Good news: There’s a Star Wars novel that focuses on Han Solo, everybody’s favorite interplanetary smuggler and vest-wearing rogue. Even more good news: Honor Among Thieves is written by James S.A. Corey, author of Leviathan Wakes. Final good news: We’ve got an exclusive sneak peek!
Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves comes out next Tuesday, but we’ve got a never-before-published chapter right here, to give you a taste of the action:
HAN THREW THE FALCON HARD TO PORT, and a stream of laser cannon fire flashed past.
“That almost hit Hunter
Maas’s ship!” Hunter Maas yelled in Han’sheadset.
“It almost hit Han Solo’s
ship,” Han muttered to himself, then turned the headset mic back on. “We’re
handling it; just keep heading to Kiamurr at full speed. We’ll get this guy off
your tail.”
“See that you do!”
Chewbacca growled out a
laugh.
“Not a chance, pal,” Han
said to the Wookiee, and pulled hard at the controls to throw the Falcon across the pursuing TIE’s field
of fire, trying to draw its aim away from the fleeing Maas.
“We’re not adding a third boss to this trip. Just as soon as we—”
The Falcon shuddered as another burst
of laser fire hit her rear shields. A warning light started flashing.
“—get rid of this guy, we’ll make sure Maas knows his place in the pecking order.”
The warning light shifted
to red, and an alarm shrieked. The reardeflector was collapsing. The recently
patched power cabling had burned out, and the energy surge had knocked out the
backup generator. As if to highlight this fact, the cockpit of the Falcon started to smell like smoke
and burning conduit.
“We just fixed that,” Han said.
Chewbacca growled back. Han nodded. “I know it’s frustrating.”
Another stream of laser fire
cut through the space between the ships. Han managed to evade most of it with a
hard spiraling dive to starboard,but a few bolts struck the rear of the Falcon. The warning indicator shifted to black, and the alarm squealed one last time, then fell into a sullen
monotone.
The rear shield was gone.
Han yanked back on the
controls, pulling the ship into a tight loop.
The moment they were out of
the way, the TIE fighter began pouring laser fire into the back of Maas’s freighter. The pirate screeched at them.”Hunter
Maas is being fired upon again! You said you came to protect! You are very bad
at this job!”
Han continued the loop until
the Falcon was behind the TIE. “Yeah, but you still have
rear shields,” he said to Maas, “so you can
take it.” Maas wailed his disagreement, but Han
killed the headset. “Chewie, start calculating a torpedo shot on that TIE fighter.
If, like the rest of them, it doesn’t have shields, one concussion blast should
be enough to take it out.”
Chewbacca worked at the
weapons console while Han throttled up to close the distance. The SR-model TIE
was fast, and it appeared tohave plenty of spare power for the laser cannons.
It fired into the fleeing YU-410 without pause.
The Empire’s penchant for
building fighters without shields had always seemed insane to Han, one of many
reasons he didn’t fly for that particular corporation, but working for the
opposing team, he was grateful for their lack of compassion for their pilots.
Chewbacca yowled in triumph as
the Falcon buzzed a target lock signal. Han closed the
distance to the optimal firing range and let loose two of his eight ST2
concussion missiles. That was fifteen hundred credits on the wing, but he’d make
sure to add that to the bill.
The TIE began dodging when
the missiles launched. The pilot was good. Han had expected that. The Empire
didn’t have very many of the SR-class recon fighters, so whoever flew them
would be top shelf. Han kept his finger on the trigger, ready to fire two more
missiles if he needed to.
He didn’t.
The TIE started a hard turn
to port, but the YU-410 veered erratically into its path, forcing the pilot to
correct in the other direction and into the pathof the incoming missiles. Both hit,
and the TIE fighter disappearedin a massive concussion blast that blew it into
gravel-sized chunks. The forward shields of the Falcon flashed as debris sprayed across
the ship.
Chewbacca barked a victory
laugh at the vanished fighter and climbed out of his seat.
“Yeah,” Han said, “check on
that generator. See if it can be saved. I don’t like the idea of flying without
rear shields until we can get back to the fleet.”
Chewbacca growled out his
assent and vanished into the back of theship.
“Hunter Maas,” Han said,
after turning the headset back on. “This is Captain Solo call—”
“You fired torpedoes at
Hunter Maas!” the man shouted back. “The Cosmodium
could have been destroyed!”
“The Cosmodium? Is that
your ship?”
“Hunter Maas carries
precious cargo in fragile data storage devices!The pulse from exploding
torpedoes can do irreparable damage to such things!”
“Those were concussion
warheads, they don’t make a—”
“And pieces of the
exploding ship have pierced the Cosmodium’s hull! Hunter Maas will require extensive repairs
to his ship!”
“Hunter Maas,” Han said
pleasantly.
“Yes?”
“Shut up.”
There was a long silence,
though it was impossible to tell if this wasobedience or shock.
“Thank you,” Han said. “Please
follow my course to Kiamurr. We’ll make sure you get there safely. We have a
secure dock picked out for your landing.”
“Hunter Maas selects his
own dock,” the pirate was saying. “Thank you for your offer, but your work is
now complete. Take the compliments and salutations of Hunter Maas to whoever
your master is. Good-bye.”
“Hold on there, pal,” Han
said. The guy on the other end of the line was finally starting to get on his
nerves. “You’re going to follow me back to my
dock, end of story.”
“And why would Hunter Maas
agree to these terms?”
“Because,” Han said, making
sure Maas could hear the smile in his voice, “I
saved you.” When Maas started to interrupt, he
talked over him. “And I’m sitting behind you right now with six more
concussion missiles. So you can fly to Kiamurr, land at my private dock, and
meetwith my friends. Or I can tow the crippled remains of your ship to that same
dock.”
The pause was shorter than
Han had expected.
“Hunter Maas likes the
sound of this private dock! Lead the way, my friend.”
Han nodded to himself and
stripped off the headset.
“How’s that for persuasive?”
he said to no one.
True to her word, Scarlet
had a dock assignment waiting for them at asmall freight-forwarding warehouse
just outside the main city. The warehouse was closed when they arrived, so the
dock was empty ofships and employees. She was waiting for them, lounging on a
nearby flight of stairs.
Han trotted down the ramp
from the Falcon, hand on the butt of his blaster. They didn’t
really have any idea how many people Maas had withhim on his ship, or if they’d
be angry about Han forcing them to land. If Scarlet was worried, it didn’t show.
She stretched out on the steps, head cocked to one side so that her black hair
fell away from her eyes. She gave Han a grin.
“Good job, Captain.”
“He had an Imperial scout
ship chasing him,” Han said. “The clock’s ticking. The invasion has to be on its
way.”
“We saw,” she said, then
jumped lightly to her feet and started walking toward Maas’s
freighter. “Thanks for handling that, Han. But it’s possible the scout that was
chasing Maas was working on its own. We can’t
be sure it was an advance ship of an Imperial fleet.”
From
the book STAR WARS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES by James S.A. Corey. Copyright
(c) 2013 by Lucasfilm. Reprinted by arrangement with Del Rey,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random
House, Inc. All rights reserved.
