ST The Lucasfilm Story Group: Questions and Answers/Feedback Thread

Where are they posted?

 

This might help…Here’s a cleaned up version (the other was actually the real first draft) that I eliminated the footers of the original word file that were likely a problem when copied over….thanks again.

Author’s Note: I am sure other writers found flash-forward would have been a far more convenient writing tool for this treatment, I felt a certain loyalty to finish off the 3rd act of this story in “real time” to retain the cohesive thematic flow of this particular trilogy. Nonetheless, I write a send-off with the obvious assumption of a someday 4th trilogy that does flash forward into brand new adventures (who really buys this -is-the-last-trilogy- no-we-mean-it-this-time -threats?). This entry was written first and foremost as a MOVIE experience. It is a Star Wars “Infinity War” type ensemble effort that I think is a fitting trilogy finale, and if all acting parties would agree to…would be a spectacular 2 hours, fifteen minutes (estimated runtime) of fulfilled wonderment for anyone looking up at that screen. I wanted to tie in mysterious plot strands that were woven into the storyline as far back as the First Saga (meaning Episodes1-3), make more acceptable the controversial bumps Ryan Johnson added to the Skywalker story for the disappointed, and give Anthony Daniel and C3PO the due that had been afforded their contemporaries from the original, classic space opera. Honoring Carrie Fisher obviously influenced every single one of our stories as an item that almost stands outside and above of the fiction we all were trying to neatly storyboard. Read and maybe re-read slowly as you play whatever John Williams you think fits the scenes and bring this story to life in your own minds chapter by chapter. Lastly, I wanted to capture that blend of STAR WARS swashbuckling, that STAR WARS humor, that STAR WARS mysticism, and the STAR WARS plethora of surprise plot twists that captivated…-no, sorry - more like inundated, a 10 years old boy, that summer vacation between 5th and 6th grade in 1977.


STAR WARS: LIBERATION


The opening crawl explains that the remaining First Order Fleet is assembling at its home base planet La-Dun for a massive operation and the final defeat of the worlds of the Republic. The Republic government, destroyed at Hosnian Prime, is trying to reform in secret on Mon Cala. The rag tag resistance of General Organa, Poe Dameron, and (with the loss of Luke Skywalker, the last link to the Jedi Order) Rey, is now searching out these Republic survivors before the First Order regroups…the fate of the galaxy is in the balance…


CHAPTER ONE: ANSWERING THE DISTRESS CALL FROM CRAIT


After the crawl…Crait comes into view…we linger monetarily through the drifting debris of destroyed First Order ships (FROM THE ADMIRAL HOLDO MANEUVER IN THE LAST JEDI)…a ship flashes out of hyperspace. First dialogue comes from the sensor-officer on the bridge to the captain and crew that the distress call had been pinpointed. It originated from the coordinates of a bunker on the planet’s surface, but now there are no signs of activity…the battle has been over for a long time…perhaps they are too late…Maz Kanata leans over and puts her hand on the captain’s shoulder, gazes out the forward window, “Without moments like this.I guess we wouldn’t have any use for hope, would we…”

She is answered by a caped figure, “As far as Leia Organa is concerned…I swear she lives on those moments.” It is Lando Calrissian. ”Captain, take us down to that bunker.”

They set down Lando’s ship, THE ICON, in front of the smoking bunker and Maz and Lando linger at the hole in the ground where Luke was targeted. We learn that Lando has been bankrolling the resistance (he calls them Leia’s Liberators). He has been her benefactor for a very long time from his shipping and cruise line profits as well as supplying their arms. His crew calls to them from inside the bunker’s cracked shield-door that there is, in fact, a ship parked inside…They run in to find the ship DJ stole from Canto Bight…Lando is incredulous for some unexplained reason. (“Oh, man, I can’t believe it!!!) … out of a trap door on the floor is flung a sack of fuel cells and parts (like a Santa Claus bag out from a chimney onto a roof) …this is followed by the echo of a building whistled tune, producing an exchange of perplexed expressions amongst everyone. They can hear someone climbing up a metal ladder….and then a head pops out of the trap door…it is DJ.

“YOU!” Lando and DJ chime at each other in unison.

We find out that DJ was returning to the scene of the crime to scavenge valuable parts he assumed he would find there, particularly fuel cells…but the big shock is this…the ship he stole from Canto Bight is owned by Lando!

Knowing the secret of arms dealing to both sides of the conflict lying inside…DJ plays coy with Lando…Maz picks up that they are sharing a secret, and Lando tells her it’s just something he may have to tell her later and don’t trust DJ. They put him in cuffs as DJ offers them free advice if they would believe him…. That, if it is any consolation, some of the resistance did escape on the Millennium Falcon…Lando had a fond recollection of that ship… and Maz is elated that they had escaped.

There is a frantic commlink call from the ship’s captain with a warning of a new situation, “Sir, you have to see this! we have visitors…” Lando shakes his head and looks to Maz, “What now?”

CHAPTER 2 :_THE ASTRAL PLANE

Luke Skywalker walks on another plane, another realm. There are images out of time…characters of the saga at different ages, and then he is sitting in the courtyard of the Jedi Temple of Ahch-To, yet it is not an ancient ruin…it is crystal and gleaming metal…it exists outside of time…. Mace Windu meets him {YEAH SAM JACKSON}. Luke expected Ben Kenobi or Yoda… Mace laughs and explains that he alone is the one who must speak to Luke, “You do remember what it says in our ancient texts, my fellow Jedi, don’t you: sometimes you don’t get what you want…young Skywalker…. you get what you need…” (Yes, that is a Psalm in the Jedi Text – believe it or not!)

Mace motions to Luke, ”Hand me your lightsaber.” ”What?” Luke is perplexed. Mace repeats, “Skywalker, your lightsaber. It is time for a lesson.” Oddly, he does have a lightsaber, and Luke, in a puzzled state, hands it over. What a strange place this is. Mace takes the saber and throws it back over his shoulder and Luke sounds like the whiny 20-year-old from A New Hope for a second, “Hey, what did you do that for?” “How’d that feel…not good…that’s no way to treat an eager Padawan is it? That girl was just so bubbly…. she did not deserve…that!”

