Chapter One
Now
The Massassi Temple on Yavin 4 had once been home to
Force-sensitive aliens that had been users of the Force until
they had become corrupt and had fallen victim to the Dark Side of
the Force. The Rebel Alliance had used this structure as a
makeshift docking bay half a year ago for its wings to launch the
attack against the Death Star in the Battle of Yavin, but soon
after had abandoned the temple and had found another Massassi
structure...what appeared to be a former residence, in fact...as
their new docking bay. It was also more advantageous to Rebel
Command because of the simple fact that it was closer to the
other central locations of the Rebel base.
But although the Temple had officially been abandoned, it was
still occupied at least once a week...not by any members of
Command...but by a young person who had just begun his journey in
a universe at war.
Luke Skywalker was his name, and he sat quietly on the rooftop of
the temple, only accompanied by his droid, Artoo-Detoo, who sat
silently several feet away. The young Jedi apprentice sat in deep
thought, pondering the events of the last several months as his
eyes remained shut but his mind called out to the Force, seeking
guidance from its luminous currents.
After clearing his mind of worldly distractions, he brought
himself back to what had possibly been the most pivotal moment of
the galaxy...and of his own life. He had been racing down the
trench of the Death Star in his X-Wing, having no time to grieve
over the loss of his longtime companion Biggs Darklighter. His
own life had been in danger at that moment, and as he had been
setting up his targeting computer, he heard a voice in his
head...not once, not twice, but three separate times.
Luke, use the Force...
He had thought he was hallucinating from grief, and he ignored
the voice, continuing his setup.
Luke, let go!
Again...and this time, he could have sworn the voice sounded like
that of Obi-Wan Kenobi...his instructor for a short time...too
short, Luke sadly reminisced, as he remembered his master being
struck down on the Death Star before his very eyes by his
ex-pupil, Darth Vader. But Luke still ignored the command. Then
the voice persisted one last time, and this convinced Luke that
Ben was calling to him from beyond.
Trust me, Luke...
Luke debated for a moment, but only for a moment. He shut down
his targeting computer...and the rest was history.
Or was it?
After the happiness and joy of defeating the Empire had died
down, the implications of Luke's actions suddenly hit him square
in the chest, and the realization that he had murdered millions.
What made him any different from Grand Moff Tarkin when he had
casually ordered Alderaan to be blown away?
Luke had preferred to not discuss this matter with his friends,
and had come here in reflection since then, at least once a week.
But there were times when he came to the Temple when he could not
think clearly, and instead he decided to learn more about the
Force and what he had the ability to do with it. In the six
months that had passed, he had been able to find his way around
the planet without getting lost using the Force. He also had
discovered how to move objects using the Force by focusing all of
his concentration towards the object and clearing his mind of
extraneous thoughts. However, for the last month, he had not been
getting anywhere with his training, and he hoped that he could
find a new teacher soon...otherwise, he would be a sad
testament to the Jedi name...especially if he was the last one.
As he opened his eys from his meditation, he noticed Artoo was no
longer there.
That surprised him and roused him up immediately. He re-opened
his mind to the Force and tried to get a grasp of the situation.
But with his weak abilities, he could not sense much beyond what
was nearby.
Luke muttered a string of expletives, a very un-Jedi-like thing
to do, but he did not care at this particular moment and hopped
on his airspeeder.
Then he slapped his head. "The comlink! Of course!"
He turned it on, ruefully recalling the last notable incident he
had with the device, aboard the Death Star with the protocol
droid See-Threepio, and as he did he heard a screeching and
warbling noise that almost deafened him.
He lowered the volume to realize it was Artoo.
"Okay, Artoo, calm down! I'm here, I'm here," he said.
Then he got a little upset. "So what possessed you to run
off on me like that? I thought we agreed that you were supposed
to wait for me until I was done, right?"
The droid whistled back something else, though, that Luke did not
believe.
"What? Artoo...are you at the base?" he asked.
The droid whistled an affirmative, nervous-sounding response.
"All right, I'll be there right away," he said, and
clicked off the comlink.
As he prepared to start the landspeeder, he suddenly sensed
something...but he couldn't tell exactly what it was. It was in
times like these, he reflected, that he wished he were more adept
in the Force and had more schooling from Obi-Wan--
His thoughts were interrupted as the Force began to give him
warning again...and this time, Luke was almost positive he heard
a rustling sound with it. As he spun around, for no reason at
all, he suddenly decided to leap off the landspeeder.
Just as he had cleared the vehicle, several blaster bolts
connected with the engine and the vehicle, which had just been
turned on, exploded into fragments. Several of them dug into
Luke's arm, and he gritted his teeth in an attempt to avoid the
pain.
