The Millenium Falcon shot out of Hoth's atmosphere and into space. As soon as Han saw what was in front of them, he groaned.

"It looks like the entire Imperial fleet is out there!" he exclaimed. "I'm going to start the calculations for the jump to lightspeed!" Chewie roared in alarm as he picked up several TIE fighters heading towards them.

"Try and hold them off!" Han shouted as the first of the TIEs reached them and opened fire. Chewie dashed out of the cockpit and toward the gunwells as the Falcon started shaking from the blasts. Han checked the deflector shields, then something outside caught his eye. Star Destroyers, two of them - heading right for them. Another Star Destroyer had picked up the Falcon and was closing in from behind, fast.

"Chewie, nevermind! Get back up here!" Chewie rushed back into the cockpit. "We're going to have to try to outmanuever them!" Han continued. He sent the Falcon into a steep dive, leaving the Star Destroyers behind, but the TIEs were still hot on their tail. Han rolled the Falcon, narrowly avoiding their fire. As he leveled the ship out, the navicomputer pinged.

"Great!" Han exclaimed. He pulled back on the hyperdrive controls... and nothing happened. Han's eyes widened in surprise, then he tried again. Nothing.

"What the hell is going on!" he yelled. Chewie roared in frustration. "Get back there and check the systems!" Han shouted, as the Falcon continued to shake from the TIE's fire. Chewie dashed out of the cockpit as Han continued evasive manuevers. Within a few minutes, Chewie was back. He emitted a short series of barks, followed by a plaintive yelp.

"The hyperdrive motivator is damaged? This is just great!" Han shook his head. "You take over here, I'm going to go back and do what I can to fix it. I don't know how we're going to get out of this one."

* * *

Han was grabbing the hydrospanner case when the Falcon lurched from an impact. He fell forward, the hydrospanners flying out of his hand. Chewie roared something from the cockpit. Han stood back up, but was almost knocked off his feet again by another impact. That was no laser blast, something hit us! he thought.

He ran back into the cockpit as Chewie continued to roar. Once he arrived in the cockpit, he saw exactly what Chewie was roaring about. Asteroids. In their haste to escape from the Empire, they had inadvertantly flown directly into the Anoat asteroid field.

The TIEs were still pursuing them, gaining on them by the second. Han thought frantically for a few seconds, then suddenly he realized exactly what they had to do to elude the TIEs. It was a desperate gamble, but if it worked, they'd be home free. Besides, the TIEs would be crazy to follow them.

"Chewie, set two-seven-one," he said. Chewie did so, realizing exactly what Han had in mind.

The Falcon plunged directly into the heart of the asteroid field.

* * *

It was total chaos that the Falcon had flown into. Asteroids tumbled in every direction. Han swerved the Falcon around a larger asteroid, and the four TIEs following him did so as well. One was immediately wiped out by a smaller asteroid, and another one of them didn't complete the manuever - another asteroid clipped its solar fin, sending it hurtling out of control into another asteroid. Han glanced out the cockpit window as he saw the flare from the explosion and grinned. His grin faded as the remaining TIEs opened fire.

The Falcon dove toward a larger asteroid, the two remaining TIEs still following close behind. Han banked the Falcon and flew through a narrow canyon. The two TIEs tried flying through the canyon side by side, but bounced off of each other and slammed into the canyon walls! Han pulled away from the asteroid and immediately flew towards an even larger one. He skimmed the surface of the asteroid, then spotted something interesting... an opening big enough to fly the Falcon into.

"That looks pretty good," he said. Chewie saw what he was looking at and barked. "Yeah, that'll do nicely," Han replied.

Han looped the Falcon up and then down into the opening. It was soon swallowed by the darkness.

* * *

"I want all TIE Bombers to sweep the asteroid field," Captain Needa ordered. "I want that ship flushed out and destroyed."

The Star Destroyer Avenger had pursued the small freighter into the asteroid field. Despite having lost a squadron of TIE Fighters in the pursuit, Needa had pressed on. Lord Vader wanted every ship to flee Hoth tracked down and destroyed, and he would not be happy to hear that one had escaped. There was a slight chance that the ship had been destroyed by the constant rain of asteroids, but Needa wasn't willing to stake his life on that.

* * *

"All reports are negative, Captain Needa," one of the officers said nearly an hour later. The last squadron of TIE Bombers had just docked with the Avenger and transmitted their report to the bridge. "The bombardment failed to flush the ship out, and there is no trace of them on the scanners. With the amount of damage we've taken, they must have been destroyed."

That was good enough for Needa. Surely the constant bombardment would have flushed the ship out by now, and if it hadn't resurfaced then it had to have been destroyed. "Very well then. Report to Lord Vader that the ship we pursued into the asteroid field was destroyed. Navigation, set our course for Hoth. We will be rejoining the fleet shortly."

* * *

After landing the Falcon in the cave, Han and Chewie got to work repairing the hyperdrive. Everything was quiet for a while, but every so often they had heard muffled explosions as TIE bombers dropped bombs on the surface of the asteroid, hoping to stir something up. As long as they stayed put, though, the Empire would never find them.

Eventually the explosions had stopped. However, there were now sounds coming from outside the ship. Chewie growled threateningly as the sounds got louder.

"Yeah, we should definitely go check it out," Han said. He grabbed a facemask from a nearby rack and fastened it to his head, and Chewie did the same. Then Han lowered the gangplank. The two of them walked out into the cave, weapons ready. As they set foot in the cave, Han immediately noticed something odd.

"The ground sure feels strange... it doesn't feel like rock at all," he said. "There's an awful lot of moisture in here." Chewie growled in agreement - and then a winged shape flew past his head! Chewie roared, and Han fired at it! The blaster bolt hit the thing, and it dropped to the floor of the cave with a thud. Han walked over and inspected it.

"Looks like some kind of mynock," he said. "Chewie, check the rest of the ship. Make sure there aren't any more attached, chewing on the power cables."

That's when a swarm of mynocks flew past them! Han ripped off a shot at them, and was astonished to feel the ground tremble beneath his feet when he did.

"Wait a minute," he said to himself. He fired a shot at the far wall of the cave, and immediately the tremors started again, even worse than before! Without another word the two of them ran up the gangplank into the Falcon and sealed it behind them. Han threw aside his facemask and rushed into the cockpit.

"All right, Chewie, let's get out of here!" Han yelled. He checked the scopes as Chewie started the main engines. Then he jumped into the pilot's seat and pushed forward on the throttle. Immediately the Falcon lifted off and began building up speed... but then Chewie saw something ahead of them and barked in terror.

"I see it, I see it!" Han shouted! Chewie barked again, and Han increased the speed. "The cave isn't collapsing, because this isn't a cave," he said.

Sure enough, what looked to be giant stalactites and stalagmites surrounding the cave entrance were actually giant teeth, and they were steadily coming together. Han rolled the Falcon onto its side and it shot out of the mouth of the "cave" just as the teeth slammed shut. The Falcon flew up and out of the entrance, pursued by a giant space slug. It was too slow for the Falcon, though, and soon gave up the chase.

The Falcon shot back into the middle of the deadly rain of asteroids.