Author's Note: Things get a bit interesting in this chapter and the future of the Jedi is danced around. I wonder if any of you can figure out what it is.
Chapter 50 responses:
Thrawn716: I always preferred the Sith over the Jedi too. Not that I'm an evil person, but I have a bit of a dark side when it comes to villainy and goody-goodies.
Twisted Words: Yeah, since the chapters in this episode aren't overly long I've pretty much decided to do daily updates. Once we reach VIII though, I'll still keep things frequent but the chapters will be much longer.
MissNaye: Definitely, and the final straw will be thrown in this chapter, hence its title.
Episode VII: Heirs of the Empire
Chapter 7: Revert to Plan B
Outer Rim System, Yavin
The Yavin system was a 3-planet group in the Outer Rim that contained a gas giant of the same name, which was orbited by the system's twenty-six moons.
The fourth moon of the system, Yavin IV, was one of the only three habitable moons in the system; the other two being Yavin VIII and Yavin XIII.
Since Yavin IV orbited the gas giant Yavin Prime, the tiny jungle moon experienced two different forms of nightfall. When rotating on an axis and not facing Yavin star though still staring at the pale orange giant of Yavin Prime, the light of Yavin IV dimmed to a plasteel glow, resulting in twilight nights.
However, when Yavin IV moved behind Yavin Prime, which also eclipsed the sun, it experienced a dark night. Once every several months, because of Yavin IV's rotation and its orbit around Yavin Prime, the moon experienced long dark nights in which temperatures dropped rapidly, thus causing enough turbulence in the atmosphere to generate powerful storms which ravaged the jungle-covered surface.
Yavin also experienced a beautiful phenomenon known as "rainbow storms" which occurred when the radiant beams of the system's sun poked through the hazy upper atmosphere of Yavin Prime, causing the sunlight to become polarized. Thus when the sunlight met the ice crystals in the moon's upper atmosphere, sparkling showers of rainbows appeared on the surface.
The surface was made up of four continents, which accounted for sixty-seven percent of the moon's surface. These continents were mostly covered in large sprawling tropical jungles with tall canopies, though there were also a few mountain ridges dominated by volcanoes.
In addition, Yavin had six interconnected oceans, which covered the remaining thirty-three percent of the moon. A landlocked sea was also on Yavin.
Yavin IV's large sprawling tropical jungles teemed with an abundance of life. Whisper birds above the thick jungle canopy. Packs of arboreal Woolamanders fed on fruits in the thick jungle canopy. The trees were also home to another rodent specie known as Stintarils. Large and shaggy herbivores known as runyips rotted through the underbrush beneath trees.
The moon's rivers also teemed with life including strange mucous salamanders, crystal snakes, crustacians known as anglers, crawlfish, and eels. Swarms of vicious piranha-beetles scoured the sky in terrifying swarms hunting for prey.
Yavin IV experienced two extreme seasons; a wet season, which caused violent storms, and a corresponding dry season.
The only native intelligent species were the tribal Critokians.
The ancient and abandoned Massassi temple that was once used by the native Massassi tribes to worship Naga Sadow, a Sith Lord who had enslaved and mutated the Massassi using Sith Alchemy, was the only structure on the moon. And it was inside this structure that the Rebel Alliance was based.
It was close to dusk, and all occupants inside the base were either changing their posts or preparing for bed. One of these occupants, however, was doing neither. They were neatly packing up their few belongings – clothing and a lightsaber – and preparing to leave.
Luke Skywalker, 19, had just finished conversing with his twin, Leila, whom was on the Emperor's space station project, the Death Star. After learning of her events in the Empire's grasp, his mind was set to leave the Rebellion. He didn't care what any of them said concerning the matter. He was leaving, and that was that. All the alliance had been causing over the past two years was death and violence, the very thing they were supposed to be fighting against. This war against the Empire was no different then the other during Palpatine's reign. Countless deaths and brutal violence. And what had it accomplished?
Nothing. The rebels were defeated, and the Empire continued to rule. It would end up the same way this time as well, and Luke had no intention of being on the wrong side when that happened.
So, he would not tell the alliance where the battle station plans were. After all, what was the point? He would leave and join his sister and father on the Death Star.
Collecting the tote bag that contained his few possessions, Luke snuck out his room and, cloaking his presence in the Force, silently headed for the hangerbay.
Practically no one was inside, just a few techs here and there. The question that presented itself to Luke was what ship he should take with him on his way. He owned an X-wing star fighter – the alliance's star vessel of choice in battle; they received these and many other warships from the Corellian Fleet Yards in the Core – but wasn't entirely sure he wanted to take that with him to keep.
One idea that came to mind was stealing one of the high-class cruisers belonging to the royal and political members of the alliance. But Luke quickly reprimanded himself for thinking that. He was no thief. Another idea was to take the star cruiser that he, Leila, and the Jedi had used over the years, Spiraled Avalanche. Though not as new as it once was, it was still in good working order and if he took it he wouldn't really be stealing because the four of them owned it jointly. Plus, once he got to the Death Star, he could return it to its original and rightful owner, Antellica Grievous.
Satisfied with his decision, Luke went over to where Spiraled Avalanche was docked and used the Force to lower the boarding ramp. He gave the hangerbay one last look around and turned to board the ship. But just as his foot was about to come down on the ramp, a voice spoke behind him.
"So that's it, is it Luke? You're just going to throw away your life with the alliance and join the Empire all of a sudden? Do you really think this is what Leila would have wanted you to do?"
Luke huffed out a sigh and turned to see the last Jedi of the Old Order, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, standing behind him.
