Saga ~~Rebel Cause~~ ***FINISHED!!!!*** pre-ESB, H/L, Luke

Sorry I haven't been posting lately, Cheveyo! I'm still here, I promise!

Then it thudded against something very much not metallic?though it was just as dense, she mused. From below came a pained curse, then, ?Hey, watch it up there!?

Leia allowed herself a small victory and called back, ?Sorry, Captain.?

*Waves a "Go Leia!" banner* One point for the princess!

This story is very well-written and certainly very interesting, as well, Cheveyo. You're doing a great job, and I look forward to reading more.

 

Uh oh. Caught in a tractor beam. Things are looking bad!

 

Great story-I especially loved the last post!

 

Thx for checking in, Puggy and Great One, and WELCOME Kab!

Sorry to keep you all hanging so long! Here's today's post:

---

"I see it Artoo!" Luke dove under a volley of lasers coming from behind as he pursued another TIE. Ahead of him, Han's transport had been pulled out of formation and was slowly being dragged toward the frigate. "But I'm a little busy right now." Activating his comm, he said, "Chewie, I can't reach Han."

The wookie's response was translated by C-3PO, who had managed to free himself from the netting and was now strapped in behind the copilot. "Chewbacca says that Captain Solo wants us to 'stick to the plan'. He has indicated that he will free himself from his current predicament; however, Master Luke, I must say that I disagree with Captain Solo's assesment of his own situation--"

"Chewie," Luke interrupted, "If you can cover our flanks, I think Dack and I can take out those tractor beam arrays. That should help Han's odds."

Chewie barked an affirmative. Threepio was outlining his misgivings when Luke closed the channel. Artoo bleeted a "thank you" for shutting up the protocol droid, but Luke had to ignore him, too. The TIE's lasers were streaking around him on all sides. He juked out of the maelstrom, losing sight of his own target to keep his fighter in one piece.

An explosion from above coincided with a victory cry from Dack. He'd scratched another of the Imperial fighters. "I'm on your six, Luke. Hold on."

Luke banked up, spiralled and dove away to keep out of the TIE pilot's targeting reticle. As the TIE swung in to match the maneuver, Dack came in on him from above and blew him into space dust.

Another TIE blew apart from the [i]Falcon's[/i] glowing cannons as it swooped in to clear their path to Han. Luke scanned the surface of the Nebulon-B with his sensors and found his target, the tractor beam projector just behind the command module. He sent the data to Dack who aimed his sights on the array. The two X-Wings came in on the frigate at full throttle. The sheer velocity kept most of the frigate's return fire off of them while their shields collected the rest. The defelector screens were reallocated to double-front which left their backs open, but with Chewie flying rear guard, the remaining TIEs were not a problem for the starfighters at the moment.

They sped over the hull of Han's transport in a blur, coming up quickly on the frigate. Luke had a solid tone from his target computer. "Let 'em loose!" Four proton torpedos flared like comets at the frigate. In the seconds they took to reach their point of impact the frigate's screening lasers were turned on the projectiles, hopelessly trying to destroy them. They came in too fast and too close; the frigate's gunners couldn't get a lock on the torpedoes in time.

The first pair of torps impacted against the frigate's shields, weakening them for the second pair. The tractor array blew apart in a cloud of fiery gases and debris and the beams that had been reeling in Han's transport disappeared. Jolted by its newfound freedom, the transport bolted for the hyperspace jump coordinates.

Luke flew through the growing debris cloud and up over the neck of the Nebulon-B. He used the moment of chaos to toggle his shield allocation back to fully encompass his fighter and drew all the power from his lasers to help rebuild the weakened defense grid. He flew out of the cloud and barrel-rolled down and away from the frigate. Its gunners tracked him with heavy laser fire as he made for an escape vector. A glance at his sensors told him he had more than the frigate to worry about: two TIE's were flying in behind him and one coming in form above to intercept. The one from above was the closest threat, and greeted him with a shower of deadly green lances.

