Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and the Rebel commandos were led out of the bunker by their Imperial captors. Outside, they found the other members of their strike team standing together with their hands clasped behind their heads. They were surrounded by more than a hundred Imperial troops. One captured commando was especially conspicuous: He had obtained a scout trooper uniform before being apprehended, and he still wore the armor, minus the helmet. Obviously, he’d failed in his effort to infiltrate the Imperial soldiers.

An 8.6-meter-tall, two-legged All Terrain Scout Transport walker loomed above the soldiers; the AT-ST’s pilot was visible atop the vehicle, his upper body rising through the hatch of the command cabin. Although not as tall as four-legged AT-AT walkers, the AT-ST was still an intimidating vehicle, especially since its blaster cannons were trained on the Rebels.

Leia spotted another AT-ST lurch past the trees on the ridge from which the Rebels had first glimpsed the bunker. It was all a trap, Leia realized. She thought of the Bothan spies who’d died in their effort to acquire and deliver the secret data regarding the new Death Star to the Alliance. The Bothans were pawns. Everything—the data, the stolen Imperial shuttle, the clearance code for the shield passage—was a scheme to bring the Rebel fleet to Endor.

“All right, move it!” said a stormtrooper behind Leia. “I said move it! Go on!” As Leia’s group walked over to join the other Rebels, Leia glanced at Han. From his stunned expression, she knew he was thinking the same thing: Their situation was hopeless. They were more surprised than relieved when they heard a familiar voice call out from the forest, just beyond the clearing where they stood.

“Hello!” shouted C-3PO as he stepped out from behind a tall tree’s wide trunk to stand beside R2-D2. “I say, over there! Were you looking for me?” The droids moved back behind the tree.

Chewbacca howled at the droids, urging them to run. Leia thought, The droids are up to something. But what?

The bunker commander turned to a squad of stormtroopers and said, “Bring those two down here.”

“Let’s go,” said the stormtrooper squad leader. The white-armored troops headed off into the forest.

As the stormtroopers approached the droids, C-3PO turned to R2-D2 and said, “Well, they’re on their way. Artoo, are you sure this was a good idea?”

The stormtroopers ran up and aimed their blaster rifles at the droids. “Freeze!” said the squad leader. “Don’t move!”

“We surrender,” C-3PO said, raising his hands.

But just as the stormtroopers were about to seize the droids, a band of Ewoks jumped down from the surrounding bushes. The Ewoks carried clubs, stones, knives, and spears, and every one of them had been itching to fight the invaders who’d cut down so many trees on their world. Their attack was swift and ferocious, and most of the stormtrooper squad fell without knowing what had hit them.

“Ohhh!” C-3PO cried as the brave Ewoks pummeled the stormtroopers. “Stand back, Artoo.”

R2-D2 looked up to see Wicket arrive with Logray, Chief Chirpa, Teebo, and a small army of Ewoks. Wicket waved to the droids and chittered.

In a nearby tree, an Ewok raised a hollowed horn to his lips and sounded a battle call. The call was heard and repeated by an Ewok in another tree. Then the Imperials and Rebels were mutually astonished when hundreds of Ewoks rose from the bushes that surrounded the bunker’s perimeter.

Most of the Ewoks wielded wooden bows. The archers took quick but careful aim, then released a flurry of stone-tipped arrows at the Imperial soldiers.

Stormtroopers screamed and dived for cover. Han grabbed the nearest stormtrooper and flung him hard into another. Chewbacca did the same. Leia saw her blaster amidst a pile of confiscated weapons and snatched it up fast. She kicked a stormtrooper aside, then raised her blaster at the AT-ST pilot who hadn’t been fast enough to lower himself into his vehicle. Leia fired, disabling the pilot.

The other Rebels quickly engaged the stormtroopers in hand-to-hand combat and took back their blaster rifles. As the clearing outside the bunker became rapidly littered with white-armored bodies and fallen weapons, several stormtrooper squads returned fire at the Ewoks. Most of the furry archers went scrambling into the woods, and the squads went after them. A pair of scout troopers hopped on their speeder bikes and joined in the pursuit.

