Hey, everyone! I'm back again, and I gotta say, I really enjoyed writing this chapter. It's just so fun to describe the banter between Calvin and Hobbes. Plus, I got to show some of Luke and Han and Chewie!

Also, thank you Monster King, for all of the reviews! I will definitely continue this story.

As always, please review and enjoy!

The rebel fleet was taking refuge in the outer rim, a sparsely populated part of the galaxy, just outside of an uncolonized gas giant called Vünn-Kesh (much to Calvin's amusement). It was comprised of forty-four ships, consisting of several cruisers and destroyers, five carriers/assault ships, and a couple dozen frigates, corvettes, and gunships. That was without mentioning the hundreds of starfighters, bombers, dropships, and the thousands of personnel.

Most of the big ships had been acquired after the ocean planet of Mon Cala had defected from the Galactic Empire. For Hobbes, it was hard to imagine that the Imperial Navy had tens of thousands of ships, most of them twice as large as the biggest Mon Calamari cruiser the Rebellion had.

"Spaceman Spiff blasts towards the Allied fleet, remarking that it had only a tenth of the firepower that the Naggon Mother fleet employed at Ragoo Nine!" came the voice of Calvin from his seat.

It seemed that he was not as impressed as Hobbes was.

Hobbes sighed, and turned on his communicator. "Tiger One to Rebel Command, requesting permission to dock," he reported. The response took several seconds.

"Chrrzch! Command to Tiger One, permission granted," a male voice responded. "Proceed to Docking Bay Seven of the Battlecruiser, Prolific."

"Acknowledged," Hobbes confirmed. "Tiger One proceeding to Docking Bay Seven."

He turned off the transmitter and pushed the accelerator forward, racing towards the correct Mon Cala Starcruiser with a warm meal in mind.

"Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Hobbes flicked the transmitter switch, and was addressed by the same voice again. "New Orders, Tiger One. By request of Senator Leia Organa, several selected Fighter and Bomber crews including you are to head to the main Briefing Room immediately. Acknowledged, Tiger One?"

"Acknowledged." Hobbes confirmed, and slowed down to better guide the ship into the docking bay.

"Why is Miss Organic telling us to go to the briefing room?" Calvin asked through his helmet, having come out of his imaginative games for long enough to listen. "That's for handing out assignments."

"It's Organa, first of all," Hobbes corrected. "And I think you might have just answered your own question."

"How have I answered my own… ohhhhh!" Calvin realized, grinning. "They're gonna give US an assignment!"

"Probably," he agreed, and focused on landing in the docking bay. "But I gotta say, I'm not too keen on going on another mission so soon."

"Yeah," Calvin sighed, then brightened. "But on the bright side, we might get to explore a new planet!"

"As long as they give us a day or two of rest before sending us off, I won't complain," Hobbes muttered, and yawned. "I could use a couple dozen hours of rest."

Calvin scoffed. "You tigers and your sleep."

"Hey!" Hobbes retorted as he brought the ship down on the metal floor of the docking bay. "Let's see how you feel after being attacked, having hijacked a giant walker, and then blasting out of a planetary bombardment!"

"I was there too, Hobbes!" Calvin reminded him.

"And you aren't sleepy?" Hobbes asked with skepticism.

In truth, Calvin was extremely tired, but he had his pride to uphold. "Of course not!" he lied.

"I don't believe you," Hobbes muttered, and pushed open the sliding glass canopy. Calvin likewise emerged, and the two took a couple of seconds to stretch and relieve an assortment of kinks in their backs.

"Oh, man," Calvin sighed. "That felt so good!"

"Let's get to the briefing room," Hobbes reminded him, and began walking out of the docking bay, his helmet tucked in-between his arm at his side.

"Wait for me!" Calvin yelled after him, running to catch up.

A few minutes later, both of them had reached the entrance, which was being guarded by two Alderaanian soldiers. Calvin had nicknamed them egghelmets after seeing the large, white, helmets they wore.

"Calvin and Hobbes of Tiger One reporting," Hobbes said. The left guard unclipped a datapad from his belt, and made a few quick taps. After a couple of seconds he looked up and nodded.

"Go in, and as soon as the senators and admirals see you, salute," the right guard helpfully informed them. "Find a seat or stand somewhere if the seats are all taken."

"Thank you," Hobbes said, and gave them a friendly smile. He and Calvin headed into the room.