Many years had passed since he first met the two, and while they hadn't exactly been young then, they certainly weren't now. Obi-Wan was currently in his late 50s and the ginger hair and beard he'd once possessed had gone white with age. While his voice and looks hadn't changed that much, he was nowhere near as fast or coordinated with a lightsaber as he once was. Both Luke and Leila had beaten him various times in duels.
The small, wizened old green alien Jedi that was Yoda wasn't as fast as he once was either, and hadn't ever wielded a lightsaber once over the time Luke had known him. He said he was getting too old for it. Luke guessed eight hundred and ninety-six years old was indeed too old for anyone to wield a lightsaber at.
The small Jedi was likable enough, cracking jokes on occasion. Luke and Leila always thought if they weren't funny, they were cute. Obi-Wan didn't seem to share in this belief. Rarely would you see him crack so much as a tiny smile anymore. The dry sense of humor he'd also once possessed was practically gone. Obi-Wan had changed drastically in character since Antellica left him. He was heartbroken and sad that he couldn't be apart of his children's lives and had never even met his daughter, Anneliese, Antellica having left him and resuming her former life before the presently fourteen-year-old was born.
Now Obi-Wan had never actually admitted to these things, but Luke could tell. He felt slightly sorry for him, but then at the same time he didn't. Luke couldn't help thinking that if he hadn't helped in he and Leila's kidnapping maybe the heartbreak wouldn't have happened. But then again, maybe it would've. It was hard to tell.
While Luke didn't exactly hate Obi-Wan anymore, he wasn't exactly chumming with him either. They shared a civilized relationship and understood one another. It was in this that Obi-Wan knew Luke would never fully forgive him for taking him from his family and what he did to Anakin.
"I don't need you criticizing or reproving me, Obi-Wan," Luke said in response to his questions. "I really don't."
He made to go back up the ramp, but Yoda's voice stopped him. "Go you must not. Needed here you are."
Luke turned and looked down at the small Jedi in defiance. "I belong in the Empire with my father and family."
"Leila gets captured by Imperial agents and suddenly you want to join the very same people who captured her?" Obi-Wan asked, not believing what he was hearing.
"Leila isn't the same Leila she was when you last saw her, Obi-Wan," Luke said. "Her views on the alliance have changed. She's met our father and, like me, doesn't think he's a bad person."
Obi-Wan miserably closed his eyes at this pronouncement. He should have never let her go on the mission to Kessel alone, no matter how determined she was on the matter.
Yoda, however, banged down his gimmer stick on the floor in indifference. "Filled her mind with things Vader may have, but turned she has not."
"I didn't say she did," Luke protested, but Yoda didn't stop to listen.
"Walking into his hands you would be if leave us you do. If join him you do, you will become an agent of evil."
By now Luke had grown quite angered with the pair of them. "You speak of our father as if he's a bad person. Well I know better, and so does Leila. And neither of us will stand for your use of us as pawns in your game of revenge. All you did was take from and use him because he was your fabled 'Chosen One'. You are not using Leila and I in the same fashion."
Disconnecting his lightsaber from his utility belt, Luke threw it onto the floor before them. "I won't be needing that anymore. Farewell Jedi. And may the Force be with you," he mocked.
Boarding the ship, he left Yavin and the alliance, never to return.
At Spiraled Avalanche's disappearance into the night of space, Obi-Wan let out a sigh. He turned to Yoda. "He is lost then."
"Yes." Yoda also sighed and sadly looked up at where the ship had been a second before. "To plan B, we must revert to."
Obi-Wan sighed, not liking this at all. This was not supposed to happen. The twins were not supposed to leave the alliance and Plan B was never supposed to be used. It was simply a backup plan they had if their original should fail. But Obi-Wan and Yoda had tried all they could to make sure it didn't fail. Obviously, they hadn't tried hard enough.
"Bring together a meeting," Yoda said. "And then evacuate we should..."
Most of the Rebels were shocked to learn of Luke's leaving, others saddened, and some angry, saying they should have foreseen this long ago.
"But what are we to do now?" Pooja Hutinson, the former Senator of the Mid Rim world Ord Mantell asked. "With our two most vital leaders gone, how are we to know where the Death Star plans are, and where are we to go? We can't possibly stay here. The system will be swarming with Imperials in no time."
"I agree," former Senator Bacta Ullman said. "We cannot stay here. But as to where we should go, I haven't a clue."
"The Outer Rim world of Chad," Obi-Wan answered. "A base has already been set up there and other worlds should we have to continue moving across the galaxy."
"And the traitors?" former Senator Ian Bassid queried. "Did they know of these secret bases?"
"No," Yoda stated. "Know of our backup plan they did not."
"Backup plan?" a few of them asked.
"When we're safely on Chad, then will we reveal it to you," Obi-Wan said. "But for now, we must evacuate."
The evacuation began and was finished in an hour's time. In this duration, they received a transmission from a rebel spy on Kessel, informing them that after the attack on Leila's ship escape pods were sent down onto the nearby world of Serenno and how the Empire believed the plans to be in one of them. He added that he would've sent them this vital Intel sooner, only he had to be sure he wasn't caught.
Because of this discovery, it was decided that a strike team be sent to the planet to recapture them. Obi-Wan volunteered to lead this mission.
Before the remaining two Jedi parted, they had a brief talk, over viewing their plans.
"And remember master, if I die, go on without me," Obi-Wan said.
"Understood Obi-Wan." Yoda took Obi-Wan's hand into his own clawed one. "May the Force be with you."
"And you master."
Obi-Wan then left with his strike force, set for Serenno. Yoda, meanwhile, left Yavin IV for Chad with the Rebel Alliance.
