Luke Skywalker, the Last Jedi, faces his toughest challenge yet. After taking his Jedi vows, he assumes the misbelief that love has no place in his life. As a result, he denies the love he craves in order to establish the New Jedi Order and maintain...
❷ "Yoda and the Force"—The Empire Strikes Back OST
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Naluma jolted awake as the sub-light alarm activated. She groaned. ETA Two minutes. Yawning, her mind struggled through the landing procedures before pulling down the landing gear.
She grimaced as she remembered the time she landed without the shuttle gear during training. No harm done, but Luke was so— She cut off that train of thought. Focus on the miss—
As the geometric planes transformed to long streaks of blue light and then to pinpoints of stars in the black canvas of space, Naluma directed the ship to the behemoth Republic Cruiser Freedom. Without a helmet, she was unable to communicate with the ships. She just hoped Captain Antilles would assume that she was a Republic fighter pilot who had lost her way.
❶ The squadron of X-wing fighters launching dispelled all hopes of a Republic welcome. Knowing that the cruiser's shields would close as soon as the fighters had cleared the perimeter, Naluma maxed-out her sub-lights and raced toward the open bay.
The fighters engaged her head-to-head. Naluma took evasive action. After flipping off the artificial gravity to prevent nausea, she rolled her craft into a Split-S before coming out in a Pitchback loop.
The maneuver edged her closer to the landing bay. Realizing if she did not make a dash for the hangar now she would die out here fighting the squadron, she turned her craft to the bay and accelerated at attack speed toward the cruiser. As the shield closed the intervening space, Naluma sliced her X-wing into the tiny space between the bulkhead and the shield.
The port-side S-foils sheared off, and the ship slammed into the deck. The landing gear snapped off and sparks flew from under the craft while the metal-on-metal whine shrieked through the enormous hanger. When Naluma tried to activate the reverse thrusters to slow the fighter, her engines stalled.
Propelled with inertia alone and leaning precariously to starboard, Naluma popped her canopy and jumped out with lightsaber activated. While the fighter continued through the bay and the starboard-side S-foils dug a trench into the deck, two squads of marines fired on Naluma. Deflecting each bolt with quick movements of her blade, she tried to orient herself with the ship's layout.
The soldiers fired, and she deflected. Come on, guys, we're on the same team. Not wishing to hurt the crew, she aimed her lightsaber to strike the blasts against the port-side bulkheads. Neither made any progress.
Naluma shoved out her hand, Force-pushing the squads against the upper bulkheads and crashing them to the floor. Sorry. She rushed through the main hatch into the ship.
