Location: Above the planet Socorro
"Everybody... Hold on!" Han yelled as The Falcon barrel-rolled through space like a starfighter one eighth it's size.
Whatever restraint the local scum and villainy had shown toward The Jade Shadow, had apparently evaporated.
As soon as they exited hyperspace, several ships attacked!
It wasn't coordinated enough to suggest a planned ambush. It felt more like a pack of stray Tuscan hounds ganging up on pretty much anything that moved.
Han was determined to show those muts, that they had bitten off more than they could chew.
After a couple more evasive maneuvers, Han shouted: Ok! Get 'em!
With that, both top and bottom blaster turrets opened up with devastatingly accurate blaster fire. Han maneuvered the ship to line up the shots, and the mom/daughter team took out the targets. Within a minute, the offending ships were nothing but floating debris clouds.
After a few more pathetically lobbed pot shots, it was clear the message had been received: The Millennial Falcon was not a helpless bantha pursued by Rancors. IT WAS THE RANCOR!
With the welcoming committee out of steam, the Solo family ship headed in.
Location: Tendrando Arms Secret Base below the surface of the planet Socorro.
"Now, I know I'm gettin old..." Lando said with a swagger he didn't feel. "But there is no way I'll ever mistaken a figure like yours for that of Luke Skywalker's.
The man couldn't help himself. Whenever Lando was in the presence of a woman (no matter the age) flirtations would just roll off his tongue.
"Might as well loose the helmet, love." He invited.
By now, Vestara had walked right in front of Ben. In fact, she was standing between him and Lando.
She turned slightly to give Ben a glance, and then looked back up at Lando. She let out a final sigh, and then dipped her head to remove the helmet.
It took Lando a moment to recognize the newly revealed visage before him. The juxtaposition of perfect symmetry and vicious scarring, temporarily distracted him from the girl's true identity.
But only for a moment. The recognition hit him like a charging reek. His whole body began to shake, as adrenaline and rage poured into his bloodstream.
"You!" He accused with a shaky voice and an equally quivering finger.
Tendra's and Chance's names, were the only thing that existed in his mind. This girl in front of him, had banished his loved ones to the realm of his memory. With their murderer standing not 10 feet away, nothing else mattered. Ben didn't matter. Luke didn't matter. Lando himself, didn't matter
Pulling out his blaster he stalked towards Vestara.
"Don't do this Lando." Ben pleaded
"SShhuutt uupp BBeenn!!!" Both Lando and Vestara replied at the same time.
As he approached closer, she knelt down on one knee and crossed her arms across her chest.
He was now standing over her with a face full of tears. As she looked up at her executioner, her face was pelted by the the drops of his sadness.
In a voice that epitomized peaceful contrition, she spoke: "I deserve this. Ben does not. He can't be blamed for saving me. He can't be blamed for having a kind heart. Ive tried Lando! I've to kill myself, but the force has kept me alive for this moment. Please! Let Ben go!"
Momentarily, Lando took his eyes off Vestara and looked at Ben. It was as if he had forgotten anyone in the universe existed besides him and Vestara. He looked back at Vestara, and with an unsteady hand, placed the muzzle of his blaster against her forehead. In response, Vestara closed her eyes, and whispered: "I'm sorry."
Location: Above the planet Socorro
Meanwhile, The Falcon was ripping through the Socorron atmosphere like a fallen angel. Both Leia and Jaina had yelled out: "Hurry!" Obviously they were picking up on something through the force that he couldn't detect. As the dark sands of Socorro filled the forward view screen, the ship's comm came to life with the squeals and beeps that could only have come from one droid in the entire galaxy.
By this point the two women had joined Han in the cockpit. "Quick! Somebody! What's he saying?" Han blurted out while focusing the bulk of his attention on their descent.
Jaina leaned forward to look at the readout on the small display in front of her. "He says... uh... He says he came with Vestara in The Jade Shaow to save Ben!"
Han and Leia shared a look, then Han verbalized what they were both thinking: "Well, she's a dead woman then. Our only hope is that Lando gets his justice and doesn't feel the need to keep Ben anymore."
There was more droid talk over the comm, and Jaina relayed the gist of R2's explanation to her parents. "He pretty much confirms Dad's theory. He also says..." She paused for a moment, allowing the readout to complete it's translation. "You smart little droid!" She said, in admiration. "He says he snuck a tracker onto Vestara when she was leaving the ship. He's sending us the tracker codes... Now! Got em!"
With that, a wire frame layout of Lando's base appeared on one of the overhead displays. In one corner of the map, a yellow flashing dot appeared.
"It's not moving!" Jaina noted. "That's not good."Leia added.
"No! It's not!" Han chimed in. "But, at least we have some kinda idea where to start looking for Ben. All we gotta do is land on that pad..."
He pointed at the surface of the base as displayed on Jaina's map "Then we find a turbo lift and start looking for Ben in that room, where the tracker is."
"I don't know Han..." Leiah began, with a dubious expression plastered to her face. "I don't think Lando is going to let us just waltz on in."
"Do we have a choice?" Han asked, fairly abruptly.
He quickly followed that by: "I'm sorry Leia. I'm just so karking mad at Lando. This has gotten way out of hand... Look! All I know is that kid is family! And I'll be damned if he's going to be left to rot in some Sith infested droid factory. I'm getting him out! And there is noth..." His proclamation was cut off by the sonic boom of turbo laser fire grazing the ship's forward shield.
"Look alive people!" He shouted, as he threw The Falcon into an evasive manoeuvre. A shower of deadly green energy shot up from, the now fully active, turbolaser towers that populated the Tendrando Arms landing pad.
