Chapter 5: Inside the Beast
Han and Chewbacca were the first to enter the cockpit, reaching their posts.
"Chewie, reinforce the forward deflectors." Han instructed his co-pilot as he disengaged the hyperdrive.
The rest of the group followed into the cabin, with Jaral and Ezra getting right behind the pilots and Obi-Wan and Luke just beyond the door.
And as the Falcon left hyperspace, it came right in the middle of a phenomenon that rocked the ship.
Chewie said something in his language made of roars and grunts.
"Ah, we've come out of hyperspace into a meteor shower, some kind of asteroid collision." Han reported as small asteroids and other pretty dangerous bodies flew around them.
Ezra and Jaral, though, looked at them and a horrible doubt started to insinuate in their minds.
"It's not on any of the charts." Han said, confused.
"What's going on?" Luke asked.
"Our position's correct, except no Alderaan." the smuggler replied.
And considering what the siblings had just said back in the living room of the ship, right before they were knighted, the answer seemed as clear as day.
But a beep on the console didn't give them time to react.
"There's another ship." Han said.
A moment later, it turned out to be a TIE Fighter, which passed past them.
Suddenly, the siblings felt a tingle in the Force and Ezra urged Han. "We need to get out. Get us out of here."
"Calm down, kid, we need to…"
He was interrupted as the ship suddenly braked and started to fly in another direction from where she was pointing at.
"A tractor beam." Jaral stated grimly, and looked upward, quickly imitated by the others.
Thus, they easily spotted the moon made of metal. They had come out of hyperspace right next to the Death Star.
"Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power." Han ordered and Chewbacca compelled, but even if the engines were roaring loudly, nothing changed.
"Why are we still moving toward it?" Luke asked in a bit of panic.
"That's what a tractor beam does!" Han replied annoyed.
"Can't you do anything?!" Luke insisted.
"There's nothing I can do kid, I'm at full power," the smuggler replied as he turned around and reached a switch on the roof. "I'll have to shut it down, but they're not going to take me without a fight."
"You can't win. But there are alternatives to fight." Obi-Wan suggested.
"That's exactly what I was thinking, Master." Jaral intervened. "Han, launch those escape pods in the rear."
Solo looked at her for a second. After realizing that she was deadly serious, he decided to trust her and pushed the button. Everybody heard the short whistle coming from the rear of the ship.
"Now, I assume this ship has some secret compartment where you hide your contraband?"
"Oh, I see what you want to do." Han replied, then stood up. "Follow me."
The smuggler led the group into one of the corridors, knelt down and easily removed a panel of the floor that was clearly already prepared. Beneath it there was a secret hold that could fit some of them. Jaral didn't need to point out that it was too small for everybody to fit in, because Han walked a little further and uncovered another one.
Meanwhile, the Falcon was by now piloted by the tractor beam, which was so powerful that allowed the imperials to move the freighter with incredible precision and move it toward the nearest hangar.
And as the group could hear loud sounds coming from around, signaling that the Falcon was entering in a place with air that allowed the noise to be heard, the group squeezed a little and they all managed to get in, even the droids. The siblings went in with Obi-Wan and said droids, as it was their duty to protect them, while Han, Luke and Chewbacca entered into the other, then they closed the holds right when the Falcon finally landed inside the hangar and an entire company of stormtroopers surrounded the ship.
They waited for minutes. They heard the footsteps of the first handful of guards sent to inspect the ship for passengers, but since they didn't found anything, they reunited at the main ramp, which was close enough for the group of adventurers to hear one of the troopers say "There's no one here." before their steps marched away.
With caution, the group removed the slabs and climbed out.
"Never thought I would be smuggling myself." Han commented, blaster in hand.
"First time?" Ezra quipped.
"Ok, ok, it worked," Han said. "but even if I manage to get airborne we'll never make it past the tractor beam."
"Don't worry," Jaral reassured. "I have a plan. First of all, you two are going to need a disguise." she pointed at Han and Luke while Chewbacca was still climbing out. "They'll send the scanning team soon enough. We take them out, you call the guards up and we stun them as well."
The other two Humans looked at each other and eventually convinced themselves that this was a feasible plan.
