Chapter 92 - A Botched Rescue

"Enemy one up ahead." Han used the ship's comm to announce to the teams onboard.

When they had gotten their equipment running, the rebels discovered three Dreadnaughts headed their way. Deciding to start on the offensive, their teams were sent out. Onboard he had a whole flank of rebel soldiers. He had to get them just close enough to board. Then he would fly around the enemy, like a fly to an Orbak, annoying the Phobium out of it.

As Han predicted, the bay doors opened and out flew a battalion of TIE Fighters. The first plan was to squeeze in there long enough to drop off the soldiers. But Dreadnaughts had a large crew, and their chances would be slim of getting past a crowded bay undetected. It's a good thing Han had his other idea.

He spun his ship and aimed lower. "Hit the snout." He shouted to the other pilots nearby.

They changed their aim to a singular spot on the front tip of the dreadnought. This coordinated attack wouldn't do much damage, but it would cause hull cracking, which the crew would send out droids to fix.

"There." He saw the droid bay doors open, and he shouted into his ship's comm, "Three, Two, One, Drop." As he pulled away he saw the crew standing on the hull as their magnetic boots attached to the ship. They were wearing suits and masks, so they could get through the droid ports without suffocating first. Then Han spun around to rejoin the fight with the other ships.


Leia stayed by the hatch door until all of her team made it through. Then she looked to Sergeant Kes Dameron, who was in charge of their crew. Dameron gave a nod, and she shut the hatch. Taking a big gasp, Leia pulled off her mask and space suit.

"Alright Jedi, where do we go next?" Dameron asked.

Leia used the Force to sense where the nearby officers were. Through the nearest hatch was a workroom and two men were stationed inside, but there were another three soldiers in the hall outside. If they couldn't handle these two quietly, they would be a problem. She put her finger to her lips to signal her Sergeant. Then used two fingers on one hand, and three on another to explain the situation to him without words.

He nodded, then signaled their man to open the door. Once in the room, they were able to sneak up behind the crewmen and Leia used a sleep suggestion to knock them out.

"Good. Yavi, did they leave us any droids?" Dameron asked one of their crew. Their team had a few bombs, and their goal was to place them in key places onboard. A droid would be an efficient way to do this, as most crew probably wouldn't question its presence.

"No, it looks like they're all off fixing battle damage," Yavi responded.

"Figures, alright that means we do it the old fashioned way. Jedi, where to?" Dameron looked at Leia again. She closed her eyes to enhance her Force senses.


"Yes! Alright! Good work!" Han congratulated the other pilots.

"Has anyone received a signal from the drop teams?" asked one of the other pilots. Shara Bey, she was a skilled pilot and very good at the trick moves Han liked to use.

"No, nothing on my scanners yet," Han replied. He knew her husband was one of the men he dropped into the maintenance bay earlier. Together they had a son. What was his name? Doe, Poe, Boe? The thought of a kid being orphaned on his watch was a thought that got Han serious about fighting Imperialists. "No, but the second I do, I will message you."

"Alright, I think they're coming in for another wave." Shara responded. "How about we try to thread the needle again?"

Han smiled. "You hear her team. Pull 'em up and make a hole."


Some time later, it was starting to make Han question what these Dreadnaughts were made of. He'd go on a run, clearly damaging one of its sensors or guns, then move on to another, and before he was finished giving it the same treatment, his sensors said the other was up and functional already. It was no wonder the rebellion had such an issue fighting these.

His team had another hole worked in, an unguarded area where they could fly in to shoot, when Han looked down at his communicator. It was blinking a little red light, and that meant one thing. "Shara, I'm called. Back to the Maintenance Bay."

He turned his ship, and as he said this, Shara turned with him. Surely they wouldn't need two ships to pick up the crew, but he knew why she wanted to go down. It was the same reason why he didn't turn back.


Han landed, and he looked around. 'Leia, Leia,' He started to panic when the team came up, and he couldn't find his girlfriend among them. "Leia, where's Leia?" he asked one of them in a rush, before they boarded Shara's craft.

Kes turned around from where he'd already boarded, and said, "We had trouble exiting the engine room. Skywalker stayed back so we could get out. I'm sorry sir."

"Solo," Shara called.

Han turned, "Go. Get out of here."

She nodded, a look of understanding in her eyes, as if she knew what he was going to do and gave her silent approval. As her ship was departing, Han grabbed a blaster from his ship, and a sensor to tell him where the engine room was. Then he entered the Dreadnaught.