“That’s the lesson I needed to learn?”

“No, you’re not a boy anymore…you should have been teaching the lessons.”

…Luke agrees, “I should have…”.

“And to be honest, take heart,” Mace announces, almost grudgingly, “You would not be here if you hadn’t already figure that out yourself. In a way, the Force itself, owes you an apology… too much was placed on one man’s shoulders.”

Mace concedes the two were destined to meet, because of an unfortunate bond; a shared mistake; Mace with Anakin and Palpatine and Luke with Ben Solo and Snoke. The course of Jedi history forever altered by the actions of these two men.

“I had a hand in losing your father and creating Darth Vader.” He waves the fingers of his organic hand (noted as NOT severed as in Revenge of the SIth) “Speaking of which- literally, a hand…you’ll find your brief time on this plane…very interesting….” Luke looks at his own very real flesh and blood hand as well, it is not mechanical here. ”My brief time?” Luke couldn’t help but be surprised by this.

“Yes, you are going back, Skywalker.”

Mace explains why it is so important to return to Rey’s side. He startles Luke by connecting the force awakening in Rey to the exact time Luke decided to, once and for all, shut it out on Ahch-To. The balance that Jedi’s yearned for may have been their own misinterpretation. There was a shell around the force of how to behave – such as the whole fear, anger, aggression prohibitions. While, really, both the Jedi and the Sith were blind to the core of the force’s truest nature inside the shell…not the HOW we live…and die…but the WHY we live and die…love, understanding, justice…much deeper powers further inside the force…. motives over process…

Mace asks again for Luke’s lightsaber. Luke starts to remind him that he already had taken-NO! it was back at his side! What a mystic world he had entered. “Balance was only a seal….the day you gave up the light, Snoke and Kylo Ren still held the dark…well, the balance ended…the seal broke…The light flickered out…you were never to take on the task of balancing this power all on your own, Luke; you were more the counterweight to darkness….even with your mistakes, even with doubt…without you, Jedi, there was no goodness alive in the force…except for the conflicted spark in the soul of Ben Solo, it was gone…until it chose the girl…it is the light side, from that point on, that has been reborn, the virtuous side reinvigorated…no longer seeking balance….but victory…because that’s what the darkside wants now too…ultimate victory….do not think of it again as a mutually signed contract to balance all things in life…think of it more as an eternal fight.

“There were instances I felt darkness in even her,” Luke warned. Mace appeared to already know this, “Like you yourself have once or twice, like myself…that’s why you are going back. She is amazing, she doesn’t need much, but she needs something. Her shoulders are even smaller than yours…” Luke reveals to Mace, “I left in peace because I felt Leia could guide her.”

“Luke, you reached out to Leia on Crait…thinking it was your farewell to her…yet, the force did not reveal, even to you, in those moments that it was her farewell to you. The truth is, your sister died on the bridge of a star cruiser days earlier…by the grace of the force she was granted a short, but valuable, accession of time as a walking essence to set the paths of those around her on paths that needed to be set. The force allowed this because the Force NEEDED this. That has taken place… Luke, you will go back now, because she is the Skywalker that we welcome to this realm today… it was never to be you….go with the Force…” Mace simply hands the lightsaber back to Luke…

bright lights… a montage of Leia in her own various ages. Luke drifts away from the scene. He is to pass her as they exchange worlds. He touches Leia amidst the glow of their aura’s. “May the force be with you, Luke.” To which he responds to his sister, “Leia, I love you…say hello to Han for me.” There is a young regal woman, Padme, though he can only sense who she is: his mother too…Bail Organa, Leia’s step mother, and others greeting her….is that Anakin? Is that Han?…all of this in a second, but behind it love….victory…

The side of light opened gates that the dark clearly did not…



CHAPTER THREE: WHAT REMAINS OF THE RESISTANCE

… IMAGES CONTINUE TO FLASH…the faces of the resistance…Rey holding Leia’s robe after she had just ascended through the Force. Poe hugging members of his team…Finn and Rose, heads down….C3PO, for once, speechless… then, in slow motion members of the resistance exiting the Falcon in pre-dawn sky at Mon Cala’s New Coral City… (Using the cool version of the name of the Mon Calamari world from THE CLONE WARS)

As three friends climb a seaside path (with a file of fellow resistance members behind them) they pass coral trees that are starting to glow in the sunrise…

“She stayed as long as she could and as long as we needed,“ Poe says, as if still needing to convince himself. He mentions whatever Leia left inside of him must be something similar to what Luke left Rey. Not exactly, thinks Rey, though she did wishes she had more time with the Jedi…and more time with Han Solo as well…It is Finn who muses that while some teaching takes years, like strategies or fighting techniques, and they never seem done…. there’s other lessons that are taught in only seconds...those and the teachers that teach those lessons up being the best ….and those lessons themselves wind up being the most important… and Finn also suggests that those lessons were already theirs’.

They come to a seaside amphitheater (picture a cross between Ancient Roman splendor and the SeaWorld Stadium). Gisha Ackbar, daughter of the late Admiral Ackbar, greets them as the leader of the remnants of any organized government, “This is what remains of the Republic.”

Rey counters with, “And this is what remains of the resistance…”


Chapter FOUR: RETURN TO FORTRESS REN – La-Dun

The planet La-Dun is the arsenal and supply warehouse of the First Order, Besides the massive Castle, held in the sky a by anti-gravity repulsors, there are other smaller floating BATTLE ISLANDS around the perimeter of the metropolis-like settlement. Their guns guard over skyscraper-tall slaves “hives”. And that is exactly how the metal structures look, built on two thousand-foot rods, in a manner that obviously made the only escape attempt from First Order servitude for these workers…death by a very long fall. Some of the hives are work plants, but most are the living quarters of the enslaved. Workers are ferried to mines, factories, and blast furnaces by sky barges for daily shifts of hard labor and back to the hives at the end of the day, under the watchful eyes of their captors.

the Knights of Ren have prepared for the return of Kylo. The servants spread the news, almost giddy. KYLO REN has returned! The knights comment it has been a long wait. Kylo, now also the SUPREME LEADER, enters with General Hux and BB-9e at his side and a new female Admiral named Kelsaar … Kylo takes a place on a throne-like seat. He discourages the celebratory tone…he doesn’t see any victory to merit… anything of the sort.

