Reegar

NeverarGreat said:

Reegar said:

Is there anything I might do to help?

Not unless you can flash-forward, speed up the pacing, or invent a plot device to get him off this rock. :)

Love the slower pace though, it reminds me of the Radio Drama.

XD !

Honorable mention does go to the Radio Drama for Tatooine scenes, excepting additions made immediately before Falcon take-off (clearly filler).

Luke received a visitor one morning after breakfast. Biggs Darklighter stood at the door and grinned to his childhood friend. The two spoke only after a firm handshake and hug.

"My training at the Academy's complete," Biggs explained as they strolled the property. "Thought I'd come by and see how things were before they hand me my first mission."

"Have you heard about the incident at Beggar's Canyon?" Luke wanted to get the tragedy in the open before they proceeded. 

"Camie explained everything. Looks like she's done a lot of growing up these past fews weeks," He put a hand on Luke's shoulder. "I could lecture you, but I imagine your uncle has done that in spades. And I might have done worse, Luke. At least you tried to keep them on the straight and narrow, but this is the Anchorhead gang we're talking about."

Luke told Biggs of Uncle Owen's health, the state of the farm, the Tusken rampages, and the slow exodus of Tatooine residents. His friend listened and nodded with an increasingly sour face.

"There's nothing but loss here, buddy," Biggs said. "Why do you think I left at the first opportunity? I'd rather risk my life in war than stay here and dry up. Have you come around? Do you want to turn in that application and get the hell off this speck of dust?"

Luke sighed. "I want to, Biggs, but my responsibilities are here. I belong on Tatooine. For as long as anyone in Mos Eisley or Anchorhead needs our water and vegetables."

Biggs nodded and went silent for a while, staring at barren landscape.

"I've been out there," He said at last, voice lower. "To the other planets in this solar system. There are mining jobs, but they're dangerous. The mortality rate is ridiculous. Those people who race off to find greener pastures are really condemning themselves to slow deaths. Stay on Tatooine, stay in the system, barely matters. The real cause is further out. The Rebellion."

He motioned for Luke to follow him, then leaned closer when they were well outside of Owen or Beru's earshot. "The Imperial Senate moved to legalize slavery. That ancient trade is back in the galaxy's center." Luke shook his head to deny the possibility, but Biggs continued. "I'm hopping ship soon to join the Rebellion. It's time to fight and, if need be, die for what I believe in. Forget farming, Luke. The Empire has denied everyone their freedom. You can save more lives by turning in that application as soon as possible. Use it as a buffer to get off the planet, then copy me."

Is there anything I might do to help?

Fixer had both legs amputated and his right hand lost articulation. Camie announced she was pregnant about the time Fixer sold Tosche Station to Rosworth Industrial. Fixer gave his girlfriend half the credits and kicked her out of their hovel. He told anyone who asked that Beggar's Canyon humbled him enough to realize he would make a dead-beat husband and worse father.

Uncle Owen's health went back and forth. Sometimes he seemed at the cusp of death and then the next morning was out repairing the green house. His temper was shorter than ever. 

"Did I raise an idiot or farmer? You have three deaths on your hands, Luke. A good mechanic became a useless shell. His woman's pregnant and out there alone. That guilt will follow you everywhere for the rest of your life. Learn a lesson from it. A lesson in the consequences of stupidity, childishness, irresponsibility. Those friends of yours sit around wasting their lives. You can follow them or you can wise up and become someone important."

Nightmares woke the young man often at night as if to pick up the slack when Owen slept. Luke chose to suffer both.

Their three workers quit and left the planet right before harvest. Owen threw a tantrum when he learned this. Luke ducked outside with dinner while Aunt Beru cleaned glass and cotton from the floor.

 He spent sundowns searching the land with macrobinoculars. Tuskens attacked a farm hundreds of kilometers away and news spread about what they had done to the occupants. Skinned alive and left to cook in the sunlight. Tuskens traditionally strayed from humans, but times were rough. They now killed and raided when they thought they could get away.

