Out of Darkness
One: The Chase Begins
Groaning metal echoed through the ship hull as the force of the shots from the twin blaster cannons rained past the Millennium Falcon by mere inches. A woman with dark chestnut colored hair, pulled back into a long twisting braid, fell to the side as the ship lurched when a few shots pummeled into the Falcon’s generated shield. Scrambling back to her feet she ran to the cockpit, taking a seat behind the pilots’ chair once inside.
“Why are we not shooting back at him?! Didn’t you hear me?” The pilot said in panic as he maneuvered the freighter in a chaotic pattern in an attempt to dodge the constant rain of fire trying to pummel through their shields.
The woman frowned as she strapped herself into the seat as to avoid being thrown across the cockpit. “I was!” She proclaimed. “That is before the turret was blown to bits! The force knocked the chair to the side and it broke the wires in the headset.”
There was a cry from a large and hairy figure strapped into the co-pilots chair. The pilot looked out to what the Wookiee was panicking about and held his breath once his gaze landed on the asteroid field coming into view. The thousands of giant rocks twisting and turning, smashing into each other hard enough to implode themselves upon impact and create tiny explosions, was coming into the viewport in the form of a thick and menacing belt.
The pilot cursed under his breath as the Falcon jerked forward and shook violently, an ill sounding groan that once again echoed through the ship reminded them of their former threat from before.
The woman frowned. “Han, I don’t mean to bash this hunk of junk at the moment, but I don’t think the Falcon's shields will be able to take any more hits.”
Han, listening to what the woman was saying, stared straight ahead as he continued to steer the Falcon in twists and spirals in order to avoid any more hits to their shields. “Well, we can’t exactly outrun him at the moment with the hyperdrive and the quad laser down, but I think I have an idea…” He says as he pushed the freighter forward towards the asteroid field.
Staring out the viewport the woman made a nervous face. “I’m going to assume the worst here, and make an obvious guess, that this idea involves going through the asteroid field.”
Han shrugged. “And you are correct, Leia. We’ve done it before and we can do it again. This guy won’t be able to follow us through here. Besides, if we get caught, we’ll most likely be killed… and if we go in this mine field, we’ll most likely be killed… So unless anyone else has a better idea that doesn’t involve us getting killed, now would be a great time to speak up.”
Bracing herself in her chair, Leia frowned as they headed into the asteroid field, not only dodging the threatening cannon fire from the bounty hunter chasing them, but also flying at unthinkable speeds past hard mineralized rocks traveling in unpredictable patterns.
~~~
He had to admit, he was quick. Normally most people would have been obliterated at this point in time of the chase. Not a lot of pilots could maneuver a ship that big in such complicated moves. Solo did know what his ship could and couldn’t do, and the man chasing him did admire that. If one was going to pilot a ship of any sort, they should know not only most, if not all, of the controls, but also the small ticks and tricks that helped the machine operate to its fullest potential. The only flaw on Solo’s part was that he didn’t know what tricks the Slave I had.
The man momentarily stopped the fire from the twin blaster cannons on his ship to boost the shields on the front and sides of his ship. At the speed they were going he wasn’t too worried about any asteroids damaging the rear of his ship, but taking extra precaution elsewhere wasn’t a bad idea. There was a high chance ramming into the smaller asteroids would be more effective than trying to dodge them during the chase, but the overall likelihood of him catching Solo in a damaged ship was very slim to begin with.
The man tensed up suddenly as if the cabin was filled with chilled, icy air with the ability to crawl its way into a beings veins. Right before entering the asteroid field an odd feeling started to form in the bottom of his gut, as if he should suddenly turn back and go in the opposite direction as fast as possible. The actual asteroid field wasn’t the problem. It couldn’t have been. Even though most travelers avoided asteroid fields, they were quite useful when chasing and trapping bounties while in space. From a young age the man had learned how to master flying through what most people would label as a certain death trap. When entering the asteroid field, the man’s hands went on auto pilot. The key to keeping a ship in one piece in a chase like this was to relax and let instincts take over, sometimes if a pilot overthinks his strategy it can backfire, making a scenario go downhill very quickly.
