Star Wars: 30 Years Later The Real Story - Chapter 27

Unknown regions – Queluhan Nebula – Planet Shardiv.

– “I wonder when we will be given a change of station”- mentioned a stormtrooper who was keeping his position while watching a base in the middle of a mountain which was covered with crystals of magenta and purple color.

– “I don’t know”- replied his companion which seemed to be extremely annoyed by the complaint he had just heard- “our mission is to watch, not to question…”

– “I’m just curious”- replied the first stormtrooper ignoring the obvious fed up tone of his companion- “normally it should be just some months but it’s been years now and sincerely I’m just starting to believe we have been abandoned here.”

– “If you have complaints, I can transmit them to the captain..”- said the second stormtrooper.

– “No, no… that won’t be necessary”- said the first stormtrooper who made a terrified expression under his helmet and decided that it would not be wise to continue with the current discussion- “I’m not dissatisfied… it’s just that I don’t know why we should guard a place that is so difficult to access in the first place… nobody knows this exists in the first place.”

The zone was extremely difficult to access and there were very few paths for where one could access and all of these were extremely well guarded by the First Order. Not only was the geography very harsh due to the immense presence of the massive crystals placed all around the area but due to the effects of illumination and reflection of them, the place was a kind of natural laberynth that would be very difficult to escape if one did not know the area well.

– “Orders are orders”- said the secnd stormtrooper taking in consideration the possibility of making his undesirable companion to get lost- “it’s an honor to serve in such important place for the First Order. Now stop blabbering and focus.”

– “Roger that!”

After their defeat during the Battle of Jakku and the signing of the Galactic Concordance, a remnant of the Empire’s once-powerful starfleet who refused to surrender retreated to the Queluhan Nebula, this place had been discovered by chance many years previous to the fall of the Empire and had served as a secret base for the Imperial Forces due to its high concentration of ionized gases that ensured that anyone could. For many years, the Imperials were able to amass a large fleet and other war machines without being noticed in this part of the unknown regions. Once the Empire fell, the First Order took control of this territory and under the leadership of the Supreme Leader had expanded and increased the number of centers and laboratories along all the Nebula and its innumerable planets.

– “By the way, have you heard about the recent attacks on the laboratories?”- asked the first stormtrooper who only could contain himself some minutes before restarting the conversation again.

– “Those are just rumors, right?”- replied the second stormtrooper who wonder what his punishment would be for shooting a fellow stormtrooper to death.

– “No! I heard that the damage was real and that the security has been risen to the extremes now”- commented the first stormtrooper ignoring the danger he was facing- “nobody knows who the attackers are, though. Some people say it’s a group of rebels that…”

– “Hey who goes there?”- shouted the second stormtrooper and he was relieved to see his companion holding his blaster seriously after listen the clear sounds of footsteps in the area.

Both stortroopers started to look for the source of the sound but they could not pin point it. The echo that was produced resounded as if it came from everywhere and the reflections produced by the crystals all around created shadows and figures that seemed to be lurking all around.

– “This is a restricted area!”- shouted the second stormtrooper- “show yourself and surrender!”

For a moment the sounds and the reflections stopped and a very tense silence governed the area. The two stormtroopers stood side by side protecting each other’s backs while waiting. Their nerves were at their limits when they saw a figure appear at the end of the only road of access many meters away from them. The figure then just stood immobile there as if he were waiting for something.

– “Kneel on the ground and put your hands behind your head”- said the stormtrooper and both blasters pointed at the black figure who did not respond or moved- “this is our final warning! Go to your knees and put yur hands behind your head!”

A hooded figure did not react and the stormtroopers had a very bad premonition. The figure did not show any sign of being nervous or intimidated. The second stormtrooper activated his intercom.

– “Here PY-87”- said the stormtrooper- “trespasser found in the sector 43, 987 with possible company. I request reinforcement.”

– “Received, PY-87”- responded a voice through the intercom- “reinforcements incoming!”

– “Roger!”

As if he had been waiting for that to happen, the figure started to move and the stormtroopers were about to open fire but as if it had been scattered by the wind, the figure just vanished in the air.

– “What was that?”- said the first stormtrooper who started to look around in panic.

– “Keep calm and do not get distracted!”

– “Ok… what..? Noooo!”

When the second stormtrooper turned around he managed to see his companion dissapearing into the forest of crystal as if he were being dragged by an invisible force. He heard the screms through his intercom for some more seconds until they ceased. He had to accept that even though he did not like the guy, he was still the only good company he had in this isolated place so he really felt bad for him. He tried to communicate with HQ again but then he saw the figure on the edge of his vision and quickly pointed his blaster at him by reflex. However, he noticed that even though he had a point blank shoot, his body did not respond to his commands.

