Star Wars Missions 008 - Togarian Trap

by Dave Wolverton

  At that very moment, the Falcon lifts into the air with a rush. “Help!” you hear the golden droid shout, as it goes tumbling to the floor down in the access corridor. The little astromech droid squeals in terror as it is upended.

  You wonder what is going on. Is Solo mad? You’d expected him to come and join the fight!

  You lurch to your feet and rush toward the cockpit. When you reach it, Solo is sitting there, casually looking at you. You can see the scene ahead easily. The ship has reached an altitude of several thousand feet, and is now hovering perilously, nose pointed down toward a fiery volcano. You can see the flaming red of hot magma roiling within the mountain peak.

  Solo smiles at you as beads of sweat dot his forehead. He has his hand on the emergency power cutoff button, and has already pressed it. If he lets go, the power to the Millennium Falcon will shut down, and the ship will plummet into the volcano.

  “So,” Solo says, “it looks like I win again.”

  “I don’t think so, Rebel scum,” you answer.

  Solo shrugs. “You’ve got a gun to my head, and in my own way, I’ve got a gun to yours.”

  “Don’t let go of that button,” you warn.

  At that moment, the golden droid comes running up behind you. “Sir, Artoo-Detoo has fallen over, and I can’t get him upright!” he shouts. Then the droid sees the monitor over your shoulder and says, “Oh my!”

  “Look," Solo says, “I’ve got nothing to lose. If I go with you quietly, the Imperials will drag me off for some long slow torture, then give me and my friends a public execution.

  “On the other hand, if I crash the ship into the volcano right now, I save both myself and the Empire a lot of trouble. And the really good part is that I get to take you out with me.”

  “There’s always the hope of escape,” you answer. “You could escape the Empire.”

  “Fat chance,” Solo says. “You, on the other hand, definitely have something to lose. I’m willing to make you a deal. You drop your weapon and put on those restraints you have dangling from your belt, and I’ll drop you off somewhere close to Caross. By this time tomorrow, you’ll be sucking ice-cold varanta nectar through a straw.”

  “Why should I trust you?” you ask, considering whether you should shoot him now. There is a slim possibility that if you did, you could power up the ship before it crashed. But you’re not at a very high altitude. That chance seems more than slim — it seems nonexistent

  “Hey, I’m a nice guy,” Solo answers. “Everyone who knows me agrees.”

  “You’re a scoundrel!” you answer.

  “Rebel hero, Rebel scum — the only difference is which side you’re on. Come on, you don’t really want to die with me, do you? I mean, I shot you guys down, and by all rights, you should be etelo burgers by now. But you had to have gone through all kinds of work just to stay alive. I’m willing to bet you want to keep it that way.”

  You don’t answer. Instead you consider the reward money that you see slipping from your fingers.

  “On the count of three, either you toss your weapon over here, or we’re all going to fry,” Solo warns. “One. Two. Three.”

  “Oh no!” the droid shouts frantically.

  You refuse to drop the weapon, calling his bluff.

  Solo releases the power switch, and all the panel lights go dim. Immediately, you hear the ship’s engines stop, and feel the ship begin to plummet.

  Your heart pounds fiercely.

  “We all gotta die sometime,” Solo says.

  You drop your weapon and lunge for the ship’s power console, hoping to land the Falcon in a controlled crash.

  As you do, Solo leaps up to meet you, swinging his fist. The blow is so unexpected you don’t have time to react. It catches you full on the jaw and knocks you to the floor.

  As you lie there in a daze, Solo reaches up and slaps a panel above his head. Suddenly, all the running lights return, and the ship lurches as the engines kick in.

  Solo leans over you triumphantly and clasps the restraints onto your right wrist, then twists your wrist behind your back and hooks up your left wrist. You feel weak in the knees, and sick. Your ears are ringing and your sight is blurry. You’ve never been punched quite so hard.

  “Hey,” Solo laughs. “Looks like your lucky day. We aren’t all going to die after all!”

  Solo looks up at the droid. “Threepio, do me a favor and sit on this scumbag for me.”

  “I really don’t think that’s such a good idea,” the droid says. “I fear that all of the excitement has overwhelmed my circuits.”

