocked out," she said. "That wasn't something that I was taught either. That is a survival move, one that you need to learn fast when you frequent Coruscant's Undercity."
"Still you couldn't have just shot him with the blaster set to stun?" he asked.
"I have no blaster, remember?" she asked rhetorically.
"Right, I forgot that you and the kid will take your lightsabers over blasters any day," he said. "Chewie, get the rest of the squad down here. We'll wait for the other two to get back."
The wookiee gave a low growl, then walked over to the squad who were still perched on the edge of the ridge. Han leaned up against one of the large trees, looking down the rough path that Luke and Leia had disappeared down.
"What did you do in Coruscant's Undercity?" he asked.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself about," she said, walking over to another one of the big trees, leaning against it.
"It doesn't matter know, what happened in the past," he said. "From one smuggler to another."
"I had nowhere else to go," she said. "Coruscant was a popular place to smuggle, since the Imperials turned a blind eye to it, which was fine. I didn't care for the Empire one way or another, just the same as I didn't care for the Rebellion. I was completely neutral. There was no reason for me to believe in either side. As far as I knew, the Alliance wasn't really present there, as it was named the Imperial Centre. Despite all of the security, there was still illegal activity. Because of all of that, I was able to hide pretty easily. If I was caught; let's just say that the Imperial patrols were really easy to persuade if you were able to seduce them. That's definitely something that I'm not proud of." She turned away for a moment, the memory of the bar returning to her. "There was one Imperial that I met at a bar once," she continued. "We were in the Undercity; a lot of Imperial patrols would go there in their downtime since some of the illegal activities were still permitted for those who appreciated the old things. I smuggled for him. He tried to convince me to join the Imperials, as well as some other favours. I said no, obviously, but that meant I could never go back. He'd find me, he knew my face. I used an alias whenever I was in the Undercity as an extra precaution." She turned back to face him. "I don't know where that came from, but that's pretty much it. They paid me well in Coruscant, so I smuggled for them. That's all I have to tell you."
"So you went right to the Imperial Centre," Han said. "I'd say 'impressive', but going there on a regular basis sounds like you have a death wish."
Anna sighed. Han did not know of her backstory, and she wanted to keep it that way. He did not know of the reasons why she smuggled, why she had decided to choose Coruscant as her major source of business as opposed to other ports. If she were to tell him the reasons, she doubt that he would understand, even if he was a smuggler. For now, she would pull something that never failed when talking to another smuggler; money.
"If the pay is there, it makes it worth it," she said distantly, as though she did not really believe in what she was saying. Han caught the tone in her voice, but did not press her further on the matter.
For a while, they were silent. No one on the strike team spoke, and the droids were silent, something that seemed to be a foreign concept to them. Still, the quiet was enjoyable, the sounds of the forest moon surrounding them. It was a comforting sound, but there was some unease that travelled through the group. Everyone seemed to thinking about Luke and Leia, hoping that they were still all right, and nothing had happened to them. The last thing that they needed was for either of them to be captured or even worse, killed. At every new sound in the forest, someone always turned their head, hoping that it was a hint of someone coming back. Anna was never one of them. Artoo had his scanners on, and would alert them if he picked something up. The only thing that any of them could do was wait.
Suddenly, Artoo beeped.
"Oh, General Solo, somebody's coming!" Threepio called.
The entire squad raised their weapons, and Anna placed a hand on her lightsaber. The sound of footsteps came closer until they were right outside of the clearing, and Luke emerged from the foliage.
"Luke!" Han called, lowering his weapons. The rest of the squad followed suit. He straightened up from the tree he had bene leaning against as Luke walked over, panting from the run. "Where's Leia?"
"What, she didn't come back?" Luke asked, glancing around the clearing. Concern was heavy in his voice
"I thought she was with you," Han said darkly.
"We got separated," Luke said, trying to defend himself from Han's tone. "Hey, we better go look for her."
Han nodded, turning to address one of the Rebels. "Take the squad ahead," he said. "We'll meet at the shield generator at oh-three-hundred."
"Come on Artoo, we'll need your scanners," Luke called to the droids.
Artoo beeped at Anna, and she smiled. "Only if they don't mind if I tag along," she said.
"Come on," Han said, jerking his head toward the direction Luke had come from. She straightened up from the tree she had been leaning against, watching as the squad took off in another direction from them.
"Don't worry Master Luke, we know what to do!" Threepio called as he followed the small team as they moved into the woods. The protocol droid looked down at Artoo. "And you said it was pretty here!"
Just a little update about everything going on right now, since it's been another unannounced hiatus.
Classes were kicking my ass up until the end of January, but I made it through without too much of a hassle. The last few months were spent trying to find a job (and with no luck), so I've come home pretty burnt out and with no real inspiration to write this story, or do anything really. However, I do plan on finishing this story within the next two moths in order to start writing the sequel in July. I have fourteen more chapters outlined for this story, so updates could be as frequent as three times a week, depending on my inspiration. Since I just watch TFA, my mind is in the Star Wars lore.We're getting so close to the end now!