Soon thousands of pods were racing off to almost as many worlds including planets and moons that had yet to be conquered by the Empire Each pod contained a probot a probe droid engineered for long-range covert covert surveillance Each probot had a single purpose to find the Rebel Alliance’s new base The Avenger’s pods were targeted for three planetary planetary systems Allyuen Tokmia and Hoth The Empire had little information regarding Allyuen and Tokmia and only slightly more for Hoth a blue-white sun that was orbited by six planets and a wide asteroid belt According to an old navigational chart Hoth’s inner five planets were lifeless the outermost planet also named Hoth was covered entirely by snow and ice and was orbited by three nameless moons Because of the sixth planet’s thin at mo sphere and close proximity to the asteroid field it was also frequently battered by meteors Speeding through space a pod arrived in orbit of the ice world It automatically applied emergency braking thrusters allowing Hoth’s gravity to pull it down through the thin at mo sphere The pod streaked downward until its journey ended on the planet’s surface surface where it smashed through layers of snow and impacted along the upper slope of a high ravine As smoke billowed from the impact site and darkened darkened the surrounding snow the pod opened to reveal the probot’s armored form Equipped with a repul sorlift
and silenced thrusters the probot had a wide sensor-laden sensor-laden head that rested upon a cylindrical sup port body under which dangled four manipulator arms and a high-torque grasping arm Although the probot’s probot’s primary function was to gather and transmit data for the Empire it was also equipped with a single defense defense blaster Activating its repulsorlift the black probot rose up through the smoke and went immediately to work It used its sensors to scan for Alliance transmissions and to survey the terrain seeking signs of life and habitation habitation The probot hovered momentarily as it gathered and analyzed data then moved on gliding noiselessly through the chilled air unknowingly coming closer and closer to the Rebel base Luke Skywalker wearing an Alliance-issued insulated insulated patrol suit rode his two-legged snow lizard a tauntaun over a windswept ice slope on Hoth A thin layer of snow had built up on Luke’s protective greenlensed greenlensed goggles so he momentarily released one gloved hand from the reins to swipe at the goggles and clear his vision Luke was looking for wild tauntauns wampa ice monsters and any other of Hoth’s few indigenous creatures creatures Sensors were being planted for the Alliance’s regional warning network which would anticipate Imperial Imperial or alien intruders and it was Luke’s job to make
sure that no native beasts might accidentally damage them But from what Luke could see there wasn’t any sign of life amidst the frozen wastes not even tracks In every direction all he saw was white Luke felt about as far as he could get from his homeworld homeworld the desert planet Tatooine not merely because because of the great distance between the two planets or their dramatically different climates So much had changed since he’d joined the Rebellion He was no longer the boy who’d felt stuck on a moisture farm who only dreamed of adventures on far-off worlds He had become a warrior a hero of the Rebel Alliance and his adventures had exceeded his dreams Yet the price had been unfortunately high Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were dead So was his childhood childhood friend Biggs Darklighter along with many other brave Rebel pilots who’d fought in the Battle of Yavin Luke remembered them all but tried not to think about them too much It was more in his nature to think of the future than dwell on the past But he couldn’t stop thinking about Ben the Jedi Knight who had served so briefly as Luke’s mentor in the ways of the Force I still miss him Luke thought I wish I’d gotten to know him better on Tatooine even though Uncle Owen would have tried to stop me I could have learned so much Luke knew he needed to focus on his assignment so
he pushed aside his thoughts and guided the tauntaun along a snow-covered ridge He reined the gray-furred beast to a stop and it exhaled through its lower pair of nostrils steaming the air and fogging Luke’s goggles goggles Luke lifted the goggles over his cap’s visor then squinted at the surrounding whiteness His keen eyes sighted a streak of light that plummeted from the sky and slammed into the top of a nearby slope close enough that he could hear the impact Luke removed his electrobinoculars from his utility belt and peered through the lenses to see a magnified image of smoke rising from the impact site Just another meteorite meteorite on Hoth Luke wasn’t sure He lowered the electrobinoculars and returned them to his belt then brushed snow from the back of his left glove to reveal a comlink transmitter As he activated the transmitter his tauntaun shifted ner vously beneath him Echo Three to Echo Seven Luke said into the comlink comlink Han old buddy do you read me Luke listened to some brief static then heard the familiar familiar voice of his friend Han Solo Loud and clear kid What’s up Luke looked around trying to catch sight of Han who was also riding a tauntaun Han’s assignment had been to plant the warning sensors Luke said Well I finished my circle I don’t pick up any life readings