Luke looked up and pulled out his blaster. He was in no mood to
try and wield the lightsaber yet, as he wasn't even sure what he
was up against. He quickly hid himself in the woods, away from
the clearing in front of the temple, and he crouched down
underneath foliage that grew at the front of the beginning of the
woods.
As Luke waited, he sensed two presences...and then he was shocked
to see two Imperial Stormtroopers make their way to the spot
where Luke had been moments ago. The two began conversing, and
through the Force, Luke could pick up their conversation.
"Yeah, he's done for. You should have seen it...the
explosion threw the poor kid off the thing," said the taller
one, kicking one of the landspeeder's fragments.
"All right, well, I'm not going to worry about checking to
see whether he's alive or not. I mean, in just a little bit, it's
not as if one Rebel is going to matter. Right?" asked the
other, shorter one. "If he's dead, he's dead. If he's alive,
he'll be treated to a pretty sight when he comes back to his
base."
The big one laughed evilly and then the two turned around and
left the scene.
It was at that moment that Luke decided to make his grand
entrance. He hopped out of the bushes and shot down the two
troopers behind their back, and then he desperately opened his
mind to the Force to make sure that no one else was around. When
he was sure, he quickly dragged the body of one of the troopers
into the temple and took the armor off the other. He quickly
threw the Imperial outfit on over his own clothes, and then when
he was satisfied that he was properly "decorated," he
began to search for their means of transportation.
After looking for nearly two minutes, he found it: an Imperial
swoop bike. He quickly hopped on and turned on the comlink that
was attached to it as the bike turned on and he took off.
A voice came from the comlink. "Well? Did you find
anything?"
Luke decided to play along and see if he could learn anything
from this conversation. "Oh yeah! We found one of them by
the temple and nailed him pretty good." He let his voice
sober for a moment, and then continued. "But it's just me
now."
The voice paused for a minute, and then whispered, "I'll be
damned...he got Commander Wainwright, the best Stormtrooper I've
ever known to serve the Emperor...damn...I heard he was getting
promoted to take over this jury rig. All right. When you get back
to base...stay there, and we'll be arriving shortly. We'll teach
those Rebel scum not to ever interfere with us ever again."
As Luke sensed the conversation was ending, he knew that he was
missing something. Then it hit him--the coordinates of the base
itself! First, he bought himself several seconds of thinking
time.
"Wait," he said.
"Yeah, what is it?" came the response on the other end.
Think, Luke, think...
After a good two seconds, it came to him. He would reach out to
the Force and as he had seen Ben do in Mos Eisley with the
stormtroopers, he would trick this person...whoever he was...into
giving up the coordinates of this rendezvous point.
"You have to give me the coordinates of the rendezvous
point," he said, hoping that this little variation wouldn't
be a problem as he desperately stretched out to the Force and
just above the atmosphere of Yavin 4, as he sensed many
life-forms...
"What? Are you stupid or something?" growled the man.
Luke did not let him pause long enough to realize that this was a
trick, and now he knew himself that he was not strong enough in
the Force to pull the stunt off.
"Hey, cool it, brother," said Luke, popping open a nice
accessory he had taken with him in case of emergencies such as
these ones. A map of the Yavin 4 terrain, expanding a little past
the Massassi temple, stretching just past the location of the
main base, and including other areas that were unmarked. "I
got lost, okay? I've never been out here this far, and the swoop
got shot up a bit."
The man on the other end paused now, definitely having second
thoughts. "Hmmm...we'll see about that. Give me your
authorization."
Luke froze. His cover was blown. He quickly blasted the comlink
to pieces, and then he tossed the helmet off and sped towards the
base. At least he had managed to learn something, despite how bad
the news actually was. The Imperials had definitely not made
their move yet...but now, without a doubt, they would be coming
down on the Rebels like a Tatooine sandstorm.
After several minutes, Luke arrived back at base and ignored the
comments at his outfit as he hopped off the swoop.
The residence that comprised the Rebel Base was actually a
combination of many former Massassi homes. Man-made was probably
the best word to describe the location. The entire place was made
of bricks, but the substance that the Massassi had used as an
adhesive forced it to stay in one piece. It had done so for
longer than Luke had been alive. The brick residences were each
within three feet of each other, and formed a huge oval when
looked at from the sky. But there was an adequate break in the
middle that had been the addition by the Rebellion. When the
scout teams had first arrived to check the area out, they had
thought the place perfect for the new base...but had decided that
if the area was to serve their needs at all, they would need to
remove a home to create an opening. This was no problem,
especially since no one lived there anymore. A short construction
job had been required to make all the residences interconnected,
but after a month, a Rebel Base with a three-mile radius and a
one-mile front-to-bottom measurement was complete.
As Luke strolled into the base, he found it nearly impossible to
believe that this base was about to be destroyed. But it was
true.
