Chapter Eight - Strategy
The sight of all the different trees and plants were a wonder for Luke's eyes to behold. The thought that many looked upon sights like this every single day was to him something easily taken for granted. He was soaking in the beautiful sight, the fresher scent and the feel of the slightly cooler air on his sun-tanned skin.
Finally the small group all stepped out from the trees and there before them saw the large stone pyramidal temple which was a few meters from where they stood. A group of human male rebels were making their way towards them on two small landspeeders. Leia approached them instantly and the others followed her.
"Your Highness! You're alive!" one of the rebels cried in delight when they reached them.
"Yes," she answered quickly, "but there isn't any time to explain things right now. Please could you take us all to high command?"
The rebel nodded. "Yes, of course. All of you climb aboard." And they went to help Artoo onto one speeder, Threepio joined him along with Chewie. Han and Luke stepped onto the second speeder with the princess.
As they made their way through the temple entrance they found themselves inside a large hangar bay. They passed a number of parked fighter ships and speeders, some which Luke could instantly identify. Droids glided and trotted amongst the vehicles performing their programmed duties. The rebels who stood here and there amongst the ships stopped what they were doing to look at them as they went by.
Luke heard shocked and surprised mummers coming from all directions. He guessed that they had not expected the princess would be alive after she had been held captive by Vader. Well at least she was now safe and back where she needed to be.
When they finally stopped, Leia got off the speeder and walked towards a grey haired man who quickly embraced her. "Princess! You're safe! When we heard about Alderaan we feared the worst."
"We have no time for sorrow, Commander Willard. The battle station has surely tracked us here." She gestured towards Artoo who was disembarking the speeder. "You must use the information in this Artoo unit to form a plan of attack. It's our only hope. The station itself is more powerful than anyone suspected."
The Commander looked at Luke and the others and he seemed confused. "Isn't General Kenobi with you, Your Highness? We had word that you were meant to contact him."
Luke clenched his fist at the mention of Ben but stayed silent. He recalled the memory of the kind old man being struck down by that lightsaber.
"I'm afraid Obi-Wan Kenobi has been killed, Commander. He gave his life so that we could all escape the Death Star," she answered.
"That is sad news, Your Highness." His sympathetic gaze automatically changed to a serious expression. "If they've tracked you, then there is no time to lose. We shall look into the information right away."
Without another word, they all made their way through the hanger following the Commander and the Princess. Luke kept glancing round at all the ships which were mostly X-Wing and Y-Wing fighters. He was sure that he could easily fly one of them if they needed more pilots for an attack. He only hoped that they would agree to it.
And to Luke's unexpected surprise it all worked out just as he was hoping for. The rebellion was delighted that Luke was willing to volunteer as a fighter pilot. While Artoo was taken away so the rebel technicians could analyze the information he carried. And Luke was led to a separate room where he was put through a number of tests. Soon he was met by a tall man who was looking over a datapad.
"Skywalker, your test results were just shown to me and Commander Willard. From what we've seen, you know the techniques, your body can stand the strain and it looks like you've got yourself a ship."
"I do?" Luke asked in astonishment.
"Yeah, you sure do. Welcome to Red flight, you will be "Red Five". Let's go then, the mission briefing starts in a few minutes."
Luke followed him and they walked through the base until Luke encountered Leia again as she came out of another room. "Luke, how did it go?" she asked, walking beside him.
"I passed all the tests and I've been assigned to Red Flight."
She squeezed his hand. "I'm glad for you Luke, well done."
They arrived at the meeting room which was packed with dozens of rebels seated everywhere round the room, many of them were already geared up in their orange flight suits. Leia stopped to face Luke. "I'm afraid I have to go and join Commander Willard and General Dodonna."
She pointed to two men who were standing at the front of the room. Luke immediately recognized one of them as Commander Willard. The bearded man beside him was also grey haired but looked older and was deep in conversation with Willard.