At least by appearance, it seems Hux has accepted his second in command role. He tells Kylo that there is a need to repair the fleet quickly, move to other planets, especially an invasion of Coruscant. They must find the rumored survivors of the Republic government as well as the resistance…In order to do this, the First Order needs to secure more slaves from additional planets, seize more equipment and materials…a task force is dispensed under Admiral KELSAAR. It is decided that they should raid Mon Cala…Kelsaar has been eager to do this: the obstinate races of that world had a history of courting trouble that spanned all the way back to the days of the Empire. She makes a racial comment that they had avoided enslaving “the wet ones” for too long…plus, a bonus is Mon Cala’s famous shipyards with some of the most significent equipment outside of the First Order ports and bases themselves.

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren agrees, “Anything to wipe them off the face of the galaxy.” After the Admiral leaves, there is one more piece of business for the two.

There has been a hologram message left from SNOKE – to be played for Kylo and Hux in the event of his death. The image of Snoke in front of them is an eerie site. He orders them to travel to the planet Voll at once…. to the Cave of the Sith Witch…he dangles the tease that only if they make this journey will it become clear about their rightful places in ruling the galaxy and even perhaps.…leading someday to the return of an Emperor.

Before he leaves, Kylo and the knights (there are six of them) step to what appears to be a leafless brown tree in the center of a rotunda behind the throne. On its branches are lightsabers…all collected from past jedis…and a couple Sith Lords as well. Of a higher limb, he notes, “Take one from any branch but this one…”


CHAPTER FIVE: THE NEW CORAL CITY ALLIANCE

A new day. The resistance, the Republic survivors, and various inhabitants of Mon Cala are to meet again at the amphitheater. BB-8, R2 and C3PO are having a conversation. R2 tells C3PO something about the questionable effort he puts out for the cause and when 3PO asks for support from BB-8 and doesn’t get it, he’s taken even more aback, “Oh, that isn’t fair at all…you two are ganging up on me. I need to find a good protocol droid to even the argument…astro-mech cans and balls just don’t have the positronics to understand!”

We see the Porg family gathering seaweed and building a nest among the coral trees. One, excited to see Chewie, falls out, rolls on the ground…it is the one that took an affinity to Chewbecca in The Last Jedi, and Chewie picks it up and puts it back in the tree. It chirps its gratitude.

As Poe, Finn, and Chewie walk and talk, Chewie is turning back to bark something at them and doesn’t see a creature slither into his path and bounces against it. Chewie growls his displeasure, but immediately changes his tune as he looks up at the purple, giant squid-like creature, a full 5 feet higher than the Wookie himself. Chewie makes a much more conciliatory noise as Poe and Finn strain their necks as well. A squid tentacle-arm gives a sloppy pat to Chewie’s head, messing with his hair and in a friendly, though in an unintentionally condescending baby-talk blabber, the squid announces what a delightful novelty the Wookie is, “ROOOH, RUCH A RITTLE RRURRY…. HI! RITTLE RRURRY. ROW RARE ROU?”. (I WOULD CALL THIS RESIDENT OF MON CALA – OONKY MANTOUR BECAUSE IT WOULD LOOK COOL ON THE ACTION FIGURE BOX). Needless-to say Chewie is a little unsettled…just stands there…doesn’t move a muscle after the squid creature moves on…now off camera but still giggling, “RUT A RITTLE RURRY!” (TRANSLATION: WHAT A LITTLE FURRY)

In the amphitheater, Ackbar, aided by Lieutenant Connix (played by Billie Lourd, Carrie’s Fisher’s daughter) and Larma D’arcy (Amanda Lawrence in The Last Jedi) inform the gathering through a holo-video presentation of the captivity of so many thousands placed into slavery on La-Dun, pointing out the slave hives, the battle stations, and the100 foot wall that encircled the slave metropolis…Ren Castle is discussed as well, now the home of The Supreme Leader. They make the decision that once they have the forces to do it, this is the first logical choice to concentrate an attack; destroy the First Order’s ability to build ships and transport supplies and free the slaves in a Dunkirkesque evacuation at the same time.

In the middle of this discussion, the leaders are interrupted by a shout from the back of the room. “THEY”RE HERE!” within seconds a hologram message from Commander Kelsaar is being played before the audience……The First Order will be landing…. they expect complete cooperation… and no resistance…. Rose counters, “No resistance…. we are the resistance!”

Kelsaar, “We expect this to go as a standard First Order Procedure to confiscate materials and…gather workers…” A mother fish creature gathers her son and daughter beneath her flippers, as if already protecting them from the monsters. The transmission ends with a reiteration from the Admiral, “…Complete cooperation.”

“They don’t know we’re here…they don’t know any of us are here…” Rey realizes….it is true they are just coming to raid and enslave, as if there is such a routine event.

When the crowd murmurs in a what-do-we-do tone, Rey has the answer, “We fight,” She accents it with the soft, surprised self-realization of an epiphany…Ackbar joins her sister-in-arms, more confidently, “We fight!” and more take up the cause, “We fight!” Ackbar beckons to an aide, “Send word to all of our allies beneath surface!” He waddles off. To another, “Prepare the city defenses!”

Poe jumps up on a stone dais and has BB-8 give a piercing whistle to silence the building frenzy. When all attention is turned in his direction, he calms them down, “Yes, we fight…. but…. this is the First Order we’re talking about…we win this thing if we fight… smart! …. our way out of this can’t just be blowing things up! We win…if we fight smart! Lull them into a false security…hit them from all sides…” the crowd agrees, “We don’t have a lot of time…let’s get to work.” He adds. Finn is impressed; Leia did instill something inside of Poe, “She’d be proud of you.”

the Millennium Falcon is undergoing an upgrade (4 giant automated quad cannon turrets are being added to the mandibles on the front of the ship. 2 on the top surface and 2 on the bottom) and will not be ready for the battle, so Chewie gets his crossbow to join the fight on the land. There is scurrying around to ready for battle. Finn finds himself with Chewie to his right and on his left, the 12-foot-tall Purple Squid as it readies 6 blaster rifles gripped in its tentacles (he uses the other 2 appendages for locomotion). Finn likes the one-man-arsenal style and tells Chewie, “Oh, I’m going to stick with this guy!” Chewie rolls his eyes.

