A Left Turn at Albuquerque

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, universes and concepts that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Star Wars characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold, Lucasfilm Ltd and Disney respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.

Authors Note: Just a quick reminder that conversation in bold represents Chewie speaking. In story Han and anyone else will hear the normal growls and barks of the Wookie language – which is actually very similar to Karbarran if it's heard without a neural translator in either the patch or implant versions – I just write it in English, so we know exactly what he is saying.


Chapter Twenty-Four

REF Fleet

Orbiting Hoth

A Short Time Later

Han Solo felt like he had a bunch of tooka's, no more like a heard of rancors, doing a mating dance in his stomach as he carefully guided his beloved ship through the assembled fleet of Terran warships towards their command ship. The fleet was maintaining an impressively tight formation that he was having to make his way through, and it was quite an intimidating sight. Oh, not that the fleet was in such a disciplined formation – he had seen such things before back when he had been in the Imperial Navy which prided itself on keeping disciplined formations – but that at this close a range it was impossible not to see how kriffing heavily armed these ships were.

The warships, in the way such things did, literally bristled with firepower. Everywhere he looked the ships sported some very large and intimidating looking guns, guns that he knew could rip the best the Imperials had to offer apart in very short order so great was their power. Though what was in its own way far more intimidating to him than the big anti-capital ship guns were the smaller close in defensive guns. To say the numbers were excessively large would have been quite the understatement, though from what he had been told by the people on the Sumatra while they'd been travelling here these people needed such extensive defensive gun coverage. They needed in because their main foe – some species called the Invid – took the concept of swarm warfare to a level that frankly sounded obscene.

Plus, there was the fact that in a complete difference to combat doctrines in this galaxy these people made extensive use of missile weaponry. The long talk he had with Captain Sommerville had told him that for these people firing swarms of missiles at an opponent – and getting a swarm of missiles fired back – was one of their primary means of destroying the enemy. Thus, having defences capable of handling hundreds of missiles, smart missiles at that, coming at you from multiple vectors – something that to him sounded utterly terrifying – was a must. One thing's for sure I wouldn't want to still be a TIE pilot and trying to get close enough to strafe these people, he thought with an inward shiver. He had started his short career in the Imperial Navy as a TIE pilot and thus knew that the flimsy as hell TIE – yeah they were fast and agile but that's all you could say for them as they had no shields and armour that was so thin it might as well have been paper which was typical of Seinar fleet products – would stand little to no chance of surviving to get close enough to one of these ships to cause damage.

If TIE guns even could, he thought remembering how incredibly strong the alloys used to build the Terran ships was. He could still see in his mind's eye the trail of debris from the Windermere as she impacted the surface of Tatooine, skidded along for what had to be at least fifty miles before going over a cliff and continuing on for another half a dozen kilometres before coming to a halt. Yet how despite all that, and a skid that would have ripped even reinforced durasteel apart like tinfoil, the ship had still been impossibly mostly intact when she came to rest.

"Han we're receiving a transmission from the SDF-3," Chewie called out from the co-pilot's seat bringing him out of his thoughts, "they are sending us instructions for docking in their main portside hangar bay."

"Thanks Chewie I see them," Han replied as the instructions appeared on a small side screen, outlining the final leg of his course and speed to the massive seventeen-hundred-meter-long beast of a warship hanging in the centre of the fleet. The Terram stealth systems were currently powered down and thus the computer immediately noted the sheer number of weapons that ship had, from the two massive cannons in the bow – each one as big as the Falcon was wide – to the massive batteries of missile launchers, lasers and particle cannons covering the hull. "Kriff I wouldn't want to see this monster in a fight," he commented, shivering as he saw the calculated number of guns not to mention the fact that the ships power signature was as high as some entire planets. "These people really have no concept of overkill, do they?"