Luke needed to reach the canyon mouth and sabotage Fixer's T-16. Windy tagged along, probably believing Luke to have taken Camie at her word. A ring of onlookers surrounded another fight and moved as the fighters neared the edges. Luke pushed into the ring, intent on cutting through quickly, but found that to be a dumb try, as one man punched at his opponent and came close to Luke's head. Luke dodged the punch, but then a fighter shoved him aside and observers screamed at him to get out of the way. Windy held his arm and pulled him from the chaos as beer cans flew at them.

A man accosted him seconds later and pushed a cup to his front. "Soda and rum. Try it." Luke declined. The man sloshed the drunk on Luke's tunic and laughed. Luke wrung his tunic out, cursed, and remembered his goal. There were more disruptions: solicitations for alcohol, spice, and sex, but Luke resisted them all and finally he and Windy came to the start line.

One T-16 had launched and the second did so as they came within a few meters. 

The engines blasted light and dust and ruckus right on top of him and he stumbled back to land on his rear. He rubbed spots from his eyes and spit. He shot to his feet and ran at the craft, calling out for its pilot to stop, but it was a futile effort.

"Fixer hot-wired my T-16," Luke kicked a rock. "He's the only one here besides me who knows how. He hijacked my property and handed it to someone else so he could have his stupid race." 

Windy groaned. "Maybe I can get some action in a second round. I was really looking forward to testing our skills against a legend."

"Get real," Luke said. "There's going to be a single round, and I'll see to it that Fixer pays in credits or farm service. That's if he survives out there." They stood and waited. The music drowned the dying sounds of engines in the distance. Beggar's Canyon was twenty-five kilometers, which meant these races were done quick. A few minutes passed and Luke became hopeful that his worries were for nothing. The racers would near Stone Needle at any time. Maybe they had cleared it, miraculously enough. 

An explosion sounded. A pillar of fire and smoke rose from the horizon. Some partiers turned to stare in shock, some went about their carnality, and a few women, Camie among them, screamed. 

Luke ran to his speeder and hopped inside, turned the ignition and zoomed. He yanked the controls side to side, skirted boulders and turned corners. He switched on his headlights and sped up as the path straightened. Anger faded, replaced by fear for his friend, regardless how often they were at odds. He glanced to cliff edges, wary of Tuskens wanting target practice. 

Firelight exposed carnage ahead. A skyhopper was wedged between Stone Needle and a cliff face, turned into a giant fireball. The second was at the foot of the opposite wall, burning but recognizable. Luke spun the speeder ninety degrees and abused the brakes. He ran to the wreckage and began to wrench open the cockpit. Heat burned his palms, but he fought the agony. Fixer and Tank were inside: the former was unconscious, the latter charred remains.

Luke counted thirty plus in attendance at Beggar's Canyon. They listened to music and drank beer before the race, though Luke remained sober. Tank challenged Fixer to a drinking contest and won, leaving the Skyhopper pilot mean. Next came wrestling matches, which Fixer won by a punch to Tank's crotch. A few girls tossed away their tops and riled the men further. A real fight broke out behind Luke while he double-checked his T-16. 

Fixer grabbed Luke's tunic and Luke turned to see the other man's face bloodied and cut, eyes glazed. "Ready for our race, Wormy?"

"You're drunker than my uncle used to get on the weekends. We'll do this some other time, Fixer. These races are dangerous when sober, never mind wasted."

"Put your ass in that cockpit." Fixer hollered for co-pilot Tank and stumbled toward his own T-16.

Luke ran through the crowd and found Camie. She and her friends snorted lines of spice from the back of a shirtless man. 

"Convince your boyfriend he's too drunk to race. He's gonna get himself killed out there."

Camie blinked at Luke for a few moments, then giggled. "Get out there, Wormy. Kick Fixer's ass and I'll let you take me back to your place." 

"Come on," Windy ran up. "I'm right there with ya, man."

