The Star Wars: The Lost Workprint (* unfinished project - lots of info *) — Page 9

Luke it's too late!

That line is not in the film is it?

That really should not have been cut out. Good work

I upscaled and processed a slightly higher resolution version (found here)

Download link

You probably didn't notice that my last post on this thread had a little more at the end than my post at FE.org.  I'd be interested in getting this to be as complete as possible.  Let me know if my deleted scenes project holds any interest for you.  I will try to catalog my stuff a bit at some point at let you know what I have, even in terms of miniscule clips in a long documentary.

Ryan McAvoy said:

Kexikus said:

the smooth transitions could be a little faster.

Not sure what this means?

 I'm talking about the transitions between the first shots (Tatooine from space, Wide Shot of Luke in the Desert, Closer Shot of Luke). Not sure how those transitions are called but I think they should be a little faster. They felt too long for me, making it hard to see any details for quite a long time.

I was privileged to watch a draft of Ryan's edit here, and I gave a lot of feedback at FE.org.  I figured I should share my feedback here too in order to get others pumped about this edit.

And Ryan, I should add that the deleted material I suggest using is available from my project.  Admittedly, I probably don't have the best sources for some things.  Often, my project will serve better as a reference than a source.  But you can look at what it has and see if there are other things that catch your fancy that you might want to get from a better source.

I know you haven't begun work on the audio yet, but I want to put in two cents while I'm thinking about it: since the music in the beginning has to drown out the Williams music, it makes it hard to hear much of the 3PO dialogue. The radio drama has many similar lines with no score in the background for portions of such missing dialogue (not all, I just checked). It could help. Fast forward in time: the same could apply for the extended speeder search for R2.

Back in time to where I was watching: Again, I still think the speeder zooming past the woman needs a little work. I mentioned two fixes, but to me only one is needed. Either show the speeder just entering the town, thus explaining the buildings in the background as he zooms by, or else show the lead up of the woman walking before she suddenly jumps out of the way, with the implication that Luke entered town in the brief moments where we didn't see the speeder. To me the buildings in the background simply don't match the desert shot we saw only a second before at present.

That said, it's a fantastic innovation. I love the whole opening thus far, especially your custom mattes and your zoom/fade in. Truly brilliant. My one suggestion might be to slow the crawl. That way we're not stuck on empty star field for too long. I believe you probably did that to keep better sync for the music you are using, and that's good. I'd just suggest you slow the crawl so the empty star field doesn't last so long.

Now to keep watching.

I like that you used the alternate take of Leia marched to Vader. You got this from Star Wars Begins, right? It looks like you probably zoomed to crop out any "Alternate Take" caption Jambe Davdar added. I suggest using the original source, just so it looks a little better and more complete (without half the stormtroopers heads cut off). And still, while I love that you're using alternate takes, I'm not sure it integrates well yet, and I'm not sure how you could make it do so either. I hope you can 

Another suggestion, and it might face a similar challenge, but in The Making of Star Wars there are shots of Luke and Biggs chatting, passing a multi-armed droid. Ah, here's the clip.
[video=youtube;8j0N-GdDg14]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j0N-GdDg14[/video]

Also, I don't know how much of a completionist you are compared to me (yes, I overdo it at times), but the footage of Luke working on the vaporator and spotting the space battle is different in the BD deleted scenes vs the B/W 16 fps version Behind the Magic version. It might give a little more variety to include bits of both in your opening, and it's already degraded! And in the BD version, you see Luke repeat an adjustment on his binoculars in a manner that convinces me it's a repeat of the exact same shot. You could show one from one angle and one from another angle if you included the Behind the Magic version. Anyway, take it or leave it, I'm just trying to give helpful potential feedback. I understand that you want this to be watchable too, and too much tinkering might interfere with that.

Again, another premature audio suggestion, but I think it would be best to use the theatrical mono audio with the less familiar Beru voice and generally lower quality audio.

I'm curious as to why you re-ordered Leia's torture and Tarkin's council with the other Big Wigs? In the novelization the order is the same as the movie. Not that I mind reordering if it serves a good purpose. I'm just curious. Was that how it was originally edited before George Lucas's team re-edited it?

