Harry Potter and the Dark Lord of the Sith

Chapter 15.

As soon as he regained balance, Ron rushed to the Falcon's cockpit. The first thing he saw were swarms of TIE fighters shooting at them.

"Do you need me on the guns?" he asked the pilot.

"The main guns ain't working, kid," Han grunted back.

Ron gulped.

"Well, we can still outmaneuver them," the Corellian assured him. With that, he took the ship straight towards the three Star Destroyers.

Ron didn't even have time to shout in fear before the freighter flew between the enormous warships. Two of them collided. The third, however, was still following, as did four TIE fighters. The Falcon shook under their laser bolts.

"Prepare to make the jump to light-speed," Han told Chewie.

"But, sir!" Threepio protested. Ron glared at Threepio. He knew how dangerous it was for a pilot to be distracted.

"They're getting closer!" Leia warned.

"Oh yeah?" Han said with an air of triumph. "Watch this!" He pulled a lever on the dashboard.

Nothing happened. The Falcon shook again.

"Watch what?" Ron looked at him. Leia also raised her eyebrows.

"I think we're in trouble," Han finally admitted.

"If I may say so, sir," Threepio cut in, "I noticed earlier the hyperdrive motivator has been damaged. It's impossible to go to light-speed!"

"We're in trouble!" Han declared, and getting out of his chair, he ran to the back of his ship. The Wookiee followed him.

Ron took the pilot's seat, grabbed the controls, and evaded a barrage from the TIEs. Some bolts still hit the Falcon and the Star Destroyer itself was much closer as well.

"I can't outfly all of them!" he told Leia. "I'm not used to flying anything this big!"

What he saw next nearly made him jump. "Yikes!" he gasped, barely managing to evade a large rock in his path. The ship shook again, but in a different way. There were more of these rocks flying around, and Ron was struggling to evade them.

"Han, get up here!" Leia yelled. The Corellian ran up, Chewie behind him. Ron quickly vacated the pilot chair.

"Asteroids," the princess said, pointing out the window.

The view was peppered with them, ranging in size from pebbles to small planets. Great, Ron thought. Imperials behind, asteroids ahead...

"Chewie," Han told his copilot, "set two-seven-one." Even Ron knew what that meant.

"We're going in there!" Ron couldn't believe it.

"They'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?" Han replied.

"So we're the crazy ones?"

"You don't have to do this to impress me," Leia told Han.

That made Ron shudder. Is that why he's doing it?

Threepio spoke up. "Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately three thousand seven hundred and twenty to one!"

"Never tell me the odds!" Han retorted, and sent the ship forward. Rocks started hitting them, but he managed to evade the bigger ones, and the deflector shields held. For how long? Ron wondered.

One of the four TIEs that followed them collided with an asteroid and exploded.

"Three to go," Han said, continuing to fly around the rocks surrounding the Falcon.

"What about the Star Destroyer?" Ron asked. "That doesn't count?"

"No," Han said, "it doesn't." He glanced at Leia. "You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake, well, this could be it, sweetheart."

At that moment, another collision with a TIE and an asteroid reduced the number of their pursuers to two.

"We'll be pulverized if we stay out here much longer," Leia said dryly.

"Pulverized?" Threepio covered his eyes.

"We're getting closer to one of the big ones," Han announced.

"Closer!" Leia, Ron, and Threepio exclaimed at once.

Han did just that. He flew a few feet above the asteroid, dodging blaster fire from pursuing TIEs. Suddenly, Ron realized they were flying towards a crater wall.

"Han!" he yelled, thinking the smuggler didn't see the obstacle. But Han banked the freighter and, flying sideways, entered a trench in the wall. The trench was getting narrower, and Han made it out on the other side with only a few inches to spare. The two imperials weren't so lucky.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and Han gained altitude and flew over the asteroid. "There. That looks pretty good," he said.

"Huh?" Ron looked at him, puzzled.

"Yeah, that'll do nicely."

"Excuse me, ma'am," Threepio asked Leia, "but where are we going?"

They ignored the droid as Han took the Falcon into a cave at the bottom of the crater. After flying through a long, twisting tunnel, he landed the ship and shut down the main engines.

"We made it," he told the others.

"For now," Ron qualified.