Chapter 8: The Beginning of the Struggle
The Falcon soared through space as it made its way to the planet of Icylian. Sim had calculated that it would take around a week to get from Lamon to Icylian and it had already been three days since they had left. There wasn't much to do but talk and play the occasional game of Sabaac. But today was different, for Sim at least.
Sim sat in his meditation chamber, which was actually just a plain old room, and meditated. In his mind, thoughts about the past flashed through his mind. Vader continued to dominate his mind with painful flashbacks to that day. He would never forget that it was this day that Vader had been born and that they had become the bitterest of enemies in Vader's mind. He opened his eyes as he pulled on his Jedi cloak over his shoulders and he put his arms through the sleeves before moving out of the room. He needed something else to do that would clear his mind of such things, seeing as meditation wasn't helping for some reason. He entered the lounging room to find the gang playing Sabaac. Han was obviously winning from the smug look on his face along with the somber faces of everyone else, including Chewie who rarely ever showed any facial expressions. Sim came over and sat down to listen and see how the game was going.
"Welcome, old timer, I see you have joined us. You've come at the best time. I'm winning with Lando out already and Leia and Chewie looking like they will fold," said the overly cocky Corillean. He was might obsessed with winning this game especially after he was beat two times by Sim when they played two games. He wanted to get his luck running so he would be able to beat the old master.
"As much as it hurts to say, I'm folding along with Chewie," said Leia with an obvious face of disgust. But who could blame her, seeing as she had bet 500 credits on the game. But that didn't matter now.
Sim watched as the smuggler got his money from the rest of the people before looking over at Sim with that cocky smile of his again, "Well, old timer, I think it is time that I beat you, once and for all."
"My friend, I'm young enough to be your brother, so unless you've got grey hair, I doubt I'm much of an old timer," said Sim as he got up and sat down in his card seat. He was right about his age. While Han was in his 30s, Sim was in his early 40s now.
"Whatever, master. Now get ready to lose," said Han as he began to deal the cards out and the game began.
"As much as any other game," replied Sim with an obvious bit of satisfaction from that statement.
The game was going quite well for Han who had a very nice hand on him. He knew that Sim would never beat him with his hand he had. "Well, I think we should put some bets on this. Seeing as you're the newcomer, I'll let you place the bets," said Han knowing well what he would do.
"How unlike you Han, but very well. I will place 1,500 credits on this game," replied Sim without even looking up from his hand. Han snorted in expectancy. Sim was an extremely talented Force-user but when it came to Sabaac, the man's goals were as easy to read as a newspaper in big, bold print in your face.
"Alright, here's my hand," said the smuggler as he showed it with great satisfaction at it, "let's see you beat that."
Sim stared at his hand for a while before smiling, which sent some confusion into Han's brain.
"That is a very good hand, my friend. I don't think I can beat it, but lets see," replied Sim as he showed his hand. Han dropped straight to the ground, as if a heart attack had hit him. Sim had won again.
"WHAT! That's impossible. Three games in a row!" shouted Han as he looked like he was about to rip the hair out of his head to the point he would go bald. Sim and the others just smiled and chuckled at his frustration. But in the end he forked over the 1,500 credits, which Sim in turn handed equally to Lando, Chewie, and Leia for the money they had lost in the game before. Han slumped back in his chair in defeat. Sim patted his shoulder before whispering into his ear,
"Don't worry my friend. I've played this game since I was 15 years old," said master as he left the room leaving Han in utter shock. He had thought that the man was a rookie when indeed he was the rookie compared to Sim.
Vader watched the hologram switch off as the room once more went into darkness. He relaxed for the first time in ages. The search for the traitors and his daughter was going in vain as his bumbling commanders had reported that Lamon was deserted. It seems that the wise Sim was yet to be fooled by Vader's antics. No matter, he though, he would win in the end. They had been closing on the Falcon ever since it had taken off. They were in hyperspace now, capable of being undetected. They would swoop in front of the Falcon and capture it. No matter how great of a military strategist Sim was, he could do little about it. A slight chuckle left the Sith Lord's mouth as he caught himself. It was important that he kept his identity and image as fearsome and ruthless to install fear into his crew. Only then would he have a successful empire.
