Hey y'alls! Dang. It's been a few weeks since my last upload. But now we're progressing again! Thank you to everyone who has stuck with the story for this long, and enjoy this new chapter! SmarmySmirk out!
"Boom!"
Another muffled shudder rippled through a crumbling Echo base as Star Destroyers sent shot after shot raining down onto it. It had been hard enough getting back into the base from where he had crashed outside… but in here, every rumble sent Luke stumbling to the ground. If he didn't hurry, he might soon suffocate in the collapsing tunnels.
"C'mon, Luke!" his friend, Wedge Antilles urged, just a few yards in front of him.
Finally, they both entered the South hangar, and each pilot raced to his respective X-wing- two of only a few ships left.
"R2, get her ready for takeoff!" Luke shouted to the Astromech, seated in his position on the outside of the ship, just behind the cockpit. He looked over and saw Wedge, already in his own X-wing's cockpit.
"Good Luck, Luke! See you at the Rendezvous!" Wedge shouted. The friendly farewell made Luke's guilt rise, but he smiled and waved in return, anyway. Getting into his seat, he strapped in and began flicking some final switches to get his bird into the air. The cockpit's roof closed over him, and a mechanical shudder went through the ship. Slowly, it began rising up into the air as chunks of falling snow battered it. In front of him, Luke saw Wedge race out of the hangar.
Suddenly, a rather large icicle smashed down onto the nose of the X-wing, bringing the whole ship off balance. Frantically, R2 beeped at him to 'Hurry up or get buried forever!'
"Don't worry, R2! We're going where we're going!" Luke shouted, and pushed the accelerator forward a smidge too fast. The ship blasted out of the hangar with surprising speed just as a large part of the roof caved in. "Whoa!" Luke exclaimed with surprise.
Managing to recover, he pulled back on the throttle and shot straight up into Hoth's stratosphere. The sudden decrease in gravity made him lightheaded for a few moments, until the Anti-gravity system finally kicked in. Luckily, most of the Imperial ships were distracted, a couple of them continuing to send destructive rounds onto the base, and another one going in a completely different direction. From the green laser blasts in the distance, he deduced that it must be chasing another Rebel ship that hadn't gotten away in time.
Sighing, he turned the ship and rocketed in a different direction from the flight path that, with lightspeed, would have taken him to the Rebel Rendezvous. He hoped that it wasn't the Falcon or Hobbes being chased… or Wedge.
An attention-grabbing beep alerted him to the fact that R2 was messaging him on his monitor screen. The Aurebesh loaded, asking a worried question.
"There's nothing wrong, R2, I'm just setting a new course," he told him. A few moments passed before another message loaded on his screen from R2, who was now rather confused.
"We're not going to regroup with the others," Luke revealed, eliciting a screech of "What?! Where are you going?"
"We're going to the Dagobah system," Luke chuckled. He had sort of expected this reaction, but it still made him laugh.
For a time, both of them were quiet as Luke checked the ship's systems. The nearest Hyperspace path to the Dagobah System was accessible about an hour away, so he would be waiting for a while. The X-wing's weapons, deflector shields, and engines were all in order, which was good. He had worried that Hoth's freezing weather had caused something to go wrong.
Finally, R2 messaged him again, and Luke watched the carefully phrased question appear on his screen, requesting kindly to put the X-wing into autopilot since it would be, "So tiring for Luke to fly it aaalll the way to the nearest hyperspace path for an hour himself.
Luke chuckled at the clever attempt from R2 to take control of the ship. "That's all right," he grinned. "I'd like to keep it on manual control for a while." The droid let out a defeated whimper at that.
Suddenly, an alarming beep came from the X-wing's scanners, and Luke turned them on to see a small, yellow dot heading towards him on the screen. Uncertain over whether it was a friend or not, he slid his hands over the controls and prepared to swing around and engage the new ship.
