Slowly the colors of hyperspace disappeared and the long stars became short again, the ship entered normal space. ''This is planetary flight control, please indentify yourself'', the intercom cracked. ''Eagle reporting in'', Ron said to the intercom.
''welkom back, Ron Gatak.'' The Eagle landed on one of the mobile landing platforms. The hatch opened and a dark haired man with black clothes leaped out. Ron walked to the doors of the palace, they opened automaticly.

A droid hovered to him, ''Your authorization please.'' ''Get the hell away from me, tin can!'' ''Your authorization please'', the droid said again. Ron gave the droid his card. ''Welkom to Lima Prima, sir.'' ''No, really, is that where I am now'', Ron said sarcastic and walked to the main bar. ''One of your hottest drinks, I'm in need of it, sugar'', he said to the lady behind the counter. She walked away to get it. Ron looked around the spaceport and saw a lot of humans and aliens talking, playing and fighting. ''A real bountyhunter spaceport'', he said to himself. Suddenly he saw some men at a table looking at him.

------------------
Solo

[This message has been edited by Sven Solo (edited June 04, 2000).]

then one of them walked over and said "youre new around here arent you?" "thats none of your business" Ron replied, and emptied his drink. "HARR HARR, you dont seem to know who youre talkin to do you?" the guy said, and as his friends chuckled from the table across the room, Ron knew he was in trouble

"Ya see, around here, I run things", the man growled threateningly. "My friends survive just fine, but my enemies, now - that's a different story."

Ron sneered at him. "You threatening me, fatso?", he said. The man's face turned red and his friends walked up behind him. "Looks like we need to teach this newbie a lesson", he snarled. "Let's get 'im boys."

The four thugs advanced on Ron. Ron had been trained in hand-to-hand combat during his short stint in the Imperial Academy - before they threw him out for "gross insubordination", that is - but would be able to handle all four of the men?

''Wait'', Ron yelled. The men stopped,''What?'' Ron lifted the left side of his jacket, revealing a little blaster.
''What are you gonna do with that'', the leader said,''You can't even kill a mynock with that!'' ''I know, with this I will cripple you...'', Ron said laughing while pulling a blasttech shotgun out of his backpack,''...and with this I will kill you!'' The man stepped back, but the others unbealted their blasters and aimed at Ron.

''Now, now'', the leader said,''Let's be friends, so we don't have to kill eachother.'' Ron looked at the man and lowered his shotgun, the others too.

By Trystan
-------------------------------------

Altough the men looked like they wouldn't try anything else, Ron carefully opened the gunholder of his chestblaster. The leader directed him to a table, at the back of the cafe. As Ron and the leader sat down, Ron noticed how the other thugs gathered around him. "Now, mister..." the leader started. "Gatak, Ron Gatak" Ron answered. "Ah, well mister Gatak. I have seen that you are quite capable in hostile envirements." Ron didn't liked how the man ended his sentence and didn't hesitate when he felt some movement behind him. As he looked behind he saw something he never expected...

An Imperial officer walked through the main door without an escort what so ever. ''What the hell'', said the leader, ''They aren't wanted here.'' Suddenly the floor shook under their feet, green laserfire filled the outside as the planetary defenses where blown up. A squadron of Imperial troopers rushed in the building. ''This is an Imperial raid, everybody stand still, no sudden moves, we are in need of supplies!''

As a reaction to that everybody on the plaza drew their guns at the troopers and hellfire began. Ron dived under the seat and in one movement he drew his shotgun and blew in a mighty blast a stormtrooper in the sky. He ducked away because he was under fire. Ron crawled away to the backdoor, while evading a body that was coming down.

He neared the door and opened it. A stormtrooper behind it reacted and Ron was handcuffed.

------------------
Solo

Ron reacted even quicker and punched the trooper in the face, before he could close the handcuffs. The trooper was dazzled and walked back, untill he lost his balance and fell back. The trooper hit his head hard and lost concious. Ron didn't wait and ran away, although he heared there was someone behind him. Trying to look behind his back didn't help, because he was still wearing his blazer with the the fur belt on it. While he kept running he grabbed his 'beltgun' and turned around. Before looking who ever it was following him, he dived to his right, while aiming on the person behind him. On the moment he was ready he looked at the person and saw...

