Hey, y'alls! I'm getting better at posting chapters regularly! There should be one every Saturday or Sunday, just to let you know.
Anyways, enjoy!
"Aw, shoot!"
Sighing, Calvin pulled off his protective goggles and stared with anger at the Falcon's busted up, now smoking turret. One wrong tweak on the spark nozzle and the whole thing goes kablam, he thought. Stupid piece of junk.
It had been almost an hour since he had started, and he hadn't made much progress in repairing the damage caused by the TIE fighters. And now, he'd have to spend even more time on this thing before they could use it in any way. Standing up, he walked to the edge of the ship's roof and said, "Durasteel cutters."
"Here." Leia handed the needed tool up to Calvin. "I'm going to go in for a bite. Do you want to take a break?"
"Nah," he shook his head. "You go on an' eat."
"Alright," Leia shrugged, and walked inside of the ship. With the cutters, Calvin proceeded to carefully break off and remove various blackened components from the turret until the damage from the explosion was mostly cleaned up. Climbing down, he gathered together a tanged bunch of cables, a pair of cutters, and a new sparkbox before climbing back up.
"Alright," he sighed, and adjusted his oxygen mask. "Back to the hard part."
Carefully lowering the spare sparkbox into its proper place, Calvin disentangled several cables and began to meticulously connect them to several ports throughout the revealed interior of the turret. Taking great care not to touch the spark nozzle too much, Calvin connected almost all of the annoying, miniature, multicolored strands before he heard the noise.
"Scrreeeeeech!"
Wincing, Calvin reached up to cover his ears at the sound of something scraping against the ship's metallic plating before looking up, curious as to what had caused it. Nothing was there.
"Huh," he muttered, looking around. Taking out his blaster, just in case, he walked around, trying to hear the sound again.
Suddenly, a faint electrical buzzing reached him, and he spun around in the direction of the noise. It seemed to be coming from the side of the Falcon, near the cockpit. Slowly, barely making a sound, he creeped over to see what it was. There was a new sound; a gnawing sound that made him nervous, because gnawing usually meant-
Suddenly, a leathery, squid-faced terror jumped on top of the ship, its green, bug-like eyes staring straight at him. Screeching terribly, it sent Calvin into a terrified panic as he fired a blaster bolt. The shot missed, hitting the area where the creature just was, and the next second a dimly-lit, brown blur zoomed straight towards him.
"Aauugh!" he screamed, and stumbled backwards, turning and waving his arms all around him to ward off the alien. After a few seconds of doing this, he suddenly felt the ship's roof slip out from underneath him.
"AAuuwhoooaaaa!" he yelled, and slammed into the spongy ground.
"Kid!" he heard Han exclaim, and the next second he was hoisted to his feet.
"Han!..." he panted. "There's a thing, flying around and screeching!"
"Leia saw something, too," Han agreed, nodding at the ramp where the princess in question and Chewbacca were exiting. "Let's check it out."
"Right behind you," Calvin said, and spotted his blaster on the ground. Snatching it up, his hand brushed against the ground, which was very confusing. It's spongy texture had more or less broken his fall, but this was weird for what was supposed to be a cave.
"Y'know, Han," he said, "this ground here doesn't really feel like rock."
"It sure is weird," Han agreed. "There's an awful lot of moisture in here, too."
"I don't know about you three, but I have a bad feeling about this," Leia muttered, looking around for whatever she had seen. Slowly, all four of them made their way counterclockwise around the ship.
"Hmm," Calvin wondered and jokingly began to say, "Y'know, guys, maybe we're in a-"
"Graawr! Raargh!" Chewie growled, alarmed, causing all of them to spin around to where the wookie was pointing.
"Watch out!" Han shouted as a five foot-long shape hurtled at them. Calvin and Han were the fastest, and in a blink, two shots smacked into the attacker, its flailing form falling to the floor. Calvin put a third tibanna bolt into it, and it stopped it's wriggling.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Han murmured, examining the smoldering carcass. "Mynock. Calvin, Chewie, check the rest of the ship, make sure there aren't any more attached. They're chewing on the power cables."
"Mynocks?" Leia asked, worried.
"Go on inside. We'll clean them off if there are any more," he assured her.
Suddenly annoyed, Leia asked, "What, do you think that I can't help here?
All of a sudden, a huge flock of leathery Mynocks descended onto the group, and blaster bolts started flying again. With four people all firing, soon the swarm had had enough and flew back into the darkness. From near the ramp, Calvin could hear 3po going, "Ohhh! Go away! Go away, beastly little things! Shoo! Shoo!"
Sending a parting shot after the fluttering shapes, Calvin was surprised when the ground suddenly rumbled beneath them. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, startled. "What was that?"
"Wait a minute…" Han muttered. Taking out his blaster, he fired several times into the gloomy darkness, and for several seconds, nothing happened.
Then, a large, awakening rumble passed through the cave, and the ground began to buckle.
"Criminy!" Calvin spat.
"Get inside!" Han ordered, and the four of them ran for the entrance, where 3po was doing his best to keep from falling down. The ground shook and heaved, making them stumble, but they managed to get on the ramp and into the vibrating ship. Chewie closed the door behind them, and everyone ran to the cockpit, bracing themselves against the walls for support.
"Alright, Chewie, let's get out of here!" Han declared, strapping into his seat. Feverishly, he and Chewie flicked switches and jabbed at buttons, and the engines came on with a rumble.
"The Empire is still out there!" Leia argued. "I don't think it's wise to-"
"No time to hold a committee," Han quipped.
"I am not a committee!"
Turning the ship so that it was facing upwards, Han yelled, "Chewie, the accelerator!" The next second, the engines burned bright blue, and all five of them rocketed upwards, towards the opening up ahead. With the help of the Falcon's bright lamps the crew could see the cave entrance closing rapidly.
"Wait a minute," Calvin realized. The sides of the cave, which had looked like rows of strange, pointy rocks on the way in, weren't actually pointy rocks… they were teeth! The mouth of the cave was closing because it was an actual mouth, which meant that somehow, they had landed inside of a dormant, gigantic space rock creature!
He would have found all of that to be really, really awesome if he weren't about to be eaten by it.
"The cave is collapsing!" Leia exclaimed, oblivious.
"This isn't a cave!" Calvin corrected her.
"What?!"
As the ship flew faster and faster, the two lines of teeth came ever closer and closer. Everyone's breath stopped in anticipation, and Chewie pushed forward the accelerator as far as he could. Calvin closed his eyes.
With barely a second to spare, the Falcon zoomed out of the asteroid, the creature's teeth closing behind them. Opening his eyes, Calvin looked at the rear-view camera, and breathed a sigh of utter thankfulness when he saw the creature- a gigantic worm- recede back into its hole. Its head tilted to the side, as if it was confused over the fact that it hadn't caught the ship.
"Whooo, hoo hoo hoo, hoo!" he laughed, letting the tension inside of him seep away. "Man! Y'know, that was kinda exciting, eh guys?"
Everyone looked at him as if he was insane, which made him laugh harder.
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the asteroid field, a fleet of star destroyers spread out over a couple dozen miles was floating serenely in the void. Among them, a giant ship loomed, its size dwarfing the Imperial Class ships around it and making them look like simple, white triangles in comparison. Known as the Executor, this 19,000 meter-long dreadnought had an armament of over 7,000 guns, and needed thousands upon thousands of crew to keep it running.
On the dreadnought's bridge, Admiral Piett was walking amongst his men, overseeing search efforts for the Rebels in the asteroid field and making sure that the ship stayed operational. Looking at the assortment of strange creatures above where he stood, he leaned over to one of his officers and said, "Bounty Hunters. We don't need their scum."
"Sir?" the officer asked, confused as to what he should do about it.
