Wow, sorry for the huge gap between posting the first and second chapters. I got caught up with miscellaneous things, and my interest in this fic waned for a bit... but it's back now. XD... I had started writing an original version of chapter 2, but I decided that I didn't like it, so I scrapped it and wrote this. Anyway, as always, C+C is welcome.

DeathTrap

Chapter II

"Help! Someone, please, help us!"

The sounds of screaming and pleading filled the air all around Mattai as the heat inside his cell grew. He pulled with all his might on the bars, but they simply wouldn't give. The fire spread down the hall outside Matt's cell, before finally reaching Matt himself. He backed up slowly, until finally his shoulders met cold, hard stone. As the fire filled the room, Matt realised he was completely trapped; there was no escape. This was the end...

"C'mon, get up! We're gonna' be late!"

Mattai sat straight up in bed, now wide-awake. He had heard a voice... no, not the screaming; something else... glancing over to the doorway of his chambers, he saw Khloe, the origin of the sound.

"Late? What time is it?"

Matt's view shifted to the tiny clock sitting on the table beside his bed. As Khloe had predicted, the clock showed that they had but four minutes until their flight group was due to start its mission.

"Aw, damnit, we're gonna' be late..."

Jumping out of bed, Matt stumbled over to his case of clothes, grabbed the first pair of pants that caught his eye, and swiftly pulled them on. Khloe simply stood in the doorway shaking her head.

"How could you sleep in?" she asked. "Didn't you set your alarm?"

Matt shrugged as he hunted for footwear.

"I t-thought I did... Aha!"

Matt picked up his brown shoes from under a nearby chair and sat down in it.

"Well, are you ready to go now?"

Apparently not feeling the need for socks, Matt slipped on his newly found shoes as fast as he could, then rushed to the door.

"Yeah, let's go."

As the last remnants of the nightmare Mattai had been suffering slipped from his head, the duo raced to the hangar bay to prepare for the day's flight.

XXXXX

Upon reaching the hangar bay, Khloe and Mattai found their flight group gathered around their lead pilot, receiving their mission briefing; their bright orange flightsuits contrasted almost painfully with the drab grey backdrop behind them.

The two quietly grabbed some flightsuits for themselves, then, while hastily pulling them on, gathered with the other pilots and listened intently to the words of Blue leader. After a few minutes, Matt began to grasp just what exactly their mission was: yesterday, a squad of X-Wings and Y-Wings which had been sent to destroy a giant radar-dish-like structure on the far side of the planet had been shot down and captured. It was decided that a rescue mission should be sent to try and recover the lost troops. Blue group had been assigned the task.

As final questions were asked of Blue leader, the group broke apart and headed for their vehicles; it had been decided that speeders would be best suited for this mission.

Mattai did up the few remaining zippers on his flightsuit before donning his helmet. He then climbed the worn, metallic stairway which lead to the gunner's seat in his assigned speeder. After sitting down in the compact space, Matt strapped himself to his seat and began to ready himself mentally for the day ahead. He ran a hand down the side of the harpoon gun in front of him, and then pivoted it left and right, getting a feel for the technique required to aim and fire the weapon.

The sound of someone sitting down in the pilot's seat behind him caught Matt's attention. He turned his head to try and catch a glimpse of the pilot, but the helmet he was wearing eliminated most of his peripheral vision. Matt was about to ask for the mystery individual's name, but his curiosity was satiated when Khloe's voice caught his ear.

"Hey, I guess we're flying together." There was a hint of a smile in her voice.

"You know how to fly these things?"

"Yeah, I know how to fly them... you know how to use that gun?"

"What, the harpoon gun? Sure."

Water cascaded onto the windows surrounding the pair as Blue group glided silently out of the hangar and into the rain. As the speeders ascended in a gentle arc, Mattai looked out the craft's rear window; at the vehicle's current angle, said window provided a perfect view of the outside world. In this instance, the outside world consisted of a pale, sandy terrain that stretched out underneath the Rebel transports for a few hundred metres before sloping steadily downwards into an angry, tumultuous sea. Dark waves crashed back and forth across the beach, a watery inferno which burned all it touched. In the sky, thick, colourless clouds rolled slowly across the horizon; every so often lightning would briefly pierce the atmosphere, bathing the drab scene in an eerie glow, as, all the while, the strands of blue energy which had appeared the night before played tag across the heavens.