Another audio suggestion for your consideration, but as Williams scored a few alternate tunes, you might want to consider using those when possible, such as during the sunset scene. I prefer the theatrical music, but since this is supposedly the Lost Cut, we could speculate that the other version had been seriously considered.

I think the original Tusken Raider yell is better. It looks like you used some clip of someone trying out his costume. It looks a bit weird to me, personally.

One of the Ep III trailers contains a different take of Obi-Wan saying, "For over a thousand generations..." from the close up Ben's face rather than the further shot with Luke wielding the lightsaber. Just another shot for consideration.

I'm not sure that you should or should not do this, but again, since this is the Lost Cut, you might want to consider leaving all the pick up shots of the Mos Eisley Cantina out and keep it closer to the original. If I'm not clear, I mean all the additional aliens George filmed later, since he was dissatisfied with how the cantina scene originally went. I believe the BD already has it as it was originally presented, and I might (not definitely, but maybe) would try to keep it closer to the original.

Then again, I want to see as complete a movie as possible too, so I'm not sure I want you to be faithful in that regard.

In Deleted Magic, OCP included a slightly longer clip as Han exits the cantina after killing Greedo. It's only a second or two more, definitely lower in quality, but since you're going to crapify the footage anyway, it could be easily be made look like similar and in character with a poorly preserved roll of film. I'm not sure of the original source of this clip. A similar slightly extended shot is also available as the snitch starts trailing Ben and Luke. It's also on Deleted Magic, but I know it comes from the Holiday Special, and there are better quality versions of this available now. Again, any change in quality could be blended in, I think. Of course the aspect ratio is likely different, so maybe this won't work. It's worth a thought, anyway.

I'm confused as to why you used the SE version of the Falcon takeoff since this is based on the original cut before Lucas and Co. tightened things up.

I know this has mostly been suggestions thus far, but I loved the destruction of Alderaan scene, including the missing frames from the explosion. Fantastic!

I think I've noticed a few places where it looks like you removed a little extraneous stuff, like Vader gesturing after he's done talking. This may have been because of how you combined it with another part, and if that way worked best, that's fine. However, I'm not positive but it seems there may be other brief snips here and there around this point. I'd suggest leaving stuff in. The Lost Cut was longer and supposedly far too slow, warranting the second round of editing. I'd err on the side of leaving stuff in rather than taking it out.

There is a clip from The Making of Star Wars where Ben is walking on a bridge, looks down and sees the tractor beam station he needs to deactivate on the bridge below. I don't know why he didn't just Force jump there  Anyway, you see the look of realization on his face, and presumably he heads to the correct bridge. I think this may have been a behind the scenes shot and not the quality or stability of a shot intended for the actual film. Clearly it was filmed for the movie and just never made it in, but what we do have is I believe not the intended shot. Still, if it can work, you might want to consider it.

When Luke runs aboard the Falcon after taking out the stormtroopers, the editing is amazingly seamless right up to the last shot.  It looks like he had already started running, then starts running again. Just start that last clip a couple of frames later.

Out of curiosity, why did you move "A day long remembered"?

When Red 10 is destroyed, you see a side shot of his cockpit with the pilot blowing up. The pilot in that shot was actually from the X-wing destroyed immediately before him. Might be better to move that side shot to the previous ship's explosion, though we don't see that pilot in any other shot, just to stick with the nature of this edit.

On the BD, I believe in the documentary about Ewan McGregor becoming Obi-Wan, there are a couple of clips with Ewan's uncle Denis Lawson (Wedge) saying lines that we hear but don't see in the actual film. They are heard over the radio from the voice that dubs him, but in that documentary we actually see and hear Lawson saying them. I believe they are lines like, "My scope shows the tower but I can't see the exhaust port," and I think there was at least one more. I imagine you'd want to reincorporate those, knowing your aim. However, they are blue screened in the rear windows, if that is a deterrent at all.

With a few of the purist-type remarks I've made, this will probably surprise, you, but it's just an idea. In the final film we hardly get to know or care about Biggs. In your edit, based on the longer original cut, we care very much about him and imagine Luke does too. It might be worth considering using Adywan's idea of putting Luke screaming, "Biggs? BIGGS!" into the radio to show that he is heartbroken at the loss of his friend.

