SHATTERED DESTINY

The Rebel Alliance has launched a desperation attack against the Empire's powerful new battle station, the DEATH STAR. If it is not destroyed, it will annihilate the moon of Yavin Four, location of the Rebellion's hidden base.

Han Solo, captain of the Millenium Falcon, and his partner Chewbacca have left Yavin Four, intent on paying off their debt to Jabba the Hutt. Solo wanted no part in the Rebel attack, stating that attacking the station wasn't his idea of courage. It was more like suicide.

In another time and place, Han Solo would decide to return and help Luke Skywalker deliver the fatal blow that destroys the mighty station. But here, now, Solo makes his decision five seconds too late, and those five seconds are all it takes to change the galaxy forever...

Chapter 1:

Han Solo sat back in the pilot's chair of the Millenium Falcon, brooding.

This last job that he'd taken had certainly gotten him more than he'd bargained for. Smuggling spice was one thing, and he had no problem running Imperial blockades, but this...

I should have sensed trouble coming, he thought. When Chewie had mentioned that there was someone looking for passage to Alderaan, he had jumped at the opportunity to get the cash to pay off Jabba the Hutt. The old man that required his services, Ben Kenobi, however... Han had figured, okay, why not? Alderaan is a nice place to visit, and Kenobi had seemed harmless enough... although after witnessing what Kenobi had done to Ponda Baba in the Mos Eisley Cantina, he wasn't so sure about that anymore. He had jumped at the opportunity when Kenobi had offered seventeen thousand credits for the job, though... and when Jabba's hired gun, Greedo, had shown up looking for him, he knew for certain that Jabba wasn't in the mood to wait for the cash any longer. Greedo had not been a problem, as it turned out - Han had dispatched him quite easily. Then Han returned to Docking Bay 94 and found Jabba himself waiting for him.

Han had done a good job of smooth-talking Jabba into getting him to wait until this job was finished to get him his money. Jabba had agreed and left the docking bay... but not before giving Han a not-so-subtle warning about crossing him again. Then Kenobi, the kid with him and two droids had shown up.

What happened after that, however...

First he was almost cooked by a squadron of Imperial stormtroopers trying to stop the Falcon from lifting off. Then they'd had to blast their way through an Imperial blockade - and when they'd finally reached Alderaan, they'd found that it had been completely blown away by the Empire. Then they'd been caught in a tractor beam and pulled into some new Imperial secret weapon, called the Death Star.

Before too long he'd found himself disguised as a stormtrooper and sneaking into the detention area to rescue a princess with the kid that had come with Kenobi, Luke Skywalker. Then they were almost crushed in a garbage compactor, were almost killed more times that he could count by stormtroopers, and then...

Kenobi had said he was going to shut off the tractor beam that had pulled them into the Death Star, and when he and the others had made a break for the Falcon, he had seen Kenobi dueling with a dark, armor-clad figure that he could only guess was Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith.

Then Kenobi had been cut down, and Han had thought that was it when the kid freaked out and attracted the attention of the stormtroopers that had gone to help Vader. Suddenly Luke shot the controls for the blast doors, closing them, shot the last few stormtroopers and ran for the Falcon.

They had taken off from the hangar bay, and found out that Kenobi had been true to his word - the tractor beam had been disabled. Sure, the Imps had sent TIE fighters after them, but there had launched only a few, which were easily taken care of. After that, he thought they were home free.

Han swiveled around in his seat and checked the sensors, still lost in thought. As it turned out, the Death Star had been able to track them to Yavin - even though he had sworn up and down that there was no way that the Empire could follow his ship - and all available pilots were going to fly up and try to take that monstrosity out. The only way to do it? Fly down a narrow trench, avoiding all sorts of defensive fire, and fire proton torpedoes into an opening that was two meters wide! Two meters! If the Rebels got lucky and managed to actually get the torpedoes into the opening, they would travel down the length of a long vertical shaft and destroy the station's main reactor, which would in turn destroy the Death Star completely. The chances of that happening, though... Han didn't want to take the odds on that bet. He wanted no part of the attack at all - he'd gotten his reward, and he wasn't about to get himself killed fighting for some idealistic rebellion. As soon as he received clearance, he and Chewie had left Yavin Four.