Mattai stared at the sky, still in a state of disbelief about the previous evening's events. The blue energy bands which had appeared last night after the Rebel strike were still there, only now they seemed to be increasing in number and intensity.

"Good Lord, what have we done to this planet?"

"What was that?"

"Oh, I was just saying, that earthquake last night, and the lights, and the whole thing..." Matt trailed off.

Khloe's voice carried some of the same concern Mattai's did, but it also had a soothing tone about it.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. I heard some pilots talking last night... command's got some Rebel scientists working to figure out what exactly happened, but they don't think it's anything serious."

Matt made a quiet "hmm" sound that seemed to signify acknowledgement of Khloe's statement, before returning his attention to the beautifully desolate scene surrounding them.

XXXXX

"Alright, we're on the final approach to our target now," Blue leader's voice crackled over the radio.

The speeders hummed quietly as they sailed in tight formation over densely packed forest.

"We're not quite sure what the purpose of this dish is, but our strategists theorise that it's a giant radio transmitter. Half the speeders will land on the east platform and break into the transmitter facility to retrieve our pilots, while the rest of the fighters will remain in the air to stand guard and eliminate any Imperial threats as they arise."

Matt listened intently, running the scenario Blue leader just gave them through his mind in an attempt to visualise the events of the next few minutes.

"We do know that there's an Imperial shuttle landed on the east platform as well; as soon as the downed pilots have been liberated, everyone will work their way back to the east platform, and the pilots will steal the shuttle for their escape. Once they have the shuttle in the air, our speeders will escort them back to base. Good luck, and may the force be with you."

As the voice in the radio disappeared, two sounds took new prominence in Mattai's mind: the sound of the speeder's engines as it flew along, and the sound of the torrential downpour outside the vehicle.

Matt turned his head towards Khloe.

"So, we're landing?"

Even though she knew he couldn't see it, Khloe nodded.

"Yep, we're landing. The detention block is three floors down from where we're entering the complex, so we'll have a bit of ground to cover before we find our pilots, but once we do, it shouldn't be all that difficult to retrace our steps back outside."

The speeders banked right in unison, aiming themselves at the grid of lights which was now materialising in the distance, beyond the wall of rain.

Matt looked down at the displays in front of him, the pale light from them lighting up his face with an eerie orange glow. His displays were minimal compared to Khloe's. They displayed simple data like the current altitude and speed of the fighter; there was also a screen which showed the approximate locations of enemy targets in relation to where Matt presently was. On said screen was a prominent shape, the form of a building, which was growing larger by the second. Even though Matt was nervous, he was somewhat relieved by the fact that there was no sign of Imperial craft. Perhaps the Imperials didn't know they were coming? Ah well, he was sure they'd find out soon enough...

The next few minutes were tense, but passed without much fanfare. As the speeder came within a few hundred feet of its target, Khloe slowed it down and angled it towards the east platform. The glow from large electric lamps on the east platform cast luminance onto the vehicles parked there. Khloe could make out a couple Y-Wings, presumably captured by the Imperials from the downed pilots. She could also make out the outline of an Imperial shuttle.

Khloe pulled back on the central control stick for the speeder, and brought it in for a gentle landing just beyond the Y-Wings. In moments, two other Rebel speeders did likewise, touching down silently on her left and right. The cockpits of the three craft slid open almost in unison, as Khloe and Mattai undid their restraints and hopped out of their seats.

Matt pulled out a blaster pistol; it was far from fancy, but he knew that if push came to shove, it might be the only thing that got him out of the complex alive. Khloe too pulled out a blaster pistol; it was slightly larger than Matt's, with a silvery finish which caused it to glint in the pale lamplight. The four other landed Blue group members pulled out weapons of their own. Then the six Rebels gathered together at the centre of the platform and began walking towards the entrance to the facility.

