Ah, my first ever fanfic. The following story starts approximately 3 months after the end of ROTJ. I'm not really too knowledgeable in EU stuff, so I'm disregarding a lot of it for this fic. Also note that this story will probably deviate radically from the accepted Star Wars cannon, so I am classifying it as AU.

DeathTrap

Chapter I

The Empire had been defeated. That was the news that spread throughout the galaxy like wildfire when the second Death Star exploded, taking the Emperor with it. This now commonly accepted knowledge had brought new hope and courage to the oppressed and downtrodden citizens of all known, inhabited worlds; all across the galaxy, people began to band together and drive the remaining Imperial presence out of their cities and countries, and ultimately, out of existence altogether. They began to re-establish their own governments, by the people, for the people. There was now a chance to revive democracy and trade in the galaxy, renew old alliances, catch up with old friends long gone, and to finally undo the damage that had been done by the Galactic Empire. The galaxy had been reborn.

The Empire had been defeated. Such powerful and freeing words. But were they true? For the past three months, the Rebel Alliance had been watching closely for any signs of Imperial sympathisers who might try to keep the Empire alive in the underground. They had also been on the lookout for any leftover, undestroyed bases and troops...

...which had led the Alliance here: Pallidus, a rather isolated, harsh-weathered planet on the outskirts of the galaxy. Reports which had built up over the last few weeks indicated that there was a strong Imperial presence on the planet; in the midst of the vast galactic war, the planet had previously gone unnoticed by anyone... but now that the enemy had been for the most part defeated, the largest remaining Imperial establishment in the galaxy was certainly drawing attention. Several dozen Imperial factories sprawled across the dark, pale-blue globe's vast surface, continuously churning out TIE fighters, Imperial walkers and various other tools of destruction. Whether or not there were any natives on the planet when the Imperials arrived was unknown, but there certainly didn't appear to be any now. In addition to the numerous factories, there appeared to be many large mysterious buildings and other structures with purposes which were unknown to the Rebels. Many Rebel officials speculated that yet another Imperial superweapon was in the works on Pallidus, a theory which struck fear into the hearts of most who heard it... fear of once again being forced to return to an oppressed state; of having to return to an existence consisting solely of perpetual conflict. It was clear to all that immediate action had to be taken before it was too late...

...which had led Mattai here. He peered out over the front of his craft as it crawled through the darkness and the mist. Rain fell in sheets all around him, somewhat obscuring his view. Nonetheless, he could still see the dozens of other Rebel starfighters spread out all around him. This was the largest single Rebel attack force ever assembled. It made the Rebel numbers in the battle of Endor look like nothing. The Rebels had recruited numerous pilots and ships allied with their cause from all across the newly liberated galaxy, and now a cornucopia of various starfighters, transports and other craft flew swiftly along the dark, stormy beaches of Pallidus. The lights from various shapes and sizes of engines glowed softly all around Mattai, a sea of flame. He shifted his Y-Wing's flight path slightly to the left, so as not to come too close to the beat-up freighter which was floating gently meters to his right.

"Blue seven, standing by," Mattai uttered in a rather routine fashion at the call of his squad leader for all wings to report in. As one-by-one the spacecrafts all called into their respective leaders, they began to break up and head for their separate targets.

As Mattai swung his craft east, he thought back to his mission briefing. It had been short, but intense. Mattai was part of the bomber group which was to be responsible for knocking out one of the Imperial's mystery constructions, what appeared to be an oversized generator. There were, in total,thirty-two such structures all over Pallidus, and honestly, the Rebel forces were not entirely sure what their purpose was. It was theorised that they were actually power stations responsible for fuelling the planet's assembly lines. Although having so many gargantuan generators (each was aboutfive times the size of a "standard" base generator) spread across the planet seemed like overkill, it was the only plausible explanation the strategists could come up with. Besides, if it was true that the Imperials were constructing another megaweapon of some sort, it seemed somewhat logical that they would require an intense source of energy such as the kind which could be provided bythirty-two giant power stations. In desperation, it was decided that as a preventative measure thethirty-two structures should be eliminated, no matter their function.