– “What… is this?”- the stormtrooper felt an absolute terror gripping his heart while looking at the foe he had in front of him. He did not know who was under the hood that covered his face but he could distinguish a gray beard and a blue glint that seemed to to be capable of penetrating his soul.

– “We’ll have a nice chat while we wait for your friends”- said the stranger as he waved his hand in front of the stormtrooper’s face and immediately the stormtrooper felt his problems and responsibilities flying out of him. He felt extremely relaxed and happy.

He found the voice of the stranger extremely convincing and friendly as if he were an old friend who was chatting with you after a long time and having a lot of things to catch up. The stormtrooper found surprising that he had no qualms in answering everything the man asked.

– “Thank you…”- said the friendly stranger and the stormtrooper could swear he had seen him smiling at him- “now go to sleep and you will forget everything we talked about once you wake up.”

Immediately the stormtrooper felt extremely tired and he thought that he had been working too much and he was soon embraced by the comforting hug of the darkness.

(…)

The figure saw the stormtrooper passing out and he turned his attention to the entrance to the secret base he had been looking so hard. He knew that he would receive company very soon so he prepare mentally. He took out an intercom device and turned it on.

– I’ll enter very soon, R2- said Luke Skywalker- keep the camouflage at all times but be ready in case we have to flee .

– “Durrppi tanatpiu”- responded R2 through the radio.

– “I’ll enter radio silence now”- said Luke and he found a hiding place and waited for the reinforcements that the sotrmtrooper had requested.

Luke waited and sighed. It had been two years of constant research and clues that had led him to this base. He just prayed that it was not another false lead as the last one since he had aready stayed too much time in this place and he was extremely worried for his sister and friends.

– “They must believe I’m dead”- he thought feeling a pang of guilt even though he knew that the secrecy was absolutely necessary in order not to compromise the mission- “I’m sure Leia will scold me in tears while Han laugh at me while listening at the sides.”

A warm smile formed in his lips imagining the scene and he realized how much he missed them and he hoped the reinforcements could hurry so he could finish with this and return.

Two years ago, Luke had received rumours about a certain place where the First Order hid a huge fleet and more importantly, secret and high level of importance data about not only the organization but even the Supreme Leader’s personnal files.

– “Are you sure this is real and not just a trap?”- asked Leia when he had told her and Han the information.

– “Remember the fiasco of Kantalu”- mentioned Han and Luke furrowed his eyebrows remembering the great danger the Resistance had to pass only to collect information that was irrelevant or outdated.

– “This one is different”- said Luke with a serious expression- “my instincts are telling me to go there. And to avoid another Kantalu, I’ll go alone and check the information personally.”

Leia and Han immediately disagreed and showed their opposition to the idea. Luke was too important to risk himself in a lead that could be false.

– “Let me deal with this”- proposed Han showing his concern and Luke could feel the warm and worry from his best friend- “Lando and me can confirm the sources of these rumors in a short time and make sure they are true.”

– “No”- Luke shook his head feeling grateful for their corcern- “The information filtering is too risky. You know as well as me that it’s impossible to weed out all the spies in both organizations. If we alerted them and this is real, they will change the information’s position or even erase it completely.”

– “I prefer to lose that information than losing you”- said Leia turning her back on him to hide her worry- “you say the Force is guiding you there, but my instincts are telling me that if you go we can lose you forever.”

Luke got closer to her and grabbed her shoulder to calm her down. He knew that this mission was more dangerous than other due to the vital information they could get.

– “With no risks, there are no rewards, Leia”- said Luke turning her sister around and looking at her eyes directly- “this could be the information we need in order to put an end to this war. It’s worth the risk.”

– “Nothing is worth your life, Luke”- said Han noticing Leia’s inner thoughts.

– “Give me some trust”- said Luke smiling confidently- “I’m extremely difficult to deal with and I’ll not take unnecesary risks, so I’ll be fine. You know what’s in game, Leia.”

Leia knew he was right and even though she hated the idea, she could only swallow her bitterness and let him go. After hugging his family, he left immediately without telling them anything about the mission in order to avoid the information to be filtered. He only told them to look for Lor San Tekka who had decided to isolate in the planet of Jakku in case too much time went without news from him. When he thought about Jakku, his feelings were affected since the place brought many memories not only of battle but other things that were sweet and also sour.

CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK

The sounds took Luke out of his reverie and he focus in the present. The door of the base opened and many stormtroopers got out in formation while checking the area.

