Star Wars: 30 Years Later The Real Story - Chapter 34

Star Killer Planet Orbit

– “Enemy forces advancing from the rearguard!”- informed an officer- “casualties raising by the second!”

The pincer attack the First Order had managed to do was extremely effective and the Republic forces were immediately put on the defensive. Admiral Ackbar knew that if he did not manage to stop the enemy’s momentum, the fleet would be ruined.

– “Enemy bombers have been deployed!”- informed the officer once more.

– “If they want us to be on the defensive, let’s give them what they want”- said Ackbar with a decisive tone- “Tortoise formation!”

– “Roger that!”- said the officer and immediately the orders were transmitted to all the commanders who immediately followed in suite- “All commanders Tortoise Formation in point J656, O761!”

The Mon Calamari Star Cruisers were renowned not for their fire capacities but their defensive one. While most star cruisers had to sacrifice shield power in many parts of their fuselage, the Mon Calamari ships made sure every single part and angle was protected by the shield. This characteristic which was the counter to the Star Destroyer from the First Order made many to say that both ships were the re imagine of the ancient story of the most powerful sword against the most powerful shield.

– “All Star Cruisers ȧssembling in designed point and placing into positions!”

The Star Cruisers ignored the attacks they were receiving form everywhere and moved to the indicated locations as fast as they could while mantaining control of their movements. They moved slowly but in great order. The First Order officers showed surprise and confusion and some of them could not help feeling hypnotized by the grace and controlled coordination of the movements which seemed to imitate a dance. Finally all the Star Cruisers formed a huge ring next to each other and they turned around raising their shields to the max while keeping their offensive weapons.

– “Formation in place, Admiral”- informed the officer- “Commanders ready for phase two”

– “Activate the Pangolin System!”- ordered Ackbar- “Also… contact Takodana Forces!”

– “Pangolin System online”- said an officer- “finalizing in three minutes”

– “Captain Flame Beard asking sent a transmission”- said other officer

– “Open it!”

– “Ackbar!”- shouted the pirate captain while being attacked which made the communication shaky and difficult to understand- “we are being surrounded! We need a contingency plan or we’ll be obliterated!”

– I’m already on it, FlameBeard”- said Ackbar who understood the man’s worries- “Make your star Cruisers gather in the coordinates I’ll send you at once!”

– “Wait… isn’t that…?”- said FlameBeard understanding Ackbar’s plan- “you know that will only give us some time before we are destroyed.”

– “Hehe… well the plan was never to defeat the First Order’s fleet…”- said FlameBeard with a frustrated laugh- “we’ll follow your plan Admiral…”

– “If we survive this, Captain”- said Ackbar trying to cheer the pirate captain- “I heard you will be allowed to raid and plunder any system allied to the First Order.”

– “Is that true?”- asked FlameBeard- “in that case, let’s do this!”

The pirate cut the communications and immediately moved his fleet showing good skill making Ackbar smile. He knew that nothing moved a pirate better than the prospect of loot. They were not not trained soldiers, this type of battle was totally against them. Pirates were supposed to to catch their enemies by surprise and use specific advantages against their enemies. A face-to-face battle like this one just lowered their effectiveness and if they saw themselves in a bad spot they would abandon the battle immediately especially since there were not going to be income for their efforts. After three minutes the system had been totally charged.

– “System online”- said an officer- “defenses boosted by 300%”

– “Good!”- said Ackbar with a proud expression- “have all starfighters and bombers to enter the formation and defend the Star Cruisers from any small vessel!”

The Pangolin System was the latest defensive technology that the best Mon Calamari engineers had created. It used the shield power or two or more Star Cruisers and combine it so that the shield pwer in both star cruisers multiply as long as they stood side to side. The more quantity of ships, the more powerful the defense boost. This also permitted to watch each other’s backs but most importantly it permitted to have a powerful 380° defense in a wide area making this formation a total headache for the enemy commanders to break.

– “I don’t think the Senate would give permission for plunder and raids, Admiral”- said the voice of Leia who seemed to be a little upset.

– “Did you hear that, General Organa?”

– “So did I”- said Maz Kanata and Ackbar could imagine the wide grin in her face- “It is a delightful surprise… how come you did not tell me anything Leia… I would have been able to motivate my forces better with that information.”

– “Well… It was I did not know anything either”- said Leia with a voice that showed she was a having a terrible headache.

