Author's Note: Eagle-eyed readers may notice that the climax of this chapter is somewhat different to the original draft. I always intended this story to be the first part of a trilogy, but for ages I couldn't make it work. It wasn't until I changed the identity of Hondo's contact that everything clicked into place and also helped this story fit into the Star Wars: Rebels continuity. I hope you enjoy, and a follow-up will be released in the future.

A long time ago in a galaxy far,

far away….

STAR WARS REBELS

The Kessel Run: Into the Fire

The Kessel Run, Maw Nebula, Outer Rim Territories – 21:30 Zulu – 04 BBY

The eight smugglers fanned out as they moved into the Falcon's corridor. They men quickly disarmed Hera and Zeb. Chewbacca roared as three of the smugglers wrestled his bow-caster away from him while the Transdoshan leader continued to train his gun menacingly at Hera.

"Where'ss Ssolo?" he demanded. "Are you new owner of Millennium Falcon?"

"What do you uglies want?" Zeb demanded.

"Look who isss talking!" the reptilian leader drawled, seemingly amused by his own joke. "I no looker," he said as he gestured at his missing eye. "But I Twi'lek dancer compared to you, Lassat."

"Don't flatter yourself!" Hera snapped.

"We want the Ssspice," the leader announced. "That iss all. Your cargo, for your livesss. A fair trade, no?"

Chewie gave a warning snarl, his growl echoing around the corridors.

"Where the Ssspice? We take it. Then we go."

Hera, Zeb and Chewie didn't move; didn't say a word. The Transdoshan clicked his teeth in irritation.

"You no talk? Who want to be sshot first, hmm?" He stepped closer to Hera. "The pretty one? Would that loossen tounguesss?"

Chewbacca glanced at Hera; his eyes darting between the Twi'lek and the Transdoshan. Then the Wookiee's shoulders slumped and he lowered his head almost in submission. Chewie released a contrite growl followed by several baying grumbles.

The reptilian leader pointed to his right towards the aft cargo hold. "In there?"

Chewbacca nodded slowly, keeping his eyes averted.

"Take the Sspice!" the leader commanded his men. "Load it on ssship." He turned back to Hera. "Your friend iss very loyal. He probably sssave your life… Probably… Haven't decided whether I kill you yet!"

Sabine looked down at the warning alarms on the turret gun. The twin-lasers were rapidly overheating through continued use. The situation wasn't helped by the fact the TIE Fighters were relentless in their pursuit of the Ghost.

Sabine let off another salvo of laser blasts at the Imperial fighters, watching in satisfaction as she winged one of the Tie Fighters, sending it spinning off into an asteroid.

"We can't take much more of this!" she warned through the comm. "The gun's overheating."

"Just keep them off our tail as long as you can!" Kanan ordered.

The dense cluster of asteroids began to clear as the Ghost flew out of the field.

"We've cleared the Pit," Han announced from the cockpit.

"That's a good thing, right?" Ezra asked. He was hunkered over the power core, doing his best to nurse more power from drive. "It means there are no more asteroids to crash into?"

"Yeah, and no more shelter!" Han replied. "They can send as many fighters as they like against us. The Empire really doesn't like you!"

"You don't do what we do without making a few enemies," Kanan replied, almost proudly.

"I swear I am never getting involved with Jedi again!" Han muttered.

Another squadron of fighters surged out from the Pit. The enemy craft descended like a swarm of hornets, firing indiscriminately. The laser bolts hit the Ghost, scarring the ship's battered hull.

Han struggled to keep the ship level as the attack rocked them back and forth.

"And she calls my ship a brick," he muttered. "At least mine can take a corner."

"We're too exposed!" Sabine called out. "We need to get out of range of their guns."

"Not much we can do about that," Kanan replied. "We're committed to following the Run."

"I wouldn't count on that, Cabin-boy," Han replied. "Setting course zero-two-zero." Han rolled the ship to starboard, heading directly for a bank of cloud.

