A Parallel SW Universe

Oh well,Up!

 

up

 

Again up!

 

uppers!

 

To the top, where you belong.

 

top

 

Uppers!

 

This story Rules.
Back to the top where you belong.

 

wow! Thanks for the high praise, Lightsaber 4 Hire! Right now, I'm not sure what the future holds for sequels for this. I haven't really discussed it with Jeff yet, but email me or send me a private message and let me know if you have any particular ideas in mind.
Thanks again, and hope you continue to enjoy the story.
Jade/ Raissa
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It took Han a moment to recover from the succession of shocks that he had just undergone-- Leia and a pair of Imps who promptly downed two of their colleagues wasn't exactly what he'd expected when his cell door slid open. But years of smuggling had taught him that if you didn't recover from life's little surprises quickly you ended up as bantha fodder. He snatched up one of the fallen Imp's blasters and thumbed the setting up a few notches. He could hear the thudding rhythm of footsteps coming their way and fast. No way they were going to stuff him back in that dank cell. Or Leia, either. He'd come all this way to find her and now that he had-- or at least, now that she'd found him-- he wasn't letting her go.

"Get those locks open and get the others out," one of the red cloaks barked to the other Imp and Leia. The deep male voice sounded vaguely familiar to Han, but he didn't have time to analyze it because the guard was suddenly shouting orders at him. "Solo, you and I will cover the women. Get ready! Here they come." The guard put his force pike up in a defensive position, and Han flattened himself against the corridor, blaster at the ready.

"Interesting friends you've picked up, Leia," he shouted back at her. She glanced up from whatever she was doing to the lock on the second cell-- it didn't seem like much except staring-- but it was the red cloak who answered.

"Forgotten me already? I'm hurt, Solo," came a woman's voice from beneath the helmet. "But then I probably shouldn't be surprised since you can't seem to remember a simple request like 'Stay here and don't move.'"

"Hey, Mara. Nice to see you again." Han grimaced as the first of the Imps rounded the corner. He snapped off a shot that seared through an Imp's sleeve and left him clutching his arm in agony as he dropped to his knees. Han ducked the return fire from the other three officers that charged down the hall. Just his luck to have to meet the red-headed woman again under these circumstances. She seemed like the type who would just take this as proof she'd been right all along.

"I was right," Mara retorted. "You were just too stubborn and nerf-headed to consider that anyone besides you could know what they were doing." Han's jaw dropped; how did she do that? It occurred to him that Lando might have been right about her being a Jedi after all. The thought was more than slightly discomforting. He heard her chuckling at his uneasiness from behind him, and shot her a sour glance. The second it took to glare at her nearly got him fried, though. A blaster bolt sizzled through the air and would done more than singe his hair if the other red cloak hadn't whirled in with his pike spinning most of the shot harmlessly away.

"No time for that now," the guard admonished him. "Pay attention to the moment at hand."

Han grumbled an impolite reply under his breath. The Imps kept coming. One of them must have called for back up. He wondered how many squadrons they were going to throw at him this time and how long he and the strange red cloak beside him could hold them off before sheer numbers overwhelmed them. Oddly enough, they didn't seem to be doing too badly. The narrow hallway kept the stream of invaders to a minimum, and the red cloak was dropping two Imps for every one that Han took out, his pike swinging in a deadly, graceful dance. Still, Han would be glad when Leia and Mara managed to get Lando and Chewie free. Two more fighters could only help their slim chances.

As if in answer, Han heard the quiet hiss of a door opening, almost buried under the noise of the battle. A second later he heard a Wookiee's roar, followed byLando's exclamtion of sur

 

I don't have any ideas right now, but I'm sure
whatever you two come up with will be great! Now
up to the top!

 

Yes!You're back!
Yeapy!
Ok i'll calm myself now!
Great post!
How was disney world?

 

Way to go!!!

 

up up up!

 

Wouldnt it be nice if you'd go up and someone posted?

 

Excellent post Riassa.

Post more soon please?

 

Uppers!

 

Beren Luthione jerked his X-wing slightly to port, then squeezed down the firing trigger on his control stick. The TIE Fighter he had been pursuing was immediately blasted to pieces by four deadly scarlet beams. Two more of the Imperial craft came in straight toward him; Beren dove, then looped up in an attempt to get behind them. The flight paths of the TIEs diverged, one going right and the other left. "I've got you covered, Four," said a voice over Beren's comm.

"Copy, Three," the young Rebel replied to his wingmate, Jek Porkins. One of the TIEs had nearly gotten onto Beren's six. He juked his fighter up and down, and then Porkins reduced the pursuant into a cloud of expanding metal shards. The other Imperial went down under Beren's guns, and the two Rebel pilots formed back up with the rest of their flight group.

"All right, boys, head for that Star Destroyer," said Wedge Antilles, Rogue Leader. Up ahead, the massive arrowhead-shaped vessel was exchanging fire with two Rebel corvettes. The Alliance starships, miniscule next to the Destroyer, moved rapidly past its white hull. One flew above, the other below, and they concentrated their turbolasers on the Imperial ship's midsection. But their efforts appeared mostly in vain.

Beren throttled up to follow Wedge and Biggs Darklighter toward their target. As it came closer, a multitude of sensor and weapons emplacements came into view. Beren glanced down at his cockpit readouts. The shields over a section of the Destroyer's hull were weakening; perhaps they'd be able to punch through. Then he looked back up just in time to see the top Corvette ripped in half.

At the same moment, a tone sounded and his targeting brackets went green. Beren put a death grip on his firing controls, and the four X-wings simultaneously sent their high-energy lasers at the giant Destroyer. The shots were repeatedly stopped by deflector shields, but those shields were weakening, weakening . . .