------------------
[ISF]HeLlSPawN :-)(-:

''RON, DON'T SHOOT!'' ''Kindal, what are you doing here'', said Ron looking at a girl he
always liked and met on the Imperial Academy.
''I got kicked out of the academy just before the exam, somebody set me up, i'm here to find those who did that. Not that I want to go back, but because of that nobody can do that to me!'' ''Never though I could find you here?'' ''Well, I need to earn money somehow'' A laser hit the wall in front of them, ''Let's go to my ship, it's not save here.'' ''I'll follow...'' Ron stood up and ran down the hallway again. He could hear Kindal running after him and some stormtroopers shouting. Blasterfire filled the air. ''In here'', Ron said ducking away in a door. He immediatly saw his fine ship standing on the open air landingplace.

''come on'', he said while opening the hatch. Kindal ran in the ship followed by Ron. She sat down on the copilot seat and started the engines. ''Well you know your way around here'', Ron said. He sat down in the other seat. ''Imperial training'', was the only thing Kindal said.

The ship hovered above the ground and then lifted up higher until the sub-light engines were activated. The Eagle flew into space.
Ron looked out of the window and saw a stardestroyer lurking at the Eagle. ''This is no good'', Ron said.

------------------
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose sitting on a couch watching spirit crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your mouth...
But why would I do a thing like that, i chose not to choose this life.
I chose the Star Wars life...

"Hold tight, Kindal," Ron said. Green tubolasers blew past the Eagle as Ron worked quickly to activate his hyperdrive. A flashing told Ron that the stardestroyer was locking the Eagle with their missles. "Uh oh!" Ron yelled. Suddenly, a sharp shudder in his ship and the hyperdrive had activated, unfortunately without any real target. Ron had just set a course and took off. Wondering where he had been sent off to he checked the ship's computers when he was ditracted by Kindal. "Nice piloting," she started, "but I could've done better." "Thanks alot," was all Ron could say.

After checking the computers Ron learned that their destination was an unpopulated planet except for the local colonies set up by the rebellion; a perfect place for people like them. People who didn't want to be found.

------------------
You're all just jealous because the voices only talk to ME!

(LOL, nice quote, Morphius Jedi!)

A day into their journey in hyperspace, Ron was lounging in the cockpit, half asleep. Suddenly, a jerking shudder shook him awake! The shaking stopped after a second, and Ron frantically scanned the controls and dials, trying to find what had gone wrong. As he happened to glance out the transparasteel window, he saw the problem. The star streaks were gone, replaced by normal stars. Their hyperdrive had malfunctioned.

Kindal entered the cockpit from the back. "What happened?"

"We just lost our hyperdrive. I think it must have been that sudden jump we made from just on the edge of Lima Prima's gravity well." He flicked a few controls. "It's gonna take a while to determine exactly what's wrong. Fortunately, the life support is functioning."

Kindal watched as Ron manipulated the controls. "How far are we from the nearest system?"

Ron looked over at the navigational system. "We're about half a light year from the nearest star, and that one doesn't even have any planets. If we don't fix this hyperdrive, we're going to die here." He stood and turned to some controls behind his seat. "Better activate the astromech, or we'll be here for hours."

Down in the hold of the ship, a small light blinked on. Mechanical noises could be heard, and a red and grey D6 unit rolled over to the autolift.

The Eagle drifted in deep space, a lonely speck in a vast universe.

------------------
My mind is like a sponge, it soaks up a lot... but it leaks

KRIG THE VIKING

Hundreds of lightyears away on the planet X'Ouro'R'Bet, Ron's friend Leo Spacatii sat watching the Imperial Holonet. "Nothing much here to report to Ron. Just stuff about the new Star Destroyers," Leo muttered. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do. Ron, when he and Kindal had blasted off, had contacted Leo to watch the Holonet to make sure there were no persuers. Ron had not explained what was going on. Leo could've been slicing into his favorite bar's computers, by the name of "Wandering Drunk".

Leo scrolled through some more. Still no warning as to whether there was any Imperial threat after Ron and the Eagle. Leo scrolled some more. There, in bold letters, was the message to find the ship. Shoot, I better contact Ron. This message has a reply saying the actual hyperspace coordinates were extracted.

Leo hit the contact button on his communication program. He waited.

"Ship contacted," said a female droid voice. "Ron here. What's up, Leo?" Ron said. "You have a Star Destroyer, and two Dreadnaughts on the way." "Thanks, Leo. We just got the hyperdrive back."

The communication ended. Leo went over to his bed, and fell asleep...



------------------
If it's not a cog, why bother?