Mattai was snapped back into reality by the realisation that he was about to enter combat. Up ahead, through the rain, and the mist, and the darkness of the storm, he could vaguely make out the searchlights of an Imperial instalment, and although he dismissed it as his imagination, as he sat in his cramped Y-Wing, nervously tapping his fingers on the ship's control stick, he was almost certain that he could hear the far-off screech of TIE fighters...

Static flickered through his earphones as Blue leader gave last minute instructions to his flyers.

"...to reiterate, escorts, stay with your bombers! If we lose our bombers, we can't complete this mission!"

Mattai glanced to his right. The beat-up freighter had replaced itself with an X-Wing. The pilot in the other craft raised their hand and waved. Matt raised his hand and did likewise.

Static flickered through his headset again as the pilot opened a private channel to him. A soft voice met his ears.

"Hey, I'm Khloe. I'll be flying alongside you throughout this mission."

He could detect a smile in her voice.

"Pleased to meet you Khloe. I'm Mattai... nervous?"

"I would be lying to say I wasn't."

"Same. Well, best of luck, and may the Force be with you."

Khloe let out a nervous laugh, returned the same familiar saying, and then closed the private channel. Even though there was very little connection between the Rebels and the Jedi Knights of old, that phrase, thanks mainly to Luke Skywalker's influence, had become an Alliance slogan of sorts.

A flash of light zipped past Matt's viewport, grabbing his attention. A series of blocky shapes up ahead were quickly become distinguishable; AT-STs dotted the sandy terrain the Rebels were soaring towards.

Several X-Wings ahead of Mattai descended swiftly, focusing their fire on the three nearest walkers. One of them exploded almost instantaneously. The other two were slower to be destroyed, and before they went, they managed to shoot down one of the Incom fighters; the first Rebel casualty of the fight, but what would most likely prove not to be the last.

Mattai steered his craft skyward in an attempt to escape any possible fire from the ground. Khloe, who was in the middle of blasting an AT-ST's legs out from under it, swung the nose of her craft swiftly upwards in pursuit of her Y-Wing.

Levelling out his craft at an altitude safe from any AT-STs, Mattai kicked his Y-Wing into full-throttle. He felt a slight jump as his craft lurched forward at an increased rate of speed. Khloe slid her craft into a gentle flight just off his left wing.

Matt activated his targeting computer, then marked and locked in the generator. It would be another solid two minutes at the very least before they reached the generator structure, so he sat back in his craft a little, trying to relax and prepare himself mentally for the almost certain horde of TIE fighters that awaited them up ahead.

Before too long, Matt had lost track of time. When he looked out of his cockpit now, the number of ships around him had thinned significantly. To his left was Khloe, and in the distance what looked like a B-Wing, S-foils open, flying low to the ground, probably looking for Imperials. To his right another Y-Wing flew silently, its complimentary X-Wing missing; maybe it was the one that was shot down earlier? The ships surrounding him now were a far cry from the at least twenty craft that he knew were a part of his squad. He wondered where they all went, then decided that they all must've broken off and headed for separate targets.

A solid hit from a laser blast to his ship's right engine jarred Mattai out of his contemplative state. The entire Y-Wing shuddered thoroughly from the impact for a few moments, and for a brief second Matt felt as though the entire craft were going to fall apart around him. His eyes darted forward. Through his blurred forward windshield he could barely make out several grey shapes darting around in the distant sky. In addition, the scream of TIE fighters was now undeniable, growing louder and louder by the second.

Khloe spoke up.

"Are you alright? That was a pretty hard hit."

"Yeah, I think so. They did a little damage to my engine, but I'm alright."

"Okay, sit tight... this is going to get a little rough..."

Mattai was now thoroughly scared. He had flown Rebel starfighters in combat situations before (X-Wings and A-Wings) and had once even piloted a TIE fighter captured by the Rebels. Nonetheless, he had never been quite this terrified in a flight situation before. Visibility was terrible, and he was certain that the number of TIEs up ahead was going to be staggering. In addition, he was uncomfortable with being in the seat of a Y-Wing. He had never flown one before, and even though the craft had shielding superior to that of the X-Wing, he somehow felt that the subsequent loss of speed wasn't worth it. He knew that if he got a few good Imperial pilots on his tail, his sloth-like craft wouldn't be able to shake them.

