Alright, everybody. Here we are. The chapter covering the passenger revolt.

Let's roll.

Chapter 6- Let's Roll

(United 93, 9:57 AM Eastern Time)

Rommel scans the passengers, watching as many of them begin to wrap up phone calls with their loved ones. He recalls walking past some of the passengers and flight attendants and hearing their conversations with their loved ones. Jeremy Glick, who was just repeatedly telling his life he loved her. Sandy Bradshaw, one of the flight attendants who promised her husband she would quit the next day if she made it home. Todd Beamer, who was talking to an airphone attendant, as he hadn't been able to get through to his wife. Elizabeth Warrio, who was talking with her mother, saying goodbye and feeling as though her mother was there with her. And Tom Burnett, who was talking calmly with his wife, informing them of their plan, and speaking confidently, telling her he would be home. Many of the passengers specifically mentioned that they had a member of the ASAT team on board, and several passengers had said that their family members seemed to calm down upon hearing this.

Rommel sits down beside Tom Burnett as Burnett hangs up his phone. He looks at Tom and says, "Burnett, I want you beside me in this. Once we get control of the cockpit, I want you as my co pilot."

Tom looks at Rommel in slight surprise, then says, "I don't know anything about airplanes, but I'll do my best."

"Well, I'll be doing all the hard stuff. But you've been a help to all of us, and if I weren't here, I think you'd probably be leading this effort. So I want you beside me," Rommel says.

"I'll do whatever you need me to do," Tom says.

Rommel nods. He then looks back at everybody. He sees that almost everyone has hung up. The last one talking is Todd Beamer. As Rommel and everyone else watches, Beamer lowers the airphone he's talking on and says, "Ok. Let's roll."

Rommel nods once, then turns back to look at Haznawi. The terrorist is still watching them, but occasionally glances back. Rommel watches him intently, sitting in a position where he's ready to spring out of the chair at a moment's notice.

Finally, Haznawi turns around to look back again, but this time turning more than usual, and lingering a bit longer. Seeing his chance, Rommel springs out of his seat and sprints as fast as he can down the aisle.

It takes Haznawi a few seconds to realize what is happening. And he doesn't even realize what's happening until the men meant to follow Rommel leap up and run after him, shouting.

Haznawi whips around to see Rommel charging at him, with men following behind him. Before he can really react more than stumbling back, Rommel is on him.

Rommel grabs the arm Haznawi is using to hold the trigger, and two very quick moves, breaks his arm and rips the trigger from his hand. He then whips Haznawi around and puts him in a headlock. With a powerful twist of his arms, he snaps Haznawi's neck.

By now, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick have reached him, and they surge past Rommel and through the curtain into first class. The one terrorist, al Nami, is standing guard outside the cockpit. The appearance of Tom and Jeremy catches Nami completely off guard. He yells a warning to the cockpit and tries to draw his knife, but Tom and Jeremy reach him. They quickly tackle the young terrorist and easily restrain him, Jeremy putting him in a headlock.

Rommel charges up the aisle of first class, with other passengers following behind him. As he nears the cockpit, he whips the lightsaber that was once Yoda's off of his belt, and removes his own lightsaber from his jacket. By now, the terrorist pilot has seemingly noticed their actions, probably from the sounds of screaming and Nami's warning. The plane begins to pitch up and down and roll from side to side.

As Rommel reaches the cockpit, he sees the body of the head flight attendant lying on the floor, clearly dead. He also sees the first officer leaned up against the wall of the forward galley, and to his surprise, sees that he's slightly moving despite some visible wounds. "Take him back!" Rommel yells to two of the flight attendants, Sandy Bradshaw and Ceecee Lyles, who hurry towards the first officer to take him back into first class to attend to him.

Rommel steadies himself as best he can. He quickly ignites the two sabers and stabs them into the top of the doorframe. He cuts to the sides of the doorway, then begins cutting down the sides towards the bottom. The plane continues to shake and fly erratically, but other passengers grab Rommel and hold him upright.

Then, right as the plane pitches down into a steep dive, Rommel's sabers reach the bottom. Rommel deactivates them, then reaches forward and grabs the door handle. With a powerful yank, he pulls the section he cut out clean out of place.

Rommel leaps into the cockpit, igniting both sabers. Sure enough, just as he suspected, there are two men in the cockpit. Rommel swings his blue bladed saber at the man in the pilot's seat, who looks more like he's there to assist as necessary, beheading him and cutting a gash in the wall of the cockpit, though thankfully not damaging any important instruments. He then turns to the co pilot's seat, where the final terrorist is strapped in and firmly gripping the controls. Rommel stabs Yoda's old saber through the chair, through the man's back and through his heart. Then, after yanking it out, he uses it to cut the man's hands off so that his body won't involuntarily cause the plane to do anything.

Rommel then leans forward and pulls back on the control yoke, trying to pull the plane out of the steep dive the terrorist pilot put it in, while also trying to right it, as the plane is starting to pull into a right bank. It definitely puts some G force onto everybody in the plane as Rommel yanks back on the control yoke. Finally, as Rommel grits his teeth from the effort and adrenaline, the 757 finally levels off at just 1,800 feet, travelling almost 50 knots faster than the aircraft's normal top speed.

Rommel keeps the plane level, easing it out of its bank, and pulls back on the throttles and deploys the flaps to slow the plane down. As he sees the airspeed indicator dip below 450 knots and continue to drop, he raises the flaps while leaving the throttles where they are. He then collapses to his knees on the floor of the cockpit, overwhelmed by the adrenaline of what just happened.