Oonky looks down at Finn and says “RITS ROW TRIME!” Finn glows and repeats his words with better pronunciation to Chewie, “Oh yeah…. It’s go time!” Chewie mimics the words in mockery.


CHAPTER SIX: THE BATTLE ON MON CALA

The First Order forces appear on the horizon, landing craft, as well as sea craft dropped into the water, and all head towards New Coral City… Gisha Ackbar meets with the First Order officials, there is tension as the officers being to list their conditions…. the trap is sprung. All the principles have roles to play in the battle, from beneath the sea comes allies to join the fight in various submersibles. Along with a cavalry unit, Rey rides upon sea horse like animals (a cross between the Loch ness Monster and Pete’s Dragon). Poe commands a fighter-boat with a giant rear propeller launching it throw the waves. Paddle-wheel tanks of the Callamari come in from the flanks. On the surface Finn, Chewbacca and others blast away at the stormtrooper and aquatroopers.

On the bridge of her star destroyer, Kelsaar is only now coming to terms with the reports whirling around her. This was not supposed to be a battle. She orders a launch of her TIE fighters, reinforcements.

Rose is working a computer next to Gisha at a mobile command center facing the sea. “We have incoming! TIE fighters!” Gisha Ackbar herself mans the missile battery control and uses the opportunity to rally the troops around her. As she throws the levers, one after another, an array of underwater-to-air rockets, she shouts, ‘This is for my father! …. This is for all of our fathers!” Thundering missiles pierce through the skin of the ocean. The First Order fighters explode in the sky like a fireworks display. There is a cheer from the fighters…

More bad news is relayed to Kelsaar. This is not the day she expected, “Launch every available squadron!” There is another yell aimed at her, “Admiral, there’s ships coming out of hyperspace!”

At this pivotal moment of the battle, Lando and Maz arrive with a hundred ships…ships that had answered the call from Leia on Crait, (“the visitors” at the end of chapter one). Many heeded the resistance call at the end of The Last Jedi after all. Through his network of communication across the galaxy, Lando had been able to find where the resistance had traveled. There was hope in the galaxy…some ships are military, but many are pleasure craft, freighters, utility ships modified with weaponry. “All ships engage that star destroyer!” The allied crafts are dwarfed by the destroyer, yet combined, their firepower and maneuverability prove tough for the big ship to counter. Its shields start to wear down and the destroyer starts taking damage. Lando voices his approval and Maz offers a philosophy, “Sometimes it takes many little fish to take on a big one!”

Kelsaar orders a full retreat. A First Order vessel captain states he wants to take as much rebel scum as he can on the way out and orders his squad of sea faring corvettes to remain in the fight a moment longer,”Retreat can wait!” He targets Rey and the other riders of the sea horses, Poe and the fighter-boats, as they engage in a skirmish with aquatroopers on hoverboards. The captain’s pursuit is short lived as a new gunship comes out of nowhere and makes a low approach above the waves and opens a barrage on the First Order ships. The last-minute arrival saves the defenders’ lives…Kelsaar’s destroyer recovers the retreating force and jumps into hyperspace.

The victors celebrate at New Coral City…Lando greets the resistance…the fate of Leia is told to him. Momentarily saddened, he then comments how her inspiration was truly behind much of what transpired on Mon Cala that days. With only resolve and blasters and a hodge-podge of a fleet this group has turned the tide. He suggests it is time to evolve the Resistance into the Liberation!

After the battle, C-3PO comes out of a storage closet that served as his hiding place. R2 and BB-8 are outside the door to greet him. He does his best after an initial startle to ignore them and presents the explanation, “I am pleased to report this storage locker did not fall into enemy hands!”

The ship that came to Rey and Poe’s aid lands next to Lando’s. We learn from the greeting Lando gives the pilot that it is his own son, Han Calrissian (If fittingly played by Donald Glover it would allow him to claim another role in the saga and all of us to see him on screen again!) Maz reunites with her past associates, especially Chewbecca.


CHAPTER SEVEN: THE CAVE OF THE SITH WITCH

The planet Voll is the world seen in the vision of Rey in The Force Awakens. The terrain is a stony surface and there is hard rain that comes in waves of downpours, but then moves off like a squall to reveal a star-filled sky until the next heavy squall moves through. In one of those quieter moments, Kylo reminds Hux that this was the site of his knights’ first battle, when Snoke set the new force against a Clan rising against the witches. Through vines and tangled trees Kylo, Hux, the Knights of Ren, and stormtroopers approach the Cave of the Sith Witch. Hux takes aside a trooper Captain (In the same silver armor that Phasma wore). “Keep the troops at the ready…I have a bad feeling about this.” Lightning accentuates the classic line perfectly.

The twin sisters, Darthess Harma and Darthess Sinestra are awaiting them. (The spectacular drawing of Iain McCaig on page 110 of the art of Attack of the Clones is what we should envision). In chains, at the side of their “altar” are large guard “dogs”, like a cross between werewolves and sabertooth tigers…It is clear Hux is not comfortable with them…

Kylo and Hux come to the forefront. The witches explain in a dialogue bouncing up and back between them, like one thought, but two voices, that Snoke has more than a message for them…but an opportunity…they are told to kneel…it is all very mysterious to all onlookers…

The force ghost of Snoke appears…and all is revealed. He had picked Ben Solo long ago for his plan…. he had done this before, he tells them…when he was Darth Plagueis! When, just as Kylo repeated in The Last Jedi, his student (then Darth Sidious/Palpatine) murdered him as well. You see, the power over death was misinterpreted by Darth Sidious. He was very mistaken when he offered the power over death to Anakin Skywalker, or, as it appeared, he was fooling not only Anakin, but himself. There was a path to cheat death, but it came in a unique form…and only through the dark side, thus NOT FROM A JEDI. A soul once disconnected from the body could move on and possess another…thus, one could theoretically live forever with this continued migration. But there was a lone qualification for the new host…it had to have the fertility of a dark soul…it had to be incubated over many years of darkness before it could be claimed…. the next body had to be imprinted over time by the possessor (A force related process much like the lengthy time in the wilderness a Jedi had to expand to earn the power of force ghost communication…all of these skills seem to take a long time to master).