Intense yellow fluorescence spilled onto the group as they opened the east platform door and headed inside. Their boots squeaked on the smooth, finished floor as tiny raindrops rolled off their flightsuits.

With Khloe trying to keep track of their path so she could retrace it later, the group set out to find a turbolift. It took a few minutes of winding their way through a pseudo-maze of hallways, but they eventually found one. After they had all boarded it, the sliding doors closed, and the lift sank downwards into the dim light of the detention wing.

Upon reaching the appropriate floor, the group was met with a fork. Two paths diverged from the turbolift; both seemed to lead towards a cellblock, and both seemed to stretch out for a hopelessly long distance before ending in darkness.

Mattai turned to the other Alliance fighters.

"Maybe we should split up. I mean, wouldn't it be easier to find our pilots if we could search both these halls at once?"

Nods of agreement spread throughout the group.

"Alright, Khloe, you and I," Matt pointed towards a green-eyed pilot whose name he didn't know as he said 'you', "can take this corridor." Matt nodded to his left, indicating one pathway. "The rest of you can take the other path."

Without any objection, the group split into two trios and departed down their separate pathways. Khloe, Matt and the green-eyed man sped through the labyrinth of drab, grey cells, looking around frantically for any sign of their shot-down companions. The cells were for the most part empty, but every once in a while a set of eyes would appear in the darkness, peering out at them. They had been on the move for what felt like an eternity, and had almost reached the end of the block, when Khloe spotted a glint of neon orange out of the corner of her eye. Turning, she saw several Rebel pilots lying on the floor of a nearby cell, fast asleep.

"Look, there!"

Mattai picked a tiny stone up off the ground and tossed it at one of the pilots in a bid to awaken her. The stone sailed through the air and bounced off the woman's cheek back onto the cold floor. Her eyes slowly opened, and she turned her head to find the perpetrator of the impact.

"W-what..."

After a moment, the realisation of what was happening set in, and she sat straight upright. She then turned to her cellmates and spoke.

"Rav, Gold, Travis, wake up!"

The other pilots awoke from their slumbers, spotted their rescuers and darted to their feet, ready to leave. After a minute or so of struggling, the green-eyed man (who Mattai had learned was named Laertes) finally gave up trying to unlock the cell door in any traditional fashion, and "unlocked" it with his blaster pistol. The newly released pilots dashed out of their cell and ran in the direction of the turbolift, eager to get out of the building as fast as possible.

At the lift, all the Rebels met back up and returned to the first floor of the complex. Retracing their steps back to the east platform entrance, Mattai began to get an anxious feeling in the pit of his stomach. The whole mission had been far too easy: they had approached an Imperial base without seeing so much as a single TIE fighter; they had infiltrated the same Imperial base without coming across a single stormtrooper; they had retrieved their captured allies without any resistance, and now were about to leave that Imperial base without so much as a shot being fired (save for the one used to open the cell door). A profound feeling of uneasiness saturated the air in the halls, permeating everything and chilling Matt right to the core. Why would the Imperials seemingly abandon such a prominent building overnight?

When they finally reached the east platform door, Matt turned to one of the captured pilots.

"Where are all the Imperials?"

The pilot responded with a shrug.

"I have no clue... this place was buzzing with activity yesterday."

That statement sent chills up Matt's spine; something was amiss. Laertes turned to the rest of the group.

"It is kind of odd, really," he said, pressing his hand to the door pad, "you think they knew we were coming?"

As the thick door hissed open and the screech of TIE fighters filled the air, Laertes' question was answered. In the distance, through the rain, Matt could see several interceptors closing in on one of their airborne speeders. There was a brief flash of green light, followed by a brilliant red fireball, and then the speeder was gone; it had been replaced by a collection of flaming debris which rained down upon the forest below.

A dozen stormtroopers clad in white armour filed out from behind the nearby shuttle, raising their blasters, aiming to kill. An Imperial officer stepped out from the midst of them and leered at the Alliance pilots, walking slowly towards them. Rain soaked his dark grey uniform, and he held his dark grey cap in his hands, wringing the water out of it.

"Good evening," he spoke in a deep, malicious tone. "Going somewhere?"