Suddenly, the dot turned red, and he automatically dived down with a twirl before immediately coming back up again, now from below. Placing his thumbs on the firing controls, he realized too late that the silhouette of the enemy fighter looked far too much like a Y-wing. His thumbs pressed down before he could stop himself, and four blaster bolts shot towards the unshielded fighter-bomber.
But Luke wasn't the only ace in the Rebellion, and the Y-wing managed to pull up into a vertical position, causing the blaster bolts to skim harmlessly past its underbelly. The next second, both ships leveled out, and a voice radioed him. "Luke, stop engaging!"
"Dank Ferrik!" Luke cursed, and activated his commpad. "Sorry, Hobbes. I thought you were an Imperial.
"...Why?" the perplexed question came through.
"I guess my friend/foe designator's faulty," Luke chuckled nervously. "I'm really sorry. I didn't know that it was you."
"That's alright," Hobbes said, looking over at him from his cockpit's glass screen with a friendly smile. "I've been having some faulty stuff in my Y-wing, too. Must have been the cold temperatures. Nice trick though, diving and rising up again there."
"Yeah," Luke mumbled. "So, you're all ready to go?"
"Well, I am here, aren't I?" Hobbes grinned.
Another message came through from R2, disbelieving and grumpy, to which Luke said, "Yes, Hobbes is coming with us, too."
"You didn't tell him?" Hobbes asked.
"No. If I did, he would probably be steering the ship for me, taking me to where I'm actually supposed to go."
"Ah, I see," Hobbes nodded. "So... about you seeing Obi Wan when we found you in the snow… did he tell you anything besides the Dagobah part? Maybe, 'Oh, by the way, say hello to Calvin and Hobbes for me?'"
"'Fraid not," Luke shook his head. "I'm sorry, Hobbes. He was a great man."
"Alright," Hobbes sighed. "Y'know, I miss him a lot."
"Me too," Luke mumbled. Even though the ol' wise Jedi had only been with them for a short while, he had left a lasting impression on everybody, Especially Calvin, Hobbes, and himself, who had been amazed with the stories that he had told. It had been three years and Luke still hadn't discovered how to do most of what Obi-Wan could do. He was the most skilled Jedi that he knew.
On the other hand, he was still angry at Obi-wan for sacrificing himself to save them… why did he need to do that? Why, as they were racing onto the Falcon, did he lower his guard and allow himself to be cut apart by Darth Vader?
Perhaps Yoda could give him some answers.
"Hey, Hobbes," he said, a thought entering his head.
"Yeah, Luke?"
"Did you see the Falcon get away safely when you took off?" he asked. "I saw one of the Star Destroyers chasing something."
"Oh, crud," Hobbes muttered. "No, I didn't see them get away… but I'm sure that they're alright. They're probably already in Hyperspace by now."
"What makes you say that?" Luke asked.
"Oh, you know Han," Hobbes said. "His and Chewie's piloting is spectacular. Plus, they have Calvin and 3po. One with incredible aiming skills and a gung-ho attitude, and the other to give them important information about… say, the ship's systems."
"All four of them together are practically indestructible, so I'm sure that they're completely fine."
"Hold on!" Han yelled, deploying some nausea-inducing evasive maneuvers to escape the flak exploding all around them. Behind them, the Star Destroyer and four of it's TIE fighters pursued them as fast as possible, slowly but surely catching up to them. Doing six things all at once, Han and Chewie were only barely able to keep from getting shot to smithereens. Leia and Calvin, who weren't buckled in, were ungracefully thrown around with even the ship's antigravity not helping much to stabilize them.
"I saw them! I saw them!" Han exclaimed, flipping switches and pushing the accelerator forward to bring whatever he saw into view again.
"Saw what?!" Leia yelled, her face slightly ashen.
"Star destroyers, two of 'em, coming right at us," Han told her, and he was right. Two other Star Destroyers had come into view, meaning that soon the Falcon would be boxed in by all three of them.