"Doesn't look like it," Chewie agreed, a ripple running through his fur in a subtle display that to Han said that the Wookie was somewhat intimidated by the numbers of weapons they could see."The amount of raw firepower these people have is…"

"Frightening. Though I can well believe based on what we've seen them that they shot an entire Imperial fleet to pieces in just five minutes."

"What is even more terrifying is the fact that, based on what we've seen of their weaponry, they could have destroyed the 103rd even faster than they did."

"True." Han agreed with a shiver as he remembered seeing the reflex missile detonation on the surface of Tatooine after they first docked aboard the Sumatra. That blast had been massive and unlike any weapon he had ever seen in his life before, which was saying something given he'd travelled from one end of the galaxy to the other and seen a lot of very strange, sometimes terrifying, stuff in his time. But nothing like what that blast had been like it certainly put the likes of proton torpedoes and concussion missiles to shame. Hell, not even seismic charges, themselves pretty damned lethal, could rival that thing for sheer destructive power.

From what he had seen he didn't doubt that even one of those missiles hitting an Imperial-class Star Destroyer would completely destroy it even through full shields. In fact, he didn't think that there was any warship in the entire Imperial fleet – not even those Executor-class Super Star Destroyers that, according to underworld scuttlebutt, the Empire was apparently developing – that would survive an attack with a reflex weapon in either its missile or beam form.

"I wonder what this Admiral Hunter wants with us," he said changing the subject. "Still, it's a good sign that he let us come over in the Falcon."

"He probably knows that we would never be able to get away from the REF fleet unless they let us," Chewies pointed out, "after all Han we both know that, if they wanted to the Terrans could blow us out of the sky long before we could jump to lightspeed."

"Maybe but I suspect that there is more to it than that," Han replied even as he grimaced at another reminder of the extent of Terran firepower and how they could swat the Falcon like a fly. He really didn't want to know just what their native galaxy was really like if they needed the kind of weapons that they did to even stand a fighting chance against their foes. He just hoped that those foes, like these Invid, never managed to make their way to this galaxy, they had enough problems with the Empire they didn't need to add unfathomably powerful alien foes to the mix.

"Maybe there is. We will find out soon enough."

Han nodded in agreement before turning his full attention to the task of landing aboard Admiral Hunter's flagship without damaging either it or the Millennium Falcon. The doors for the hangar bay where they were to land were just ahead and this was thus the most crucial phase of the landing. In another couple of minutes at the most they would be down…

…and then maybe he would find out just what this Admiral Hunter wanted with him and Chewbacca.


What a piece of junk, Colonel Angelo Dante thought as he observed Captain Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, set down in the parking space that had been set aside for it. He had seen a lot of ships of various kinds over the last twenty years, especially since he and the other survivors of the 15th ATAC had been evacuated from Earth during the initial invasion of the Invid. Some of the ships had been quite battered and downright weird looking but this thing had them beat by a mile. Frankly it looked one good knock from coming apart into a million pieces.

After a moment though he got the impression that that was at least partially a mask. The closer he looked the more he realized that the ramshackle, about to fall apart, look was intentional. To give the impression of a ship that had been plying the space lanes of this galaxy for a very long time and had seen a lot of action in its time. The hull appeared to have quite a bit of layering to it, with the scorched, pitted and somewhat grungy exterior just being the outer layer. He was willing to bet that beneath it was a layer of armour plating or at least what the people of this galaxy considered armour plating given that they didn't seem to have ever heard of nanolaminating materials to make ship armour.

The whirr of hydraulics caught his attention, and he watched as a ramp was lowered from under and behind the mandible like forward section. A section that was lined with magnetic clamps which meant to him at least that the Millennium Falcon was designed primarily to push heavy cargo containers and that any internal holds were more for smaller and secondary cargo. The ramp hit the deck with a louder than normal thump, making him wince slightly at the volume. Someone really needs to check his hydraulics as that came down really heavy, he thought even though it hadn't done any damage to the reinforced hypercarbon alloy deck it was still quite bad form for it to hit the deck so hard.