Luke arrived home late that morning to find a pot of tea boiling over. He poured some into a cup while Uncle Owen coughed from the bedroom down the hall. 

"How's he been?" Luke handed the tea to Aunt Beru, who sat beside Owen's cot. His uncle lay asleep with a wet towel on his forehead. 

"Lung infection keeps getting worse," Beru beckoned her husband to sit up and brought the cup to his mouth. Years of exposure to dust and dirt had taken a toll on the middle-aged man. 

Luke searched for platitudes, but came up empty. He spotted an envelope on the night stand and picked it up to read the letter inside. Another local farmer offered a hefty sum for the Lars homestead. 

Aunt Beru looked up to see him holding the letter. "Rosworth's itched to buy our land for seasons. Your uncle started to burn those letters five years ago. I thought I'd leave it out for when he feels better."

"We might have to consider," Luke said. "How can I run this place all by myself? We have three workers left, Aunt Beru, besides myself. The sand people are so outta control that men are reluctant to join. There's more business to be had as a smuggler or spice dealer these days, even if moisture farming is Tatooine's real heart." 

Water famine threatened citizens, but they were more willing to risk dehydration than a Tusken. Some stowed savings to jump off planet if the worst happened. Rumors spread that nearby planets in the system had high employment rates for miners. 

"We've seen worse, Luke. The Tuskens will settle down again. It's went downhill before, but we jumped right back up and carried on."

"Damn right." Uncle Owen's voice sounded like phlegm and gravel. "Land's been in our family since my great grandfather was a little boy. And it'll be around when you're old as me, Luke. Ever think of going to meet with Rosworth and I'll break your nose. You understand me?"

Luke nodded. He decided to wait until his uncle succumbed to the illness before he met Rosworth and talked business. Owen deserved to believe the life for which he had worked so hard would last forever. 

Imagine if these guys all went on the adventure with Luke; I'm guessing that Fixer would sneak off of the Falcon with his girlfriend while everyone else was busy rescuing Leia, and those two would escape into hyperspace after stealing Vader's TIE fighter. They would never be heard from again. Windy would be Luke's wingman along with Biggs in the final Death Star assault, and would chicken out while Biggs got fried by Vader in his conventional TIE fighter. Windy would then circle around and destroy Vader's TIE, and Han Solo would not come back to save anybody, having tried to pay back Jabba the Hutt. Chewbacca however would return in an empty Falcon, having left Han in a lurch back on Tatooine, where he would have to be rescued in a later film.

I guess the podrace deserves some recognition. It's an awesome sleeping aid.

Twin suns baked the arid land and sucked life from its surface. Life shriveled and died here in hours, but for those who knew the ways of survival, few though they were. Luke Skywalker, age twenty, crouched by a moisture vaporator and worked at it with a wrench. Loose clothes let air circulate over his body while hat and goggles shielded from ultraviolet. A water pouch hung from his shoulder by a strap; a quarter on the way, half while there.

Scorch marks and fissures scarred the vaporator surface. A panel was torn aside where the vandal had reached in and ripped at wires. Most sand people hated normal people and lately found new means to express their distaste.

The farmer guzzled water. He evened the dents on the panel with a hammer and then screwed it back in place. Something had to be done about all these cracks through which moisture could escape. He took a tube of sealant, five credits out his pocket at Anchorhead, and practiced patience.

Anchorhead was a ghost town at first glance, because the sane stayed indoors when they could. Tosche Station rested at the outskirts.

Luke parked his speeder outside the front door and hopped off. Machines stuck in windows turned carbon dioxide to oxygen, filtered out dust, and blew cool air back on Fixer, Camie, and Windy. Camie was sweaty and half naked on Fixer's lap as the man greased an engine part. Windy sat by a fan and surfed holo-porn.

"Better switch that to something else," Fixer said. "Or we'll have to call Wormy over here Stiffy from now on." Windy howled with laughter.

"His eyes are on me, dumbass." Camie blew Luke a kiss.

