Leia winced and, resigned, buckled herself firmly into her seat.

See-Threepio, still muttering calculations, shut down his synthesized human

voice when the Wookiee turned and growled at him.

But Han concentrated only on carrying out his plan. He knew it would work; it

had to—there was no other choice. Flying more on instinct than on instruments, he

steered his ship through the relentless rain of stone. Glancing quickly at his scanner

screens, he saw that the TIE fighters and the Avengers had not yet abandoned the

chase. It would be an Imperial funeral, he thought, as he maneuvered the Falcon

through the asteroid hail.

He looked at another viewscreen and smiled as it showed a collision between an

asteroid and a TIE fighter. The explosion registered on the screen with a burst of

light. No survivors in that one, Han thought.

The TIE fighter pilots chasing the Falcon were among the best in the Empire.

But they couldn't compete with Han Solo. Either they weren't good enough, or they

weren't crazy enough. Only a lunatic would have plunged his ship into a suicidal

journey through these asteroids. Crazy or not, these pilots had no choice but to

follow in hot pursuit. They undoubtedly would be better off perishing in this

bombardment of rocks than reporting failure to their dark master.

The greatest of all the Imperial Star Destroyers regally moved out of Hoth's orbit.

It was flanked by two other Star Destroyers and the entire group was accompanied by

a protective squadron of smaller warships. In the central Destroyer, Admiral Piett

stood outside Darth Vader's private meditation chamber. The upper jaw slowly

opened until Piett was able to glimpse his robed master standing in the shadows.

"My lord," Piett said with reverence.

"Come in, Admiral."

Admiral Piett felt great awe as he stepped into the dimly lit room and approached

the Dark Lord of the Sith. His master stood silhouetted so that Piett could just barely

make out the lines of a set of mechanical appendages as they retracted a respirator

tube from Vader's head. He shuddered when he realized that he might be the first

ever to have seen his master unmasked.

The sight was horrifying. Vader, his back turned to Piett, was entirely clothed

in black; but above his studded black neck ban gleamed his naked head. Though the

admiral tried to avert his eyes, morbid fascination forced him to look at that hairless,

skull-like head. It was covered with a maze of thick scar tissue that twisted around

against Vader's corpse-pale skin. The thought crossed Piett's mind that there might

be a heavy price for viewing what no one else had seen. Just then, the robot hands

grasped the black helmet and gently lowered it over the Dark Lord's head.

His helmet back in place, Darth Vader turned to hear his admiral's report.

"Our pursuit ship have sighted the Millennium Falcon, my lord. It has entered

an asteroid field."

"Asteroids don't concern me, Admiral," Vader said as he slowly clenched his fist.

"I want that ship, not excuses. How long until you will have Skywalker and the

others in the Millennium Falcon?"

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