STAR WARS EP IV: A New Hope

The iconic blue words appeared on the black screen.

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…

Then the music erupted as the title of the movie panned back from the camera towards a starry sky.

STAR WARS

"Wait a sec, episode four?" Drack asked slumped on the right side of the couch, a bottle of beer in his hands.

"Why are we starting at episode 4?" he asked.

"Because everybody knows episode 4 is the REAL first movie," Liam said with a smile, seated on the left arm of the couch, "Not that bore fest called Phantom Menace!"

"Well, I actually LIKE that one," Suvi piped up, sitting on a chair just next to the couch, "I honestly found the world building and political background of the galaxy quite interesting!"

"Oh, YOU would!" Cora said with a scoff, slumped on the floor with her back pressed to the couch.

"Guys, relax!" Sara Ryder said with smile, seated next to Drax and between Lexi, "Let's not have any fan arguments ruin the experience! Many of us haven't seen any of these movies before."

"Besides, we'll get to the prequels eventually," Scott Ryder said. He was standing right behind Suvi, leaning on one of Sara's chairs.

The stormtroopers had just broken into the ship and started blasting all the rebel soldiers.

"Nope. Nope. Nope," Vetra scoffed as he leaned on the couch between Ryder and Lexi, "There's no way these guys took over the galaxy with clunky armor like that!"

"Well it's not just the armor," Gil said sitting on a chair behind the couch, "You have to consider they have both the numbers, the strategy, the training…"

A stormtrooper randomly shot at something offscreen.

"Oh yes," Lexi said sarcastically, "LOTS of training."

Darth Vader had just emerged from the smoke, the iconic breathing reverberating from the surround sound system.

"Heh. He sounds like your snoring Jaal," Peebee said with a snicker. Jaal, standing cross armed next to Liam, just scoffed.

"No it does not," he said, "I do not snore like that."

"Yeah you do!" Peebee said as she sat on the floor leaning on Kallo, "You're like-" She then proceeded to mimic Jaal's snoring, which is basically Darth Vader's breathing but with more nose snorting.

"Yeah, but if this guy proves one thing, leaders need a cape," Cora said. Everyone turned to face Sara.

"Uh, no," Sara said, "In our line of work, capes are not practical."

"There are actually capes specifically designed for battle," Kallo pointed out.

"I am NOT wearing a cape," Sara said more sternly.

The escape pod containing R2-D2 and C3PO launched. Imperials spot the pod, but the commanding officer told them not to fire. Corra groaned.

"Really?" she said irritated, "You're a powerful, evil empire who use fear as your controlling force and yet you don't shoot an escape pod because nobody's in it? You deserve to be overthrown!"

"Relax kid," Drack said, "Even evil empires have rules of conduct they follow. Even if they are incredibly stupid."

R2-D2 and C3PO are in the desert planet of Tatooine. As they talk, Jaal turns to the others.

"So I am assuming that have some form of AI like Sam?" he asked. Liam thought about it for a bit.

"I...think so?" he finally said, "They never really explain that."

"Oh come on!" Suvi said with a chuckle, "It's a fantasy world where sentient robots and people live together in harmony. Just go with it."

"The only thing I'm focusing on is that little blue robot!" Peebee said, "Look at him! He's so cute!"

"Hm, that little machine does have its charm," Jaal admitted.

"You know," Scott said to Peebee, "those two really remind of you and Jaal."

"Huh?"

"Nothing!" he quickly said.

Eventually, R2 and C3PO meet up with Luke Skywalker. Luke has just discovered the holographic message.

"Okay, how exactly is that working?" Lexi said with confusion, "I've seen holographic booths before. There are hundreds of cameras everywhere. How could she have recorded this?"

"Maybe she recorded it ahead of time in case of emergency?" Sara suggested.

"Huh," Liam said impressed, "Never actually thought of it like that."

"Perhaps understanding the value of her mission..." Jaal began.