"You're taking us into the nebula?" Sabine exclaimed.

"We won't be able to navigate in there, Solo!" Kanan pointed out.

"Well, it's a good thing you have me on board, isn't it?" Han retorted. "You don't travel the Kessel Run as frequently as I do without learning a few shortcuts."

Han diverted auxiliary power to the thrusters and powered away from the chasing pack of TIE fighters. A few seconds later, the Ghost merged with the clouds and disappeared into the nebula…

With the crates loaded onto a repulsorlift pallet, the smugglers pushed the Spice through the Falcon's main corridor towards the port docking ring.

The Transdoshan leader watched his men manoeuvre the pallet onto his waiting ship, keeping his gun trained on the captured Falcon crew.

"Isss that all?" he demanded of one of the Feeorins pushing the crates.

"There's another two pallets in the aft hold," his subordinate replied.

"Take it!" the Transdoshan ordered. He turned to Chewbacca. "Not your day it sseemss? Firsst your drive breakss. Then we take your Sspice."

"And we get to stare at your ugly face!" Zeb added.

"Har! Yesss," the reptilian smuggler agreed. "My face last thing you want to ssee, I imagine?"

"Well, we've seen plenty of ugly things in the Maw, your face just rounds off our day!" Hera retorted.

The leader started in surprise. "You flew through the Maw?" he asked. Hera nodded. The leader waved his blaster at Chewie. "Iss thiss right? Truly?" Chewbacca growled and nodded vigorously.

"Wellll, wasssn't that fortunate? For usss!" the Transdoshan drawled. "Now we take Sssolo'ss cargo. All becaussse his Wookiee friend took Millennium Falcon through the Maw. Big missstake!"

Chewbacca shook his head and growled as he pointed at Hera. The Transdoshan one good eye widened as he gazed at Hera with renewed interest.

"You piloted Ssolo'ss ssship?" Hera shrugged modestly. The Transdoshan pulled back his wide lips in a nasty grin. "We have contacts that would pay big credits for ssskilled pilot like you, pretty-one. I think you come with ussss!"

Zeb took a step forward. "That's not going to happen. You'll have to go through me first!" he threatened.

The Transdoshan shrugged and pointed his blaster at Zeb's head. "That can be arranged, Lassat. Your kind iss rare, but far too ugly to bring good price in marketsss…"

Behind the Transdoshan, the last of the crates was being transferred onto the smuggler's ship.

"All the crates are stowed aboard," one of the Feeorins advised the leader. "We should leave now before other ships arrive."

"Very well," the leader said. He pointed at Hera. "We take thiss one with usss."

The rest of the smugglers filed into the main hold behind the Transdoshan, his blaster still pointed at Zeb's face. "Do not get any ideass," he warned Zeb.

The smugglers approached, ready to grab Hera when a male voice rang out from the Transdoshan's comlink.

"Sir, we have a problem here!" The man's voice sounded worried.

The leader sighed and pulled the comlink from his belt. "What'sss the problem?"

"Another ship is coming into range!" the voice on the other end said.

The Transdoshan flushed a deeper green. "Hssss. Ssenssorss are on full. Why didn't you ssee it before?"

"Because it's not coming through the Run. It's from insidethe nebula!"

The Transdoshan rushed past them and dashed into the Falcon's cockpit to stare through the window at the glowing nebula illuminated in stunning shades of blue and gold.

At first he couldn't see any other ships in the region other than his own raiding craft. He was about to yell into his comlink, but stopped when he spotted something. A shadow was forming behind the clouds directly ahead; there was something approaching them at speed.

The reptilian leader tensed and was about to order his men to defend themselves when a Correllian freighter erupted through the golden wall of dust. He recognised it as same the freighter he'd seen on Formos. It was the Twi'lek's ship!

The Ghost emerged from the nebula. Han Solo was at the helm, while Kanan manned the gun port below the cockpit. Han and Kanan took in the scene in an instant. Three smuggler's ships had surrounded the Millennium Falcon, and one of them, a heavily modified XS stock light freighter, had attached itself to the Falcon's port docking ring.