– “I apologize for my impulsiveness, General”

– “Don’t be, Admiral”- said Leia with a sigh- “since it’s open war now, I don’t see why we should abide by the pacts anymore… more so since it was the First Order who broke it anyways”

– “Admiral Ackbar… you have my gratitude”- said Maz Kanata who seemed to be celebrating her birthday- “we need to have a drink together after this battle!”

– “It will be my pŀėȧsurė”- said Ackbar- “however, things don’t seem very well here”

– “I know Luke and Han will be succesful”- said Leia with a blind confidence in both men.

– “I certainly hope so…”

– “We need to… eh?”- said Leia after receiving a transmission.

(…)

Star Killer Base – Prison area

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phasma remembers practice while looking at Finn from the floor. he was good but he had the tendency to hurry his attacks too much and his flaw was his pride and stubborness.

– “How…?”- she was aware that Finn was a candidate to be a knight of Ren but she also knew that he had a long way to go before he could reach the necessary level- “such advance in so short of time!”

She took distance and ȧssumed a different stance. The move she was going to do was extremely difficult rto execute but even full pledged knights of Ren would have a hard time dealing with it. She moved using her maximum speed and she arrived to Finn in less than a second and she could see the confusion in Finn’s eyes. He tried to raise his light saber but it was already too late.

– “Don’t get ċȯċky, Traitor!”- she said and she could see the discomfort he had in his eyes and she understood that he still had not accepted the reality of his defection. She knew he had a sense of honor so the badge of traitor wuld easily confuse and annoy him.

He still tried to push her but Phasma knew that the momentum he had displayed previously had been lost. Phasma was too veteran to let the opportunity slip and she recovered her footing and brutally attacked using all her skill. Finn’s defenses were broken in an instant and she repeated her victory combo which this time was extremely effective and managed to disarm and send Finn to the floor.

– “Damn!”- shouted Finn before receiving a terrible hit on the face which broke his nose and made all his body go limp.

– “Stand up, Finn!”- he shouted at himself- “Rey is waiting.”

– “Don’t feel bad, FN-2187”- he heard Phasma’s voice as if she were in a far place- “greater warrior than you have fallen by my hands.”

Finn wanted to retaliate but then he noticed he did not have the lightsaber in his hands and was unarmed and at the the mercy of his former leader. He remembered how Luke had made some objects fly but he understood that it was impossible for him, especially in this situation. He felt a heavy weight pinning him to the floor and he saw Phasma stepping on him.

– “Don’t worry”- Phasma said with a tone that made Finn’s hair stand- “we’ll make you see the wrong in your ways and you will serve the First Order again with those newfound abilities… it would be a waste to just let that talent go, don’t you think?”

Finn started to panic knowing very well the things they would do to him an tried to squirm his way out but Phasma simply was not going to let him go.

– “Now go to sleep, soldier!”- she said raising her spear- “we’ll talk when…”

Ptchewww!

Finn clearly listened to a blaster sound and he thought that maybe it was the sound of Phasma’s reinforcements. However, he did not feel any burning sensation. On the contrary, he felt the weight on his ċhėst dissapear and once he saw again, he noticed Phasma was not there anymore.

– “Chewee, check the area”- Finn heard a familiar voice getting closer.

He sat down and started to examine himself and he noticed the pain in his nose and the constant flowing of blood falling constantly to the floor. He felt someone grabbing his nose and accomodate it while placing something inside to stop the bleeding. Even though he was in pain, Finn could not help but admire the dexterity and proficiency of his actions.

– “She gave a terrible beating, didn’t she?”- Han’s voice said whiule still working and then Finn started to take out the ċhėst and thɨġh armor which had been deformed and would not protect him anymore.

– “Where is she?”- asked Finn knowing that she was too dangerous to be left alive. He found her in a corner not moving with a huge hole in her armor. He recognized that hole as one made by Chewee’s bowcaster- “we have to finish her off…”

– “We have no time, Big Deal!”- said Han forcing Finn to stand up and run- “reinforcements are coming!”

Finn wanted to tell Han to make sure Phasma was dead but he could already hear the sound of footsteps coming their way and knew it was just a matter of seconds so he grabbed the lightsaber and a blaster before starting to run but then he had a last thought and return to grab Phasma’s spear. He started to run afterwards along with Han and Chewee.

– “I’m glad you’re fine”- said Finn while running.

– “Of course, those greenhorns had no chance… I almost felt bad for them”- said Han using his typical ċȯċky tone but by now Finn understood that he had the skill to back up that attitude- “we’ve been in tighter situations and still managed to survive, right Chewee?”