The siblings then materialized their armors, with the rest of the group watching with a bit of marvel. Then they heard the footsteps of other people on the ramp, together with the clattering of materials that was probably the scanner being brought by those guys into a crate.
Ezra and Jaral activated their cloaking device and vanished into thin air, which only helped them to position right at the two sides of the entrance without the two imperial engineers noticing them and knock them out cold before they could notice anything.
They quickly put them aside, then flattened themselves against the sides of the threshold and disengage the cloaking device.
Jaral then motioned Han to do his part. The smuggler got near the access ramp and loudly called for the two guards at the base of the ramp.
"Hey, down there. Could you give us a hand with this?"
Just a few moments later, the stormtroopers arrived inside. And they, too, were quickly knocked out by the siblings, who managed to leave their armors intact.
"Put them on, quick." Jaral instructed.
"But what about you two?" Luke asked.
In response, the siblings activated their hologram technology and became stormtroopers as well.
"I swear, that armor is too overpowered." Han commented as he removed the helmet from his victim.
"Me and Ezra will wait you at the entrance, we don't want their superiors to get suspicious." the Grand Marshall declared as her and her brother materialized their own E-11 rifles and walked down the ramp, taking the place of the two guards.
Sure enough, an officer from the control tower in front of them called on the frequency that Jinx had already hijacked from the unconscious troopers.
"TK-421, why did you leave your post?"
Ezra answered, since they had already noticed that both stormtroopers were males, up there.
"The scanning team had some problems bringing the equipment into one of the ship's section, they asked for our help."
"Understood. Inform us, next time."
"Yes, sir." Ezra replied, simply satisfied that they weren't sending in other troopers.
A few minutes later, Han and Luke were ready. The latter was actually a bit shorter than the height required for being a stormtrooper, which was strictly measured for any candidate, but at first glance, he could still pass as a legit trooper.
The siblings used their scanners to see that the two officers in the control tower over them were distracted and that there was nobody in the brief staircase toward it.
"Ok, now or never, move out." Jaral exhorted, prompting the others to follow her as she jogged toward the nearby door.
From there, they quickly hacked the door to the control room and shot the two officers with their silenced pistols, forcing the siblings to deactivate their holograms. Then the group closed into the room.
R2 plugged into the socket, assisted by Jinx, and it didn't take long for them to find what they wanted.
"We've found the controls to the tractor beam holding us here." Jinx announced. "Projecting it on the monitor, now."
The plan of that section of the station appeared as Jinx said, and the two machines highlighted the main reactor of the beam, situated a few levels beneath them.
"The beam is powered by seven different generators." Jinx explained. "But a power loss on a single one of them will be enough to allow the Falcon to leave."
"I'll take care of it." Obi-Wan announced, to the confusion of the others.
"Hold on." Ezra said. "Me and my sister can literally become invisible with these things, let us do this."
"No. You are too important to risk your lives on this. Besides, I know how to sneak around."
"But Master…" Jaral opposed, but Obi-Wan raised a hand to shush her.
"Listen...now, you two are probably the last Jedi Knights left in the galaxy." he said, and also looked toward Luke. "You need to bring the droids back with plans, or other planets will suffer the same fate as Alderaan." then put a hand on Jaral's forearm. "I need you guys to watch over Luke, as well." he added in a whispered tone. "If I don't come back, it's up to you to train him."
This time, the siblings didn't oppose. They understood that they were in a tricky situation, and they recognized that Master Kenobi was probably talking according to what he felt through the Force.
"Yes, Master." the Grand Marshall concluded with a calm tone and a firm nod.
"It's been an honor." Ezra added.
"Likewise, young Bridgers." Obi-Wan said with a smile.
Then the old Jedi started to walk toward the door. Luke stopped him, insisting that he wanted to accompany him, but Obi-Wan quickly convinced him that this wasn't where his destiny laid.
"The Force will be with you. Always." Obi-Wan declared to Luke, but also to the siblings as well, before walking away and closing the door behind him.
Chewie put his hand on his hips and howled in his language.
"You said it, Chewie." Han agreed. "Where did you dig up that old fossil?"
