Madonna Litta

Luke as well as his fellow members of the Rebel Alliance took turns exploringthe white wastelands of Hoth, gathering information about their new home. They allreturned to base with mixed feelings of comfort and loneliness. There was nothingto contradict their earliest findings that no intelligent lifeforms existed on this coldplanet. All that Luke had seen on his solitary expeditions were barren white plainsand ranges of blue-tinged mountains that seemed to vanish in the mists of the distanthorizons. Luke smiled behind the masklike gray bandana that protected him against Hoth'sfrigid winds. Peering out at the icy wastes through his goggles, he pulled hisfur-lined cap down more snugly about his head. One corner of his mouth curled upward as he tried to visualize the officialresearchers in the service of the Imperial government. "The galaxy is peppered withsettlements of colonizers who care little about the affairs of the Empire or itsopposition, the Rebel Alliance," he thought. "But a settler would have to be crazy tostake his claims on Hoth. This planet doesn't have a thing to offer anyone exceptus."