Han spotted his blaster on the ground. He picked it up, knocked yet another stormtrooper aside, then moved fast alongside Leia, heading for the bunker’s open doorway. But as they neared the bunker, the door slid shut to seal off the entrance. They dived against the recessed door as Imperial laserfire tore around their position. Most of the stormtroopers had gone after the Ewoks; Han and Leia fired back at the ones who hadn’t.

In the woods, the stormtroopers fired at anything that moved. But despite their superior firepower, they rarely found their targets; the forest’s density made it difficult to get a clear shot at anything, and the troopers frequently lost their balance on the uneven terrain.

The Ewoks exploited the stormtroopers’ disadvantages at every opportunity. Swinging from vines and leaping out from behind bushes, they knocked the troopers off their feet and sent them tumbling down hills and into sinkholes, where they were met by more Ewoks with stones, clubs, and axes.

The AT-ST walkers proved to be a greater challenge for the Ewoks. Each armor-plated walker was equipped with maneuverable blaster cannons and a concussion-grenade launcher, and the pilots and gunners did their best to keep the Ewoks running. As a group of Ewoks scurried out of the way from a cannon-firing walker, they saw two of their fellows soaring high above the forest floor in stick-framed, leather-winged gliders. Both of the daring flyers carried stones.

As one flyer swooped over the walker, he dropped a stone that merely bounced off the vehicle’s upper hull. The other flying Ewok had more success when he unloaded two stones onto the heads of stormtroopers. But as one trooper collapsed to the ground, his blaster fired a stray shot that went straight up and punched a hole through the second glider’s wing. The Ewok shrieked as his glider spiralled out of control and crashed near the base of a large tree.

The fallen Ewok’s allies raced to pull him out of the path of an oncoming walker, then slung a vine across the ground and held tight to the vine’s ends in an effort to trip the vehicle. But when one of the walker’s footpads snagged the vine, the Ewoks were instead yanked off their feet and dragged across the ground. Releasing the vine, they rushed to see if their nearby comrades had readied the catapults.

Elsewhere, Wicket had hastily enlisted with a division of Ewoks who hunted with bolas. They waited in the bushes until a group of stormtroopers rushed toward their position, then stood up, swung the bolas over their furry heads, and released the stone-weighted ropes at their targets. The bolas whipped around the troopers’ heads, shattering their helmets and breaking bones. Wicket gave it his best try, but wound up getting tangled in his own bola and knocked himself down. Luckily, only his ego was bruised.

Back at the bunker, Leia reached for the control panel that was set within the doorway’s frame. The door wouldn’t open. “The code’s changed,” she said. “We need Artoo!”

Han looked below the control panel, found a socket, and said, “Here’s the terminal.”

The stormtroopers hadn’t confiscated Leia’s comlink, probably because they’d assumed it wouldn’t be of any further use to her. They were wrong. She pulled the device from her pocket, switched it on, and said, “Artoo, where are you? We need you at the bunker right away.”

R2-D2 was still with C-3PO, watching the Ewoks fight the stormtroopers, when he received Leia’s transmitted communication. The astromech beeped to the golden droid, then moved away from beside the tree where they’d been standing.

“Going?” C-3PO said with alarm. “What do you mean, you’re going? But—but going where, Artoo? No, wait! Artoo!” Artoo kept moving, and C-3PO hurried after him. “Oh, this is no time for heroics. Come back!”

In the woods, the Ewoks loaded heavy stones onto primitive catapults, then fired at an AT-ST walker. The stones flew past the trees and hammered at the walker’s command compartment, but barely left a dent. Then the command compartment rotated to aim its cannons and fired back. The Ewoks fled as their catapult was blasted to bits.

The battle against the Empire didn’t seem to be going much better in space. The Rebel fleet was greatly outnumbered. As more starfighters were lost to TIE interceptors, all Lando could do was fire at Imperial ships and try to stay alive.

Through the Falcon’s cockpit window, he sighted Wedge’s X-wing. “Watch yourself, Wedge!” Lando shouted into his comlink. “Three from above!”

Wedge saw the three TIE fighters on his scopes and said, “Red Three, Red Two, pull in!”

The other pilots did as ordered and went after the TIE fighters. Red Two blasted one into spacedust and said, “Got it!”