Just then, Darth Inhalator came into the room with his body covered in the Sith black cloak. His lightsaber dangled from his belt as he kneeled before his master and father. He had just arrived from his "diplomatic" trip that turned into a slaughter where Inhalator massacred the politician party there with his lightsaber. Each day his power continued to grow as the dark side managed to nudge further and further into Inhalator until he had only a speck of light in him. He was now a true Sith Lord.
Darth Inhalator got up as he stood next to Vader. Father and son looked at each other eye to eye. They both sensed that it was time for a training session. Vader stood up as he ignited his lightsaber revealing a red blade spring to life. Likewise, Inhalator ignited his and leaped to attack his father. Vader saw this and twirled out of the way while leaping right after Inhalator as their blades made contact and hissed. The lightsabers turned into a blur of red as father and son tried to best each other to no avail. Vader pressed on with his offensive as he drove his son up the stair latter. As he reached the top, he swiped down on Inhalator who brought his lightsaber up to block and then swept to Vader's midsection. Vader leaped into the air and brought his lightsaber down on his son. He immediately brought his lightsaber up to block Vader who landed and tried to stab his son. Inhalator spun out of the way while twisting his lightsaber to jab his father but to no avail. Vader could sense Inhalator's anger growing with his frustration. Inhalator began to concentrate his anger as he moved to stab Vader who brought up his lightsaber to defend himself. Inhalator leaped over Vader and somersaulted behind him and tried to swipe him from the back but Vader leaped backwards intime to meet his son's blow and even deliver his own. As their blades locked together above their heads, Vader kicked Inhalator in the chest as he went flying across the railing and into the ground. Luckily he was able to land on his feet as Vader jumped to meet his son's lightsaber. They both retracted their lightsabers above their head as they once more engaged. This time Vader was going to go all out it. He attacked Inhalator to meet his blow, but instead of disengaging he instead pushed him backwards and then allowed Inhalator to try and stab him but moved one second before contact and swiped his lightsaber up and then knocked it out of his son's hand. He had won again but it was the hardest fight he had had in 20 years. Both of them were sweating as Vader returned Inhalator his lightsaber before patting his son on his back. He was doing well.
As both father and son walked to the door to hit the showers, Admiral Piett burst through the door so quickly that Vader was caught by surprise and almost decapitated the Admiral. But lucky for him, he didn't. He was panting as he straightened his posture up to deliver the news to Vader,
"Sir, we have found them. We just left hyperspace and have trapped them in our fleet. With your permission we will engage them and destroy them," said the excited Admiral.
"No, we will not do that. I want a squadron of TIE-Interceptors to intercept them and bring them on to the Executor where your troops will take them as prisoners," said Vader. He had wanted to choke the Admiral for his stupidity but he decided he still needed him and he wasn't in the mood, which was pretty surprising since Vader was always in the mood to kill.
Han entered the cockpit as alarms screamed on. Sim had warned him even before about the danger but the alarms had started screaming when he entered the cockpit. The master was pretty good when it came to sensing things, even better than his baby here. He and Lando took their seats as they got read, their scanners picked up TIE-Interceptors. That meant only one thing: they had fallen into a trap. Sim entered just then to see the situation.
"It seems that they empire must have known where we were going all along. They exited hyperspace all around us to surround us," said the Master as he saw the TIE star fighters get nearer and nearer to them.
"I already know that. Now we have to figure out how to avoid them," said Han as he tried to stir off from the TIEs to no avail. There were too many of them.
"Isn't possible. They have formed a perimeter around us and their TIE fighters are all around us. I suggest we employ a different tactic. The TIE fighters are not armed very much but are agile. What we should do is allow them to go on with their standard procedure. They will try to form a tight pattern around us. Our job will be to allow them but we will have to allow them to get so close that one swift turn will cause them to collide with their neighbors," said the master with a stern look on his face. Han didn't have to argue with him.
The Falcon flew straight as the TIE interceptors formed a tight formation around them. He began to rock the ship back and forth to cause the pilots to get edgy. As they got nearer and nearer to the Executor super star destroyer, Han suddenly pulled a right turn straight into a TIE-Interceptor. The other followed with him immediately pulling a down turn causing four of the 8 TIE-interceptors to collide with them before shooting forward at maximum speed. They were losing them but they were still not cleared. Suddenly the engines went dead as the Falcon started moving out of nowhere. Han smacked his head against his palm as he remembered what was happening: the tractor beam.