– “Comb the area and shoot any intruder at sight!”- said the one who seemed to be the leader of the group.

The stormtroopers advanced in a very well trained formation while looking for intruders and soon they found the fallen guards but they could not find anyone else. They did not notice the blur that entered the base at such speed that nobody would believe a human could move like that.

– “Infiltration complete”- said Luke hiding in a dark corner- “let’s see if the stormtrooper outside was completely honest.”

Luke moved quickly inside the base evading the stormtroopers who had no idea they were being invaded by the Jedi master. Luke focused at maximum feeling the Force and letting it guide his steps. He literally walked among the stormtroopers in the area positioning himself in their blind spots and matching their footspteps with his advancing with such extraordinary timing that anyone wuld believe that he could predict what the stormtroopers would do the next second before they even thought on doing it, and they would not be wrong. He also made sure of interrupting the security cameras in order to advance unperturbed and soon he found the place where the files were compiled.

– “Who are you?”- said the guard in the area pointing his blaster at Luke- “identify yourself.”

– “You will open the door and deactivate the alarms”- ordered Luke waving his hand at the guard.

– “I will open the door”- repeated the guard and immediately did as told- “and deactivate the alarms.”

He entered being followed by Luke who was extremely amazed by the massive size of the archives contained in the room. The guard went to the main panel and started to introduce codes that deactivated the alarms.

– “Who are you?”- asked the keeper of the archives watching in shock how the guard and a stranger entered the room.

– “You will copy all the information in this archives”- ordered Luke to the keeper passing a big object that was a massive data keeping device that was able to contain almost an infinite quantity of information.

– “I will copy all the information in the archives”- said the keeper with a relaxed expression.

– “R2, make backup copies of the data transfered now”- said Luke and the droid immediately obeyed- “now we have to wait…”

Luke sat down while waiting for the transfer of data which would take a long time and hoped that the information were valuable. When he arrived at this Nebula in the Unknown Regions he was surprised by the high concentration of ionized gases which made the place undetectable and it complicated the things. The original plan was to scout the area and if possible to find the data and inform the Resistance, but the gases created such interference that the communications were cut off and it was impossible to send signals outside the Nebula. Luke pondered the situation and decided to stay and investigate the planets and systems inside the nebula.

– “Thank goodness I learned some tricks from Han”- said Luke remembering the negotiations he had to do with many people to get the information he needed.

After two years of painstakingly and sometimes frustrating investigation, he finally struck gold and he found the name of a planet that was off charts and that did not appear in any map. Luke was amazed by the level of security of the planet. It was simply just too much and an energy shield covered all the planet similar to what the Empire had done once with the planet Scarif. He managed to infiltrate the planet in one of the cargo ships that provided supplies to the planet and made sure that the shield generator suffer a very sad accident that permitted him to infiltrate his X-Wing in the planet. While the First Order tried to fix the shield of the planet, he started to raid different bases of the First Order under the disguise of rebel groups and little by little he gathered intel that permitted to find the secret base where he was now. After a while, Luke opened his eyes and turned his sight to his right while smiling.

– “Show yourself you know I can sense you”- said Luke while walking to a clear area in the middle of the archive while talking apparently to the shadows.

– “As expected nothing less from the great master”- said a voice which was distorted by an electronic synthesizer and immediately a knight of Ren appeared in the second level while a platoon of stormtroopers surrounded the area pointing at Luke with blasters.

Luke did not show any fear or nervousness. His lack of reaction reminded everyone the same behavior of a person who was accustomed to these kinds of situations and considered this event another day in the office.

– “I must admit that I underestimated your skills, Skywalker”- said the knight of Ren looking at Luke from the second floor with great confidence- “I really doubted you would discover this base.”

– “That makes two of us”- replied Luke with an affable tone- “I doubted myself too.”

– “To be honest, I was extremely angry when they sent me to this place after our last confrontation”- said the knight of Ren with an excited voice- “But the Force has guided you to me so I can put an end to your legend… I’m sure the Supreme Leader will reward me handsomely for your head.”

– “I like your positivism, boy”- said Luke not minding the words of his opponent- “you said that we have faced each other previously… where was that?”

– “Humph!”- the knight of Ren rose his chin in a proud expression- “we battled in Lothemon some years ago…”

– “Oh… I remember”- said Luke placing a hand on his chin while remembering the moment- “weren’t you the one who had to jump off a cliff to escape?”

– “That wasn’t me!”- shouted the knight of Ren with fury- “your memory fails you, old man!”

– “I’m sorry”- said Luke with a grin that showed he did not mean his apology at all- “that helmet makes all of you look the same… so…”

– “Enough!”- said the knight of Ren with a livid tone- “surrender and I’ll consider sparing your life.”