Nice opening and closing music choices. I don't imagine you will be able to do that to the whole movie, as I don't see how you could keep in any dialogue, but as the opening and closing, it works really well. The 1812 overture is surprisingly fun and well timed. Funny keeping that outtake with Han taking a bite at the medal. I'm sure that wasn't ever going to make it in, but I'm glad you put it there anyway.

I commented as I watched and came across things, so the above may seem negative. Let me just say that this was a really fun experience. The editing is very impressive and the deleted material integrated very well. The Vader/Obi-wan duel was particularly impressive. And I have thought about it since I wrote above, that while it would be cool to keep it as close to the original as possible, this is also likely the only way we can enjoy an extended version with as much deleted material as possible and keep the quality pretty close and equal. Therefore I suggest that you continue as you were doing and keep both the original and new cantina material edited as you have. I will however leave my above suggestion typed, since you may want to take that advice anyway, and it has its place.

What other advice can I offer? Oh, in the search for R2 with the closeup, there is a slightly longer version of that scene than the BD offers. I believe it is on Empire of Dreams, and you see what 3PO says is wrong with the speeder before Luke turns around and makes an adjustment. You could probably again steal that brief second or two without much notice, since you're cutting the quality anyway. Similarly, on another version of the last deleted scene on Tatooine when Biggs says goodbye, there is a version with seriously like one extra second where you see Luke throw a pebble in his hand, not contained on the BD. Again, food for thought. And since I honestly want to see as much of the deleted material as possible, I know you don't like the grouchy old lady shouting at that hoodlum driver Luke, but I kind of think my suggestion where you see her walking more before getting zoomed past might be both easier and more complete.

In the end, all my thoughts are just advice, and I hope that at least some of them inspire you. I love this edit more and more, and I'm so glad I got to see this preview. It's really pretty amazing and fun to watch. I am extremely impressed with how well you integrated so many things. Keep up the great work, and thanks for allowing me to preview it.

it would be great to see your work in color.would you release a colorized movie too?

good work so far.

I had a thought.  Since the new Rebels show has some JEJ dialogue in it, perhaps there might be some useful lines that could get pasted into this edit.  Much as I like your idea about Vader talking about blasting Yavin to Chief Bast, I better like the original intent of the scene.  Plus, while it's nice to have JEJ for the Interactive Video Board Game, I was disappointed that they didn't do anything to make him sound like Vader.  He sounds like Jones reading Vader lines.  They need to beef it up with some vocal manipulation.  Perhaps something in the new Rebels lines will be useful.  Just something to keep an eye out for.

Another thought I've had, though I don't know if it interests you or could be pulled off, is that in the novel, and presumably in the script given to ADF to novelize, Luke made two runs through the Death Star trench. The first kept him out of reach of Vader's squadron due to their rapid speed, but it obviously failed for the same reason and they had to make the run again. Though you still want to make an enjoyable, well paced movie, it seems this could be an interesting addition. As an additional resource, the Star Tours footage includes shots hardboiled useful, including a different shot of entering the trench, flying down the trench, a little dogfighting with TIE fighters, etc. Food for thought, anyway.

Just read through this, had a go at this once myself but it went the same as all my edits onto the back burner. Some of your clips look great cant wait to watch your finished product.

Ryan McAvoy said:

darth_ender said:

Another thought I've had... Luke made two runs through the Death Star trench

the Star Tours footage includes... a different shot of entering the trench, flying down the trench, a little dogfighting with TIE fighters

Can't quite get my head round how that would work with the footage available?

Is the Star Tours stuff HD and or CGI/Trad-Models etc? Sounds interesting.

It is not HD, and it's good old fashioned practical effects.  They do a pretty good job matching the OT.  I'm talking the original Star Tours, not the CGI sequel, although my project included that as well.  Like I said, I'm not aware of any HD version, but given the quality of some of your clips, it doesn't seem like the end of the world, especially for a few seconds of footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9CWq5JmGOs

My preservation has the above version in the highest available quality, as well as another similar but not identical version, one which I find better for color correction, though in the end it will be B/W an the horrible colors shouldn't matter too much for your edit anyway.  The most useful portions start at about the 3 minute mark.