Ron swore. He looked out the viewports. TIEs were everywhere. They looked like flies around a dead animal. Or being, for that matter. He called out, "Kindal, get to the guns, we have trouble." "Already there, laser brains," Kindal called back.

Ron ran back to the controls. He started firing with the topside turrets, which were link to the navigation console. The Eagle shuddered. Shields were dropping fast. Ron tried avoiding the TIEs, but it was no use, there were too many of them. He wondered if there was anything that would work.....

------------------
If it's not a cog, why bother?

''Kindal, lay in a new course to the same planet, but with a big turn!'' ''But...''
''Just do it!'', Ron said as he looked out of the circular window at the TIEs. Ron fired the quad-laser canon at a TIE, hitting one on his wings. The TIE tolled around and took another one down with him in the explosion. ''Yihaaa, got one of those bucketheads!'' ''RON, two stardestroyers are entering sensorrange!'' ''Better get us out of here fast!'', He said again firing at the TIEs. He looked at the sensorpanel, ''Damn!''
Ron saw two squadrons of TIE-fighter nearing.

He turned the canon off. ''I might just have an idea.'' Ron stood up and removed a panel from the wall, revealing lots of wires with two big yellow ones. A little sign on top of the wires said ''WARNING, HIGH VOLTAGE''. Ron cut the two wires and pulled them further out. He now removed a panel on the otherside revealing two big red wires. He looked at the sign on top of the wires ''BACKUP POWER''. He cut those too and pulled them futher out too. He now connected the red and yellow wires.

''this has got to work!'' He jumped on the canonseat and turned it on again. ''Kindal, can you turn on the backup power?'' ''We have all the power we need'',the intercom reacted.
''Just do it, I need it.'' ''Ok, ok.'' Suddenly sparks came from the connection of the four wires. Ron aimed at a TIE, ''Let's hope this works.'' He pressed the fire button, red and purple laser bolt pumped out of the canon splitting in six new bolts and hitting the TIE on various places. The TIE exploded. Ron looked at the explosion. ''Wow'', was all he could say.

''Ron, I've got the course, but I'm not sure this is going to work?'' Ron looked at the stardestroyer nearing. ''Try it, it's our only option.'' ''Here goes nothing'', Kindal said. She pushed the hyperdrive. suddenly a loud crack and shudder in the ship made Ron fall. ''Not again.'' ''We lost it!'', Kindal said. a TIE opened fire and hit the ship. Suddenly a light flash around the ship.
''We've lost shields.'' ''What? Already?'', Ron said looking very confussed. ''I need the backup power.'' ''No can do, just shake em off and fire those canons!'' Ron ran through the ship. He opened a door and ran in the engineroom. He looked at a smoking hyperdrive. ''We are in very deep trouble here'', Ron said through the intercom, ''The hyperdrive is gone.''

The D6 rolled to the hyperdrive and begun repairing. ''No, that's not gonna help us!''
The D6 made some noises and continued it's work. ''What about the old hyperdrive?'' ''That rust pile-o-dump, it can't even go past 0.7 lightspeed. And I can't install it anymore!'' ''It's all we've got.'' ''No, take us to the stardestroyer, if somebody can repair this ship, they are!'' The Eagle shook of a hit. ''No way!''
''Yes way'', said Ron who walked in the cockpit. He took over the controls and piloted the Eagle to the stardestroyer.

''Sir, you won't believe this'', the sensorofficier said to the captain on the stardestroyer. ''They are piloting their ship to our dockingbays.'' ''That's called surrender.'' The captain called a squadron of stormtroopers to the hanger. The Eagle flew in and landed on the metal floor. ''I hope you know what you're doing, Ron.'' ''Me too!'', Ron said. He opened the hatch and walked out. The stormtroopers aimed their guns. Kindal followed. ''You are under arrest for an attempt of escaping a planet under attack.'' ''What kind of stupid thing is that!'' ''Shut your mouth!'' Two stromtroopers handcuffed Ron and Kindal and took them away.

Leo wook up and looked at the console. A red light flickered. ''Looks like Ron is in trouble on these coordinates.'' Leo looked some more and then walked out of his room into the big hall of the Imperial castle on Coruscant. He saw Han, Luke, Leia and Chewie talking to Admiral Ackbar. He walked further to the landingbays and entered one. He looked around and then enter his ship, the Flying Drunk. The Drunk lifted in the air and flew out of the doors into space. ''Coordinates set, let's go!'' Leo punshed the hyperdrive and the Drunk jumped into hyperspace.