Luke stepped in front of him. "Ben is a great man." he replied sternly.
"Yeah. Great at getting us into trouble." Han replied.
"I didn't hear you giving any ideas."
"Anything's better than just hanging around waiting for them to pick us up." Han insisted.
"Quiet, you two!" Ezra ordered, because Jaral was at the terminal, where Jinx had apparently found something very interesting.
After two seconds of silence, broken only by the whirring of R2's plug rotating the socket around, Jinx spoke up.
"Identity confirmed. Princess Leia is detained on this station."
Jaral turned toward her brother. They didn't even need the bond, just a gaze through their helmets, to decide what they had to do.
"The Princess's here?!" Luke asked incredulous.
"Princess?" Han asked, confused.
"Found her!" Jaral ordered to the machines.
R2 beeped a little, then Jinx spoke. "Level 5, Detention Block AA-23. It appears she has been scheduled for execution."
"Tell me you already got a plan." Ezra commented to his sister.
Jaral turned around with a confident attitude. "Of course I do."
"Nothing yet?" Jordan asked.
After making another attempt at contacting Senator Organa without success, Darvos sighed and shook his head.
"Nothing. And I can't detect any transmission coming or going through Alderaan. It's like the planet has vanished."
"You don't think…?"
"I don't know, Jordan. I don't know." Tanis replied as he put his hands against the holotable of the Strategic Room and lowered his head. Head that was being filled with the worst scenarios possible.
All communications with Alderaan had been abruptly severed, which was why the two men had immediately reached the Constantinople to use her instruments and investigate the matter, but actually there wasn't much they could do.
"Can you reconstruct something from the last transmissions received by the Alliance?" Jordan asked. He wasn't going to give up. After all, if Alderaan had been destroyed, there was also the horrible possibility that his children had been disintegrated along with it.
Darvos took a moment to adjust himself and got to work on what Jordan suggested.
With the help of Jinx, Darvos spent a few minutes gathering every single transmission coming from Alderaan that the Coalition had received, one way or the other, connecting to the extensive database of the MI6.
And as he found out more and more elements, his expression steadily became calmer.
"I have a bad news and what is probably a half-good news." he declared eventually. "Where do I start?"
"Let's hear the bad one." Jordan calmly said, now a bit reassured from his son-in-law's reinvigorated tone.
"The bad news is that there's no doubt: Bail Organa was on Alderaan when we lost communications, so if the worst case scenario comes true, then he's most likely dead." Darvos stated.
"And the half-good?"
"The half-good is that there's nothing indicating that Jaral and Ezra had arrived on Alderaan. So...I guess it means they're still out there."
"I'll accept everything at this point." Jordan said, then gave an encouraging pat on Darvos' shoulder. "Good job, son."
Darvos nodded and smiled slightly. Partially because he liked when Jordan called him like that, partially for the compliment in itself, though all of this made little to quell his anxiety for his wife's safety.
"Come on, let's go inform the others." Jordan concluded, remembering that the rest of the group (except Hera and Mira) were waiting on that ship, as well.
The ship was pretty much empty, except for a couple guards who didn't want to leave it unguarded and weren't Humans, so they really didn't feel that the day was a festivity.
Jordan and Darvos took the elevator and reached Deck 3, into the port observatory. He had left them there because that was the room with various entertainments, but the group composed of Sabine, Rex, Zeb, Kallus and Moreena were definitely not in the mood to use any of those. Most of them was just sitting or leaning against the viewport or the walls when the two officers entered, then the group sprang up and gathered around them, holding their breaths for an answer.
Darvos strengthened his resolve and spoke up. "We still don't have any communication from Alderaan." he reported. "However, from what we could gather, is safe to assume that Ezra and Jaral were not in the system when the planet had gone silent."
The others sighed of relief.
"It's a hope, at least." Kallus said. "But wouldn't it be possible to contact them?"
"They are in the Core, now." Jordan explained. "Prerecorded messages are a thing, but a direct transmission would be intercepted almost immediately, especially since the Empire has started cracking even the frequencies used by the Federation."
"Hey, they have a knack for surviving the impossible." Zeb tried to reassure everybody. "I'm sure we'll hear them soon."
