Episode 1.14
For a half-robot, Vader went over pretty easily. He and Lucas crashed to the ground, Lucas beginning to panic. He hadn't thought past this point.
A gleam caught his eye and Lucas' gaze fell on the lightsaber hanging from Vader's belt. Without even thinking, his hand snapped out and yanked it off the Sith's belt, right as a robotic hand slapped him.
Lucas fell backwards, pain radiating through his face from the point of impact. He felt a hand grab his arm, yanking him up onto his feet, and saw Lumina looking down at him in concern. "You good?"
"Yeah," Lucas said dazedly. "I'm good."
"Let's go!" Han yelled, firing at the stormtroopers, shielding Leia. C-3PO had already started moving back in the direction they had come, Lumina and Lucas following them, Vader's lightsaber gripped tightly in Lucas' hand.
Vader snapped to his feet and Lucas glanced back at him as they ran, the snowtroopers parting around him and giving chase. The Sith held up his gloved hand, as if reaching for them, and Lucas felt a tugging on him.
No. Must...resist.
And he and Lumina kept running.
Red lasers flashed in Lucas' peripheral vision, striking the ice walls and creating craters in them. One blast came so close to him he felt it singe his arm through the thick winter gear. He wanted to turn around, ignite the stolen saber and deflect the oncoming attacks, but he knew the Force was not with him; any blocks would simply be luck.
They rounded a bend, momentarily escaping the troopers, and Han whipped out his comlink. "Transport, this is Solo," he panted. "Take off. I can't get to you. I'll get the princess out on the Falcon."
They continued to run, Han periodically blasting back blindly in the direction of their pursuers. But the turns of the corridors managed to always keep something between the Rebels and the snowtroopers, allowing them to race for the safety of the Falcon.
Finally, Lucas saw the entrance of the hangar up ahead. He poured on all the speed he had left, Lumina increasing her pace to match his. Never had either run so fast in all their life; if Leana could have seen them, she would have either been immensely proud or died right then and there of pure shock.
If we ran like this to the subway after school, we might even beat Leana.
They raced for the Millennium Falcon. Chewbacca was nowhere in sight; Lucas hoped he was already preparing the ship for takeoff.
Han and Leia pounded up the ramp, Lucas and Lumina on their heels. They skidded to a halt once inside, Han standing impatiently at the top of the ramp. "Hurry up!" he yelled to C-3PO, who was still tottering his way through the hangar.
"I am hurrying," C-3PO protested, making it to the bottom of the ramp.
"Close it after him!" Han barked at Lucas, racing off for the main hold. Leia and Lumina ran after him and Lucas stood by the ramp controls, watching C-3PO make his way up the ramp.
Across the hangar, snowtroopers were breaking through the entrance, scanning for the whereabouts of their quarry. Lucas tapped his foot, his whole body shaking with nervous energy. If he could just close the ramp...if he could only close the ramp....
"I made it," C-3PO gasped as he reached the top, Lucas slamming his fist against the control panel. The ramp began to slide back into place, the door shutting the snowy world out of the ship.
The last glimpse of the snowtroopers vanished as the ramp closed, but Lucas could have sworn he saw one of the troopers point toward them. Turning, he brushed past the protocol droid and ran for the main hold.
I'm actually inside the Millennium Falcon....
Lucas skidded into the hold, grabbing onto a pipe on the wall to slow his momentum, and slammed into Lumina. She hadn't even seen him coming and fell with a yelp.
"Sorry!" Lucas exclaimed, reaching down and yanking her up. He turned to see what Han and Chewbacca were looking at and got hit in the face by a burst of steam.
"How's this?" Han asked loudly as Lucas coughed, blinking.
"Would it help if I got out and pushed?" Leia demanded.
"Maybe, sweetheart," Han replied.
"You don't want to push," Lucas told Leia flatly. "The snowtroopers have arrived. I think they know which ship we're on."
Han glanced back at him. "We're the last ship here, idiot. Of course they know which ship we're on!"
Huh. Didn't think of that.
Han took off for the cockpit, Lucas immediately following him. Lumina and Leia hurried after them, Lumina looking pale and scared.
Lucas slid into the copilot's seat as Han hit a switch, watching the console. Lights flickered and went out and Lucas took the moment to scan the controls and instruments, familiarizing himself with the layout.
"Work, dammit!" Han cursed and Lucas reached across and flipped a switch.
The lights came back on and Han sat back, momentarily startled, but he recovered quickly, wiping the surprise off his face.
"This bucket of bolts will never get us past that blockade," Leia said flatly.
"Past the blockade, yes," Lucas said. "Outrun the Imperials, no. We'd need a working hyperdrive for that and the Falcon doesn't have one."
Leia gaped at him. "What?" she exclaimed, spinning to face the captain. "Han, this thing doesn't have a hyperdrive?"
"Of course it has a hyperdrive," Han said, shooting a nasty look at Lucas. "Don't worry, sweetheart, we'll get out of here just fine. This is the ship that made the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs, remember?"
"You don't give us a chance to forget," Leia muttered as Han turned back to the controls. "And don't call me sweetheart."
"Sure, darling," Han drawled, and Lucas raised his eyebrows at the look on Leia's face; she was incensed. She smacked the smuggler in the back of the head and he leaned forward, grimacing. For a moment, he looked like he was considering turning around to face the princess but then he shook his head. "You'll pay for that later, princess."
"The hyperdrive's not gonna work," Lucas persisted. There was nothing they could do about it now, but he needed a way to let Han know he knew what he was talking about, and the ability further on down the road to say "I told you so" would go a long way. He hoped. "It's broken and it's not gonna get us out of reach of the Imperials."
"Sure, whatever," Han said. "Who's the captain? Me. Who are you? Nobody. So stop telling me lies about my ship."
Lucas glared at him as Chewbacca lumbered into the cockpit, grabbing Lucas' arm and yanking him out of the seat. He stumbled backward, Lumina steadying him, as the Wookiee took his seat and finished prepping for takeoff.
The snowtroopers, meanwhile, were preparing a repeating blaster, the muzzle aimed right at the Falcon. As Lumina and Leia took the last two seats in the cockpit, Lucas standing between them, he felt his leg shaking from nerves, his boot tapping anxiously on the floor. They needed to take off soon. Real soon.
"Switch over," Han was saying. "Let's hope we don't have a burnout."
Lucas felt the hum of the engines powering on and felt some relief join the anxiety coursing through him.
"See!" Han exclaimed exuberantly. "Let's punch it, Chewie!"
Leia rolled her eyes. "Someday, you're going to be wrong and I just hope I'm there to see it."
Lumina grimaced. "I don't think that's something you'll want to see, Leia."
"At least, not witness it from the same cockpit," Lucas muttered. "Which we're about to."
An autoblaster on the Falcon's hull fired at the snowtroopers, knocking them backwards as the ship launched forward, sending Lucas toppling over backwards. He hit the ground and glanced up dazedly to see the pale blue of the Hoth sky as they soared out toward the atmosphere.
****
As Darth Vader strode across the snowy landscape, heading for his shuttle in the distance, he saw an Imperial officer, in standard issue snow gear, hurrying toward him.
"Lord Vader!" the officer called and the Sith stopped and glanced back at him. The blonde hair sticking out of the hood easily identified the young man as Captain Dan. "One of the Rebel speeders wrecked and I believe the pilot was a Jedi, sir."
"Lead me to it," Vader requested. His blood boiled at the memory of the obnoxious boy who had talked to him easily, his fear outweighed by...excitement? Vader had been too baffled to tell for sure. Then he had been attacked by the kid, knocked over, no less, and his own lightsaber had been stolen.
Vader may not be able to kill the kid right now, but he could torture his companion. He was sure the new Jedi recruits of the Rebels were connected – they may not all seem like Jedi, they may not even be the right age to properly have had any training from the Temple, but Vader knew there was some connection, however faint.
He could sense the reek of Jedi on them.
The kid who had confronted him was one of the several beings causing the disturbance in the Force. The one identified by Captain Dan had to be another one.
Vader followed Dan through the snow, toward the smoking wreck of one of those Rebel speeders. Several snowtroopers stood around it, as if on guard, and Vader saw the slumped body of the pilot, leaning against the console.
Dan reached the wreck and gestured. "The pilot's still alive, somehow. His gunner's dead, but that's nothing. He's just your average Rebel, the ones that come ten a credit. The pilot, he had a lightsaber."
Vader took the proffered weapon, turning it over in his hand. Beneath the helmet, his injured eyes widened. This lightsaber...it was familiar to him.
Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I knew this reeked of Jedi.
It reeks like the dead.
"Imprison the pilot," Vader dictated, watching as Dan gestured to the snowtroopers, who hauled the kid out of his wrecked speeder. He was dressed in an orange flightsuit, a helmet with that damned Rebel insignia covering his red hair. Vader's eyes narrowed. Kenobi's lightsaber, red hair.
If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
He didn't believe in coincidences.
Except the Sith failed to see how a scrawny, unconscious kid was more powerful than a Jedi Master at his peak. The kid couldn't even fly properly.
Master never did like flying.
"He shall be transported in my shuttle," Vader ordered, and he turned and set off across the snow, cape flowing behind him. Dan trotted after him, the snowtroopers following.
As Vader entered his shuttle, the pilot placed on the floor and guarded by the snowtroopers, the Sith turned the lightsaber over in his hand absently, the hilt familiar beneath his gloved fingers. So he had met two of the disturbances, and the girl with the obnoxious boy might also have been one.
There was only one left to meet, to identify, and then, to kill.
It was only when the shuttle had exited Hoth's atmosphere that Vader realized the lightsaber had vanished from his grip.
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