Red Three said, “Three of them coming in, twenty degrees!”

“Cut to the left!” Wedge said. “I’ll take the leader!” A moment later, Wedge fired his cannons and the lead TIE fighter was gone. Another TIE fighter zoomed in on Wedge’s tail. Wedge sent his X-wing into a tight bank away from a Mon Cal cruiser. His pursuer failed to execute the bank and exploded against the larger ship’s hull.

Wedge saw three more TIE fighters veer past his ship. He said, “They’re heading for the medical frigate.”

Lando steered the Falcon through a complete roll as he fired at one of the three TIE fighters. The TIE fighter exploded, and Lando went after the other two. As he wrapped around the medical frigate, the soldier who was serving as his navigator said from behind, “Pressure steady.”

More laserfire spat out from the Falcon’s cannons, and two more TIE fighters exploded. But as Lando started to loop back to the medical frigate, he noticed the Star Destroyers had continued to maintain their distance from the battle. He said, “Only the fighters are attacking. I wonder what those Star Destroyers are waiting for.”

On the main bridge of the Super Star Destroyer Executor, Admiral Piett and the Imperial Fleet Commander stood before the bridge’s wide viewport and watched the battle that raged near the Death Star. Another officer approached them from the walkway that bisected the bridge and said, “We’re in attack position now, sir.”

“Hold here,” Piett ordered.

“We’re not going to attack?” asked the Fleet Commander, surprised.

“I have my orders from the Emperor himself,” Piett stated with pride. “He has something special planned. We only need to keep them from escaping.”

On the Death Star, the Emperor, Darth Vader, and a mortified Luke continued to watch the warring starships in the distance. From his throne, the Emperor said, “As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed. Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station.” The Emperor pressed a button on his throne’s armrest and said into his comlink, “Fire at will, Commander.”

Luke, in shock, glanced at the Emperor, then returned his gaze to the Rebel fleet.

In the Death Star control room, buttons were pressed and switches were thrown. A black-helmeted Imperial gunner reached overhead and pulled a lever. Commander Jerjerrod gave the command: “Fire!”

The giant laserdish on the completed half of the Death Star began to glow. Then a powerful beam shot out toward the Rebel fleet and smashed into a Mon Cal cruiser. The cruiser exploded in a blinding flash.

The power of the explosion rocked the Rebel fleet. Inside the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit, Lando was stunned.

“That blast came from the Death Star!” he exclaimed. “That thing’s operational! Home One, this is Gold Leader.”

“We saw it,” Admiral Ackbar answered. “All craft prepare to retreat.”

Lando said, “You won’t get another chance at this, Admiral.”

“We have no choice, General Calrissian,” Ackbar replied. “Our cruisers can’t repel firepower of that magnitude.”

“Han will have that shield down,” Lando promised. “We’ve got to give him more time.”

On Endor, Leia, Han, and a small group of Rebel commandos fought desperately to maintain their position outside the bunker that led to the shield generator control station. Four stormtroopers had found cover behind a fallen tree on the ridge that overlooked the bunker, maintaining a definite tactical advantage as they fired down at the Rebels below. Han was wishing he had a grenade to lob at the troopers when he saw a band of spear-wielding Ewoks leap out from the bushes above and behind the ridge. Pouncing quickly, the Ewoks made quick work of the white-armored soldiers.

But the bunker door remained closed. Leia wondered, Where’s Artoo?

Just then, C-3PO called out, “We’re coming!”

Han and Leia saw the droids moving on the ridge, trying to make their way down to the bunker, as an enemy-fired laserbolt streaked past R2-D2’s domed head. Han traced the angle of fire to spot the shooter: a stormtrooper hiding behind some nearby bushes. Han raised his blaster, fired, and struck the shooter squarely in the middle of his helmet. The trooper fell back against the ground.

“Come on! Come on!” Han shouted to the droids.

More stormtroopers fired at the bunker. C-3PO ran up beside Leia as R2-D2 scooted over next to Han. Positioning himself beside the doorway’s computer terminal, R2-D2 extended his computer interface arm and plugged into the terminal socket.

C-3PO said, “Oh, Artoo, hurry!”