The Falcon began to get closer and closer to the Executor everyone began to tense except the Jedi aboard. They knew that it was going to come to this. As the Falcon entered the flight deck of the Executor, it landed on the pad. Storm troopers surrounded the entire ship. At first the room went quite as the storm troopers got ready to get the crew but suddenly the ramp began to open up as it touched itself on the ground. Still the storm troopers couldn't see a thing in the pitch darkness at the end of the ramp. Suddenly two light bars appeared, one was silver while the other was black that seemed to emit a special light that still made it seeable in the darkness. Sim and Leia leaped out of the Falcon as they attacked the storm troopers who were caught by surprise.
Sim leaped into the air off the ramp and decapitated three storm troopers in one swipe before doing a 360 degree turn and with one swift stroke/twirl of his lightsaber, he blocked all the shots at him and redirected them back at the shooters. He then leaped forward and slammed into the other troops as he jabbed his lightsaber and swung it at them, instantly killing many of them. Using his incredible mastery of the force, he threw 30 of the storm troopers with a slight wave of his hand straight into the wall, causing them to fall unconscious. He then turned and brought his hands up as the blast shots began to stop in midair as if something had stopped them. With a gentle twirl of his hand, the shots shot back at there shooters who were struck in awe to move out of the way. Almost all the storm troopers on his side fell that way. This was a trick that he was famous for during the Clone Wars and only he knew how to use it from experience. It was incase he was too outnumbered to be able to defend himself with only a lightsaber, and it seemed to work perfectly, even 20 years later.
Leia in the meantime leaped and brought her lightsaber down before doing a spin and cutting down 5 other storm troopers and brought her lightsaber up just in time to deflect shots from the other troopers, redirecting them with deadly precision straight into them. She jabbed at them as she decapitated four and then swiped 3 others before jumping and cutting off two other storm troopers heads off in midair. She landed and threw her lightsaber at a surviving storm trooper, going straight through his chest. She force called it back before reigniting it to finish the rest of the storm troopers while Chewie and Han took care of the rest with the Falcon's weaponry and some heavy arsenal that they kept just incase.
As the last of the storm troopers were brought down, the two Jedi surveyed the room. It was full of dead troopers from mostly blaster shots and lightsabers. A handful was still unconscious so not everyone was dead. Sim and Leia deactivated their lightsabers as they regrouped once more.
"That seemed to work out alright," said Sim as he watched for any signs of an incoming threat, "it appears that a tractor beam got us in this. I know where it is on the ship and I will go and switch it off. You four will stay here, but stay on alert. I sense that some more storm troopers may come if the others don't radio back to Vader."
Everyone nodded in agreement. Sim brought his hood over his head for stealth as he made his way to the corridor, but turned back suddenly and shouted, "May the force be with you," before turning once more and heading down the dark tunnel. Leia and everyone were left alone with a weary silence filling the room. Han went back inside as he got the Falcon ready for immediate departure once Sim came back. He knew that they wouldn't want to waste time trying to get it to work when there were Imperials on their tails.
Sim walked down the corridor as he made his way through the halls. No one noticed him as he walked by because he was using the force to conceal himself to the mere eye. It was a good trick that Anakin had taught him long ago. He entered the corridor room to see two storm troopers guarding it. They were facing the other way so Sim could figure out what plan would be the best for such a situation. He decided a mind trick was the best. He walked up to the storm troopers who turned and pointed their guns at him but he brought his hands up and twirled his fingers, "You will turn off the tractor beam." The storm troopers put down there weapons and repeated, "We will turn off the tractor beam," and with that they headed over to the console and started turning it off.
Leia fidgeted as she clipped her lightsaber to her belt. She was feeling a horrible feeling in her stomach as she got one of those, "I have a bad feeling about this" moments. Han and the others were working on the ship as he prepped it up for take-off. Suddenly out of nowhere, Leia went flying against the wall and slamming into it, dazing her temporarily. She shook her head as she stood up. She knew there was only one person that would do that. She turned herself around to see some man and Luke standing at the railing. Her eyes opened in surprise as she used the force to recognize the man, it was Darth Vader but fully human again. In his sinister voice that showed only darkness and hatred he said,
"The Force is with you young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet."