A/N: Luke is dead, and the Empire is heading towards Hoth without the rebels knowing.
A/N:I don't own Star Wars: Infinities, nor the Empire Strikes Back novelisation.
The Empire Strikes Back
Hoth, Echo Base. 3 ABY.
It was an unfortunate day for the Rebellion.
When the whole garrison of the Echo Base heard about the death of Luke Skywalker, theveryLuke Skywalker that destroyed the Death Star, every trooper, pilot, mechanic and commander felt a mixture of loss, sorrow and pain. Almost everyone was at the funeral, including some droids, along with R2-D2 and C-3PO. The two droids stood slightly behind Leia Organa. R2 was making long wailing sounds, obviously crying in binary, with C-3PO patting his head, trying to comfort the astromech that always followed young Skywalker in his flights throughout the war.
Leia stood alongside Han in front of Luke's grave along with Chewbacca. Although she tried to barely hold herself, in the end she gave up and began sobbing. Han on the other hand, tried not to display any emotions, but Leia knew that he was also grieving the loss of Luke. While she and Solo had a rough start, Han became close friends with Luke. His death was painful to Han just as it was to Leia. At the side of the grave, General Carlist Rieekan was making a speech dedicated to the young farmboy from Tatooine.
"Skywalker was loved by all those who knew him, and his contributions to the fight against galactic tyranny were without measure." Rieekan was finishing his speech. "He will be sorely missed."
As he finished, some rebels lowered their heads in sorrow, while others saluted before the grave of the young hero, paying their last respect to him.
Skywalker was gone, but the war against the Empire continued, and so, one by one, they began dispersing, returning to their duties. Only Han and Leia still remained, along with the droids. The young princess hung her head as Han had his hands touching Leia's shoulders. Right now, Leia felt emptiness, the same emptiness she felt three years ago. When she, alone in the darkness, sat in the corner of her cell onboard the Death Star, after witnessing the horrific destruction of her home planet Alderaan and with it, the deaths of her parents and billion innocent lives. She wrapped her arms around her legs back then, crying as she mourned them, even if she knew only a small portion of the planet's population.
Now, she felt the same as she stood before the grave of Luke Skywalker, the young, idealistic, naïve, but heroic and dashing farmboy from Tatooine who saved her, and all of the Rebel Alliance during the Battle of Yavin. After her rescue, the two became close, with Leia even kissing him multiple times. Though, she still could not determine what was her relationship with Skywalker. Was it just friendship, or was it love?
She could feel Han's breath before the Corellian finally spoke. "I'm sorry, Leia. I did everything I could. Between his wounds and the cold, maybe I'd found him sooner…"
The young princess turned around and raised her chin to face Han. "It's not your fault, Han." she assured him.
When the two met at the Death Star, they had a rocky start. They still had a rocky relationship, despite the three years. Yet, the two have become close friends. It was always them; Luke, Leia, Han, the droids and Chewbacca. They were inseparable, until now. Now, they had a common tragedy, and it would make their bond even stronger.
"Han," Leia spoke again, interrupting the silence. "you said Luke told you something before he… died. What was it?"
Han sighed. He knew that he had to tell her, for keeping it from Leia was not right. At the same time, he still could not believe what Luke told him. Him? A Jedi? Han never heard anything more absurd. Sure, he heard about the Jedi during his childhood, and how they led the clone troops across the galaxy, only for the clones to wipe them out when the Republic became the Empire.
"I'm supposed to go to Dagobah and find someone named Yoda. He told me I'm supposed to train to be a jedi."
"You? Train as a jedi?" Leia asked with doubt.
"Sounds crazy, I know." he agreed. "But those were his dying words."
Leia nodded. Strange as it sounded, she still agreed that Han should go. At least, Han would honour Luke's dying request. Suddenly, their moment together was interrupted with blaster shots, explosions and the roar of engines.
"What the…" was all Han could say when three TIE bombers flew passed them like a flash of lightning.
"The Empire! They've found us!" Leia cried in horror.
The two quickly ran back to the base. On the way, a horrible scene was before them. The TIEs fired at the deflector shields, cannons and squabbling rebel soldiers. AT-AT walkers, the Empire's war machines, advanced towards the base through the snow. They were like creatures, with enormous ungulates on four jointed legs, advancing towards their prey. Each armed with cannons, resembling horns and tusks.
