Thanks again to all my reviewers!
Mike( ): I do know that Mara Jade has red hair and green eyes, I just prefer her to have brown.
Disclaimer: All things from Star Wars are property of George Lucas, if I haven't said that before.
Chapter Seven
The commander of the shield generator bunker watched as his comm. screen lit up with the figure of an officer, standing in the cockpit of an AT-ST. "It's over, Commander," the image announced. "The Rebels have been routed and they're fleeing into the woods. We need reinforcements to continue the pursuit."
The commander smiled and turned to a junior officer. "Send three squads to help," he ordered. "Open the back door."
Outside the bunker, Han watched from one side of the entrance as the door opened and troops poured out. They jogged out onto the forest floor and stopped, confused at the sight of dead Stormtroopers lying scattered on the ground. Han took that moment to run up behind them. He took up position, blaster aimed and ready, as hundreds of Ewoks popped up from hiding, surrounding the troops. As they turned to look, he couldn't help shrugging and giving them all a cocky grin. They had been trapped, just like they had trapped the Rebel commando team.
Quickly Han and the commandos ran inside the bunker and laid the charges, then charged out of the bunker.
Han Solo sprinted away from the bunker, fear and adrenalin making his legs move faster than he had ever believed possible.
"Move, move!" he shouted. He reached a ditch dug especially for this purpose and dived in, covering his head.
Outside the ditch, the bunker that housed the Death Star's shield generator exploded in an enormous, bright flash of light and heat. Two hundred metres behind it, the Empire's compound exploded, forming a huge wall of fire across the horizon. Finally, the shield was down.
Lando knew something was happening when his passive sensors, those that weren't jammed, picked up an abnormal emission of light and heat from the moon below him, and he knew it was good when the jamming on his active sensors suddenly ceased.
"The shield is down! Commence attack on the Death Star's main reactor!" came Admiral Ackbar's excited voice over the comm.
Lando broke out in a grin, as did his co-pilot. The Sullustan chattered happily in his own language as Lando turned the Millennium Falcon onto a heading directly towards the Death Star. "We're on our way," he replied on a wide frequency. "Red group, gold group, all fighters follow me!" He laughed out loud. "I told you they'd do it!"
The Falcon dived and twisted over its surface, dodging various defences, towers, and the ever-present TIE fighters. Lando followed Wedge in his X-wing, darting out of the way of laser blasts and proton torpedoes as they made their way to the exhaust shaft that would lead to the power core.
And suddenly, there it was.
"I'm going in," Wedge announced, and dived over the rim of the shaft and into the bowels of the Death Star.
Lando took a breath, muttered, "Here goes nothing," and followed. The shaft was a mass of metal, with bits and pieces protruding from every imaginable place. It made flying a ship as wide as the Falcon especially hard, because the shaft wasn't just stretched out one particular way. Lando had to rotate the ship constantly to avoid being chopped up into three neat parts. "Now, lock onto the strongest power source - it should be the power generator," he instructed.
Wedge put Lando's thoughts into words with his next comment. "Form up. Stay alert - we could run out of space real fast."
A TIE fighter illustrated the amount of control needed to fly in a corridor this tight - after turning a blind corner, it careened off the side of the shaft, to the other, and finally exploded, leaving its mates to fly through the fireball.
Lando studied his scopes and shook his head. There were too many enemy fighters to think about. They couldn't afford being distracted in a tunnel this tight. "Split up," he instructed his group, "and head back to the surface. See if you can get a couple of those TIE fighters to follow you."
An A-wing pilot that Lando had been introduced to by Wedge prior to this battle - Tycho Celchu - responded with, "Copy, Gold Leader." He twisted his A-wing and headed off down a side shaft, while Wedge and Lando continued on down the main one.
Out of nowhere came a gap... too narrow for the Falcon to fit through cleanly. Lando swore and prayed, and Nien Nunb gasped as they flew through, ripping the sensor dish from its mount on the very top of the Falcon. Lando shook his head. "That was too close."
Admiral Ackbar watched the battle tensely from Home One. They were starting to take heavy losses, and he didn't know how much longer he could hold the battle out here. "We've got to give those fighters more time. Concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer," he ordered. If they could just destroy the command ship, it would leave the Imperials floundering-- as well as give the Rebels one hell of a morale boost.
Two A-wings heard his order and concentrated their fire on the bridge shield generator. They pummelled it with their lasers and torpedoes, and eventually it blew.
"Sir, we've lost our bridge deflector shield!"
Admiral Piett twisted to face the crew pit, calling, "Intensify forward batteries, I don't want anything to get through." He turned back to the view screen, just in time to see an out-of-control A-wing plummeting towards it. "Intensify forward firepower!" he yelled desperately.
"Too late!" screamed his second-in-command, and the two of them ran and leaped into the crew pit. As if it would do them any good.
