Adrianne Palicki as Lilah Amidala

Shelley Hennig as Thalia Kenobi

We don't own Star Wars (only our plot points)

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As the remaining rebels left on the last transport, Luke watched his friends take off in the Falcon that was racing away from the base and travel over the snow, then angle up and away from Hoth's surface, he felt grateful to know they would be safe. The evacuation was complete. Lilah, Leia, and the other Generals within the rebellion did a great job in getting everyone off the winter planet.

Luke stood on the south slope outside of Echo Base. He continued to the evacuation site as the last few rebel transports were lifting off the ground with the surviving ground forces. Most of the surviving pilots were running to their X-Wings. The former farm boy took notice of his own X-Wing with R2-D2's blue-domed head poking up from the ship's astromech socket.

"Artoo!" Luke called out toward the droid.

The droid rotated his visual sensors to see Luke, R2-D2 let out some happy beeps at seeing the male.

"Get her ready for takeoff," Luke ordered the droid. The droid initiated the X-Wings repuslsorlift, opening the cockpit canopy, and guiding the vessel over the snow toward him. He began to climb into his X-Wing and took notice of Wedge.

"Good luck, Luke," Wedge told the younger male. "See you at the rendezvous."

R2-D2 gave a beep toward Luke. They needed to leave the planet before anymore Imperials arrived.

Luke got into the cockpit of the X-Wing and closed the canopy. "Don't worry, Artoo. We're going. We're going."

Luke hit the buttons on the X-Wing and had the ship give flight out of Hoth's atmosphere. Luke's blue eyes scanned the area of open space for any Imperial ships. Only for him to find none. The Empire didn't seem to have surrounded the plant on all sides. It would seem the Empire kept all their Star Destroyers on the other side of Hoth.

All Luke could do was hope that the Rebel Transports and his friends made it into hyperspace and away from the Empire. For he wouldn't be meeting up with them for a long while. He had a mission requested to him by Obi-Wan Kenobi to find a Jedi Master named Yoda.

The X-Wing cruises at sublight speed when Luke begins to flip a series of control switches. Then he guides the ship in a steep turn and begins to fly in a different direction.

R2-D2 gave a small beep. Luke glanced down at the monitor screen that was on the ship's control panel. On the screen, the droid's beeps had been translated into a text-format question.

Luke read R2-D2's comment and explained. "There's nothing wrong, ARTOO. Just setting a new course." R2-D2 gave another beep. "We're not going to regroup with the others." The droid gave a whistle of protest. "We're going to the Dagobah system." The droid went quiet as Luke checked his readouts and made a few adjustments before R2-D2 gave a small chirp. "Yes, Artoo?" The droid once again gave a stream of beeps and whistles. "That's all right. I'd like to keep it on manual control for a while."

The astomech droid let out a defeated whimper. Luke gave a small smile as he continued toward Dagobah.

0o0o0o0

The Millennium Falcon speeds away from the planet Hoth, leaving the icy winter planet and the Empire behind. But in the chaos a single Star Destroyer saw the wanted rebel ship leave the planet and began to shoot a laser blaster at the Falcon, but the small rebel ship narrowly dodged the attack and headed for the dark abyss of space to make a jump to hyperspace. Only the Empire wouldn't allow the ship that helped destroy the Death Star and allowed the Rebel Alliance that gained a major victory three years ago get away from the Imperials once again.

Four Tie Fighters were sent out of the Destroyer to Pursue the Falcon, which continued to race through space to get away from them.

Inside the Falcon's cockpit, Chewie let out a loud howl toward Han. It would seem the Empire was ruthless in their pursuit by attacking the Falcon with Laser bolts.

Han checks as the ship is buffeted by exploding flak. "I saw them! I saw them!"

"Saw what?" Leia asked.

The Empire's reinforcements arrive. "Star Destroyers, two of them, coming right at us." Han explained to the Princess.