In the snow trenches, rebel soldiers carried out their orders, listening to the commands of the screaming officers. Both Leia and Han barely ducked when an explosion sprayed ice and snow near them, the rebel fighters cast aside at all directions. Some still held their position, their blaster rifles aimed at the incoming Imperial troops, but the majority were already panicking.
The two humans their escorting droids barely made it to the hangar. Chaos was there too.
"Chewie! Fire' er up! We're getting out of here!" Han yelled to the Wookie, repairing the Millennium Falcon. Chewbacca roared something in response. "Well, put it back on!" Han snapped at his co-pilot.
Leia, meanwhile, approached the two rebel officers, who were in a state of shock, just as she was.
"How come they've discovered us?" she asked. The first one to answer was Wedge Antilles, one of the Rebellion's ace pilots and… Luke's friend.
"That meteorite that Luke mentioned was possible a probe droid belonging to the Empire." he suggested.
"Star Destroyers are in orbit, and Imperial walkers and TIEs are already planet side." the second one, Bren Delin, added. "Our men are in disarray from this sudden attack."
"Deal with the panic!" Leia ordered then. "Begin the evacuation. Scramble the snowspeeders to slow down the walkers. The X-wings must secure the transport ships. If they reach the power generator, we're finished."
Soon, the snowspeeders under the command of Antilles, flew out of the cave, moving toward the enemy. Sadly, General Veers and the other Imperials onboard already spotted them and the escorting TIE fighters opened fire. Many of them were immediately shot down by the enemy. Now, of the twelve snowspeeders, only four remained.
"Janson. Avoid the TIEs." Wedge ordered via commlink. "They don't have the fire power to take out the generator. Concentrate on the walkers."
"Sure thing, Wedge." came the response, only for a couple of TIEs, outnumbering the rebels, fired from above. Two snowspeeders exploded.
"No!" was all Wedge could cry in despair.
Meanwhile, General Veers of the Imperial Army observed the battle through his scope. His AT-AT walker treaded heavily for the power generators. He could clearly see the target below; the power generators and the rebel troops preparing to defend it. Veers almost felt pity towards them. What could their rifles and carbines do against the massive walkers he commanded right now?
"We're coming within the range, sir." reported one of the pilots. Hearing the general's mild "fire", the gunners aimed and shot their cannons.
In a couple of minutes, Veers proudly transmitted his report to the Executor above the skies of Hoth. "Yes, Lord Vader, I've reached the main power generators. The shield will be down in moments. You may commence your landing."
The surface explosions made the walls of the ice cave tremble. Deep cracks began to spread. Leia found the base's commander within the command centre.
"The generator is down! Launch all transports immediately!" Rieekan yelled through the address system.
"What about the Star Destroyers, general?!" Leia asked, raising her voice as the sounds of explosions were loud enough even within the ice cave.
"We'll only have to hope our escorts can keep them busy until the transports enter the hyperspace, Your Highness!" the general answered when Han flew into the headquarters, pushing C-3PO aside.
"General, we have a pack of angry wampas breaking into the base!" Solo reported.
"Dawn it!" Rieekan cursed before addressing Leia. "Your Highness, you must evacuate. You are one of the leaders of the Rebellion, the future of a new Republic. You must go!"
"But I can't!" Leia protested. "I must overwatch…"
She didn't get to finish as Han grabbed her hand and pulled her away, towards the exit, wishing the general good luck.
"Wait for me!" a hysterical C-3PO screamed as he followed the two through the icy corridors of the base. Both Han and Leia had to leave the base as soon as possible, for right now, outside, amidst the chaos of battle between the rebel soldiers and snow-suited stormtroopers, a whitish shuttle landed. Down the gangplank, Darth Vader marched out of the vessel into the freezing world with snowtroopers following him.
Han and Leia continued to run, reaching a passageway which led to a shorter path to the hangar, only to halt as they stumbled upon a squad of snowtroopers.
"Freeze!" one of them yelled as they aimed their blaster carbines at them. "Hands in the air!"
"My goodness, we're doomed!" C-3PO panicked, raising his hands up in surrender.
