Luke was sat at the Dejarik table inside the main area of the Falcon when he felt it. Screams, carried so far away by the force. Thousands of screams, all of terror and death. Luke was greatful he was sat down as he knew his legs would have buckled at the shock of such a mass force wave. Just as quick as it had came, the screams stopped altogether, silence taking its place.

Looking up to where Obi-Wan had sat himself down, Luke clutched his chest, recovering from the overwhelming sadness which the wave of screams had carried.

"I felt a great disturbance in the force..." Obi-Wan confirmed Luke's suspicions, "as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."

"I fear something terrible has happened," Luke added, much to Chewbacca's confusion as the wookie was sat at the table, his head tilted in curiosity at the Jedi.

"Well we're all on course for Mandalore," Han explained as he came out of the cockpit and sat himself down in a chair, looking around at the blank faces in the room, "Don't everybody thank me at once. Anyways, we should be at Mandalore about 0200 hours."

Luke shook his head clear of the thoughts which had just transpired and decided to focus more on the game in front of him. Luke loved Dejarik. It was something Padmé had taught him when he was little. She had a board just like this on her Noobian ship which she used as Senator. Auntie 'Soka used to play with them a lot as well but it had been quite some time since he had the time to play a game of holochess. He used to love battling Leia on the board they had back home, even though his sister always won.

Thinking carefully about his move, Luke smiled triumphantly as he pushed one of the buttons which sent one of his holo monsters walking across the board, killing one of Chewie's pieces.

The wookie growled angrily at his opponent, obviously hated being bested by him.

"I made a fair move." Luke scoffed, "Screaming about it can't help you."

"Let him have it, kid," Han warned with a smirk, "It's not wise to upset a wookie. Jedi don't pull People's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookies are known to do that."

Luke scoffed as he pulled the lightsaber from his belt and tossed it up in the air before catching it, "If he can get close enough, that is."

A burst of laughter escaped Han's lips as he learnt back in his chair, "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."

"You don't believe in the force?" Luke asked skeptically, using the force to keep his lightsaber afloat in mid air to prove his point.

"Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff," Han looked skeptically at the floating weapon, slightly amused, "But I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all powerful force controlling everything. All that floating stuff you Jedi do, it's just simple parlor tricks. I don't deny you guys have powers but there's no mystical energy field controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsence."

Before either of the seasoned Jedi could object to that, a bleeping on the monitor next to the smuggler made Han stand up and make for the cockpit.

"We're coming up on Mandalore."

Luke and Obi-Wan followed Han and Chewie into the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, watching as they took their seats.

"Stand by, Chewie. Here we go. Cut in the sunlight engines," Han talked to his co-pilot as he fiddled with the switches around the pilot's chair.

"What the-" Han exclaimed in surprise when the ship came to stop from lightspeed and immediately began to pick up turbulence.

"We've come out of hyperspace into a meteor shower, some kind of asteroid collision." Han tried to explained to his wookie friend as he saw multiple rock formations and rubble all around the ship, "It's not on any of the charts."

"What's going on?" Luke questioned, curious as to what was going on.

"Our position's correct, except there's this uncharted asteroid field which doesn't show up on any of the maps." Han explained, just as confused at Luke was.

"There!" Luke triumphed as she spotted Mandalore through the dense cloud of rock, "But wait... That can't be Concordia, can it?"

"Impossible," Han scoffed unconvincingly as his eyes were also drawn to Mandalore's moon which seemed to be cracked open like an egg.

"Maul." Was Obi-Wan's only answer.

"The entirety of Maul's Starfleet couldn't enflict that much destruction. It would take a thousand ships with more firepower than I've ever seen."

"Can you still get us onto the planet?" Obi-Wan questioned, muttering something about hating flying as the ship gave another lurch.

"The rock field only becomes more dense closer to the planet. It's too risky trying to take us down now. We gotta navigate our way out and try to find another route to the planet."

Despite being so close to salvation, Obi-Wan and Luke knew Han was right. Trying to land on Mandalore now would be too risky so they didn't protest as Han turned the ship around.

A few minutes passed and the worst of the turbulence had passed. Just when they thought they were out of the woods, something began to bleep on the pilot controls.

"There's another ship out there," Han checked the scanners, his face now full of dread, "And you're not gonna like who it belongs to."

"I have a very bad feeling about this..." Luke added, looking to Obi-Wan who was equally worried.

"Turn the ship around," Obi-Wan ordered, "If Maul catches us, it will be all our heads on the line."

"Yeah, I think you're right. Full reverse! Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power," Han commanded, only for the whole ship to jolt as they continued to near Maul's war ship, "Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power!"

"Tractor beam! There must be something you can do."

"There's nothing I can do about it, kid. I'm at full power. I'm gonna have to shut down. They're not gonna get me without a fight!"

