Consequences

Chapter 18 - Speeder Bike Chase

Having left our shuttle in a small clearing between the trees, we immediately set off on the mission. Han and Leia are in the lead, with Chewbacca, Luke, and I close behind them. The rest of the Rebels who are here are following us, with the two droids in the back.

As we reach the top of the hill, an uneasy feeling creeps through me again. We're not alone in the forest. We need to be extremely cautious. I can sense a number of other life forms nearby, and I get the distinct feeling they aren't friendly. Chewbacca catches up with the ones in front and suddenly both he and Leia drop to the ground, making a "get down" motion. We all immediately fall to the ground.

I crawl the rest of the way up the hill to join the other two, and Han and Luke follow suit. Not far down the other side of the hill, two Imperial troopers are walking about amidst the bushes. Scouts, presumably. Speeder bikes are parked not far away.

"Shall we try and go around?" questions Leia in a low voice.

"It'll take time," objects Han, "This whole party'll be for nothing if they see us."

"We'll have to try to take them out, before they have a chance to react," I decide. It's our only hope for continuing undetected.

Leia nods her agreement before motioning to the other Rebels to stay where they are. The five of us quietly making our way down the hill, careful to stay behind the trunks of the towering trees so that they won't catch sight of us. But I have a distinct feeling that something is going to go wrong. Well, that's usually what happens, isn't it?

We stop at the edge off a clearing, ducking down to the ground between the brush and trees. "Chewie and I will take care of this. You stay here," whispers Han. I think it would be better if I went too, but there's no time for arguing right now. Besides, if something goes wrong, I'll be close enough to quickly intervene. Hopefully.

"Quietly, there might be more of them out there," warns Luke.

"Hey, it's me," grins Han before he and Chewbacca turn and begin sneaking through the bushes towards the scouts. I watch tensely as they get closer and closer, Han arrives right behind his scout first, but promptly steps on a twig. Great job.

The scout whirls around, slamming Han into the tree behind him. He falls to the ground as the scout yells, "Go for help! Go!"

"Good job," I mutter sarcastically, rising to my feet and scramble through the brush towards them, shoving tree branches out of my way as I run. No use hiding here anymore.

Han jumps up, knocking the other scout hard into the tree and they both fall to the ground. Soon they're both engaged in a furious fist fight on the ground.

The second scout leaps onto his bike and zooms away into the trees, but Chewbacca fires at him. He flies through air before falling to the ground, dead. The now abandoned bike slams to a stop since no one is control anymore.

"Great. Come on," Luke mutters sarcastically from behind me. He rises to his feet, motioning for Leia to come with him. They hurry to catch up with me, Leia already drawing her blaster as we approach the fighting pair.

"Over there!" I suddenly hear Leia hiss from behind me, "Two more of them!" Quickly turning around, my gaze follows to where she's pointing. Taking a step back so I can see in between the bushes, I spot two more scouts sitting on their speeder bikes, and another empty one sitting not far away.

"I see them," Luke replies. The two of scouts promptly whiz away into the trees. Leia runs over to the other speeder with both of us close behind.

"Wait, Leia!" calls Luke as she fires up the bike, preparing to zoom away after them. He jumps onto the bike behind them as the bike picks up speed and they whiz away into the trees, leaving me behind. Oh great. But actually, there's something I can do.