"Three vessels. All heavily armed. One attached to the Falcon," Han said as he read from the display monitor. "They're trying to board her and steal from my ship!"

"We won't give them the chance!" Kanan promised.

He opened fire, his face contorted into a mask of barely suppressed fury as he targeted the ship closest to them. The blasts from the Ghost's cannon ripped into the ship's hull, destroying the engines and tearing off part of the armour plating. The damaged ship listed as the Ghost swept over it already focused on its sister ships.

In the Falcon, the Transdoshan reacted. He turned and ran into the main hold, ordering his men back onto his ship.

"Sssorry, pretty-one," he said to Hera. "Have to go now. Sssee you sssoon."

The smugglers evacuated back through the docking ring. The inner hatch snapped closed and there was a shuddering bang as the smuggler ship detached from the Falcon.

Hera moved. Dashing back to the cockpit, she sat in Han's chair and tried to divert power to weapons.

Chewbacca slid back into his seat and barked as he read from the monitors.

"Power's rerouting. It's just the drive systems still aren't functional." She hit the comm. "Chopper! Where are you?"

A deep warble sounded over the speakers. Hera breathed a sigh of relief as Chopper twittered and chirruped.

"Understood," Hera told him. She turned to Zeb. "He's almost got the drive fixed. Apparently, the smugglers just ignored him when they entered the aft hold."

"Guess that bucket of bolts is good for something!" Zeb jokingly grumbled.

Hera glanced out of the window. Outside the battle was raging. The Ghost had already disabled one of the smuggler's ships, and was firing at a second craft that exploded under the onslaught from the main gun. The Ghost turned and engaged the Transdoshan's XS light freighter in a dog-fight.

"Hera! Are you okay?" Kanan's voice piped over the comm. The sound of cannon fire could be heard in the background. Hera guessed he was manning the main gun.

"We're good," she responded. "But the Falcon's drive is down. We need a couple of minutes to get it fixed."

"We don't have a couple of minutes!" Han's voice countered. "There are more ships on their way!"

Hera checked the threat display. Even with the sensors on maximum it was difficult to cut through the interference from the nebula, but she could make out at least four ships on an intercept course.

Hera turned to Zeb. "Go and help Chopper!" she told him. He stood and made for the door. "It's all down to how fast you can get the drive…" But a sudden wailing interrupted her. The drive engines came back to life and the ship lurched as acceleration took hold. Hera clung to her seat; Zeb landed face down on the floor.

"Did I say that bucket of bolts was worth something?" Zeb mumbled from a somewhat prone position.

"You did," Hera reminded him ruefully. "Drive engines are back online," Hera announced to the Kanan and Han. "Well done, Chopper!"

She was already swinging the Falcon around when Kanan's voice sounded over the speakers. "Get back to Formos. We'll sort everything out there. Don't stop until you're out of the nebula!"

"You don't have to tell me twice." Hera gunned the throttle and the Falcon shot forward.

Han disengaged from their battle with the smuggler's ship and trailed after the Falcon, leaving only the wreckage of two vessels and one badly damaged XS freighter in their wake.

"I almost regret not finishing them off," Sabine said over the comm.

"Don't worry," Han replied. "When those other ships reach them, they'll probably wish we hadfinished them off."

Travelling in convoy formation, the two Corellian ships set a course out of the nebula.

Formos, Kessel Sector, Outer Rim Territories – 08:30 Local Time

With landing jets gushing out quick bursts of flame, Hera settled the Millennium Falcon down gently on the landing pad of Formos Spaceport.

Beside it, Kanan, having taken over from Han at the helm, eased the Ghost into the next berth.

The ships powered down and the boarding ramps lowered. Han was the first to exit the Ghost. He ran down the ramp and rushed over to the Falcon, examining the undercarriage and ventral armour for signs of damage, muttering to himself heatedly.