Inside were over fifteen other pilots either sitting down or standing in a semi-circular room, including Luke, who had participated in the attack against the Death Star. As soon as he saw them, he smiled and waved. At the far end, on a raised platform, stood several senators, Leia among them. A strange fish-man was talking.

"...This mission is of great importance, as the Rebel Alliance needs a new base as soon as possible! The fleet can only…" the fish man trailed off as he spotted Calvin and Hobbes standing at the entrance.

"Ah, yes," he smiled. "Pilots, welcome Tiger One to the briefing room!"

The entire room turned to look at the new arrivals, most of the pilots sizing them up. Some offered a greeting out of politeness.

Hobbes felt nervous from all of the stares, but remembered what the guard had told them. He snapped a salute as best as he could, and heard Calvin do the same right by him. Then, after a few more awkward seconds, both of them shuffled over to find a place to sit. The stares followed them as they sat down a few seats over from Luke.

Before the fish man could continue, however, a hand shot up from an X-wing pilot on the other side of the doorway.

"Yes, Gold Four?" the fish man asked.

"Pardon me, sir," Gold Four began. "But may I ask why we are sending new recruits on such an important mission?"

Behind Hobbes, Luke and several other members of Red Squadron shot up from their seats, ready to defend them. Calvin did the same, rising and beginning to raise a finger. But before either of them could say anything, Leia broke in.

"All of Red squadron and myself have vouched for Tiger One, Gold Four," she countered. "Their bravery and skill against the Death Star was noted by command, so despite them joining only recently, they have proven themselves trustworthy."

Hobbes could see the pilot tense with anger, and for a moment it looked like he was going to say something. But instead he sat back down, his face slightly red from embarrassment. The fish man resumed his speech.

"As I was saying, the Rebel Alliance needs a new base, and you pilots, hand-selected by command, will help with the task. You will be split into six groups that will each travel to a planet, and scout it out to see if it is an ideal place to set up a new headquarters."

A ripple of hushed conversation began, until the fish man held out a hand to silence them.

"You will split into groups of two and three to scout seven planets picked by command. These planets are supposedly uninhabited, but there is always the possibility of a secret base or colony already there," the fish man warned. "Do you understand?"

A 'Yes Sir' sounded across the room.

"Report to Princess Leia for more information," the fish man ordered, and walked out. Everyone in the room turned their attention to the princess, who began reading off of a holoscreen.

"Briggs and Meyers," she began, "you will scout out Ondro. Sarcan and Damathir, scout out Essar Two. Kuros, Halan, and Percona, Uunot Five…"

Calvin was excited. They would be going on a mission to investigate a planet! He couldn't wait to spend some fun time in a new place with Hobbes, and kick back for a bit. They could still do the mission while having fun, he decided.

"...And finally, Calvin and Hobbes, you will be scouting out the dwarf planet, Tanca," Leia said, and smiled. "May the force be with you. Dismissed!"

The pilots all stood up and began to exit the room. Calvin and Hobbes were among the first ones out, running over to Luke.

Luke spotted them. "Hey guys!"

"'Sup, Lukulele?" Calvin greeted him.

"...What?" Luke asked, an image of confusion on his face.

"Don't worry about it," Hobbes stepped in. "He gives nicknames to everyone, and he doesn't exactly care if you don't want 'em. It's better to stick with it."

"Well… okay," Luke decided. "What do you guys need?"

"Thanks for being so ready to stand up for us," Hobbes said. "That was real swell 'o ya."

"Oh, no problem," Luke assured them. "Everyone says that Jake is a bit annoying. He's always looking out for an opportunity to prove that he's better than others."

"Besides," he went on, "back at the Death Star, you guys really helped out with getting us into that trench. That's why some of the others were ready to give Jake a piece of their minds, too."

"Ah."

"Well," Calvin interrupted, "Nice seeing you around!"

"You too, Calvin," Luke said, and smiled. They quickly parted ways.

"So," Calvin asked after a few seconds, "what's on the agenda for today?"

Hobbes took out his datapad and brought up the most recent commands. "Well," he said, "it looks like we have a few chores to do-"

"Chores?!" Calvin spat.

"Yeah. Stuff like refueling our Y-wing, fixing the wiring in some of the storage rooms…"

Calvin hmphed.

"...and then it's time for lunch!" Hobbes said with glee. He sighed, wistfully. "I can almost taste it…"

It turned out that lunch was not as great as Hobbes had thought it would be.

The two had completed their chores just fine, although things had gotten a bit crazy when Calvin had crossed the wrong wires and all of the enemies in the simulated training arena had switched to 'overkill ' mode. Now they were sitting down in the ship's cafeteria, with Hobbes grumbling over the lack of seafood.