Lilah shook her head. "Cassian come on, Star Destroyers and TIE's are coming for us," she explained as she bit her lip as she knew this wasn't good. Not good at all. "Cassian and I are gonna go see if we can hold them with their guns. You guys just get this damn thing into hyperspace." Then the female Jedi went down to one of the back guns while Cassian went to the other.

Threepio bumps and bangs his way into the cockpit. "Sir, sir! Might I suggest…"

Thalia looked at the droid, shaking her head. "C-3PO now's not the time-"

"Shut him up or shut him down!" Han ordered Leia and Thalia. He didn't have the time to hear C-3PO telling him the odds about the situation. Then he turned his attention to the Wookiee. "Check the deflector shield!"

Chewie barks a reply as he readjusts an overhead switch.

"Oh, great. Well, we can still outmaneuver them."

Thalia paled at Han's words.

The Millennium Falcon races toward one of the huge oncoming Star Destroyers. Suddenly, the Falcon starts into a deep dive straight down, closely followed by four TIE fighters. The underside of the Star Destroyer continues on a collision course with two oncoming Star Destroyers. Slowly, it starts to veer to the left.

Out the front window, the two approaching Star Destroyers veer to the left.

"Take evasive action!" An Imperial Officer Ordered

Alarms sound all over the huge ship. The two other Star Destroyers get closer, one of them moving over the bridge so close that it makes brushing contact with it.

The Millennium Falcon races away from the colliding Star Destroyers, still followed by four TIE fighters. Laser bolts spark the pitch-black skies.

Things have calmed down a bit in the cockpit of the Falcon, but the race isn't over yet. Chewie barks at Han. Leia is still trying to recover from the steep dive. The ship is buffeted by laser blasts.

"Prepare to make the jump to light-speed."

"But, sir!" the golden droid insisted once more.

The buffeting of lasers coming from the Empire becomes louder and stronger. They needed to go into Hyperspace now. Lilah and Cassian couldn't shoot down an army of TIE's.

"They're getting closer!" Leia exclaimed, worried.

Han, with a gleam in his eye, spoke," Oh yeah? Watch this."

Nothing happened though, they weren't going into hyperspace. They just sit there. Han and Chewie look at each other and are thrown into an acute state of concern.

"Watch what?" Leia challenged the smuggler.

Han tries to get the Falcon into hyperspace again. Still nothing.

"I think we're in trouble." Han admits after he examined the controls.

"If I may say so, sir, I noticed earlier that the hyperdrive motivator has been damaged." C-3PO said in pure distress, "It's impossible to go to light-speed!"

Why didn't the droid tell them earlier?

"We're in trouble!" Han exclaimed, standing up from his seat along with Chewie and ran out of the cockpit to fix the problem with the Falcon.

The explosions become heavier.

The Falcon races into the starry vastness, followed by the four more Imperial TIE fighters and an Imperial Star Destroyer.

"What's going on?" Cassian asked through his headset. Just what was going on up there? Why weren't they going into hyperspace yet?

"We're in trouble," Thalia spoke to Lilah and Cassian through the headset. "We don't have lightspeed because the hyperdrive is broken."

"Broken?" Cassian stated, shocked.

"Yeah, but Han and Chewie are trying to fix the problem."

The pilot and co-pilot of the Falcon ran to the hold where the mighty Wookiee bent to the deck and raised a metal plate to reveal a systems access area: a pit filled with a complex tangle of metal pipes, cables, and wires. Han hastily lowered himself into the pit while Chewbacca turned his attention to a nearby system monitor panel.

In the pit Han works furiously at some control panels, wrapping his body around a horizontally stretched pipe and reaching out to adjust a circuit switch, while giving various orders to Chewie. "Horizontal boosters...!" Chewie answers with a loud, negative bark. Han twisted his body around the metal pipe to reach for some switches. "Alluvial dampers...!" Another negative bark came from Chewbacca. "Well that's not it. Bring me the hydrospanners!"