Darth Plagueis had a choice back then and found the dark soul of his towering, flashy mobster friend SNOKE much more appealing than Palpatine’s frame, and took his form…Today, it was time for his next migration…initiated, as he had planned, when Kylo Ren killed the Snoke body…time to cheat death again…

The truth starts to dawn on Ben Solo. Snoke needed to manipulate him. Snoke confirms Ben was led into his decisions by the power of doubt….seeds were planted, but Ben alone could grow the dark tragedy that followed… the turning on Luke, the massacre of the village on Jakku, the killing of Han, crushing Rey’s hopes with the lie about her parent’s abandonment…always in conflict, but sliding towards the darkness Plagueis/Snoke needed…

Yet, there was another surprise. The evil ghosts shocks them all...unfortunately, Kylo Ren’s soul, it turns out, in the end, was not dark enough! No, Snoke will not migrate and take over his body…

Despite steering him to honor Darth Vader, there was still light in Ben Solo, and though Snoke thanks Kylo for dispatching him from his last corporal body….the evil one was going to use his contingency plan again…

…Snoke was incubating and grooming another dark soul in reserve…dark enough to kill billions with the Starkiller weapon, where Ben could not even kill his own mother! It was Hux!

The Snoke entity enters the body of General Hux. (For the rest of the story I will continue to call him Hux and Kylo now turns to Ben) As he enjoys the feel of the new body, Hux demands allegiance from the knights of Ren. Ben has collapsed in sorrow and is of no help. His knights refuse…except one, Sylus Ren (previously Kal in Luke’s Jedi school – more on that later). He steps forward to join Snoke.

The Knights look to their leader for guidance, but he is momentarily incapacitated in the deepest of grief….his entire past revealed as tragedy. There is a drawing of sabers. Eventually, in a tearful rage, Ben Solo tries to lunge towards Hux, but Hux holds him, mid-air with a mere gesture. Ben’s red blade flies into Hux’s hand. Sylus Ren attacks his own fellow knights. Stormtroopers fire blasters, the animals howl. The Sith witches cackle and cower.

On the same world on which the Knights of Ren fought their first battle against the Clan, they have now fought their last. Ben sinks into despair. He is spared by Hux…a public execution in front of the forces of the First Order will be a teaching moment to all…


CHAPTER EIGHT: TRAITORS IN THEIR MIDST

On MON CALA there is to be a meeting which includes Lando, Rey, and Poe with C3PO. Beforehand, C3PO tells R2-D2 he thinks it is about hiding during the battle and he is to be reprimanded. BB-8 rolls by them with several Porgs having a great time riding atop his dome.

Finn is running late for that meeting when he is stopped by Rose. Rose tell Finn, that it is okay if they are just friends if, as she picks up, right or wrong, he would rather be with Rey…Finn admits that Rey is only his friend as well, but…”What’s not spectacular about being her friend. What’s not spectacular about being your friend. There is an underrated strength in friendships. It’s as precious as anything. I grew up without friends…well, I did have one, FN-2003….” Then he kind of crinkles his facial muscles in regret as he bobs his head remembering, “Actually, Finn blasted him on Jakku...” Rose really doesn’t know where to go with that accept, “You’re right. Let’s be friends.”

it is here that Finn and Rose are very much alarmed to learn from Lando’s son, Han, that the Canto Bight ship was Lando’s. They immediately start trying to figure out who to tell. The caped hero may be no better than a glorified version of DJ. But they may need more proof…Lando does come across as a very popular guy.

C3PO is delivering food to DJ and they strike up a friendly conversation….C3PO explains that he had been placed on food service duty and is not very happy about it. He tells DJ he is fed up with the band of fighters and may even like to see their defeat…and he has the means too in overhearing their plans to attack the facilities on La-Dun. DJ is given assurance that no one else had seen him hear this or know that he does…not even R2. DJ makes a deal with C3PO that if the droid helps DJ escape and get to the Canto Bight ship, C-3PO will be well respected at Ren Castle like he never had been before. C3PO takes him up on the offer.

After they blast away, they discover another passenger aboard: Rose was looking for clues about Lando aboard the ship and now is their hostage. Oddly, DJ notices the sack of fuel cells he was scavenging on Crait is onboard. He tells Rose and 3PO he must make an unplanned stop…He explains how he stole the ship in the first place…he gained access to the ship by telling Lando’s guards he had to get onboard as part of a surprise party for Lando…it’s a loophole, he says….it works every time.


Finn runs up to Lando in a hanger bay and confronts him. “I know the game you play!” “Sabacc?” Lando answers. By the end of the conversation Lando has told Finn that he is not a turncoat and the line, “You betray your friends to the Empire once, just once…and you spend the rest of your life living it down!” They also find out that Rose was unexpectedly onboard. Lando tells Finn as a preface to letting him in on the plan, “I am going to have a chat with you right now…”

CHAPTER NINE: THE RETURN OF THE JEDI…AGAIN

……. As the Canto ship cuts into hyperspace, almost simultaneously another transport arrives. After it lands, Luke Skywalker walks down the gangplank. The captain and crew, a bunch of smaller muppet-like creatures bid him farewell. Luke thanks them, but the captain beams in a Yoda like reversal, “Not every day, hitch a ride, a Jedi does…” They all laugh to themselves, still in awe, as he walks away…

Another overlook over the coral groves and the turquoise ocean… Luke appears to Rey, and has a casual explanation for her, “The Force really is crazy isn’t it.” At first, she cannot believe he is real and she has to hit him on the chest. Once convinced, they actually hug…initially a more natural effort comes from Rey, then Luke, as he makes a second effort, and really means it. She wants to say something, but senses, “You already know about Leia.” Luke does. Rey steps back, reaches into her supply bag and very reminiscent of The Force Awakens hands him half the lightsaber. As he looks at it with a wrinkle to his forehead, and as he is already analyzing the damage, she hands him the other half. “Can you fix it?” “Yes, I only wish I started your training differently.” This triggers an unexpected reaction from Rey. She encourages Luke to follow her. Completely ecstatic, she produces the ancient Jedi texts and to Luke’s incredulous stare, and actual grin, “How?” he asks. She, smugly and giddily at the same time, reveals to him, “I STOLE THEM!” You could see the concern in Luke’s expression – This is the where the entire future of the Jedi Order lies?