Then he heard footsteps and after a moment a man in functional looking clothing, and a tall hairy being wearing a bandolier of all things, walked down. He of course recognised them as Captain Solo and his first mate Chewbacca – or Chewie for short – from information forwarded to them from the Sumatra. He took a moment to straighten his uniform jacket and walked over to them.

"Captain Solo, First Mate Chewbacca I am Colonel Angelo Dante, allow me to welcome you to the SDF-3," he said formally. "Admiral Hunter has asked me to escort you to the conference room where he is waiting for you."

Han raised an eyebrow as he examined the tall Terran who had greeted him and Chewie. He was very fit looking despite being middle aged and there was something about him that screamed that he was a security officer. "It is good to be here," he said, "and thanks for letting me bring the Falcon over."

"Think nothing of it," Angelo replied with a smile not letting on that if it had been his decision, he wouldn't have allowed it. Though thankfully the somewhat shady character in front of him hadn't taken the opportunity to leave the fleet. Likely having already determined that if he tried to leave without their permission, they'd destroy his ship or at very least disable it. "Please if you'll follow me, I will take you to the admiral."

"Okay," Han replied before turning to Chewie. "Chewie why don't you stay here with the ship?"

"Are you sure Han," Chewie asked back even though he knew why Han wanted him to stay here. Han was suspicious of this situation, and the firepower that these people had seriously unnerved him, and wanted to make sure that they didn't have any chance to do something that might harm them in the long run. Like place a tracking beacon on their ship. He didn't think these people would do that himself but Han… well his friend could get a tad paranoid at times.

"I'm sure."

"Alright I will stay here," Chewie agreed after a few moments of thinking about it, with that he turned and walked back up the ramp into the ship. Han watched him go then turned back to the waiting Angelo who showed no sign that he had understood the whole conversation and the hidden subtext of it. Understood and in away approved of the caution though he was also aware that Admiral Hunter meant no harm to either Captain Solo or his first mate.

"Are you ready?" Angelo asked. Han merely nodded. "Then follow me."


UES Tanganyika

Calanda Expanse

That Same Time

"Captain we're approaching our defold coordinates."

Sitting in his command chair Kaidan Halsey smiled at the report from the on-duty helmswoman. He wasn't surprised that they were approaching their destination so soon, they had only had to travel about ten light years deeper into the vast nebula complex that was the Calanda Expanse. A distance that had taken them about a minute to traverse after folding away from the Agamemnon. There mission was to investigate one of the other two stations whose existence had been revealed by their IT techs probing the databanks of the asteroid base they'd discovered when they'd folded here with the Twilight Monsoon after they destroyed a cruiser operated by a criminal organization that called itself Black Sun.

"Excellent," he replied, "how long until we defold?"

"Thirty seconds sir."

"Understood," Kaidan replied, "commence defold as soon as we're in position."

"Aye sir."

I wonder which station we will find; he thought thinking about what exactly they were going to find when they defolded in an otherwise uninhabited system. The information that they had so far been able to decrypt and convert into a format that their computer systems – based as they were on quantum data processing – could properly understand had not been clear on which of the two stations they were in the system they were heading to. Meaning that it would either be the droid foundry or the shipyard. Personally, he hoped it was the latter though he wouldn't to too disappointed with the former.

Not for the first time over the last few days he found his thoughts turning to oddly schizophrenic nature of the technology used by the people in this galaxy. It could be very advanced, like their robots – or droids as they called them – were extremely sophisticated yet their operating system had been a mess. According to the IT people it had been a miracle that the droids they'd so far recovered – and by extension other droids in the galaxy – had been able to function at all the operating systems had just been so messed up. It didn't make much sense, nor did the fact that the base technology was an extremely odd hybrid of analogue and digital technology.