"Whatever," Luke sat backwards in a chair. "Who's in the mood to snipe sand people tonight? They hit another vaporator."

"Too spooked to go out alone?" Fixer set the part down and swiveled around in his seat to face Luke. "Pay me and I'll start cleaning my rifle."

Luke glared at him. "My farm's the reason why folks can live in Anchorhead and Mos Eisley. You'd be dried corpses if I'd left for the Imperial Academy like I wanted."

Fixer glared right back. "Saying we owe you, Wormy? How about a kick in the rear? We pay what's charged and it's kept your livelihood running."

"My prices are low for you guys, because you're friends. But you owe me your lives."

Camie stood up. "I've got it. Fixer's the Beggar Canyon hotshot. He's the one skyhopper pilot who can cut close to Stone Needle and tell the tale. Y'all suck compared to my baby."

"What about it?" Luke said. Fixer eyed his girlfriend skeptically.

"Race to the finish line. Fixer wins, we get our water free for the rest of the season. Wormy wins, and we pitch in for the rest of the season to guard those vaporators."

"Can I be your co-pilot?" Windy forgot his porn and went to stand by Luke.

Fixer opened and shut his mouth a few times. He would appear yellow in front of the woman if he declined, but his last race had been four years ago. "Fine."

The farmer crossed his arms and weighed the odds. His skyhopper needed repairs which cost credits and he was out of practice at the controls. But the risk-taker inside said this was too sweet a gamble to turn down.

The Stars of Wrath is retelling of A New Hope through a more cynical and realistic lens. John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath serves as inspiration, hence the title.

HanDuet said:

BroncoSport said:

I am confused as to why people would want A New Hope in the crawl.  This project was to restore the film to as close as possible to what was seen in 1977.

True, which is why Harmy isn't changing that aspect of the Despecialized Edition. However, different fans have different goals. 

Indeed. The title crawls could be advertisements for Quaker Oats, for all it concerns me (I watch ANH and ESB frequently, but it's been years since I read the crawls). But some fans are orthodox about them, understandably.

The edit came across as a political thriller, which seems to have been Lucas' intention. You took a bad film and made it watchable. Great job. It's amazing the improvements that can be made by primarily subtracting scenes.

Mists of Avalon for the Arthurian angle, Dune for the messianic machinations. :D

Thank you for reading, NeverarGreat. You automatically have me in your audience with your own future projects.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I've got an idea for a story that would be pretty awesome. It would basically be a cross between Hamlet and MacBeth, and would take place some time between the Great Hyperspace War and the Great Sith War.

I see your Shakespearean influence and raise you: I had an idea to draw inspiration from Mists of Avalon for fanfiction. Aaand I did.

Whatever story and character they choose, they need to visit Alderaan. I want to learn about its peaceful peoples, its culture, and beauty. Because that would be a tragic sort of nostalgia. It would retroactively make ANH more incredible.

Let's see Bail Organa raise his daughter. What was their dynamic like? How did she learn to become so headstrong, but idealistic? She resisted high-grade Imperial torture, for goodness' sake.

Mass Effect 3? My username is a reference to both a quarian in the second game (Tali's recruitment), and the ME3 multiplayer gun named after his geth-fighting family. :)

Agreed on ROTJ. It's a sub-standard film, especially when put beside its two predecessors. I reject it altogether, canonically.

Pre-ROTJ publications are canon to me. Everything published after that becomes dubious.

I would have gone and seen "Into Darkness", but Khan's casting was so bizarre as to dissuade me.

Two women in my theater balled their eyes out at the lava bank scene. 

TPM:

Tatooine in general. It dripped in ANH nostalgia while giving us more of the landscape and culture.

Qui-Gon was admirable.

The lightsaber duel; pure bliss and action abandon.

AOTC:

Tatooine, again, however brief (my favorite Star Wars planet).

Naboo.

Portman was especially attractive.

ROTS:

The pervading mood and atmosphere.

