Star Wars: The Ancient Force

C H A P T E R . 4 -- First Mission - part 1 of 2

A SPECK OF BLACK AND YELLOW ride along a grey cliff's edge surrounding a crater-made lake that had once seen pristine days. The blueness of Ore Lake and the summer-greens of the forests had yet to be completely muddied by the murk of this area's growing iron industry. Along the cliff's edge, a rockcruiser carrying Luke, Terigo, Han, and Chewbacca slow to a stop at a lookout point.

The young driver darts out of the cruiser and nervously opens the side-gate for the exalted group to step out. He hands Luke binoculars and points to unscaleable cliffs on the opposite side of the lake, "That high rocky patch is it. The East Bank Mines. And waaay down the cliff to the right you can see the white specks of stormtroopers near South-East Guard and our base in the South. The lake is at the center of the north, south, east, and west, by the way."

Luke hands the binoculars to Han. The driver points out to Luke the whole left side of the lake, "That's allll North Bank." His nervousness is pushed aside by something in him more pressing, politely saying, "Please be nice to them, sir, if you can. They're neutral so they can stay alive. They don't know when the Imperials will overpower us, the power changes here all the time. So we think it's okay they're neutral, we don't push them to join to wipe out the Imperials now, because they say they could get wiped out a year from now if the Imperials come back. 'There will always be ore here' they say." By now he was visibly trembling, from whatever his concerns were in that area, and from asserting himself so much to—essentially—royalty. His youth was most visible now, looking to be no more than a kid in Rebel hand-me-downs.

Han had ignored the kid to use the binoculars and had turned on a handheld holomap to take notes of the location in the geographic hologram. The kid sees it and says, "You—You—uh, don't have any, any, um explosives on you do you?" His head partially ducked into his shoulders, "I'm just checking I'm sorry, their scanners pick-up any weapons or vehicles."

Han had no interest in wide-eyed wimps, so Luke answers, "Yes we were informed. Our holomap and lightsabers were cleared as undetectable."

"...And you're not going to blow it up the mine like the Death Star are you?" the kid asks sheepishly.

"With what explosives," Han states with a tone of finality.

"No," Luke says, almost with a chuckle, but the concern of killing thousands was no laughing matter.

"Ok good, I was just checking because all of my brothers have been snuck into North Bank, undercover, and—"

Luke comforts him as a Jedi Master should, "Don't worry. Our commands include only taking out known Imperials."

Han says, "Yeah, meaning only people wearing white or black," glaring a 'you-hear-that' at Terigo. Luke looks at her too but quickly remembers to switch to looking into her. Han looks to Luke to see if he's thinking the right thing, and by the look of Luke's concentration towards her, Han becomes pleased just enough to make a joke. "Except our Jedi here," patting Luke on the shoulder. "But he has this wild notion that black looks professional instead of evil. Jedi: What can ya do," shrugging blandly, looking to move on. Luke rolls his eyes with an embarrassed smrik.

Han motions to a massive steel-rod fence with a giant paw wiggling out of it. Between the fence, they see what has come over to say hi: a thirty-foot-long creature a foot taller than them that looks made out of only dreadlocks and two black eyes as big as their heads. Han squints to groan, "This our Dreadback?"

"Yeah," the kid says with a new-found joy. He trots over to pet the wooly bird-shaped paw and says, "Bready's a sweetheart, we raised her. She loves old bread, so we named her Breadhead." As he starts unlocking the fence gate, he mistakes Han's look of disgust with confusion, so he explains, "We're taking her because they're sending scanners further and further out from North Bank these days, so we've got a ways to go, but she'll get us there a lot faster than walking."