  “Sit down!” Solo says, pushing the droid onto your chest

  The droid says, “I’m really sorry about this. I really don’t require leg rest, like you humans do.”

  Solo returns to his seat in the cockpit and pilots the ship down to the surface. You can hardly breathe with the weight of the droid on you.

  “You knew we wouldn’t crash!” the droid exclaims.

  “I knew there was a short in my wiring,” Solo answers. “Sometimes a punch to the access panel up there can do wonders. The risk was worth it.”

  You see Solo massaging his wrist “Hope I broke it for you,” you say.

  “Save the insults, buddy,” Solo says. “Maybe they’ll come in handy next time we meet.”

  He gets up from the cockpit and loosens his blaster in its holster. He pulls the droid off of you, grabs the back of your shirt, and drags you down the corridor to the hatch. You wriggle to your knees, trying to stand, but your feet are still weak. He lowers the gangplank, and while you are sitting there, he gives you a good kick.

  You go tumbling down the gangplank to land in the dust, staring up at Solo in the darkness. The hatch lights show his face. Your mouth is dry with fear, knowing that if Solo had any brains, he’d go ahead and shoot you now, putting an end to this.

  The droid hurries up behind Solo, “Sir, you aren’t going to shoot the bounty hunter, are you?”

  Solo draws his blaster half an inch from his holster and saunters down to the end of the gangplank. As he stands over you, he says, “You know, if I weren’t in such a fine mood right now, I’d really be tempted.”

  “I’ll get you, someday!” you warn Solo.

  “Probably so,” Solo answers. “If not you, then someone like you.”

  At that moment, you see something small and brown wriggle up behind the droid.

  It’s Grubba. You’d forgotten about the Hutt in all the excitement

  In the dim light you see something flash as Grubba raises your stunner and takes careful aim at the Rebel scum.

  “Master Solo, watch out!” the droid shouts.

  Solo draws his blaster and pivots, searching for a target

  Now is the time to strike, to spoil Solo’s aim.

  To spoil Solo’s aim: You throw yourself at him with every ounce of energy. Your strength# +1 is your confront#. Roll the 6-dice to hit Han Solo.

  If your confront# is equal to or more than your roll#, add the difference to your MP total. Solo gasps and tumbles over.

  If your confront# is lower than your roll#, subtract the difference from your MP total. Repeat the confront until you hit Solo.

  Grubba fires, and the blue bolt flashes into Han Solo’s chest. He falls backward with a gasp, landing almost on top of you.

  Grubba smiles triumphantly at you, huge golden eyes flowing. “If I let you live to suck another breath,” the young Hutt says, “I get half the bounty on these Rebels.”

  “It’s a deal,” you say.

  No one ever said it would be easy to capture a Rebel hero. You have captured Solo and his cronies, and within minutes you call the Empire to announce the news and claim your reward. Award yourself 250 MP (350 MP for Advanced Level Players).

  The Imperial Star Destroyer Valiant was not a huge ship, Leia thought as she watched it approach on the view screen in the crew’s bay of the Millennium Falcon. It was only an old Victory-class Star Destroyer, smaller and sleeker than the new Imp
erial Star Destroyers. Yet no ship she had ever seen frightened her half as much.

  Her heart beat in her chest like something caged, struggling for release.

  The bounty hunters had reached the meeting point early, as had the Imperials. Obviously, the Imperials were in a hurry to retrieve the prisoners, and the bounty hunters wanted their reward.

  Leia, Luke, Chewbacca, and Solo were all cuffed and shackled, sitting against a wall. The bounty, hunters had drugged the Wookiee, Luke, and Solo, so that the men could not fight. They nodded their heads in a stupor. Even the droids had been fitted with restraining bolts.

  No one was awake but Leia. No one could save them but Leia.

  She struggled to pull her hands from the restraints, but the bounty hunters were using the highest-quality goods. Even as she struggled, metal cords in the restraints sensed her movement and clamped tighter.

  Grubba the Hutt was at the gaming table, playing a holo game with Eron Stonefield. The young Hutt looked over at Leia and laughed. “I love to watch you struggle against your cuffs. It’s like... watching a bug struggle in a spider’s web. It makes me hungry.”