One of the snowtroopers, apparently, the commander, pressed the commlink attached to the temple of his helmet. Both Han and Leia shivered, not from cold, but from dread, when they heard to whom the commander was addressing.
"Lord Vader, we have captured rebel leaders Princess Organa and Captain Solo. No sign of Sky… what the…"
He didn't get to finish when he was interrupted by a roar, echoing across the interior. Suddenly, the ground started to shake, with an increasing frequency, as if something large was approaching. They all looked left and saw a herd of tauntauns, from the base's kennels, running wild towards them while being chased by savage wampas.
Seeing this as an opportunity, Han and Leia dashed pass the snowtroopers, pulling the golden protocol droid with them. The Imperial troops attempted to fire at them, but instead directed their weapons at the charging animals. They opened fire, trying to stop the incoming avalanche of animals, but their attempts were fruitless. Some of the snowtroopers were knocked down and crushed by running tauntauns. Others were grabbed and had their heads eaten by wampas. Those, who tried to escape, met either of those fates.
C-3PO followed as Han and Leia dashed toward another chamber. Thankfully, the Falcon was not buried under an avalanche of ice. R2-D2 stood at the gangplank, wailing for them. Once everyone was inside, Han immediately joined Chewie within the ship's cockpit. An explosion rocked the hangar, cracking the ceiling of ice above. Everyone onboard knew very well that if they would not leave soon, the Falcon would surely be their tomb of ice.
Finally, the engines started and Han was about to lift the ship up above the ground when the doors opened with a swift, and the Imperial snowtroopers, donning white snowscreens on their helmets, burst out. The Dark Lord of the Sith himself then marched out of the white catacombs, leaving a trail of rebels, lying on the snow and ice lifeless.
Seeing the black figure among the numerous white ones, Han and Chewie hurried up and the ion engines whined. Han flipped switches on the console. One of the snowtroopers fired at the Falcon. Han knew that his ship could resist the fire of the snowtroopers' blasters, but right now, a squad of them was setting up an enormous gun, aimed directly at the Falcon. Everyone inside the ship were now at the mercy of the Imperials when Darth Vader and his troops heard a roar. The tauntauns and wampas, that saved Han and Leia before, broke into the hangar. Something prevented the ship from lifting off, but Solo and his co-pilot managed to fix the issue for now.
"Punch it!" Solo shouted to his co-pilot.
The engines of the Millennium Falcon roared, and the ship blasted off, out of the hangar and entered the frozen terrain of Hoth. Leaving the ice fortress behind them, Solo caught a glimpse of corpses lying on the snow. Most of them were rebel fighters, while the snow-suited stormtroopers were a minority. The Imperials have suffered minor losses than the rebels did.
Moving rapidly out of the ice fortress, Darth Vader held his lightsaber ignited, crimson like blood after slaughtering the wampas that meddled in his plans of capturing Skywalker, or at least, the lead to him. Throughout the battle, there was no sign of him. Not among the prisoners captured, not among the dead. He reached out to the transport ships trying to escape the planet, but there was no sign of young Luke. So, he wasn't on any of them. Apparently, he escaped, either on the Falcon, or on his own, Darth Vader knew not. But what he knew that if someone could lead him to Skywalker, it was Captain Solo.
"Contact Admiral Ozzel." he hissed at one of the snowtroopers. "I want that ship."
History would remember this day as a major defeat for the Rebellion, and a major victory of the Empire since the Battle of Yavin. The Millennium Falcon was the last ship to abandon what now remained of the secret rebel outpost.
However, this was not the end of it, as the Millennium Falcon sped into space, a site of battle laid before them. The rebel transport ships endured the firepower of the Imperial navy standing between them and their pathway to escape – outer space. When Leia entered the cockpit, the three inside gasped, seeing one of the transports annihilated by a Star Destroyer. Not even the X-wings were able to defend it.
"Looks like they got one of the transports! Chewie, get ready for company!" Han exclaimed. Indeed, the Falcon was in a similar situation. What stood between it and the deep space were the Star Destroyer Avenger and half a dozen TIE fighters. The Wookie roared as the Falcon began to shake from the incoming fire.