His hands moving mechanically, the man dodged and blasted his way through the asteroids, following the Millennium Falcon as it paved a way though the field. He smiled to himself as he noticed the space between him and his prey was lessening as they ventured deeper and deeper into the field.
Sparks and metal debris bounced off the shields in the front of the Slave I as a blast from the twin blaster cannons hit the antenna on the Millennium Falcon, just barely grazing by the cockpit.
~~~
“Han!!” Leia gasped as the last shot came dangerously close to damaging the cockpit, which could have ended the chase for good. “He keeps getting closer!”
“I know I know!” Han proclaimed as he dived down, playing chicken between two bigger asteroids and only leaving a few meters to spare before the rocks collided together. “Do you think he knows the shields are down?!” He asked Chewbacca and Leia as he fought the controls to try and get the shields back up and running.
A loud snap and ping of metal echoed through the hull as what was remaining of the sensor dish popped off, getting lodged between loose pieces of the metal plating protecting the deflector shield projector. Chewbacca whined in response to Han as a few lights in the control panel of the cockpit started to flicker on and off from the sensor dish being completely torn off of the Falcon.
Leia gritted her teeth as Han spun the Falcon in a barrel roll sideways. “Well if he didn’t before, he sure as hell knows now…”
“I don’t know about you two, but if we stay in here any longer we won’t have to worry about Fett catching us. Leia, do you think you could work some talent and see if you can get the hyperdrive a little bit of life.”
Already unbuckling her harness and grabbing the nearest tool belt she staggered to the door. “Better than sitting here doing nothing.” She said, resting a hand on Han’s shoulder briefly before she headed back into the engine room. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Chewbacca let out a loud cry and motioned towards the radar. In the middle of the giant mess of asteroids flying all around them, was an empty dark spot. It wasn’t the edge of the asteroid field; Solo knew better than that. They had to be somewhere in the middle from how dense the asteroids were. “What the heck…” Han mumbled to himself. A loud crack sounded and made Han almost jump out of his seat as a smaller sized rock rammed into the viewport and shattered into a million tiny pieces.
“Whatever that empty spot is, we’re going for it. Maybe it will give us a chance to get out of this mess.”
“Why are we not shooting back at him?! Didn’t you hear me?” The pilot said in panic as he maneuvered the freighter in a chaotic pattern in an attempt to dodge the constant rain of fire trying to pummel through their shields.
The woman frowned as she strapped herself into the seat as to avoid being thrown across the cockpit. “I was!” She proclaimed. “That is before the turret was blown to bits! The force knocked the chair to the side and it broke the wires in the headset.”
There was a cry from a large and hairy figure strapped into the co-pilots chair. The pilot looked out to what the Wookiee was panicking about and held his breath once his gaze landed on the asteroid field coming into view. The thousands of giant rocks twisting and turning, smashing into each other hard enough to implode themselves upon impact and create tiny explosions, was coming into the viewport in the form of a thick and menacing belt.
The pilot cursed under his breath as the Falcon jerked forward and shook violently, an ill sounding groan that once again echoed through the ship reminded them of their former threat from before.
The woman frowned. “Han, I don’t mean to bash this hunk of junk at the moment, but I don’t think the Falcon's shields will be able to take any more hits.”
Han, listening to what the woman was saying, stared straight ahead as he continued to steer the Falcon in twists and spirals in order to avoid any more hits to their shields. “Well, we can’t exactly outrun him at the moment with the hyperdrive and the quad laser down, but I think I have an idea…” He says as he pushed the freighter forward towards the asteroid field.
Staring out the viewport the woman made a nervous face. “I’m going to assume the worst here, and make an obvious guess, that this idea involves going through the asteroid field.”
Han shrugged. “And you are correct, Leia. We’ve done it before and we can do it again. This guy won’t be able to follow us through here. Besides, if we get caught, we’ll most likely be killed… and if we go in this mine field, we’ll most likely be killed… So unless anyone else has a better idea that doesn’t involve us getting killed, now would be a great time to speak up.”