His lasers were almost depleted now in favor of the auxiliary shielding. He hoped he could get one or two good shots out of the system before it went offline completely. He pulled hard on the ethereal rudder and throttled up to make a run

 

Ooo, awesome action scene, Cheveyo! I enjoyed it very much--great job!

Keep up the good work... I can't wait for more.

 

Thanks Puggy! More coming in a bit!

 

Lots of action going on in this story!

 

Agree...quite action packed!

 

Good action scenes. I was a little worried for Luke for a moment.

 

Holy Cow! I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted!! Sorry for the delay. Here's more:






"I could get used to this covert Rebel stuff," Han said with a lopsided grin.

"Yeah, I never pegged you for a political reactionary, Solo." Gribb took a long drink from his mug and added, "You're not gettin' soft on us, are you?" Han waved off the question with a roll of the eyes and shot a glance to the engineering station where he sat. Gribb and Kroder sat in the acceleration couch behind Chewie's checkered dejarik table and verbally ridiculed Han for his slip toward heroism.

"You've made a good name for yourself, Solo," Kroder put in. "Why would you want to sully it by hanging around with these malcontents?"

"Malcontents?!" Leia charged from the corridor. Han sent her a look that told he thought he had things under control, and she swallowed her defense of the Rebellion. Instead, she said what she'd come to say. "Han, Chewie says we're almost ready to drop out of hyperspace."

Han nodded and checked the readout at the engineering station again. The lopsided grin returned with what Leia thought was a hint of mischief. He said to the two companions, "Alright boys, once our cargo is safely locked down at the new rebel base, we'll take you back to your ship. Hopefully by then the Imperials will have left that system." He stood and followed Leia back to the cockpit, leaving the smugglers alone at the game table.

The small convoy of freighters and its X-wing escort had made six separate hyperspaces jumps since breaking away from the Imperial ambush, altering course dramatically each time. After the second jump, Han, Leia, and Gribb transferred themselves over to the Millennium Falcon as one of the rebel pilots took the cargo transport's helm. Since then, Han had taken every opportunity to learn more about Gribb's traitorous partners and catch up Gribb's dealings.

"I don't get it," Leia said behind the sealed cockpit door.

Han slipped into the cockpit seat and began prepping the sublight drives. "Get what?"

"Your friends back there. At the rendezvous, Gribb was practically ready to join the Rebellion himself, now he and his cohort sound like they're friendly with the Empire."

Han kept his eyes on his instruments. "They're scoundrels, Sweetheart. What do you expect? Their loyalties are with the credits, not the banks that supply them."

"So you're not worried." That was a comment, not a question, and Han heard the incredulousness behind it.

He glanced back at the princess sitting behind Chewie and flashed her a roguishly charming smile, his cheeks squeezing his eyes into slits. "Hey, your Worship, trust me."

That was exactly the smile that Leia Organa could never trust.

Chewie woofed his own comment, and Han tossed a sidelong glance at his friend. "Don't worry, I've thought of everything."

"Great," Leia said under her breath.

Ignoring the princess, Han swiveled around and stood up at the panel behind his captain's chair. "Alright, Chewie, cutting the drives." He toggled a row of switches and felt his ship lurch out of hyperspace. Before them past the transparisteel canopy sat a small planetoid of white and blue. Han sat back in his seat, double-checked his sensors and smiled again. "This is going to be fun."



---------------


"Does Captain Solo know what he's doing?" Dack asked on the coded frequency. The sight of a pale, ice blue moon filled his canopy.

"Of course," was Luke's response, though quietly he added, I hope. Their X-Wings maintained a low orbit above the frozen moon as the Millennium Falcon led the cargo haulers toward the surface. Luke watched their progress through his sensor relay. "Artoo, see if you can boost the signal. I'm picking up a lot of interference." The astromech whistled an affirmative and set himself to the task.

