Playlist:

❶ "Jabba Flow"—The Force Awakens Extended ST

⊘ Silence

❷ "In the Jungle"—Raiders of the Lost Ark OST

⊘ Silence

❸ "Into the Trap"—Return of the Jedi OST

⊘ Silence

"Chewie, cut in the sublight engines." The Wookiee worked the Falcon's controls in seamless unison as the streaks of blue transformed into silvery stars.

Han assumed control of the ship while Chewbacca punched in their vector approach for the planet's surface.

The Wookiee moaned a concern.

"You said it. Better strengthen the shields. Atmosphere looks kind of rough."

Chewie transferred the power to the belly shields while asking a question.

"Good idea."

While the Wookiee's paw hovered over the anodized button gleaming on the console, Han steeled his arm. "Not yet. Lando said it would interfere with scanning."

Chewie agreed.

Han glided the freighter mere meters over the sand and rocks racing toward the twilight zone of the planet. "What's that over there?"

Chewbacca grunted and zeroed in the scanner on the reading. He trilled a reply.

"Yeah, that'll do nicely. Let's set her down over by that rocky outcropping."

As they soared over a large crater in the orange landscape, Han said, "Glad we weren't here for that meteor."

With a roar, Chewie nodded his head and adjusted the controls for the landing sequence.

Han gestured with his chin to the new controller on the console. "Activate the cloaking device."

The Wookiee pressed the square button. The scanner darkened just as the panel over the copilot's seat sparked. Blue flares snaked over the instruments. White smoke spewed out underneath, clouding the cabin.

Coughing, the duo covered their mouths with an arm.

"Shut it down. Shut it down." Han flicked a toggle to vent the cockpit.

As the pumps sucked the burnt plastic and coppery vapors out of the ship, Han wrestled with the yoke to bring the Falcon down in a narrow gulley branching out from the crater.

Before the craft touched down, Chewbacca popped the overhead panel and snipped some wires. He complained to Han with a long strong of Shyriiwook.

"Looks like this is going to take some time. See what you and the squad can do with it." Han bit his lip as Chewie pulled back a set of scorched wires. A burning in his own gut followed. "I'll head into town and see if I find that Plutt guy. He said he was looking for some more ration packets."

Chewie moaned a warning.

"Hey, it's me." Han extended his arms to either side and grinned. "Guard the ship. I have—"

Another roar completed the sentence.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, fuzzball."

Solo trudged through the deep sand until he spotted the antennas of moisture vaporators glinting in the moonlight. The settlement loomed a hundred meters away, a few lights winking in the night.

He entered town via an impromptu path constructed of rusted shipping container panels. They bordered ramshackle lean-tos of corrugated steel and twisted rebar. Periodically, he encountered a dilapidated tent with a light glowing inside.

Gnaw-jaws scraped their mandibles together in an unsettling song, raucous laughter from a brightly lit establishment at the end of the street overwhelming the racket. Thick adobe walls with support beams poking out near the roofline insulated the cantina from the heat of the day and chill of the night.

Han ducked inside and surveyed the locale. After unclipping his holster, he stopped in the doorway to allow his eyes to adjust to the lights.

❶ Bright lights compensated for dark corners. A long bar sat at the back, surrounded by a variety of species in various stages of drunkenness. At the far left of the building, a trio of past-their-prime human dancers twisted and jerked to a cacophonous song.

He sauntered up to the bar and laid down two Imperial credits.

He nodded his head toward an Ithorian a few notes away. "I'll have whatever he's having."

"Of course you will." The overweight bartender with pockmarked face laughed. "Knockback Nectar's all we got." He handed Han a squat metal mug. "Careful with that. It'll scar your insides."

When Han sipped the junk juice, he swore that it stripped his taste buds.

The tender leaned on the bar toward Han. "Word of advice, it ain't recommended to linger in Cratertown any longer than necessary."

Han pulled back and grinned. "Just trying to offload a cargo. Heard Jakku might be a good place."

"Depends. What you selling?"

"Military rations."

"How much?"

"Enough to feed this town for a few years. You seen Plutt around?"

The bartender pointed with a glass toward a large fishlike Crolute lounging at a table in a corner.

The freighter captain flipped the keeper another cred. "Refill his drink. Make him happy."

The barkeep took the payment and waved one of his dancing girls over. He handed her the drink and nodded toward Plutt. "Give Unkar the special."

The middle-aged woman sneered at the tender. "You'll owe me double tonight, Edger."

"Just go put him in a good mood."

She slinked away, her mousy brown hair swinging behind her back. After she delivered the drink, the Crolute grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into his lap.

Dressed in a fringed mini skirt and halter, the blousy woman with leathery skin and graying hair undulated on his lap before wrapping her hands around his neck and planting a wet kiss on the creature.