DJ stops on Mantooine with C3PO and Rose. It is a world of rice-paddies and water bantha (like water buffalo…just grey banthas)…amongst rocky cliffs and drumlins . The landing platform and homes and other structures are all connected by wooden platform made of timber the size of redwood…he introduces Rose and C3PO to his adoptive parents – short dog-like creatures, that carry the same stingy speech pattern DJ does. You can see where he got it. The Fuel cells are to be delivered to an orphanage of many races supported by his parents. A place he started out as well. Rose is stunned by this side of the flim-flam artist. “You still won’t take a side…” “Oh, I take a side…a different one every day… if I have too…but here, none of that comes home.” This place DJ’s eye in the middle of the hurricane.


CHAPTER ELEVEN: REY HAS ANOTHER VISION

Rey is fixing the lightsaber with Luke…. Lando and his son Han come over….Lando and Luke move off on their own, to another highpoint. Luke calls to R2 to come along.…Lando mentions how his Han is a lot like the old one…and then Lando speaks of Leia and her liberators. He helped her every way he could in her breaking that treaty and continuing the fight against, what he still considers the remnants of the Empire…never getting used to calling it the First Order. Off in the distance, the two watch Han and Rey joined by Finn and Poe, and BB-8. They are consoling Finn about Rose; all pledge that her return is part of the plan… Further away, Luke and Lando catch a farther glimpse of a landing platform where Chewbecca, and Maz are working on the Falcon’s new modification, the four quad cannons on the front mandibles. Lando laughs watching the small figure of Maz, hands on hips, “That old lady does like to keep herself busy.” R2 beeps and chirps… Luke understands, “I know you miss him, R2. It will all come together in the end….”

The conversation also continues downhill from them, as Finn spies a box full of the Jedi books, “Shouldn’t you keep those somewhere safe?” Rey explains, “I am. They are not leaving my site.” Poe and Han laugh.

Rey continues,“When Luke comes back down…AND ALL OF YOU LEAVE….there’s one book in particular he says he must speak to me about first. That I myself must wait to read.” “Well, which one?” Finn is fingering over the tops of them…

“The one with the star…it’s called the journal of the Whills…master Luke says the Whills move among us mysteriously, gathering the history of the force, recording it…” Finn sees it and pulls it out, “That shouldn’t be a Jedi only book.” She is perturbed, just slightly, that he touched it and walks over to grab it, “No, and it isn’t …. it’s just…”

As she snatches it out of Finn’s hands and hold it firmly in her own, Rey sees the world enveloped in a flash….she is no longer on Mon Cala with them….She is flying above a grassy plain, but not alone, there are others, riding great winged beasts…she sees their lightsabers power on…they are Jedi’s…they all disappear together, with her, into a cloud, there is a flash of lightning, the other side of the cloud is now just a fog. She walks on ground…. there is a shape of a tree in the fog, a strong trunk leading up to many branches. Then there is an image of another Jedi, struggling, in some pain bathed in a shimmering wall of blue rays. (Though she does not realize it – the Jedi in the image is Obi-wan -The Ewen McGregor one) {NOTE: THIS IS A TIE-IN VISION TO AN OBI-WAN STAND ALONE STAR WARS MOVIE TAKING PLACE BETWEEN EPISODES 3 AND 4. IN THIS FILM, OBI-WAN MUST DESTROY A NEW INVENTION BEFORE IT FALLS INTO THE HANDS OF THE EMPIRE…CALLED THE FORCE MACHINE. THIS INVENTION CAN ROB THE FORCE OUT OF A FORCE SENSITIVES INDIVIDUAL, SUCH AS JEDI AND PLACE IT INTO SOMEONE ELSE. THE COST TO THE DONOR IS SEVERE; AS IT DRAINS THE FORCE IT ALSO TAKES AWAY LIFE ITSELF, AGING THE DONOR YEARS WITHIN MINUTES, KILLING THEM IF SUBMITTED TOO LONG TO THE PROCESS. OBI-WAN/BEN KENOBI IN THE ACT OF RESCUING, ALL I WOULD SAY AT THIS TIME, A KEY STAR WARS FIGURE FROM ITS GRASP. SACRIFICES PART OF HIMSELF AND AGES 15 YEARS IN THE EFFORT. THUS, ALEC GUINESS IS RIGHT-ON-TIME AGE-WISE AS THE OBI-WAN WE KNOW FROM THE NEW HOPE. THIS CLEANS UP THE STRANGE AGE DIFFERENCE OF KENOBI BETWEEN THE EPISODES!}

…. the vision then shifts to with a new sound of a bubbling brook…it looks like a family besides it, many members, talk is of saying goodbye… the images move fast…. feet running, a man and woman…. just running…blaster fire…. A hologram of a man in a robe, a grey beard… “She will be safe with him and his wife.”…the sound of a ship taking off…

Then there is a shift and a howling wind. She swears she sees images of Han…of Leia….and then…darkness…the darkness of a cell…. there is silence now, and stillness. Rey sees a figure kneeling on the ground. She is in a cell with Kylo Ren…no, not Kylo Ren…Ben Solo…When she whispers his name he looks up. But he says nothing…. she only reads his eyes….” Why won’t you talk to me?” More than sights and sounds, she felt things here…despair, guilt, sorrow… she repeats, “Ben, why won’t you talk to me?” She flashes a little anger…but is distracted by a brilliant light burning brighter and brighter across from a door across the room, brighter…brighter…. until….