– “We don’t have to do this, kid”- said Luke not showing any weak attitude- “You’re the one who should surrender. Let your soldiers go and come with me… You can still abandon the dark path you’re taking. It will destroy you otherwise…”

– “You don’t understand the power of the dark side, old man”-said the knight of Ren and Luke showed a sad smile remembering the beloved person that had said the same words to him to many years ago.

– “I know it better than you imagine”- replied Luke trying to reason with the sith in front of him- “and I know how it ends. There’s no exceptions, every Sith lord including your supreme leader will have the same fate in the end.”

– “You can’t defeat the supreme leader!”- shouted the knight of Ren and raised his hand making all the stormtroopers prepare their weapons- “and you will never have the opportunity! Shoot!”

The barrage of blasters flew directly to Luke from all directions. The knight of Ren knew that it was impossible to evade such number of shots and even if Skywalker had the chance of wielding his lightsaber, he doubted anyone, even the legendary Darth vader could block so many blaster bolts at the same time. However, just to make sure, he let the onslaught continue for a minute until he ordered the stormtroopers to stop. The cloud of smoke rose and the stormtroopers did not dare to lower their guard against the enemy that should be dead.

– “This is taking too much time”- said the knight of Ren and waved his hand clearing the smoke from the area. Immediately he saw the figure of Luke Skywalker standing in the middle of a destroyed floor as if nothing had occurred. The confusion and fear gripped the stormtroopers- “how is this possible?”

– “Well, stormtroopers are famous for their bad aim…”- said Luke smiling and trying to lighten up the mood.

– “Shut up!”- shouted the knight of Ren not believing his eyes- “shoot again!”

– “This is your last opportunity, lad”- said Luke and the knight of Ren felt a cold shiver running through his back- “there’s no cliff this time…”

– “SHOOT!”

As soon as the stormtroopers rose their blasters and shot, the lights of the area went off and all was covered in darkness. The stormtroopers activated their night vision and heard a cry coming from the left side of the area. They could only see a stormtrooper being thrown violently to the first floor. They had not finished seeing this scene when blasters flew to them from that same area.

– “He’s shooting!”- one of the stormtrooper shouted while going on his stomach- “Take cover!”

The stormtroopers started to return fire but the enemy seemed to tleport since he started to attack from many places. The worst part for the First Order forces was when he started to throw thermal detonators at them, they srated to panic since they did not know from where they would receive the next attack. The best way to describe the scene was chaos and the battle lasted for many minutes until the knight of Ren could retake the order of the remaining soldiers that had survived the skirmish. The knight of Ren gritted his teeth in frustration, he had started with a platoon of almost a 60 soldiers but now none remained that was able to fight.

– “You never cease to surprise me, old man”- said the knight of Ren taking out his light saber and looking at Luke who was standing in the same position that he was before as if he had not moved at all- “you can use those tricks on the weak minds but not to me.”

– “Keep thinking that”- said Luke also taking out his loyal light saber which had accompanied since the times of the Rebellion against the Empire.

Both force users ignited their respective lightsabers at the same time and looked at each other trying to get the mental advantage. After some seconds that looked like an eternity the knight of Ren moved first and jumped down using a force push against Luke who asily evaded by taking a step to the side. He parried the slashing attack of the knight of Ren who rolled to the side and made a circular attack to prevent Luke from counter attacking. However, Luke had not gone after him and had created space between the two of them.

– “I’m stronger than the last time we met, old man”- said the knight of Ren adopting an offensive stance and focusing all his hatred against the man in front of you- “you’ll be the stepping stone I need to get more power!”

Luke did not respond and just took a defensive stance and waited for the Sith to make his move. The knight of Ren harrumphed and jumped to the offensive using his maximum speed. He used a frontal stab that was his personal favorite move to open duels and that had won him many victories in the first hit. As he had predicted, though, this was not the case now since Luke easily parry the move, but the knight of Ren was ready and used the momentum of the parry to make circular slash turning all his body. Luke evaded the move but the knight of Ren used two more circular slashes from different angles at an incredible speed. The last hit was just too fast and Luke had to block. The momentum was on the dark side user’s side and manage to destroy Luke’s stance for a brief moment.

– “You’re mine!”- shouted the knight of Ren in glee keeping the pressure up- “it seems the years have not been kind to you, old man!”

The battle was not going well for Luke who seemed to have been forced to the defensive side and the knight of Ren could feel the old man was losing strength with every passing second.

