An electronic chime sounded, signaling the audience for their attention. The room fell silent as Mon Mothma stepped beside the ampitheater’s central console unit. “The Emperor has made a critical error,” she announced, “and the time for our attack has come.”
The ampitheater’s lights dimmed and Mon Mothma looked to the middle of the console unit, where a holographic projector extended up. Above the projector, a light-generated three-dimensional image of a rotating green world appeared; the green hologram was orbited by a second hologram, a relatively smaller sphere that was an incomplete structure, colored red for visual clarity. From either personal experience or familiarity with the Battle at Yavin, everyone in the room recognized the smaller hologram as an unfinished Imperial Death Star.
“The data brought to us by the Bothan spies pinpoints the exact location of the Emperor’s new battle station,” Mon Mothma said. “We also know that the weapon systems of this Death Star are not yet operational. With the Imperial fleet spread throughout the galaxy in a vain effort to engage us, it is relatively unprotected. But most important of all, we’ve learned that the Emperor himself is personally overseeing the final stages of the construction of this Death Star.” Mon Mothma swallowed hard. “Many Bothans died to bring us this information. Admiral Ackbar, please.”
Admiral Ackbar stepped up beside the central console and gestured to the holograms. “You can see here the Death Star orbiting the forest moon of Endor,” Ackbar said in his gravelly voice. “Although the weapon systems on this Death Star are not yet operational, the Death Star does have a strong defense mechanism. It is protected by an energy shield, which is generated from the nearby forest moon of Endor.”
From the “surface” of the green moon’s hologram, a yellow stream of light—representing the energy shield—appeared to project and wrap around the Death Star. Ackbar continued, “The shield must be deactivated if any attack is to be attempted.”
Every pilot in the room knew Ackbar’s statement as a given fact. Planetary shields were so powerful that any starship unlucky enough to careen into one were either severely damaged or instantly vaporized.
The hologram of the forest moon and energy shield vanished, and the Death Star’s hologram rapidly magnified to fill the space above the central console. The enlarged image was a three-dimensional cross-section that displayed an internal route to the center of the incomplete space station. Ackbar said, “Once the shield is down, our cruisers will create a perimeter, while the fighters fly into the superstructure and attempt to knock out the main reactor. General Calrissian has volunteered to lead the fighter attack.”
Surprised, Han turned to Lando with renewed respect and wished him luck. Then added, “You’re gonna need it.”
Admiral Ackbar stepped back and said, “General Madine.”
A brown-bearded, middle-aged human, General Crix Madine had been a highly decorated Imperial officer before he’d defected to the Alliance. Madine stepped forward and announced, “We have stolen a small Imperial shuttle. Disguised as a cargo ship and using a secret Imperial code, a strike team will land on the moon and deactivate the shield generator.”
Hearing this, the assembled group exchanged nervous glances and mumbled among themselves. C-3PO said, “Sounds dangerous.”
Leia leaned closer to Han and said, “I wonder who they found to pull that off.”
Scanning the ampitheater, Madine located Han’s seated figure and said, “General Solo, is your strike team assembled?”
Leia, startled, turned to look at Han. Then her surprise changed to admiration.
“Uh, my team’s ready,” Han said, squirming under the attention that was suddenly given to him. “I don’t have a command crew for the shuttle.”
Beside Han, Chewbacca raised his hairy paw and barked, volunteering.
“Well, it’s gonna be rough, pal,” Han said. “I didn’t want to speak for you.”
Chewbacca growled cheerfully, conveying to everyone that the choice was his.
Han smiled. “That’s one.”
“Uh, General,” Leia said, “count me in.”
“I’m with you, too!” Luke volunteered as he entered the room from the rear. He’d just arrived from Dagobah with R2-D2, who wobbled over to talk with C-3PO. Making his way down to the ampitheater’s floor, Luke arrived before Leia, who embraced him warmly. Then, sensing a change in him, she pulled away and looked into his eyes.
“What is it?” she asked.
Luke thought, I still can’t believe she’s my sister. But he couldn’t tell her now. He hesitated, then said, “Ask me again sometime.”
