A thin horizon line cut across the bleak landscape. Small dot-size objects began to appear on the horizon, moving in the direction of the Rebel base.
A Rebel officer lifted a pair of electrobinoculars to his eyes. Through the lens he saw a very close view of a giant Imperial snow walker. He adjusted the view which then zoomed back to reveal three more of the ominous battle machines.
Small flashes of yellow fire billow from the guns of the lumbering snow walkers.
The officer lowered his binoculars as the regular rhythmic pounding began to make the ground vibrate. The pounding grew louder and was accompanied by a high-pitched, metallic rattling. The officer spoke into his comlink.
"Echo Station Three-T-Eight."
Pilots and gunners raced to their waiting snow speeders. Ice and snow began falling from the walls of the corridor, shaken by the pounding Imperial snow walker as they drew ever nearer.
"We have spotted Imperial walkers!"
"Imperial walkers on the north ridge."
The Rebel troops aimed their weapons at the horizon as explosions erupted all around them. They were nervous and their grip on their weapons tightened from the cold and from fear. Behind the troops a dozen snow speeders raced through the sky.
"Echo station Five-Seven. We're on our way."
The fleet of snow speeders raced above the ice field at full throttle. They accelerated away from the base and headed toward the distant walkers.
"All right, boys, keep tight now."
"Luke, I have no approach vector. I'm not set."
"Steady, Mary. Attack pattern delta. Go now!"
The cannons mounted on the walker head fired at the speeders. Other walkers loomed in the background. Two speeders raced away past two of the enormous walkers and bank to the right. "All right, I'm coming in."
They turned the speeder and headed directly at one of the walkers, flying toward its towering legs. The horizon twisted as the speeder banked between the legs.
Two speeders raced directly at the head of a walker, then split and flew past it. Three other walkers marched onward, firing all cannons.
Rebel troops fired on the approaching walkers, as the snow and ice exploded all around them.
A speeder banked through and away from the legs of a walker. Two other speeders passed the first speeder from the opposite direction. Other Rebel craft raced just above the icy plain.
A giant walker head swivelled and fired, striking a snow speeder and sending it crashing in a ball of flames.
Luke looked back at the walker as it grew smaller in the distance.
"That armour's too strong for blasters."
On the horizon, another walker moved up past Luke's cockpit window, twisting out of sight as Luke banked and started another run.
"Rogue Group, use your harpoons and tow cables. Go for the legs. It might be our only chance of stopping them."
Rogue Leader and another snow speeder flew in tight formation toward the walker as explosions burst all around them. Rebel troops fired the dish like ray gun while explosions erupted around them.
Two walkers lumbered toward the Rebel base as a speeder between them exploded in a ball of flames. The dislike ray gun was hit by a laser bolt and instantly exploded.
Wedge's speeder raced through the legs of one of the monstrous walkers.
"Activate harpoon." Wedge said.
Wedge's gunner reached for a firing switch to activate the harpoon. The harpoon flashed out, and speeded toward the receding legs of the walker.
The harpoon hurtled toward the walker, in an instant it was embedded in one of the walker's legs.
"Good shot, Janson."
The speeder Rogue Three raced around one of the giant walker's feet, trailing the cable behind it. Continuing around the back foot, Rogue Three then circled the walker around the tail end.
Wedge checked his controls and banked around the front of the walker.
"One more pass."
"Coming around. Once more."
The speeder swept left to right in front of the giant legs, towing the cable behind it.
"Once more."
Wedge swinged the speeder between the legs of the giant walker.
"Cable out! Let her go!"
"Detach cable."
The cable released on the back of the speeder snapped loose and the cable dropped away.
"Cable detached."
The speeder zoomed away into the distance. The tangled legs of the enormous war machine attempted a step, but as they did the giant Imperial walker began to topple. It teetered for a moment, and then crashed onto the icy ground, sending snow and metal pieces flying.
The troops in the trenches cheered at the sight of the crashing walker.
An officer gave a signal to his men and Rebel troops charged the fallen war machine.