But before the astromech could open the door, a stormtrooper fired a laserbolt that struck directly in front of him. The droid screeched as the blast launched him backward from the terminal to the far side of the doorway, where he slammed against the door’s metal frame. Han sighted R2-D2’s attacker and fired his blaster; the stormtrooper fell to the ground.

C-3PO stepped beside R2-D2, then backed away as an electrical surge suddenly coursed through and over the astromech’s body. Artoo screeched again, then every compartment on his body popped open to deploy his many tool-tipped appendages.

“My goodness!” C-3PO cried as smoke poured out from his friend’s domed head. “Artoo, why did you have to be so brave?”

Han and Leia gaped at R2-D2’s disabled form, then Han said, “Well, I suppose I could hot-wire this thing.” He turned for the door’s control panel.

“I’ll cover you,” Leia said. She began firing at the stormtroopers, allowing Han to concentrate on the door’s mechanisms. Sparks flew as he broke the control panel open and fumbled with some exposed wires.

Leia had no idea what was happening with the Rebel fleet, but she knew that if she and Han failed to knock out the energy shield generator, the battle would be lost.

The Death Star fired its superlaser again, and another Mon Cal cruiser was instantly vaporized. As Wedge Antilles raced his X-wing away from the explosion, he wasn’t sure if he’d heard Lando Calrissian’s last message correctly, and asked him to repeat.

From the Millennium Falcon, Lando shouted, “Yes! I said closer! Move as close as you can and engage those Star Destroyers at point-blank range.”

On the Home One, Admiral Ackbar heard Lando’s transmission and said, “At that close range we won’t last long against those Star Destroyers.”

Lando replied, “We’ll last longer than we will against that Death Star—and we might just take a few of them with us.”

Ackbar agreed with Lando’s improvised plan; Home One and the remaining cruisers began speeding toward the Star Destroyers. The Rebels were practically on top of the enemy ships when they opened fire on the Star Destroyers’ control bridges and communication towers.

TIE fighters zoomed in to defend the Imperial warships and went after the Rebel starfighters with even greater maliciousness. An X-wing pilot blasted at a Destroyer’s port-side deflector-shield generator dome and shouted, “She’s gonna blow!” The dome exploded, but a moment later, TIE fighters fired at the X-wing and it blossomed into a ball of fire.

“I’m hit!” cried a Rebel pilot from his flaming Y-wing. The Y-wing spiraled away from the TIE fighters and smashed into a Star Destroyer.

On the Death Star, the Emperor was unconcerned by the way the battle had shifted to the Star Destroyers. He gazed at Luke, who remained by the circular window, and said, “Your fleet is lost. And your friends on the Endor moon will not survive. There is no escape, my young apprentice.”

Luke glanced at Darth Vader. He thought, If there’s even a trace of Anakin Skywalker left, he wouldn’t stand by and allow this to continue.

But all Darth Vader did was return Luke’s gaze.

The Emperor opened his yellow eyes and said, “The Alliance will die…as will your friends.”

Luke glared at the Emperor and wished the wretched man would choke on his words.

“Good,” the Emperor said, closing his yellow eyes and smiling. “I can feel your anger. I am defenseless.”

Luke glanced at his lightsaber, still resting near the Emperor’s right hand on the throne’s armrest.

“Take your weapon!” the Emperor challenged. “Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey toward the dark side will be complete.”

Luke turned away, trying to resist the temptation to kill the Emperor. Then he thought, But if I don’t kill him, how many more innocent people will die?

Luke moved fast, turning to face the Emperor as he used the Force to make his lightsaber fly from the throne’s armrest to his waiting hand. His lightsaber blazed to life and he swung fast at the Emperor’s head.

Luke’s lightsaber never reached its target. Darth Vader’s red-bladed lightsaber ignited a split second after Luke’s, and Vader deftly blocked the attack.

Seeing the two lightsabers crossed mere centimeters in front of his horrible face, Emperor Palpatine cackled. He hadn’t seen a lightsaber duel in years, and was now delighted by the prospect of watching a father and son try to kill each other.

I won’t kill you, father, Luke thought. I won’t!

Then Vader pushed Luke back away from the Emperor, and Luke was suddenly fighting for his life.