As for how to pull it off, I admit when I first posted it, I knew it would take some serious editing, pulling shots from other parts of the battle and inserting them into this extra trench run.  Actually, a lot of the dialogue used elsewhere is in fact written in the novel as part of the two trench run.  So I'm not convinced it's impossible, though admittedly it looks challenging, particularly when it comes to the accompanying score.  It's just an idea, but it would be fun if it could be pulled off.

Okay, after pausing for a bit, I am finishing this comment, and I've now read the portion from the novel and watched OCP's Star Wars: Deleted Magic, which does a pretty good job arranging the battle as it is portrayed in the novel, which again is presumably patterned after a late script.  It can be done, and the additional footage from Star Tours makes it even more doable.  I really recommend checking out both for ideas.  A few more lines could easily be done by just about anyone for the TIE pilots, and I am convinced it is possible to do a good Vader impersonation to achieve desired dialogue with proper audio editing (useful for other scenes as well, of course).  Such a Battle of Yavin would indeed be a slower edit, and I of course prefer the original editing, but for the sake of a lost cut, I am more and more convinced that it would be worth pursuing, at least in theory if you ultimately choose not to do it.

lpd said:

Just read through this, had a go at this once myself but it went the same as all my edits onto the back burner. Some of your clips look great cant wait to watch your finished product.

I'm still recharging my batteries on this one, while working on other edits. I'm about 90% of the way through a Star Trek project where I've learned sooo much, that I'm gonna bring over to this. Alternate SFX shots galore!

 This would be very useful.  I've been watching your ST:TMP edit quietly at FE.org (I'm much quieter there), and I'm impressed with the skills you are developing.  I can imagine only a better edit of this in the end.  Hope my ideas are useful :)

Wonder if this might be useful for ideas as well, though I'm not sure you'd want to go for any of his thoughts. Just found it looking for OCP's re-edit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v5VahaEL7s

Just a thought: if I was you I'd call this edit something like "Star Wars: The Lost Workprint reconstructed" to avoid any misunderstood among the fans who could think it's the real thing. If that make sens.

This still has about 20 minutes to load, as of posting this, but it's the Battle of Yavin rearranged close to the novelization.  The majority of the editing was done by the very gifted but expelled Garrett Gilchrist on Star Wars: Deleted Magic.  It's actually a very cool documentary, though folks seem to have turned to Star Wars Begins.  I think both have their place.  The only editing I did (and with crappy and inaccurate Live Movie Maker, which never places cuts properly) was including Luke's first entrance to the Death Star trench and his exit after firing the proton torpedoes, both of which come from Star Tours.  See what you think.  I'm sure more could be done to make it better match the book, especially including Star Tours footage, though I'm not positive it's worth the effort.

https://vimeo.com/111299049

Password: Yavin

I'm also hoping to include the relevant text of the novel for your benefit in the near future.

I'm about to stuff your thread with most of chapter 12 from Star Wars.  Hopefully you find this enlightening.  Let me know if I'm not being useful.  I hope this isn't annoying.  If you want to skip to the most relevant posts, go here.

     "Check, Blue Two. Watch yourself. All ships, stand by to  lock  S-foils

in attack mode."

     One after another, from Luke and Biggs, Wedge and the other members  of

Blue assault squadron, the replies came back. "Standing by..."

     "Execute," Blue Leader commanded, when John D. and Piggy had  indicated

they were in readiness.

     The double wings on the X-wing fighters split apart, like narrow seeds.

Each fighter  now  displayed  four  wings,  its  wing-mounted  armament  and

quadruple engines now deployed for maximum firepower and maneuverability.

     Ahead, the Imperial station continued to grow. Surface features  became

visible as each pilot recognized docking bays, broadcast antennae, and other

man-made mountains and canyons.

     As he neared that threatening black sphere for the second time,  Luke's

breathing  grew  faster.  Automatic  life-support  machinery  detected   the

respiratory shift and compensated properly.

     Something began to buffet his ship, almost as if he were  back  in  his

skyhopper again, wrestling with the  unpredictable  winds  of  Tatooine.  He

experienced a bad moment of uncertainty until  the  calming  voice  of  Blue

Leader sounded in his ears.

     "We're passing through their  outer  shields.  Hold  tight.  Lock  down

freeze-floating controls and switch your own deflectors on, double front."