"Come on!"
The troops ran toward the downed walker, followed by two Rebel speeders flying overhead. Just as they reached the walker, it exploded, the impact throwing some of the men onto the frozen ground.
Wedge let out a triumphant yell, banking his speeder away from the fallen walker.
"Whooha! That got him!"
"I see it, Wedge. Good work."
Large chunks of ice tumbled into the command center as Leia and General Rieekan monitored computer screens.
"I don't think we can protect two transports at a time."
"It's risky, but we can't hold out much longer. We have no choice."
"Launch patrols." Rieekan said into comlink.
"Evacuate remaining ground staff."
The fierce battle on the vast snow plains of Hoth raged on.
The Imperial walkers continued their slow, steady assault on the Rebel base, firing lasers as they lumbered ever onward. In the snow trench, Rebel troops fired large bazooka alike guns and dish like ray guns as explosions erupted around them. A gun tower was hit by a laser bolt and instantly exploded. Another blast destroyed a ray gun.
Luke and Mary's speeder and Rogue Two flew in formation, banking from right to left and flying above the erupting battlefield. Flak burst all around them.
Luke, glancing over, saw Rogue Two on his left. His ship shuddered as flak burst nearby.
"Rogue Two, are you all right?" Luke asked.
"Yeah. I'm with you, Rogue Leader."
"We'll set harpoon. I'll cover for you." Mary replied.
The two speeders raced across the horizon toward the giant walkers.
"Coming around."
"Watch that cross fire, boys."
"Set for position three. Steady."
"Stay tight and low."
Luke's speeder moved in formation with Rogue Two, when suddenly Zev's speeder was hit by a laser bolt. His ship bucked violently under the impact and the cockpit exploded in a ball of flame. Spewing smoke, the speeder hurtled toward a looming walker. Before they collided. Rogue Two exploded in a million flaming pieces.
Desperately, Luke worked the controls of his flak-buffeted ship.
Suddenly, the speeder was rocked by a huge explosion. Luke struggled with the controls with a look of terror on his face. The speeder filled with smoke, and electrical sparks jumped about the cockpit.
"We've been hit!" Luke exclaimed.
Rebel troops retreated under the awesome Imperial onslaught.
"Begin retreat!"
"Fall back!"
Troops fled from the battle, the ground exploding around them. Three of the giant walkers, firing lasers, advanced toward the Rebel headquarters. Continuing their retreat, the Rebels saw the walkers looming ever nearer.
On the battlefield, Mary and Luke watched as a walker foot rose and moved over them.
They looked up at the underbelly of the huge walker, passing overhead.
Running beneath the monstrous machine, Luke fired his harpoon gun at the walker's underside. A thin cable followed the projectile from the gun. The magnetic head and cable attached firmly to the metal hull.
Still running under the walker, Luke attached the cable drum to his belt buckle. He grabbed Mary's waist and soon they were pulled up the cable and hanged dangling underneath the walker.
The walker's giant feet continued to pound onward across the frozen snow. Stray laser bolt whistled by Luke and Mary as they climbed up the cable to the walker's hull, reaching a small hatch. Hanging precariously, Luke cut the solid metal hatch with his laser sword.
He took a landmine from around his neck and threw it inside the Imperial machine.
Quickly, Luke and Mary started down the cable and crashed onto the icy ground far below. They laid unconscious as a giant rear leg passed by - and just missed them.
The giant walker stopped in mid-step. A muffled explosion came from within - and then the walker's mechanical insides were spewed out every conceivable opening. The machine sat dead in its tracks, smoking like a locomotive on stilts.
Veers's walker continued to advance toward the Rebel base. The smoldering walker that Luke exploded stood smoking just to the right of Veers's path.
The Rebel troops continued their desperate retreat, pushed back by the relentless Imperial assault.
☾☼
With 3PO lagging behind, Han and Leia raced through the crumbling ice corridors. Suddenly, there was an explosion. Han turned, grabbed the princess, and pulled her to the wall as a tremendous cave-in blacks their path. Imperial troops had reached the base.