"No fish?!" Hobbes exclaimed incredulously after they sat at an empty table. "They have this big cafeteria and no fish!"

"Pipe down, will ya?" Calvin hissed. "Just be glad that they have meat!"

"Hey. I'm just saying that with this being a fish people ship, with fish people on it, they should have some actual fish!" Hobbes argued, and picked up a slab of Runyip meat.

"So, I'm planning to get some sleep after we eat," Hobbes said, and bit down on the tender, purple-ish meat. "Whaht're you ghunna do?" he asked, bits of meat flying out of his mouth.

"Well, I kinda wanna get some sleep, too," Calvin admitted, averting his eyes as Hobbes put on a smug grin. "But first, I was gonna take a peek in the armory. Maybe I can get one of those cool vibroblades where the blade vibrates so fast that you can cut through metal."

"Maybe not," Hobbes said, anxious. "Wouldn't want you to cut off a finger!"

"Worrywart!"

Hobbes sighed. "Just don't do anything stupid."

"I never do anything stupid!"

Hobbes sniggered.

"Quiet, flea feast!" Calvin growled, and quickly changed the subject. "So, when are we gonna go on this mission?"

Hobbes composed himself and brought out his datapad again. He swiped it a couple of times, and his face dropped.

"Tomorrow," he murmured.

"Looks like you're not gonna get your beauty sleep after all," Calvin quipped.

"Neither are you," Hobbes retorted, just as quick-witted as Calvin. "And you need your beauty sleep way more than I do, that's for sure."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Calvin demanded, and spooned up a mouthful of Quenio; a grain indigenious to Yavin Four.

"Y'know what? Nevermind," Hobbes decided, and yawned. "Let's just eat so that I can get some sleep."

And with that, the subject was dropped. The two best friends finished their trays and disposed of them before exiting the cafeteria, heading for their bunks.

"Hobbes?" Calvin asked.

"Yeah-huh?"

"Which way to the armory again?"

"Here," Hobbes said, handing him his datapad. "Take a look again."

"Thanks," Calvin said, and took it from his paws. "Hey, why didn't I get one of these things?"

"I guess they thought that out of the two of us, I was the better equipped one to handle it," Hobbes said, and shrugged.

"Oh, yeah?" Calvin asked. "Well, I say that that they, whoever that might be, are a sorry load of uncouth, idiotic-"

"Grrrawr! Rawr!"

Surprised by the sudden and familiar barks and growls, Calvin and Hobbes looked up ahead to find Han and Chewbacca walking towards them.

"Solo!" Calvin exclaimed with joy. "How are 'ya doing, pal?"

"Hey, Calvin!" Han said, and grinned. "Lucky for you, I'm gonna be staying with the Rebellion for a while."

"Cool!" Calvin said. Beside him, Hobbes moved to greet Chewie with their secret handshake that they had made back on the Falcon. Despite it being only a few days since they met, the two were fast friends.

"What's cracking, Chewie?" he asked.

"Raaargh, argyle. Wraw!"

"Erm, right," Hobbes said. "I still can't understand you, but that will change soon!"

"So what are you guys up to?" Han asked.

"Well, I'm on my way to a good rest, and Calvin here wants to visit the armory," Hobbes explained. "We saw Luke just a few hours ago, too."

"Luke?" Han asked. "How's the kid doing?"

"He's doing alright," Hobbes confirmed.

"Speaking of Luke," Calvin said, "did you hear about the mission to find a new planet for the Rebellion.

Han nodded, and Chewie growled in the affirmative.

"Well, me and Hobbes are being selected to help!" Calvin revealed. "We're going to scout out this planet called Katanga-"

"Tanka," Hobbes corrected.

"Whatever," Calvin grumbled. "Tanka."

"In the Eribolus System?" Han asked.

"Um, I think so," Hobbes said. "Have you ever been there?"

"Not in its atmosphere," Han said, and elaborated. "Me and Chewie were planning to meet with a spice vessel for a secret exchange, since the system is supposed to be uninhabited. But while we were flying past Tanka, something appeared on the scanners."

"What was it?" Calvin asked, curious.

"Well," Han went on, "the sensors said that it was a ship of some sort, but it was more of a blob on the screen. And it only appeared for a few seconds before it was gone."

"Imperials, you think?" Hobbes asked.