Ever since leaving the Rebel Base, Chewbacca had been quite angry. He wanted to stay and fight the Empire, but Han had insisted on leaving. After all, he had said that attacking that battle station wasn't courage - it was more like suicide.

Chewbacca entered the cockpit of the Falcon, and sat down in the copilot's chair. Ever since leaving Yavin Four, they had not spoken to each other. On top of that, twice Han had run through the coordinates for their next jump - but he had made an error both times. Finally he just decided to fly for a bit, not worrying about making the jump to lightspeed.

Han's thoughts wandered back to the Rebels he had left on Yavin Four... that kid from Tatooine, Luke, and the princess that they had rescued from the Death Star, Leia Organa. He liked the kid well enough, but that princess was... well, she was certainly a handful. Still, there was something about her... he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Chewie growled something at Han, interrupting his train of thought.

"Of course I'm sure," Han grumbled. "I want to get this price off of my head while I still have a head to worry about!"

Chewbacca growled something else.

"Look - do you want to get blown to pieces by that thing?"

Chewbacca roared at Han, who shook his head.

"We're not going back, and that's final."

Chewbacca turned away from Han. Han busied himself with checking the sensor readings for a few minutes, then started to enter the coordinates for their next jump into the navicomputer again. As he worked, though, his thoughts once again returned to the Rebels on Yavin Four.

The console beeped, indicating yet another error. Han threw his hands up in frustration, and leaned back in the pilot's chair. Chewie looked over at him.

"All right, all right!" Han finally exclaimed after several minutes had passed. "We'll go back and fight!"

Chewie roared in delight as Han turned the Falcon around. He got out of the copilot's chair and went back down to the gunwell.

I just hope I don't regret this, Han thought as he engaged the sublight engines.

* * *

The battle over the Death Star was not going well for the Rebellion. Two trench runs had been made. Both had ended in failure. Now the third and final trench run was being made, and there was only one X-Wing fighter left making it.

The end of the trench was rapidly approaching, and Darth Vader had that lone X-Wing fighter in his TIE Interceptor's gunsights. A few seconds earlier, he had felt a tremor in the Force come from the pilot of the X-Wing. The Force is strong with this one, he had remarked when he felt it.

The heads-up display beeped rapidly. The X-Wing was locked in his sights.

"I have you now," he gloated, and pressed the firing stud. At that moment, he felt a strange ripple in the Force. It was coming from the pilot of the X-Wing, and with a shock, Vader realized that there was something very familiar about it. Something he couldn't place... a half remembered feeling, something he hadn't felt since... Mustafar?

Then the deadly bolts that fired from his TIE Interceptor's main guns connected with the X-Wing's engines. A second or two passed, and the entire X-Wing erupted into a ball of flame. Vader and his wingmen pulled up and out of the trench as what was left of the X-Wing rained down onto the trench floor.

"Pursue and destroy all remaining Rebel ships," he ordered his wingmen. They broke formation to carry out his orders, leaving him alone. He set a course for the main hangar bay of the Death Star. Somewhere deep inside of him, he felt the strangest sensation, like there was something that he had... lost when that pilot had died. It was if that pilot had had some kind of connection to him. He couldn't explain it, and with the pilot's death, he never would.

* * *

The Millenium Falcon entered the Yavin system.

Immediately Han picked up the Death Star on his sensors - it had almost completed a full orbit of the gas giant Yavin. Grimly, he increased the speed of the Falcon.

The Death Star suddenly came into view. Han could make out a few scattered Rebel ships being pursued by Imperial TIE fighters.

"Chewie, get ready," Han shouted into the intercom.

Suddenly the Death Star's superlaser came to life! A laser blast more powerful than anything Han had ever seen in his life lanced out and seemed to stab deep into the heart of Yavin Four!

Before his eyes, Yavin Four exploded... a shockwave of energy rushed out of the explosion and sizzled out into space! Debris scattered in all directions!