Chewie hurries over to the pit with a toolbox that had been resting on top of a metal barrel, then shuffled across the deck and placed the toolbox at the edge of the open pit.

Han climbed up to select a hydrospanner from the toolbox and said; "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one." Then he lowered himself back into the pit.

Suddenly, a loud thump hits the side of the Falcon, causing it to lurch radically. Chewie barks. The toolbox falls into the pit on top of Han.

"Oww!" The human male shouts. "Chewie!" More turbulence rocks the ship, accompanied by a rumbled noise. Han lifted his head up from the pit. "That was no laser blast! Something hit us."

Leia's voice sounded from the comlink and ordered, "Han, get up here!"

Han climbed out of the Pit. "Come on, Chewie!"

Both he and Chewie run out of the hold and toward the cockpit. The two males joined Leia, Thalia and C-3PO in the cockpit and looked out the window, hundreds of asteroids racing by in space.

"Asteroids!" Thalia told the captain.

This was a nightmare. The Falcon had accidentally traveled into the Hoth system's asteroid belt, and thousands of asteroids –pieces of stray matter and planetary debris-drifted through space. Some were small chunks of rock, but others were larger than the Falcon. Even worse, many asteroids were drifting at different speeds and trajectories.

"Oh no!" Han said in horror, he quickly changes places with Leia who has been at the controls, and Chewie switches places with Thalia and gets into his chair. Han works his controls as a chunk of rock crosses in front of the ship. "Chewie, set two-seven-one."

Lilah's face slouched a little, surprised by what she saw and realized they were in an asteroid field. "Cassian some help!" she said, and began to blast the asteroids into little pieces so they wouldn't hit them. Pieces went flying past them as she did. "Han, are we really doing this?" she asked the pilot. She had a feeling they really would be going through this asteroid field.

Leia listened to Lilah's words before turning her attention to Han, "You're not actually going into an asteroid field

"They'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?" Han stated to the females as he pushed the ship deeper into the field.

Another asteroid thumps against the ship and Leia winces at the jolt.

Leia shook her head and mumbled, "You don't have to do this to impress Lilah."

"I'm not," Solo quickly said in his own defense.

C-3PO began to panic, even though panic was not part of his programming, "Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately three thousand, seven hundred and twenty to one."

"Never tell me the odds!" Han shouts.

Thalia grimaced at Solo's tone and thought, we're doomed.

The Falcon turns into the asteroid storm and as the ship completes its turn, asteroids start coming straight at the cockpit windows.

A large asteroid tumbles away from the Falcon's path at top speed. Several smaller asteroids crash into the big one, creating small explosions on its surface. Other asteroids of all sizes pass by in every direction, some colliding and exploding. The tiny Millennium Falcon veers around the big asteroid and races past it through the rain of rocks, followed by four TIE fighters, which bob and weave around the asteroid.

One of the pursuing TIE fighters connects with an asteroid and explodes. The other fighters are pelted with a steady stream of smaller explosions.

Two huge asteroids tumble toward the Millennium Falcon, which quickly banks around both of them. The three TIE fighters follow in hot pursuit until one of the fighters scrapes an asteroid and tumbles out of control into deep space.

"Han, I know I said I wanted to be around you when you made a mistake so I could laugh, but I take it back!" Lilah yelled as she and Cassian continued to blast at the asteroids as much as they could.

"Good to know, sunshine," Han tells her, grinning a little. "I'm going to have to get closer."

"Closer?" Leia cried in astonishment.

"Closer!" C-3PO repeated.

Chewbacca barks the same word, only louder.

Han makes the Millennium Falcon dive toward the surface of one of the moon-sized asteroids. There is a continued display of explosions against the starry void as smaller asteroids collide with larger chunks of rock. The two remaining TIE fighters follow the Falcon to the large asteroid. The Falcon skims the surface of the giant asteroid as, all the while, small asteroids explode on the surface of the ship.