"And…" Moreena said with a shivering tone. "What about Alderaan? We should try to understand what happened to it."
In all of this, Sabine had been strangely quiet, and that was the moment when she spoke up, handing a datapad to Moreena.
"You better look at this, first."
Moreena browsed around the screen, becoming increasingly puzzled.
"The Emperor...disbanded the Senate?" she asked, leaving everybody astounded.
"That's ridiculous." Kallus said. "How could he hope to keep control over the galaxy without…" but Jordan interrupted him.
"With the Death Star. That was the entire point of building that thing: to scare the galaxy into submission by threatening the destruction of any rebel homeworld who tries to raise its head."
"So...Alderaan…?" Moreena asked, unable to finish the thought.
Jordan made an embittered nod. "They probably blew it up to send a message, and also to punish the Royal Family, who stood against the Empire."
"This doesn't make sense!" Moreena yelled. Everybody understood her feelings, because she herself had lived on Alderaan until a few months before. "Most of the Alderaanians did nothing against the Empire, I know that!"
"Since when the Empire cares for who is innocent and who's not?" Sabine stated with a cold tone.
With a terrorized face, Moreena made a few steps back, holding her head with her hands as she tried to find somewhere to sit. Kallus helped her reach one of the stools.
A discomforted silence fell. Nobody had the courage to comment the situation further. The destruction of Alderaan was already a horrible news, but not knowing if the siblings were alive and where was gnawing at everyone's mind.
With that, the group slowly dissolved as everyone returned to their own business, especially because the following day, the Constantinople was supposed to rejoin the Federal Fleet.
After persuading Han to join by telling him that only Leia could guarantee his compensation for the job of transporting the group, the siblings put their plan in motion. They had bracers loosely put around Chewbacca's wrists, so they could head to the cell block they were interested in without being halted along the way. 3PO and R2 were to stay in the control room and pretend to be service droids in case the imperials came to check why the officers weren't responding.
Which happened, since everybody thought the Wookiee was just a prisoner being transferred, and under an escort of four of what they believed to be stormtroopers reinforcing the concept.
"I can't see a thing in this helmet." Luke lamented with a whisper to the others as they entered the turbolift that would lead them to the block.
"I got a bad feeling about this." Han lamented as they were brought up.
"Just say what I told you to." Jaral said calmly.
The door eventually opened, confirming that they were in the cell-block AA-23. The siblings got out first and took position on the left side, ready to attack the two imperial officers and two Navy troopers standing guard, while Luke and Han brought Chewie in the open, waiting for inspection.
The officer behind the consoles looked puzzled.
"Where are you taking this...thing?" the officer asked.
"Prisoner transfer from Cell block 1138." Han reported in the martial tone he had learned by his brief time when he served with the Empire.
The officer tilted his head. "I wasn't notified. I'll have to clear this." he said, then motioned the guards to take the Wookiee in custody while he tried to contact his superiors, not knowing that Jinx was already jamming the transmissions.
The guards took out their pistols. While one remained more or less at his post, the other approached.
And when he was close enough to Chewie, the Wookiee let the bracers fall, roared and easily threw the imperial away.
"Look out he's loose!" Han screamed, letting Chewbacca take the DL-19 he had in his hands while the siblings immediately targeted the remaining imperials with their own rifles, making their camouflage disappear.
The guard and the officer were quickly taken out, while Luke and Chewbacca fired at the various security cameras and microphones so the imperials in other sections wouldn't notice them too quickly. The siblings then jumped in front of the corridor where the cells were and quickly took out the last guard.
Han reached the console and quickly browsed around the list of prisoners in the cells.
"There she is, 2187." he announced.
"Luke, with me." Jaral ordered as she entered the corridor.
Ezra was then warned by Jinx.
"Alert, all imperial systems on the station have been alerted of our presence."
Ezra was baffled. "What? How did they…?"
Then he remembered that something very similar had already happened. Two years before, on Lothal.
Ezra hissed in frustration. "Vader…" then he looked into the corridor. "Guys, we're gonna have company!"
Hearing that, Jaral accelerated her pace, gazing at every number until she and Luke finally reached the cell. But before she pressed the button, she turned to the young man.
