Prologue

Above the planet of Yavin 4, a Sith by the name of Malkus Vingarian launches an assault on the Jedi Praxeum in an attempt to wipe out the fledgling Jedi Order, in hopes of rebuilding the Sith Empire that came before the Old Republic. His fleet consists of several battle cruisers and battle droids, both normal, super and fighter pilot droids, that were originally used in the Clone Wars. In response, the Jedi Counsel sends out an urgent emergency request, asking for aid from the freshly organized and renamed New Republic Army. They comply and dispatch several battle cruisers to go above Yavin 4 to defeat this threat quickly. Good and evil meet in space. Chaos is everywhere. Tie fighters were shooting down individual fighter pilots left and right. The Republic fighters were doing slightly better, though. The sides were evenly matched. Both sides were willing to fight to the end.

While space battles were running their coarse, the battles on Yavin 4's surface were also in motion. Even though the fighter pilots had been keeping the majority of the droid army from even getting near Yavin's atmosphere, some groups of droids had managed to sneak through the Rebel Alliance's defenses. They landed just a couple miles away from the Jedi Praxeum and were quickly marching towards the home of the New Jedi Order. Unfortunately for them, the Jedi were ready for them. Along with a small squadron of the New Republic Army, the Jedi ready themselves, preparing to ambush the droids that were walking towards the Praxeum.

But then the tide turns when two other Jedi join the battle. Luke Skywalker, Grand Jedi Master, was in his X-Wing heading towards the cluster of firing cruisers and fighters. Immediately to his right was his close friend, Angela Darksaber, who was piloting her rebuilt yellow Jedi Starfighter, which was originally built over twenty years ago. Angela and Luke pilot towards the battle. Inside Angela's cockpit, the lights on her dash tell her everything is in working order.

Wow. This Starfighter is one of the best fighters I have ever flown. I'm so glad that I found it in a junk pile. After repair and restoring it to its original looks and performance, it's ready for anything! I also don't need a hyperdrive ring. She smiled to herself. Since I invented a miniature hyperdrive engine, I don't need that piece of equipment anymore. Man, I'm such a genius.

"Don't put yourself on a pedestal or else you will fall flat on your face." A voice blasted over Angela's headset that was inside her helmet.

"Luke, how many times have I asked you not to read my thoughts?! Five? Ten?"

"More like...twenty-seven times, including this one." Angela looks over to Luke in his X-Wing. He smiles a huge smile, and then starts laughing uncontrollably, which Angela could hear over the headset. "You know if you don't stop laughing, I will turn my headset off!" She threatens to do it in a sterner tone of voice, signaling to Luke that she was serious.

"Okay then." Luke replies while stopping his laughter and readjusting himself in his seat. "Are you ready R2?" Luke's Astromech droid R2-D2 answers Luke positively, with a slow, high-pitched bleep.

Luke opens his mouth to ask Angela if she is ready, but his question is immediately answered. "Finally! Let's hurry and chase these guys out of here. I want to be done as soon as possible so that I can be knighted into a Jedi Knight."

Luke smiles to himself. "I want you to be a Jedi Knight too. You deserve it. I don't care if some of the Council members believe you shouldn't even be there, let along be knighted. You will be a Jedi Knight and you will be given a full, traditional ceremony. I promise you that."

Luke and Angela set up for attack speed. Angela smiles to herself. Being a Jedi Knight is something she has wanted to be for most of her life. "Thanks Luke." Angela speeds ahead of Luke and begins to attack Malkus's droid pilots. That means a lot to me.

Time passes, but the two Jedi don't know what time is in their fighters. They shoot at the Tie-Fighters flying at them. The Tie-Fighters crash into one of the several Imperial Cruisers or explode from the blaster fire. The New Jedi Order was going to survive this battle; but one Jedi would not be returning from it.

Malkus senses that two Jedi are taking out his droid pilots one-by-one. He is losing. He mumbles to himself. "I may lose this battle, but I will take at least two Jedi out before I leave. That should soak fear into the fledging Jedi Order's soul." He turns to his two Sith body guards that are standing right behind him. "Take out the Jedi Starfighter and the X-Wing following it." He said it in a deep, dark tone. They both reply, "Yes, my Master." In unison, they leave the deck and go to their specialized Tie-Fighters in the main hanger. They mimic each other as they get into their fighters, start the engines, and take off out of the main hanger and into the battle field searching for the Starfighter and X-Wing following it.