"Han, do something!" Leia yelled, sitting behind Chewbacca.
"What does it look like I'm doing?!" Han snapped back, but not facing the princess. Instead, he looked at the scanners. Two more Star Destroyers were heading for them too.
"Not enough, that's for sure!" Princess Leia complained. "This bucket of bolts is never going to get us past that blockade."
"Well, excuse me, Your Holiness! Maybe you'd like it better if I flew into an asteroid field and found some cosy cave to hide in!" Han responded, finally facing her.
"That'd be a start!"
"That's it! Hold on, princess!" Han stated, and with that, he piloted theFalcontowards the pursuing Star Destroyer. Leia's eyes widened in shock, while C-3PO screamed in fear and panic, which he was still doing since the Empire's attack on Echo Base.
Han Solo concentrated on his flying. The Falcon still shook from the TIEs firing at it. Captain Needa, the Star Destroyer's commander, and the rest of the crew rushed to the bridge. They were shocked when realization hit them what the Falcon's pilot intended to do, even if they could scarcely believe what was before their eyes.
"It's headed right for us!" one of the deck officers on the Avenger shouted. Although a small ship like the Millennium Falcon could do little to the hull of an Imperial Star Destroyer, but it could smash through the bridge windows fair enough, killing the entire deck crew.
"He's gone mad!" Captain Needa exclaimed, still not believing that the Falcon's pilot would choose to commit such a suicidal act.
Han Solo's ship headed straight for the bridge tower. The TIEs scattered away to avoid colliding with the cruiser. The officers within the bridge panicked, and then…
The deck officers looked up and saw… nothing. Nothing but the ice planet Hoth in an array of stars.
"Captain! The ship's disappeared from all of our scopes!" one of the deck officers reported. "There's no trace of them!"
"A ship that small could not have a cloaking device, sir." another officer added.
Captain Needa felt his anger mixing with confusion. "Then they must jumped into hyperspace" he sighed in defeat. "Recall the remaining TIEs and lay in a pursuit course for the rebel transports."
While the naval captain and his crew were lost in thought, the Avenger carried the Falcon with it. Solo's ship was clinging unnoticed to the Star Destroyer's bridge tower. It was silent within the Falcon's cockpit. Han Solo had stopped the ship and shut down all systems. While Chewie was checking the manual release on the landing claws so that the ship could take off without mechanical delay.
"So, what now?" the princess' voice broke his train of thoughts.
"We'll detach and float away when they will dump their garbage before going into lightspeed." Han answered before adding an explanation. "Standard Imperial procedure."
Leia reflected on his strategy for a moment and began to smile. This crazy smuggler knew what he was doing. "You never fail to surprise me, Han Solo."
"Sometime I surprise myself." Han said humbly, shrugging.
"Then we head to Dagobah? For Luke?"
"I guess it couldn't hurt. Not that I buy into any of the Jedi stuff." Han agreed. He really had no knowledge nor interest in this Force-thing, but if it meant to honour Luke's last wish, then so be it. "But we'll never make it to Dagobah without a hyperdrive."
"Is there somewhere we can make repairs?"
"Depends on where are we." Han told the princess as he observed his stellar map. "We're on the edge of the Hoth system, near the Anoat system." he then hummed, thinking for a moment. "Funny, I have a feeling I've been in this area before."
He then snapped his fingers. "Yes, of course! Lando!"
"Never heard of that system." Leia said, frowning.
"Not a system. A man." Han corrected her. "His name is Lando Calrissian. Gambler, con-artist, all-around scoundrel," he then gave Leia a wink. "your kind of guy. The Bespin system. A fair distance, but reachable."
Leia leaned next to Han to observe the computer monitor and read the data. "A mining colony?"
"Tibanna gas mine." Solo nodded. "Lando won it in a sabacc match, or so he claims. We go way back. He cannot be trusted, but he has no love for the Empire, that much I know."
Flicking some switches, Han leaned back. The hatch on the underbelly of the Avenger opened, spewing out its garbage and sections of irreparable machinery. Hidden among it, the Falcon flew off the side of the Imperial cruiser, undetected.
But among the scattered debris, another ship was concealed. As the Falcon roared off to Bespin, another ship, Slave I, followed suite.