Prologue
Exiting the hut that had been his home during his lifetime, Luke stepped out to get a breath of fresh air. Well, as fresh as it gets living on a desert planet. It was early in the morning and he had excitedly gotten out of bed with the knowledge that his Uncle Owen and himself would be looking to buy a couple of new droids. The thing he loved most about that was, more droids equaled less work and more money. Luke had always wanted to be a pilot, a skill he had learned from piloting the speeders and skyhoppers, and he wanted to use that skill for a good cause. Luke had been looking forward to, for much of his fifteen year old life, to go to the 'academy', where he would be trained to work for the supreme rulers in the galaxy.
Since before he was born the Empire had ruled under the command of Emperor Palpatine with his right hand, Darth Vader. The galaxy had seemingly prospered from Luke's point of view (although that view only came from living on a planet at the outreaches of the galaxy). Not much happened there and although the Empire breathed down the necks of a lot of people, Luke and his family were generally left alone.
After his chores for the day had been speedily done, due to the excitement that Luke had, his Uncle Owen finally called out for him and they went on their way to barter for the droids. On the way they had a long conversation about power converters, work, and the type of droid they would be looking to buy, especially a protocol droid that spoke the language Bache. After a while, Luke nervously turned the subject to his own plans. Nervously because he knew that his Uncle didn't look very highly upon the academy
Slowly starting he stated, "so it should take me a few more months to head off to the academy."
Almost just as slowly his Uncle responded, "you know that I'll need you for this next season, the droids won't be enough! I promise that I'll let you go next season."
Bewildered and full of distress Luke snapped, "that's what you said last season!"
Just as snappy his Uncle said, "you know what the family needs and it will help you learn how to work and waste your time with the empire later…. much later"
Luke quickly snapped back, questioningly, "what do you have against the Empire!"
However, the conversation fell into silence as his Uncle fell into silence and it didn't seem as though Luke was going to get a response. Nevertheless, the excitement that they both felt didn't down their spirits too much and they kept on chatting after the moment of silence. Luke had to admit that, although his Uncle had this strange idea against the Empire, he loved him and respected him as the man who took his late father's place and raised him.
Finally, they arrived and his Uncle began to barter with the group of nomadic like people who called themselves Jawas. It doesn't take too much to barter although with the few skills that are involved one has to master them. His Uncle had mastered the skills on how to compliment the beautiful brown robes that the Jawas always wore (although they reminded Luke of a pile of Rancor dung that they draped over themselves, even smelling like it) bragging and even complaining that he had little money on his person. All these things and quite a bit more got you a good price from these midget merchants.
Firstly it started with Uncle Owen, "how much are the few protocol droids here Filu?"
Quickly replying in it's own language, which Uncle Owen spoke fluently, the Jawa known as Filu said, "five hundred is the low offer for today, and you won't find another troop of Jawas that will compare to that price!"
Luke would say that Filu had pride on his face, but all you really see in the hood is a lot of black and two little yellow eyeballs poking through.
Finally, Uncle Owen paid three hundred for two droids together. One protocol droid and a R2 unit followed them back to their speeder until the R2 unit blew up.
"What in the spude is this?!" He cursed in rage. (Spude being a certain type of sludge like substance left by a Hutt…. won't say more than that)
Like any good merchant would do, Filu allowed Owen to choose another. Another that would change their lives, forever.
Looking at me the protocol droid that they chose asked, "Might I suggest that R2 unit?" he pointed at a short, blue, cylinder shaped droid.
In response Luke yelled, "Uncle Owen, what about that one"
So finally off they went, with two droids in stock, the protocol droid (C-3P0) and the astromechal droid (R2D2). Little did they know that their world was about to turn upside down.
Chapter 1
They were about half way to their home when they saw a white figure lying in the Sand.
Luke first saw it and yelled out, "WOOOOO wait, stop!!"
His uncle replied with a questioning and alarmed, "what!?"
"Pull over! There! Don't you see? Someone in the sand!"
"What in the Forces name is someone doing passed out there!? Even in hell this is considered a desert!"
As they approached Luke's Uncle slowed to a stop as he recognized the imperial armor of a stormtrooper.
"Luke, I can't do it."
"What do you mean? Do what?"
"I can't save a stormtrooper, Damn it!"
"What the.... what are you talking about!?"
"They only bring destruction in their wake and whether you want to go to the academy or not I'm not having them enter my life!"
After saying this he began to turn the speeder around, but Uncle Owen didn't get a chance to speed up before Luke suddenly jumped out.
Uncle Owen yelled with all his fury, "Luke, get in the damn speeder!"
With just as much fury Luke yelled back, "NO! With all you self righteousness I'm surprised you haven't considered yourself the Emperor himself! Who the hell are you to judge someone?! Tell me why I should leave someone in the middle of a desert where he is guarantee to die?!"
"I just....," all of a sudden his Uncle seemed to calm down, hung his head, and then slowly nodded.
They soon pulled the speeder next to the armored, seemingly lifeless corpse and throw it onto the back of the speeder.
Chapter 2
Finally back home the stranger woke up a few hours afterward.
"Welcome!" Uncle Owen said as the man slowly sat up.
The man was covered in dust but as he sat up and dusted himself off his features became a bit more visible. He was a tall man, had a short buzz cut with his dark blonde hair, he had no facial hair, but a more noticeable aspect of him was a medium size scar that traveled from the middle of his cheek to his ear where a chunk seemed to have been burned off.
All he could muster at first was a, "uggghhhh"
Luke's Aunt Beru hushed him and helped him sit straight as she handed him a glass of blue milk.