Behind him, he can hear the passengers cheering as they realize they've succeeded. As they do, Rommel turns around and to his surprise sees the pilot crammed into the space behind the captain's seat. While it's clear he's wounded, he's surprisingly still alive. Rommel turns around and says, "I need some help in here."

Several passengers, including Mark Bingham and Todd Beamer, come into the cockpit. Todd Beamer and another passenger remove the bodies of the two terrorists from the cockpit, while Mark Bingham gently eases the captain up off the floor and out of the cockpit so he can receive first aid.

Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick then come into the cockpit. "We have the guy outside unconscious. Figured we might want to keep one of them alive for the military to interrogate," Jeremy says.

"Good. Keep him restrained. If he tries to escape and you can't restrain him…well, then you'll need this," Rommel says, handing Yoda's old saber to Jeremy. Jeremy looks at it as he slowly takes it, awed by the fact that he is holding the lightsaber that once belonged to the great Jedi Master Yoda. Then he looks up at Rommel and nods before walking back out of the cockpit.

Rommel then turns around and slides into the captain's seat while Tom Burnett slides into the co pilot's seat. Rommel slides the pilot's headphones onto his head, then begins looking over the controls, trying to find the controls for the radio.

Finally, he manages to get the radio tuned to the correct frequency, and Rommel says into the mouthpiece attached to his headset, "This is United Airlines Flight 93, calling any ATC center in range."

A moment later, he hears a voice say through his headphones, "United 93, Cleveland Center, go ahead."

"Cleveland Center, United 93. This is Brigadier General Dennis Rommel of the Anti-Sith Assault Team. Our flight was hijacked by four terrorists of Middle Eastern origin. Me, along with some of the passengers on board, just successfully retook the cockpit. We have killed three of the terrorists and have the fourth restrained. We have a flight attendant and a passenger dead, and the pilot and co pilot are wounded and will need medical attention once we get on the ground. I am currently at the controls of the aircraft, and am requesting a vector to the nearest airport," Rommel says.

"United 93, Cleveland Center. Good to hear that, General. Standby on your request," the controller says.

Rommel turns to Tom. He points to the switch and says, "That's the switch for the plane's transponder. The hijackers must have switched it off. I need you to switch it back on." Tom nods and flips the switch, switching the transponder back on.

About 30 seconds later, Rommel hears the controller come back on the radio, saying, "United 93, Cleveland Center, steer vector 3-0-5, climb and maintain flight level 150, airspeed 350 knots. Divert to Pittsburgh International Airport. Be alerted, two SF-23 starfighters are headed in your direction. We are working to contact them to alert them to your situation. Expect them to escort you to Pittsburgh."

"United 93 copies. Turning left to course 3-0-5, climb and maintain flight level 150," Rommel responds. He begins turning the control yoke to the left, easing the aircraft into a left turn towards Pittsburgh. It takes the plane about 40 seconds to complete the turn. Once he's finished with the turn, he pulls back on the yoke, pulling the aircraft into a twenty degree climb. It takes about two minutes before they reach 15,000 feet.

Rommel and Tom continue to monitor the systems and displays for any unusual signs. Then, about four minutes later, Rommel catches motion out of the cockpit. Looking off to his left, he sees one of the new SF-23 starfighters, with the distinctive blue nose of the 352nd Fighter Wing.

"United 93, this Major Andy Livingston off your left side. Do you copy?" a voice comes over Rommel's headphones.

"Major Livingston, United 93. This is Brigadier General Dennis Rommel. I copy," Rommel responds.

"We hear you loud and clear. Good to hear your voice, General. We understand you have control of the aircraft," Major Livingston responds.

"Affirmative, Major. We have three hijackers dead and the fourth restrained. I understand you are our escort to Pittsburgh," Rommel says.

"Affirmative, General. I'm gonna ease ahead of you here a bit. Follow me and do not deviate from your designated course," Livingston says.

"Copy that," Rommel says, smiling a bit. At last, this ordeal is over.

And, I'll end the chapter there.

So, in this universe, with Rommel on their side, the passenger revolt on United 93 was successful, and the plane has been retaken. Now, for some who are wondering about the captain still being alive, that is not something I made up. During the 9/11 Investigation, analysis of the cockpit voice recorder from United 93 revealed a distinctively American voice saying something unintelligible at several points before the plane crashed, causing investigators to believe that the hijackers, for whatever reason, kept Captain Dahl alive and in the cockpit. There was also a recording of the terrorist pilot, Ziad Jarrah, telling someone to stop touching something, which was presumed to be Captain Dahl. It's unknown if the first officer, Lee Homer, also survived the initial hijacking or not, but some audio suggests he survived for at least a little while. Also, the descriptions of the phone conversations at the beginning are all based on accounts from the loved ones of passengers on United 93, and in Todd Beamer's case the airphone attendant, who spoke to the passengers following the hijacking. I obviously wasn't able to include every known phone conversation between the passengers and people on the ground, but I tried to do what I could to make it based in fact.

Now, to this day, there is debate on how far the passengers got. Official investigators have stated that it was their conclusions that the passengers were on the verge of overcoming the terrorists and entering the cockpit, and that is why Ziad Jarrah crashed the plane. However, because of some words from Ziad Jarrah and the way some passenger's voices could reportedly be heard on the cockpit voice recorder, the family members, and many others, believe the passengers were able to enter the cockpit and were struggling with the terrorists for the controls at the moment the plane crashed. I personally believe that is what happened, and if they'd only had a minute or to more, the revolt might have succeeded. RIP, heroes.

Alright. The next chapter will be up soon. Until then, leave a review, and stay tuned