"Bloah!" Han blurted out the profanity through gritted teeth as he tried to dodge blaster bolts the size of large speeder bikes. One direct hit to the cockpit, and the ship would be turned into a burning wreck, shields or no shields.
"We got trouble Han!" Leiah said, while gripping the back of his chair. "Really? More trouble then those Turbolaser towers?" He barked out.
But he was speaking to nobody. Leia and Jaina had already left the cockpit, headed back to the turrets.
A couple seconds later, Han could see the "trouble" Leia had been referring to. A squadron of Tendrando Arms droidfighters were headed their way.
While she was settling into the gunner chair, Jaina heard her dad over the intercom: "Ok... You girls take good care of our guests and I'll take care of the whole "us not dying" part.
"Roger that!" Leia replied for the both of them.
As her targeting reticle lit up, Jaina fell into the force and once again became the sword of the Jedi.
"This is where the fun begins." She said with a grin, before turning the first fighter into so much scrap.
Location: Tendrando Arms Secret Base below the surface of the planet Socorro
Lando hadn't fired yet. He just stood there, fighting what Ben belated recognized as an internal battle.
Through the force, Ben knew that although internal, it wasn't simply a battle between two parts of Lando's personality. Namely: Vengeance and forgiveness. He could sense an outside source at work. A source he knew to be the droids that occupied the room. Somehow, they where having a pervasive influence on him; feeding the dark emotions awakened by his family's slaughter. Thankfully, the influence was not particularly strong. Without word or motion, Ben enveloped Lando within a bubble of force protection.
Instantly the change could be seen and felt through the force. Lando felt like a man who had been trying to look at the world from the bottom of a lake and now, had breached the surface. He looked down at the pathetic girl, weeping on her knees and realized: Killing this wreck of a woman, wasn't something he really wanted to do.
He could think of a thousand other ways to complete his self destruction that would actually be more appealing.
But he felt like a holodrama that had already been made, and as hard as one tried, they couldn't change the ending. He had to follow this through. He began to apply pressure to the trigger. He felt the firing threshold approach... then...
He released the trigger and dropped the blaster to the floor.
"What?" A droid voice demanded from behind him.
He then knelt down to her head level. By now both of them were overcome with tears. He lifted up her chin with his thumb and forefinger and said, with a broken voice:
"I hate you! I! Hate! You! Vestara Khai! I will always hate you! I can't ever forget what you've taken from me. I know you are not the same person anymore, and I don't care! I hope you spend every day for the rest of your miserable life trying as hard as you can to undo the damage you've caused, and every night in tears realizing that you can't! I'm done with you!"
With that, Lando stood up. Pulling a remote from his pocket he pressed it's activation button. The cuffs holding Ben to the chair, suddenly sprang open.
"You... you're free to go..." Lamdo said in a voice that was just a fraction over a whisper.
Ben stood up and went to help Vestara up from her kneeling position, while the droid Lando knew as Veradun headed straight for him.
He could barely contain his frustration.
"What are you doing Master Calrissian? We can't let Ben go... We need Luke to..."
Lando waved his hand. "No! I don't care anymore! I can't do this anymore... Let them go!"
Malgus (Veradun) Couldn't contain his frustration anymore. He had had to tiptoe around this insignificant bug for too long. He grabbed Lando by the throat and lifted him up off his feet with ease.
And with that, he let out all the venom and rage that he had been storing up for the past several months.
"No? NO? WHAT MADE YOU THINK THAT YOU EVER HAD THE RIGHT TO SAY NO TO ME? YOUR ARE MY SERVANT! A SERVANT I KNOW LONGER HAVE ANY PURPOSE FOR!
Before Lando could comprehend the significance of the droid's betrayal, he felt a burning sensation in his chest. He tried to tilt his head down to survey the source of this new sensation, but the firm grip of the mechanical fist prevented all but the smallest of movements from Lando.
Ben was horrified on so many levels. To see Lando impaled by a red bladed lightsaber was one of the most disturbing images to ever cross his eyes. What was even more disturbing, was the killer droid's outburst. Up till then, all of the force powered machines had kept strict control of their own emotions. When "Veradun" had exploded in a fit of rage, Ben could sense a very familiar presence that he instantly recognized:
"Ship!" The word came out of an astonished Vestara. She had sensed his distinct presence, as well.
Meanwhile, The droid withdrew his blade from Lando's chest and dropped the limp body to the floor. With an erie mechanical scream, the droid lunged for Vestara, sabre raised high for the killing blow...
"Ship! Stop!" Yelled Ben.
The Crimson line of death hung frozen, a mere centimetre from Vestara's face. The original programming that demanded "Ship" obey any order given by a strong willed force user, was still active.
The droid just stood over Vestara, seething with rage. Impotent rage, for he was powerless against Ben's command. Looking around the room, Ben noticed the other droids where also spellbound.
Not pausing to consider the implications of that, Ben rushed to Lando. He turned him over and saw...
Lando was still alive. A cursory examination of the wound revealed that the blade had pierced his right lung. Because it was a lightsaber and not a regular blade, he wasn't in danger of bleeding out. That being said, his breathing was heavily compromised.
Compromised was a word that could also be applied to his mind. The events of the last several minutes where enough to send him into an emotionally shocked state. He was utterly helpless.
In silent unison, Vestara and Ben helped Lando off the floor, and each taking one of his arms, they started heading for the exit.
The still frozen droids roared: " NO!"
But it was of no use, as long as Ben was nearby, his order would stand, and there was nothing they could do about it...
Or was there?