He mustered a thank you and Luke was startled because of the recognition of the voice.
"O my gosh, are you Limsim!?"
He slowly shook his head with a definite yes.
"Aren't you supposed to be at the academy? I was going to be attending this next semester….," he was cut off by a glare by his Uncle and Luke continued to ask him, "well, never mind. What the heck were you doing out there?!"
In a raspy voice Limsim said, "ran away…. Vader….. Death St….." he fell into a coughing fit and it was clear that he was dry and dehydrated from being in the desert for a while.
Aunt Beru chided Luke and Uncle Owen for disturbing Limsim and excused them all, "the poor boy needs to get rest in order to recover."
They fell asleep that night, but Luke was woken up by a very disturbed C-3P0, the protocol droid they had earlier bought who was frantically yelling,
"He's gone! He's gone! Luke! LUKE!!!!"
Running to see what had happened Luke asked, "what happened? Calm down!"
"R2D2 rolled off, I don't know where he is or anything! It is clear that the foolish droid let his curiosity get the best of him. He has always been rather random about things like this, why a few years ago….."
It was clear to Luke that C-3P0 liked to talk way too much. He took out some binoculars and scanned the horizon for the little droid.
When he saw nothing he cursed and said, "we'll have to go in the morning to avoid the sand people."
They soon fell asleep. As they did Limsim woke up.
He laid there for a few minutes and tried to orient himself. He soon remembered what he had come to do. Limsim ran to Luke's room and woke him.
"They know about the droid!" Limsim said, out of breath from the run
"What are you talking about?"
"The droid, the plans, don't you know?!"
Luke was clearly puzzled and Limsim saw that he was going to have to explain a few things.
"Look, you Uncle was right. The Empire is not as good as we've believed all these years! They have built a space station with the power to destroy worlds and are not afraid to use it. They have been part of taking over the galaxy by force and killing thousands in their way."
Luke was dumbfounded and made an attempt to argue but was cut off.
"Luke I have seen what they do, they killed my brother. Shot him. He thought that raiding a town was wrong. He was close to graduation…. He yelled at the captain, of the time, who ordered him off to be shot for disobeying orders to obliterate a whole city that only paid fifteen percent taxes instead of the twenty they were supposed to. These people would have starved. I have seen these things with my own eyes. Children being taken from the arms of mothers to be raised as imperials, women being used and abused, and men who tried to protect their loved ones… slaughtered! Luke do you know what it is like to see a brother led away, knowing that he was to be killed in the morning!? Do you know what it is LIKE to see people be massacred!!!" Limsim fell back and became silent.
Luke didn't know what to say other than, "I'm sorry."
"So am I…so am I. But, I can't dwell on it as hard as it is. I HATE the Empire and I'm going to join the rebellion to see them pay for what they've done to me! I was assigned to come here with a patrol to kill you, your family, and get that R2 unit that contains plans for the planet destroyer being built."
"The droid ran off last night! We were going to look for it in the morning!"
"Round up your family and pack up, we're leaving! Or you are all dead."
Luke, his aunt, his uncle, Limsim, and C-3P0 left at the crack of dawn after the droid and their unknown future that had been so suddenly thrust upon them.
Chapter 2
They went through the desert at an incredibly high speed with all kinds of scanners looking for the little droid. Finally, one of them went off and they turned the speeder toward the signal. Unfortunately for them, someone else had also found the little droid.
They approached R2D2 and yelled at it to get into the speeder when the droid started beeping like mad!
C3P0, who spoke an insane amount of languages, hurriedly translated, "It seems that the droid is detecting several life forms from th....."
He never got to finish the sentence as he was thrown to the side by a charging bantha. Banthas are large elephant size creatures covered in fur without the trunk but with mountain goat horns (twisted about on their each side of their head).
Before they knew it they were surrounded by blaster fire and a stampede of fleeing banthas.
"Quickly, run for cover!" Came the demanding voice of Uncle Owen.
As fast as they could they made it to a nearby cave and waited for the dust to clear. Finally, they looked out to where they had been just a few minutes before and saw their speeder in pieces, two halves of C-3PO and a dozen stormtroopers inspecting that speeder.
"Captain! We found a droid although it is not the astromech droid!" One of the troopers called out.
The one known as the captain spoke soon after, "the Jawas sold two droids to the people that received the astromech droid, this must be one of them." After speaking he snapped his fingers and two troopers came from the back dragging Filu, the Jawa they had earlier bought the droids from.
The interrogation started quickly as the captain slapped Filu to the ground.
The captain first asked, "scumbag! Is this the droid that you sold to the same people as the astromech droid?"
The Jawa just laid there which was apparently a mistake.
The captain then pulled out his hip blaster and held it to the Jawa's head and asked again, "Is this the droid that you sold to the same people as the astromech droid?"
"Yes! Yes!" Apparently the Jawa actually knew the basic language, but seemed to have avoided it when he was selling the droids before.
"Thank you, your usefulness has expired,"
Luke turned away and flinched as he heard the blaster fire. But, to his surprise the blaster fire continued and other blasters joined the noise. Luke looked outside the cave and all he soon saw was dust, red flashes of laser everywhere, a Jawa fleeing toward their cave for his life, and a blue light that seemed to fly about in different directions in the thick dust devil that seemed to have occurred as if by magic.
The dust soon cleared and a the blue glow disappeared. From the dust a figure approached the group, now a group of six including Filu, Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, Luke, Limsim, and the astromech droid.
As he approached the group his eyes seemed to be drawn to one. He more rapidly approached Limsim and said, "Hello, I am Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am your father."