Hera sauntered down the Falcon's boarding ramp. Zeb and Chopper followed her, while Chewbacca ambled behind them. The Wookiee made a bee line for Solo.

Kanan ran out onto the landing pad and rushed up to Hera. He embraced her openly, holding her tight, and breathing a small sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

"Never better, Love," Hera replied happily.

Kanan regarded Hera for a long moment. Then he looked down, clearing his throat. "I think the Ghost might need a little bit of work. I tried to keep her out of trouble but I'm not the pilot you are."

Hera grinned and nodded. "I didn't exactly stay out of trouble myself. But after this little escapade I'm certainly going to have a greater appreciation for the old girl!"

They grinned, savouring the moment. Unfortunately, the moment was interrupted by a shout behind them.

"What have you done to my ship?" Han accused Hera. "There's impact craters, carbon-scoring, and…" He stopped and stared at a peculiar shaped burn near the Falcon's right mandible. "…Is that…? "Are those lava burns?" he exclaimed.

"Lava?!" Kanan asked her.

Hera smiled. "Long story. I'll explain later," she said.

Kanan's face grew serious. He leaned in and whispered in Hera's ear. "Solo has the holocron."

Hera paused before nodding in understanding. They were going to need to retrieve it from Han somehow.

She looked back. Chewbacca was growling animatedly as he showed Han something in his hand. Looking closer, Hera noticed the Wookiee was holding a portable sensor log. Han stared at the sensor log, hardly seeming to believe his eyes. He suddenly looked up at Hera.

"Eleven point five parsecs?!" Han yelled in astonishment. "Are you telling me you made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs?!"

"You're welcome," Hera said and saluted Han cheerfully.

"What was that?" a voice shouted from their left. Two pilots, a female rodian and a male togruta, were jogging over to see what all the fuss was about. They too looked at the sensor log.

"Well, I'll be damned!" the togruta exclaimed. "It's true. 11.5 parsecs."

"Which ship did that?" the rodian asked in Rodese.

Chewbacca pointed, with no little pride, at the Millennium Falcon. Other pilots and crew were hurrying over now.

Hera and Kanan edged away from the growing crowd and sidled up to join Sabine, Ezra, Zeb and Chopper by the Ghost's boarding ramp.

"We still need to get the holocron," Kanan said quietly.

"We can't just take it from him," Sabine pointed out. "He's… been an ally. We couldn't have done it without him. Without them both."

"Well, we're not going back empty-handed," Zeb put in. He cracked his knuckles. "Maybe he'd respond to more subtle methods?"

"Zeb!" Hera warned.

"What?" Zeb shrugged. "Just a suggestion."

Ezra had been watching Han closely as they were talking. Without a word, he broke away from the group and strode towards Han.

He could hear Solo talking to Chewbacca as he approached.

"…What about the Spice?" Han asked his friend.

The Wookiee growled softly in Han's ear. Han smiled and slapped Chewie on the arm, giving him a slight nod. Chewie inclined his head in Ezra's direction.

Han turned to face Ezra. "You were pretty good out there, kid," he said. "You'd make a good smuggler."

"Thanks. You were pretty good there yourself.

"After all these years of practice I should damn well hope so!" Han replied.

"We couldn't have done it without you."

"Hey, listen… anytime you want to jump ship, there's plenty of space in the Falcon. As long as you stay out from under feet!"

Ezra smiled but shook his head. "Thanks, but I've already got a space waiting for me…"

Han looked at the Ghost crew. "Yeah, you have." He looked down briefly before glancing up, his eyes darting between Ezra and his crew. He seemed to be struggling with a decision. Finally, Han reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved the holocron.

He turned the Jedi chronicle over in his hands before, as if against his better judgement, he tossed it to Ezra. "Here you go. You probably need it more than I do." Ezra caught the holocron and stared in astonishment. "Go on, before I change my mind."

Ezra held the holocron in his hands like a prize. "Maybe we'll see you around?" he asked.

