[ EU ] A backstory on how Maz Kanata got Luke 's lightsaber

`` Cmon, cmon you damn wookie! ``, Maz called as the klaxons blaring sounded all around her, `` We need to get out of here before the rest of those storm troopers get here!'' 
 
 Triflor howled back at her and finished packing the bags with all of the Synth crystals they had been attempting to unload, and hefted his caster. 
 
 Together they bounded out of their apartment and into the throngs of beings crowding through the hall ways of Cloud City in a mad rush. 
 
 Lando had activated the Panic alarm and it was every man, woman, and being for themselves. The docking bays were on full Unlock and every ship that could get away was desperately trying to as a cloud of swarming TIE-interceptors burst through the outer cloud layers and descended at full speed towards the station. 
 
 `` I cant believe we picked today of all days to try meeting up with Syga!'' Maz said, glancing over her shoulder to see if any Imperials were on their tail. 
 
 But oddly, they didnt appear to be. no one seemed to be paying them much attention, even the TIE's were letting the swarms of outbound ships through with out a scan or a shot. 
 
 Strange, Maz thought. She knew Lando had been living precariously with his outright gas smuggling and under-reporting, but she didnt think it would've warranted such a response from the Empire this far out. Perhaps he had finally began supplying the Rebels and word had gotten around. 
 
 Either way, she didnt want to be here when the poodoo fully hit the fan. And not with the treasure of synth crystals she was carrying. 
 
 she depressed the two buttons on her wrist com that would activate and fire up the Raz Matra sitting in dock 4, and grunted with small relief when it appeared to respond nominally and give a code green start-up reply. 
 
 They ran past a carbonite loading dock and saw a crowd of muerloks preparing a number of systems, as if they had all the time in the world and hadnt heard the 4 alarm evacuation signal going off around them. 
 
 Even odder, Maz thought, but just as she did the interior door opened and a squadron of white shelled troopers stepped through and began speaking hurriedly to the creatures as they worked. 
 Maz elbowed Triflor who had also slowed a step to see this, and they both kicked it into overdrive and bounded the last 50 yards to the ship docks. 
 
 Far behind them her keen ears picked out the sound of blaster fire, and she hoped that it wasnt too late, or intended for them. 
 
 they skidded to a halt before the bay door and she quickly keyed in the passcode for their dock. They door slid open wordlessly and they bounced through before security could change it's mind. 
 
 Ahead Matra sat in all of it's rugged glory, humming silently as it's pulse engines cycled in warm-up, circulating cooling fluid through the manifolds. She touched another button on her wrist and the docking doors opened allowing the ramp to slide quietly out, touching the metal floor even as their feet stepped onto it at a dead run. 
 
 As soon as they were in the cargo bay, she yelled `` Get the nav online and find us a jump back to Jakkar. no one will bother to look for us there and we can lie low and figure out what the hez this is all about!'' 
 
 Triflor bellowed an acknowledgement and headed towards the bridge while Maz dived down the alley into the lower turret mount. Just to be safe. 
 
 Less than a minute later she felt the ship shudder and lift off, and looked through the transperi-steel at the open bay doors in front of them, praying silently to the Force that they wouldnt decide to suddenly close on them when they were so close. She had no love for the Empire, and even less trust, and would not put it past Lord Vader to draw the noose tight right when they were in it, and she was sure it was his dark aura she had felt earlier passing through the hallways... 
 
 that shouldve been my first clue, she thought absently to herself, and then the acceleration pressed her against the gunner seat. 
 
 they swept out the bay doors in a surge of plasma blasts and she had a moment to look back and think to herself `` Is that an X-wing??'' as she spotted a lone ship sitting on a platform. 
 
 `` GrrrHWWWL!! ``, came Triflor's voice through the intercom, and it could only mean one thing, Imperial ships directly ahead. 
 
 `` By the Force! ``, she cried, and after he howled again she replied, `` I dont know, do an evasive run, and let's turn around! We certainly cant just try to blast through them, you furry beast!'' 
 
 the com crackled with some frustrated reply and she felt the momentum suddenly change as the ship flipped back 180 degrees upside down. through her turret canopy she had just a brief glimpse of a whole battalions worth of Imperial transports coming through the skies out of orbit. 
 
 `` Oh Lando'', she thought, `` what have you gotten yourself into!'' 
 
 Then the ship spun on an axis and they were flying directly back at the base they had just so hurriedly escaped, against the outflowing traffic that either didnt have the sensor capacity the Raz had, or didnt know what to do when stuck between a rancor and a hard place. 
 
 
 
 [ contd ] 
 
 
 