Matt sat up in his seat. As the grey shapes in the distance grew, the distinctive sound of TIE fighters became ever louder, until the sound surrounded him completely, permeating everything. There were twelve of them spread out across the horizon, all flying at break-neck speed towards the Rebels. A formation of four of the crafts veered rightwards in their flight, aiming themselves at the low-flying B-Wing. In doing this, they revealed themselves to not be normal TIEs... their distinctive wing shape sent shivers down Mattai's spine; they were TIE interceptors.

In seconds, the squad of Imperial craft was on top of the B-Wing. There was a brief moment of intense sound and light, and then the Rebel fighter spouted a solid stream of smoke and flame from its right wing. It careened steadily downwards, finally colliding with a large boulder in a brilliant orange fireball.

Mattai had to focus all of his attention on his target as it grew nearer in his targeting computer, just to keep himself from yelling out in fear. As several TIEs swarmed around him, he tried to think solely of his target, which was now only thirty seconds or so away. Brilliant streams of green 'whished' past his craft as a single determined TIE aimed itself right for Mattai's cockpit. He closed his eyes as hard as he could, then suddenly remembered that his Y-Wing, although slow and bulky, was not unarmed. He jammed his fingers down on the blaster triggers, and instantly a river of reddish-orange bolts spewed out of the front of his craft and connected with the TIE's cockpit. It exploded instantly, firing its two razor-like wings outward from its body.

Mattai again returned his concentration to his target, preparing to drop his payload of bombs. Little else registered in Matt's mind as the yellow wireframe image got larger and larger in his display. The rain hammered down on his craft, bouncing off its hull with little metallic pings. He didn't notice. The sound of a deep, drawn out air-raid siren filled his ears. He didn't notice. An Imperial spotlight hit the bottom of his craft, filling its cockpit with an eerie white glow. He didn't notice. The single Y-Wing to Matt's right, unable to take the punishment from the TIEs swarming it, blew into a million shards and fragments, some of which rained down upon Mattai's cockpit. He didn't notice. All he could think about was hitting his target. He didn't even notice when Khloe, after having eliminated several more interceptors and thus the immediate enemy fighter threat, pulled her X-Wing right up beside his ship and said something over the radio to the effect of "let's be quick about this".

When his targeting computer finally showed that he was on top of his destination, Matt hit the release button, sending a slew of glowing white bombs raining down onto the Imperial structure. They connected with their target in a brilliant explosion of yellow-white light. The sound of destruction filled the air as a mushroom cloud emerged from the generator device. Debris was launched high into the sky as the supposed power station experienced its death.

"Good shot Mattai!" Khloe exclaimed through the radio. Matt pressed a button near his right hand, switching off his targeting computer. He banked his craft to the right, turning around and heading in the direction from which he came.

"Well," he said through his tenuous, static-filled radio connection to Khloe, "I guess that's it..."

"Yeah, our part in this mission is done," she replied sounding somewhat relieved. "Let's get back to safety."

Although he knew she probably couldn't see it, Mattai nodded heartily in agreement as he sat back in his seat and sighed deeply.

Suddenly, the entire sky flashed a bright blue. Matt was briefly blinded by this display. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

"What the hell was that?"

As the intense light slowly dissolved into darkness, thin blue bolts of electricity became visible, racing their way in and out of clouds all across the thick, rainy sky. It was at this moment that, in Matt's mind, it also registered that far below him the earth was shaking violently. A tumultuous rumbling sound consumed the air, and in the distance he could see the wet, blurred ground shaking back and forth.

Mattai looked over at Khloe's X-Wing with concern on his face.

"What's going on?..."

"I don't know, but we'd better get back to our transport and find out!"

Matt once again nodded at her as he turned his gaze to the sky before him. Numerous strands of electric energy were still meandering their way across the heavens. Matt tried his very hardest to repress the queasy feeling that had risen in the pit of his stomach, but he knew that something serious had just taken place. As the vibrations in the terrain below him slowly faded away, he suddenly felt very stupid about allowing himself and the others to destroy those Imperial "generators" without any real knowledge of their purpose...

He had a bad feeling about this.

Well, there it is. I've already started on chapter 2, but it needs some work before I'm ready to post it. As I said before, this is my first fanfic ever. C+C would be greatly appreciated. :)