Star Wars : Chapter 34: Battle of Hoth

"Luke!", called out Anakin and Ahsoka at the same time.

"What is he going to do now?", Asked Ki-Adi.

Windu shrugged. "Improvise."

...

He let out a sigh as he shook his head clear, unhooked his harness and struggled to get the canopy up, but in doing so, he saw the other walker was on a direct course for his ship.

He tried to get Dack out, but his buckle had fused together, making it impossible to undo. The Walker came closer, the massive legs covering the ground quicker than he expected.

Thinking desperately more so than quickly, he grabbed his lightsaber and a blaster before he leapt from the wreckage of her speeder as the walker's foot came down on it, crushing it and Dack beneath it's tread.

"That was a close one...", Obi-Wan said, sighing in relief.

Back at the base, Han ran through the corridors to the command center, doing his best to stay upright as the base was rocked by Imperial fire. The command center was an abandoned mess; strategic maps overturned and the staff evacuated but for a single station and operator, over whose shoulder Leia was watching.

"You alright?" Han asked.

Leia looked back and frowned. "Why are you still here?"

"Heard the command center had been hit." Han replied as he began climbing over debris to reach Leia, who had returned to what she had been doing.

"You've got your clearance to leave."

"Don't worry, I'll leave. First, I'm gonna get you to your ship."

"See? He cares for her than his own skin. Truly an act of chivalry", Shaak Ti praised the smuggler while Anakin's eye twitched.

"Let's just hope Jabba doesn't send any Bounty Hunters after them", Padmé said, worried.

"Please don't jinx it, Senator", Ahsoka pleaded.

"Your Highness, we must take this last transport. It's our only hope." Threepio pleaded with her. Leia responded by pushing past him and Han and walking over to another station.

"Send all troops in Sector 12 to the south slope to protect the fighters." She said.

Suddenly another explosion sent snow falling from the ceiling and a voice came over the intercom.

"Imperial troops have entered the base. Imperial troops have entered- "it cut off before it could finish.

"Just as predicted, the Imperials would have them at their hand", Obi-Wan sourly admitted.

"They have hope, Master Kenobi. I'm sure they can still fight another day", Luminara assured him.

Han walked up to Leia and grabbed her arm. "Come on. That's it." he said, giving Leia a hard look. The brown-haired Princess closed her eyes.

"Give the evacuation code signal." She ordered before Han began pulling her away. "And get to your transport!"

"Retreat is always a viable option." Windu commented. "If they fall here, the Rebellion will suffer a blow to their morale."

The battlefield, despite being made of snow and ice, was charred and burning in places, most of them ruined artillery pieces. The troops had received the retreat signal and were doing just that, abandoning their trenches as the Walkers came within spitting distance.

The walkers, seeing the rout, fired on the fleeing troops. Using the confusion as cover, Luke ran up underneath the last walker and aimed his gun at the transport's belly.

"What is little Skyguy up to?" Ahsoka muttered.

"Something astounding, probably." Anakin replied with a smirk while those who fought alongside him looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Anakin, reckless is the default setting for your tactics."

"Okay, astounding and reckless."

Instead of a laser bolt, it fired a magnetic grappling hook. It attached itself to the hull and pulled him up to hang just under the surface.

Using his lightsaber, he opened a hatch a hatch and tossed in a small thermal grenade. He had five seconds until it exploded, so he quickly detached herself from the grappling hook and fell, the snow thankfully breaking her fall.

He looked up and saw the walker stop as her grenade caused a cascade of explosions to rock the transport, ultimately causing the cockpit to explode and the whole thing to fall sideways.

"Very impressive", Yoda praised the young Skywalker on screen. "Remarkable potential, he has"

"All right, that was clever." Windu admitted.

"See? Astounding and reckless!", Anakin said in complete pride for Luke while Rex, Plo Koon, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan groaned.

