Mastermind

Part Three

As the Rebellion celebrated victoriously over the Death Star's destruction, their guard was let down as everyone was busy celebrating after Luke, Han, Erda, Lykta and Chewbacca were commended for their valiant efforts. Some of the Rebels dared to speak behind Leia's back for her lack of emotion. Both Erda and Leia knew that their victory was never going to be enough to bring back Alderaan and its people; her family, their friends. Days after the celebration, something bad came up. 

An Imperial Star Destroyer had been sent to Yavin Four during an evacuation as the Rebellion were needed to leave Yavin Four to escape any Imperial pursuit. Everyone in the base ceased evacuating as the Destroyer's weapons were primed to fire at the base within minutes. Knowing lives were at stake, Erda deeply contemplated exposing himself, which would pose a high risk once the Empire discovered his true nature. That was, of course, when he realised that his future was at stake and his chances with the princess. 

A ship jumped out of hyper space and flew towards the Star Destroyer, bombing it with electromagnetic bombs that temporarily disabled the entire cruiser, buying the Rebel Alliance time to continue their escape. Some Rebel ships flew out to bombard the Destroyer's brig to completely destroy the cruiser threatening their safety. The ship landed on the planet's surface, where a squad of Rebels stood outside the temple to greed their saviour. 

Luke was keen to know who this mysterious pilot was, when they showed themselves to Luke and the Rebels, unbeknownst that they were there for a different reason: two reasons. While the Rebels were getting ready to leave, the strange pilot opened fire on the Rebels, though Luke was quick to get out of the way as everyone took cover from the stranger's rogue behaviour. 

"I'm here for the princess! Hand her over, and I won't kill you all!" The stranger demanded. 

While Leia was off hoping for a suitable role within the Alliance with her audience with the General, Erda was close to the commotion and noticed something peculiar with the rogue demanding that the princess be delivered in exchange for the lives they were threatening to lay waste to. Once Erda got close enough to identify the assailant, his heart dropped in his chest. 

"Borgg..." He muttered fearfully. "HEY!!" 

The rogue's attention was then drawn to the brown-haired man walking into Borgg's line of sight, from where his blaster was then trained on him. 

"Well I'll be damned... Erda, Erda, Erda... You have a lot of gall to be showing your face here, boy, after that stunt you pulled on Raxus Prime!" Borgg raised his voice in his dialect. 

"You're the one that sold me out to the Empire after I saved your life!" Erda shot back. 

"We both wanted off that wretched planet, but I was willing to do whatever it took to escape that hellhole! You, however, were just looking out for yourself!" 

"You were my friend! And you stabbed me in the back!" 

"Give me the princess, now! Or I'll kill you too, and don't think I won't!" 

"You know what I am, Borgg. What makes you think you'll succeed?!" 

Erda saw a twisted look in Borgg's eyes as he never thought his former friend would stoop so low to betray his friend for money. 

"Let's find out, shall we!?" 

Borgg opened fire at Erda, who dived for cover as Borgg fired at his position. A stray shot shot the blaster out of Borgg's hand, allowing someone to stun him, though some had the chance to shoot, Erda jumped into the line of fire and physically fought Borgg until he easily beat him and knocked him to the ground. 

"Why are you after Princess Organa?! How did you find us?! Answer me!!" Erda shouted at his face. 

Erda punched Borgg in the face, not yet realising that his former friend was dead. A woman called his name and roughly grabbed and tugged on his shoulder. When he found that it was Lykta standing behind him, Erda still hadn't realised that his former ally had died before he dropped Borgg's corpse and stormed off to his quarters when Luke intercepted him, informing him that Leia had fled the planet. 

"What?! When?" Erda cried in shock of this discovery. 

"Last night." Luke answered with a false frown. 

"Well, how could you lose her?! Is she on her own?!" 

"No, she's got someone with her. We can't track her now. Wedge and I think she's gone to a planet called Naboo." 

Erda sighed and whispered under his breath, "May the Force be with you, Leia." 

"C'mon, we gotta help everyone evacuate. We'll find a planet to head to soon. Just gotta keep our hopes up." Luke ushered Erda as two Rebels disposed of Borgg's body. 

Erda shook his head as he had no time to help in packing up. "No. I've duty to search for inhabitable planets for the Rebel Alliance to set up base." 

"May the Force be with you." Luke bid him. 

"And you, my friend." 

As Erda boarded Borgg's ship, he set off to use Borgg's clearance to pass through Imperial-controlled sectors. Erda searched the Outer Rim for suitable planets to allow the Alliance to hide from the Empire. Strange noises came from within the ship in the cargo bay. As he went to investigate, Erda hovered his hand over his blaster and remained extremely cautious for any movement when something growled. 

"I got a bad feeling about this..." Erda said to himself. 

Four red eyes glowed in the darkness as the creature emerged from the shadows to expose the catlike predator body of a Nexu. 

"Ah, kriff." 

Erda immediately turned tail and ran away from the Nexu which roared as it chased him, pouncing off the walls as he barely escaped the range of its sharp claws. He screamed as the Nexu chased him into the cockpit, to which it made a miscalculated jump and pounced on the control panel and accidentally caused the ship to make a jump to light speed. With the ship out of control, both Erda and the Nexu were thrown into a wall, unable to deactivate the jump that launched the ship in the direction of a moon. Using the Force, Erda pulled back on the lever that brought the ship out of hyperspace. It was then, that it was too late for Erda to change course as he was flying very low to the moons surface. 

A strong breeze knocked the ship downwards into the heavy snow as the ship dragged in the snow towards a cliff as half the ship broke off, leaving the front to slowly come to a halt on the very edge of the cliff. Any sudden movement would cause the ship to tilt off the edge. If it wasn't weight, it would be the blizzard. The Nexu laid dead due to its weak bones that granted it a quick death, whereas Erda had to find a way to call for help. He cursed as the ship tilted forward, the second half of the ship creaking as it fell forward off the cliff into the snow below, knocking Erda unconscious. 

During his unconsciousness, natives dragged Erda's body out of the ship along with the Nexu's corpse and delivered both bodies to a camp within a cave. It was there, that the natives looked after Erda until he awoke. What Erda found were four-eyed, large, bipedal creatures with thick, shaggy white fur, sharp talons as their fingers. One Talz handed a bit of raw meat to Erda, despite him not in the mood for eating as he was too cold to do anything. Hesitantly, he took it and took a bite as not to insult the Talz, though he was barely able to sink his teeth into the meat before taking a very small bit of meat into his mouth. The Talz growled at him, speaking in its dialect which showed him that it didn't understand Galactic Basic. All he could do was hope for the best that it wouldn't kill him.