At the base, an officer, Derlin, ran up to his superior in the hangar bay.
"Sir, all the patrols are in. Still no- " he looked over to Leia listening in, and quickly lowered his voice. "Still no word from Skywalker or Solo."
"Princess Leia," Threepio said as he walked up to her, "R2 says that he has been unable to pick up any signals, although he does admit that his own range is far too weak to abandon all hope."
"Princess," Derlin officer said as he and his subordinate joined the brown-haired woman and the droid, "There's nothing more we can do tonight. The shield doors must be closed."
Leia closed her eyes in defeat and nodded the unspoken order. The officer gave the order as Chewie walked up, close to tears himself.
"You can see how much it kills her to do it." Kit Fisto whispered to Shaak Ti.
"I know how she feels." She replied.
Artoo beeped nearby. "R2 says the chances of survival are 725 to 1." Threepio translated.
The great metal doors groaned as they came together with a loud clang. Chewie roared in grief as he fought to keep the tears in him.
The audience were visibly worried for the duo. Due to the harsh circumstances and the weather, they silently hoped that the Force would provide a miracle for them.
"Of course, Artoo has been known to make mistakes." Threepio said in an attempt to be helpful, "From time to time."
"I appreciate the effort, Threepio." Leia said with a small smile.
"Reassurance is not my forte." He admitted.
Leia nodded as she walked up to Chewie and pulled her into a hug. Threepio walked up next to Artoo and placed a hand on his dome. "Don't worry about Master Luke. I'm sure he'll be alright. He's quite clever, you know, for a human being."
In the tundra, Luke lay where he had fallen, giving up on getting back to base, much less surviving for much longer out here. That was, until his heard a voice call out to him.
"Luke." It said to him.
"Luke." He felt like she remembered it from somewhere, making his raise his head up. At the crest of a nearby hill, he saw his spectral form, clad in his robes and with the hood drawn up onto his head
"Obi-Wan?", Anakin said, his voice hopeful at seeing his Master still guiding Luke all this time.
"I saw a lot of things lately, but Ghosts certaintly aren't one of them", Rex mused, a little startled.
"Ben?" he said confused. Obi-Wan was supposed to be dead .
"You will go to the Dagobah system." He told him.
Yoda's ears perked at hearing the planet full of Dark Side energy while the other Jedi became intruiged about this.
"Wasn't the planet removed from the Archives?", Mundi asked, bewildered.
"Dagobah system?"
"There you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me."
"Master Yoda!", almost every Jedi shouted in both elation and relief, knowing that the aging Grand Master is still alive even after Vader and the Empire destroyed the Jedi. They were initially worried that he didn't make it through the future, but Obi-Wan's revelation says otherwise.
"Oh, thank the Force!", Master Mundi said out loud.
"This is great news. The Jedi weren't completely wiped out", Luminara added in the positivity of the situation.
"That means Luke can still complete his training!", Ahsoka added as well.
Yoda became intruiged at knowing he was still around by the time of the Empire and was looking forward on what he could contribute for Luke.
"Ben! Luke croaked out, reaching out for his hand, but his form disappeared as he once again lost consciousness. By a stroke of luck, he was found by Han ten seconds later.
"Talk about luck...", Anakin mused at seeing this.
"Luke!" Han cried out as he dismounted and tried to run for his friend. The snow was deep, so he was clumsy at best, but he quickly made it and flipped Luke over. "Don't do this, Luke. Come on, gimme a sign here."
He went to check Luke's pulse when he heard a pained breathing behind him and turned just in time to see his mount collapse into the snow and let out a death rattle.
Cursing to himself, Han grabbed Luke's wrists and pulled the boy over to the still warm corpse of his mount. Wasting no time and ignoring Luke's delirious mutterings, Han used the lightsaber to cut open the beast's belly.
"Sorry, kid." Han said as he pushed the boy into the opening, "This isn't gonna smell great, but it'll keep you warm until I get the shelter up." With his friend safely inside the belly of the beast, Han took time for a quick breather. "Damn. And I here thought they smelled bad on the outside."
"Ugh! That's so gross!" Caleb wailed.
"A poor term, in my opinion." Depa commented, "But an action that will likely save his life. If Mr. Solo can get the shelter up quickly, the residual body warmth will keep his core temperature up for a while longer. Smart thinking."
"Still, this is even worse than the garbage chute..", Obi-Wan groaned, feeling a little sick.
...
The following morning, the storm had cleared, leaving rolling hills of fresh snow in its wake. The sight was quickly ruined by a squadron of four snow speeders cresting one of the hills before breaking off from each other in search of Luke and Han.
"Echo Base, I've got something." One of the pilots, Zev, said over the radio, "Not much, but it could be a lifeform." He followed the signal further from the base, keeping his eyes and his ears open for any sign of life. "Commander Skywalker, do you copy? This is Rogue Two. Repeat, this is Rogue Two. Captain Solo, do you copy?" he crested another hill before trying his broadcast again.
"Good morning. Nice of you guys to drop by." Han said over the radio, making the pilot smile at his sarcasm.
"Echo Base, this is Rogue Two. I found them. Repeat, I found them." He said. Han waved as his speeder buzzed the shelter he had managed to erect.
"He had made a shelter and prepped his own communicator.." Mace observed. "Impressive, Mr. Solo
Luke was quickly returned to base where he was rushed to emergency treatment for his injuries and a case of hypothermia. Instead of any kind of surgery, he was loaded into a fluid tank for several hours, the contents of which greatly accelerated his healing.
He was woken a day later, the only signs of his trouble being a few scars on his cheek and the sunken state of his eyes, though the doctor said he simply needed some rest and a decent meal to fix the latter.
"It's fortunate they still used Bacta Tanks at this time", Rex said, scratching his chin.
"Master Luke, it's so good to see you fully functioning again." Threepio said happily when he, Artoo, Leia , Han and Chewie came to see him in recovery.
Luke smiled weakly. "Thanks, Threepio."
"Rest up, kid", Anakin said to the boy. "You're gonna need it"
Artoo beeped and squealed happily. "R2 expresses his relief also."
"How ya feelin', kid?" Han asked as he entered the room. "You don't look so bad to me. Hell, you look like you could pull the ears off a gundark."
"Can you blame him?", Obi-Wan gestured to the smuggler.
"Thanks to you."
"That's two you owe me, kid." He joked before turning to face Leia. "Well, Your Worship, looks like you managed to keep me around for a while longer."
"I had nothing to do with it." Leia insisted. "General Rieekan thinks it's dangerous for any ships to leave the system until we've activated the energy field."
"That's a good story." Han conceded. "I think you just couldn't stand to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight."
Anakin twitched at hearing those words while the men coughed simultaneously. The rest of the females rolled their eyes at Han's way of flirting.
Leia shook her head in exasperation, but didn't break eye contact. "I don't know where you get your delusions, Laser Brain."
Behind him, Chewie failed to suppress a snicker at Han's expense.
"Laugh it up, fuzzball." He said quietly, shooting a glare at Chewie before walking over to Leia, "But you didn't see us alone in the south passage, where she expressed her true feelings for me."
"As if someone had feelings for you!", Anakin called out to the smuggler.
"Geez, Skyguy. You sounded like a father seeing his daughter in her first date", Ahsoka mused, with some members of the audience raising their eyebrows.
"My- " Leia looked up at him and Han immediately backed off. "Why you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!"
"Who's scruffy looking?" Han retorted, "Must have hit pretty close to the mark to get her that riled up, eh, kid?"
"Geez, you two sounded like a married couple!", Rex added with a chuckle of his own. The audience couldn't help but smile at Leia's attempts to counter Han's words.
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