"No..." Han said, not believing his eyes. He could hear Chewie's anguished roar coming from the gunwell.

The Death Star began to rotate on its axis, and more TIE fighters spilled out of its massive hangar bays. The few Rebel ships that were left abruptly turned around and rocketed straight for the edge of the Yavin system.

One incoming X-wing fighter hailed the Falcon.

"Solo, is that you?" came the voice of the pilot. Han recognized the voice as belonging to Wedge Antilles, a fellow Corellian. He and Wedge had crossed paths in the past, but they didn't know each other all that well.

"What are you doing back here? We've got to get out of here now!" Wedge shouted.

"Antilles, what happened? Where's Luke?" Han asked as he turned the Falcon around.

"He was making the trench run... I was right there with him until I took a hit and he told me to get clear. Then his X-wing was hit by the TIEs chasing him... and that was it."

A lump formed in Han's throat.

"Everyone else was back on Yavin Four," Wedge continued. "We've got to get out of here and regroup with the rest of the Alliance!"

The first wave of TIE fighters had caught up to them, and had opened fire. The Falcon shook from the flak that was bursting all around it.

"Good luck, Solo," Wedge called. Then, in a flash of light, his X-wing made the jump to lightspeed. The other fighters had jumped already, leaving the Falcon alone in the system... which unfortunately made it the lone target that the TIEs were hunting.

Han heard the Falcon's quad lasers firing, keeping the TIEs at bay. Swiftly Han punched coordinates into the navicomputer. The Falcon continued to shake from the TIE fighters' incoming fire.

Han looped the Falcon around as Chewie continued to fire at the TIEs... and then the navicomputer pinged, indicating a successfully entered course.

With one last glance back at Yavin, Han reached up and pulled the levers on the console back... and the Falcon shot into hyperspace, leaving the Yavin system far behind.

* * *

Grand Moff Tarkin turned away from the image of the rapidly expanding debris field shown on the Death Star's main viewscreen to face Admiral Motti and General Tagge. The debris field was all that was left of Yavin Four.

"There you have it, gentlemen," he gloated. "The Rebellion's hidden base has been destroyed, and the Empire's continued dominance is assured." Tagge and Motti nodded, then Tagge spoke.

"Several Rebel ships did escape after the destruction of the planet. I don't think we've wiped out the Rebellion, Tarkin."

"The Rebellion may still exist," Tarkin said, "but they will realize that there is nothing they can do to stop this battle station. If they are foolish enough to try to continue their fight, then they will meet the same fate as the Rebels we just destroyed. And should they attempt to use the same tactic against us again, they will receive an unpleasant surprise. That little design flaw the Rebels attempted to exploit is being taken care of as we speak."

Tarkin gestured at the viewscreen. "As Lord Vader remarked just a short time ago, this will be a day long remembered. This is the beginning of the end for the Rebel Alliance, and it will only be a matter of time before the remnants of the Rebellion are hunted down and eliminated."

At that moment, Darth Vader entered the room, having just returned from the hangar bay where his TIE Interceptor had docked. Tarkin turned to face him.

"Lord Vader," he said. "The Emperor will be most pleased with our performance here, I am sure."

"Yes," Vader rumbled. He said nothing else. Instead he turned to look at the viewscreen. He was still disturbed by the Force ripple he'd felt moments before the death of the last X-Wing pilot he'd killed. Even stranger, he had felt a similar echo deep inside of him when Yavin Four had exploded. It was like someone on the planet had had a connection to him as well... but that was impossible. Since his mother had died so many years ago, and his beloved wife Padme several years afterward, no one had had any kind of connection to him aside from Obi-Wan, and he had killed the old Jedi just a short time ago. Oddly, at that moment, words spoken to him by Obi-Wan years before on Coruscant came back to haunt him.

"Why do I get the feeling you're going to be the death of me?"

Vader shook his head slowly, shaking off the memory. His mother, Padme and Obi-Wan were all gone. Everyone that he had ever cared about was gone. So why did he feel like there was someone else he had just lost?

And why did he feel that he'd lost them twice over?