"See to it that these killers get off of this ship as soon as possible," Piett ordered. The officer nodded, and he continued to walk around. A small, throaty rumble made him look up to see a scaly, olive-green set of clawed feet above him, before looking at their owner with repulsion. A Trandoshian, clad in his pilot's jumpsuit and holding a menacing-looking blaster sneered back down at him with fierce, orange eyes.
"Sir," one of his subordinates reported, snapping him out of his disgusted trance, "we have a priority signal from the Star Destroyer, Avenger."
"Right," Piett nodded, and walked off, muttering his annoyance at the bounty hunters gathered on his ship.
Above him, Darth Vader was addressing the mismatched assortment of killers, among them top hunters such as the Trandshian, Bossk, and IG-88, a scratched up, ruthless bounty droid. Other bounty hunters were gathered there, too, all of them in a line as Vader paced up and down, explaining the offer that he was making.
"...there will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millennium Falcon," he was saying. "You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive."
He stopped in front of a helmeted man in Mandalorian armor, complete with a jetpack and rockets and added, "No disintegrations."
The masked man, Boba Fett, looked up at the dark lord's own helmet, and with a cool attitude, replied icily, "As you wish."
Vader stared the mandalorian down for a second longer when, suddenly, Admiral Piett rushed up to him with the report from the Star Destroyer, Avenger.
"My lord," he breathed, "we have them!"
Ten Minutes Earlier.
In another part of the asteroid field, the Falcon raced through the whirlwind of colliding rocks and debris, Han's excellent maneuvering keeping them from crashing and being smashed to a pulp.
The hyperspace engine was fixed, thanks to Han, Leia, Chewie, and 3po. The latter was surprisingly useful in communicating with the ship and locating faulty parts that might have been why they couldn't enter hyperspace before. Now, all that was left was to leave the asteroid field and make the jump to the Rebel rendezvous point, like before.
Calvin spent the time playing a couple rounds of blackjack with 3po, using the old card deck that he had brought with him from home. 3po won most of the rounds, which Calvin attributed to him being able to calculate the best calls to make. For a while, they played, gambling with crackers from the pantry
"Ha! Blackjack!" Calvin triumphantly declared, slapping down his cards on the table. "That's another win for me."
"Actually, Calvin," 3po corrected, "Your cards equal twenty-three."
"What? No, they don't!" Calvin argued. "Look! Ten plus four is fourteen, and fourteen plus n- oh."
"I'm terribly sorry," 3po said.
"Well, sheesh!" Calvin grinned, amused by 3po's apology. "You won! You don't have to feel so sorry 'bout it! Hey, how 'bout a game of sabacc? I'll see if we can get Miss Princess to join."
"Hey, Calvin!" Han's voice came from the cockpit. "We're coming out of the asteroid field!"
"Y'know what, maybe later," Calvin decided. "C'mon, fellow GROSS member. Let's go see what's happening."
True to Han's word, there were barely any asteroids around anymore. Everyone relaxed at that, thankful to have gotten out unscathed.
"Oh, thank goodness we're coming out of that asteroid field!" 3po remarked.
Immediately, as if to spoil the solace, a green bolt of ionized energy connected with the Falcon, causing the entire ship to rock. Calvin stumbled, and getting back up, saw the menacing shape of a Star Destroyer heading straight towards them.
"Han, do your evasive maneuvering stuff," he urged.
"Already on it," Han replied, and sent the ship zooming about. Thankfully the deflector shields had recharged, which meant that the few blasts that managed to hit them didn't do much harm. While Han kept them from being blown to pieces, Chewie started getting ready to make the Hyperspace jump. It took a hot second for the onboard computer to calculate the best route, but soon they were ready.
"Argh, Grawr!" Chewie barked, and Han nodded.
"Alright. Get ready, guys. We're blasting outta this place!" he whooped. "One… two… three!" Han and Chewie both pushed the lever…
…and nothing happened.
Silence.
"IT'S NOT FAIR!" Calvin whined.
"It's not my fault," Han defended himself as Chewie angrily growled at him.