"That's my girl. Give it to papa, Grekka."

The woman cringed and pulled away.

"Where you going?" Plutt bellowed. "It was just getting fun."

Han pulled a chair up and rested his hands on the table. "Hey, Plutt."

The large, lumpish creature growled and spat, wiping his hand across his broad, flat nose. Plutt had no neck—or maybe he had several necks, since multiple rolls of fat merged his head with his torso. His olive green skull cap protected his hairless skull. For protection, the blobfish wore copious metal plates from his neck to his knees. "Solo. Bring the cargo?"

"Thirty containers of military rations. The self-rising bread, the dehydrated nerf strips. "

"Hmm. Imperial or Republic?"

Han shrugged. "A little of both."

"Puts some of them from the Clone Wars."

"Maybe. But they're still good." He took a plastic packet from his inner jacket pocket and pushed it across the table.

"How much?"

"Fifty thousand."

The Crolute spluttered. "For thirty-year-old portions? You think this is Coruscant?"

"No, Coruscant doesn't have a food shortage." Han leaned back and crossed his legs. "That was just a starting point. I'm open to counter offers."

"Hmm. Thirty."

Han leaned further in and mumbled, "Forty-five."

Unkar looked at him through narrowing lids. "Thirty-five."

"Forty thousand, not a credit less."

Plutt tilted his head and pressed his snout together.

"You're getting a bargain."

"Forty it is." He pushed himself from the table and headed to the door. "What are you waiting for, Solo? Let's go check out your cargo."

⊘ He waddled out the door, his extreme girth barely fitting through the frame.

Han followed him and caught up to him in the middle of the street.

Plutt said, "Head back to your ship. I'll follow. "

The smuggler loped across the hard-packed dirt street toward the east. Once out of town, he opened his communicator. "Chewie, looks like we might have a lead."

The Wookiee moaned a few words.

"Yeah, that sounds good. How's the cloaking device coming?"

❷ Senses heightened, Han hiked to the ship in the dark. A few meters out, he heard the shuffling strides of the Crolute behind him.

About halfway to the ship, he picked up other sounds of life in the dark. Some creatures chittering and hammering on rocks. And something else. It took him about four stops and starts to identify how many. Great. Setting me up for an ambush, huh? Should have figured.

"Hurry up, Unkar," Han yelled. "I don't have all night."

The portly Plutt puffed as he hauled himself across the sand. "Really. Have someplace to go, Solo?"

He waited for the Crolute to catch up to him. Han took him by the flabby arm and dragged him across the sand.

They trundled down a steep dune to reach the rocky outcropping not long after. In the dark, Han couldn't see much, not even the outline of the scope or reflection from the cockpit viewport.

"Hands up, Solo." The command came from behind Han with a blaster's safety clicking off.

When he rotated, a dozen ruffians in dark gear pointed blasters and rifles at him.

"Just lead us inside," Plutt said with a hand toward the boulders. "When we get there, if you're lucky, you'll live long enough to crawl back into town. Now hands behind your head."

Within moments, a blaster muzzle poked his back. He led them single file between the rocks to the hiding spot.

"No, no, no!" Han yelled. "I left her right here. Someone must have stolen her." He clutched his hair and moaned.

⊘ The Wookiee roared. Han dropped to the sand, pulling Plutt with him. The Falcon's Groundbuzzer Blaster cannons whirred in an arc, firing on Unkar's thugs. Bodies shot backward, falling against the rocks. One flew across the clearing and landed with a thud.

While the ship rematerialized, Chewbacca jumped out and leveled his bowcaster at the Crolute's head.

Han stood, wiping the sand from his dark spacer pants. "Now, we're going to do this again, or you'll join your buddies."

Unkar's knees wobbled as Chewie touched the bowcaster to Plutt's forehead.

"I'm giving you a great opportunity to set yourself up for life. Take it or leave it."

"Okay. Okay. I can get you eighteen now. The other twenty in a few months. I just don't have that many credits on the planet, and you know that Jakku doesn't coordinate with the Interstellar Banking System."

"I'll give you half for the eighteen. Where is it?'

The alien pulled out a small chip from his pocket. "Here."

Chewbacca growled.

Han rested his hands on his hips. "My friend here doesn't take plastic. Hard credits. Now, either take us to them or get off this ship."

Unkar's gazed at Han first and then Chewbacca before returning to Solo. "In a cave up near the Goazan Badlands."

Chewie moaned a question.

"Coordinates?"

"I don't know. I never fly there. About a day's walk south of here."

"So about forty clicks?"

"Maybe less."

Han grabbed the man by his apron and heaved him up the ramp. When they reached the cockpit, he shoved the captive in the navigator's seat. Han stabbed a few buttons on the navigational display and pulled up the charts of the planet.

