Star Wars: Lightforce

Chapter 1

It had been several months since the battle on Endor that resulted in the death of Emperor Palpatine and the collapse of the Empire, but there had been little time to rest for members of the former Rebel Alliance. Small Imperial factions were scattered throughout the galaxy. Some, so far out that news of the Empire's demise had not yet reached them. Others, forging on regardless, believing that rumours of the Alliance's success were exaggerated. Comfortable in their own pockets of power, they enforced their long held oppressive ideals with dogged loyalty. Mon Mothma, feeling strongly that the Emperor had managed to gain much of his power due to complacency within the Republic, was keen to re-order the new government; giving each world the chance to lead so as not to put power into the hands of one person again. With a view to de-militarising the Alliance forces and leaving defence of member worlds to the worlds themselves, she was in the process of recalling the fleet and decommissioning them, leaving small groups based on several worlds to co-ordinate a clean up operation.

One such base was onThyfeera, a planet in the Jaso System on the Inner Rim. During the Clone Wars, Thyfeera had been the main site of Bacta production and control of this production had been fought over for many years resulting in the brutal Bacta War. Now under the banner of the New Republic, Thyfeera had seemed an ideal place for a small but secret Alliance settlement. Thyfeera's tropical atmosphere, with it's spectacular mountains and lush forests, made it reasonably comfortable for humans and machines alike; unlike some of the bases the Alliance had had to endure, such as the frozen world of Hoth. Thyfeera's intricate network of caves had enabled the Alliance to set up a base hidden in the mountainside, unobtrusive to the rest of the inhabitants, and a convenient spot from which to run supplies to other nearby systems. With landing platforms jutting out into the open air and surrounding plateaux, the base was shielded from the more inhabited regions by a belt of rocky mountains.

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Han Solo was standing on top of his ship, the Millennium Falcon, parked on one of the smaller landing platforms. He was enjoying the late afternoon sunshine as he made repairs to a transformer for the communications array. Holding safety goggles to his face and soldering the wires in place, he had a lot on his mind. Once reckless smuggler turned General of the Alliance during the battle of Endor, he had stayed on to help where he could, leading several sorties to clean up imperial factions, and running cargo and supplies in the Falcon to Alliance satellite groups set up in other systems.

He was tired and feeling a little frustrated with his lot. His ship needed new parts, much of which the Alliance had been supplying, but he could do with taking it to his contacts on Takodana. He could always rely on them to supply the specially modified parts he liked that made the Falcon a customised and unusually weaponised freighter. On top of this, he had had no time to spend with the one woman who had been responsible for getting him into all this in the first place, and with whom he had unexpectedly fallen in love.

Leia Organa had her own duties to perform. Her sought after experience kept her busy co-ordinating Alliance movements from their main base, or travelling to the seat of the newly formed Republic on Chandrila, Mon Mothma's home world, as ambassador and representative in order to push her cause and raise support for her continued fight to rid the galaxy of Imperial remnants.

Leia was a passionate and driven woman whom he found infuriating and incredible all at the same time. She got inside his head; her beauty, her versatility, her tenacious resolve to do good and her annoying ability to make more sense than he did. She wasn't like any woman he had ever known before or would have imagined ever having a relationship with but they had an unmistakeable chemistry, and she had managed to steal his loyalty and his heart. If he was being honest with himself, he would have to admit he had loved her from the moment he saw her during their escape from the Death Star, even though she had spent the majority of the first few years they had known each other, yelling at him.