After a quick stride down the corridor, he reached his
destination and keyed in his authorization. As he walked into one
of the residences, he noted who he had barged in on, and he had
to grit his teeth a little. General Jan Dodonna, General Carlist
Rieekan, General Vanden Willard, the three men who had been vital
to the survival of the base, all sat in deep discussion with
Princess Leia Organa, the headstrong woman that Luke had come to
know and admire over the last six months. When Luke walked in,
all four looked at him expectantly.
Luke shook his head, not sitting down to emphasize how dire their
situation had become. "It's not good. On my way back from
the temple, I was ambushed by two stormtroopers. I had to take
them out, and then I thought I might be able to infiltrate their
base, but that backfired...and now they seem to have figured out
what's going on and should be arriving at the surface any
minute."
Willard glowered at Luke. Although Dodonna and Rieekan had grown
to like Luke, especially Rieekan, Willard had been cold to the
idea of this new young recruit who had no official military
training and had just waltzed in and thought he was a big deal
because he had hit one lucky shot.
Luke had smiled then, upon receiving this lecture, but now
Willard looked serious.
"You idiot. Thanks to you, the Empire now knows where we
are. I should have you written up for subordination and treason
if the situation wasn't so dire."
Leia sighed, despite the moment. "General...what could Luke
have possibly done? He was attacked, and if he would have let the
troopers go, we would have lost this precious time that we now
have. I suggest instead of wasting it, we evacuate."
Before Willard could argue the point, Leia swiveled her chair
over to a computer behind her desk, keyed in an authorization
code, and then a monotonous alarm began to blare across the
entire base.
Leia stood up, taking Luke by the arm. "Gentlemen, I suggest
you pack your bags," she said, looking coldly at Willard.
"Departure time in half an hour." She then turned
around and left the room with Luke.
As the doors closed behind them, Leia touched Luke's hand.
"Look Luke, here's what I suggest. Get your things together,
and then round up the boys and deploy just outside the entrance.
Somehow I don't think we're getting away in time, but hopefully
the best favor you could give us is to guard the transports until
everyone is away, and then get out on your fighters. As soon as
I'm ready to leave, I'll let the generals know. They should be
accompanying you by the time you arrive outside."
She then surprised Luke with a quick kiss to the cheek that made
him turn red. "Good luck, flyboy." She grinned at him,
and then dashed off down the corridor, no doubt towards her
quarters.
Luke looked at her for a moment, his world in a daze, and then he
was brought back to reality as someone bumped into him. He almost
fell on the floor, but a hand grabbed him.
"Hey, kid, what're you doing? The place is about to blow and
you're..." Han Solo trailed off as he looked closer at Luke.
The smuggler that had befriended Luke and Leia six months ago and
had been vital to the Alliance's victory against the Death Star
grinned. "Ah, I see. I believe our young hero has been
stricken."
Luke shook his head and clapped Han on the back, and then he
dashed down the hallway. At least, he tried to. He felt the same
hand hold him back. Luke looked back at Han in exasperation, but
the pirate and captain of the YT-1300 freighter, the Millennium
Falcon, nodded at Luke patiently. "I got everything
from our room, Luke. I'd say you're about ready to go. Come on,
let's get to the Falcon, huh? You can strap your little
ship to mine and we can take off that way."
Luke looked at Han for a minute, and then he shook his head.
"Sorry Han...I wish I could join you, but the princess just
gave me a little job." He smiled, appearing proud to any
observer. "I'm running the defense operation as we
evacuate."
Han raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Nice...I didn't think
the title 'Commander' would come in so handy so quickly." He
then turned around. "All right, buddy. Chewie's out there
doing Force-knows-what with my sweetheart, and I've got to make
sure that he really did prep her for takeoff and not screw it up
again. So I'll see you around."
He went in the direction Leia had gone as Luke went the opposite
direction, shaking his head. Han Solo. Now that was someone that
he would have never thought he could have befriended when he had
signed on with the Rebellion.
As he stepped outside, he saw about thirty to fourty men awaiting
his arrival, some dressed in flight suits and others in standard
Rebel trooper gear. They all snapped to attention as Luke
arrived.
"At ease, everyone," he said, looking in particular at
the men in the flight suits. These men had come together over the
past six months, some being smuggled into the Rebel base, others
having survived the Battle of Yavin, and others having changed
their line of work from ground to air. But these men were
special...they had come under Luke to form the new group of
pilots known as Rogue Squadron, and Luke was proud of them.
Before Luke could say a word, though, General Dodonna, General
Willard, and General Rieekan all came behind him and took over.
Luke's heart sank, but he chided himself and reminded himself
that this was not the time.
They quickly organized the group into defense positions,
scattering them across the area as transports began to take off
as soon as possible.
Luke thought about the situation quickly, trying to calculate.
