Part 10 (2/2)
Already, thousands of sensor-laden Imperial probe droids had been dispersed to remote worlds throughout the galaxy, and thousands more would be deployed within the coming weeks. Sooner or later, one of those probe droids would turn up something useful.
Three standard years had pa.s.sed since the Death Star's destruction when Vader, standing on the bridge of the Executor, learned that a probe droid had transmitted images of a large power generator on an ice planet in the distant Hoth system. ”That's it,” Vader said. ”The Rebels are there.” He refused to listen to his pompous chief officer, Admiral Ozzel, who suggested the probe droid could have turned up anything other than the Rebel base. ”That is the system,” he insisted. ”Set your course for the Hoth system.”
Unfortunately, the Rebels had already begun an emergency evacuation of their base, while Darth Vader's armada raced to their destination via hypers.p.a.ce. Even worse, Admiral Ozzel allowed the Executor to exit hypers.p.a.ce too close to the Hoth system, triggering sensors that alerted the Rebels to the armada's arrival and allowed them to raise a planetary energy field to deflect any aerial bombardment. After relieving Ozzel of his life and promoting the more capable Captain Piett to the rank of Admiral, Vader gave the command to send Imperial troops down to the ice world's surface.
He's down there, Vader thought with absolute certainty. Skywalker is down there.
To their credit, the Rebels did not surrender on the spot. Their laser-firing snowspeeders swarmed the towering Imperial All Terrain Armored Transports that lumbered over the ice and snow, and their planetary ion cannon managed to disable the orbiting Imperial stars.h.i.+ps long enough for most of their fleet to escape into s.p.a.ce. But in the end, they were unable to prevent the AT-ATs from destroying their power generators, and wave after wave of superior Imperial firepower ensured that the Rebels could never win the day.
It was hardly a victory for Vader, who landed on Hoth while the battle was still raging. The last of the Rebels were still fleeing from their vanquished base when he entered a cavernous, ice-walled hangar with a squad of snowtroopers, just in time to see the Millennium Falcon launching at high speed. Vader did not know whether Luke Sky walker had boarded Han Solo's freighter, but quickly sensed that Skywalker was still alive.
He had not forgotten Boba Fett's plan.
Turning to a snowtrooper, Vader said, ”Alert Admiral Piett and all Star Destroyers that the Millennium Falcon is attempting to leave Hoth. Our primary objective is the capture of that freighter. The pa.s.sengers are not to be harmed!”
Vader returned to the Executor and was seated in his meditation chamber when Admiral Piett entered his sanctum. As the robotic clamp lowered his helmet over his scarred head, Vader sensed Piett's discomfort at the sight of the Sith Lord's wounds. When the helmet was in place, Vader's seat rotated within the chamber until he faced Piett, who reported, ”Our s.h.i.+ps have sighted the Millennium Falcon, Lord. But... it has entered an asteroid field, and we cannot risk...”
”Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral,” Vader interrupted. ”I want that s.h.i.+p, not excuses.”
Knowing better than to disagree with Vader, Piett said, ”Yes, Lord.”
The upper hemisphere of the meditation chamber descended over Vader. Hoping to gain some insight into events to come, he breathed slowly as he cleared his mind of all thoughts, opening himself to the dark side of the Force ...
Skywalker.
He heard the name in his mind, as if the Force itself had whispered it to him. But is it the Force, Vader wondered, or am I too preoccupied with finding - Suddenly, Vader sensed a disturbance in the Force. And not just a subtle fluctuation. Something major was about to happen, something incredibly significant. .. Something that will change everything.
Asteroids were pummeling the Imperial fleet as Vader continued the search for the Millennium Falcon. Vader was on the bridge of the Executor when a very nervous Admiral Piett reported that the Emperor had commanded Vader to contact him.
Proceeding to his personal quarters, Vader stepped down to a circular black panel on the floor below his meditation chamber. The panel was a HoloNet scanner that allowed him to transmit communications across the galaxy. As he dropped to his left knee and bowed hi helmeted head, the panel's outer ring became illurni nated in a pale blue light. Vader slowly lifted his gaze to the empty air before him, and the emptiness was instantly rilled by a large, flickering hologram of Emperor Palpatine's cloaked head.
”What is thy bidding, my Master?”
From light years away, on Coruscant, the Emperor replied, ”There is a great disturbance in the Force.”
”I have felt it,” Vader said.
”We have a new enemy. The young Rebel who destroyed the Death Star. I have no doubt this boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker.”
Offspring?! The surviving tissue in Vader's throat suddenly went dry. Through his shock, he managed to say, ”How is that possible?”
Without offering any explanation to support his stated conviction, the Emperor answered, ”Search your feelings, Lord Vader. You will know it to be true. He could destroy us.”
Having fought Luke Skywalker on Mimban, Vader was even more aware of the young man's powers than was the Emperor. But he also knew something else: Luke was as ignorant of their familial connection as Vader had been. If he had known the truth on Mimban, Vader thought, 7 would have sensed it. Still grappling with the Emperor's declaration, he struggled to find words that might discourage his Master's interest in Skywalker. ”He is just a boy,” Vader said. ”Obi-Wan can no longer help him.”