The TIE fighters approach the Falcon, but a giant asteroid hurtles directly into their path. As the asteroid continues on its way, it leaves the remains of the two exploded TIE fighters to tumble into deep space.

Rattled by the violent rocking of the starship, Threepio is nearly in hysterics.

"Oh, this is suicide!" the droid admits once the ship begins to stabilize.

Han notices something on his main scope and nudges his faithful Wookiee, pointing. "There. That looks pretty good."

Thalia looked at Han with a questionable look and asked; "What looks pretty good?"

"Yeah," Han breathed. He didn't even seem to care about Thalia's question. "That'll do nicely."

"Excuse me, ma'am, but where are we going?" C-3PO asked Leia and Thalia.

Out the cockpit window, they see that they are skimming the surface of the enormous asteroid and nearing a large crater.

The Millennium Falcon dives into the huge crater and disappears.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Leia told the crazy pilot. Between Han and Lilah, she didn't know who was crazier. Thalia was the only sane one it seemed in the group of outsiders.

"Yeah, me too." Han admits to the female.

The Falcon races down into the crater. The walls are barely visible as the ship speeds through the tunnel-like opening. A small cave appears on one side of the crater, and the Falcon turns, slows, and scoots into it.

0o0o0o0

The tiny X-wing speeds toward the cloud cover of Dagobah. Artoo, riding on the back of the fighter, turns his head back and forth with some anxiety. Luke watches Artoo's words as they are translated and screened on the computer scope.

"Yes, that's it," Luke confirmed to the droid. "Dagobah."

Artoo beeps a hopeful inquiry.

"No, I'm not going to change my mind about this," Luke admits to the droid. Even though he was getting a little nervous as he examined his sensor scopes. "I'm not picking up any cities or technology. Massive life-form readings, though. There's something alive down there..."

Artoo beeps, this time a slightly worried question.

"Yes, I'm sure it's perfectly safe for droids."

The X-wing continues its flight through the twilight above the cloud-covered planet. Luke sees the cloud race by as he takes his craft closer to the planet. He must operate his controls carefully since the cloud cover has completely obscured his vision which caused his sensor scopes to stop working. An alarm buzzes in the background, Artoo beeps and whistles frantically.

"I know, I know! All the scopes are dead. I can't see a thing! Just hang on, I'm going to start the landing cycle..."

The blast of the retrorockets is deafening, drowning out Artoo's electronic squeals. Suddenly, there is a cracking sound as if limbs were being broken off trees and then a tremendous jolt as the spacecraft stops. Luke pulls a switch and his canopy pops open letting him breathe in Dagobah's humid climate as he takes off his gloves.

The sounds of caws and croaks could be heard around the X-Wing making Luke wonder what the creatures were as he saw a creature flying around with the thick fog. The planet seemed to a mix of a swamp and a jungle with vines growing off moss covered trees that were twisted and gnarled that loomed over the pond the starfighter had landed in, while under and beneath the tree's roots have hollow caverns formed for the creatures that lived on the planet.

The mist-shrouded X-wing fighter making it almost invisible in the thick fog. Which was a good thing since no one would be able to find it thanks to the fog for the time being, but when the fog fades, who knows how safe being inside the star fighter would be.

But young Skywalker didn't have time to think about…he was on a mission to find Master Yoda and to train with the great Jedi Master according to Ben.

Luke climbs out onto the long nose of the spacecraft as Artoo pops out of his cubbyhole on the back. The young warrior surveys the fog, which is barely pierced by the ship's landing lights. About all he can make out are some giant, twisted trees nearby. Artoo whistles anxiously.

"No, Artoo, you stay put," he ordered to the droid. "I'll have a look around."

Artoo lets out a short beep. As Luke moves along the nose, Artoo loses his balance and disappears with a splash into the boggy lake.

"Artoo?" The human male shouts.

Luke kneels and leans over the X-Wing looking for Artoo, but the water is still and reveals no sign of the little droid.