– “Grruuueeeerrr”- reply Chewee with great confidence.

– “Ok! The cell is there!”- said Han pointing at a specific doorWe need to move- “reinforcement must be on its the way so we’d better hurry!”

– “Let me go! Let me go!”- she fought against Finn trying to free herself.

– “It’s ok it’s ok… it’s me… it’s me…”- said Finn receiving the punches thinking that at least he could share part of the pain she was feeling right now. After some time, she finally saw the face of the person holding her and her eyes started to tear up.

– “Finn!”- she cried out and hugged him with all her might as if she didn’t want to let go in fear that all was just a dream- “I knew you would not abandon me…”

Finn felt a knife cutting his heart. He knew that Rey had no family and she was still waiting for them to return, so she had been abandoned and he understood that was her most horrible nightmare… to be abandon for those she trusted. He hated himself for letting her feel that way and promised never to abandon her again

– “Of course we would not”- said Finn patting her head- “and look… I’m not the only one.”

Rey turned to see Han and Chewee and after standing with the help of Finn, she went to them and hugged them too.

– “You must have been afraid, little girl”- said Han ċȧrėssing her head- “you did a good job resisting but it’s fine now… give her some water”

Finn took a bottle of water from his pouch and gave it to Rey who drank viciously feeling extremely much better after empty it up.

– “We still have a mission to do”- said Han looking at the painful marks on her wrists and ankles- “are you up to it?”

– “Definitely!”- said Rey drinking her second bottle and Han could see the fire returning in her eyes- “I need to return the favor to the ones who did this to me”

Han grinned at her and passed her a blaster. The young girl received it with no doubts and she seemed to have recovered her usual decisiveness and wanted to sting the hands of the ones who tortured her.

– “I wish I could give you more time to recover but we have no time”- said Han looking in his holomap the possible routes to the Shield Generator- “Kid, tell her the plan while we move”

– “Yes, Sir!”- said Finn with a confident smile looking at Rey with respect and tenderness.

– “Let’s move, follow me and be alert!”- said Han already on the move

– “Hey… you can use this apart from the blaster”- said Finn giving Rey the spear he had taken from Phasma.

– “Thanks!”- said Rey who for some reason felt reassured to have a familiar weapon in his hands- oh! that’s…”

She pointed at the lightsaber and she remembered the visions she had had when she had held it. They were not nice memories but she could not help feeling a sense of familiarity with the weapon.

– “It’s a lightsaber”- explained Finn- “it has saved me many times now”

– “I…I see…”- said Rey nervously and she wanted to warn Finn about it but then she decided that it was not the best moment especially considering that he felt comfortable with it- “so what happened?”

– “It’s a long story…”- said Finn not knowing where to start- “so I’ll tell you the plan first…”

(…)

In another part of the base, the ferocious battle among Force users had escalated to titanic levels and every place they passed was left into ruins and demolished due to the heavy attacks they were dealing against each other.

– “Don’t give him any space to counter attack!”- said Kylo Ren to the knights who were fighting with him.

These knights were the best and most adept at swordsmanship and use of the Force that he had personally picked up from all the knights of Ren. Once they were under his wing, he hammered his techniques especially devised for this fight. One could say that they were raised to be the ȧssassins of Luke Skywalker. The training had been so brutal that some of them had died in the process but those who survived, had reached a level proficiency and strength only heard in the Old Republic when masters in the Dark side ran unfettred and were unstoppable.

– “Just give up and give me your head, Old man!”- demanded Kylo Ren trying to sway the Jedi’s attention and maybe provoke an opening in his defense.

– “If you want it… I suggest you stop wasting yur energy in useless moves”- replied Skywalker and managed to parry two attacks of the Kinghts of Ren to immediately kick one of them and hit the shoulder of the other with a powerful blow that broke the armor and sent the knight of Ren against the wall.

Kylo Ren could only growl at this and quickly sent furious blows against his former master in order to cover for his useless subordinates. He managed to go toe-to-toe with him but he knew that he should not underestimate this old man so he used every ounce of hatred and rage to get power from the dark side since he knew it was the only way he would have any chance.

