Anakin Skywalker was beat. He and Obi-wan had spent the last week fighting on the outer-rim planet of Castilo, a desert world known for its rocky, barren landscape and guerilla warriors. This warrior class had turned against the wealth and corruption of the Republic-aligned planetary government, which had then pleaded the Senate to send aid. The end result? Anakin and Obi-wan fighting on a parched desert landscape as camouflaged fighters popped up around outcroppings, picking off clones each time.
It was hopeless from the beginning. Every night their camp would be ambushed, and Anakin was almost always half asleep when he would hear the sound of gun fire and have to rush to the fore once more. It went on like this for a couple of days, and Anakin was beginning to feel like he would never sleep again.
And then yesterday, just before the planet's sun came up, Obi-Wan had been dreaming of Satine when a bullet ripped through his tent and skimmed his eyebrow. That one little laser had done what only Anakin, and only Anakin on a really bad day, could accomplish: it got beneath Kenobi's calm demeanor and sent the famed Jedi General on a warpath. Only Obi-Wan preferred to fight with words so instead of leaving in a huff of frustration, he put a call in to the Jedi council and after an hour or so of diplomatic talks, he won the council's approval to evacuate. Anakin couldn't have been happier.
The next day he eagerly helped his men prepare to leave the planet, carrying heavy packs and crates of supplies back to the gunships. To the rookies on the mission the very sight of a Jedi doing a clone's job was both unsuspected and awesome. It was like he was a real brother-in-arms, and they respected him that much more for it.
The evacuation went smoother than expected and by dusk the last gunship had left for the cruisers and the two Jedi generals were the only ones left on the surface.
"Ready?" Obi-wan asked as he walked to the Republic shuttle.
"You can say that again," Anakin smiled at his friend. "But I am exhausted, can you handle flying home? I mean, I know plugging in a couple of coordinates can be challenging…" Obi-wan shot Anakin an exasperated look.
"Yes, I can handle it, Anakin" he replied flatly, he himself was too exhausted to come up with the usual witty comeback. Anakin gave another tired smile and climbed into the shuttle, working his way to the back where he crashed on small bench that formed part of the wall.
Many standard hours later….
Anakin slowly opened his eyes and stared at the shuttle's ceiling, not quite willing himself to get up quite yet. The "bed" was made of hard metal, but he had slept like a hibernating Endorian bear. I guess I better go check on Obi-Wan, he sighed to himself, forcing himself to stand up.
Anakin walked towards the front to the craft, and as the door to the cockpit slid open, he saw his friend slumped over the controls, dead asleep.
"I guess it's a good thing we didn't have to do any real flying. But I'll cut you some slack this time" Anakin said quietly. Still he decided that it would be best to check the navi-computer, just in case. What he saw made him groan out loud. Somehow Obi-wan had managed to plug in the coordinates incorrectly so that instead of flying towards Coruscant they were hurtling through hyperspace in the exact opposite direction, towards the fringe worlds of the outer rim and beyond. Largely unexplored and very remote, it was not a good place to be.
"Hey, Master" Anakin said, shaking Obi-Wan awake.
"What?" A groggy Obi-Wan replied.
"Um, do you have any idea where we are heading?"
"Anakin, what are you talking about?"
"Look" Anakin said, pointing to the navi-computer and the incorrect coordinates. Obi-Wan could only stare incredulously at the screen. "Well, when we are late for the council report, it is not my fault" Anakin made it a point of reminding his friend.
"How could that have happened? Man, I was just so tired"
"We'll find our way back, but let's first find out where we are and where we can refuel." With that Anakin brought the shuttle out of hyperspace and there before them appeared a medium-size green and blue planet with swirling white clouds and expansive oceans.
"Well the bad news is that we are well beyond the outer rim, out of reach of all communication networks, and very low on fuel," Obi-Wan sighed after fiddling with the navi-computer. "But according to the preliminary planetary scans, the atmosphere on that world ahead of us is breathable. I think our best bet is to land and pray that we some sort of intelligent life can help us."
"Whatever you say, master"
As the shuttle neared the planet, the Jedi noticed a ring of ancient looking technology orbiting the world.
"Well something lives here. Only it looks as if the people are stuck in the digital age" Obi-Wan observed, referring to the distant past before holo technology and hyperdrive were developed and when a primitive form of the datapad was considered advanced.
"I'd say," replied Anakin. "What is the lowest frequency of communication available to us? We can try and contact the natives with it."
"Um radio waves, by far. They were commonly used back when Coruscant still had an ocean. But every shuttle still comes with a basic receiver in case of emergency, I'll turn ours on."
US Army Headquarters, Washington
Aerospace Engineer Rodney Beckmill had just started his job working for the US Army's Defense Management. He was fresh out of Harvard University and looked like all the bit the accomplished graduate he was: clean shaven with ruffled brown hair, green eyes, and just a hint of geekiness. His job monitoring potential atmospheric threats had thus far been boring, but today, he couldn't believe his eyes. His screen had to be malfunctioning! Surely the blimp that he saw on his computer wasn't an alien spacecraft slowly making its way towards Earth. It couldn't be!