"Well, do something!" Calvin yelled.
"Sir, sir!" 3po called out, entering the cockpit. "Might I suggest-"
"Shut him up or shut him down!" Han yelled. "Chewie, check the Deflector Shield."
The Wookie barked an alarmed reply in response, attempting to both check the shield and get Calvin and 3po off of him after they had stumbled into his seat.
"Oh, great. Well, we can still outmaneuver them," Han decided, and pushed the ship to go faster, rocketing towards the two new star destroyers, while ordering Chewie to put everything that they had into the weakening deflector shield.
The two new Star Destroyers fired, their great cannons releasing scores of volatile rounds in the direction of the Falcon, which evaded and dodged like never before. Rounds impacted the deflector shield, bringing it back down. And just as the three ships converged on them, Han pushed the throttle forward and dived down in a daring maneuver. It had left their deflector shield almost powerless, but now, all three star destroyers were desperately attempting to prevent a disastrous mid-space collision, all of them too close to each other to keep chasing the Falcon.
"Woohoo!" Calvin cheered. "Greatest Space Smuggler to have ever existed!"
"Well, we're not out of this yet," Leia pointed out. "Fighters inbound!"
She was correct. Several more TIE fighters were exiting the Star Destroyers' holds, joining up with the squadron already hounding them. Bolt after bolt of deadly emerald destruction hit them, and all of them knew that they couldn't stay ahead of the more nimble TIE's for long.
"Alright, prepare to make the jump to lightspeed," Han ordered.
"But sir!" 3po desperately tried to say.
"Shut up!" Calvin yelled.
"They're getting closer," Leia worryingly stated, looking at the rearview screen.
"Oh, yeah?" Han asked, smug. "Watch… This!" He pushed forward the hyperspace switch, and with a grin, Calvin waited for the stars to blur together. Everyone held their breath in anticipation… and the Falcon uttered a series of electrical coughing sounds in response.
(Nothing happened).
Now in a state of alarm, Han and Chewie checked the Hyperspace controls.
"Watch what?" Leia asked with an annoyed voice.
"I think we're in trouble," Han muttered, mostly to himself as he looked at the console with wide eyes.
"Hey, Leia," Calvin chimed in. "Remember when you said that someday Han'll be wrong and you hoped you'd be there to see it?"
"Shut up, kid!" Han growled as more and more bolts struck the Falcon's weakened deflector shield. He tried again, but the same coughing sounds came from inside the Falcon's Hyperdrive, causing them no end of worry.
"If I may say so, sir," 3po finally managed to get out, "I noticed earlier that the Hyperdrive motivator has been damaged. It's impossible to go to light-speed!"
"We're in trouble," Han nodded. "Calvin, with me. We're gonna check what's wrong. Chewie, keep the ship going!"
Calvin dutifully followed Han to the cargo hold, where Han knelt and lifted the panel that led to the Hyperdrive's system. Climbing down, he and Calvin began checking the internal wiring for whatever the problem was.
A few minutes later, they still hadn't found the issue. Han was working furiously at some control panels while Calvin supplied him with the necessary parts from the storage locker.
"Horizontal Boosters… nope. Alluvial dampers… well, that's not it," Han was muttering to himself. "Calvin, bring me the Hydrospanners!"
"Hold on a second." Calvin brought the needed toolbox and set it by the opening. Han popped up, grabbed one of the pieces inside, and ducked back down into the hole.
Suddenly a large tremor passed through the ship, sending the toolbox flying down into the opening.
"Ow!" Han yelled, the shout accompanied by the clanging of metal tools, before popping up again with a perplexed face. Suddenly, another, heavier tremor shook them.
"What's up, Han?" Calvin asked.
"That was no laser blast! Something hit us!" he said, just as Leia's voice came over his commlink.
"Han, get up here!" she urged him. Both Calvin and Han ran back to the cockpit, and to their surprise, out the window, hundreds of asteroids were racing by.
