T'ek aimed the hurtling snowskiff straight for the foremost AT-AT. The walkers began to fire on him. Laser fire planted exploding blooms of ice and snow all around the skiff. The AT-AT in front of them fired downward, and the blast struck home. Fire and smoke erupted from the engine's panel, and the craft wobbled. The control panel's lights flickered, then went out. T'ek shouted "R5, try to-" before the useless skiff landed on the ice, skidding towards the AT-AT. It stopped a mere thirty meters from the Imperial monstrosity's enormous metal feet.
"Get out!" T'ek hit the door release button. It didn't budge for one dreadful moment, and then the skiff's hatch door opened. The booming of the AT-AT's feet was getting nearer. T'ek had a horrible second in which he looked up through the skiff's viewshield and saw the AT-AT looming over them, "looking" down as it walked. It then quickly tilted its head up and fired.
T'ek called upon the Force and used it to speed his way from the doomed skiff. Time melted around him in an ice-blue swirl that stretched to a zooming blur as he ran from the skiff, almost faster than the eye could see. R5-F6, behind Nova, did his best to roll out over the exit ramp onto the snow crust. R5 had barely made it out when the AT-AT crushed the skiff. It exploded, rocking R5 forward on his front wheel. He teetered, landed on his back wheels again, and twittered away. T'ek and an Astromech droid were now on foot, alone, against a marching army of machines.
The high-pitched whining of repulsorlift engines came across the ice field. Three small speeders were drawing in on the battle. T'ek heard a familiar war cry, and saw that they were his companions. Lexo and Woonwooken darted in on their snowbike. Uschi and Zybor were on theirs, and Drugas was on his. The small metal craft shot over the snow at incredible speeds. Their blaster cannons blazed with red fire.
Lexo and Woonwooken rushed straight towards an AT-ST, dodging its attacks. As they reached it, They leapt up off the snowbike, leaving it to weave across the field and explode against an AT-ST almost half a kilometer away. Lexo hung from the ST's pumping blaster cannons- he hadn't quite gotten the grip he'd hoped for. Woonwooken scuttled up the metal hull, putting her inborn wookiee climbing ability to good use. Lexo flipped up and onto his feet. He jabbed his force pike into the "eye" of the AT-ST, hitting nothing. He heard a shout of alarm from within. Woonwooken raised herself up to see inside, where she looked upon two terrified Imperial pilots. She leveled her tricaster and shot one of them. The man screamed and tumbled, smoking, to the floor of the cockpit.
Uschi and Zybor-Jae were headed in a different direction. Zybor pointed to an AT-ST and shouted "Bring me in close to that thing."
Uschi, piloting the snowbike, yelled back "How close?'
Zybor pulled out his lightsaber. "As close as possible."
Uschi pulled to the right side of the AT-ST in front of them and turned the wheel hard left. The snowbike began to turn evenly in a U-turn all the way around the walking terror. Her piloting was good: they were very close indeed. Zybor's lightsaber lit up - shvrrmmm- a bright green pair of blades shot from both ends. As they passed the first leg, he swung it over his head and through the leg. VSKASH!! Sparks showered them as the snowbike turned. The saber buzzed through the air, making two more cuts (VSHHKK!! KVASHK!!), both in the other leg. They drove away from the AT-ST as one of its legs separated completely at the cut seam. The useless shortened limb kicked at the air for a moment before the other leg became detached and the vehicle crashed to the snow. An AT-AT began firing on Uschi and Zybor, seeing them now as a viable threat. Zybor spun his lightsaber in front of him in a furious pinwheeling arc, deflecting each blaster shot with practiced calm.
A roar in the skies: Rogue Squadron had arrived. Some of the AT-ATs took their attention off of the smaller prey on the ground and attempted to swat the wing of snowspeeders out of the air with their lasers. The snowspeeders returned fire until they realized that their blasters weren't doing much good. "Rogue Group, use your harpoons and tow cables. Go for the legs. It might be our only chance of stopping them."
Dent Darkstar broke off from the wing and swept down to the AT-AT that had destroyed the skiff. It was the foremost walker in the battalion. A plan formed in his head, and he fired his tow cable. It clunked perfectly against the leg, and Dent began to circle it, trailing the black cable in a twirling, tightening noose. He clicked on his personal comlink. "R5, is that you I see down there?" A static tweeting noise answered him. "Good- when the AT-AT in front falls, I want you to get everyone behind it. That'll give you some cover against the fire of the others, and it'll give me enough time to do something." Just then, he released the tow line and sped away from the AT-AT. Its legs were bound tightly together, and it tilted slowly to the ground. It smashed into the snow below, its head bent up and its body leaning forward.
Woonwooken and Lexo jumped clear of the falling AT-ST they were hanging onto- T'ek had cut one of its legs from under it with his lightsaber. As Lexo rolled to his feet, he saw R5's nodes flashing red, heard his trilling bleeps. "What?" R5 turned away and began to roll as fast as he could for the downed AT-AT. Lexo yelled to the others. "Hey, I'm pretty sure R5 has a plan- he wants us to follow him!" Dent's snowspeeder cut through the air above, headed straight away to the north. Lexo picked Woonwooken up (quite a feat, considering her size) and burst into a lightning fast run for the AT-AT. T'ek followed. Uschi and Zybor turned towards it and drove as fast as the snowbike could go, while Zybor deflected blaster fire from the oncoming walkers.
Drugas drove hard for the AT-AT. He weaved amidst the explosions of laser and snow that peppered his path. He didn't have a Jedi to protect him, and he didn't have a man on the turret behind him. He simply drove and dodged. "Hey, Uschi," he laughed into his helmet's comlink. "Next time, I get to ride with the J… AHHHH!!!!" His snowbike was hit with a laser cannon's heavy red bolt. He had time enough to scream before the bike exploded. Uschi looked back to see the fire and pieces fly, with the walker army rising behind it, blasting in their direction.
"Drugas- No!" The hardened bounty hunter allowed herself only a moment to dwell on her grief before snapping back to the matter at hand. She swung the bike around the AT-AT and jumped off with Zybor as it slowed to a stop. "Drugas is gone," she told the others. They hunkered against the side of the AT-AT with blasters drawn as they heard the walkers approaching from the other side.
Woonwooken roared with wookiee grief and loaded her tricaster. "What was the plan, exactly, R5?" asked a flustered Lexo. The droid took a moment to communicate with Dent, and whistled. A shadow fell over them all. They turned, ready to fight the AT-AT that had surely walked up past their defensive shield- and saw the Chandrila Surveyor. The colossal ship lowered to the ground with its access ramp down. Blaster and laser shots ricocheted off the Surveyor's shields as the group jumped onto the ramp. Lexo floated R5 aboard using the Force. R5 screamed in terror as he flew through the air. T'ek jumped on, then Zybor, who'd been ready to deflect shots from the attackers. The ramp closed and the AT-ATs continued to fire on the Surveyor as it flew up into the sky.
They joined one of Echo Base's fleeing transports with its two fighters. The Chandrila Surveyor burst through the momentarily disabled shield, and and made the jump into hyperspace.
Uschi collapsed into her seat in the Surveyor's crew lounge. Woonwooken sat down nearby. They looked at each other and felt the loss for their friend. "Don't feel bad, Woonie," Uschi said. "He was a soldier. He knew the risks." The wookiee grumbled, the message being that she didn't really care if he knew the risks. He'd spent a long time with them, on quite a few adventures. He was now dead, and would be mourned. Uschi kept silent- she hadn't really believed in what she'd said either.
They flew through hyperspace towards Tatooine.
NEXT TIME: DANGER IN THE DUNE SEA