"No lightspeed?" Leia asked. "How? We fixed it!"
"The transfer circuits are working. It's not my fault!" Han argued. Suddenly, another crash sounded.
"Sir, we just lost the main rear deflector shield!" 3po wailed. "One more direct hit on the back quarter and we're done for!"
Han looked deep in thought for a few more seconds, furiously thinking up a new plan. No lightspeed, a fleet of star destroyers converging on their location, and the deflector shields would soon be depleted. He was osing hope when suddenly, an idea popped into his mind. It was risky, but he'd go with anything.
"Turn her around," he ordered.
"Raargh! Rragh!" Chewie argued.
"I said, turn her around!" Han yelled. "I'm going to put all power in the front shield."
"You're going to attack them?!" Calvin asked. "That's an idea, I guess."
"Sir, the odds of surviving a direct assault on an Imperial Star Destroyer…"
"Shut up!" Leia practically screeched.
On the bridge of the Avenger, Captain Needa watched with confusion as the Rebel ship they were chasing turned, and flew straight towards them. Dumbfounded, he tried to figure out why they would do something so stupid.
"They're moving to attack position! Shields up!" he finally yelled. Alarms went off and the gunners began to adjust their aim. The ship flew straight towards the bridge, and just as the Star Destroyer's cannons got a lock on it, it flew over them and out of sight at the very last second.
"Track them! They may come around for another pass!" Needa ordered. For a few seconds he waited, before one of his subordinates said, "Captain Needa, the ship no longer appears on our scopes."
Needa looked at the man, scowling. "They can't have disappeared… no ship that small has a cloaking device," He argued. "Check again!"
"Well, there's no trace of them, sir," the tracking officer shrugged.
"Captain, Lord Vader demands an update on the pursuit," a communications officer said. Needa's breath hitched at that, and he let out a shuddering sigh, knowing what he'd have to do.
"Get a shuttle ready," he ordered. " I shall assume full responsibility for losing them, and apologize to Lord Vader. Meanwhile, continue to scan the area."
"Yes, Captain Needa."
Jedi training with Yoda was… even more interesting than with Obi Wan.
At least that's what Hobbes thought as he ripped through the foliage, hot on Luke's tail as the Jedi-in-training did his best to outmaneuver him. Yoda had devised the exercise, where he would cling onto Luke's back while Hobbes chased him through the swampy terrain until he was spent.
They had been going at it for almost a week, now. In the beginning, Hobbes easily caught up to Luke time and time again, but soon, Luke found ways to evade and escape his pounces. If they kept this up for long enough, Luke would be able to outmaneuver and outlast even the best fighters that he might run into, according to Yoda.
Luke ran with the speed of an antelope, jumping logs and weaving through twisted, green trees. But Hobbes was nothing if not determined, and snapped at Luke's heels as he ran. Closer and closer he came, until-
Luke suddenly leaped upwards, landing vertically on a tree trunk before pushing off in the opposite direction. Surprised, Hobbes wasted precious seconds in turning around, and let out a frustrated growl as he resumed his chase. He was no cheetah. At this point, Luke had found ways to prolong the chase and thus wear him down.
Hobbes realized that he couldn't overtake Luke with sheer speed. He'd have to adjust his tactics.
Aha! Up ahead was a large, muddy pond- Luke would have to go around it, but Hobbes noticed something- the branches of the surrounding trees were long enough to go straight over the body of water.
Making his decision, Hobbes coiled his muscles and shot upwards, pulling himself up on a tree branch and running along it, straight over the pond. Nearing its end, he jumped to an adjacent branch from a tree on the other side, and with a growl, leaped off as Luke looked at him from below, caught off guard.
"Whoa!" he yelled, and the next second, Hobbes barreled into him, landing him in the mossy ground so far down that most of his body was hidden under the green, carpet-like plants.
"Whoo!" Hobbes panted. "You sure gave me a run for my money that time!"