The lead Walker saw none of this, its commander focused entirely on his objective. He watched as the fleeing troops were cut down like wheat, the transport even shooting a speeder out of the air during a brief pause it it's advance.

He pulled down a targeting computer and looked through it to see the highlighted outline of the generators. He gave the order and the generators exploded in a massive ball of fire.

This caused the hallway Han and Leia were in to collapse. Han saw it coming and quickly pulled Leia back. The Princess let out a scream as the pair fell backward. Han recovered quicker and took a look at the wall before cursing and pulling out her communicator.

"Transport, this is Solo. Better take off, we can't get to you. I'll get the Princess out on the Falcon." He grabbed Leia's arm and pulled her to her feet, before taking off again. They passed by Threepio, who quickly turned and ran after them, yelling to be told what they were doing.

Meanwhile, the wall of the command center burst open as a team of Snowtroopers stormed in, followed by the imposing figure of Darth Vader. The Dark Lord took in the damage before leading his troops to their next target, the hangar.

"They need to leave. Now", Anakin said, putting emphasis on the last word and glaring at the Sith Lord.

"It is fortunate that many of their staff had evacuated.", Luminara stated.

"We can thank Ozzel's clumsiness for that", Kit Fisto mused.

"Wait! Wait for me!" Threepio yelled as Han ran to a door, opening it for Leia and following after her, leaving Threepio on the other side. "How typical." He drawled as the door opened and Han's arm reached out to pull him through.

"Hurry up, goldenrod!" Han yelled at Threepio, "Or you're gonna become a permanent resident!"

As Vader closed in with his troops, Han and Chewie tried to run, but the engine on the Falcon refused to turn over. Inside, Chewie screamed as he was pelted with vented steam.

"How's this?" Han told him, making some adjustments.

"Would it help if I got out and pushed?" Leia asked snidely.

Han rounded on her. "It might." He replied. It would allow him to ditch the dead weight if nothing else.

"'Good to go', she says." Han said sarcastically.

"Ma'am, might I suggest you- " Threepio said before Han held a finger up, silencing him. "It can wait."

Han ran to the cockpit and began the activation sequence. The ship initially started powering down, but Han soon fixed that with a solid blow with his forearm.

"This bucket of bolts is never gonna get us past that blockade." Leia said, her, Threepio and Chewie joining Han.

"This baby's got a few surprises left in her, sweetheart." Han replied.

"Let's see about that, Solo", Anakin challenged the smuggler.

"Well, he has surprise us many times already, Anakin. So why not?", Obi-Wan said.

Outside, the Snowtroopers began setting up the laser gun turret. In response, Han flipped a switch and a hidden gun dropped down and began firing on the turret.

"Han, switch over. Let's just hope we don't have a burnout." They heard the familiar sound of the ship powering up, and Han smiled. "See?"

"Someday your gonna be wrong," Leia said, sitting behind Han, "And I just hope I'm there to see it."

"Punch it!" Han ordered. Chewie pulled the switch and the Falcon made a fast exit just as Vader entered the hangar.

The audience breathed out a sigh of relief, just before the group would be at the clutches of Vader and the Empire. "A close one, that is", Yosa mused with a chuckle.

Luke saw them leave as he made his way to the evacuation point and saw Artoo waiting for him in his X-Wing.

"Artoo! Get her ready for takeoff." Artoo beeped and whistled as Luke climbed into the cockpit. "Don't worry, Artoo. We're going. We're going." Luke pulled them into the void expecting to have to run an Imperial blockade, but found that the fleet had already left.

Counting himself lucky -again- he veered off the route Artoo expected him to take, making him beep in confusion.

"Nothing's wrong, Artoo. I'm just setting a new course." He to said to Artoo, seeing the translation on screen. More beeping.

"We're not gonna regroup with the others. We're going to the Dagobah system." A whistle and some bleeping. "That's alright. I'd rather keep him on manual controls for a while."

"Here we go...", Ahsoka uttered, with the audience looking forward to see what has become to the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order.

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