"No sooner said than done, Mr. Stryker. And please do stop calling me Mr. Jedi; I believe my name is written in a decypherable font on the crew manifest."

Aurelia gives Wayde a knowing look.

"Too many cooks spoil the broth hun...go help 'Za make a mess of something while I get my girl back online."

She reaches in, yanking out hand a dozen circuit boards, replacing a few that look too damaged, sliding wires back into some of the others.

Momentarily, Erit appears in Engineering, carrying a toolkit.

"How can I assist you, Miss Connroy?"

Aurelia doesn't look up as she continues to rerout and replace hyperdrive circuits.

"Make sure our friend didn't mess up anything else. I'll be very upset if I reconnect all of this and all it does is blow the drive."

"Hang on, folks, we're going starside fast."

Arnae pushes the throttle to eleven and prepares to cut every corner that comes.

Wayde barely gets himself strapped into the open turret seat as the Chance accelerates to a dangerous clip.

Arnae arcs the pig of a freighter up through a thermal and bursts through a cloud, the Chance
s engines throwing the vapor into disarray behind them and creating a makeshift smokescreen for their Imperial pursuers. The first emerald laser blasts start screaming through the clouds and past the ship, answered by Wayde and Mak's ruby bolts. No hits on either side. Jileeza draws down on her target, waiting for the TIE Interceptors to get within range of her little autoblaster.

Down in the engines, the heat and stress is forcing rivulets of sweat from Aurelia's brow as she's hurriedly rewiring and configuring the hyperdrive. To anyone else, it looks as if she's doing more harm than good, but Aurelia knows where every bit goes.

Arnae continues his burn towards space, scanning the weather sensors for wind currents, a tailwind, thermals, anything that'll boost the freighter's speed. And it seems to be working - the constant fire from the Chance's guns forces the TIE pilots to get out of the way or die. Only one TIE manages to close any distance over the next few seconds before the gunners line their sights up again.

That TIE immediately gets targeted by all three gunners - even 'Za gets an extreme range hit in by just spraying wildly. It disintegrates in a fireball. The remaining three TIEs don't even come close with their return fire.

Arnae can begin to see stars twinkling through the rose-colored atmosphere as he asks his ship for all she's got.

Aurelia makes some more headway, then unexpectedly shorts out one of the boards as turbulence jumbles her grip on the component. She swears but manages to grab a replacement from the bag she filled in Cloud City.

It doesn't look good for the Second Chance - two of the Interceptors have managed to close the range and line up on the freighter. Wayde shouts "Incoming!" as the two fighters unleash on the ship. The lights flicker and come back on as the deflectors take the shots. Red warning lights blossom throughout the cockpit - the deflectors are in no shape for another tag-teaming like that, and there's no power available to shunt to them.

More bad news can be heard across the intercom as 'Za's blaster goes dead, a victim of the brief power failure- oh, wait, it's come back on again. Mak's attempts to persude the TIEs to leave aren't as successful as his fusillade on the first TIE - his cannon fire streams under and around the Interceptor's solar panels. Wayde has a little more luck, scoring a grazing hit along the right sponson of his target.

The Second Chance finally breaches the last of Bespin's atmosphere for the void of space. In engineering, though, things are getting a little worse. Just a little, though. The power failure's gone and caused the damaged hyperdrive to shut down - a few precious seconds are lost waiting for the accursed machine to cycle back online.

The damaged Interceptor breaks off its attack run, leaving one TIE lined up for an optimal shot - the deflectors take their last breath as the TIE's laser cannons hit hull plating. The freighter shakes and most of those red lights in the cockpit turn off. Luckily, she seems to hold together - no air escaping, no fireball, no parts missing.

More green blasts streak past but miss as the remaining TIEs spray for anything they can get. Their ineffectiveness is ironically contrasted with Mak and 'Za's accuracy as they dust the TIE on the Chance's tail. Wayde's shots at the remaining two just miss as they go into a barrel roll to avoid the fire.

Erit, having stumbled around the ship thus far looking for more signs of sabotage, returns to the sensors pit and starts plotting a course for one of the Worldships of Ithor.

Trying her damndest to oblige, Aurelia manages to lock down the wiring and calibrate what she hopes is the right apertures. She engages the hyperdrive motivators and scoots away, looking out of one squinting eye...

The TIEs pair up and come screaming in, firing another burst of green bolts...

And finally, the starfield turns from points of white to bright streaks and the Second Chance darts into hyperspace.