Ewan McGregor, most notably at the lava bank, pouring his emotions out.

[Epilogue]

"Remember," Yoda said to the boy. "A Jedi's strength flows from the Force."

The boy sat at the edge of a bog, green elder at his side. An uprooted tree stump spun and orbited around them. A boulder, larger than both of them together, floated over to join. 

"I'm doing it, Master Yoda. Think I can make them go faster than my father's X-Wing?"

Luke and Leia watched from the tree line.

The siblings were separated at birth, but brought in contact again through freak circumstance or fate. Obi-Wan swore to keep their connection a secret, theorizing that their erotic tension may culminate to produce exceptional offspring. 

Vader's revelation to Luke upset the status quo. What if Luke went on a misguided quest to redeem his father? The Dark Side corrupted wholly, Obi-Wan believed. And so, in the afterlife, he impersonated Vader, haunted Luke, and solidified the original deception. Yoda approved.

Eight years had passed since the Empire's defeat. Luke sometimes wondered how differently events would have unfolded had Obi-Wan and Yoda never undergone their conspiracy to arrange the birth of an alleged Chosen One. The memory of his night with Leia, preceding the final battle, gratified him sufficiently to cease such questioning. But they both held in honor the lives lost to herald the dawn of the New Republic.

[Chapter Nineteen]

Sweat trickled down to drop from his nose. His teeth clenched, eyes narrowed in furious concentration and effort, the strobe-like red assaulting his pupils. The duel led them to corners in both floor and ceiling, tapestries floating down to be slashed to ribbons. Pillars collapsed, wood clattered against stone, dust and dirt polluted the air.

Luke shoved both blades into the midsection of the last acolyte.

"The Skywalker bloodline is strong indeed. We are testament to family, you and I."

Luke deactivated both lightsabers. "Be quiet with that already. Your lies failed in the cave, they fail here. I'll never believe that Anakin Skywalker could become the abomination I'm currently surrounded by."

"I suppose you are consigned to live in delusion, then. Do you believe by coming here and defeating my apprentices, Blood Shard will suddenly leave Coruscant? What do you hope to achieve? I ascended past humanity, expanded my consciousness beyond a single, fallible shell."

"I'll find out how to defeat the evil here."

A mist rose and coalesced in front of the Jedi, dim at first, but glowing intensely as it assumed human shape. An apparition floated before him, appearing as a young man, roughly Luke's height and build. 

"Your efforts in the duel left your mind open. Powerful in the Force, yes. And that power now contributes to my divinity. Consciousness. . . my. . ." The apparition paused, as though hearing his name called in the distance. "It expands."

Luke was confused, at a loss. And then he sensed it, perhaps with Vader as his proxy. Raw power pulsated between them, and stretched out to the depths of space, over the surface of the city planet below.

"Leia," Luke closed his eyes. Could it be true? He felt a power greater than his own on Coruscant, and its cerebral scent matched with hers. He recognized a myriad of truths in the fabric of reality which had escaped him for so long. The Skywalker bloodline was the funnel of the Force. Father, son, and daughter, their power amplified by the masterpiece machinary in Blood Shard, created a vortex.

~ ~ ~

Leia, sole survivor in Group A, stepped from the Imperial shuttle. The mission to dismantle the generators had been successful, and she wished to leave before an infinite amount of storm troopers poured in. But she felt compelled to return to the edge and gaze to Blood Shard. Morning sunlight reflected on the angular surfaces.

I promise I'll be OK, Leia. Do what you feel is necessary.

Intuition bubbled forth. She reached out, splayed her fingers, and gripped the monstrosity with giant, invisible fingers. The muscles in her arms flexed as she slowly pulled downward, the tug of telepathy like a rope that simultaneously lent strength.

~ ~ ~

Blood Shard fell, broke apart, burned in the atmosphere. Millions of citizens witnessed the phenomena wordlessly. Its tip contacted the Imperial Palace, and the subsequent explosion flashed brighter than any star. Civilians that may have been in its radius had evacuated the sector earlier that night in response to the ground war between rebel and imperial. 