– “I must admit your are better than I expected, old man”- said the Sith enjoying the feeling of being the one on the winning side. He now had to break his concentration to give the finishing blow- “if only you could have taught your useless padawans to fight like this… maybe that day it would have taken more effort to massacre them in your new Jedi academy!”

He detected the change in Luke’s emotions when he mentioned this and immediately used the opening he gave him. He could not give a mortal blow but he still managed to give a frontal kick on his ċhėst that sent the Jedi master many meters backwards but he managed to stay on his feet somehow. Luke changed his expression and immediately rolled to the side just in time to avoid the burning blade of a red light saber that was aiming for his throat.

– “Argh! You failed, Sorninus!”- yelled the first knight of Ren in frustration- “that was the perfect chance and you screwed up!”

– “Your kick was not strong enough, Desh”- replied the newcomer who seemed to be another knight of Ren but luke noticed that this one had a more nimble build and had no cape like his companion- “also it seems this Jedi scum is quicker than I had anticipated.”

Luke noticed his hood had been cut off and was not on the floor. He was shocked about the newcomer Sorninus since he had not been able to sense him at all and the way he had waited until the best moment to strike showed his innate talent for ȧssassination. He noticed the two lightsaber in his hands. They were shoter versions which mimicked daggers and he knew that even though he had exchanged words with the other knight of Ren, he was vigilant and ready for the next strike.

– “You’re really old”- said Desh snickering while watching the face of Luke whose beard and hair had become gray and since he had not had time to groom it gave him a wild look- “I’ll help you reunite with your sister!”

Luke opened his eyes wide for these words and he showed a shocked and confused expression. Desh was surprised and started to laugh.

– “Don’t tell me you don’t know… hahahahahahaha!”- Desh started to laugh maniacally.

– “What are you talking about?”- asked Luke who started to tremble and to breathe with great agitation.

– “Oh my! You really don’t know what happened with the Republic…”- said Desh savoring the moment of torture he was giving to Luke and he started to lick his lips in anticipation to the face he would show him once he knew the full truth- “the First Order used his new and more powerful weapon and destroyed the Hosnian System with all the Senate and government buildings of the Republic… and that included obviously all the senators…”

– “You lie!”- said Luke with a horrified expression- “no fleet would be able to do that… not even the Death Star would be able to have such destructive power!”

– “Poor old man!”- said Desh laughing at the desperation of Luke- “the StarKiller Base’s is incomparable to the Death Star… it’s like comparing a blaster with a Star Destroyer… your sister and your precious Republic is gone hahahahahaha… but don’t worry… I’ll let you meet her in a moment.”

Both Knights of Ren moved simultaneously using a pincer attack on Luke who seemed to be so affected by the information that he did not move at all. Desh grinned in joy as he already could see the head of the old Jedi flying on the air.

SLASH

SWISH

SLASH

However, even though his face kept the grin he had previously, internally he was in utter shock since he realized that not only had he not touch Skywalker, but his arm was not attached to his body anymore. He fell to the floor and after rolling some meters, he started howling in pain and just noticed that his helmet had been broken.

– “How…?”-Desh could not believe what had happened for the simple reason that he had not been able to see the moves of Skywalker at all- “Sorninus! What are you…?”

Desh stopped his shouts when he noticed that Sorninus’ body had been cut in half and was lying on the other side of the room with his still opened in shock. Desh started to tremble and observed Master Skywalker approaching him with cold eyes.

– “Too many unnecessary moves”- said Luke whose face showed not a sliver of pity nor compasion and Desh finally understood that they had been playing on the palm of his hand all this time- “It always amazes me how talkative you become when you have the upperhand.”

How could have he been so stupid to forget who his enemy was? A legendary force user who had dueled with Darth Vader and had won and a war hero who had ended the Empire in the Battle of Jakku. Desh felt as a small rabbit in front of a lion who could eat him whole in any second.

– “DON’T COME!”- the knight of Ren screamed and used his remaining arm to create a powerful Force Lightning using al his remaining energy in desperation.

BUZZZZZZZZZZZ

The lightning hit Luke directly on his ċhėst and Desh grinned in madness but instead of being affected, Luke just kept advancing while being surrounded by the electric power which had covered all his body giving him a powerful appearance and for Desh it was as if a deity had come to end his life. Desh stopped his last attempt with unbelieving eyes and saw how Luke vanished the Force lightning from his body.

– “Now we’ll have a nice chat about what you told me before.”- said Luke and Desh felt those penetrating eyes analizing his soul and knew he would not be able to lie- “and later, we’ll take a ride!”

This is how Luke learned about the destruction of the Hosnian System and later about the battle of Takodana and how he flew to battle to reunite with his family.