Location: Tendrando Arms Secret Base below the surface of the planet Socorro.
The sound of each breath was the sound of a hurricane. Each footfall; a seismic reckoning.
Vestara's consciousness was desperately trying to catch up with her new reality. She had no plan for escape! She hadn't planned on being alive at this point!
It took every ounce of her shattered will just to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Thank the force for Ben! The power of her self doubt, withered and died under the assault of Ben's relentless optimism. He could pull her out of the deepest of pits. He was pulling her out of the deepest of pits!
Between Ben and Vestara, hung a man who was crippled by betrayal, loss and a perforated lung. At this point, he had become almost catatonic.
"Lando! Lando! We need the command codes!"
Ben kept demanding. He knew that without those codes, the base's defences would rip them apart. Ben tried again: "Lando! I need you to tell me the..."
Ben's inquiry was cut off by an alarm klaxon.
"It's too late!" Vestara said. "We gotta get out of this place! Now!
They were more than halfway down a long hallway. At the end, was the turbo-lift room.
That's when the first series of blaster bolts came sizzling from behind. Using force augmented reflexes, Ben and Vestara were able to dodge the vicious lines of burning plasma, all the while keeping the semi conscious man between them in one piece.
Then, they were there: The turbo lift tube! Ben grabbed Lando's hand and pressed his palm against the activation pad. The panel let out a: "Authorization confirmed! Emergency override activated!"
Vestara knew it would be at least 10 seconds before the lift pad reached their level. Until then, they would be sitting wompas.
She knelt down and retrieved her lightsaber that she had hidden away in one of the many secret pockets that lined her utility pants. She had not intended to use the weapon ever again. She had imagined that Lando might have found it on her dead body after exacting his revenge. Maybe, he would have kept it as a symbol of fulfilled justice. Maybe he would have destroyed it. Ironically, she would now use it to save his life.
And the blaster bolts flew...
Location: In the skies above the planet Socorro
In between making muscle jarring manoeuvres and break-neck thruster boosts, Han glanced over at the tracking map still on display above the co-pilot's controls. "She's moving! Sith girl is moving!" Han yelled out.
Jaina's voice came over the intercom: "Where?"
Han spared another glance. "I think she's headed for the surface but I got no way of knowing if she is alone or if Ben is with her!"
The intercom was silent for a moment, and then Leia's voice crackled through: "Yes... He's with her. I can sense them both... Together... Urgency... Desperation.
Han was heartened by Leia's report. A second later, however, that same heart sank as realization struck. "Not Good! They're headed for the landing pad, and they're going to be greeted by a wall of turbo-laser bolts from those towers!"
Han's mind was racing for that ever elusive solution that he knew lay at the very bottom of every problem he had encountered. But there was too many towers and to many fighters for just one ship to handle.
"No! No! No!" Ben was about to die, and Han had only two choice:
1) Sit back and watch as 6 turbo lasers towers turned his nephew into a smouldering crater.
2) Sacrifice The Falcon and her crew in a desperate attempt to distract the bases defences just long enough to allow Ben to make it to The Jade Shadow.
"Leia!" Han spoke in a voice that didn't belong to the famous cocky risk taker.
"I know." She responded, cutting him off. She sounded hollow and heartbroken, yet at the same time there was no mistaking her resolve.
In The Falcon's top turret, Jaina placed a hand on her belly, reaching inward one last time to the life inside that would never be. It was too much to ask of any mother: To give up her child's life for someone else's. It was
monstrous; it was diabolical.
But she was not any mother. She was a Jedi Master! She was the sword of the Jedi! And she always knew her end would be tragic and glorious.
"I love you Jag." She said silently, wishing those words could travel the lightyears that separated her from her husband, but knowing they wouldn't.
Silence filled the Ship. Han just sat there, hands on the controls; frozen. Visions of his dead sons and wookiee friend filled his mind.
"Han?" Leia called over the intercom, confused at his inaction.
"I... I can't do it Leia! I can't kill my family..." A broken voice replied.
"Dad!" Jaina started but stopped as tears threatened to overtake her. "Dad...we can't just..." she trailed off as she realized that The Falcon had started to dive towards the planet's surface... Towards Ben... Towards certain death.
Location: The depths of Luke Skywalker's unconscious mind
Luke was on the verge of regaining the consciousness that had been stolen by Dena's stun bolt. However, he couldn't seem to breakthrough the reoccurring vision that kept on dragging him back down to the twilight of his psyche
He was back on Tatooine... The quicksand... The Sarlacc Pit... All of it! He watched again and again as everyone he cared about died a horrible and unstoppable death. And each time he was powerless to change the outcome. But... something had just changed. Across the galaxy he could feel the unique sense of individuals who had gracefully accepted the fact that they were about to die. It was coming from. "Oh No!" His Vision and reality were on the verge of becoming one and the same.
He had to do something! He had to... Wake up! There was... Danger. And... it was close by. Slowly, he began to push through the dreamlike state that had imprisoned him.