A soft shiver through the ship brought him out of his thoughts and he knew that the ship was beginning her defold manoeuvre. A moment later a flash of light caught his attention, and he looked up in time to see the ball of frosted golden glass effect of the fold sphere as they transitioned from the hyperspatial realm to the normal universe. It was only there for a moment before, with the familiar blue gyroscopic flash of exotic radiation, evaporating leaving the view of space outside the ship. A view naturally dominated by the shimmering bands of multicoloured gas and dust of the vast nebula as this system was located inside the vast stellar nursery complex that was the Calanda Expanse.

"Defold operation complete sir," navigation reported.

"Sir sensors have detected several planets in this system, one habitable. The station is in geostationary orbit above the planet, no discernible power readings. As with the other station there is a fleet of warships in defensive orbit, same class and number as before. No power readings of any kind on them either," sensors reported a moment before the console chimed as new information came in, "what the hell!"

"What is it?" Commander Mars asked from the first officer's station just beating Kaidan to the punch.

"Commander our sensors are detecting a small settlement on the planets surface near what looks like the remains of some type of internment camp. We're only picking up relatively weak power sources on the surface and no spacecraft of any kind not even a shuttle though it looks like there are hangars on the base but no shuttles just a few droid fighters."

"Sounds like there was a secret prisoner of war camp on this planet," Veronica commented with a frown, "and when the droid guards here received the general shutdown command from Lord Vader the prisoners, whoever they are, took their chance to escape their cells. They just had no means to leave the planet."

"Certainly, looks like that," Kaidan agreed, "sensors how many life signs are we picking up and can you tell what species they are?"

"Sir we are picking up ten thousand individuals on the planet. Most appear to be human or at least come from a human stock species though there are about a thousand individuals from at least two other species present on the planet though what species they are I cannot say. We just don't have enough information yet on the different species of this galaxy."

"Understandable we really haven't been here that long after all," Kaidan commented. "Sparks send a fold comm message to the SDF-3 advising Admiral Hunter of the apparent former prisoner internment camp on the planet and the settlement that appears to have grown from it. Advise him and request instructions on what to do about it."

"Aye sir."

"Sensors in the meantime what can you tell me about the station," Kaidan asked, "is it the shipyard?"

"Stand by sir we are running more in-depth scans now, estimate sixty seconds to completion."

"Understood."

"Sir we're receiving a transmission from the surface," communications reported, "audio only and very weak. Whatever transmitter they've got must be dying."

Kaidan raised an eyebrow in surprise at that. How did they, whoever they are know that we're here, he thought in confusion as there should be no way for a vessel as small as the Tanganyika, which was only a hundred and eighty-five meters long,to be easily seen from the surface of the planet in broad daylight even with a high-powered telescope even at night let alone in broad daylight. They certainly wouldn't show on any sensor screen since the shadow device was active. So how? He supposed that there was only one way to find out.

"On speakers," he ordered.

"Aye sir."

A moment later the overhead speakers came to life and a human sounding voice, that was periodically awash with static, spoke. "Unknown vessel I am Jedi Knight Maxijoh Somlea formerly of the Grand Army of the Republic. If you can hear me, please respond," the male voice said.

"Orders sir?" communications asked as the transmission repeated itself without error, clearly being on a loop of some kind.

"The fact that there is a Jedi down there certainly explains how they, whoever they are, know that we are here," Veronica commented having read the information that Captain Edmodarn had provided them on the Jedi and their psionic abilities. Abilities that came from some kind of psionic energy field referred to as the Force by the peoples of this galaxy. "This Somlea no doubted sensed our arrival somehow. Should we respond sir?"

Kaidan frowned thoughtfully. His instincts were telling him to respond, just like they had told him to intervene in the battle – such as it was – between the Twilight Monsoon and the Black Sun vessel Valiant Watcher. An intervention that had ultimately seen the Black Sun warship be destroyed by a shot from their synchro cannon. On the other hand, doing that had not gone down that well with the admiral, though he got the distinct impression that was more because he had used the synchro cannon when there was no need for them to do as their conventional weapons were more than powerful enough to eviscerated the warships of this galaxy - well based on what they had seen so far of them anyway – in short order.