“Rey, Rey…. hey, she’s coming out of it!” Finn and Poe are sitting her up. Luke stands before her holding the journal and offers this advice, “Let’s put this one aside for a while…”



CHAPTER TWELVE: VISITORS TO REN CASTLE

At Fortress Ren, DJ meets with Hux, Admiral Kelsaar, BB9e and Sylus Ren and tells him of the resistance attack plan….C3PO can provide details of the time and place, and their strategy. Everything they would need to set a trap. At first, wary of the droid, they eventually come to trust his information with DJ vouching that the droid had reasons to betray his former ungrateful masters. BB-9e is intrigued by the new droid in town. The main point of the plan is that in 2 days the resistance forces will arrive over the north pole of the planet and move on the slave colonies from there.

Kelsaar want to return to Mon Cala with more force, but it is pointed out from intelligence reports that the movement has expanded far beyond the world of the Mon Calamari, and there is activity far and wide of insurrection. No, it is better if they let the enemy take shape and come to them. Hux devises the counter plan. The entire First Order Fleet will be waiting for them at the North Pole. Despite the failure at Mon Cala, Kelsaar is put in charge of the space operation. Hux comments the ranks of admiral material is very thin at the moment after the battle of Crait, and Kelsaar is a popular leader to rally the forces.

Rose is imprisoned in a cell next to the terribly dejected Ben Solo in a tower of the Castle. Ben threw away everything for a dark path…the force is dead inside him…Rose is talking so much and has such a hopeful outlook on their dire situation, that it becomes very annoying to Ben Solo. “Who in the galaxy are you?” There is a prisoner, a man also across from them in a larger multi-room suite of a cell…. he is a mystery to Ben. After all, while Kylo Ren trained the knights for their first missions, it was Snoke that populated the prison tower with their residents.

The man says he is alone in his cell, but Ben corrects him saying he did hear him speaking with someone else deep within his prison suite. The man withdraws from the bars of his own door with, “If you need to interrogate me further, I you will have to wait until I return from my balcony.” Rose and Ben both chime in as they turn to one another, “He has a balcony?”

The man walks out to the fresh air, a perch two thousand feet above the planet’s surface. His wife is tending to plants in pots. The husband comments that the new prisoner is asking many questions. (They don’t know who he is, even though they knew of Kylo Ren, their Kylo Ren was the one hidden behind the mask). The woman says, “just be careful…. we made it this far…”

C-3PO makes his way to another balcony, looking very suspicious as he does. He opens up a panel on his forearm and taps a code….it is a hyperspace transmitter courtesy of Lando….C-3PO thinks he hears someone, looks around, and satisfied he is alone, continues to transmit.

Lando, Poe, Rey, and Finn hover over the radio staff as the message comes in…. the First Order has taken the bait! Poe comments, “The First Order just bought the Bantha Farm!” (a colloquial expression) …they also learn that Hux is now in charge. In addition, the protocol droid is able to tap into internal Ren Castle computers for such info as basic maps of defenses and the shift schedules of the slaves, details vital to the Liberation’s preparations. Rey wonders where Ben is…maybe in the cell of her vision? Also, Finn is relieved Rose is unharmed, but they are stilled concerned about her imprisonment; her rescue and C-3PO’s extraction are now intertwined. The Liberation plan can now commence.

Back at Ren Castle, out of plain view, from behind the corner, BB9-E has a radar-like antenna working above its dome…. listening in to every word that is exchanged between C-3PO and his fellow conspirators….



CHAPTER THIRTEEN: A PLAN COMES TOGETHER

We learn the full battle plan of the Liberation.

The X-wing-X model is a prototype being built on Mons Cala. It is x-wing in design, but different from any such craft that came before it. It’s 3 times the size with a flatter and much wider nose section (much like the SR-71 Blackbird). It has a cockpit with a sliding canopy, and a different wing configuration with a “V” design for all four, instead of straight out, perpendicular to the fuselage. The bigger size allows for capital ship shielding on a snub nose fighter. The armaments carried were also much more extensive…. there were only 6 experimental models manufactured, so the pilots were to be selected by Poe.

On one pole of La-Dun, a rendezvous point would be claimed as a base of operation, protected by the best armed ships. Once defended as a safe zone, this would be the point at which transports, smaller crafts, fighters would head to the surface to eliminate defenses; slaves, mostly concentrated at that time of ended shifts in the hives would be liberated (ala Dunkirkesque evacuation), and a surface assault would engage in evacuation of all enslaved and partake in a raid to destroy fleet facilities. If the First Order Fleet appeared, the battle plan included the larger ships to use the highly risky strategy of moving continuously in and out of the battle zone with hyperspace jumps. However, they have no intention of giving the still potent First Order fleet the opportunity to fight back…

Lando steps forward with the rest of the plan. Lando gives his ship, The Icon, the most significant assignment of the operation, against the argument of Chewie, that pushed the Falcon for the job. Now the entire plot is revealed to the audience…

It turns out Lando’s relationship with selling arms to the Order was a long-term resistance plan all along, sanctioned by Leia herself. Now, every fighting ship of their First Order fleet was equipped with primary power regulators courtesy of Calrissian, and every single one of them, unbeknownst to his customer, contained a component that could receive a hyperspace signal to control them remotely. No one would be able to pick up that signal and no one would be able to stop it. Propulsion, weapons, and gravity systems on every First Order warship would go off-line, though communication, life support and escape pods would be spared.

Lando was to supply multiple “triggers” to the resistance, as, to be effective, the signal would have to be made from a certain proximation, closer more than farther, to the ships. Though hyperspace-in-nature, the signal to initiate in real space was of relatively short range. Unfortunately, Lando had not been able to manufacture the dozens of triggers his plan called for; only one prototype existed, and he would have to run the gauntlet of the entire fleet in the closest of proximities to each and every ship to complete the objective of neutralizing them. In other words, bring the trigger into the heart of the First Order Fleet and, for all intended purposes, render it useless.