Bracing herself in her chair, Leia frowned as they headed into the asteroid field, not only dodging the threatening cannon fire from the bounty hunter chasing them, but also flying at unthinkable speeds past hard mineralized rocks traveling in unpredictable patterns.
~~~
He had to admit, he was quick. Normally most people would have been obliterated at this point in time of the chase. Not a lot of pilots could maneuver a ship that big in such complicated moves. Solo did know what his ship could and couldn’t do, and the man chasing him did admire that. If one was going to pilot a ship of any sort, they should know not only most, if not all, of the controls, but also the small ticks and tricks that helped the machine operate to its fullest potential. The only flaw on Solo’s part was that he didn’t know what tricks the Slave I had.
The man momentarily stopped the fire from the twin blaster cannons on his ship to boost the shields on the front and sides of his ship. At the speed they were going he wasn’t too worried about any asteroids damaging the rear of his ship, but taking extra precaution elsewhere wasn’t a bad idea. There was a high chance ramming into the smaller asteroids would be more effective than trying to dodge them during the chase, but the overall likelihood of him catching Solo in a damaged ship was very slim to begin with.
The man tensed up suddenly as if the cabin was filled with chilled, icy air with the ability to crawl its way into a beings veins. Right before entering the asteroid field an odd feeling started to form in the bottom of his gut, as if he should suddenly turn back and go in the opposite direction as fast as possible. The actual asteroid field wasn’t the problem. It couldn’t have been. Even though most travelers avoided asteroid fields, they were quite useful when chasing and trapping bounties while in space. From a young age the man had learned how to master flying through what most people would label as a certain death trap. When entering the asteroid field, the man’s hands went on auto pilot. The key to keeping a ship in one piece in a chase like this was to relax and let instincts take over, sometimes if a pilot overthinks his strategy it can backfire, making a scenario go downhill very quickly.
His hands moving mechanically, the man dodged and blasted his way through the asteroids, following the Millennium Falcon as it paved a way though the field. He smiled to himself as he noticed the space between him and his prey was lessening as they ventured deeper and deeper into the field.
Sparks and metal debris bounced off the shields in the front of the Slave I as a blast from the twin blaster cannons hit the antenna on the Millennium Falcon, just barely grazing by the cockpit.
~~~
“Han!!” Leia gasped as the last shot came dangerously close to damaging the cockpit, which could have ended the chase for good. “He keeps getting closer!”
“I know I know!” Han proclaimed as he dived down, playing chicken between two bigger asteroids and only leaving a few meters to spare before the rocks collided together. “Do you think he knows the shields are down?!” He asked Chewbacca and Leia as he fought the controls to try and get the shields back up and running.
A loud snap and ping of metal echoed through the hull as what was remaining of the sensor dish popped off, getting lodged between loose pieces of the metal plating protecting the deflector shield projector. Chewbacca whined in response to Han as a few lights in the control panel of the cockpit started to flicker on and off from the sensor dish being completely torn off of the Falcon.
Leia gritted her teeth as Han spun the Falcon in a barrel roll sideways. “Well if he didn’t before, he sure as hell knows now…”
“I don’t know about you two, but if we stay in here any longer we won’t have to worry about Fett catching us. Leia, do you think you could work some talent and see if you can get the hyperdrive a little bit of life.”
Already unbuckling her harness and grabbing the nearest tool belt she staggered to the door. “Better than sitting here doing nothing.” She said, resting a hand on Han’s shoulder briefly before she headed back into the engine room. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Chewbacca let out a loud cry and motioned towards the radar. In the middle of the giant mess of asteroids flying all around them, was an empty dark spot. It wasn’t the edge of the asteroid field; Solo knew better than that. They had to be somewhere in the middle from how dense the asteroids were. “What the heck…” Han mumbled to himself. A loud crack sounded and made Han almost jump out of his seat as a smaller sized rock rammed into the viewport and shattered into a million tiny pieces.
“Whatever that empty spot is, we’re going for it. Maybe it will give us a chance to get out of this mess.”