SWTFW 05 "Luke's Journey Errant"

PRESS CTRL = (EQUALS) TO INCREASE THE PAGE SIZE AND CTRL 0 (ZERO) TO RESET THE PAGE SIZE THIS PAGE VIEWS BEST IN FIREFOX Want to read this in a different language ? Change the TO field to your own country and click the TRANSLATE button after going HERE THE FORCE WITHIN © April 2017 Written by David Wicker Please do not reprint without permission CHAPTER 5 - "LUKE'S JOURNEY ERRANT" [ CHOOSE A DIFFERENT CHAPTER ] * * * This entry is Rated: EVERYONE As for Luke, Luke Skywalker. His mind was in a complete turmoil. He truly believed he had no one to turn to in this moment of mental and emotional crisis. Parents dead, Obi-Wan dead. Even those friends he grew up with that were part of the attack on the Death Star, also dead. Luke wasn't interested in politics nor peace talks. From his short time aboard the Death Star he realized the only way to address a cancer like the Empire was by force. Sure, he was small now, but perhaps he could sway others to his side of thinking. In his head he heard a strange murmuring. Not entirely pleasant. Almost as if his very conscious were summoning demons that could be used at Luke's disposal. And perhaps it was. For when he approached the hangar, a nearby guard immediately reached towards his gun at the sight of him. With a flick of Luke's finger though, the weapon fell hard on the ground and sizzled, its circuits failed and fried. The guard was terrified by what he saw and ran off. Luke was now alone. And perhaps more alone than he had ever been. He wasted no time in picking out the flagship X-wing of the bunch. The one that had the stronger armaments and largest missile supply. He got aboard, closed the hatch, and hit some controls to request the hangar door to open. At once he was greeted by a frantic voice. "What !? Identify yourself ! What permission do you have to leave Yavin at this hour, pilot !?" Luke spoke, and when he did, it was almost as if smoky snakes spewed from his mouth to address the control tower. "You do not need to know who I am." Luke said in a scary and whispering hiss. The traffic controller at the inner tower was quiet for a moment. Then finally Luke heard, "I do not need to know who you are." "I am free to leave now." "You are free to leave now." the traffic controller repeated dumbly. Luke turned off the receiver and was quiet as he looked around. The exit was opened by the tower. No one on the hangar moved against him but were still, almost as if they were trapped in thick amber glass. Luke took advantage of this strange moment of silence and impelled the X-Wing he was aboard out the exit. As he was almost in free space, a new angry voice spoke through the receiver, "Identify yourself - " But Luke simply clicked off the receiver to a "do not disturb" status. Still no-one followed after him. He set his hyperspace coordinates, the last known location of the Death Star where he was certain a Star Destroyer would've picked him up. Just as his coordinates were set, two X-Wings from Yavin arrived to confront him, but they were too late. As they prepared to fire EMI pulses to paralyze Luke's ship,he hit the button to jump to light-speed, and they were left in the wake with no information as to where he warped to. . . . Back on the Star Destroyer with Vader, Tarkin was on the radio, issuing commands to prepare a new assault on Yavin. He was seated by a control board that was lit up like a Christmas tree. He clicked, flipped, turned, and set switches all over it. All the while still speaking in the microphone from the headphones he wore. Vader stood by patiently. Finally Tarkin set down the intercom and rose to meet Vader. "All is prepared, Lord Vader. A team of 50 of our best and remaining pilots in Tie-Fighters are in deep space now. They await you to join them in flight and issue orders on the attack of Yavin." "Very well." was all Vader said. He walked heavily away, his metal boots resounding on the floor and went to find his private craft, the Imperial Tie-Fighter. Its design was different from normal Tie-Fighters as the wings were carefully curved, allowing for greater maneuverability. Despite being slightly smaller and only allowing one passenger instead of 3 as regular Tie-Fighters did, it had a greater barrage of weapons and abilities distinctly available for space battles and ground assault. The metal casing around the ship was an especially rare, expensive, and hard alloy, able to withstand several blasts from normal X-Wing cannons without so much as a scratch. Vader lifted off. Out in deep space he saw the other eager Tie-Fighters and their pilots. All were dressed in their ceremonial black storm-trooper outfits, reserved for pilots of outstanding degree. A voice, slightly old and venerable, sent a communique to Vader's imperial Tie-Fighter. "Vader, my call sign is Smite. I have fought alongside you before in battles past. I am the acting leader to this assault team. We are all here and we are yours to command." Vader smiled, hidden beneath his mask. He leaned forward to make his voice sound even more imposing. "We are headed to the moon, Yavin. While the Resistance sleeps, we shall gun them all down in their beds ! Leave no survivors ... except one." There was a moment of subspace chatter as the pilots quickly spoke with one another. Finally Smite spoke. "Vader. Who shall survive the barrage ?" Vader replied, "Simply follow my lead. Watch what I shoot, where I shoot, and join me in the destruction of my chosen targets. However, If I am not shooting, you shall all maintain your positions and wait until I open fire again. If I land on the planet surface, you are to lay down a continuous field of suppressive fire on their power generators including EMI charges throughout." He held up a gloved hand and shook a finger to the console in front of him, "No disintegration." Smite acknowledged, "Very well, Vader. You lead the assault and we will follow precisely as you have ordered." * * * With that Vader quickly entered the destination coordinates. They would have a quick stopover to circumnavigate a particularly large asteroid field. Hyperspace technology could indeed travel you at the speed of light to known destinations but no known pilot had ever entered hyperjump through a field of asteroids - not successfully anyways. Vader finished his programming, relayed it to Smite, who in turn