– “Attention all units!”- said a voice by the speakers all over the base- “there has been a breach in the prison area by intruders of the Resistance. All unit go to the area G433 and start the persuing of the terrorists! All…”

He heard the announcement and he knew that he had to hurry up with the plan. It seemed he had underestimated the capabilities of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker and he could only imagine how difficult to deal those two were in their prime years. He kept attacking furiously along with his subordinates trying to burn Skywalker’s stamina and force him to make mistakes, but the old man seemed to have infinite energy and his defense was impenetrable and they could only force him back slowly.

– “Juno Formation”- he ordered and their subordinates immediately switched their patterns of attackafter surrounding Skywalker.

Kylo Ren used a powerful Force Lightning against Skywalker who was forced to block it with his lightsaber but thisleft him open against the pincer attack of his knights. However, Luke managed to deflect the ightning against one of the knights of Ren while using a Force push on the other that flew against the wall and was knocked out due to the tremendous impact he suffered. Kylo focused and made the force lightning explode on Skywalker’s face which made him stunned for a second. Enough time to slip through his defense and even tbough he managed to parry his lightsaber, he could not avoid his a punch and using the brief moment of advantage Kylo used all his power to send his former mentor fly using a force push.

– “It’s my win!”- shouted Kylo Ren throwing his lightsaber at Skywalker with all his fury.

The lightsaber flew doing circles which made it look like a brilliant helix ready to cut the Jedi master in half. However, Skywalker reacted in time and rolled to the side avoiding the attack by a hair’s breadth and used the Force to send some boxes flying to Kylo. Kylo did not let this to surprise him, since he would have been too dissapointed if that had been enough to kill this veteran of thousands battles. He pushed the boxes away and recalled his lightsaber which flew on the air to his hand and renewed the attack along with his knights who had already recovered.

– “Almost there, Old man!”- he shouted bu Luke did not answer and just started to retreat.

Luke had no other option than retreat and look for a better ground and used very narrow passage that had space only for a person at a time. The corridor would allow Skywalker to face one of the Sith Lords at a time which greatly reduced the pressure on him.

– “Always so cunning, old geezer”- said Kylo Ren but he could not hide his delight for the Jedi’s decision – “lets see if you can escape then! Do it now!”

He shouted and the three Sith lords used a force push together. Skywalker sensed something was extremely wrong and countered with his own Force push. Even though he managed to resist for some time, he was pushed back slowly and finally was overwhelmed and he hit a wall but then he felt emptiness on his feet and he knew he had been outsmarted when he fell into a pit.

– “Too easy!”- said Kylo Ren turning his lightsaber off and starting to walk off- “make sure he does not escape and inform me every move he does.”

– “Yes Lord Ren”- the two knights of Ren saluted at his leader.

– “Now I’ll go for the other prey”- said Kylo Ren with a cold and detached voice- “Han Solo awaits.”

(…)

Luke fell and hit the floor with a great impact and he needed some time to recover and stand up. He was surrounded by absolute darkness but immediately ignited his green lightsaber which gave him at least a source of illumination. He was about to use his intercom when he heard something behind him.

– “What?”- Luke showed a confused expression since he could not feel any presence in the area and yet he was sure to have heard something. His instincts immediately told him to be on guard.

– “Bos sos si?”- something talked and Luke calculated the distance according to the origin of the sound but he still could not detect anything with the Force even though he was sure that threre were not one but probably two or more creatures around him.

– “Brenzlit!”- said the other creature behind him and Luke tried to use the light of his weapon to illuminate th zone but he only could catch a shadow that escape to the darkness of the room.

– “Fas!”- heard Luke before feeling a terrible and sharp pain on his back.

Luke turned and tried to cut but there was nothing and soon he heard a whistling sound coming from behind, but this time he parried whatever it was and located the source and used Force Pull to make the enemy visible but he was very surprised to see that the creature merely was moved by a step. He had used a lot of strength so the result really stunned him. Even though he was shocked, he finally could see the attacker. It was a humanoid creature with deformed traits and an armor which seemed to have been melted with his skin. The vision was terryfing but it rang something in the mind of Luke.

– “I thought they were a legend…”- said Luke who even though has never crossed paths with these kind of creatures, he had heard stories about them and if they were true then this battle would be incredibly complicated- “Yuuzhan Vong…”

They are immune to Force attacks and they were extremely agile and cruel. Also, they seemed to be wearing lightsaber resistant armor and it was disorienting for Luke to be able to see the creature but not feel it through the Force.

– “Do-ro’ik vong pratte!”- they shouted at the same time and they threw themselves in mad rage against Luke who could only ready his stance to fight against these terrible foes and praying for his allies’ well-being.