"...she planned a contingency plan..." Liam continued.

"...recorded the message…"

"...made R2 aware…"

"...that if something happens follow secret protocols!" Jaal and Liam finished together, laughing at their identical thinking.

The group continued to watch, until they reached the scene where Ben Kenobi brought Luke to his hideout. He gave Luke his lightsaber, which he activated and swung for a bit.

"Okay, how come we have omni-blades but we don't have THAT?" Vetra asked in amazement.

The scene continued as Ben began talking to Luke about the Force.

"Interesting," Jaal mused, "There's a variation of Angara religion very similar to this. They call it Anav de Vanav, 'Many as One.' It stays true to the central Angaran belief of reincarnation, but beliefs that living Angara are reincarnated from one mother many centuries ago."

"Do you believe that?" Sara asked curiously.

"No," Jaal said stiffly, "The big question is fails to acknowledge is 'Where is the father?'"

The movie continued, and they see the first appearance of Han Solo.

"Now this guy was my childhood hero!" Gil said, "I learned everything him from him. Charm, smooth talking, swag."

"Really? I always thought you got love advice from a krogan," Drack said before letting a deep laugh.

"No seriously!" Gil said, "This guy taught me swag!"

"Alright then, you be Solo, I'll be the green guy," Sara said as she stood up and walked to the side of the screen. Gil also stood and walked to the other side. They made sure they were positioned so that Gil was on Solo's side and Sara was on Greedo's side.

"Going somewhere Solo?" Sara said. She pinched her nose so that she sounded like Greedo.

"Yes Greedo, as a matter of fact I was just going to see your boss. Tell Jabba that I've got his money," Gil said, pulling off his best Han Solo impression.

They continued the scene and once it concluded, with Sara falling over like she got shot, the crew applauded.

"Thank you, thank you," Gil said smugly with a bow.

"Actually we're applauding at Ryder's alien impression," Peebee said.

They continued watching the movie. They laughed when the Stormtrooper failed at a locked door, and the non-human crew gasped at the destruction of Alderaan (though Kallo was more concerned about the fact that they could hear an explosion despite a vacuum of space). Eventually, they got to the scene where Luke and Han executed their risky plan to save Leia.

"This is a very terrible plan," Liam said.

"Didn't we use a similar trojan horse approach before?" Sara said to Liam with a raised eyebrow.

"No, THAT was genius," Liam said.

"I didn't know genius meant impulsive and brash," Lexi said with a smug smile.

"Wait, wait, Cora let's do this scene!"

"No!" Cora said sternly.

"Come on!" Liam said.

"Do it!" Sara teased. Cora sighed and approved.

"Everything's under control! Situation normal!" Liam said.

"What happened?" Cora continued.

"Uh, just had a slight weapon's malfunction. We're fine here. How are you?"

The movie finally reached to the epic moment, where the X-Wing squadron fought off against the Death Star.

"Now those ships I want to fly!" Kallo said with eyes of wonder.

"What I want to question though is why do they have to do this whole space battle and risk all these pilots?" Gil asked, "Just have one engineer sneak in, cut life support, problem solved!"

"Too easy!" Cora said, "Otherwise we won't get a climax!"

The Death Star eventually exploded. The award ceremony transitioned to the end credits, and the crew applauded.

"Kid, I'll give you this," Drack said to Sara, "You humans sure has a very goofy look at space travel back then."

"Was that a compliment?" Sara asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"Hell yeah it was!"

"I will confess, it wasn't as silly as some of the other vids we've seen," Lexi admitted.

"But are you sure this wasn't a spiritual film?" Jaal asked.

"With guns, laser swords, and silly robots?" Vetra replied.

"Point taken."

"Well if you'll excuse me," Peebee said as she stood up, "I'm going to take some scrap and try building that R2 robot!"

"I'm not exactly looking forward to how that's going to look," Cora said.