"Maybe," Han shrugged, "but after a few minutes we decided that it was a malfunction in the scanners. Maybe it was just a small asteroid, or nothing at all. Just… when you guys scout out the place, make sure to be careful."

"Don't worry," Hobbes assured the smuggler. "We'll be vigilant!"

Han smiled. "Alright, then. Hey, nice seeing you!"

"You too, Han and Chewie!" Calvin said, and the four separated, Calvin heading off to the armory, Hobbes opening the door to their bunks, and Han and Chewie going who knows where.

As Hobbes looked around the room, he noted the work desk, the round carpet in the middle of the room, the air vent right by it, and the two beds with white, fluffy sheets and nice, cool pillows.

Pah, he thought, and instead of choosing the beds, curled up on the carpet, falling fast asleep.

Meanwhile, Calvin had found the entrance to the armory, which was guarded by a familiar gold protocol droid. Grinning, he strolled up to the doorway.

"Hey, Goldilocks!" he casually greeted C-3po. The droid turned toward him in surprise.

"Calvin!" he exclaimed. "Why, whatever are you doing here?"

"Well, me and Hobbes became pilots in the Rebellion!" Calvin explained.

"Oh, yes!" 3po said. "Master Luke told me that you two had been accepted. Congratulations!"

"Thanks, 3po," Calvin said, smiling. "Now if you'd just let me go in here-"

3po moved to block the doorway. "Ah, ah, ah!" he warned. "Only authorized people are allowed in here. You must have the proper clearance"

About to throw a hissy fit, Calvin noticed something; a vent, just visible in a nearby supply room. A plan formed in his head as he thought back to all of the spy movies he and Hobbes had watched.

"Welp, darn!" he exclaimed, and went to walk off. "I don't have one of those, so I guess I can't go in there. But hey, nice 'seein ya around, 3po!"

As 3po watched the boy walk down the hall, he thought to himself, Is it just me or did Calvin give up too easily?

As soon as Calvin was sure that 3po wasn't watching him walk off anymore, he dashed into the nearby supply room and closed the door behind him. Turning, he walked up to the nearby vent and examined it.

The vent was round, with a thin, protective grate over it to keep people out. Stacking several crates, Calvin got up to the vent and pulled, not expecting the grate to come off easily. To his surprise, it popped off like it was greased and caused Calvin to stumble and fall.

"Whoa!" he cried out, and hit the floor, causing a loud bang!

After a few seconds he popped back up again, unshaken, and was now extra determined to climb inside. He clambered back up the crates, and slipped inside of the vent.

It was cool inside, with an artificial breeze flowing through it. Somewhere in the maze of tunnels, a loud hum reverberated off of the vent walls. Probably fans, Calvin thought. To keep the air flow going.

He tried to remember which way the armory was, and started crawling in that direction, using his tiny standard-issue flashlight to see. Everyone on board had one, and nobody really used them much because they were puny little things, emitting low light levels. But right now, Calvin would use anything he had.

Soon, after twists, turns, and some downward slopes, he found himself facing another grate leading out into what he was pretty sure was the armory. Several people were walking around, and a few blaster shots could be heard every now and again.

They must have some sorta shooting range, he decided, and waited until the walking and the voices were farther away. He gave the grate an experimental shove.

"Shhhk!" The grate moved fairly easily, and Calvin grinned at his luck. He would have to use the vents more often to sneak into places where he wasn't supposed to. After making sure that the coast was clear, he pushed the grate out the rest of the way.

Once it was off, Calvin quickly crawled out and crouched, ready to bolt back into the vent's safety if anyone spotted him. He took a quick look around.

The room was rectangular, with a long, metal counter on one side where a silver protocol droid stood, his or her eyes shut off. Several aisles of racks filled much of the rest of the room, with dozens upon dozens of blaster weapons displayed upon them.

Nice, Calvin thought. But he already had a blaster. He was here for a vibroblade.

On the other side of the room were several people and two training instructors, one of them a Trandoshan. He never really liked those guys; they looked at him as if he were some sorta prey. He was now helping one of those Alderaanian egghelmets readjust the sights on his blaster rifle. No one was paying any attention to where he was.

"Perfect," he muttered, and looked around again for the knives.

Yes! Behind the counter where the shut off silver droid was standing, dozens of knives were displayed on shelves behind a glass screen. He slowly and quietly made his way over, making sure that no one was coming his way.

Then, he made a dash for behind the counter, and scuttled near the droid to get a good look at the array of blades on display.