Both Obi-Wan and Luke knew that the second the ship was pulled in and searched, they would all be dead men waking. Already, Obi-Wan could feel Maul's presence and he was sure Maul would feel his too; they had too much of a history to miss each other. Even between the two Jedi and the two smugglers, Obi-Wan knew it was a fight they couldn't win.

Luke could feel the pull of the dark side of the force too. Maul's darkness was recognisable wherever it went. Then there were other pulls of the force. Perhaps one of them was the redhead sith he had fought ages ago; though Luke knew they were dead the second they reached the war ship, he couldn't help but think about that rematch the sith woman had promised him.

"You can't win, but there are alternatives to fighting." Obi-Wan suggested.

***

Though it was cramped and dark beneath the floor of the Millennium Falcon, they waited for all the footsteps above to die down and leave before they made their exit.

"Boy, it's lucky you had these compartments," Luke said a little sarcastically as he and Han pushed open the floorboards they were under.

"I use them for smuggling. I never thought I'd be smuggling myself in 'em. This is ridiculous," Han scoffed as he looked over at the other compartment where Obi-Wan was emerging from, "Even if I could take off, I'd never get past the tractor beam."

"Leave that to me."

"Damn fool, I knew that you were gonna say that."

"Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?" Obi-Wan mused as Chewie lifted his head up which Han patted affectionately.

"And how, exactly are you going to do that?" Han asked skeptically, "We can't just waltz out there and disable the beam without getting ourselves killed."

"Improvisation is my family's specialty," Luke smiled, an idea coming to mind, "First of all, we're going to need some disguises..."

As if on cue, they heard boots coming up the ramp. Quickly slipping out of sight, Luke and the older Jedi waited until the infiltrators were right beside them. Trying not to make much noise, they pounced, nocking then out but unfortunately they hadn't accounted for the large box of scanning equipment which promptly went crashing to the ground.

Knowing the guards posted outside would have heard that, it was Han's turn to improvise, "Hey down there, could you give us a hand with this?"

This ruse seemed to work as the guards came walking in, not expecting to be ambushed.

"I guess that solves the whole disguises problem." Luke mused.

***

With Han and Luke now kitted out in the black and red armour Maul called a uniform, they went down the ramp of the Falcon, checking to see if the docking bay was clear.

Determining it was for the time being, they ushered Chewie and Obi-Wan to follow them. All they needed was to get to the docking bay control center and seal it off whilst Obi-Wan deactivated the tractor beam so they could fly free. It sounded good in Luke's head anyways.

Surprisingly, the control center for the ship bay was relatively unguarded. That's the thing about commanding criminals, they're not as competent as actual soldiers. Luke had no doubt a few guards had bunked off work to go for drinks at the food hall.

When at last the door to the docking center opened, Han opened fire on the few officers which were actually left there. Chewie growled at some of the soldiers who tried to take him on. So far so good.

"Between his howling and your blasting everything in sight, it's a wonder the whole ship doesn't know we're here." Luke scolded Han, locking the door behind him as they took their helmets off.

"Bring them on! I'd prefer a straight fight to all this sneakin' around!" Han shot back, "Besides, if you're so opposed to by blasting, why don't you take out that lightsaber of yours and chop these guys into oblivion?"

"I'd like to keep the fact that there are two Jedi in Maul's ship a secret for now," Obi-Wan added as Luke made his way to the computer.

"Ah, if only R2 were here!" Luke growled slightly in irritation as he did his best to bring up the schematics of the ship on the monitor screen.

"The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations. A power loss at one of these terminals will allow the ship to leave." Luke explained as he pointed to the screen.

"I'll go alone. No use in all of us getting captured." Obi-Wan said as he made his way towards the door despite Luke's protests.

"Whatever you say," Han sighed, "I've done more than I bargained for on this trip already."

"I wanna go with you, uncle Obi-Wan," Luke protested, only for the senior Jedi to stop him in his path.

"Be patient, Luke. You're so like your father, always on the move. Stay here with Han and Chewie, if anything happens to me, you'll figure something out. We need to tell the Republic about what happened to Concordia." With that, Obi-Wan opened the doors, "The force will be with you, always."

Closing the doors again, Like turned around to find Chewie grumbling again and Han leaning against one of the chairs.

"You said it, Chewie. Where did you dig up that old fossil?"

"Obi-Wan is a great man," Luke objected, crossing his arms and scouting at Han for insulting the man he called uncle.

"Yeah, great at getting us into trouble."

"I didn't hear you give any ideas!"

"Well anything's better than just hangin' around here waiting for 'em to pick us up!"

Thrown back into silence, Han sat himself down on one of the chairs and flung his legs up onto the desk monitors lazily. Luke couldn't relax. Something felt off, like he was missing something.

Absently flicking through systems and logs on the main computer, Luke found himself scrolling through the list of all the prisoners which had been logged. He didn't know why he was reading that of all things but he just had a nagging feeling, like something familiar tugging on his heart.

"Leia!"

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