  “Always glad to entertain company,” Leia said.

  Leia looked at Eron Stonefield, and whispered, “Help me! You can’t do this. Every time one of us Rebels dies, the hope for freedom that burns in the heart of every person in the Empire dies a little bit, too.”

  Eron glanced over her shoulder. “Maybe,” she said. “But I’m not going to be able to buy an awful lot of freedom with this bounty.”

  Leia shook her head. “You’ve seen what the Empire is doing — plundering whole systems to power its war machines, enslaving those too weak to oppose it, and murdering those who are strong enough to fight. If you turn us in, you’ll be a part of all that.”

  Eron’s face was red with shame. Leia knew that she was getting to the young bounty hunter, that she almost had her.

  Eron said, “The Empire would not clamp down so hard if the Rebels did not oppose it.”

  “You’re wrong,” Leia said. “If we did not oppose it, the Empire would have us all in its grasp. It’s only because we fight that there is any hope for us at all.”

  Eron looked away, over to the cot where Dengar slept. Perhaps she was considering whether to set Leia free. Or perhaps Leia only imagined it.

  “You must have family,” Leia urged. “Brothers, sisters. Perhaps someday you’ll even have children of your own. When you condemn me to death, you condemn them to slavery. Please — Dengar is sleeping. Do the right thing.”

  Leia wished then that she had the powers of the Force. She wished with all her heart that she could persuade the young woman. But Eron only sat, looking at the holographic monsters on the game board as they leapt across the squares.

  “Do it now,” Leia said. “Free me. The Falcon is a fast ship. Fast enough to outrun that old cruiser.”

  Eron Stonefield looked up at Leia, and there were tears glistening in her eyes.

  At that moment, the Falcon shuddered as the Star Destroyer caught them in its tractor beams. The Imperials weren’t going to take any chance that the Falcon would escape them this time. The Millennium Falcon seemed to be hurtling toward one of the big ship’s docking bays.

  “It’s too late,” Eron said. “I couldn’t help you now if I wanted to. The Imperials have arrived early. There is no time left.”

  Leia sighed as the Falcon slowly drew into the docking bay. The bounty hunter was right. No one could help her now.

  It was a proud moment in Dengar’s life, though he felt no pride. The Imperial surgeons had cut that away from him, when they’d stripped him of emotion. Still, he felt a profound sense of accomplishment as the Imperial procession marched to the docking bay of the Valiant to take the Rebels prisoner.

  Dengar and the other bounty hunters brought the prisoners to the bottom of the gangplank, while a dozen stormtroopers dragged each of them away — Han Solo, Chewbacca, the Princess Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, and their droids.

  The Imperial captain of this Star Destroyer, a young man named Fordwyn, was an up-and-coming officer whom Dengar had heard of by reputation. He presented a fine figure in uniform.

  “Dengar, Stonefield, Udin, I would like to congratulate you on your fine work,” Captain Fordwyn said, saluting each of them in turn. “The Empire owes you much. The capture of these Rebels will gratify the Emperor, and more important, it will teach those Rebel traitors that no one is above the law. The networks are already buzzing with news of the capture. This will make all of you famous.”

  As the captain spoke, Dengar watched the stormtroopers drag away the captives. The males were all drugged, but Leia tried to break free, and one stormtrooper threatened her with the butt of his blaster, shouting, “Get back in line!”

  Then the stormtroopers left the bay, and Captain Fordwyn remained with his aides.

  “Speaking of how much the Empire owes us, there is a small matter of the reward,” Dengar said.

  “Of course,” Fordwyn said. “I have the credit disks right here. You have received the full rewards, and the Emperor himself asked me to give you a bonus. You’ll find the Empire quite generous.”

  He handed over some computerized credit disks, and Dengar held them a moment. A bonus? he wondered. He felt torn between curiosity and concern. He was not a trusting person, and wished that he had a reader handy, so that he could see how much was on each disk. Still, it would have shown poor manners to do so in front of the ship’s captain. “Thank you,” Dengar said.

  “The capture went well?” Fordwyn asked.