Did he want to risk getting on the admiral's bad side again.

After a moment he decided that he would risk it. After all the transmission from the planet could potentially be a distress call by the people who were stranded on the planet. Something that REF regulations demanded that he answer as long as the people who were in distress were not hostile to the Terran race or any of their allies.

"Communications attempt to contact this Knight Somlea," he said at last, "try to find out exactly who they are and how they came to be on this planet."

"Aye sir," the communications officer acknowledged and began attempting to contact the people on the planet's surface. "Sir I am afraid I cannot lock onto their comm signal its far too weak and is continuing to fade. Whatever equipment they're using must be dying."

Kaidan frowned slightly. "Possibly," he said knowing it was a possibility though it was also possible that whoever was really on the surface was attempting to deceive them in some fashion. "Tactical do we have any reconnaissance probes on board?"

"Yes, sir we do," the tactical officer replied after a quick check of the ships inventory.

"Launch one. Set the probe to do a few overflights of the encampment, let's find out all we can about them."

"Aye sir," tactical acknowledged and gave the command. After a moment a shiver ran through the deck as one of their handful of unmanned reconnaissance drones emerged from one of the forward torpedo tubes and began streaking towards the planet. "Probe away sir. It will reach the atmosphere in sixty seconds and over the encampment in four and a half minutes."

"Understood," Kaidan replied.

"Sir we have completed our analysis of the station sensor scans," sensors reported.

"And?"

"It's definitely the shipyard," sensors reported with a smile, "sensors confirm dozens of starships in various stages of completion in various bays. Most appear to be of the same class as the ones that make up the two defence fleets we know about, however there are four other much larger ships and one very large ship in the largest bays. There are also thousands of the drone fighters under construction and docked in the smallest bays."

Kaidan smiled slightly. He had been hoping to find the shipyard as opposed to the droid foundry though he would have been happy with the latter. "Very good," he said, "prepare the marine unit to board the station. Communications send an update to the SDF-3, let them know that we have found the shipyard."

"Aye sir."


Admiral's Ready Room

SDF-3 Pioneer

Orbiting Hoth, That Same Time

Sitting behind his desk Rick listened intently to the report from the bridge on what the Tanganyika had discovered so far. The fact that the station they'd found was the secret shipyard that had been constructed on the orders of someone in the CIS leadership was not a surprise. What was a surprise however was the apparent settlement that was on the planet the station was orbiting. Unable to contact the settlement – despite having received a weak hail from someone who had identified himself as a Jedi Knight – Captain Halsey had ordered a reconnaissance drone launched to carry out and overflight and attempt to learn more about the settlement.

Something he frankly approved of.

"And the station," he asked the officer reporting to him from the bridge.

"Sir the Tanganyika reports that they are readying a boarding party now. They should be ready to board the station in another few minutes."

"Keep me informed lieutenant. What's the status of the Volta?"

"Sir their last status report several minutes ago indicates that they are currently stopped in deep space and that their fold drive is going through a cool down and repower cycle. They'll make their final fold to the second set of recovered coordinates within half an hour."

"Understood. Advise Captain Karris of Captain Halsey's finding of the shipyard."

"Aye sir."

"Anything more from the Agamemnon?"

"Not since the last update sir. Ambassador Hunter is still meeting with Captain Edmodarn – he is apparently being extremely helpful with providing background information on this galaxy. They have docked the Twilight Monsoon in one of the secondary hangar bays and are preparing to begin repairs to her engines under the supervision of Captain Edmodarn's first mate a female called Wevv. She's apparently from the Miralian species."

"I see. Let me know whenever there are any changes."

"Understood sir."

"Dismissed lieutenant."