Han, Chewbacca, and Lando crowded around Luke as the assembly broke up.
“Luke,” Han said, extending his hand.
Luke took it. “Hi, Han…Chewie.” It feels so good to be among friends again.
R2-D2 beeped a singsong observation to C-3PO.
C-3PO shuddered and replied, “‘Exciting’ is hardly the word I would choose.”
An Imperial shuttle, the Tydirium was twenty meters long and had a trihedral foil design: The tall dorsal stabilizer remained stationary but the two lower wings extended during flight and folded upward for landing. Before it had been transported to the Sullust System, the Tydirium had been captured by the Alliance with the help of “Ace” Azzameen at an orbital outpost at Zhar. Now, looking very out of place, the Imperial shuttle rested beside the Millennium Falcon and several single-pilot starfighters in the main docking bay of Admiral Ackbar’s Mon Cal cruiser.
Han and Lando stood between the Falcon and the Tydirium. As the Rebel strike team loaded weapons and supplies onto the shuttle, Han gestured to the Falcon and said, “Look: I want you to take her. I mean it. Take her. You need all the help you can get. She’s the fastest ship in the fleet.”
“All right, old buddy,” Lando said. “You know, I know what she means to you. I’ll take good care of her. She—she won’t get a scratch. All right?”
“Right,” Han said. He turned for the shuttle, then stopped and looked back to Lando. “I got your promise. Not a scratch.”
“Look, would you get going, you pirate.” Lando exchanged salutes with Han, then added, “Good luck.”
“You, too,” Han said, and headed up the shuttle’s ramp.
Inside, he saw Leia briefing the twelve SpecForces Rebel commandos seated in the shuttle’s aft area. The commandos wore combat uniforms of full forest-camouflage fatigues, and their unit leader was Major Bren Derlin. Han had worked with Derlin and his SpecForces soldiers on Hoth and knew they had what it took to get the difficult job done. Like the commandos, Leia wore a camouflage poncho.
There were three seats on each side of the Tydirium’s cockpit. C-3PO sat in the rear portside seat and R2-D2 stood close by. In front of C-3PO, Luke—also wearing a camouflage poncho—was adjusting switches on a control panel. At fore starboard, Chewbacca was in the co-pilot’s seat.
Han moved past the droids and Luke and stepped down to the pilot’s seat. Beside him, Chewbacca was having a hard time figuring out all the Imperial controls.
“You got her warmed?” Han asked Luke.
“Yeah, she’s comin’ up,” Luke replied with confidence.
Chewbacca growled a complaint about the controls.
Han answered, “I don’t think the Empire had Wookiees in mind when they designed her, Chewie.” As the shuttle warmed up, Han looked out the window to the Millennium Falcon, which was just across the docking bay…but somehow seemed impossibly out of reach.
Han felt a chill run up his spine.
Leia entered the cockpit and placed a hand on his shoulder. He flinched and glanced at her.
“Hey,” Leia said, “are you awake?”
“Yeah,” Han said sadly, returning his gaze to the Falcon. “I just got a funny feeling. Like I’m not gonna see her again.”
Speaking softly, Leia said, “Come on, General, let’s move.”
Han snapped back to life. “Right.
Chewie.”
Chewbacca roared, eager to get going. Leia took the seat behind Chewbacca.
Han said. “Let’s see what this piece of junk can do. Ready, everybody?”
“All set,” Luke said.
At the back of the cockpit, R2-D2 beeped.
C-3PO said, “Here we go again.”
The Tydirium glided out of the docking bay and into space. Moving away from the Mon Cal cruiser, the shuttle’s lower wings dropped to their extended position. Han steered the shuttle past the surrounding ships, then said, “All right, hang on.” He threw a switch, and the Tydirium launched into hyperspace, on course for the Endor system.
In orbit of Endor’s forest moon, the Death Star’s construction continued. A formation of Imperial TIE fighters patrolled the space station’s north pole, sweeping past a highly shielded tower that rose one hundred stories above the surface. The tower was topped by a control post that had been converted into a throne room and private observation chamber for Emperor Palpatine.