"Artoo! Where are you?"

A small periscope breaks the surface of the water and a gurgly beep is heard. The periscope starts to move to shore. Relieved, Luke starts running along the nose of the fighter to its tip.

"Artoo!" Luke called out to the droid and added a warning, "You be more careful."

The outline of the shore is now more than ten feet away. Luke jumps off the X-Wing into the water, scrambles up to the shore, and turns to look for Artoo. The periscope still steadily moves toward shore.

"Artoo" Luke called to the droid as R2's periscope glanced in his direction. He pointed toward the shore and said; "That way!"

R2-D2 gave a deep to the male's order before following the instructions.

Suddenly, through the thick fog layer, a dark shape appears, moving toward the little droid. The dark, sinuous bog beast dives beneath the swampy water, making a loud clunk against Artoo's metal hull. The droid disappears from sight, uttering a pathetic electronic scream.

Luke wades a few feet into the murky pool, looking for any sign of his little friend.

"Artoo!" Luke shouts

The black surface is still as death itself... until a few bubbles begin to appear. Then, phheewaat! The runt-size robot is spit out of the water (while Luke watches the scene in stunned silence), makes a graceful arc, and comes crashing down into a patch of soft gray moss.

"Oh, no!" Luke exclaimed in terror because he feared about what happened to the droid as he moved to check on R2-D2 and asked, "Are you all, right?"

The droid was covered in slime and mud, resting upside down against some gnarled roots. R2-D2 beeped and flailed his upturned legs against the roots. Then Luke noticed some strange alien bones on the ground nearby and wondered if the bones came from the creature that tried to eat R2-D2.

"Come on," Luke said as he helped R2-D2 to his feet. "You're lucky you don't taste very good. Anything broken?"

Nothing appears to be broken on the droid as Luke begins wiping the mud and roots from R2-D2's round metal body. Artoo responds with feeble, soggy beeps.

"If you're saying coming here was a bad idea, I'm beginning to agree with you." He admits to the droid because coming here might have been a mistake. Their X-Wing was stuck in the swamp making it impossible for them to leave. "Oh, Artoo, what are we doing here? It's like... something out of a dream, or, I don't know." He continues to speak as he pries more mud from the primary photoreceptor on R2-D2's domed head. "Maybe I'm just going crazy."

As Luke glances around at the spooky swamp jungle that surrounds him, Artoo ejects a stream of muddy water from one of his cranial ports.

0o0o0o0

On the Executor, Admiral Piett hesitates in the entryway to Vader's private cubicle.

After a moment, he steps into the room and pauses at the surprising sight before him.

Darth Vader, his back turned, is silhouetted in the gloom on the far side of the chamber. A black, insect-like droid attends him. Among the various apparatuses surrounding them, a respirator tube now retracts from Vader's uncovered head. The head is bald with a mass of ugly scar tissue covering it. The black droid then lowers the mask and helmet onto Vader's head. When it is in place, the Dark Lord turns to face Piett.

"Yes, Admiral?" Vader asked.

Piett quickly composed himself from what he had witnessed before saying; "Our ships have sighted the Millennium Falcon, lord. But... it has entered an asteroid field and we cannot risk..."

"Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral." Vader snapped toward the male that was clearly shaking at the Sith Lord's tone. "I want that ship, not excuses."

The Millennium Falcon held the Jedi woman he wanted. The ship's captain, Han Solo, had caused problems to the Empire and is the reason for the Death Star's destruction. The rebel from Scarif, Andor, was the reason that the Empire lost the Death Star plans to the rebels which led to the battle station's destruction. The other Jedi female, Kenobi, was the living daughter and legacy of Obi-Wan Kenobi that could grow into a threat.

That ship needed to be found.

The Empire couldn't afford to lose to those rebels again.

"Yes, Lord Vader," Piett said as the meditation chambers upper half descended and closed around Vader.