"Aye sir," the lieutenant acknowledged before closing down the connection with the bridge from his end causing the holographic screen – floating in the projector field above his desk – to pixel out of existence leaving Rick once again alone in his office. But only for a moment because no sooner than the screen disappeared but the door hailer went off.

"Come in," he called out guessing that it was Captain Solo and Colonel Dante who had insisted on escorting the native captain through the ship. He was proven correct when the door slid open and the two men came into the room, Colonel Dante taking position near the door. "Ah Captain Solo good," Rick said standing to greet his guest, "I'm Admiral Hunter. I assume your journey here was not too stressful."

"It was fine," Han answered as he took the hand Rick offered him and they shook hands in a somewhat universal gesture among human cultures. As he did so he studied the other man he was older, definitely well into middle age – which could mean he was anywhere from fifty to a hundred plus years old as he had no idea how long Terrans lived – but still fit and strong. A compact but powerful build clearly noticeable beneath his uniform and the scars and lines on his face spoke of a lifetime of pain and struggle against his people's enemies. There was definitely a hard edge to him that said that when the chips were down Rick Hunter could be a very hard man, but it was balanced by a kindness that you didn't see in officers, at least not in the officers he was familiar with from his brief career in the Imperial Navy. "Quite enjoyable actually."

"Good please sit," Rick said pulling his hand back and gesturing to the other side of the desk. Han accepted the invitation. "Before we begin, I would like to thank you for coming to the aide of Captain Sommerville and the crew of the Windermere in the way that you did. It was very kind and very brave of you."

"I just did what any spacer with any sense of decency – which I admit is hard to come by in this day and age – would have done," Han admitted, "I'm just disappointed that I couldn't get close enough in time to use the Falcon's tractor beam to stop the crash. It would have been better."

"Indeed. Now I am sure you are wondering just why I wanted to see you as it wasn't just to say thank you."

"I guessed as much. You want something from me?"

"Indeed. As you know doubt know by now, we are not from around here."

"That's obvious your technology is so different to the norm and your weapons are beyond terrifying."

"True robotech weaponry can be devastating," Rick agreed inwardly shivering as he remembered the Rain of Death, standing on the SDF-1 talking with Minmei until a flash of light out the viewport caught their attention and they'd turned to see Earth burning as Dolza rained streams of quantum energy from reflex cannons down upon the planet killing billions in seconds.

"Since we're not from around here, we're not even from this galaxy in point of fact we have very little information on what life is like in this galaxy that we've found ourselves in," he continued.

Han blinked. "You're not from this galaxy?" he asked.

"No, we're not," Rick admitted, "it's just as well as from what I have heard about them I wouldn't want the Empire to get its grubby little hands on any of our weaponry."

"No that would be bad," Han agreed shuddering as he imagined what your average Imperial officer would do if they had access to Terran weaponry. They were bad enough with turbolasers, ion cannons and proton torpedoes they didn't need to add things like reflex weapons to their arsenals as well. "So, what do you want with me?"

"We need information about this galaxy and what really goes on here," Rick explained, "we have specialists who can gather that information, but we have no means of transporting them without attracting attention from Imperial authorities and while Imperial ships are relatively easily burned from the stars it would be kind of impossible to hide our presence if we have to keep doing that."

"You would like me to provide transport?"

"That and more. We can pay you quite handsomely in more ways than one."

Han grinned he liked where this was going. "I'm listening."

Rick grinned back before beginning to explain what he had in mind for how Captain Solo and his ship could be of assistance to them. As he spoke Han began to get the distinct impression that no matter what happened next, no matter what he ultimately decided to do that his and Chewie's lives would never be the same again after this meeting.

Which was both an intriguing and frightening prospect.


Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it though I once again have to apologize for leaving this story to languish unattended for so long. Hopefully the next chapter which will answer a few of the questions brought up in this chapter will not be quite so long in coming – though considering how chaotic things are getting around here, which is only going to get worse the closer we get to Christmas, I naturally cannot make any promises on when the next chapter will be ready. Until next time.