As they pushed through the blocked passageway, Darth Vader strode behind them.
Han and Leia ran toward the entrance of the main hangar where the Millennium Falcon was docked. 3PO still lagged behind.
Chewie paced under the shelter of the Millennium Falcon's landing gear.
The giant Wookiee patted the underbelly of his beloved ship and barked a few reassuring words. As he searched worriedly for his captain, something at last caught his eye.
Chewie let out a relieved shriek at seeing Han and Leia running toward the ship.
The Wookiee ran out into the falling ice, let out a howl, then ran up the ship's ramp. Han and Leia ran up the ramp after him, closely followed by 3PO.
Imperial troops ran through the base corridors. Vader surveyed the place. A huge chunk fell, almost hitting him, but he calmly, purposefully, continued around it.
A distant, huge, explosion rocked the hangar deck. Ice cakes came crashing down on the Millennium Falcon.
Han, standing before a control panel, was busy flipping switches as Chewie watched a troublesome gauge. A worried Leia observed their efforts.
They moved to the cockpit where Han flipped some more switches. Leia watched him, impatient, disbelieving.
Han and Leia looked out the cockpit window and saw a squad of Stormtroopers rushing into the far side of the hangar.
Quickly, Han strapped himself into the pilot's seat and Leia into the navigator's chair. Stormtroopers hurriedly set up a large bazooka alike weapon. Behind them the giant hangar doors opened slowly.
A laser gun appeared on the Falcon and swung around to aim at the Imperial troops.
The Stormtroopers, preparing to fire their bazooka cannon, were hit by the Falcon's fire and were thrown about in all directions.
A laser hit the window near Chewie as he was settling into his chair. Letting out a loud whelp, Chewie quickly pulled back on the controls and the first stage of engine fire could be heard. Han flashed a big grin at Leia.
The roar of the Falcon's main engines blasted out everything as the ice-cave wall rushed by outside the cockpit window.
More Stormtroopers ran into the hangar, closely followed by Vader. Hearing the loud roar of the Millennium Falcon's engines, Vader looked toward the main hangar doors just in time to see the Falcon lifted up and disappeared outside the cave.
Luke, Mary and two other pilots looked up as the Millennium Falcon raced above them, flying very close to the ground.
"Leia." whispered Mary.
The four pilots turned then, and trudged onward toward their X-Wing fighters, each going to his own ship. Luke waved farewell, then headed toward his own fighter.
"Luke, I'm coming too. I need to see Master Yoda." Mary said.
R2, seated on his cubbyhole, chirped an excited greeting as Luke and Mary climbed aboard the spacecraft.
"R2! Get her ready for take-off."
From their ship, Luke and Mary saw Wedge in his own X-Wing, preparing for take-off.
"Good luck, guys. See you at the rendezvous."
Luke and Mary smiled and nodded at Wedge, then lowered himself into the cockpit of his X-Wing while R2 waited in the cubbyhole, beeping impatiently.
"Don't worry, R2. We're going, we're going."
The canopy over the X-Wing lowered and snapped shut.
Luke and Mary's fighter, its wings closed, speeded away from the icy planet.
Soon it disappeared into the stars. He flipped several switches. The stars shifted as he took his fighter into a steep turn. The X-Wing banked sharply and flew away in a new direction.
The monitor screen on Luke's control panel printed out a question from the concerned R2.
"There's nothing wrong, R2. I'm just setting a new course."
R2 beeped once again.
"We're not going to regroup with the others." Mary added.
R2 began a protest, whistling an unbelieving, "What?!"
Luke read R2's exclamation on his control panel.
"We're going to the Dagobah system."
Luke checked his readouts and made a few adjustments. They rode along with only the soft hum of the instruments to break the silence. Finally, R2 chirped up.
"Yes, R2?"
R2 uttered a soft, carefully phrased steam of whistles.
"That's all right. I'd like to keep it on manual control for a while."
The little droid let out a defeated whimper. Mary and Luke smiled, and continued on their course.
