The Rebel Alliance has just finished evacuating everyone off Yavin 4 and are heading for Hoth. After Luke blasts off into hyperspace, Han, Leia, C-3PO, and Chewbacca scan ships in the Death Star wreckage. Guessing that Imperial spies are hiding there, they decide to investigate. However, pirates are actually waiting for them. Red TIE Fighters fly out behind them, and take out the Millennium Falcons power. Another pirate ship then reveals itself, and they begin to dock onto the notorious Redkihl Rokk's ship. Redkhil had planned that he would take their cargo, then let them die a slow death in space, like he did to everyone.
Out of the blue, Luke bursts out of hyperspace and guns down two TIE Fighters. It turns out that he had also scanned the pirates after they had left, and taking into mind that contacting Han would alert the pirates and remove his element of surprise, he did not send anything. Redkhil then shoots at Luke, setting his ship on fire. Luke dives toward the ship's hangar bay and crashes through. The Battle of the Hungry Ghost begins.
Now that the Falcon is docked to Rokk's ship, they release small spider drones onto the ship. The Alliance heroes run to the back of the ship to hide and make repairs. A pirate comes to report that they have the Falcon docked, but Redkhil had another problem. Luke survived the crash into the hangar bay. He orders his crew to kill him, knowing that if he reaches the bridge, he would die.
Back at the Falcon, the drones are searching the ship for cargo and Han. All they find are bombs. Han thinks of a plan to trick the pirates into surrendering. As Luke searches for the bridge, the crew finds him and engage in combat. Luke takes three of them easily with a swing of his lightsaber. One of them tries to sneak up behind him, but R2-D2 electrocutes him. Now aware of the pirate, Luke slices him in half.
Han finishes a hologram of himself and hands it to C-3PO so they can begin the plan. C-3PO is very worried about the plan though, but Leia does her best to comfort him by putting a communicator on the box holding the hologram. He then walks out surrendering to the drones, and they take him away.
When C-3PO reaches Redkihl, he plays a message of Han saying that the bombs the drones took have a detonator, and that he will blow them up if Red does not surrender.
Believing Han is bluffing, he does not surrender. Luke then bursts into the bridge, but Red quickly orders his drones to shoot at him, wounding Luke. Just as Red is about to finish Luke off, Han and Chewbacca manage to get the Falcon's power back on. Red does not notice that Luke is running up to him, ready to attack. Luke slashes at Red, and then runs to a hatch connecting to the Falcons hatch along with C-3PO and R2-D2, and jumps inside.
In a last attempt to kill them, Red turns his guns on the Falcon. Han then detonates the bombs that are still in the ship, killing the pirate. They then continue to Hoth, letting the pirate ship become just another hunk of Death Star wreckage, as Red would have done to them.
- Star Wars Tales Volume 2
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Rebellion Vol. 2
- Star Wars Legends: The Rebellion Omnibus Vol. 1