     The shaking and buffeting  continued,  worsened.  Not  knowing  how  to

compensate, Luke did exactly what he should have: remained  in  control  and

followed  orders.  Then  the  turbulence  was  gone  and  the  deathly  cold

peacefulness of space had returned.

     "That's it, we're through," Blue Leader told them  quietly.  "Keep  all

channels silent until we're on top of them. It  doesn't  look  like  they're

expecting much resistance."

     Though half the great station remained in shadow, they  were  now  near

enough for Luke to be able to discern individual lights on  its  surface.  A

ship that could show phases matching a moon... once again he marveled at the

misplaced ingenuity  and  effort  which  had  gone  into  its  construction.

Thousands of lights  scattered  across  its  curving  expanse  gave  it  the

appearance of a floating city.

     Some of Luke's comrades, since  this  was  their  first  sight  of  the

station, were even more impressed. "Look at the size of that  thing!"  Wedge

Antilles gasped over his open pickup.

     "Cut the chatter, Blue Two," Blue Leader ordered. "Accelerate to attack

velocity."

     Grim determination showed in Luke's expression as  he  flipped  several

switches above his head and began adjusting  his  computer  target  readout.

Artoo Detoo re-examined  the  nearing  station  and  thought  untranslatable

electronic thoughts.

     Blue Leader compared the station with the location  of  their  proposed

target area. "Red Leader," he  called  toward  the  pickup,  "this  is  Blue

Leader. We're in position; you can go right in. The exhaust shaft is farther

to the north. We'll keep 'em busy down here."

     Red Leader was the physical opposite of Luke's squadron  commander.  He

resembled the popular notion of a  credit  accountant-short,  slim,  shy  of

face. His skills and  dedication,  however,  easily  matched  those  of  his

counterpart and old friend.

     "We're starting for the target shaft now, Dutch. Stand by to take  over

if anything happens."

     "Check, Red Leader," came the other's  reply.  "We're  going  to  cross

their equatorial axis and try to draw their main fire. May the Force be with

you."

     From the approaching swarm, two squads of  fighters  broke  clear.  The

X-wing ships dove directly for the bulge of the station,  far  below,  while

the Y-ships curved down and northward over its surface.

     Within the station, alarm sirens began a mournful, clangorous  wail  as

slow-to-react personnel realized that the impregnable fortress was  actually

under organized attack. Admiral Motti and his tacticians  had  expected  the

Rebels' resistance to be centered around  a  massive  defense  of  the  moon

itself. They were completely unprepared for an offensive response consisting

of dozens of tiny snub ships.

     Imperial efficiency  was  in  the  process  of  compensating  for  this

strategic oversight. Soldiers scrambled to man enormous  defensive-  weapons

emplacements. Servodrivers thrummed as  powerful  motors  aligned  the  huge

devices for firing. Soon a web of annihilation began to envelop the  station

as energy weapons, electrical bolts, and explosive solids ripped out at  the

oncoming rebel craft.

     "This is Blue Five," Luke announced to his mike as he  nose  dived  his

ship in a radical attempt to confuse any electronic  predictors  below.  The

gray surface of the battle station streaked past his ports. "I'm going in."

     "I'm right behind you, Blue Five,"  a  voice  recognizable  as  Biggs's

sounded in his ears.

     The target in Luke's sights was as  stable  as  that  of  the  Imperial

defenders was evasive. Bolts  flew  from  the  tiny  vessel's  weapons.  One

started a huge fire on the dim surface below, which  would  burn  until  the

crew of the station could shut off the flow of air to the damaged section.

     Luke's glee turned to terror as he  realized  he  couldn't  swerve  his

craft in time to avoid passing through the fireball of unknown  composition.

"Pull out, Luke, pull out!" Biggs was screaming at him.

     But despite commands to shift course, the automatic  pressors  wouldn't

allow  the  necessary  centrifugal  force.  His  fighter  plunged  into  the

expanding ball of superheated gases.

     Then he was through and clear, on the other side. A rapid check of  his

controls enabled him to relax. Passage through the  intense  heat  had  been

insufficient to damage anything vital-though all four wings bore streaks  of

black, carbonized testimony to the nearness of his escape.