"Miranda, take a look at this!" he shouted to his coworker next to him.
Young, blonde, and athletic Miranda Shell took one glance at the screen before muttering "Oh my God" under her breath. "Tell the General at once, he needs to see this."
"Are you sure about that? I do not want to get on that man's bad side by calling a false alarm. Remember, Dan? I think he was deported to Siberia" the young engineer replied.
"Yes I am sure, because what if that ship is real?"
A minute later US Army General Alex Stanly, a man known for his stone cold expression and stern character walked briskly into the room. "This better be good," he grumbled without even a hint of a smile.
"General, we have found an unknown and presumably foreign spacecraft heading straight for North America. Shall I try to hail it on radio?"
"I will do that, Miranda. Give me a receiver," Stanly ordered. Within seconds he had one and he used an open frequency to relay his command.
"This is the US Army Headquarters Defense Sector alerting unknown high altitude aircraft. Please, state your name and intention."
Anakin was relieved and a little surprised to hear a voice through the ancient-looking radio device. He answered straight away, "This is General Anakin Skywalker. I am a little off course at the moment and need to refuel."
"Did he just say Anakin Skywalker," a stunned Rodney whispered to Miranda who nodded in response.
"Don't play games with me, kid. I'm not here to entertain some Star Wars fan boys."
Obi-Wan always marveled at how easily his friend could mess up negotiations. He picked up the receiver, "Sir, we mean no disrespect or trouble. We just need a place to land and refuel."
"A fighter squadron will escort you here. If you dare stray from the flight path, we will swat you from the sky."
Sure you will, thought Anakin but Obi-wan was already responding, "Of course, we understand, sir."
Anakin watched as the two ancient relics, the so-called "fighter escorts," landed on the runway below. "Yah, I'm not doing that" he huffed before gracefully setting the shuttle down on a nearby helipad. Instantly, they were surrounded by military men, humans by the look of them, who were aiming some sort of firearm.
A stern looking man spoke through a megaphone, "Come out and with your hands above your heads" he ordered.
"Yes, sir," Anakin replied sarcastically, but Obi-Wan shot him a look, and the two obeyed.
The soldiers could not believe their eyes as the strange craft's passengers disembarked. They were tall and walked with confidence. One had wavy dark brown hair and striking blue eyes, the other a full head of auburn hair complete with a very legit beard. They looked exactly like Anakin and Obi-Wan from the Star Wars movies, and they even wore Jedi robes and had lightsabers hanging from their belts.
As two soldiers came up to the Jedi and secured their hands behind their backs, General Stanley studied the two strangers. He tried to convince himself that they were two irrational fan boys who had grown bored of Comic Con, but he just couldn't convince himself. The presence of the ship itself was unsettling, but even more so was the look in the two strangers' eyes. It looked as if they had seen more than they should have, as if they had emerged from the depths of war, not from the comic book shop. As the two were led away General Stanly turned to Rodney who was standing openmouthed nearby.
"You know a lot about Star Wars don't you?" he asked the engineer in his usual flat voice.
"Um, Yah I do. I mean Yes, sir," Rodney stammered.
"Well what do you make of this?" the General gestured.
"I don't know sir. The two are dressed as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. In the Star Wars universe, they were two close friends and known as the heroes of the Clone Wars. Nobody could pilot a starfighter as well as Anakin could, and Obi-Wan could negotiate his way out of anything. Both had outstanding skills with a lightsaber and the force. Near the end of the galaxy-wide wide war, Anakin turned to the Dark Side in a desperate attempt to save his wife, but it ended up consuming him. A climatic battle with Obi-Wan resulted in the injuries that turned him into Darth Vader."
The General nodded. "And it was all pure fiction, right?"
"I thought so, I mean it took place in a 'galaxy far, far away.' But maybe George Lucas or someone else involved in the production came from this galaxy and decided to make up a story based on the lives of two of its heroes. Perhaps Anakin and Obi-Wan really were two famous Jedi, and George Lucas just decided to make up a crazy story about their futures, hence episodes 4-6. Then he went back and told the past/present but with just enough of a twist so that his originals movies would make sense. That would explain why Anakin is so kind and compassionate at some times and dark in others. He most likely really is the nice guy, but the Star Wars producers forced the darkness on his character in order to make the whole Darth Vader thing more believable."
"I see. In that case I guess its good that we are dealing with the young Skywalker and Kenobi, not the old hermit and the mechanical, what is it called, Sith Lord?"
"Yes. If you want to be sure that they really are Jedi and not overzealous Star Wars geeks though, just look at their lightsabers. If they ignite and cut through anything, then they are for real. Both of them should also be able to use the force. And Anakin has a robotic right arm, but I am not sure if that is just something that the producers came up with as a pre-Vader injury."
A few minutes later, an amazed Alex Stanly was holding Obi-Wan's confiscated lightsaber in one hand and the two halves of a recently cut piece of scrap metal in the other.
"I guess we are not alone in the universe," a dumfounded Rodney muttered.
"Take the prisoners to the interrogation room" the General ordered a nearby Lieutenant.