At the same time, less than 300 metres away, an open top air speeder hung motionless in the Naboo sky. Inside were two Rodians. One held the craft's controls in hands. The other, held a high powered sniper blaster.
Rodians, would never be accused of being a patient or overly intelligent species. They had not been fully convinced of the necessity for the caution and subtly that General Kratebor had insisted on. A well placed blaster bolt would solve all their problems, and these particular Rodians were about to prove that point.
With the aid of his rifle's holoscope, the green assassin had a clear view of a bed ridden Luke Skywalker; that is, thanks to the room's well placed window. The rifle made a quiet triple beep, informing it's user that a target lock had been acquired. With that, he began to squeeze the trigger, ignorant of the room's 2nd occupant who was about to walk into view...
And directly into the blaster bolt's path!
Location: In the skies above the planet Socorro
The Millennial Falcon began to dive toward the dark sands of Socorro's surface. 3 seconds into the Ship's rapid descent, the sound of constant fire ceased from the two turrets.
Han was about to ask why Jaina and Leia had stopped the barrage, when the question died in his throat. The droid fighters had gone from trailing The Falcon, to racing ahead of it, in a mad dash toward the Landing pad.
Had they given up? Han knew that even he wasn't that lucky. No! The fighters had switched from offence to defence. The base had come under attack from...
The Jade Shadow.
The Shadow may have started life as swanky space yacht, but after decades of modifications it now would more accurately fit the classification of a so called "pocket corvette". Much the same could be said of The Shadow's current pilot.
R2-D2 may have started life as a generic astromech unit produced by Industrial Automaton, but over his eventful life, the little dome-headed droid had become something more than the sum of his parts. He had spent, literally, years of his mechanical life plugged into the droid sockets of starfighters flown by the 2 best pilots the galaxy had ever known: Anikan and Luke Skywalker. In that time he had watched and learned, not just their techniques, but their... code. The ethics that governed each deployment.
Aided by all that experience, he had come to the unfortunate conclusion that without action on his part, Ben, Vestara, and the entire Solo clan would meet certain death. He felt like his entire existence had prepared him for this one moment.
He only wished Padme and Anikan were still alive to witness the proof of his great love and appreciation for them.
With the Base's defences initially trained on the Millennial Falcon, the first turbo laser tower didn't even see the attack comming from almost ground level. The shadow had hugged the sand dune found on the landing pad's perimeter, and had attacked from below, simultaneously firing everything it had on the automated turret.
The Falcon's crew watched in awe and dread, as The shadow flew through the giant fire ball that now occupied the top of the far defence tower. With that single act, the heavily modified yacht now claimed the title of greatest threat. The remaining turbolaser towers, would now go on to ignore The Falcon and, more importantly, the trio that had just emerged from the Landing pad's turbo lift shaft.
"I see em! I seem em!" Han said before Jaina or Leia could get his attention. "We won't have time for a nice gentle landing! Leia! I need you to..."
Already reading his mind she finished: "Drop the ramp! Im headed there now!"
All the while R2 was pulling off acrobatic stunts that would have been hard for an Xwing, let alone a craft nearly 4 times it's size. Between his piloting skills and The Shadow's array of sensor scramblers, The Turbolasers were failing miserably at their task.
Even so, the shields had taken several glancing hits from the remaining gun in-placements, and several direct hits from droid fighters. Truth was, his shields were on verge of collapse! Once that happened...
At first, Ben couldn't comprehend the scene that greeted them, as they reached Socorro's surface.
Turbolaser blasts painted the sky. Wreckage littered the landing pad. The sounds of overstressed sub-light engines filled the air. In fact he couldn't tell if that deafening "BOOM!" he just heard was an explosion or his uncle's famous ship breaking the sound barrier. To his utter amazement, he soon discovered that both answers were correct. Just as the Millennial Falcon came flying to the rescue, The Jade Shadow had just downed a starfighter, sending it crashing in the permacrete, not 50 meters away.
The Shadow? Who was flying the...
"Artoo!" Vestara called out inbhorror. The realization of what the Droid was attempting had momentarily paralyzed her.
Ben, not so gently, pulled her along. "Come on Ves! We got to get off this pad!"
With the grace and skill only Han Solo could manage, the Falcon came to a hovering halt, with the ramp extended only half a meter off the ground. Ben's focus locked on to that ramp and everything else fell away. He couldn't help R2 right now. All he could do is get Lando and Vestara to that ramp!
Thats when the faithful little droid's luck finally ran out.
With his shields finally whittled down to nothing, the fateful shot could not be blunted. With full force, the turbo blast ripped through the hull, completely destroying the sublight engine-core that lay in it's path. Loosing all thrusters and drives, the Yacht succumbed to gravity. As the ship hurtled down toward the surface in a spiraling arch, Artoo sent out one last transmission to the Millennial Falcon: The words came through on the display panel: "Mission Complete. May the force be with you."
As the last of the three survivors was pulled aboard the Falcon's ramp, the ship shook violently as the Jade Shadow collided with the nearest turbolaser tower in a blinding flash of heat and light.
And with that, R2D2 was no more.