"Show me."

With a chunky finger, Plutt pointed on the map. "There."

"Chewie, get her warmed."

"Mrwooar?"

"Something's already taking care of the bodies." Han flipped a switch, turning on the external vids. In the darkness, they could only make out blurred thrashing and muffled crunches. "Won't be much left by morning."

Plutt murmured, "Nightcrawlers."

Han rolled his eyes at Chewbacca before he plopped in the pilot's seat. He rubbed the hanging dice and fired up the Falcon's engines. The Corellian freighter's boosters blasted blue energy out the back of the ship as it climbed high above the sandy waste into the star-littered sky.

Within a few minutes, they were back on the ground in the Goazan Badlands. Unkar waddled down the ramp and up the slight hill behind an outcropping. "Solo, you coming? Or don't you want your money?"

Chewie roared from the top of the ramp and motioned for the squad in the back to bring the cases of MREs.

The transfer of cases took only a few moments. While the Crolute examined the cases of rations stacked neatly in the back of the cavern, Chewie and the squad backed out and left without a sound.

As the Falcon rose in the sky a few moments later, Plutt tottered out of the cave and pumped his fist in the air.

In the cockpit, Chewbacca chortled.

Han broke out in a grin. "Yeah, he can walk back. Only take him a day or so."

Chewbacca growled a query.

"Yeah, I don't think we'll ever see the rest of that money either, Chewie." Han adjusted a few switches on the console. "Time for the real show to begin. Got a reading on the fleet?"

The Wookiee barked an answer.

"Good." Han opened the intercom to the rest of the ship. "Hey, guys, you might want to strap yourselves in. It's about to get a little rough."

"Affirmative, Captain," came the reply from the secondary hold.

"Well, here goes nothing."

❸ Ships of all shapes and sizes popped out of hyperspace as the Falcon crossed the ionosphere. A familiar small freighter rocketed toward them and fired its guns, strafing the top of the Falcon.

Han gripped the controls. "On the next hit, release the countermeasures, Chewie."

Another barrage attacked the shields. "Now."

Chewbacca pulled back on a control to release an explosive array above them. Simultaneously, Han dived and spun back into the atmosphere.

"Mayday, mayday!" Han spoke into the communicator. "This is the Rising Star. We've been hit. Mayday!"

Solo flew the freighter in aerobatics nearing the Kelvin Ravine, which hid the research base. As he set her down in a canyon north of the weapons facility, Chewie activated a flash-charge.

⊘ Han cut all power immediately and dead-sticked her in.

Chewie roared.

"Thanks, I am pretty proud of it myself. Haven't lost my touch." Han rubbed his fingers on his signature black vest. "Do you think they bought it, Chewie?"

The affirmative growl encouraged his friend.

"Yeah, let's get moving."

As Unkar Plutt shook his fist at the Falcon as it rose in the sky above the Goazan Badlands, Chewbacca guffawed.

"Yeah, he can walk back. Only take him a day or so." Han adjusted a few switches on the console. "Time for the real show to begin. Got a reading on the fleet?"

The Wookiee barked an answer.

"Good." Han opened the intercom to the rest of the ship. "Hey, guys, you might want to strap yourselves in. It's about to get a little rough."

"Affirmative, Captain," came the reply from the secondary hold.

"Well, here goes nothing."

❸ Ships of all shapes and sizes popped out of hyperspace as the Falcon crossed the ionosphere. A familiar small freighter rocketed toward them and fired its guns, strafing the top of the Falcon.

Han gripped the controls. "On the next hit, release the countermeasures, Chewie."

Another barrage attacked the shields. "Now."

Chewbacca pulled back on a control to release an explosive array above them. Simultaneously, Han dived and spun back into the atmosphere.

"Mayday, mayday!" Han spoke into the communicator. "This is the Rising Star. We've been hit. Mayday!"

Solo flew the freighter in aerobatics nearing the Kelvin Ravine, which hid the research beach. As he set her down in a canyon north of the weapons facility, Chewie activated a flash-charge.

⊘ Han cut all power immediately and dead-sticked her in.

Chewie roared.

"Thanks, I am pretty proud of it myself. Haven't lost my touch." Han rubbed his fingers on his signature black vest. "Do you think they bought it, Chewie?"

The affirmative growl encouraged his friend.

"Yeah, let's get moving."

Did you know ...

● Rey refers to Unkar Plutt as a blobfish in the novelization of The Force Awakens.

● Han resigned his commission, so he is back to just "Captain of the Millennium Falcon."

Tell me what you think ...

● Why are people who are leading squads "Generals" in Star Wars? Lando, Han, Hera? Why are people in the fleet called "Generals" instead of "Admirals"? I don't understand.