The tiny X-Wing speeded toward the cloud cover of Dagobah. R2, riding on the back of the fighter, turned his head back and forth with some anxiety.
Luke watched R2's words as they were translated and screened on the computer scope.
"Yes, that's it. Dagobah."
"It's amazing. I've never seen so much green." Mary added.
R2 beeped a hopeful inquiry.
"No, I'm not going to change my mind about this. I'm not picking up any cities or technology. Massive life-form readings, though. There's something alive down there..."
R2 beeped, this time a slightly worried question.
"Yes, I'm sure it's perfectly safe for droids."
The X-Wing continued its flight through the twilight above the cloud-covered planet.
Luke saw the cloud race by as he took their craft closer to the planet.
He must operate his controls carefully since the cloud cover had completely obscured his vision. An alarm buzzed in the background, R2 beeped and whistled frantically.
"I know, I know! All the scopes are dead. I can't see a thing! Just hang on, I'm going to start the landing cycle..."
The blast of the retrorockets was deafening, drowning out R2's electronic squealed. Suddenly, there was a cracking sound as if limbs were being broken off trees and then a tremendous jolt as the spacecraft stopped.
Luke pulled a switch and the canopy popped open. The mist-shrouded X-Wing fighter was almost invisible in the thick fog.
The duo climbed out onto the long nose of the spacecraft as R2 popped out of his cubbyhole on the back. The young warriors surveyed the fog, which was barely pierced by the ship's landing lights. R2 whistled anxiously.
"No, R2, you stay put. We'll have a look around."
R2 let out a short beep. As the duo moved along the nose, R2 lost his balance and disappeared with a splash into the boggy lake.
"R2?" Mary said.
Luke knelt and leaned over the plane looking for R2, but the water was still and revealed no sign of the little droid.
"R2! Where are you?"
A small periscope broke the surface of the water and a gurgly beep was heard. The periscope started to move to shore. Relieved, Luke and Mary started running along the nose of the fighter to its tip.
"R2! You be more careful."
The outline of the shore was now more than ten feet away.
Luke jumped off the plane into the water, scrambled up to the shore, and turned to look for R2. The periscope still steadily moved toward shore.
"R2, that way!"
Suddenly, through the thick fog layer, a dark shape appeared, moving toward the little droid. The dark, sinuous bog beast dived beneath the swampy water, making a loud clunk against R2's metal hull.
The droid disappeared from sight, uttering a pathetic electronic scream.
Holding their ignited lightsabers before them, Luke waded a few feet into the murky pool, looking for any sign of his little friend.
"R2!"
The black surface was still as death itself... until a few bubbles began to appear.
Then, phheewaat!! The runt-size robot was spit out of the water, made a graceful arc, and came crashing down into a patch of soft grey moss. Mary ran to the droid.
"R2, are you okay?" asked Mary.
"Oh, no! Are you all right? Come on. You're lucky you don't taste very good. Anything broken?"
Mary helped R2 to his feet and began wiping the mud and roots from his round metal body. R2 responded with feeble, soggy beeps.
"If you're saying coming here was a bad idea, I'm beginning to agree with you. Oh, R2, what are we doing here? It's like... something out of a dream, or, I don't know. Maybe I'm just going crazy."
"If Obi-Wan told you to come here, there will be a reason. I trust him." Mary said.
As Luke glanced around at the spooky swamp jungle that surrounded them, R2 ejected a stream of muddy water from one of his cranial ports.
☾☼
The mist had dispersed a bit, but it was still a very gloomy-looking swamp.
Luke pulled an equipment box from the shore to the clearing. He ignited a little fusion furnace and warmed his hands before it. Taking a power cable, he plugged it into R2's nose like socket.
"Ready for some power? Okay. Let's see now. Put that in there. There you go."
The droid whistled his appreciation. Luke then opened a container of processed food and sat before the thermal heater.
"Come and warm yourself, Mary."
"Thank you, Lukeyboi."
"Do you want some?" he said, pointing to the food.
