“Chewie, get us over there. I’m going to try to cut that jamming. See if you can lock onto whoever’s shooting our friend.”
Chewbacca growled out a reply and sent the Falcon diving at the YU-410 at full speed. Han began cycling the communications controls, dumping more power into his broadcast and trying to force his signal through the jamming field. After a few moments of work, he was rewarded with a tenuous connection. A faint voice said, “Hello? Who is calling Hunter Maas?”
“This is Captain Han Solo, of the Millennium Falcon. I’ve been sent to make sure you get safely to a dock on Kiamurr.”
“You,” said the voice, “are doing a terrible job.”
Han’s mouth shut with a click.
“Be there in a second,” he said, then shut off the headset microphone. “Chewie, get us over there before this guy makes me want to watch him die.”
A new alert began flashing on the console as the Falcon found the pursuing ship and locked on. “Great,” Han said. “Imperials.” He’d hoped against hope that the ship chasing Maas was a jealous rival, or a pirate, or really anything but the first sign that the Imperial fleet was on its way.
The Imperial ship looked like a TIE fighter, which was bad. Han began scanning the sky for the carrier that had brought it. The real threat would be whatever ship the TIE had jumped in on. But after several seconds of scanning, the Falcon found nothing.
“Try to put us between that freighter and the TIE,” Han said to Chewbacca, and the Wookiee growled out an affirmative. “And angle the rear deflectors. We’ll get in there and spoil their shot.”
Han went back to the scan of the TIE fighter. It was an unusual design. Bigger than the usual escort ships, and it had a strange bulge as if someone had welded a bus on top of the hull. “I think I know this one, Chewie. I think that’s an SR. Experimental TIE with a hyperdrive for long recon. They didn’t make very many of them. If so, we’re in luck. He could have jumped in on his own, which means we don’t have a frigate hiding out here somewhere.”
Yet, he didn’t say.
Chewbacca growled and yanked hard on the controls. Hunter Maas’s freighter loomed in front of them, and the Falcon began shaking with incoming fire. The rear deflector alarms started squawking.
“Oh, look,” Han said to Chewbacca, and grabbed the controls. “We’ve just been invited to the dance.”
HAN THREW THE FALCON HARD TO PORT, and a stream of laser cannon fire flashed past.
“That almost hit Hunter Maas’s ship!” Hunter Maas yelled in Han’s headset.
“It almost hit Han Solo’s ship,” Han muttered to himself, then turned the headset mic back on. “We’re handling it; just keep heading to Kiamurr at full speed. We’ll get this guy off your tail.”
“See that you do!”
Chewbacca growled out a laugh.
“Not a chance, pal,” Han said to the Wookiee, and pulled hard at the controls to throw the Falcon across the pursuing TIE’s field of fire, trying to draw its aim away from the fleeing Maas. “We’re not adding a third boss to this trip. Just as soon as we—”
The Falcon shuddered as another burst of laser fire hit her rear shields. A warning light started flashing.
“—get rid of this guy, we’ll make sure Maas knows his place in the pecking order.”
The warning light shifted to red, and an alarm shrieked. The rear deflector was collapsing. The recently patched power cabling had burned out, and the energy surge had knocked out the backup generator. As if to highlight this fact, the cockpit of the Falcon started to smell like smoke and burning conduit.
“We just fixed that,” Han said. Chewbacca growled back. Han nodded. “I know it’s frustrating.”
Another stream of laser fire cut through the space between the ships. Han managed to evade most of it with a hard spiraling dive to starboard, but a few bolts struck the rear of the Falcon. The warning indicator shifted to black, and the alarm squealed one last time, then fell into a sullen monotone.
The rear shield was gone.
Han yanked back on the controls, pulling the ship into a tight loop. The moment they were out of the way, the TIE fighter began pouring laser fire into the back of Maas’s freighter. The pirate screeched at them.
“Hunter Maas is being fired upon again! You said you came to protect! You are very bad at this job!”
Han continued the loop until the Falcon was behind the TIE. “Yeah, but you still have rear shields,” he said to Maas, “so you can take it.”
Maas wailed his disagreement, but Han killed the headset. “Chewie, start calculating a torpedo shot on that TIE fighter. If, like the rest of them, it doesn’t have shields, one concussion blast should be enough to take it out.”
Chewbacca worked at the weapons console while Han throttled up to close the distance. The SR-model TIE was fast, and it appeared to have plenty of spare power for the laser cannons. It fired into the fleeing YU-410 without pause.
The Empire’s penchant for building fighters without shields had always seemed insane to Han, one of many reasons he didn’t fly for that particular corporation, but working for the opposing team, he was grateful for their lack of compassion for their pilots.
Chewbacca yowled in triumph as the Falcon buzzed a target lock signal. Han closed the distance to the optimal firing range and let loose two of his eight ST2 concussion missiles. That was fifteen hundred credits on the wing, but he’d make sure to add that to the bill.
The TIE began dodging when the missiles launched. The pilot was good. Han had expected that. The Empire didn’t have very many of the SR-class recon fighters, so whoever flew them would be top shelf. Han kept his finger on the trigger, ready to fire two more missiles if he needed to.
He didn’t.
The TIE started a hard turn to port, but the YU-410 veered erratically into its path, forcing the pilot to correct in the other direction and into the path of the incoming missiles. Both hit, and the TIE fighter disappeared in a massive concussion blast that blew it into gravel-sized chunks. The forward shields of the Falcon flashed as debris sprayed across the ship.
Chewbacca barked a victory laugh at the vanished fighter and climbed out of his seat.
“Yeah,” Han said, “check on that generator. See if it can be saved. I don’t like the idea of flying without rear shields until we can get back to the fleet.”
Chewbacca growled out his assent and vanished into the back of the ship.