Ron threw the plate to the wall. The thing made a loud bang and fell on the floor. ''I'M NOT EATING THIS ****!'' ''THEN ROT AWAY'' another voice from the cells said. ''I know that voice!'' ''ofcourse you do'', the dark cells said again. a head appeared between the bars. ''Jake, you here?'' ''Ron, nice to see you, they arrested me because I flew to close to one of their stardestroyers'', Jake said smiling. Kindal woke up and looked at Ron and another man, ''Who's that?'' Ron looked behind him, ''This is Jake, an old friend from the smuglingbiss.'' ''O, hi.'' Kindal fell a sleep again. ''What are they going to do to us?'', Ron asked. ''Don't know, but sometimes they take me to a secret lab on the ship and torture me for nothing. They are up to something.'' ''Well, no time to find out.'' ''You want out?'' ''Yes'', Ron said looking at the strong durasteel bars. ''There is a way, the prison garbage drains.'' ''What? No way.'' ''It's the only way.'' ''Why haven't you gone through.'' ''I don't know where to go to. At least here I get food.'' Ron looked at Jake, ''Well, goodbye then.'' ''Yes, good luck.'' Ron woke Kindal up and lifted the hatch of the drain.

A disgusting smell rose from the drain. ''Phew, what those imperials do, I don't know, but they sure stink!'' Ron crawled into the drain not trying to breath to much. Kindal followed. Ron lowered and lowered until he jumped into a pipe. ''This way'', he said walking into the darkness. He toughed the walls searching for an exit. His hand toughed a hatch. He opened it and looked into a hallway. He crawled out of the drain and looked in the hallway. Nobody. Kindal crawled out too. Suddenly a loud filtered voice, ''HALT!''

------------------
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose sitting on a couch watching spirit crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your mouth...
But why would I do a thing like that, i chose not to choose this life.
I chose the Star Wars life...

Ron tore a lose pipe of the wall and threw it as hard as possible. The pipe hit the stormtrooper and he lost his balance. This was the moment, Ron ran to the stormtrooper, put his helmet off and knocked him unconcious. He stripped him from his clothes and checked the size. ''Well?'' Kindal asked.
''Too short.'' Ron still putted on the suit. ''Hurry up, before I die in here'', Ron said. He handcuffed Kindal and begun walking. ''I hope you have a plan.'' ''Me too'', Ron said again.

Some stormtroopers came along, but none said something. Ron walked very difficult. One stormtrooper stopped before him. ''Halt! Do you have to pie'', he said laughing it out. Some others laughed with him. Ron walked further, ''Your time will come.'' He said to himself. They entered the hangarbay. ''There she is, the Eagle. Let's hope they repaired her.'' They saw nobody and so Ron put of the suit. He walked into the Eagle. He picked up a blaster from a secret compartment and walked out. Kindal looked at him, ''Where are you going?'' ''Some unfinished business. Be right back!''

------------------
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose sitting on a couch watching spirit crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your mouth...
But why would I do a thing like that, i chose not to choose this life.
I chose the Star Wars life...

top

Ron ran out of the hangar bay, blaster in hand. Kindal watched as he ran out, and then moved to lower the Eagle's ramp, when she realized her hands were still restrained behind her back. She struggled to get out, but realized the Imperials did a good job of making these things to restrain their prisoners. She sat down defeated, when she saw Jake, still in stormtrooper armor, running toward her.

"Hey, there!" she called. "What are you doing here?"

"We've got to get into the ship!"

"Good! I've been trying to get in..." and made a gesture with her hands. "What's so important, by the way?"

"Quickly, we've got to move." Jake hit the release button, and the ramp slid down, and the two ran up. Kindal struggled to keep up with him as he ran to the cockpit.

"Hold on! Ron hasn't come back yet!"

"Oh yeah, let's go back to get him. You lead the way."

She turned to exit the ship, when she was suddenly knocked unconscious from behind.

***************

Ron leaned forward, making sure the hallway was clear, then quickly ran down it. The whole thing with the Imperials didn't make sense. Why would they need to make a supply raid on a poor little city like Mon Reha, on the equally poor planet of Ehara IV? And why would they arrest a the civilians on a ship as they were leaving the planet? Something here seemed fishy, and he didn't trust government types; not the Empire, nor the Rebellion.

