Another rude awakening. The Millennium Falcon's proximity alarm had jostled Lando out of his seat where he had fallen asleep. Damn. I forgot to shut that off. Not that it mattered now, he had to find a system in this barren galaxy soon, or he would be dead. The rations on the Falcon were running low, and he was getting desperate. He hoped that wherever the serene blue comfort of hyperspace dropped him, it would allow him to get supplies. The disgraced general checked the scans of the star system below him seemed to show.
Fifth planet. Not that dissimilar to Bespin, have to weaken the gravity and pump some breathable gases to the mining platform, but Tibanna gas could definitely be produced here. A loosely populated asteroid field between it and the forth planet. Another enigma, this planet was a desert similar to Tatooine, yet had a remarkably crimson tone to it. This third planet seemed to be a jewel. Lush in life, and covered with water. This planet and, indeed, system could serve as a nice base of operations for the me.
He tripped a location beacon, gleaming at his newfound luck.
The Imperial detention center was never a place that a rebel would leave. Leia was in equally terrible shape. At one point in the ground battle on the Endor moon, she felt as though part of her had died. It was at that moment that the rebel commando's lost what chance they had of a victory. Their furry allies, the Ewoks, had decided that their golden god was a traitor, and turned on the rebels. This spelled certain doom for them, even more so when the AT-AT walker, with Imperial reinforcements, showed up at the back of the shield bunker, forcing a surrender for the ground troops. The ground battle was, for all intents and purposes, an utter clusterfuck.
“Eat this.” demanded an officer in white armor. Shoving moldy, stale, bread into her face.
“I'm not hungry!” Protested Leia.
“It's all you're going to get.” Retorted the guard. “This is your only chance, now eat.”
“Fine!” snorted Leia as she took the bread from the guard and tried her best to stomach it.
“When you are quite finished, there is a shuttle waiting for you. You are to be taken to see the Emperor.”
“Admiral Ackbar. Can I speak to you?” Asked a lesser captain on Home One's bridge.
“What is it?” Asked the Mon Calamari admiral.
“We have re-established contact with General Calrissian” Remarked the captain. “He says he's found a suitable system in this galaxy to base operations from.”
“Triangulate his position and prepare the fleet for the jump to Hyperspace.”
“Now it's time for me to find a place to land on this rock.” Remarked Lando as he descended the Falcon down to an arid, and slightly radioactive desert basin.
“Attention unidentified aircraft! You are currently flying over restricted airspace. Please adjust your heading to Zero One Niner and contact Albuquerque Center on One Three Two point Eight. Failure to comply will result in the use of lethal force against your craft. This is your only warning.” Barked an unknown voice on the communications array. At first, Calrissian assumed that they were talking to a different aircraft in the vicinity. This incorrect realization was shattered with the impact of a surface to air missile on the Falcon's deflector shield.
“Attention unknown forces!” Barked Lando as he keyed the communicator. “This is Lando Calrissian. I do not mean hostile intentions. I am merely looking for a place to land my ship. Any more attempts to fire upon me will be taken as an aggressive action.”
“We will not take kindly to prankster on a military frequency. You will change course, or be shot down.” It was at this point that another guided missile leaped from the ground and raced towards the Falcon. Lando pulled on the controls and was able to evade the guided missile by turning the falcon around, when he found himself facing a flight of F-16 fighters. Each of them wasted no time and fired an AIM-9 sidewinder missile towards the freighter. Which proceeded to shrug all of the impact on its deflector shield. Lando keyed the auto-turrets and pulled a hard bank to starboard in an attempt to get the enemy fighters to stand down. The auto-turret started firing at one of then, causing it to to instantly burst into a ball of flame. The other five planes pulled hard to avoid the debris.
“Dammit Wedge, if there was any time I needed you, it would be now.” Cried Lando as the Falcon's deflector shield shuddered from the impact of another guided missile.
“Sorry I'm late, General!” Barked a voice over the comms channel. “Didn't think I would just let you leave!” At this moment the Falcon got behind one of the F-16's and fired a concussion missile at it, and the plane was instantly vaporised from the blast.
“Alright Rogues, lets clean up this mess. We don't want any problems for the fleet to have to deal with.” Wedge's statement was met with load cheering over the comm links. The three remaining F-16's followed behind the legendary Rouge Squadron. Each one locking on to one of the A-Wings.
“Wedge! They've locked missiles on me.” Cried an A-Wing pilot. One of the X-Wings pulled back as hard as he could so that he was now directly behind them. But before he could get off a round, the enemy fighters each fired a missile towards the helpless A-Wing. Just enough firepower to knock the weak shields off of the scout fighter. As the pilots prepared a second volley, the X-Wing was able to use its blaster cannons to destroy one of the fighters, before the other two used their AMRAM missiles to disable the A-Wing and send it spiraling down to the desert floor. After that missile salvo, the two remaining F-16's were destroyed by blaster fire and proton torpedoes.
“Rouges, lets close it up. Gold group, bomb the runways and keep them from taking off. Red and green groups, lets take out those missile turrets.” Commanded Wedge, as he made the decision to disable the base to keep this new enemy from attacking again.
“Now, Brit, as of right now, the Henderson administration is refusing to comment on the incident at White Sands, but he HAS called a press conference at the White House which is scheduled to begin in about five minutes. NOW, while we don't have any specifics on the attack, we do believe it was a Pearl Harbor style surprise attack on the range.” Commented the reporter as she spoke to one of the camera's crowded into the White House press room. As she finished her report, President Henderson walked up to the podium in the press room, and delivered his speech.
“Good Evening. This morning, at 6:53 AM mountain time. The Air Force base at White Sands Missile Range was hit by a ruthless surprise attack by an unknown group of fighters. This band, which appears to call itself the 'Rebel Alliance,' flew ships that were that were best described as replica's of the ships from the Star Wars films. After engaging a squadron of F-16 air defense fighters, and repeated warnings to change course, this group fired on US aircraft, and completely decimated the forces stationed there. We are still trying to get exact figures for the number of casualties, but so far it seems like the death toll of military personnel is going to be very high. These ships were then seen retreating to space after this hit-and-run attack on American soil. At 11:38 AM astronomers at Kitt Peak Observatory, and the crew of the International Space Station, reported seeing several large spacecraft appear to materialize traveling at a high rate of speed towards the Earth, it was at that point that they began to rapidly decelerate until they were in a stationary orbit above t