Chapter 28

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A thin horizon line cut across the bleak landscape

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A thin horizon line cut across the bleak landscape. Small dot-size objects began to appear on the horizon, moving in the direction of the Rebel base.
A Rebel officer lifted a pair of electrobinoculars to his eyes. Through the lens he saw a very close view of a giant Imperial snow walker. He adjusted the view which then zoomed back to reveal three more of the ominous battle machines.
Small flashes of yellow fire billow from the guns of the lumbering snow walkers.
The officer lowered his binoculars as the regular rhythmic pounding began to make the ground vibrate. The pounding grew louder and was accompanied by a high-pitched, metallic rattling. The officer spoke into his comlink.

"Echo Station Three-T-Eight."

Pilots and gunners raced to their waiting snow speeders. Ice and snow began falling from the walls of the corridor, shaken by the pounding Imperial snow walker as they drew ever nearer.

"We have spotted Imperial walkers!"
"Imperial walkers on the north ridge."

The Rebel troops aimed their weapons at the horizon as explosions erupted all around them. They were nervous and their grip on their weapons tightened from the cold and from fear. Behind the troops a dozen snow speeders raced through the sky.

"Echo station Five-Seven. We're on our way."

The fleet of snow speeders raced above the ice field at full throttle. They accelerated away from the base and headed toward the distant walkers.

"All right, boys, keep tight now."
"Luke, I have no approach vector. I'm not set."
"Steady, Mary. Attack pattern delta. Go now!"

The cannons mounted on the walker head fired at the speeders. Other walkers loomed in the background. Two speeders raced away past two of the enormous walkers and bank to the right. "All right, I'm coming in."

They turned the speeder and headed directly at one of the walkers, flying toward its towering legs. The horizon twisted as the speeder banked between the legs.
Two speeders raced directly at the head of a walker, then split and flew past it. Three other walkers marched onward, firing all cannons.
Rebel troops fired on the approaching walkers, as the snow and ice exploded all around them.
A speeder banked through and away from the legs of a walker. Two other speeders passed the first speeder from the opposite direction. Other Rebel craft raced just above the icy plain.
A giant walker head swivelled and fired, striking a snow speeder and sending it crashing in a ball of flames.
Luke looked back at the walker as it grew smaller in the distance.

"That armour's too strong for blasters."

On the horizon, another walker moved up past Luke's cockpit window, twisting out of sight as Luke banked and started another run.

"Rogue Group, use your harpoons and tow cables. Go for the legs. It might be our only chance of stopping them."

Rogue Leader and another snow speeder flew in tight formation toward the walker as explosions burst all around them. Rebel troops fired the dish like ray gun while explosions erupted around them.
Two walkers lumbered toward the Rebel base as a speeder between them exploded in a ball of flames. The dislike ray gun was hit by a laser bolt and instantly exploded.
Wedge's speeder raced through the legs of one of the monstrous walkers.

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