     Hell-flowers bloomed outside his ship as he swung it up and around in a

sharp curve. "You all right, Luke?" came Biggs's concerned query.

     "I got a little toasted, but I'm okay."

     A different, stern voice sounded.  "Blue  Five,"  warned  the  squadron

leader, "you'd better give yourself  more  lead  time  or  you're  going  to

destroy yourself as well as the Imperial construction."

     "Yes, sir. I've got the hang of it now. Like you said, it's not exactly

like flying a sky hopper."

     Energy bolts and sun-bright beams continued to create a chromatic  maze

in the space above the station as the rebel fighters crisscrossed  back  and

forth over its surface, firing at whatever looked like a decent target.  Two

of the tiny craft concentrated on a power terminal.  It  blew  up,  throwing

lightning-sized electric arcs from the station's innards.

     Inside,  troopers,  mechanicals,  and  equipment  were  blown  in   all

directions by subsidiary explosions as the effects  of  the  blast  traveled

back down various conduits and cables. Where the explosion  had  hulled  the

station, escaping atmosphere sucked helpless soldiers and droids out into  a

bottomless black tomb.

     Moving from position to position, a figure of dark calm amid the chaos,

was Darth  Vader.  A  harried  Commander  rushed  up  to  him  and  reported

breathlessly.

     "Lord Vader, we count at least thirty of them, of two types.  They  are

so small and quick the  fixed  guns  cannot  follow  them  accurately.  They

continuously evade the predictors."

     "Get all TIE crews to their fighters. We'll have to go out  after  them

and destroy them ship by ship."

     Within numerous hangars red lights  began  flashing  and  an  insistent

alarm started to ring. Ground crews worked frantically  to  ready  ships  as

flight-suited Imperial pilots grabbed for helmets and packs.

     "Luke," requested Blue Leader as he skimmed smoothly through a rain  of

fire, "let me know when you're off the block."

     "I'm on my way now."

     "Watch yourself," the voice urged over the cockpit speaker. "There's  a

lot of fire coming from the starboard side of that deflection tower."

     "I'm on it, don't  worry,"  Luke  responded  confidently.  Putting  his

fighter into a twisting dive, he sliced once  more  across  metal  horizons.

Antennae and small protruding emplacements burst into  transitory  flame  as

bolts from his wing tips struck with deadly accuracy.

     He grinned as he pulled up and away from the surface as  intense  lines

of energy passed through space recently vacated. Darned if  it  wasn't  like

hunting womp-rats back home in the crumbling canyons of Tatooine's wastes.

     Biggs followed Luke on a similar run, even as Imperial pilots  prepared

to lift clear of the station. Within the many docking bays  technical  crews

rushed hurriedly to unlock power cables and conclude desperate final checks.

     More care was taken in preparing a particular craft nearest one of  the

bay ports, the one into which Darth Vader barely succeeded in squeezing  his

huge frame. Once set in the seat he slid a second set of eye shields  across

his face.

     The atmosphere of the war room back in the temple was  one  of  nervous

expectancy. Occasional blinks and buzzes from the main battle screen sounded

louder than the soft sussuration of hopeful people trying  to  reassure  one

another. Near a far corner of the mass of  flickering  lights  a  technician

leaned a little closer to his own readouts before speaking into  the  pickup

suspended near his mouth.

     "Squad leaders-attention; squad leaders-attention! We've  picked  up  a

new set of signals from the other side of the station. Enemy fighters coming

your way."

     Luke received the report at the same time as everyone  else.  He  began

hunting the sky for the predicted Imperial craft, his gaze dropping  to  his

instrumentation. "My scope's negative. I don't see anything."

     "Maintain visual scanning," Blue Leader directed. "With all this energy

flying, they'll be on top of  you  before  your  scope  can  pick  them  up.

Remember, they can jam every instrument on your ship except your eyes."

     Luke turned again, and this time saw an Imperial  already  pursuing  an

X-wing-an X-wing with a number Luke quickly recognized.

     "Biggs!" he shouted. "You've picked one up. On your tail... watch it!"

     "I can't see it," came his friend's panicked response. "Where is he?  I

can't see it."