Another Tie-Fighter explodes into metal scraps and dust. "That's seventeen Tie-Fighters. How many have you shot down Luke?" Angela waits for an answer from Luke. A few moments later, he replies.

"I…wasn't counting." Angela hears the tone in his voice. She smirks at Luke's answer.

"Luke, there is one thing you're bad at and that's lying to friends, especially me." Luke's end remains silent. "Come on," Angela says in a persuasive tone, "How many did you shoot down?" Luke starts to answer.

"Uh….you know…like….." Luke lets out a deep breath and gives up trying to avoid answering truthfully. "Five." Luke ear is instantly filled with the laughter of Angela's voice. Through her laughter, Angela tries to speak to Luke.

"Hahahaha...five?..bwahahahahahaha..five…hehehahah ahaha." Luke tries to tell her some excuse.

"You shot most of them down before they even came to me! That's why I only shot down five." Angela laughter slowly dies down until she stops altogether. "Sure. I'll let that excuse slide since you basically just said I am better shot than you."

Luke tries to think of a comeback, when suddenly the two Sith guards come up from behind. Two dots light up on Luke's radar. "Angela, I've got two Tie-Fighters on my tail!" One of the Tie-Fighters flies past Luke and starts firing on Angela's Starfighter. One shot hits the back of her hyperdrive engine.

"Whoa! Those two came out of nowhere!" She directs her next statement to Luke. "Let's split up. Maybe then we can fly faster and get them in front of us to blast them somehow." The two Jedi go opposite directions. Luke goes back towards Yavin. Angela takes a path away from Yavin. Each Sith guard pursues his own target. The chase begins.

I'll lead you away from Yavin, you moron. Angela weaves her fighter through the debris of fighters, from both sides of the battle, and exits the war zone into the void of space. Time for some free-styling! Angela moves the piloting stick left, then right, up, then down. The Sith guard becomes perplexed as to what she is doing, but he does not back away. Instead, he focuses his aim on the engines of the enemy's fighter. He pulls the trigger. Angela senses the feelings of the pilot shooting at her. Determination. Determination to please someone of great importance.

Wait a minute. If I can sense the pilot's meanings, that means it's not a droid piloting it like the rest of the Tie-Fighters we've been shooting down! Her mind goes into thinking mode while she dodges the blaster fire without a second thought. Why would there be a living pilot out here if every other fighter is a droid pilot? Unless…..I am a special target. No. We are a special target! Two Tie-Fighters came behind Luke at the exact same time! I have to tell Luke. She talks into her headset. "Luke, are you there?" Nothing but the sound of static sounds in Angela's ear. I'm being jammed. Blast! Wait. Why am I worrying about Luke? He's done this before. I just need to worry about myself.

The Sith guard realizes that just shooting at this Jedi with blaster fire was not going to do it. He puts his left pointer finger onto a little blue button and pushes it. His Tie-Fighter vanishes into space. Angela looks at her radar. The Tie-Fighter on Angela's radar blinks then disappears completely. "What the…." Turning her Starfighter sharply to the left, she stops dead in space to see if her radar is just going crazy, but it was not. She looks to the left, then the right, then up above her.

That's impossible. No Tie-Fighter or any fighter for that matter has a cloaking device! She keeps looking all around her in space. Taking in a deep breath, Angela shuts her eyes and feels with the Force into the darkness of space. She smiles. You're still here. But where exactly? It feels like he's everywhere around me. He must be using the Dark Side to hide himself in. I've got to concentrate.

The Sith eyes the Starfighter sitting there in the middle of space. "An easy target. What a foolish Jedi to just sit there waiting for trouble." He reaches for a switch on the dash and pulls it down. The Tie-Fighter launches a missile straight towards the standing Jedi.

Angela senses the disturbance and pulls on the control stick. Immediately, the Star Fighter flies upward avoiding the missile attack. "Excellent dodging." The Sith Guard congratulates his Jedi target while using the powers of the Dark Side. He takes hold of the missile that had missed the Jedi Starfighter the first time. "But you will not dodge the Force itself!"

"Wow, that was too close!" Angela starts to turn right to fire where the missile was launched from. But, half-way into the turn, the missile that missed Angela just a few seconds before, now struck the back corner of her Star Fighter. Fortunately, the shields she upgraded, a couple of months earlier, let the fighter escape with little damage. Unfortunately, Angela's head flies forward from the direct hit and hits the dash with a hard thump. The helmet hits several buttons of very little importance except one, the button to activate the hyperdrive. The engine fires up with its pilot unconscious. It goes into light speed, and vanishes, into the darkness of unknown space territory.