Luke expected the interference. In fact, that was exactly why they were here. It would be almost impossible to get a comm signal of this moon without

 

Uh oh, doesn't sound good. thanks for updating.

 

Somehow I feel the words betrayal and trap coming to mind?

 

Great Post!

 

Thanks for reading, everyone! And thank you for not giving up on me!!

 

UP!!
More soon? please I enjoy this story so much!!

 

New Post!

---

Upon closer observation, the "ruins" on Stu'klaag were little more than a long-abandoned settlement. While the exterior appeared carved from stone, the interior held the remnants of sophisticated equipment; frozen cables and conduits along the ceiling, inoperative heating ducts, and fried computer components. Whomever left this structure behind didn't bother cleaning before they vacated.

Leia imagined this was what would be found on Yavin IV ages from now, of course without the ice. They had been forced to evacuate their hidden base on that moon following the destruction of the Death Star. As Imperial forces had driven them from Yavin, she wondered what had driven these prior inhabitants away with so much haste.

There was a crispness in the air apart from the physical chill. It echoed in her soul. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something about this place unsettled her.

Beside her, Han was speaking into his comlink. "How's the off-load coming, Lieutenant?" He risked a mischief-charged glance at Leia, away from Gribb's and Kroder's lines of sight, but she couldn't risk the appropriate eye-roll response.

"We're on schedule, Captain Solo," came Lieutenant Vorsesco's response. "But we're having a hard time adapting the payload lifters to the cold. The repulsor generators are freezing up faster than we can thaw them."

"Sounds like a thermostat failure," Gribb put in from his resting place against an icy stone wall. "I could take a look at it, if you like."

"Forgive my distruss," Leia answered, "but given the problems we've had this trip, I think our technicians will do just fine on their own."

Gribb shrugged and stretched, content to rest in his spot and wait.

Kroder, on the other hand, couldn't stand still--an observation not lost on either Han or Leia. Gribb's underling had checked his wrist chronometer four times in the last twenty minutes, and had suggested that he needed to report in with Gribb's foreman on their homeworld soon, lest something go awry with their other business dealings. Han offered to let him use the [i]Falcon's[/i] comm, but said it was doubtful he could get a signal outside the planet's unusual magnetic field.

"We're waisting our time here," Kroder said. "We're already overdue back home. If we don't get a message to our associates soon, they'll..."

When the man didn't finish his train of thought, Han asked casually, "They'll what?"

Making a point not to address Han, Kroder said to Gribb, "We're losing business every second we check in."

Gribb forced a smile, but he didn't look at ease despite his relaxed posture. "You worry too much, my friend. Our business will do fine on its own for the moment."

Kroder scoffed and marched toward the entrance to the abandoned structure. When Gribb called after him, he said, "I need some air." He fastened up his parka and stepped out into the freezing sunshine.

"Better watch your back, Gribb," Han said. "Looks like Kroder might be out for your job."

Gribb laughed. "He may become my competition, but he won't take my assets. Kroder is too high-strung for the business. He'll likely die of stress before he could ever make a name for himself."

"How did you ever hook up with him?" Han asked.

Gribb shrugged. "He's high-strung, but he's got a good sense of business."

"Han, take a look at this." Leia had moved away from the conversation to explore the frosted shambles of the building. She was in the far corner opposite the door when she came across what looked like signs of a battle. Wiping from the wall the icy residue of years gone by, Leia followed divets of carbon scoring to a single peculiar marking in the middle of the divet spread. It was this at peculiar marking that she directed Han's attention. "What do you think of this?"

"Looks like a fire fight. And an old one at that. I wouldn't be surprised; this outpost has been here for ages."

Leia was intrigued. "Who's outpost was it?"

Han rubbed his cheek, trying to warm up old memories. "I first h

 

Uh oh.