informed the remaining 49 pilots and they all jumped into hyperspace. . . . Back with Luke, he felt awful. Like something sick and diseased had crawled up around his rapidly beating heart and was squeezing it painfully. He lurched to one side in pain accidentally hitting one of a random hundred buttons on his console. A warning message suddenly appeared accompanied by a computer's voice, "Hyperjump failure ! Disengage ! Hyperjump failure !" Luke's eyes got wide with fright. He had mere seconds to correct the stability or a wormhole could devour his ship ! He looked to the buttons, all scattered around, some were lit, some weren't, and racked his brain trying to remember which one he brushed against. Finally he yelled in frustration and hit the TERMINATE button to end the hyperjump sequence. Sure enough a scary wormhole appeared directly behind him. Trails of light and galactic debris were hungrily sucked up by the strange phenomenon. Now these things were not by any galactic measure in size, no. They were small tunnels created by abnormal movement through hyperspace but were still big enough to devour a single X-Wing craft and that in turn could send that pilot hundreds of light years away from here ! Luke punched the button to accelerate his engine to maximum thrust, but slowly and surely his ship started to creep back towards the yawning abyss of the wormhole. In desperation he launched a single proto-matter bomb directly from behind, hoping to disperse the space whirlpool. And in the resulting explosion, he was was successful ! Space returned to normal and he was free. But where was he ? He looked to the astrogator to find his position, but it was not known. While not hundreds of light years off course, it was clear, even with warp, it would take hours for him to get back to any known star system. Fortunately his ship was primed and fueled earlier. But now he would have to sit and recalculate new jump coordinates and passage, and heaven help him if he was one digit was out of place ! . . . Vader and his fleet had arrived at the asteroid field. Two inept pilots unable to maintain their positions collided with the fast moving space rocks and were vaporized instantly. With the explosions, a dozen trigger-happy pilots started to shoot at the remaining asteroids, with few results. Many of the rocks were harder than the strongest duranium alloy and would require special intervention by laser cutters to even to begin to scratch their super dense surfaces. Vader growled deep in his helmet. "Cease fire, you idiots !" The remaining crafts turned off their cannons and pulled into formation behind Vader with Smite just behind him. Vader shook in his anger, "Smite ! Are these truly the best space pilots that could be found for this attack !?" Smite sounded apologetic in reply, "I'm sorry, Vader. It's not so much the best space pilots, but what we could round up in the moment given. I was understanding that time was of the essence." Vader nodded but wouldn't give Smite the satisfaction of knowing he was right. He then hit a larger button to address everyone. "This is Vader. All of you plot a path around these asteroids and get to the rendezvous point Zeda I have marked on your astrogators. Do not fire your weapons needlessly. Save them for the ground assault on Yavin. I WILL be tallying ammo afterwards." No one dared verbally reply to Vader but did just as he instructed. A near 20-minutes later, everyone was cleared of the asteroids - minus 2-more pilots that smashed against the unpredictable movements of deadly asteroids. "46 counting myself." Smite finally relayed over the speakers. "Fine." Vader said, less than pleased a few pilots couldn't even avoid something as simple moving space debris. "Let us continue to our next jump point. Set hyperwarp for zero zero 'Yavin.' There are no more obstacles to impede us now." . . . Back with Luke, he was in tears. If he didn't do his hyperjump calculations correctly now, he could be a very old man, long in the tooth and gray in the beard, by the time he finally returned back to known civilization and space. Luke spoke, "R2 can you ..." but then was quiet. He had not brought R2 with him and the helpful droid was still back at Yavin base. "D****t !" he exclaimed. He pinched the bridge above his nose. He was really feeling nauseous now and had a massive headache coming on. He spoke to the computer. "Atmosphere control. Decrease nitrogen by 10%. Increase oxygen by 10%." The computer spoke, "Warning ! Sensors indicate current navigational pilot is HUMAN. You are attempting to change ship airflow to a non-standard breathable level. This atmosphere order may affect or impede your ability as - " Luke angrily hit a switch to turn off the computer's voice and an additional one for override. In moments sweet and clean chemical air rushed all around him. He tingled with the purity, but he had to be careful. He had heard that too much oxygen could make you high, sleepy, and essentially kill you - happily - if you weren't careful. But now that he could breathe easier and his headache dissipated. He focused on his calculations. Sweat beaded over his forehead. "Atmosphere. Decrease temperature by 15-degrees." No verbal message came back as Luke had disabled it and still had the override in place. In moments it was colder and Luke didn't feel so overheated. He finished his calculations. He clicked back on the computer voice, turned off the override and spoke, "Computer, check calculations of current hyperjump program for any errors or discrepancies." The computer spoke, "Standby ... checking ... input trajectory and course appear safe and free of error. Projected destination will be quadrant K46-E23-D901 of the Galactic Empire. Confirm ?" Luke looked over a screen which showed a series of lines interlacing around each other. He looked to the critical center to see they were perfectly aligned. He had another question. "How close is this to the last known location of the starbase 'Death Star ?' " The computer paused for a moment. "You will be 4 parsecs from the programmed destination." Luke nodded. "Yes, Confirmed. Execute program." In seconds the telltale pinpoints of lighted stars turned into dazzlingly beautiful needles radiating out from their center and Luke was on his way back to known space ... (to be continued) Return back HOME You are Earth Visitor #