He looked at a holomap on the wall. The information center is one deck down. Ron ran to the nearest elevator, and went down. He stepped out, and quickly shot down two officers walking down the hall, as well as a stormtrooper rushing after hearing the blaster shots. Thanking his quick relfexes, he made his way down the hall. He looked out the portal window, and saw a non-Imperial ship taking off out into space. On closer inspection, he realized it was the Eagle, and it immediately went into hyperspace.

***************

Kindal felt something wet on her neck, but she couldn't tell what it was. Suddenly she felt another sharp pain in her head, and she tried to rub it with her hands but found them still restrained. She opened her eyes but found she also couldn't see. She was locked in some compartment in the ship, and her hands were bound behind her back, her feet tied to her wrists. Her arms and elbows were tied to her side, and her knees were also bound together tightly. A thick cloth was secured around her mouth, and she found it hard to breath. She tried slamming into the compartment opening, but it wouldn't budge. Why was Jake doing this? He was supposed to be Ron's friend! Suddenly, the ship made a large jolt, and her head slammed into a side of the compartment, and again she was knocked out.

------------------
'But tonight, we're going to a party. Because that's our job.'
'Bleed and die, yub, yub.'
'Never tell me the odds. You know Corellians have no tolorence for odds.'
'Me? Egotistical?

-Wedge Antilles

"damn," Ron said. Suddenly a terrible thought went through his mind,
Kindal betraided him! "No, that's not possible, I will not believe it!"
"believe it or not," a voice said behind him. Ron turn around ready to
shoot, "Oh, it's just you Jake."

The bridgeofficier walked to the captain, "Sir the captured ship just entered
hyperspace!" "Good, our plan is going as planned," the captain said smilling,
"Prepare a ship for our friend Ron!" "Sir, that is not part of the plan-" "Try
looking further than the current position, Ron will lead us to victory. He will
be the key to the defeat of the pathetic New Republic!" "Yes sir," the officier said
a bit confussed. He walked back to his post and checked the monitors. The captain
look around his bridge, a loyal crew who will follow him everywhere without knowing
they will die soon for the greater good. He now looked at the Stardestroyers interior,
and tried to imagen the outside of this giant and heavily modified Stardestroyer.
It had to be very impressive. The captain walked of the bridge through the doors
into the hallway which lead to his chamber.

"I though you were still in your cell," Ron said a bit suprised. Jake looked at him,
"have you forgotten about our old smuggling times? How we escaped countless cells?"
Ron smiled, "ofcourse not." He walked down the hallway with his blaster in hand. Jake
pulled Ron back,"I know where we can find a ship." Jake walked the other way to the hangarbays.
Ron followed him, but he knew there was something wrong with Jake. They entered a hangarbay,
Jake walked at a ship and opened the boardingramp. He walked up the ramp followed by Ron.
Ron closed the ramp. He followed Jake to the cockpit. A few moments later the repulsors wherre
activated and the ship lifted in the air. "They should already have noticed this!" Ron said.
"No, they didn't," Jake said. He activated the sub-light enegines and the ship flew out of the
hangarbay.

Leo looked at the controls of his ship, he watched every number and every reading passing
by very carefully. Suddenly he froze the screen looking at some information. He looked up
and indeed the information was correct he saw a ship coming out of the stardestroyer.
Lucky for Leo the Imperials couldn't detect him with their old technology. He started the
engines and followed the ship on a save distance. This wasn't the Eagle, but he knew he
had to follow the ship, maybe he was a bit potential for the Force, or maybe it was just
a hunch. The ship jumped into hyperspace. Leo looked at the Stardestroyer one more time, why
didn't they fire? Maybe their ship was to damaged that only lifesupport worked? a few moments
later Leo followed the hyperspacetrail of the other ship and entered hyperspace.

"Sir, the ship and the spyship have escaped to hyperspace." "Good, this spyship is very important. Lucky for us he tought we could not detect him. Lay in a course for Tatooine." "Yes sir," the bridge officier said and gave some orders to several people. Moments later the Stardestroyer entered hyperspace.

The darkness suddenly was filled with light, Kindal looked up still a bit dizzy, and with a big headache. A door was opened and a man walked at her and untied the cloth around her mouth. He entied the rest and helped her out the cabine.

------------------
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose sitting on a couch watching spirit crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your mouth...
But why would I do a thing like that, i chose not to choose this life.
I chose the Star Wars life...