 

don't trust the overly nervous ones.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Ah! Another 'Lost Years' fic. Excellent!

Keep it coming!

 

Thanks for reading, Peregrine7!

In honor of acquiring a new reader, HERE's a brand spankin' new post!!

---

The sharp screams of the [i]Millenium Falcon's[/i] dorsal quad laser cannons howled through the chill air as Han and Leia ran toward the grounded convoy. The fire was a warning to one of the freighters, whose aft engine coiling was already priming with brilliant blue energy. Expended gas vented out from beneath it, cleaning the intake system in preparation for departure. It's loading ramp was sealed.

One of the rebel pilots was running toward Han and Leia as they approached. "Voresco's not answering his comlink," the woman said. "I think he may be on board with Kroder."

"Did you get all the supplies off before he sealed it?" Han asked.

The pilot nodded. "As planned, they're all clean."

This surprised Gribb, who was doing his best to keep up. "Wait a minute, Solo. You said you were having problems unloading."

The whining pitch of the freighter's engines rose an octave. It was powering up.

Han yelled back, "It's called distrust, pal. Get used to it." He thumbed his comlink back to the [i]Falcon's[/i] frequency. "Chewie, put the frieghter out of commission." The wookie barked a reply even as red lances of deadly energy erupted again from the ship's dorsal quads. The shots splashed against the freighter's outer hull, leaving scorched pits, but it failed to keep the fleeing ship on the ground. With a rush of power, the freighter gained altitude and launched upward, catching a hastily placed laser blast in the aft sublight drive cowling as it went. The [i]Falcon's[/i] targeting computer did its best to track it, but could do little from the ground. Han needed to get airborne.

He and Leia were almost to the [i]Falcon's[/i] ramp when the sound of a blaster bolt stopped them. Han spun, his hand already bringing up his DL-44. The rebel pilot--Han wished he could remember her name--was lying prone in the snow, steam and smoke rising from a point blank shot to the back. Over her, with his pistol already aimed at Han, was an emotionless Gribb. "Don't do it, Solo. I've got the upper hand."

At a glance, Han realized that Gribb's blaster was not aimed at him, but at the woman beside him. The woman whom he'd risked more than he'd bargained for to rescue from the clutches of the Empire. The woman who had been a thorn in his side ever since. The woman who, at this moment, was beside him armed only with a piercing glare that should have been ample to atomize Gribb where he stood.

Han could squeeze off a blast and down the smuggler in a heartbeat. Of that he was certain. And, given the circumstances, he could think of nothing better to do. But he wasn't sure Gribb wouldn't get off a shot of his own. Han could see his pudgy finger wrapped around the trigger, already squeezing. It wouldn't take much to activate the primed charge.

The vengeful grin that crossed Han's lips confused Gribb for only an instant. His revelation came not from Han, but from the three blaster bolts that tore through him from behind. The surprise attack jerked him forward, and his reflex squeezed the trigger. The single shot flew harmlessly above the prow of the [i]Falcon[/i]. The smuggler fell forward into the snow like the sack of meat he'd become as the pilots who had felled him approached, holstering their sidearms. One of them knelt to check on their fallen comrade. She could not be saved.

"What kept you?" Han said in way of thanks to the lead pilot. Not waiting for an answer, he and Leia disappeared up the [i]Falcon's[/i] ramp. A moment later, the tramp freighter's azure engine wake flared into the atmosphere after the escaped hauler.

"Luke, can you read me?" Han cursed at the static filtering through the comm system as his co-pilot continued to tweak the output relays. Chewie woofed an affirmative, and Han tried again.

This time he thought he could almost make out Luke's return signal, but it was too garbled to understand. Han vented all his frustration into throwin

 

A cliffie! Was that nice?
what are they ramming into? How long do I have to wait to find out? I'm a little impatient tonight.

 

Truth be told, I'm going through a re-write as I'm going again (never satisfied!!). I have two free hours on my hands, though, so let me get me red pen out and see what I can post fer ya.

The next few parts get REAL fun!!

okay back to scratching out and adding....

 

Okay, as much as I love cliff-hangers.....

---

From the safety of the [i]Falcon's[/i] position below, Han didn't have any collision warnings to listen to. That didn't stop him from feeling a twinge of panic. He wrenched the controls hard to port, skimming across Stu'klaag's outer atmosphere. He contemplated making a run for the surface, perhaps to hide out in some obscure mountain range until help could arrive.

If help arrived. And if that help could really [i]help[/i].

Han had expected to see Kroder and the modified cargo hauler disappear into hyperspace. He had not expected to see the Imperial interdictor cruiser appear at the navigation marker, fresh [i]from[/i] hyperspace. It was a common law of physics that no two solid masses could occupy the same physical space at the same time. And so it was that the interdictor won the battle for occupation in the space previously held by the fleeing hauler. In an instant, Kroder and Voresco were little more than space dust, the ship's reactors igniting the wreckage in a spectacular light show that carried both over and under the triangular nose of the larger cruiser.

Only after the shock dissipated with the fire ball did Han realize that the cruiser was not alone. To Strike class cruisers escorted the larger ship.

"How'd they get here?" Leia asked sharply from the seat behind Chewie.

"Kroder probably got his message out," Han guessed. "They couldn't have been far away to have gotten here so fast." As they raced away from the sight, Han gave voice to the puzzling development. "The big guy's not following; only one of the Strikes. We could be out of its range in another minute."

"They don't want us?"

"Sorry, your worship, but not everyone is an admirer of yours."

"Thanks," she shot back, equalling his sarcasm.

"They're here for the fleet," Han guessed. "Kroder thought this was the new base. We're small fries next to the prospect of ending this rebellion."

Leia glimpsed Han's escape plans and pleaded, "We can't leave the pilots down there!"

"Don't worry, we're not."
[hr]
Artoo-Detoo was silent for several long seconds after the evasive dive, as was Luke. He spent his concentration trying to out distance the cone of artificial gravity created by the interdictor cruiser he had almost barrelled into.

His shields were pumped to maximum aft, and his throttle was burried in the red line.

But he wasn't taking fire. "Dack, you still out there?"

"Barely. I need to change my flight suit."

The ensuing pause concerned Luke. "What's your status?"

"Still flying on all fours." Another pause, then, "Do you think Captain Solo has a plan for this, too?"

Luke almost laughed. "Circle up on the [i]Falcon[/i]. It looks like we're out of here."

"Copy that."

A Strike cruiser was in slow pursuit of the tramp freighter, maintaining a watchful, higher orbit, but it wasn't firing either, despite its proximity. What could the Imperials be waiting for?

The fleet.

They believed the Rebel fleet was coming to set up it's base here. Which meant Gribb or Kroder, or both, must have clued them in to this system with Han's false information. That explained the message Kroder had gotten off. Han had been right about Gribb, after all. But with the Interdictor here...

He glanced at the chronometer. "Oh no."

"Luke?" Dack asked over the open comm.

He shook his head, scheming. At Han's suggestion, he had sent a transmission to Renegade Flight once the [i]Falcon[/i] had first landed planetside. They were inbound to the system, escorting a convoy of empty freighters to pick up Gribb's supplies. After the problems with the pick-up, Han had thought it best to abandon the hot-wired haulers Gribb had offered up. General Rieekan had agreed, and sent the Renegades for support.

Now they truly were walking into a trap.

"Dack, we need to take out that Interdictor before the convoy gets here."

"What? You're out of your mind, Skywalker!"

"I agree with Ralter on this one, Kid," said Han over the comm.

Luk

 

"They don't want us?"

"Sorry, your worship, but not everyone is an admirer of yours."
that has got to be my favorite line.
Exchanging one cliffie for another. thanks for the extra post.