"You take a seat Luke, I'll see you before you leave." She left him and headed to join Willard and Dodonna. Luke turned and instantly spotted that Artoo and Threepio were amongst the seated rebels. As he joined them, he found himself an empty seat. Then he spotted that Han and Chewbacca had also come to see the meeting too and stood together in a corner at the back of the room. Facing the front, Luke saw General Dodonna stand before huge data screen on the wall which now displayed a digital readout of the Death Star.
"The battle station is heavily shielded and carries a firepower greater than half the star fleet. Its defenses are designed around a direct large-scale assault. A small one-man fighter should be able to penetrate the outer defense."
This came as no surprise to Luke. After seeing the Death Star both inside and out, he had no doubt of the General's analysis of the stations shields. And A weapon as colossal as that would wipe out a star fleet in mere moments. Almost like a human crushing tiny bugs beneath their feet. But it could not be completely indestructible.
"...the Empire doesn't consider a small one-man fighter to be any threat, or they'd have a tighter defense. An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Leia has demonstrated a weakness in the battle station. The approach will not be easy."
The screen began showing the outer surface of the station and then began tracing along the surface as the General continued speaking. "You are required to maneuver straight down this trench and skim the surface to this point. The target area is only two meters wide. It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will start a chain reaction, which should destroy the station."
A murmur broke out among the mass of rebels and some were sounding doubtful about the General's words. Luke's own mind had its doubts of possibly succeeding something like this but he couldn't blame them. Then again Luke had guessed that the weakness in the station wouldn't be an easy thing to penetrate. It would indeed be impossible for an entire star fleet to penetrate that but a single fighter could maybe just make it.
"Only a precise hit will set up a chain reaction." The General reminded them. "The shaft is ray-shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes,"
"That's impossible, even for a computer," protested a dark haired young pilot who was sitting next to Luke.
"It's not impossible," Luke insisted to the rebel. "I used to bull's-eye Womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters."
Before the dark haired rebel could reply to Luke's assurance General Dodonna's voice spoke out from the front again. "Man your ships! And may the force be with you!" That concluded the meeting and everyone left their seats and departed from the room.
Darth Vader was standing before the massive viewport in the control room looking out at the planet Yavin. At long last they had found the location of the Rebel Base and sure enough he could feel Luke's presence out there. He was now more determined than ever to retrieve him before the base was destroyed by the battle station. He had after all allowed the rebels to escape in order for them to lead the Empire directly to the base, but he had not planned for Luke to escape with them.
He still kept asking himself why Luke had ran away from both him and the truth of his parentage? He did not understand. When he had revealed the truth to the boy he had been positive the boy would turn his back on the rebels and join him without hesitation. But no, the boy had been shocked and had run from him with a strong feeling of pain, loss and betrayal surging through him.
Now that his son was in the hands of the Rebels, things could take a turn for the worse. They would poison his own son against him and he would never return to him willingly. He would not allow that, Luke belonged with him, only him and he would get him back.
It would not be easy but he decided that if a battle did indeed break out against the station, he would board his ship and fly out to the Rebel Base if he had to, and find Luke if he was still on the surface. But if that wasn't the case, Vader would have to think of another plan. For now he would stick with that decision.
Behind the Sith Lord, Governor Tarkin watched a computer projected screen, circles of lights intertwined around one another on the screen showing the Death Star's position in relation to Yavin and the fourth moon. Vader turned and went to examine the screen with Tarkin.
An intercom declared, "Orbiting the planet at maximum velocity. The moon with the Rebel base will be in range in thirty minutes."
Staring hard at the screen Vader declared, "This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of Kenobi and it will soon see the end of the Rebellion." Tarkin made no reply, but Vader could feel his agreement within the Governor's sinister feelings.
Saying nothing more, Vader added in his own head, And I will have my son back and he will join my side.
Author's Notes
Hello there, my readers. Here is Chapter Eight.
I was quite disappointed that the last chapter I posted to this fanfic received no reviews. Its no big problem though, but even if I get a small review saying "Great" that is ok with me. Any kind of feedback is welcome, just so I know that you like it. I admit this isn't one of my best star wars fanfictions I do get if those of you think it's not much. But please continue supporting as it helps me carry on.
Thank you to Carrie2sky my Beta reader.
And May the Force Be With You
LouisaJane007