The Emperor’s throne was a large, contoured chair with control panels in the arms; the chair rested on an elevated platform below a tall, circular window with radiating panes. A stairway extended down from the platform to the turbolifts and observation gallery. Except for the brightly colored instrument lights that ringed a pair of duty posts near the stairway, everything was black and dark gray, cold and metallic.
Standing beside his throne, Palpatine gazed out the window and surveyed the half-completed Death Star and Endor’s moon. Behind him, members of the Imperial council watched silently as Darth Vader exited the turbolift on the other side of the chamber. Vader crossed a short bridge that extended over the tower’s vast elevator shaft, then ascended the stairs to the upper platform.
Vader had been informed that a fleet of Rebel ships had assembled in the Sullust system, and suspected the Emperor wished to do something about it. Ignoring the Imperial dignitaries, Vader arrived before the Emperor and said, “What is thy bidding, my Master?”
Turning away from the window to face Vader, the Emperor replied, “Send the fleet to the far side of Endor. There it will stay until called for.”
Vader said, “What of the reports of the Rebel fleet massing near Sullust?”
“It is of no concern,” the Emperor assured him. “Soon the Rebellion will be crushed and young Skywalker will be one of us! Your work here is finished, my friend. Go out to the command ship and await my orders.”
Vader bowed deeply and said, “Yes, my Master.”
The shuttle Tydirium dropped out of hyperspace and into the Endor system. The sight of a Super-class Star Destroyer, two Imperial-class Star Destroyers, and the half-finished Death Star would have been enough for most pilots to turn and run, but Han Solo’s hands remained steady on the controls as he guided the shuttle toward the immense space station.
Han said, “If they don’t go for this, we’re gonna have to get outta here pretty quick, Chewie.”
Sitting beside Han, Chewbacca growled in agreement.
From the shuttle’s comlink came the voice of an Imperial controller: “We have you on our screen now. Please identify.”
Han said, “Shuttle Tydirium requesting deactivation of the deflector shield.”
The controller answered, “Shuttle Tydirium, transmit the clearance code for shield passage.”
“Transmission commencing,” Han said, and sent the code.
Leia and Luke were still seated behind Chewbacca and Han. In a hushed voice, Leia said, “Now we find out if that code is worth the price we paid.”
“It’ll work. It’ll work,” Han said reassuringly.
Chewbacca whined nervously. As they listened to the sound of the high-speed transmission from the shuttle’s comm console, Luke stared at the Super Star Destroyer that was alongside the Death Star, orbiting Endor’s moon.
“Vader’s on that ship,” Luke said.
“Now don’t get jittery, Luke,” Han told him. “There are a lot of command ships. Keep your distance, though, Chewie, but don’t look like you’re trying to keep your distance.”
Wondering how he should accomplish this tactic, Chewbacca barked a question to Han.
“I don’t know,” Han replied. “Fly casual.”
Luke is on that ship, Darth Vader thought to himself. He was standing before the wide viewport on the Executor’s main bridge as the shuttle glided by.
Vader turned from the viewport. He strode up the elevated command walkway that extended above the lower-level crew pits and moved toward Admiral Piett, the Executor’s commander. Wearing a gray uniform and cap, Piett had been looking over a black-uniformed controller’s tracking screen when he noticed Vader’s approach.
“Where is that shuttle going?” Vader asked.
Piett leaned over the controller’s shoulder and spoke into the computer console’s comlink: “Shuttle Tydirium, what is your cargo and destination?”
“Parts and technical crew for the forest moon,” answered the filtered voice of the Tydirium’s pilot.
Piett looked to Vader, waiting for his reaction. Vader said, “Do they have code clearance?”
“It’s an older code, sir,” Piett said, “but it checks out. I was about to clear them.”
Vader looked upward. My son is so close. So very, very close.
In the Tydirium’s cockpit, Luke was suddenly filled with trepidation. Although Vader had not communicated with him telepathically, as he had before Luke’s escape at Bespin, Luke sensed that Vader was aware of his proximity. “I’m endangering the mission,” Luke said. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“It’s your imagination, kid,” Han said. Glancing back, he saw that Leia appeared nervous, too. “Come on,” Han continued. “Let’s keep a little optimism here.”