Luke couldn't respond; he was too preoccupied with making sure that his lungs hadn't ruptured. Finally, after a minute, he sat up and propped himself against a fallen log, still breathing heavily from the strenuous activity. Hobbes and Yoda waited patiently, the latter having detached from Luke's back before Hobbes had brought him to the ground.
"I- I felt it," Luke finally rasped. "The force, flowing through me."
"Yes. Good," Yoda nodded. "A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger... fear... aggression."
He let out a sigh, as if remembering a sad, distant memory. "The dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice."
"Vader," Hobbes muttered.
"Yoda, is the dark side stronger?" Luke asked.
"No!" Yoda shook his head. "No... no. Quicker, easier, more seductive."
"But how am I to know the good side from the bad?"
"You will know," Yoda assured him. "When you are calm, at peace. Passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack."
"But, tell me why I can't-" Luke tried to say.
"No, no," Yoda shook his head again. "There is no why. Nothing more will I teach you today. Clear your mind of questions, mmm. Mmmmm."
A beeping noise caused Luke and Hobbes to turn around. Rolling up to them was R2, a water flask in his retractable robotic arm which he handed to Luke.
"Thanks, R2," he said and took a swig. "I forgot that."
For a few more minutes, all of them sat in silence, recovering. But Hobbes felt… unsettled. Like something dark was just under the surface, but you couldn't see it. His heartbeat slowed down, but not entirely, ready to pump blood through his veins at a moment's notice.
He wanted to say something, but wasn't sure if his concern was because of something real or not. Fortunately, Luke spared him the trouble. He also seemed on edge, his eyes fixed on a dead, black tree a ways off from where they sat. The tree confused Hobbes as well, as it was the only one around for miles that had nothing else growing on its surface. Its visible roots twisted through the moss and over the ground, curling around the entrance to a dark cave. As he looked at it, he felt his uneasiness increase.
"There's something not right here," Luke murmured. "I feel cold. Death."
"Yeah, that cave's creepin' me out" Hobbes agreed. "Do you feel that, Yoda?"
"That place... is strong with the dark side of the Force," Yoda said. "A domain of evil it is."
He pointed his walking stick at Luke. "In you must go."
"What's in there?" Luke asked, standing up.
"Only what you take with you."
Thinking about it, Luke reached down and picked up his belt, containing his blaster and lightsaber.
"Your weapons… You will not need them," Yoda advised, but Luke shook his head no. Hobbes didn't blame him. He would want to be armed, too, but he had left his carbine back at the hut. Rising, he began to follow Luke.
"No. Alone, Luke must go," Yoda stopped him. Hobbes frowned and looked at Luke, who shrugged.
"Fine," Hobbes muttered. He wasn't happy, but he had a faint bit of an idea of what was inside of that cave. He sat back down and watched Luke walk off. For a second, he hesitated at the mouth of the cave, before disappearing in the darkness.
For minutes, Hobbes waited for Luke to come back. The minutes turned to half an hour. Then a full hour. Then two. Then three.
At one point, he heard the faint hiss of a lightsaber, and began to stand up, but Yoda stopped him. The dark feeling from the cave grew stronger and stronger, and he found himself extremely worried for Luke. Was he lost? Attacked? Dying, maybe? But Yoda seemed alright. He just stood there, his eyes closed, waiting.
Then, just as Hobbes couldn't take it anymore and stood up to go check on him, Luke emerged, clutching his lightsaber with a pale hand. His face was ashen, his eyes unfixed, as if he had stared into the terrifying abyss.
"Luke, are you alright?" Hobbes asked him, but Luke barely registered the question. He simply walked past him, heading for Yoda's dwelling.
For a while, Hobbes was confused, looking at Luke, then at the cave when suddenly, that faint idea became a realization.
"Yoda," he asked, "that cave… it shows you your greatest fear, doesn't it?"
Yoda nodded, and Hobbes looked at the cave again with dread. If he had gone in there, what would he have discovered?
Well, it didn't matter now. Luke was safe, and there was no need to go and see.
:D