Bright emerald return fire shot in at the four X-wings, but at this range the chances of the turbolasers hitting their marks were slim. The Rebels flew on for a few more seconds, continuing their barrage. Wedge and Biggs broke off, then Porkins, and--

Beren let out an exuberant whoop as explosions appeared across the Destroyer's hull. Metal plating was ripped away by his shots, and licks of flame emerged from the venting of interior compartments. The damage was tiny on the scale of the 1.6 kilometer long warship, but it was something.

"Careful, Four," said Wedge.

"I'm all righ--" Beren was temporarily blinded by the green flash that without warning appeared directly in front of his face. When he recovered, his eyes were immediately drawn to one of his displays. The near miss by the Destroyer's turbolaser had completely knocked out his forward shielding! The young pilot took a deep breath as he pushed his control stick hard to the left, taking him away from the awesome might of the Imperial warship.

"You okay?" asked Porkins, his voice taut.

"Still with you," replied Beren. He scanned his sensors once more as he re-grouped with his wingman. The Rebel fleet was being decimated, although one of the six Star Destroyers had taken severe damage.

We need every man we've got, thought Beren. And I almost got myself killed for nothing.

* * *

On the other side of the planet Had Abbadon, the assault shuttle Striker's repulsorlifts came to life. Outside the vessel, it was becoming rapidly darker, as the Rebel craft dropped down through the night sky and past the skyscrapers of the Imperial planet. Moments ago, the two other shuttles that accompanied it on its mission had been visible, but now the surrounding buildings blocked the view as they headed to their own landing sites nearby.

"The ground looks clear," reported Tarington, the pilot.

"Then set her down," said Lieutenant Goran Fraski with a nod.

The shuttle came to a halt a few meters above the duracrete clearing, then slowly completed its descent and touched the ground. The view out

 

Great post Jeff42!
I'm looking forward for more!

 

Good job Jeff42! Up!

 

The hallways were full of white-armored stormies marching with the purposeful stride of soldiers going to battle. And though their little group was moving against the flow of troopers, the squads hardly gave them a second glance. They were so intent on their business Mara wondered if if anyone would have noticed Chewbacca, even if he wasn't camouflaged with the Force. It was just as well that they didn't pay any attention to the five officers, one rather old and two oddly effinate; she really couldn't handle any more new and exciting challenges. At least until they met up with Palpatine himself.

Mara's instincts were whirling like a swarm of hyperactive wisties; the closer they got to the center of the mazelike fortress, the more her stomach churned. She wasn't the only one feeling a little apprehensive at the thought of challenging the Emperor in his own throne room. Anakin was grim, his jaw clenched as he led their party down the endless corridors. He looked as unshakable as the Manari Mountains, but Mara suspected that, like her, he had a certain vague unease about face his old master lurking somewhere deep inside. Chewbacca, in the middle of the group, seemed similarly determined, though it was hard to get a good reading on the Wookiee's expression. Leia and Han marched together at the back of the group, conversing softly but intently. Mara suspected from the way they leaned towards each other that Leia had confessed her true feelings to Solo, before it was to late. And beside her, the Baron-Adminstrator looked considerably less suave than usual; in fact he was starting to turn an unattractive shade of green.
"Beginning to wish you'd stayed in my bolt hole after all, Calrissian?"

Lando scowled at her for a moment, and then his glower faded into a cynically resigned expression. "You know, I told Organa I'd face the Emperor himself for the chance to find out what was really going on with Skywalker." He chuckled bitterly. "Apparently someone took me seriously."

"Destiny," Mara replied with a sarcastic laugh of her own. "Or the Force, take your pick." Either way, we're bantha fodder, she added to herself. Mara was beginning to wonder if either of them were truly all they were cracked up to be. She and Lando were perfect examples for the perversity of fate. A routine assignment led her to question everything she'd ever believed about her master, herself, and the order of the universe. Now she was 180 degrees from where she'd started, fighting the man she'd revered above all else. All Lando had wanted to do was to help a friend in trouble. Instead of merely facing Boba Fett--though admittedly no small feat--he'd wound up chasing Anakin Skywalker across the galaxy, and his desire to save Solo was likely to get him fried to a crisp by a shaft of Force lightning. Mara could almost understand why her destiny lay at the heart of Palpatine's fortress, but what kind of Force arranged it so that three nearly powerless beings were dragged to their fate alongside Jedi? It was something she would have to ask Yoda. Assuming she made it out of Had Abbadon alive.

"We're here." Anakin's words dropped like stones into Mara's fatalistic musings. Lost in contemplation of the finer points of the Force, she hadn't realized when they made the final turn in the warren of connecting passages. Now they stood in front of the entrance to the Emperor's inner sanctum, and the six of them seemed to involuntarily draw closer to each other. An aura of menace seeped through the imposing double-strength durasteel security door like cold fog. Palpatine awaited them; he wasn't alone. Skywalker stood with him. Mara unclipped her lightsaber from her belt and heard the click of Solo and Calrissian readying their blasters. No more time to philosophize; it was time to meet her destiny head-on. *The Force is with you,* came the quiet response in her mind, in Anakin's voice and Leia's, Yoda's and others she couldn't quite place. *Fear him not, Mara Jade, or already won has Palpatine.* That last was unmistakably Yo

 

Yeah! Great Job! Up!

 

ARGH!A cliffhanger!Help me,i'm falling!

Ok,that was great Raissa!I loved it!
As always,waitting for more!

 

More! Yes!
And please put even more to this masterpiece.

-JWK

 

Don't listen to him, Anakin. He's lying.
Ooh climax is approaching on this great story.
More, more, more please.