Alliances II: Civil War II Chapter Seventy-Four

The X-wings continued to move down the trench. Skywalker felt proud to be a part of this team, especially with his old friend, Biggs Darklighter, not far away from him. He had grown up with Biggs on Tatooine, and Biggs had skipped from an Imperial freighter so he could join the Rebel Alliance. Now he was serving them in the best possible way he could. In front of him was perhaps the Rebel's finest pilot, Wedge Antilles. Wedge's brother had been the captain of the Tantive IV, and had been killed by Vader not long ago. Although Wedge had revenge on his mind, he knew he couldn't let these thoughts cloud his judgment. He had to work for the greater good of the Rebel Alliance.

The TIE fighters moved in. It was then that Vader showed how great a battle pilot he was. Using a move Luke had never seen before, he soon took care of Red Leader. Biggs, trying to outmaneuver Vader, was the next to go. Luke's friend was dead, and there was nothing more they could do about it.

This left three fighters left. This number was soon reduced by one more, leaving only Luke and Wedge left to complete the mission. Vader gave the signal for the other two fighters to back off slightly. He wanted the last two pilots for himself. Setting his targeting computer, he got a lock on Wedge's engines. They seemed to howl in pain as an energy blast ripped into them. Another blast took care of his torpedo launchers. Realising that he would now be no good in the final battle, Wedge retreated with Luke's blessing, leaving the young Skywalker to carry on alone.

Each passing moment took Luke closer and closer to his target, the exhaust port. But each moment brought Vader closer to him. As Vader looked down at the X-wing, he began to feel a strange sensation, a shifting in the Force. The Force seemed strong with the pilot in front of him. Why, he could not tell. He then put these thoughts out of his mind. The pilot in front of him, whoever he was, had a mission to carry out, and he had to stop him.

Luke's sensors managed to pick up his target, the exhaust port. But there were still three fighters on his tail, fighters he still had to contend with. Dare he risk attacking the port? While his attention was on that, he could be destroyed by the fighters behind him.

While his thoughts were momentarily on this, he heard a blast. The TIE fighters had fired on him. His co-pilot, Artoo Deetoo, had been hit and damaged. Now, without the droid's sensor capabilities, he was alone.

Seconds later, he heard another blast. At first he thought the fighters were firing on him again, but one look at the sensors showed another ship was approaching. One of the approaching wingmen had been fired upon, and destroyed. The other wingman was then attacked. The blast sent this fighter careering into the centre fighter, before the wingman plowed into the wall of the trench, going up in a ball of flames. The centre fighter continued its spiraling course into space.

Luke then smiled upon hearing a familiar voice in his ear.

"Hey kid! Why don't you blow this thing so we can all go home!"

At first he couldn't believe it. Han Solo and Chewbacca, aboard the Millennium Falcon, had returned. Perhaps Solo did want to be a hero after all.

With no other distractions, Luke began to concentrate on his mission. He was now getting closer and closer to his target. He switched on his targeting computer, and the eye-piece soon came into place. Then, Luke began to hear a voice, a familiar voice, the voice of Ben Kenobi.

"Use the Force, Luke! Trust your instincts!"

At first, he thought his communicator was malfunctioning. Then he realized it wasn't. Somehow, his old friend was speaking to him. He now knew what he had to do. He shut off his targeting computer. This was soon picked up by the command centre on Yavin IV.

"Is anything wrong?" Dodonna asked.

"No. Nothing's wrong. I'm just going to do this by ear."

 

In the control room of the Death Star, Tarkin watched the readouts as the Death Star's main blaster was powering up as they got closer and closer to the Rebel's Yavin IV base. The loss of a few TIE squadrons would mean nothing on this day. Soon, the Rebel Alliance would be wiped out of existence.

 

The exhaust port was now very close. As Luke closed his eyes and concentrated, he began to feel something surging through him, some kind of force, guiding his every move. Now within firing range, he fired two photon torpedoes. He continued to concentrate as the torpedoes went down the exhaust port, and towards the reactor core.

He felt exhilarated as he began to pull up. He soon joined the Falcon as they moved away from the Death Star at near top speed. Seconds later it was gone. The Death Star exploded into a million pieces and more, lighting up the entire Yavin system. Their mission completed, they returned home.