A Blow for the Rebellion: Frozen

by Michael 'Majick' Chalk

(As always, my thanks to George Lucas and Lucasfilm for allowing me to play in this universe. I don't get any profit from this story, but I do get enjoyment out of writing it. If you enjoy reading it, let me know.)

So… Yeah. After Yavin, we ran. Well, other people ran. I was tired and ill. I slept. It's quite nice to sleep through that much activity. Really makes you feel like you've achieved something.

After Yavin, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker left us to go on what turned out to be a recruiting drive. Following the destruction of the Death Star, these two looked pretty damned impressive to the casual observer.

Of course, there were other heroes out there. Han Solo and Chewbacca shot up the TIE's that would have otherwise killed Luke. They disappeared right after Yavin as well, something about a price on their heads.

Wedge Antilles was a hero too, though he never got the publicity he deserved. Several times, he'd saved the lives of fellow pilots in the Death Star battle, and yet he shunned any glory, embarrassed as he was at having to leave the Death Star trench on Luke's orders.

And finally there was the Y-Wing pilot who seems to be ignored in the history's of Yavin that get published almost daily…

That pilot was Gold Seven, my friend Trey Denaar. He taught me all I know about piloting Y-Wings, and it was because of him that I got assigned to my first full time squadron, the Tierfon Yellow Aces.

The Rebellion's planet hopping took us from place to place at a rapid rate. It seemed at times that we'd barely set up base before we were evacuating again. The Rebellion was so small that it had become too easy for a spy to infiltrate to a position of trust.

Eventually, the Aces got detached from the main Rebellion group. Denaar and myself were established as a high-class piloting/gunner pair, so we were set up in one of the Y-Wings escorting a convoy through the Derra system.

No one could have dreamt what would happen next.

The convoy was headed for Derra VIII, where a refuelling depot hung over the gas giant. We were all weary after a long journey, and looking forward to a few hours rest in real beds. Though I don't want to sound whiney, being cooped up in a cockpit is a very, very tiring experience.

The first indication we had of trouble was the proximity warning systems screaming as we dropped out of hyperspace too early. Only a few seconds, but even so…

I recognised the basic shape of the Star Destroyer, but it looked wrong. Bulging with demi-spherical domes, it registered on my sensors as a planet. I had no time to worry about that, however, as it was launching fighters. Then several smaller ships dropped into space around it.

Then trouble really arrived.

A huge Star Destroyer dropped into the system in our aft quarter, and began firing. Someone began broadcasting a surrender message over the comm unit, but it was ignored.

The Imperial ships poured wave after wave of turbolasers and ion bolts into the ships, crippling them, then destroying them. Some of the weaker ships melted under the barrage, others exploded.

An ion bolt skimmed our Y-Wing, temporarily shutting us down. I managed to get systems on-line just as the gravity effects of the smaller Star Destroyer faded, and brought us round on a vector for hyperspace. Denaar fired our own ion cannon at any ships coming close, though I suspect the Imperials wanted us alive to spread the word of their perfectly executed ambush.

We blind-jumped for a few seconds, then dropped back into realspace long enough to pick a vector for the nearest Rebel base we knew of. The two of us, the only survivors of a convoy carrying several thousand Rebels, settled in for a long flight.

Our arrival at the Rebel base on Alzoc III brought the terrible news of Derra IV to the Rebel High Command, personified at that base by a Mon Calamari Commander called Ackbar. He was visibly stunned by the news, and we were requested not to tell anyone else of the convoy's loss, until we heard directly from him.

"After all," he said. "A wave of such power will bring new sand to the beach."

Denaar and I slumped over our chairs in the lounge. We both felt too tired to drink, and too wired to sleep. We wandered out to the hangar bay eventually, to check on our ship. Just as we got there, the order came in. Evacuate the base!

We ran to our ship, and I groaned when I saw the repairs weren't finished. I watched helplessly as it was towed aboard a transport, and we were shepherded aboard with it. I didn't know the circumstances of the evacuation, but if we were under attack, we'd just been relegated to sitting ducks.

Thankfully, we'd not been attacked. Ackbar had ordered the evacuation as a way of testing how far the Imperials had infiltrated us. Seemingly, they'd done a good job. Before we could go to hyperspace, there was an Imperial cruiser on or tail, but the superior firepower of our convoy discouraged it from getting too close.

They hyperspace journey took days, as we dropped in and out of light speed to reorient ourselves. Eventually, we snapped out of hyperspace with a jolt, as the ships were brought back into real space by the presence of a planet directly in our path. This was a dangerous tactic, not often used with big ships like transports, but it often worked to throw off pursuit.