     Luke watched helplessly as Biggs's ship  shot  away  from  the  station

surface and out into clear space, closely  followed  by  the  Imperial.  The

enemy vessel fired steadily at him, each successive bolt seeming to  pass  a

little closer to Biggs's hull.

     "He's on me tight," the voice sounded in Luke's cockpit. "I can't shake

him."

     Twisting, spinning, Biggs looped back toward the  battle  station,  but

the pilot trailing him was persistent and showed no  sign  of  relinquishing

pursuit.

     "Hang on, Biggs," Luke called, wrenching his  ship  around  so  steeply

that straining gyros whined. "I'm coming in."

     So absorbed in his pursuit of Biggs was  the  Imperial  pilot  that  he

didn't see Luke, who rotated his own ship, flipped  out  of  the  concealing

gray below and dropped in behind him.

     Electronic  crosshairs  lined  up  according  to  the  computer-readout

instructions, and Luke fired repeatedly. There  was  a  small  explosion  in

space-tiny compared  with  the  enormous  energies  being  put  out  by  the

emplacements on the surface of the battle station. But the explosion was  of

particular  significance  to  three   people:   Luke,   Biggs,   and,   most

particularly, to the pilot of the TIE fighter, who was  vaporized  with  his

ship.

     "Got him!" Luke murmured.

     "I've got one! I've got one!" came a less  restrained  cry  of  triumph

over the open intercom. Luke identified the voice as belonging  to  a  young

pilot known as John D. Yes, that  was  Blue  Six  chasing  another  Imperial

fighter across the metal landscape. Bolts jumped from the X-wing  in  steady

succession until the TIE fighter blew in half, sending  leaflike  glittering

metal fragments flying in all directions.

     "Good shooting, Blue Six," the squadron leader commented. Then he added

quickly, "Watch out, you've got one on your tail."

     Within the fighter's cockpit the gleeful smile on the young man's  face

vanished instantly  as  he  looked  around,  unable  to  spot  his  pursuer.

Something flared brightly nearby, so close that his  starboard  port  burst.

Then something hit even closer and the interior  of  the  now  open  cockpit

became a mass of flames.

     "I'm hit, I'm hit!"

     That was all he had time  to  scream  before  oblivion  took  him  from

behind. Far above and to one side Blue Leader saw John D.'s ship expand in a

fiery ball. His lips may have whitened slightly. Otherwise he might as  well

never have seen the X-wing explode, for all the reaction  he  displayed.  He

had more important things to do.

     On the fourth moon of Yavin a spacious  screen  chose  that  moment  to

flicker and die, much as John D. had. Worried technicians began  rushing  in

all directions. One turned a drawn face to Leia, the  expectant  Commanders,

and one tall, bronzed robot.

     "The high-band receiver has failed. It will take some time to fix..."

     "Do the best you can," Leia snapped. "Switch to audio only."

     Someone overheard, and in seconds the room was filled with  the  sounds

of distant battle, interspersed with the voices of those involved.

     "Tighten it up, Blue Two, tighten  it  up,"  Blue  Leader  was  saying.

"Watch those towers."

     "Heavy fire, Boss," came the voice  of  Wedge  Antilles,  "twenty-three

degrees."

     "I see it. Pull in, pull in. We're picking up some interference."

     "I can't believe it," Biggs  was  stammering.  "I've  never  seen  such

firepower!"

     "Pull in, Blue Five. Pull in." A pause, then, "Luke, do  you  read  me?

Luke?"

     "I'm all right, Chief," came Luke's reply.  "I've  got  a  target.  I'm

going to check it out."

     "There's too much action down there, Luke," Biggs told him.  "Get  out.

Do you read me, Luke? Pull out."

     "Break off, Luke," ordered the deeper tones of Blue Leader. "We've  hit

too much interference here. Luke, I repeat, break off! I can't see him. Blue

Two, can you see Blue Five?"

     "Negative," Wedge replied  quickly.  "There's  a  fire  zone  here  you

wouldn't believe. My scanner's jammed. Blue Five, where are you?  Luke,  are

you all right?"

     "He's gone," Biggs started to report solemnly.  Then  his  voice  rose.

"No, wait... there he is! Looks like a little  fin  damage,  but  the  kid's

fine."

     Relief swept the war room, and it was most noticeable in  the  face  of

the slightest, most beautiful Senator present.