"Asteroids!" Leia exclaimed.
"Yeah, yeah, Cinnamon Buns, we see it," Calvin grumbled, earning him a glare that could have wilted an entire meadow.
"Alright, Chewie!" Han ordered, his eyes suddenly lighting up. "Set Two-Seven-One!"
"What are you doing?! You're not actually going into an asteroid field, are you?" Leia asked him.
"Well, they'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?" Calvin shrugged, before almost falling as another asteroid hit the side of the ship, jolting everyone. "You don't have to do this to impress me," Leia told Han, worried.
"Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately three thousand, seven hundred and twenty to one!" 3po whined.
"Never tell me the odds!" Han yelled, and with a whoop, he flew them deeper into the asteroid field. Soon, the hundreds of asteroids turned to thousands, and then hundreds of thousands, big and small, smooth and jagged. But the TIE fighters never stopped, and continued after the Falcon with an almost crazy determination.
"These guys aren't going to give up," Han realized as another asteroid nearly sideswiped the ship. "Calvin, shoot those fighters down!"
"You got it!" Calvin nodded, and rushed out of the cockpit to the center of the ship, excited to give those Imperials another taste of his firing skill. Clambering up a ladder, he seated himself in a small gunner's compartment, the falcon's powerful laser cannon right above him. The system booted up and displayed a targeting screen for him to use.
"Alright, you bucketheads!" he hollered as he swung the cannon around, pointing it straight towards the TIEs. "Get a load o' this!"
The cannon opened up, shooting scarlet streaks of scorching ammunition that speared straight towards the Imperial ships soaring after them. Due to the fact that the TIEs only had one pilot, they couldn't shoot back much without risking a collision with an asteroid. But the constant maneuvering by Han made Calvin landing his own shots much more difficult.
But he kept at it, pressing the firing triggers over and over again. Most of his shots hit asteroids. but a few punched through the fighters' armor, sending them careening further into the deadly mass of space rocks. Streaks of green flew past streaks of red as both sides fired in an incredible test of endurance. Asteroids crashed and smashed against each other in the heated game of deadly dodgeball. Sweat formed on Calvin's brow, but he paid it no heed.
Slowly, Calvin whittled the TIE fighters down, his shots breaking the cockpits' windshields and tearing off hex wings. After a while there were only eight. Then five. Three.
Suddenly, Calvin had a straight shot at the leftmost TIE and took it. The shots hit, and the wounded fighter immediately exploded as several shards of rock tore through its vulnerable carapace. Only two left, he thought.
"Calvin," Han's voice came through the commpad. "How many TIE fighters are still following us?"
"Two!" Calvin answered. "But you guys need to find somewhere to hide! Our shields are down and these guys are relentless! We're gettin' pulverized sometime very soon!"
"We're working on it… there! I'm going to get closer to one of the bigger ones," Han said.
"Closer?" Calvin heard Leia ask with confusion.
"Closer?!" 3po's voice trembled.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw what Han was talking about. In the midst of millions of rocks, all colliding and scraping and exploding in a blender of death was the biggest asteroid that he had ever seen. Like the eye of a cyclone, it was a calm spot in the midst of confusion, craters all across its multicolored surface.
Suddenly, two green blasts came out of nowhere towards his targeting screen, and a second-long, blinding explosion made him wince. To his horror, when he opened his eyes, the targeting screen and much of the cannon was broken.
"Han, they shot the cannon!" he exclaimed.
"Just hold on, kid," Han's voice came through. "Get ready, Chewie… now!"
"Wait, what are you- whoa!" Calvin exclaimed as the Falcon twisted and blasted forward as fast as it could. Calvin was thrown back into his seat, but out of the gunner seat's tiny viewport, he saw two walls of sheer rock closing in on them from two sides like a trash compactor. The TIE fighters followed, and just as it looked like they would all get crushed to dust, the Falcon escaped the asteroid pincer and flew to safety.
