Chapter 4
The first thing on the horizon they saw was the enormous outline of an Imperial troop transport. A squad of four troopers were aligned beside the vehicle. A fifth trooper manned the 50 megatome blaster canon fixed atop the transport. The farm itself had been obscured from view by the way the transport was parked.
That didn't lessen Luke's panic. His face was full of dread as he witnessed Imperial troopers on his uncle's land. Yet...somehow...Luke knew that Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were still alive. It wasn't the first time he had "felt" someone's presence. Once again, he chalked it up to his great instinct. Perhaps this, too, was an aspect of the Force's power. A power that would have been denied to him had they not purchased these two specific droids. He shook off the thought and concentrated on the problem before him.
He shouted to Ben, "There they are! What do we do?"
Ben focused on the scene and commanded, "We're still far enough out before they spot us. Angle the speeder around the transport. I want to see what's behind it. Or who."
Luke obliged and steered the speeder slightly to the left. Eventually, the obstructed view from the transport was freed and they could see the entrance to the farm. There were two more troopers standing with their blasters pointed downward. Their targets were two humans who were down on their knees.
Luke shouted, "There they are! Ben, we have to do something! They're gonna kill them!"
"Careful, Luke. Just drive forward towards the transport. When I give you the word, I want you to speed forward towards the other troops near your family."
"What? Are you crazy? They'll kill us!"
"Not if I have a say in it," uttered Ben.
As the speeder neared the troops by the transport, one of them spotted them and yelled out, "Stop them!"
Ben yelled out, "Now, Luke!"
Just as Luke swerved the vehicle, Ben did something that Luke did not expect an old man to do. Ben ejected himself out of the speeder and into the air several meters. As the troopers raised their blasters to fire at him, Ben ignited his own lightsaber. The troops started firing at him when Ben landed. Yet, to Luke's astonishment, not one bolt hit Ben. Instead, each blast was deflected by Ben's blue-white blade. Ben was a whirl of motion as the blaster bolts came at him faster.
Luke slowed down the speeder to witness the incredible scene. It seemed that Ben noticed. Ben yelled back at Luke, "Get to your aunt and uncle! Run fast to avoid the blaster canon!"
Luke glanced up at the troop who was at the canon. The trooper tried to get an angle to fire at Ben but it was too tight and close. It looked powerful enough to tear his speeder to shreds. Not if he was fast enough. Luke called out to the droids, "Hold on, you two!"
Artoo beeped and Threepio emitted an, "Oh dear."
Luke veered the speeder again towards the other troopers and he punched the throttle down as hard as he could. The speeder lurched forward so fast that Threepio almost fell off. He caught the repulsor housing at the last minute to hold on. By this time, the troopers who were about to execute his aunt and uncle had spotted Luke coming towards them fast. Luke took a quick glance back at the gunner on the transport and saw he was about to fire. Luke then turned back at the two troopers running toward him at an angle. Luke figured the gunner wouldn't fire if his fellow troops were in line of sight. Luke steered the speeder directly at the running troops to close the gap between them.
"Oh! We're doomed!" cried Threepio.
"Shut up, and hold on!" Luke shouted.
Sure enough, the gunner didn't fire. He didn't want to blast his own troopers in the process. One of the running troopers was not that lucky.
As one of the running troops dove out of the way, the other tried to do the same in the opposite direction. He was too late as the lower left repulsor engine hit him square in the stomach and knocked him into the sand motionless.
Luke swerved the speeder into a fish-tail and a complete stop just in front of his aunt and uncle, missing them by mere meters.
Meanwhile, they watched Ben who was still blocking the shots of the troopers. At some point, Ben switched directions of the deflected bolts so that they would come back at the troopers themselves. One by one, the deflected bolts hit each trooper to send them down lifelessly to the sand. Ben's action brought him out more in the open, which gave the gunner a perfect shot. Before the gunner could fire, Ben lifted his hand and gestured toward it. The heavy canon swivelled on its own to hit the gunner in the head so hard that it knocked him out.
The last trooper was the one who dove out of the way of the landspeeder. He was between Luke and Ben. He now had a choice. Go after the old man who just took out five of his troops, or attack the defenseless boy and his family. He chose the latter. He started to run towards Luke with his blaster held at firing level.
Ben saw the trooper's choice, knowing he was too old to catch him, even with the Force as his ally. Instead, Ben quickly judged the distance from himself and the trooper and he hurled his lightsaber in a seemingly random manner. It was anything but random. The lightsaber twirled in the air aimed at the trooper–and it severed his legs from his knees. The trooper went down into the sand with his last thought of failed revenge.
Luke exited the speeder to meet Ben at the last fallen trooper. Ben retrieved his lightsaber from the sand. He was out of breath but he still gave a smirk when he uttered, "I'm...glad to know...that I still have it in me."
"Ben, that was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Especially from an...uh, I mean a..."
"An old hermit?" Ben smiled.
"From anyone," Luke countered. "The way you blocked their shots and sent them back at them. And none of them hit you."
Ben grabbed the cloth on his right shoulder to reveal the slash of a burn mark. "I believe we can no longer say none."
"Did you get hit?"
"No. It was just my cloak that got singed. Believe me, I've had worse. How are your aunt and uncle?"
As if answering his question, Owen came from behind Luke's speeder to come at Ben and yelled, "You! You got us into this mess! They trashed my farm, old man! Do you know how much damage they did? All for what? Two damn droids? These are your droids, aren't they? You sent them here so you could take Luke away from us!"
Ben's voice was amazingly calm. "I assure you Mr. Lars that I had no involvement with these droids. Yet there was a hidden message for me inside the astromech. As fate would have it, Luke stumbled upon it."
Owen barked, "You know where you can stick your fate! Now, I want you off my–"
"Stop it!" cried Luke. "In case you haven't noticed, Ben just saved you and Aunt Beru from being executed. I think he deserves a little more respect."
"Oh, you do? Do you know who this man is?"
"Yes, I do. Ben Kenobi. But he used to go by the name, Obi Wan, at the time when I was born. Looks good for someone who died about the same time as my father, doesn't he? This man also fought alongside my father in the Clone Wars–as two Jedi Knights, not navigaters on a spice freighter." He edged closer to his uncle. "Or maybe you already knew that"
Instead of replying to Luke, Owen glared at Ben. "How dare you tell him! Why did you do that?"
Ben put his index finger below his nose and answered sincerely, "Because he deserves the truth."
tbc