"Yes, thank you."
"Now all I have to do is find this Yoda... if he even exists."
"We'll find him eventually, trust me."
Nervously, he looked around at the foreboding jungle.
"It seems so much the place where I have been in solitude for ten years." Mary added.
"Where have you been?"
"On Rishi. After leaving my brother, Obi-Wan asked me where I was going, and I answered, on a planet where you could see beautiful stars, an equally beautiful moon. I did it more to meditate on the bad things I had done in those ten years in the Dark Side and to try to feel good about myself."
"You must have suffered a lot. I'm sorry." Luke added.
"Don't worry." she said hugging her nephew.
"Still... there's something familiar about this place. I feel like... I don't know..."
"Feel like what?"
The duo jumped out of their skin. R2 screeched in terror. The young warriors grabbed for their lightsabers as they spined around, looking for the speaker.
Mysteriously standing right in front of Luke was a strange, bluish creature, not more than two feet tall. The wizened little thing was dressed in rags. It motioned toward Luke's sword.
"Like we're being watched!" Luke continued.
"Away with your weapon! I mean you no harm."
The duo put away their weapons. Mary recognized her old Master but said nothing.
"I am wondering, why are you two here?" asked the creature.
"We're looking for someone."
"Looking? Found someone, you have, I would say, hmmm?"
The little creature laughed.
"Right."
"Help you I can. Yes, mmmm."
"I don't think so. We're looking for a great warrior."
"Ahhh! A great warrior. Wars not make one great."
With the aid of a walking stick, the tiny stranger moved over to one of the cases of supplies. He began to rummage around.
R2 moved to the edge of the case, standing almost eye level to the creature who was carelessly handling the supplies and squeaked his disapproval.
Their tiny visitor picked up the container of food Luke and Mary were eating from and took a bite.
"Put that down. Hey! That's our dinner!" Luke affirmed.
The creature spat out the bite he had taken. He made a face.
"How you get so big, eating food of this kind?"
He flipped the container in Luke's direction and reached into one of Luke's supply cases.
"Listen, friend, we didn't mean to land in that puddle, and if we could get our ship out, we would, but we can't, so why don't you just..."
"Aww, cannot get your ship out?"
The creature spotted something of interest in Luke's case. Luke lost patience and grabbed the case away. The creature retained his prize a tiny power lamp and examined it with delight.
"Hey, you could have broken this. Don't do that. Ohhh... you're making a mess. Hey, give me that!"
"Mine! Or I will help you not."
Clutching its treasure, the creature backed away from Luke, drawing closer to R2.
As Luke and the creature argued, one of R2's little arms slowly moved out toward the power lamp, completely unnoticed by the creature.
"I don't want your help. I want my lamp back. I'll need it to get out of this slimy mudhole."
"Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is."
R2 grabbed hold of the lamp and the two little figures were immediately engaged in a tug-of-war over it.
R2 beeped a few angry, "Give me that."
"Ah, ah, ah!"
"Oh, R2, let him have it!" Mary exclaimed.
"Mine! Mine!"
"R2!" Mary yelled.
"Mine!"
The creature let go with one hand and poked R2 lightly with one finger. R2 reacted with a startled squeal, and let go.
"Mine!"
"Now will you move along, little fella? We're got a lot of work to do."
"No! No, no! Stay and help you, I will. Find your friend, hmm?"
"I'm not looking for a friend. I'm looking for a Jedi Master."
"Oohhh. Jedi Master. Yoda. You seek Yoda."
"You know him?"
"Mmm. Take you to him, I will. Yes, yes. But now, we must eat. Come. Good food. Come."
With that, the creature scurried out of the clearing, laughing merrily.
Luke stared at Mary and after him. All he saw was the faint light from the small power lamp moving through the fog. Luke and Mary started after the creature.
"Come, come."
R2, very upset, whistled a blue streak of protest.
"Stay here and watch after the camp, R2."
R2 beeped even more frantically as the duo disappeared from view, the worried little droid grew quieter, and uttered a soft electronic sigh.