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Knowing better than to delay, Captain Piett stepped forward instantly as the admiral staggered back a step, his hand automatically reaching for his throat.

'Yes, my lord,' Piett answered respectfully.

Ozzel began to gag now as his throat, as if in the grip of invisible talons, began to constrict.

'Make ready to land assault troops beyond the energy field,' Vader ordered. Then deploy the fleet so that nothing can get off that planet. You're in command now, Admiral Piett.'

Piett was simultaneously pleased and unsettled by this news. As he turned to carry out the orders, he saw a figure that might someday be himself. Ozzel's face was hideously contorted as he fought for one final breath of air; then he dropped into a dead heap on the floor.

The Empire had entered the system of Hoth.

Rebel troops rushed to their alert stations as the warning alarms wailed through the ice tunnels. Ground crews and droids of all sizes and makes hurried to perform their assigned duties, responding efficiently to the impending Imperial threat.

The armored snowspeeders were fueled as they waited in attack formation to blast out of the main cavern entranceway. Meanwhile, in the hangar, Princess Leia was addressing a small band of Rebel fighter pilots. 'The large transport ships will leave as soon as they're loaded. Only two fighter escorts per ship. The energy shield can only be opened for a split second, so you'll have to stay very close to the transports.'

Hobbie, a Rebel veteran of many battles, looked at the princess with concern. 'Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?'

'The ion cannon will fire several blasts which should destroy any ships in your flight path,' Leia explained. 'When you clear the energy shield, you will proceed to the rendezvous point. Good luck.'

Somewhat reassured, Hobbie and the other pilots raced toward their fighter cockpits.

Meanwhile, Han was working frantically to complete welding a lifter on the Millennium Falcon. Finishing quickly, he hopped to the hangar floor and switched on his comlink. 'All right, Chewie,' he said to the hairy figure seated at the Falcon's controls, 'give it a try.'

Just then Leia walked past, throwing him an angry look. Han looked at her smugly while the freighter's lifters began to rise off the floor, whereupon the right lifter began to shake erratically, then broke partially loose to swing back down again with an embarrassing crash.

He turned away from Leia, catching only a glimpse of her face as she mockingly raised an eyebrow.

'Hold it, Chewie,' Han grunted into his small transmitter.

The Avenger, one of the Imperial armada's wedgelike Star Destroyers, hovered like a mechanized death angel in the sea of stars outside the Hoth system. As the colossal ship began to move closer to the ice world, the planet became clearly visible through the windows which stretched 100 meters or more across the huge bridge of the warship.

Captain Needa, commander of the Avenger's crew, gazed out a main port, looking at the planet when a controller came up to him. 'Sir, Rebel ship coming into our sector.'

'Good,' Needa replied with a gleam in his eyes. 'Our first catch of the day.'

'Their first target will be the power generators,' General Rieekan told the princess.

'First transport Three Zone approaching shield,' one of the Rebel controllers said, tracking a bright image that could only be an Imperial Star Destroyer.

'Prepare to open shield,' a radarman ordered.

'Stand by, Ion Control,' another controller said.

A giant metal globe on Hoth's icy surface rotated into position and angled its great turret gun upward.

'Fire!' came the order from General Rieekan.

Suddenly two red beams of destructive energy were released into the cold skies. The beams almost immediately overtook the first of the racing Rebel transport craft, and sped on a direct course toward the huge Star Destroyer.

The twin red bolts struck the enormous ship and blasted its conning tower. Explosions set off by the blast began to rock the great flying fortress, spinning it out of control.