The planet was ice. Everything about it was frozen from the core on outwards. The instant we began to set up base, we ran into trouble. Our equipment was not designed to deal with such extreme cold, and it began to freeze up almost before we did.

I wondered whether it would count as striking a blow for the Rebellion if I caught pneumonia and sneezed on the Emperor…

We continued to freeze on Hoth for around three months. Gradually, for we were far from the bright centre of the galaxy, we began to obtain cold conversion kits. I even began to develop a bond with a Lieutenant who was working as a Quartermaster. Her name was Javi Losca, and she was quite the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. Not just beautiful, but intelligent, funny, and great to spend time with

When we weren't on duty, which seemed rare, we spent all our time together. Once we got off Hoth, we planned to find a life away from the Rebellion for a time, though we knew we'd never be able to truly leave until the Empire was defeated.

Even when she was on duty, we could often find time to spend a few minutes chatting. It didn't take much of her attention to tell enquirers that she was all out of the conversion kits.

One day I was asked to fly in a snowspeeder as we went looking for Solo and Skywalker, who'd been missing over night. I readily agreed, and with Denaar again sitting back to back with me as my gunner, I rejoiced at the chance to fly, even if it was only little more than ground skimming. I even sent the speeder through some gut wrenching turns, which had Trey bitching and complaining in the back.

Eventually, Rogue Two reported that he'd found Solo and Skywalker, and we all headed over in that direction. We landed, allowing the two to be treated for exposure, and signalled for the base to send out a medical speeder.

It was a week later that my world collapsed.

Javi and myself had been enjoying a quiet night in her quarters, having sent her roommate off to the canteen for a few hours. Suddenly, the call went out: The Empire is attacking!

I hurried to the hangar, giving Javi a quick kiss goodbye, and promising to see her later. Suiting up on the way, I was joined by Wes Janson and Wedge Antilles. We hurried to the briefing area, arriving at the same time as Princess Leia Organa, who gave us our orders.

"You will fly speeders against the walkers. Win or lose, our time here on Hoth is done. We are evacuating, and when you are done fighting the walkers, you will return here for escort duty. The Imperials have chosen a bad time for us to attack. We have several transports here, and our forces will be thinly spread

"All troop carriers will assemble at the north entrance. The heavy transport ships will leave as soon as they're loaded. Only two fighter escorts per ship. The energy shield can only be opened for a short time, so you'll have to stay very close to your transports."

"Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?" asked one of the Rogue's, Derek Klivian. I recognised the trepidation in his voice, and I'll admit I shared it with him. Star Destroyers could take out a squadron easily. I didn't like my chances of surviving at all.

"The ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure that any enemy ships will be out of your flight path," Princess Leia replied. "When you've gotten past the energy shield, proceed directly to the rendezvous point. Understood?"

We roared our approval. Each of us knew the leaders felt better when the fighting men seemed confident, so it only seemed fair to them to cheer our orders.

I was assigned the speeder next to Luke Skywalker's, who seemed mostly recovered from his snow adventure. I heard him share some banter with his gunner, an excellent pilot called Dack, and then he lifted off.

For my part, I was having trouble getting the speeder up, as the cold seemed to have got at it again. I paused for a second to ponder the idiocy of a snowspeeder being affected by the cold, and then the engines caught. I pulled back on the joystick, and we were away. Yet again, I was out to strike a blow for the Rebellion.

I sailed out over the snowy tundra of Hoth towards the frankly scary looking walkers.

This wasn't what I'd signed up for!

I tried to calm myself, and then I heard Luke's voice over the comm

"That armour's too strong for blasters," he said. My heart sank. What else were we supposed to do? Fly into them?

Off to my left, someone seemed to try just that as his speeder was hit by a walker's lasers. Out of control, it slammed into the walker, but glanced off, leaving he walker undamaged.

"Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables. Go for the legs. It might be our only chance of stopping them."

I sped past the walkers, and banked for an attack from behind. Skimming low, I fired at the legs as the news came in the Wedge had taken one of the big machines down. As we passed by the walker, Trey fired our own harpoon, and hit the walker dead on one of it's knees.

"Got him, Manne. Now, you going to kill it?"

"You got that right," I replied, sounding braver than I felt.

I banked the speeder gently around the walker, and began to feel more confident. Down hear, out of the walkers arc of fire, I was safe, and I could take it out. No worries.

It was the biggest mistake of my life.

Everyone seems to forget that the AT-AT assault was accompanied by 'chicken walker' AT-ST's. One of them had been drawing a bead on our speeder as I bought it round the AT-AT's legs. It fired, and the dual laser blast tore through the speeder, making one of the engines explode.