Onboard, stormtroopers and imperial crew were everywhere. Han figured he had little hope of sneaking in unnoticed, so he decided to make it big. When a team of eight troopers noticed him in the hall, they yelled "Halt!"

Han lifted his blaster and shot at a specific point above their heads. A loud bang went off and then a piece of the ship was flying towards them. Han jumped and rolled away, quickly slipping into another corridor.

Han made a bigger boom in that corridor and soon a ship-wide page went out. "Intruder on Deck D. Shoot on sight." That repeated several times, which made Han roll his eyes.

He turned into another hall and there was a team of troopers in that hallway that did shoot him on sight. It's a pity their aim was affected by the poor visors their helmets provided them with. Several shots went over his shoulder, and Han was able to take down three of the men and slip into his target doorway before being hit.

Han slipped into the deck above the ship's engine room, and he was surprised to find no-one but droids making repairs and running things. None of the droids even looked up to notice him, so he stepped down, looking for any trace of Leia or the Rebels. Suddenly he was hit in the head and he lost consciousness.


"You make it very hard, you know." The voice above him was stressed, and it grunted as if lifting a great weight.

Han moaned.

"Oh don't you complain. I almost made my way out of here, then you get them to shoot on sight. It makes it very hard to steal one of their ships."

Han blinked his eyes open. "Leia?"

"Who'd you think it was?" She shook her head. "I've got us into a tunnel used by cleaning droids. Now, thanks to yours truly, we can't go to the hangar bay, they have that too guarded. And we can't go past D-deck without fighting our way through."

"I parked in Maintenance." Han said, rubbing his head.

"That's on C-Deck," Leia pointed out. "There's a team of six troopers and a droid-aimed gun turret if they all should miss."

"Oh," Han understood.

Suddenly the repeating alarm telling them all to shoot on sight stopped, and something in the air changed. Leia looked around with a worried expression.

"What is it?" Han asked.

"I don't know? Something's coming."

Han became worried.


Down the hall, Imperial troopers were given orders to pull back, as a dark figure with a black mask walked past them. Everyone became silent and the sith's rhythmic breathing became louder.


On another planet, Luke awoke suddenly. In his night terrors he'd gripped the sheets and his pillows now lay in a heap on the floor. He was breathing fast, as if he were just fighting for his life and not in his dreams.

Getting up, he rushed to put a robe on, and ran out to find help.


After being promoted to grandmaster of the Jedi Order, Anakin had made himself an office on the rebellion base at Beskarn, and he'd cut into the large stack of battle-plans they were sending his way on a regular basis. Even though his list of accomplishments was a lot shorter than his predecessor, he had spent a lot of the Clone Wars on the front line, and he knew what it took to win a battle. He started with a few changes to the Jedi placements out in the field, and soon the Rebellion generals were inquiring his opinion on this and that battle.

Fortunately for him, the Jedi back home were doing a good job of keeping their disputes small and largely off of the council's to-do list. He decided on a new way to handle these disputes too. Instead of every new issue coming to the Council to decide, he appointed Masters to be a sounding board for smaller issues. Thus the council would only be called on to handle the biggest issues. It wasn't really new, exactly. The old Jedi order had its council of reassignment and Circle of Healers, to name a few, but after the order was decimated, these sub-councils dissolved.

Now, if he could just get the teams on assignment with the rebellion to do the same…

"Dad! Dad! DAD!" In a sweaty rush, Luke burst into his office. "Leia and Han are in trouble."


Hello,

I included here two characters I found on the Wiki. Kes Dameron and Shara Bey are the parents of Poe Dameron. At this time he's a little baby, living with Shara's father while her parents fight in the Rebellion. I thought it would be cute to include them here.

Now, Han and Leia are in a sticky situation, and Luke's prophecy is meant to mimic the part from the Empire Strikes Back, when he goes to Bespin to save them. Only in this timeline, he has, hopefully, more empathy than Yoda to report it to. And his Sister… well lets just say that Leia was never a damsel in distress. We'll have to see if she even needs anyone to rescue her.

And if anyone's still confused, in this timeline Palpatine scored another fallen Jedi, injured in a ship accident, and he named him Vader too. So in Palpatine's mind Vader is going to be going after Vader, killing the boy who rejected him. If you need to review, this Vader fell in chapter 24.