Knives, daggers, hand-guard blades, ballistic knives… Calvin ticked them off one by one as he looked at all of them.

Aha! He stopped at the other end of the counter and stuck his hand inside, very carefully, to pull out one of the several vibroblades in the display case. It had a dark handle with a good grip, and a long, sharp blade that was connected to the handle by a smaller, thinner piece of metal that went inside of it.

Slowly holding it out in front of him with both hands, Calvin pressed the activation button on the side and stared in awe as the blade became a blurry image, humming as it vibrated.

Oh, yeah. This could definitely cut through metal.

So transfixed was he by the knife, that he failed to realize that the Alderaanian guard and the Trandoshan had walked over to the counter until the latter spoke.

"E-2TA!" the lizard-like alien hissed. Immediately, the droid powered up and his/her legs moved, causing Calvin to have to scutter away. He quickly turned off the blade.

"Glido here needs a new scope for his model A280!" the alien continued, motioning to the guard beside him.

"Oh! Sure!" the droid said, and bent down to grab a box from the other end of the display case. "Size 19 or 20?" she asked.

"20," the Trandoshan answered. "For such a blaster, he requires…" he stopped talking, his nostrils enlarging as they scented the air. He growled.

"There is someone in here," he hissed. "Help Glido with his weapon. I will search the room."

"Of course," 'E-2TA' responded, and handed the box to Glido. She then took a second to look around and behind her. Calvin managed to stay undetected by scooting to the other side of wherever E-2TA looked. Finally, she turned back, seemingly satisfied.

Calvin almost breathed a sigh of relief, but caught himself and scooted to the edge of the counter. The Trandoshan was near the shooting range, scenting the air and looking around, his eyes peeled. Looking up, Calvin saw the droid's eyes start to fade again as the guard, Glido, walked off to lean by the doorway.

Okay, Calvin decided, taking a deep breath and putting the blade in his belt. Three… two… one!

He rose up and made a dash for the vent, his footsteps falling as quiet as possible. He was halfway there when a voice near the doorway yelled, "Hey!"

Calvin turned, and ran faster at seeing the Trandoshian and Glido running after him. "Hey! Hey, kid!"

Not bothering to glance back again, Calvin dove down to the ground and crawled into the vent. A few seconds later he heard footsteps, and turned his head to see the guard and the Trandoshan peek into the vent after him, the latter snarling lightly. He gulped.

Ignoring the shouts of 'Hey, Kid!', and 'Come back here!', he instead tried to remember which way was the way to the storage room again.

After a few minutes of crawling and slightly getting lost, Calvin once again exited the original vent and dropped down, using his legs to keep him from straight up falling. Then, he let go and dropped down to the floor with a small Thud.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "Mission Accomplished!"

He pressed the button to open the door, and peeked outside, both ways. After verifying that there was no angry Trandoshan in the hallway, he slipped out of the room, extremely proud of himself at having escaped that scary lizard.

"Hello again, Calvin!" came the voice of 3po. Calvin turned and said, "Hi."

3po took a peek inside of the armory, then turned back. "Did you know that Trandoshan in there saw someone crawling around in the vents?"

"Uh… no," Calvin lied. "Well, I hope that they catch the sucker, whoever he was."

Suddenly, in the room, the Trandoshian caught another scent, and his head whipped towards the direction of Calvin. They locked eyes, and the lizard-alien growled.

"Well-3po,-nice-'seein-ya!" he blurted out, hastily bidding farewell before racing out of there like a bat out of hell.

3po, oblivious, called out, "You too, Calvin!" before the Trandoshian barreled through the doorway, his arm clipping the poor protocol droid and making him stumble.

"How rude!" 3po exclaimed.

The sliding of the door caused Hobbes to open an eye as he watched a tired, out of breath, disheveled Calvin stumble his way inside. He quickly turned and locked the door.

"What happened to you?" Hobbes muttered sleepily.

"Trandoshan… Barely escaped- need to lie down," Calvin gasped, and immediately collapsed on the bottom bunk bed, falling asleep within seconds.

I don't know whether I should be surprised or not, Hobbes thought tiredly, and closed his eyes again to finally get some rest.

By the way, if you are having trouble picturing the vibroblade I described, the blade is like normal until it gets close to the handle, where the bottom curves upward to create a thinner part. That part then goes into the handle, where the vibrating doodad shakes it. Because the handle is more slender at the top, it can vibrate more as the doodad makes it go up and down.

Am I over-obsessing this? I feel like I'm over-obsessing this.

:D