I heard Trey scream, a cry that suddenly cut off as his targeting panel exploded.

I couldn't think about that yet, as I was desperately trying to right the speeder and stop it crashing too badly.

I had the vague idea we were heading back to the base, but no real clue as the speeder shook and bucked around me, throwing me around the cockpit as the rudders tugged the craft intermittently one way then another.

The shaking actually seemed to lessen off a little, and I thought the worst was over. It was then that I saw what was in front of me - A huge ice wall, thick, hard, uncompromising.

The impact knocked me senseless, so I can only guess what happened next.

I awoke still in the speeder, which had apparently crashed through the wall. I looked groggily around, and realised I was in the quartermaster's section of the base. Even half unconscious, I'd have recognised it anywhere.

I clambered out of the speeder, and checked on Trey, but he was dead. No-one's neck can look like that and them still be alive.

I looked around the section of the base. Over in the corner, leaning against the wall with her hand on her head, was Javi's friend and colleague, Dona Terris. I hurried over to her, and checked her out. She had a slight head wound, but nothing serious. She did seem to be concussed, however, and I guessed some falling ice had hit her on the head. She looked at me blankly for some seconds, then gasped.

"Manne," she rasped, the smoke from my speeder cloying the air around us. "Manne, I'm so sorry."

"Sorry?" I asked. "Sorry for what?"

She looked at me wordlessly, then looked over my shoulder. I turned, slowly, feeling as though I'd just swallowed one of the lumps of ice littering the floor.

Lying underneath the speeder was the body of a woman. Only her chest and head stuck out, but I would have recognised the mane of glossy black hair anywhere.

I crouched beside Javi and cradled her head in my hands. Tears streamed down my face as her breath came in raggedy gasps. I laid down beside her, as she struggled to speak.

"Manne," she managed to whisper. "Please. Don't cry for me. I don't want you sitting here mourning. You have to get Dona to a transport. Please, Manne. For me…"

I bowed my head, to hers, and kissed her gently, for the final time. She drew breath, weakly, and just managed to say:

"Remember, Manne, if you've never seen a tauntaun ski, then you've never been on glitterstim…"

Unable to help myself, I laughed. It was a line from our favourite comedian, and it always made us laugh. When I looked down again, Javi was gone. Her final gift to me had been to spare me seeing her die. I closed her eyes, and kissed her forehead, before standing up. Taking off my helmet, I wiped my eyes, and then looked around at Dona.

"We have to get out of here," I stated, simply.

She looked at me and nodded. Grabbing a blaster carbine from one of the weapons racks, I ran out into the corridor. Pausing only to grab a comlink, Dona followed.

We ran through the winding tunnels of Echo base, desperately trying to find our way through landslides, cave-ins and rock falls. Eventually, we found a clear tunnel, and started to race down it. A laser blast in front of us changed our minds. We stopped in terror as an Imperial stormtrooper rounded the corner. I scythed the white clad man with blaster fire, dropping him, but reinforcements would not be far behind.

We turned and ran.

It seemed as though the Imperial forces were playing a very real game of hawk bat and granite slug with us. We seemed to run into stormtroopers all over the place, and we barely had time to radio that information out to the rest of the base.

"Imperial forces have entered the base. Imperial forces have entered…"

A blaster bolt seared across my arm, making me drop the comlink in surprise. We kept running, pausing only to grab weapons from dead troopers as our power packs ran down.

Eventually, we got to the hangar bay, just in time to see the last transport lift off. Cursing, I looked around the hangar, spotting a battered X-Wing sitting alone on a repair pad. I charged over to it, dragging Dona with me. Climbing aboard, I ran it through a power up sequence, noting that it lacked shields, and that only two of its laser cannons were working. Dona squeezed in on top of me, and I ignited the engines.

Something else needing repair, then. Only three of the engines were working.

We limped out of the hangar, and towards the last transport, which was forming up with its Y-Wing escort. Diverting all power to engines, I managed to catch up, and swung into formation behind the transport, using its shields as cover while we escaped.

Another battle gone, another chance for me to land a telling blow for the Rebellion passed by. I looked out of the windows of the medical frigate for a long time. With Javi gone, I had no life. Dantooine was closed to me now, in case of Imperial spies. No-one left to feel comfortable with. The other pilots tried to make me feel better, but it wouldn't, it couldn't work.

I signed up for another tour of duty with the Rebellion more out of total apathy than anything else. Flying was the only joy I had in my life, and I was starting to hear rumours about new fighters coming in to replace the Y-Wing. With nothing else to do, I decided to see what they were.

Besides, after nearly four years in the Rebellion, I owed them one hell of a beating.

To be concluded…

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