"Don't count on it," Han replied. He waved Ezra away. "You be careful out there, kid."

Ezra hurried back to join the crew. They hastily boarded the Ghost, piling into the cockpit as Hera slipped back into her seat and lifted her beloved ship away from the Spaceport.

"So, what, did you use a mind trick on him or something?" Sabine asked Ezra as they powered away from Formos.

Ezra shook his head. "No, he just gave it to me."

"Just like that?" Zeb exclaimed. "? Now he's lost the Spice and the holocron. Pretty selfless behaviour for a smuggler."

"Maybe he has hidden depths?" Hera suggested.

"I doubt it," Kanan muttered. "He's got to have an angle somewhere."

"Or he is indeed a man of mystery…" Sabine mused softly. "It's quite… intriguing."

The Transdoshan leader raised up an exposed cable, trying to fit it back into the wall of his ruined freighter. The attack had left his ship dead in space, with only minimal life-support and both weapons and the drive core disabled. He knew they wouldn't last long in the nebula in the state they were in, and it wasn't long before he heard the words he'd been dreading from his comm-officer.

"Sir! We've got smuggler ships incoming. They know we're drifting and are demanding we hand over our cargo. In return, they've agreed not to destroy us!"

The Transdoshan hissed furiously. His love of credits was strong, but his love for his continued existence was marginally stronger. After a momentary pause of consideration, he nodded.

"Yesss!" he said. "We will give them Sssolo's cratess. It iss no great losss. There will be other ssshipss. Other cargoss."

The Transdoshan moved over to the crates of Spice. He unfastened the containers to take one final look at the precious cargo.

"Contact them. Tell them we agree to hand over the…" Then he stopped, staring down into the opened crate.

It was empty!

"No!"

He moved to another crate and flung open the lid. It was also empty.

On further inspection, they discovered that all of the crates were completely hollow.

They'd been deceived.

Shaking with incredulous rage, the Transdoshan threw back his head and screamed out a name with the same ferocity as an obscenity.

"SSSOLO!"

Han and Chewie lifted up the deck plating in the Millennium Falcon's main corridor. The insulated black flooring parted to reveal the smuggling compartment hidden beneath, and the contents Chewbacca had secreted there: The Spice.

The two smugglers stared down at the prize. It was a precaution Han had developed after many years of doing the Kessel Run. The crates would be emptied before travelling the back to Formos in order to prevent the Spice falling into other smuggler's hands. Before today, they'd never had a problem with smugglers. But still, it was best to be prepared.

"Good job, Chewie!" Han congratulated, smacking the Wookiee on his arm.

Chewbacca growled happily as he looked down at their shipment. At least they had a substantial cargo to take to their paymaster.

"Jabba's gonna pay handsomely for this lot."

"Sabine?" Hera called out. "Sabine, you in there?"

"Yeah," Sabine replied. "Come on in. I was concentrating."

Hera opened the door to Sabine's room to find the young mandalorian engrossed in a mural she was painting on the wall.

Hera paused as she admired the work. Even by Sabine's standard the mural was intricately detailed. It was a magnificent rendition of the Millennium Falcon and the Ghost flying through the chaotic splendour of the Maw Nebula… with Hera at the helm of the Falcon.

"That's probably one of your best works," Hera said approvingly.

In the Ghost, Han, Kanan and Sabine were clearly visible manning their station.

"I don't think you got my nose right," Kanan said from the doorway. Hera turned. Ezra was standing by Kanan's side, appreciating Sabine's handiwork.

"How come I'm not in there?" Ezra demanded.

"I paint what I see," Sabine explained. "And you were in the engine room at the time. So, you are there, but in spirit."

"Great!" Ezra said without enthusiasm.

"Of course, I've also been working on this." Sabine pointed at another painting to her right.

On the wall opposite her bunk was an impressively detailed life-size depiction of Han Solo. The smuggler was standing nonchalantly as he looked straight ahead, his hand grasping his blaster and a slight smile creeping on his lips.

