Chapter 1
*Author's note: I'm very sorry for such a long wait in updating this story. I lost interest in it for a while but am now planning on working on it again. For now, I have just gone back through and revised some stuff in Chapters 1 and 2. I also need to finish Chapter 3 which I had originally posted but it was not complete. New content should be up very soon. Again I apologize for the wait, Enjoy!*
The Endar Spire, Above Tatooine
"Princess we have been intercepted by a Sith ship. Prepare to be boarded!" Lieutenant Carth Onasi alerted.
"We must keep the plans in our possession; the Empire mustn't get them back!" Leia Organa, the crown jewel of Alderaan, commanded the crew of the Endar Spire.
Rebel troops, mostly ex-Republic soldiers and volunteers, readied for Stormtroopers to bust through the air lock. An explosion blew open the door. In came the white armored soldiers that struck fear into millions of civilians across the galaxy. Blaster fire filled the corridor as many on both sides fell dead. Soon, most of the Rebels had been killed or had surrendered. The black robed Darth Vader came marching through the air lock. His Stormtroopers had gathered all the Rebels who had surrendered. Vader inspected the group.
He took the Rebel who seemed to be in charge of these troops and grabbed him by the throat. His dark leather gloved hand squeezed the air out of the poor soldier's throat. "Where is the Princess!?" he demanded.
"There's… no… Princess here," Captain Antilles choked out," We're… just a… diplomatic ship."
"Don't lie to me captain. I know this isn't a diplomatic ship, it's an old Republic flagship and it's carrying the Princess!" Vader yelled as he threw Captain Antilles against the wall," To the bridge. I want the Princess alive!"
"R2 take this disc and go with C-3PO to Tatooine. I will try to escape with Carth but if I don't make it, find a man named Obi-Wan Kenobi and give him this message," Leia told the small astromech droid R2-D2.
R2 beeped in obedience and wandered off to find C-3PO. Leia then returned to the bridge. Vader and his Stormtroopers were closing in on the bridge.
"Princess, we need to leave now! My men can't hold them off any longer. If we don't leave now, you'll be captured. Now let's go!" Carth begged Leia.
"Very well Lieutenant, let's leave," she knew Carth had more experience in these situations and therefore complied to his command.
The two started for the escape pods when the bridge door blew open. In walked Vader with his red lightsaber drawn. He lunged at Carth but was parried by another Rebel, Private Trask Ulgo.
"Go ahead, I'll try and hold him off. You get to the escape pods!" The brave soldier yelled.
Despite knowing that Trask wouldn't survive a duel with the Sith Lord, the two ran. Trask's sacrifice bought enough time for the two to get away. Carth and Leia loaded up into a pod. Vader had just reached them when they launched. As they hurled towards Tatooine's sandy surface, Vader screamed in anger. Minutes later, the Republic ship fell to the planet causing a magnificent crash.
The Surface of Tatooine
C-3PO and Artoo had left the ship far before its destruction. By the time the ship fell from the sky, the two droids had already wandered away from their escape pod which had crashed in the Jundland Wastelands. After traveling through the sea of sand, C-3PO saw something in the distance. He began to wave his arms shrieking, "Help! Help!" Realizing what it was that C-3PO was looking at, Artoo shocked and beeped at C-3PO in an attempt to shut him up. By the time C-3PO figured out what Artoo was worrying about, it was too late. As the object moved closer, it was revealed to be a sandcrawler. Aboard the massive vehicle were the scavengers know as Jawas. The two droids were captured, fitted with restraining bolts, and taken to be sold elsewhere.
Luke had been doing work outside when he saw the hammerhead-class Republic ship crash into the dunes of Tatooine. He ran inside to tell his uncle about what he had just witnessed.
"Uncle a ship just crashed outside! Come look!" the young man exclaimed.
His uncle rushed outside. When he saw the ship burning in the distance was once used by the Republic, he told Luke to get back inside. He didn't want Luke to be exposed to the Rebellion before he thought Luke was ready. A disappointed Luke complied and went inside with his uncle. What little friends he had made on the desert planet had left to join the Rebellion and fight the Empire. Luke dreamed of someday joining too and becoming one of the best pilots in the entire galaxy. But for now he was stuck on the farm with his aunt and uncle.
"Don't worry Luke, the Jawas are coming by today to sell us some droids. You can come help me pick them out and then work on them after," his uncle tried to brighten the boys mood.
Luke loved working on droids. It was really one of the only ways to pass time on the planet. He noticed his Aunt Beru was making dinner in the next room. His stomach started to growl from hunger but his attention was diverted to the rumbling of the ground. The sandcrawler had arrived.
He ran out where his uncle had beaten him outside and already started talking to the Jawas. Luke looked at all the droids that where lined up. He began to inspect them. Most weren't in very good condition but then he noticed two that were in prime condition, "Hey Uncle Owen, what about these two?"
"Th R2 unit would fit nicely here but what use would I have of a protocol droid" Uncle Owen thought aloud. "I think you will find that protocol droids can be quiet useful to even a simple farmer like you," C-3PO answered.
"I don't know... I need a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators. Can you do that?" Uncle Owen asked, still not convinced.
"Vaporators! Sir - My first job was programming binary load lifter very similar to your vaporators!" C-3PO exclaimed excitedly. "Can you speak Bocce?" Uncle Owen continued questioning.
"Of course I can, sir. It's like a second language to me."
"Fine then. How much will the two droids cost?" Uncle Owne asked the small, cloaked Jawa.
The Jawa said something in its gibberish of a language. Uncle Owen nodded and handed over four hundred credits. He waved at the as the Jawas retreated into their sandcrawler and left. He then walked over to Luke and his two new droids.
"This one is C-3PO and this one is R2-D2, at least that's what the gold protocol droid said," Luke told his uncle, pointing at the protocol droid and the astromech.
"The better be worth the amount of credits I spent on them. Now go take them into the house and clean them up," he commanded Luke.
Luke happily obeyed. He took the droids into his garage and started working on them right away. While he gave them hot oil baths, He noticed that there was blaster scoring all over the two.
"Excuse me but we are Republic property, despite what those savages said, and we are on an important mission," C-3PO blurted out during the repairs.
"Republic property? Important mission?" a confused Luke questioned.
R2 beeped at the tall piece of metal," Oh never mind. I don't know why I said that. Maybe you should check my wires next."
"Ok then... but first let me check out this R2 unit," Luke said as he started to fiddle with the blue and white astromech droid.
All of a sudden a hologram appeared. It was a woman in white robes with her hair done up in buns. She began whispering," Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."
Luke jumped back and then said," What's going on? Who is she? Who's this Obi-wan Kenobi she speaks of... does she mean old Ben Kenobi? But he's just an old hermit, what could he help with?"
The message kept repeating itself over and over. Curious and frustrated, Luke asked the R2 unit if there was more to the message. Artoo beeped and C-3PO translated, "He said he could show you more if you took off his restraining bolt."
"I guess I could do that," Luke said as he pried off the small bolt. The hologram disappeared. "Hey, what happened to the hologram?"
Before either droid could answer, Aunt Beru called out Luke's name. Luke left the room to see what his aunt wanted, still thinking about what he had heard. When he returned, he found C-3PO by himself.
"What happened to that R2 unit?" Luke questioned a frightened C-3PO.
The protocol droid told him of how Artoo had left to find Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke hastily grabbed C-3PO and jumped into his landspeeder. They took off in search of the lost droid.