The Emperor believed otherwise. ”The Force is strong with him,” he said. ”The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi.”
The Emperor had not said in so many words that he wanted Luke Skywalker dead, so Vader - needing Skywalker alive to accomplish his goals - took a different tact. ”If he could be turned,” Vader suggested, ”he would become a powerful ally.”
”Yes,” the Emperor mused, as if he had not thought of this possibility. Vader could only imagine what the Emperor was thinking. The Sith had long maintained their rule of two: one Master, one apprentice. Even Vader knew that there wasn't room enough in the galaxy for three Sith Lords, and yet the Emperor's hooded eyes seemed to sparkle as he said more emphatically, ”Yes. He would be a great a.s.set. Can it be done?”
”He will join us or die, Master,” Vader said. He bowed, and the Emperor's hologram faded out.
Now that the Emperor was interested in Luke Sky walker's fate, Vader knew he had to do everything in his power to find Luke before the Emperor found him. If his own soldiers and even the infamous Boba Fett could not locate the Rebel leaders, then he would have to take more proactive measures.
Vader sent out a signal, summoning bounty hunters from across the galaxy to meet him on the Executor. It was not long before six hunters, including Boba Fett, were lined up on the Executor'?, bridge. Mere seconds after Vader addressed the a.s.sembled group and stressed that he wanted them to find the Millennium Falcon without killing anyone on board, the elusive Corellian freighter emerged from the asteroid field. The Star Destroyer Avenger gave chase, but moments later, the Millennium Falcon vanished from the Avenger's tracking scopes. It seemed the Rebels had escaped once again from the Imperials.
But they didn't get away from Boba Fett. Several hours after the Avenger lost sight of the Falcon, Darth Vader received a transmission from Fett, who had employed stealthy measures to find the Rebel s.h.i.+p limping across s.p.a.ce with a damaged hyperdrive, on course for the Bespin system.
Turning to Admiral Piett on the Executor's bridge, the Dark Lord said, ”Plot a course for Bespin.”
CHAPTER 19.
Boba Fett had already arrived at Cloud City, a luxury resort and gas refinery in orbit around the giant gas planet Bespin, and the lightspeed-disabled Millennium Falcon was still en route when Darth Vader's shuttle touched down on a Cloud City landing platform. Preceded by two squads of Imperial storm troopers, Vader exited the shuttle to be greeted by Cloud City's Baron Administrator, Lando Calrissian, and his aide Lobot, a cyborg with a computer bracket wrapped around his bald head.
Calrissian was courteous and accommodating as he escorted the Imperials through his facility, and listened with attention when Vader outlined his plan to apprehend a group of Rebels. Upon hearing the name of the incoming Corellian freighter, Calrissian's expression remained completely neutral, which did not surprise Vader. Although a background check had confirmed that Calrissian was a former owner of the Millennium Falcon, he was also an accomplished gambler.
While the Executor remained stationed well out of scanner range of Bespin, the Imperials took up position within Cloud City and waited for Han Solo's s.h.i.+p to arrive. They didn't have to wait long.
”The Millennium Falcon has landed on Platform 327, Lord Vader,” said Lieutenant Sheckil, a gray-uniformed Imperial officer. Sheckil was listening to an incoming progress report, and stood facing Vader and Fett in a Cloud City conference suite. ”Princess Leia is with Captain Solo and his copilot,” Sheckil continued. ”There's a droid too. Baron Administrator Calrissian is leading them into Cloud City now.” Sheckil smiled and added, ”It was lucky the Millennium Falcon's hyper-drive was damaged or we wouldn't have reached the Bespin system before the Rebels.”
”Our journey to Bespin had nothing to do with luck, Lieutenant Sheckil,” Vader said. ''Remind your men to stay out of sight. The capture of the Rebels will be at my command.”
”Yes, sir. I'll...” Sheckil stopped short as he listened to his comlink. ”What? The imbeciles!” Trying not to sound nervous as he returned his attention to Vader, he said, ”It's the droid, sir. It... it fell behind the group, and happened upon Gamma Squad's position. They blasted it. Fortunately, the Princess and the others didn't hear the shots.”
”Then you are the only fortunate one,” Vader seethed. ”Do not fail me again. Bring the droid here at once. Its memory might contain valuable information.”
After Sheckil left the room, Vader turned to gaze out a window at the Cloud City skyline. He said, ”It seems your enterprise is bearing fruit, bounty hunter. By using Captain Solo as bait for Skywalker, you stand to collect two rewards instead of one.”
Watching the Sith Lord's back, Boba Fett said, ”Skywalker would get here faster if we spread word that his allies are in danger.”
”That won't be necessary,” Vader said, sensing a trembling in the Force from far across s.p.a.ce. ”He already knows.”
Sheckil returned with a pair of stormtroopers who carried an open-topped container that held the captured droid's parts. The limbs had been torn from the torso, and a tangle of multicolored wires stuck out from the droid's neck socket.
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