Chewbacca was still doing his best to “fly casual,” but he let out an anxious growl.
On the Executor’s bridge, Piett was starting to wonder about Vader’s interest in the shuttle. “Shall I hold them?” he asked.
“No,” Vader answered firmly. “Leave them to me. I will deal with them myself.”
“As you wish, my lord,” Piett said. To the controller, he commanded, “Carry on.”
As Han Solo waited for a response from the Executor, he started to feel as uneasy as everyone else in the cockpit. There was practically no chance for the Tydirium to escape the area; all the Imperials had to do was aim a tractor beam at the stolen shuttle and the mission to Endor was over. Han gulped and said, “They’re not goin’ for it, Chewie.”
Then the Imperial controller’s voice spoke from the comm: “Shuttle Tydirium, deactivation of the shield will commence immediately. Follow your present course.”
In the Tydirium’s cockpit, there was a collective sigh of relief from everyone but Luke, who remained tense. Chewbacca barked.
“Okay!” Han said, glancing back at his friends. “I told you it was gonna work. No problem.” He steered the shuttle away from the Executor, past the Death Star, and down to the forest moon of Endor.
The moon’s unspoiled surface was covered with woodlands, savannas, and mountains. The Tydirium traveled over an ancient forest, where trees rose a thousand meters into the sky. Intending to avoid unnecessary contact with Imperial troops, Han landed the shuttle in a clearing several kilometers from their target: the moon-based energy shield generator protecting the orbital Death Star.
The Rebels disembarked. Luke, Leia, and the commandos wore helmets that matched their camouflage outfits. Han opted against a helmet and insisted on staying in his own clothes but did select a forest-camouflage duster, a long-sleeved coat that concealed most of his form. Everyone carried blasters except for the droids and Luke, who maintained that a lightsaber was the only weapon that a Jedi needed.
Long shafts of sunlight stretched from the towering treetops to the forest floor, but the wide-trunked trees grew so close together that it was often difficult to get a clear view in any direction. Moving cautiously,
Han led his friends and the twelve SpecForces commandos down a hill, away from the shuttle.
They soon arrived at an adjacent hill, and Han saw something ahead. He raised a hand, signaling the rest of the group to stop. All the soldiers dropped to a crouch, instantly blending in with the surrounding dense foliage. At the rear of the procession, C-3PO looked to R2-D2 and said, “Oh, I told you it was dangerous here.”
Han, Leia, Luke, and Chewbacca peered over a fallen moss-covered tree. Not far below their position, two white-armored Imperial scout troopers were on patrol, moving on foot. Unlike stormtroopers, the scouts were trained to an unusual degree of independence for Imperial personnel and wore lightweight body armor. Their distinctive helmets had enhanced macrobinocular viewplates and boosted comlink systems for long-range communication.
Luke noticed a pair of three-meter-long speeder bikes parked near the scout troopers. Repulsorlift vehicles with front-mounted, sharp-edged directional steering vanes, the speeder bikes hung suspended in the air just above the ground. Although the bikes were primarily used for reconnaissance, each was equipped with a ventral blaster cannon.
Leia asked, “Should we try and go around?”
“It’ll take time,” Luke said.
“This whole party’ll be for nothing if they see us,” Han pointed out. “Chewie and I will take care of this. You stay here.”
Remembering Han’s inclination to shoot first and ask questions later, Luke glared at his friend and stressed, “Quietly. There might be more of them out there.”
Apparently surprised by Luke’s concern, Han grinned confidently and said, “Hey…it’s me.”
Blaster in hand, Han started off through the bushes with Chewbacca. Leia and Luke exchanged nervous glances, then smiled despite themselves.
Chewbacca and Han made their way down to the area below, silently positioning themselves behind two large trees near the pair of scout troopers. As one of the scouts picked up a black bag of supplies, Han stepped out from his hiding place and moved toward the scout’s back. Everything seemed to be going fine until Han accidentally stepped on a dry twig. Snap!
Return of the Jedi (Junior Novelization) Page 6