There were ten transports-worth of people not including them. It
would take almost the full half hour for these to launch, and by
the time the Imperials were supposed to arrive, if Luke's
calculations were correct, it would only be them against the
Imperials.
As he engaged the half hour thinking these thoughts, he began to
sense the disturbance in the Force and got Rogue Squadron ready
on their positions. Soon, as he began to sense the trouble, he
could hear it as well and that was when the rest of the defense
force took their positions.
As the last transport pulled away, Luke began to see the
attacker. It was a huge dinosaur-like machine...and then he
balefully realized that this was the infamous scout walker that
had been so dreaded by Rebel Command. As everyone began to fire
on the numerous AT-STs, Luke hoped their shielding wouldn't be a
problem.
But it was, as after almost fifteen minutes the Rebels had given
up a lot of ground and their opponents had pushed them into the
oval.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, an AT-ST's head blew up and the
walker quickly toppled to the floor and exploded again. After
several seconds, everyone realized that it had been fired on...
by the Millennium Falcon!
Luke was gleeful as he sensed Solo, Chewbacca, and...Leia?
Well...she was there too... so it appeared that Han had conned
her out of her leadership duties to give him a hand with the
battle. Luke shook his head and then went back to the battle. His
smile vanished as he saw TIEs dropping in, and now, he realized
that it was going to become suicidal if they stayed any longer.
"Get to your ships!" he barked, as he fled.
The Rebel defenses began to disperse, as most of the troopers
began to rush for the last transport that was just for them,
while the Rogues headed for their X-Wings. As Luke ran, he
suddenly noticed that Dodonna was standing alone.
"General Dodonna?" he asked. "What are you--"
"My boy, you were made for great things. Go out and make us
proud," said Dodonna, not looking at Luke as he held
something in his hand and he handed the other to General Willard.
Willard looked at the thing for a second, which was too far away
for Luke to make out, but he then nodded and clapped his
colleague on the shoulder.
"May the Force be with you, Jan," he muttered.
"Likewise," replied Dodonna. He peered to see that
Rieekan had already entered the transport.
As Willard turned away, Dodonna stayed...until a laser blast from
an AT-ST turned him into dust.
"No!" yelled Luke, running back. But he felt an arm
holding him. He turned around to see Willard.
"Luke...he died thinking that he would complete his mission.
Now it will never happen..." he said, trailing off.
"Unless...someone else completes it."
Then, with a resolve that Willard had never shown, he took the
item that Dodonna had given him moments ago and he swallowed it.
Luke was shocked, but then Willard clapped him on the shoulder.
"Skywalker...make all of us proud. You'll be a great man.
May the Force be with you." He then turned and raised his
hands in surrender, urging Luke to run off.
Luke stopped for a moment...and then dashed for his X-Wing. He
did not want to see what would happen next. As he ignored Artoo
for the moment, the ship quickly took off and Luke noticed that
the transport had left. But he watched Willard closely.
Stormtroopers came up to him and cuffed him, taking him back to
their shuttle.
As Luke pulled into the atmosphere of Yavin 4 and eventually into
space, he saw one ship left, trying desperately to clear the path
for the last transport. He was not surprised to see that it was
the Millennium Falcon. Luke soared into the fray and
began helping the Falcon take out the TIEs, as he locked
his S-foils in attack position.
A couple proton torpedoes here and there, and TIEs began to blip
away. But the menacing Star Destroyer loomed before them, and
TIEs and shuttles came from the surface.
As Luke continued to fight off the TIEs, he noted that the
transport had made it away safely, and now the Rogues were
leaving as well. When they had all left, Luke contacted the Falcon
and received a text message from Han stating their rendezvous
point, near Ord Trasi. It was a little far for Luke's taste, but
it would do.
As he shot at the last TIE that came from the surface, he began
to prepare the ship to jump to lightspeed...and then, something
happened that he was not prepared for.
Without warning, the lone Star Destroyer ripped apart with
explosions and was literally torn down the middle. Luke was
shocked, but did not argue and used the chance to go to
lightspeed.
As the starlines stretched though, it hit him.
Willard had eaten a bomb before his capture...and although it was
small in size, its impact was tremendous. No doubt he had been
near a corridor of the ship somewhere and it had been a critical
system.
The man wasn't too bad after all, Luke thought regretfully. But
that was the way of the Force... if only he would have known the
honor behind Willard earlier...that he would give up his life for
the Rebellion. Luke regretted that he had not seen this earlier
and had only seen the grumpy old man who criticized him.
But although it was unfortunate, Luke realized he would have to
move on, as he had done with Obi-Wan. Yet somehow Luke felt this
would be one of many grievings he would have to face in this path
that he had decided upon taking in his life.
And he hoped he would be more prepared to face them when the time
came.