Luke crouched and formed a psionic shield around his body. The Force defended him from the maelstrom of flames. But Darth Vader, once the Jedi Knight and renowned pilot known as Anakin Skywalker, burned to cinders, his consciousness having been programmed throughout the dreadnaught circuitry.

[Chapter Eighteen]

Torches burned low, a dozen cloaked figures were still, and shadows consumed the end. Luke walked the long carpet, feeling malevolence radiating from either side. He dislodged a torch, stopped, and raised the light to reveal Darth Vader; or what had once been the Sith Lord. Now there was a skeleton, part bone, part cybernetics, its organs emptied out. The remains could have been there for centuries. A stench of rot entered Luke's nostrils.

"You let Blood Shard absorb you," Luke said. "A marriage of technology and the Force. But I guess you've been that, to some degree, for decades."

"Shrewd," The voice said from nowhere. "Draw your lightsaber, Jedi." A series of electrical sizzles sounded behind. Luke turned around, dropped the torch, and reached for the hilt clipped to his belt.

The figures held lightsabers. Red light played with the deepening dark. "Three at a time, else you become hindrances." They were almost on top of him an instant later.

Luke parried a blade, side-stepped another, and blocked three more strikes in succession. He swung at a minion, who defended with a sideways thrust. Luke slid his blade away, swung down in a half circle, and amputated the enemy's legs. He snatched up the extra lightsaber. 

One remainder swooped for his front, weapon horizontal and meant for his chest; the second mimicked the move from behind, aimed at his lower back. They abruptly halted and slashed out when their tips came within reach. Luke spun, claimed a pair of hands and gutted the counterpart.

Three more left the nine. Luke crossed his duel blades to block crimson death.

[Chapter Seventeen]

Coiled conduits buzzed overhead, illuminating the chamber. Equipment was bolted to the floor, encased by metal to house more conduits. The structures were large as buildings, and joined at their corners or walls to form a maze that stretched for thousands of meters. Smoke swirled to movement of bodies and blaster bolts.

Leia's trigger finger hurt, her muscles ached, but discipline and willpower were in surplus. She rose out of cover, killed a trooper, lowered back down, leaned out, and took another with a head-shot. 

There were four survivors in Group A, one man with a broken arm. Explosives were planted on three sides of the generator, but they still needed to clear this area for the fourth. Groups B and C were out of contact. Probably dead, Leia thought darkly. Rest their souls, they ran vital trial and error. We know how many explosives we need, where to place them.

"I'm useless here," Said the man who cradled his arm. "I'll try to confuse them while you guys make a run for the sweet spot. If those are your orders, mam." He was delirious, so Leia saved the food chain lecture. 

"Good luck," She said. Maternal nature could wait.

~ ~ ~

Luke floated alone in a void. The war outside his cockpit drew to a close. The Emperor, wherever he is, must fear for his title. 

Junk rained through Coruscant atmosphere, igniting in flame. Thousands would die from the hellish wreckage, Luke knew. The voice of his nemesis had gone silent again, leaving him to accept the galaxy's new fate.

My son. Do you finally see the power of the dark side? The Force conquers all. I accepted my destiny, written in the stars. Join me, Luke. Become my right-hand in this age, and help to bring peace to the far corners of the universe. 

Luke blinked. Why was Darth Vader referring to him as son? That ploy was old. He elected to ignore Vader's invitation to evil. "You said earlier, father, that you wanted me to give you a challenge. Face me. I've changed since our duel on Cloud City, so let's see if it's been for better or worse, shall we?"

Obi-Wan and Yoda are hostile voices in the mind, worse than myself. They pull your strings, Luke, in ways far more sinister than those I've exploited.

"I am a Jedi Knight," Luke said. "My masters were flawed, but they taught me well, as you once admitted. Do you take my offer to fight or not, Vader?"