Beyond - Legends Star Wars - The Will of the Force

Title: Star Wars - The Will of the Force
Author: Benign Viewer
Type: Epic
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, AU
Era: Post-ROTJ to TFA/NJO
Characters: Ensemble ft. Han, Luke, Leia, Mara, Thrawn, Snoke, Ben Solo, Darth Vader.

Foreword: A long time ago, in a spacious bedroom, I dreamed up my own head-canon for the Star Wars universe. This was the result of my experience with the movies, pro-fic and fan-fic combined (and my dissapointment in many of the former two) leading to the following amalgamation of ideas which hopefully is something enjoyable for you all to experience.
The Will of the Force also follows on from my alternate Return of the Jedi story, although that isn't required reading prior to this, as I made that fic line up pretty closely with where the film ended (which remains one of my favourite sequences in all of cinema, but I digress) minus the second Death Star. So if you missed or don't read my first Star Wars work, don't be surprised that the second Death Star is never mentioned - it didn't exist.
The end result is this epic in nine parts taking us from immediately after ROTJ right through the sequel trilogy.

Now for the necessary disclaimer: obviously none of this but what small flavour I bring is my own; Star Wars [Legends] characters and stories both are property of Lucasfilm (AKA Disney). Special nod to Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole and Lawrence Kasdan, my favourite writers behind Star Wars, whose ideas I will liberally borrow, reference and (hopefully) pay homage to in this tale.

So without further ado...

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STAR WARS​

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EPISODE VIS * VII * VIII * IX​

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THE WILL OF THE FORCE​

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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Prologue: The Other Side of the Event Horizon​

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[4 ABY]​

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A TIE line fighter's distinctive scream was swalloed by the empty expanse of space as it patrolled a corridor above the congealing mass of Coruscant.
The sound still rang through Luke Skywalker's cockpit however, followed by another, fedback to him by his X-wing's sensors as audio, not that he needed it. The Force marked the two pilots' path to Luke more clearly than any starfighter could.

An object swirled past his cockpit, distracting him momentarily, it was merely debris from the shattered planetary defense grid: a massive superstructure that had surrounded the entire planet, turning the city-world into a domain of perepetual night.
Sunlight touched the planet for the first time in years as the shell continued slowly breaking apart in the days after the Rebellion's daring and crippling assault.

The desperate plan had been to sneak the rebel fleet close to the world, to intercept the now former Emperor Palpatine before he could return behind the seemingly unassailable defenses as he returned from his first ever 'tour' of the - his - Empire.
That alone should have set off their suspicions, but half the Imperial Navy had been gathered as an entourage, and each world visited was chosen at random, the visits lasting from mere hours to days, seemingly on a whim.
It had been so excessive a gesture that the Alliance had bought into it; their one lead coming from the Hutt crminal network telling of the date Palpatine was due back on Coruscant, and how most of the Emperor's gargantuan fleet was to disperse prior to entering the system. The opportunity was one they honestly couldn't afford not to take.

It had all been a masive trap of course, and Luke himself had been at the centre of it, taken by Darth Vader onto the very command centre of the bastion.
There, with the same chilling view of space unfolding before him that he watched now, Luke had been confronted with the Emperor, not on board his returning flagship the rebel fleet had been waiting to ambush.
He had dueled his father for the second time that day, to the cackling delight of the Sith Master, entreating him to but thrust his green blade home and take Vader's place as his apprentice...

Luke shuddered and tried to repress the flash of memory.

Anakin had won out that day and thrown down Palpatine - literally - at the cost of his own life. It had been the one action the Emperor had not accounted for, never suspecting Vader to be capable of such selfessness.

His control panel beeped.

Shall I activate the cockpit thermal regulator? Artoo queried, observing his involuntary reaction.​

Luke shook himself free of the dark vision of he and Vader fighting, which continued to reach out across the void.

"No Artoo, I'm fine. Just - just keep us on low power until those TIEs are out of range."​

Luke could easily vape the two of them in a dogfight, of that there was no doubt, with Wedge as his wingman on this scouting mission they could probably do it before the patrol even had time to com their presence in, but Luke was mostly tired of the killing, and unwilling to examine the part of himself that wasn't.

Wedge and he were maintaining com silence, and had shut down all nonvital systems to avoid all but the most thorough sweep by the passing patrol. This latest mission was part of the Alliance's final preparation to launch an all-out assault to claim the Empire's capital in its entirety.

With its planetary defenses offline and much of the central chain of command in chaos in the wake of the Emperor's death, the grand jewel in the Empire's crown was as vulnerable as it would ever be. The Alliance's remaining pilots were being flown ragged on these sorties to try and intercept what transmissions from the planets surface they could before the rebellion attempted their liberation.
Although, he supposed, it might as well be an occupation as far as the Imperials were concerned.

Stretching out with the Force once more, he didn't allow the lingering shadows around this place to envelope him and instead checked on the progress of the TIEs. They were more than safely out of range. Standard protocol was to wait another 3 minutes before powering back up, but he was tired, restless, uncomfortable being in this point in space and, well, he was the commander of Rogue Squadron...

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"Fire us up Artoo, I'm going to flash the signal to Wedge." He flicked his X-wing's flood lights, normally reserved for night flying in atmosphere and landing, in a prearranged sequence. He couldn't tear his eyes away from that point in space, but felt as Wedge's X-Wing responded. "Rogue 2, do you copy?"​

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"Loud and clear, Rogue Leader" came the com response "Are we clear of those TIEs?"​

"Clear as Tatooine's sky, Wedge. Let's get back to the rendezvous now, you can take point, Rogue Leader out."​

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"Roger that boss. It'll be good to get back home, there's a bottle of Corellia's Finest with my name on it for not getting so much as a scratch. Rogue 2 out."​

His X-wing's engines hummed as he throttled up, accelerating out of Coruscant's gravity well, back on course to complete their mission and at last getting out of this force-forsaken spot.
Yet even as he and Wedge punched in their short, just-out-of-system lightspeed jump, his eyes kept being drawn back through void, to the vision of Green and Red light sabers interlocked and the cackling, maddening voice, spiteful to the last: You must kill Luke Skywalker...

Wait, what?​

 

Reserved: Part I {October 24th, 2016}

 

Reserved: Part II {November 2nd, 2016}

 

Reserved: Part III {TBD, 2016}