  “Aside from a little scuffle outside the palace in Caross,” Dengar said. The Togorians of the Mindnight Fire clan had suffered a couple of casualties in the battle with the guards, and after the Falcon had blasted off, everyone had to run for cover. It hadn’t been easy for the Togorians and the remaining bounty hunters to escape the city.

  Fordwyn gazed at Dengar with steely gray eyes, and clapped him on the shoulder. “This is a proud moment in history. On behalf of the Empire, I thank you. I thank all of you. The Emperor will want to hold a reception in your honor. I trust you’ll be free to visit Coruscant in the near future.”

  Dengar nodded. He’d made time for a trip to the Capital of the Empire for a party in his honor. “Yeah, but first I have some other business to take care of.” He would not mention Jabba’s reward to the Empire. Jabba was not one of the Empire’s most highly regarded citizens.

  “I understand that your ship needs immediate repair,” Fordwyn said. “You’ll be needing transport. I have a small shuttle that you can use. It will take you wherever you need to go.”

  “Oh, I won’t be needing a ship,” Dengar said. “I’ve got the Falcon here.” He nodded to the ship behind him.

  Fordwyn shook his head. “That old piece of scrap? I can’t allow you to keep it. These Rebels have been trading in Imperial secrets. My orders are to confiscate the craft, strip it, and send the parts to sector security. There may be contraband aboard, or coded messages hidden in the computers.”

  That was a blow to Dengar.

  “We do have a scout ship that I could loan you.” Fordwyn nodded toward an old scouting vessel.

  “Thank you,” Dengar said, imagining he could buy a much greater ship with his reward — as well as repairing the Punishing One.

  Fordwyn saluted. “It’s yours, then. Until we meet again.”

  Two days later, Eron Stonefield and the others touched down on Tatooine. The sky was clear and sunny as they brought Grubba the Hutt before the great lord, Jabba.

  Jabba slithered down from the Hutt throne, hugged the Ur-Damin, and then slapped young Grubba hard across the face. “How dare you let yourself get kidnapped!” Jabba said. “The reward money I paid will come from your future earnings!”

  Grubba laughed. “Then you can have most of it back now. I won eighty-five percent of it from the bounty hunters. Given another game at the sabbacc tables, I could have won it all!”

 
; Jabba smiled appreciatively at the Ur-Damin. “You make your predecessors proud!” the elder Hutt said.

  Then Jabba looked up at Dengar, giving him a cold stare that chilled Eron to the bone. “You had Han Solo. You could have brought him to me for the reward.”

  “We gave him to the Empire,” Dengar said. “Their reward was higher. Though I would hope that his capture satisfies your honor — enough so that you, too, will pay your proffered bounty.”

  “You didn’t catch him. You gave him back into the hands of Rebel agents!” Jabba shouted. “You fools!”

  Eron glanced from Dengar to Udin. “What do you mean?” Udin asked. “They gave us the credit disks. We checked them ourselves.”

  “Forged credit disks, no doubt,” Jabba said. “They will land you in prison the first time you try to use them. The news is all over the nets.”

  Jabba nodded, and one of his henchmen flipped on a monitor. It showed the scene in Mos Eisley as a reporter said, “Two days ago, the galaxy heard the sobering news that bounty hunters on Togoria had finally captured the Rebels who destroyed the Death Star. Now, we see the local reaction to the news that those same bounty hunters were duped into handing the Rebels over to Rebel agents disguised as Imperials.”

  In the city of Mos Eisley, the camera panned across the domes of the city. Moisture farmers were out dancing in the streets and shouting in celebration at news of the Rebel escape, for Luke Skywalker was a local boy. Jawas were throwing sand in the air, and the noise of cheers was so loud that Eron almost felt as if she could feel the vibrations in the air even here, in Jabba’s palace.

  Eron stared in shock. She could hardly believe it. A few days before, when she had given the Rebels into the hands of the Imperials, it had taken all of her will to do it. Capturing the Rebels had been a challenge. But sending them to their deaths had seemed... small and evil.

  In her mind, she tried to put the pieces together, to discover how they had been duped. After the capture, Dengar had transmitted a message to the Empire to announce that he had Han Solo and his cohorts. That message had been picked up on all of the news nets. Only minutes later, the Empire had responded by sending a message, stating the time and place where they were to meet to exchange the prisoners.