Admiral Ackbar couldn't stop the smile from creeping onto his face as he watched the arrowhead shape of the SSD fall from the sky, parts of it on fire and parts of it breaking away, majestic to the last. His crew cheered, letting out a final cry as the SSD impacted with the side of the Death Star and expanded in a huge fireball.
Lando Calrissian watched the huge, inverted dome of the Death Star's main reactor in awe as he and Wedge flew towards it. It was a whole lot bigger than he had thought it would be, and he fervently hoped his torpedoes would blow it up.
"There it is," Wedge said unnecessarily over the comm.
"All right, Wedge, go for the power regulator on the north tower," Lando ordered.
In front of him, the X-wing swung to the right and released two proton torpedoes, their blue trails glowing. "Copy, Gold Leader," Wedge replied. "I'm already on my way out."
As Lando watched, the power regulator exploded in a wash of gases and Wedge's X-wing circled around behind the main reactor, heading back the way they had come. Quickly, before the gases died down completely, Lando released a couple of torpedoes of his own into the main dome and swung around behind it. The torpedoes exploded, obliterating the link between the inverted dome and the bottom of the chamber. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the dome fell.
Lando watched on his reverse scopes as the dome touched the bottom of the chamber and immediately ignited in a rapidly expanding flood of fire. He pushed the throttle fully open, hurtling down the shaft that had brought them to the chamber. He concentrated fiercely; sweat running down his forehead, as he hurtled toward the exit and open space. Behind him, the fire consumed a TIE.
As he saw the exit hole in the distance, he also spotted the edges of the fire licking at the sides of the shaft. He was sure he would not make it—
And then he was there, exploding out of the shaft and into deep space. He shouted in victory, hurtling towards the moon of Endor.
Against all odds, they had done it.
Luke Skywalker sat huddled in a dark corner underneath the fallen gantry. He had a few moments of respite, but soon he would have to fight his father again. He desperately did not want to - not because of love for his father, though that was definitely part of it, but because he was close to the dark side and he didn't know what he might do as a result of that love. He could feel the faraway battle on the moon of Endor, and knew that the Rebels were fighting back against the Imperials. Neither side was gaining on the other at the moment, however, and he could not tell who would eventually triumph.
"You cannot hide from me forever, Luke," Vader warned. Luke could also feel his father - stalking the area beneath the gantry in search of his son.
"I will not fight you," he insisted, and tried to focus on the Endor battle again. He could just about sense Han and Leia's presences.
Han was about to finish hotwiring the bunker door so that they could get inside and blow it up.
"Give yourself to the dark side," Vader continued. "It is the only way you can save your friends."
Suddenly, Luke felt pain radiating from his sister. She had been shot! Her shoulder-- it was her shoulder... he could feel the pain she was in, and how she tried to deny it...
"Yes... your thoughts betray you." Wary, Luke pushed her pain to the back of his mind, much as it hurt him to do so, instead of trying to help her. "Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for... sister."
That one single word, spoken by Vader, set all of Luke's panic buttons off at once. "So... you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now, his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the dark side... then perhaps she will."
"NOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed, utter anger, hatred towards the father she had to be hidden from, and fear for his sister Leia overwhelming him. He charged out from cover, taking Vader by surprise, and swung his lightsaber mightily. It slammed against Vader's blade, leaving him only able to block, and that only just. Luke advanced continuously, lightsaber slashing back and forth, sometimes hitting Vader's lightsaber, other times impacting with support posts and energy conduits.
The Dark Lord was forced back before the Jedi's fierce rage, until finally his older body could take no more. He fell to one knee, lightsaber barely supported in one hand, barely withstanding Luke's anger. Luke's lightsaber crashed down once, twice, six times before it finally missed and sliced straight through Vader's mechanical hand. The Sith Lord fell to the deck with a cry, exposed machinery smoking as Luke held the saber to his throat.
The Jedi's breath was burning in his ears, pounding ceaselessly, almost as much as his anger. His rage was strong, but now, looking at his fallen father, it was being replaced by hesitation.
Slowly, the Emperor's cackling penetrated Luke's foggy mind.
"Good!" Palpatine exclaimed, standing up from his throne and walking towards him. "Your hate has made you powerful. Now...fulfil your destiny, and take your father's place at my side!"
Luke looked at the Emperor, at the wild eyes and shrivelled skin and barely contained power. Then he looked back at his father, who lay beaten, defeated by his own son.
He turned to face the Emperor. "No! I'll never turn to the dark side," he replied to Palpatine's earlier urging. "You've failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi. Like my father before me."
He took his lightsaber and threw it clattering down a walkway. He had no need of it.
Palpatine had not moved a muscle, but his eyes betrayed more than words ever could. "So be it... Jedi."
To Be Continued…
There, the story is finished. There will be a sequel, if I can get around to it. Suggestions and ideas are welcome; please e-mail them to: Please R/R! - Tomb Raider X