"Take off your helmet." she said with an inviting tone, then pressed the button while Luke was doing that.
Jaral entered into the cell and saw Leia, who was apparently taking a nap on the cold durasteel bench of the small room. However, she quickly woke up as she heard the hissing of the door and her eyes opened wide as she saw the light-gray, blue-striped armor of her friend.
"Jari?" she asked, both incredulous and very much happy.
The Grand Marshall of the Rebellion dematerialized her helmet and showed a friendly smile.
"Told you we would see each other again." she quipped.
"You did." Leia said with a chuckle, as she sat up, then noticed the young boy in a stormtrooper armor but no helmet watching over them.
"Uh...did I miss something?" Leia asked confused.
Jaral turned around her upper body and noticed the problem. "Oh, right. Leia, this is Luke Skywalker, he helped me and Ezra find Master Kenobi, and now he'll help us get out of here, right, Luke?"
"Ehm, right." Luke replied, caught off-guard.
"Come on." Jaral exhorted, jogging forward and leading the two companions down the corridor, but they halted when they heard a violent blast that destroyed the door of one of the lifters and the sound of blasters, including Ezra's TL-50, resonated.
Chewbacca, Han and Ezra quickly reached them. The young Jedi aimed his weapon toward the side where stormtroopers were approaching from.
"This complicates things." Ezra commented.
"Looks like that was our only escape route, too." Leia said.
"Glad to see you again, too." Ezra quipped before firing a burst and taking out a stormtrooper, but then three others appeared and fired in their direction.
The rebels immediately flattened against the walls, trying to use the indentations given by the entrance of the cells to find some cover.
Jaral returned fire with her E-11, with her and her brother taking the brunt of the skirmish, while Luke called into the comlink.
"C-3PO. C-3PO. Are there any other ways out of the cell bay? We've been cut off." he screamed, trying to overcome the loud noise of the blasters.
Some of the bolts reached the siblings and their energy shields started to show up, indicating they were overloading.
"What was that? I didn't copy?" Luke said after a few seconds while the siblings and Han kept firing back.
And after 3PO repeated, Luke yelled: "There isn't any other way out."
Ezra gunned down another stormtrooper then he had to flatten himself even more to limit the possibility of being hit again, so he could recharge his shields.
"If somebody got any alternative idea, say it now." he said in the meantime, before going back to shoot back.
Leia looked around, then took Luke's rifle and shot to a metal grill on the lower wall, blasting it open.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Han yelled.
"Somebody has to save our skins." Leia replied before traversing the small corridor to reach the grill. The siblings gave a quick look and realized that was a garbage chute.
"Anywhere is better than here." Jaral declared. "Everybody inside, we'll cover you!"
Now she and Ezra fired with little regard, only trying to create a storm of bolts that would convince the stormtroopers to not stay in the open, thus reducing their accuracy.
Chewie lamented that he didn't want to get in there, because he would smell, later.
"Get in there, you big furry oaf. I don't care what you smell." Han reprimanded him, then gave him a light kick to urge him to go. "Get in there, and don't worry about it."
More stormtroopers came in, which now forced the siblings to adopt the mobile shield tactic.
Ezra thus jumped into the corridor and activated his omni-tool's shield, which Jaral used as a cover to return fire more accurately with her weapon, gunning down two imperials almost instantly.
"Go!" she yelled to her companions, who promptly obeyed one after the other.
Jaral thus put a hand on Ezra's shoulder to signal him that it was time for them to go, as well. She jumped inside the chute first, while Ezra exploited those few seconds of the shield left to draw the enemy fire and finally dove in as well.
They ended up in the pile of rubbish that was floating over a mix of fluids that the siblings definitely didn't want Jinx to analyze.
"What an incredible smell you found us, Highness." Han was sarcastically saying to Leia, who in turn ignored him.
"All right, let's get out of here." Ezra calmly said as he stood aligned to the door and extended his hand.
"Now's definitely not the time for your tricks…" Han lamented, but then the door opened effortlessly.
Ezra walked out, giving Han a fleeting gaze with his visor.
Jaral followed him up without commenting.