The TIE fighters weren't so lucky. The one furthest away barely got halfway through before the rock closed in on him. The foremost fighter, to his credit, almost made it out.
Almost.
Collapsing back into his chair, Calvin let out a long, long breath that he had been holding for the past half-minute. Dizzy from the spectacle, and finding himself utterly drained of sleep, he nearly fell climbing down the ladder, and stumbled into the cockpit.
"There," Han was telling Chewie. "That looks pretty good."
"What looks pretty good?" Leia asked, but Han paid her no mind. "Yeah, that'll do nicely," he nodded.
"Excuse me, Ma'am, but where are we going?" 3po asked Leia.
"Looks like we're gonna land on the giant asteroid," Calvin said, gesturing to the viewport. The Falcon was skimming over the asteroid's surface, heading towards a large crater.
"Not on the asteroid, kid. In it," Han told him, and dived down into the crater, heading for a gaping hole at the bottom. Leveling out the ship, he slowly descended into the pitch-black cavern with powerful headlights on. It was like they were in a submersible, slowly being lowered into the Mariana Trench.
"I hope you know what you're doing," Leia told Han.
"Yeah," Han nodded. "Me too."
Finally, the battered Falcon touched down on the ground, and Han took the moment to stretch from the heart-pounding ordeal that they had all just been through.
"Woo!" he exclaimed. "I haven't been in something like that since the Kessel Run."
Beside him, Chewie barked and growled, to which he replied, "Good idea. We're going to shut down everything that the Star Destroyers might pick up and use to locate where we are."
"But wait a minute," Calvin said. "How are we gonna see anything if the lights are all off… and wait a minute! The Star Destroyers went into the Asteroid field after us, too?!"
"That's what the sensors indicate," Han said. "They must really be hell-bent on catching us. And to answer your first question, I'll shut down everything but the backup power generators. They're weak enough to not provoke a reading on the Imperial energy sensors."
"Sir, I'm almost afraid to ask, but... does that include shutting me down, too?" 3po wondered.
"Yes!" Calvin nodded fervently, but Han ignored the answer. After a moment of mulling it over, he shook his head.
"No," he said. "I need you to talk to the Falcon, find out what's wrong with the hyperdrive."
Before anyone could complain, the ship rocked and threw everyone who wasn't seated to the ground. "Whoa!" Calvin yelled.
"What was that?" Leia asked, worried.
"Ma'am, it's quite possible this asteroid is not entirely stable," 3po offered.
"Not entirely stable? I'm glad you're here to tell us these things," Han sarcastically told the droid. "Chewie, take the professor in the back and plug him into the hyperdrive."
"Oh! Sometimes I just don't understand human behavior," 3po lamented. "After all, I'm only trying to do my job in the most…" The door slid together, closed by an annoyed Calvin.
"Jeez!" he exclaimed. "That guy is an absolute chatterbox! What does it take for him to shut up?!"
Han started to agree, but Calvin went on before he could say anything. "I mean, sometimes he's helpful, and he's an okay guy to be around, but when he gets whiny and starts calculating all of those probabilities, he doesn't shut up! I never even liked math anyway! And other times, he's, like, Captain Obvious. Like right now! He never stops yakking and yakking and yakking…"
A few seconds later, the cockpit's door hissed shut, with Calvin on the outside.
"Hey!" he yelled. "This is an absolute injustice! Let me back in! I have rights, and this goes against the Sixty-Third Amendment of the Declaration of Independence! I'm a free American Citizen!"
After another second or two, he gave it up and stalked away, barely noticing that he was letting his feet guide him to the bunk beds. After a whole day of planning, flying, fighting, shooting, running, yelling, and ranting, he was beat.
Entering the sleeping area, he got onto one of the four bunk beds. It barely took a minute for him to have drifted off into a deep, deep sleep, and soon he began to dream…
:D