"You had time to paint him, I see," Ezra pointed out.

"Well, I was inspired. He had a big impact on me… on the mission!" Sabine corrected hastily. "I felt it was important to give him his due."

In unison, Kanan and Ezra gave a harrumph of displeasure before moping out of the room, leaving Hera and Sabine to stare at the full-scale relief. Hera waited until Sabine's door had slid shut before she added:

"Plus, he is kinda cute!"

"Yeah, that too!" Sabine agreed.

Hera found Kanan in the cockpit, idly monitoring the instruments, and sitting with his head resting on his fist.

"How long before we rendezvous with Hondo?" she asked.

"About an hour," Kanan said without looking round.

"You seem troubled," Hera observed. "We got the holocron, and possibly made a couple of allies along the way."

"That's what worries me," Kanan replied. "Men like that… they only look out for themselves. They don't think about others."

"I don't know, he did give us the holocron, no questions asked."

"An exception that proves the rule. Trust me, the man is a scoundrel!"

"Yeah, well, maybe I like scoundrels," Hera replied as she turned to leave. Then she stopped and hovered in the doorway before adding. "After all… I like you, don't I?"

She swept out and the door slid shut behind her.

As Hera's words sank in, Kanan allowed himself a small, self-satisfied smirk.

Gradually, the smile playing on his lips broke into a brazen grin.

Nar Shaddaa, Y'Toub System, Hutt Space – 10:10 Local Time

Hondo Ohnaka swept through the entrance of The Towering Spire bar, ignoring the hush that settled in the room as marched up to the bar and ordered the strongest drink available. The barman poured a blue liquor into a filthy-looking glass and handed it over. Hondo knew from experience that the alcohol would kill any lingering bacteria in the glass (along with a few brain cells), and duly took the glass before making his way to the corner booth.

His contact was already waiting for him and he settled into the seat directly opposite her.

"Were you successful?" the hooded woman asked.

In reply, Hondo reached into his jacket and placed a small octagonal box on the table.

"Delivered as ordered, my dear."

His contact opened the lid a fraction to check its contents, then snapped it shut again.

"So, your extraction team came through?" The woman sounded impressed.

"One of the teams, yes."

"One of them?" the woman asked.

"Of course. You don't think I'd leave it in the hands of just one crew, did you? I sent two teams out to retrieve it. Chances were one of them would recover the item. I always play the odds, my dear."

"You get results, Hondo, that's one good thing about you."

Hondo gazed down at the small box concealing the prize within.

"Can you reveal why this little trinket was worth all the trouble?" he asked.

"You know better than to ask questions like that," the woman replied curtly.

Hondo nodded resignedly. "Ah, you can't blame an old weequay for being curious."

"That kind of curiosity is not healthy!" she warned.

"I will try to contain my disappointment," Hondo replied with a wry grin. "I suppose our temporary alliance is at an end?"

"It is."

"A shame. I do enjoy your company. Life is so much more interesting when you're around. Well, until next time…"

"There won't be a next time…"

"Then I can only hope the fates align to bring us together once more, my dear." Hondo lifted his shot glass between finger and thumb. "To your good health." He raised the glass to his lips and drained the liquor in one gulp.

As he drank, the woman quickly secreted the box away within her robes. Hondo glanced slyly across the table. For a split second he caught a glimpse of her shoulder-length silver-blond hair and alabaster skin that identified her species as Dathomirian. She drew her cloak back into place and the flash of white skin quickly vanished from view.

Hondo chanced a grin as he gazed wistfully at what little he could see of her attractive face beneath the hood; her chin was lined with thin dark marks and her cold blue eyes glaring at him.

He rose from his seat, giving the woman a partly deferent, partly mocking bow of farewell.

"And if I may be so bold, you look remarkably healthy for a dead woman… Asajj Ventress."

STAR WARS: REBELS

To be continued in:

FLIGHT OF THE FALCON