What If : The Story Retold

Innocent Savages.

"Should we try to go around?" Leia suggested, coached behind a fallen tree with the others as they looked down at the small sentry party of Maulian scout troopers at the bottom of the alcove.

"It'll take time," Luke mused, knowing they were on a tight schedule and figuring the impracticality of trying to get a small army past some soldiers without being caught.

"This whole party will be for nothing if they see us," Han added.

"Their coms must be as down just like ours, if we can take them out before they bike back to base, our whereabouts won't be compromised." Mara pointed out, noting the speeders to the side of the sentry party.

"Chewie and I will take care of this. You stay here," Han finally concluded as his wookie friend gave a low roar of not so great confidence before they disappeared into the foliage.

"Quietly. There might be more of them out there." Luke insisted, only for Han to thrown him a lopsided grin.

"Hey," the former smuggler said in mock offense, "It's me."

It probably wasn't the best idea to let Han deal with the situation. There was no doubt he was a decent fighter and a great pilot but his track record of successful missions wasn't exactly clean, he could be rash at times and though he did claim that improvisation was one of his strengths - which it admittedly was - the rest of the group didn't exactly feel inspiring confidence as they saw Han and Chewie make their way down into the alcove.

Luke chuckled lowly as he saw Leia look down where Han had left with a look between annoyed and impressed.

"Your boyfriend better know what he's doing," Anakin rolled his eyes, waiting for the inevitable disaster which all of them could feel was impending.

"I don't think he plans in advance," Leia scoffed, rolling her eyes as well despite the fact she lowered her hand to her lightsaber, ready to jump into the fray the second Han slipped up.

They all watched in anticipation as Han and Chewie crept their way down through the bushes to the trees right besides the two Maulian soldiers. So far, it looked to be going ok, with the both of them getting closer and closer, going for sneak attacks which would hopefully take them out quick and easily.

However, as predicted, it wasn't long for that short lived plan to be trampled all over as the soldiers quickly discovered the two and knocked them to the ground, a few blaster shots firing off into the forest.

One of the Maulians run up to one of the speeder bike and readied it up as Han spring back and launched at the other one.

"Great, come on," Luke rolled his eyes in amusement as he and Leia rose to their feet first to jump down to the alcove.

Chewie fired a few bolts from his bowcaster at the soldier who was beginning to speed off on the bike. Luckily, one of them hit a fallen tree inside of the soldier, dents flames up which made him topple off the bike at top speed, no doubt killing him quickly enough. Now there was just the other one to deal with which Han was throwing around.

"Over there! Two more of them!" Leia pointed into the trees, spotting more of the soldiers on bikes which had been previously covered in the foliage.

"I see them. Wait, Leia!" Luke yelled, quickly following his sister who promptly ran up to one of the speeders, only just having the time to jump on behind her before they sped off after the black and red clad soldiers.

With the forest rushing past them and the two soldiers becoming glaring red dots in front of them against the green, Luke knew they needed to prioritize not giving away their location.