The Third Skywalker

Rebel Base

Han didn't drop the subject of the princess for a good 10 minutes. 

Still, she's got a lot of spirit," Han continued to rave. "What do you think? A princess, and a guy like me..." He trailed off, leaving himself to his imagination. 

"No." Luke replied instantly. He probably wanted the girl for himself. Han scowled at him. I snorted. 

"What are you laughing at, Kid?" Han scolded, turning my way in his seat. 

"She doesn't like either of you, don't you get it?" I cried. They both looked at me blankly. "What type of person would she be to watch her home planet, family, and friends get blown up, to then flirt with the two men who rescued her?"

We arrived at the rebel base shortly after our enlightening conversation. There were docks full of ships, and people in orange flight suits were rushing around, getting to stations. An intercom was blaring, announcing where people were to go.

"You're safe!" A man approached us, speaking to the princess. "When we heard about Alderaan we feared the worst." Leia cut past the niceties and headed straight for business, as usual. 

"We have no time for your sorrows, Commander," she declared, following him  away from the ships. "You must use the information in this R2 unit to plan the attack. It's our only hope." The familiar plan shot pangs of grief through me as I remembered Obi-Wan. But it was like the princess said -- we had no time for sorrows, we needed to work. 

We were lead to a lecture room, with a holographic projector, like they had on my classrooms on Coruscant. The seats were nearly all filled with orange clad pilots, ready for the attack. 

"The battlecarrier is heavily shielded and carries a firepower greater than half a star fleet." The plan seemed to be going great for far. "Is defenses are designed around a direct, large scale assault. A small, one manned fighter should be able to penetrate the outer defense." Keyword: should. 

A pilot behind me spoke up. "Pardon me for asking sir, but what good are stunt fighters going to be against that?" Brave move, soldier, but if I knew one thing about the Empire, it was that to them, the larger, the better. What was a one manned fighter compared to the Death Star? Nothing. They weren't worried about an attack of stunt fighters. They weren't prepared.

The attack coordinator hit it right on the nose. "Well, the Empire doesn't consider a small, one man fighter to be a threat, or they'd have a tighter defense. An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Leia demonstrated a weakness in the battle station. The approach will not be easy. You are required to maneuver straight down this trench and skin the surface to this point. The target area is only two meters wide. It's a small, thermal exhaust port right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will lead to a chain reaction, which should destroy the station."