Chewie’s Porg friend wants to go with him, and the Porg family appears to be granting him permission and he flies onto Chewie’s shoulder. Rey asks Chewie if he has a name for the Porg… Chewie tells her, BARRARA!: Poe asks for the usual translation into basic of what the wookie said (as has happened throughout the saga many times from people who could interpret for him to those who could not.) Rey turns to him, after contemplation and simply repeats, “He named him Barrara!”

Finn and Han Calrissian are to be part of the surface assault. They will be teamed on a hoop tank. Han confesses how next to flying, he loves driving…Finn says he’s gotten pretty good at shooting…which to no surprise will be their respective assignments in the tank. In the conversation, Finn mentions that he too knew the Han Solo that Lando named his son after. Proudly, Finn reminisces, “You know he had a nickname for me…. Big Deal.” Han looks at him with a cynical expression. After a pregnant pause, Hans points out the obvious to his new friend, “That sound like he was mocking you.” Finn, in a reluctant admission has to confess, “Yeah….yeah, he was.” Finn looks off nodding his head off with an almost misplaced fondness for his lost compatriot, when he should in fact felt insulted.



CHAPTER FOURTEEN: WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH BB-9e?

Hux assembles his entourage in the throne room. Admiral Kelsaar gives a report that a succssful raid on another planet more than made up for the unfortunate debacle at Mon Cala. They were able to collect thousands of new workers by cleaning out the villages on Mantooine! DJ is shocked and asks her to repeat it and he starts questioning her, which annoys the admiral, “Who is this man?”

He plays it cool…. all in day’s work for the First Order but realizes his parents had been enslaved…the man of no sides is starting to doubt his philosophy.

The primary reason for the gathering, Hux informs them is that there is evidence of espionage activity at the castle…brought forward by BB-9e!

BB-9e had intercepted transmissions beamed back to the rebels from the Castle. C-3PO is nervous. Yet, BB-9e doesn’t betray the part of the story that C-3PO was, in fact the conspirator, and instead produces a heap of wires and circuit boards of a mouse droid that was, according to BB-9e, the instrument of spying. Hux knows the enemy will change their plan accordingly, and immediately changes the defensive strategy and positioning of his fleet to the opposite poll and the shifting of mine fields to the other. A trap will be set for the insurgents! Also, based on the wavelength of the spies’ transmissions a new hyperspace jamming field was to be put in place, so any more attempts to get a message out of the fortress would now be rendered futile.

On leaving the throne room, C-3PO is concerned the attack may be foiled but also relieved not to get caught…until that is… on rounding a corner he runs right into BB-9e! The droid accuses C-3PO of being the spy. At first, he denies it, but when BB-9e threatens to take the evidence to Hux, C-3PO gives in. All BB-9e wants is a deal. If the coming battle goes the way of the First Order, then C-3PO stays at Ren Castle and vows allegiance to the First Order, and BB9e has a new friend… if they lose, then C-3PO puts in a good word for BB-9e to join the opposition, complete immunity for past indiscretions.

C-3PO asks, “What choice do I have?” To BB-9e’s beep-boops he responds, “Oh, I see.”



CHAPTER FIFTEEN: REY’S FLIGHT WINGS/MISSION OF THE ICON


In the fighter hanger, the LIBERATION is preparing their craft for the battle. Besides the X-wing-Xs, there are, in far greater number, fighters that would provide the air support for the land offensive. They resemble old harrier jets, yet, at the nose of the craft is a glass globe large with two long guns aside the bubble. You could see the pilot’s in their seats inside the globe, checking controls.

Poe and Luke await Rey as she enters the hanger. Poe has the results of her simulator test on the tablet in his hands. Rey awaits his words, actually appearing nervous. Poe hands her a helmet with a congratulation. In fact, she almost caught Poe’s own record. Poe welcomes her on the raid on one condition…that she take BB-8 as her astromech droid on her ship instead of his. He would feel better if his loyal droid was at her service. The prototype x wing variation, besides the traditional astromech droid, also require an R-9 gunner droid, which looks like if you took an R2 unit and squeezed it in a vice from the sides, right and the left to leave it super skinny from the front view and long and flat from the side. Eye lens still faced forward on the skinniest of flat domes. The most magnificent fighter trio assembled are joined by two expert fighter pilots from the defuncted Republic fleet, and one test pilot that never saw battle but spent so much time on simulations and knew the craft so well, he made the cut.

Lando, Maz and crew members of the Icon enter the hanger. Lando and Luke bid good luck to each other. Maz tells Rey that from the moment they met she knew the girl’s destiny would be to help so many other’s destinies and on her goodbye to Luke she tells Rey to take care of “the old man” and …and adds Luke may be getting a little more forgetful as he never came to pick up his lightsaber she was saving for him. Luke tells her, as he looks to Rey, it had a way of finding him, and it’s in good hands.


The Icon jumps out of hyperspace at La-Dun’s north pole ready to disable the entire First Order Fleet with the “trigger” but instead finds the ship in the middle of an unexpected mine field…The First Order was not to be completely fooled. The mines are shaped as oblong star-like forms and they tumble towards Lando’s ship. Evasive maneuvers are taken, counter measures in the form of anti-mine charges are fired. Lando breaks radio silence to send a distress signal to the fleet. He is not sure who will even pick it up… there’s interference from jamming satellites in orbit. What can they do? Tere is no time to calculate a new jump. A mine hits the Icon and crew is lost; there are explosions and smoke and fire on the bridge. Maz takes control when the captain is incapacitated…Lando runs aft to put the trigger in an escape pod…it would be less of an attraction to the mines than the ICON, and they could still salvage the trigger and the mission…. another mine hits near the engines and the vessel begins to drift. Lando is seen lying trapped beneath a steaming metal plasma pipe, in great pain, coughing. Then on the radio a familiar bark is heard and few beeps and boops… Chewbacca, Barrara on his shoulder, and R2 are in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon as it rips out of hyperspace. Chewie was in the ready, monitoring the mission if something went wrong and was the first to pick up the distress call. Immediately, a wall of new mines come rushing at the Falcon, but they are no match for the wall of ion cannon fire from the newly mounted front guns on the Falcon. The barrage is very impressive.

The Falcons’ port side docking airlock matches up to the Icon’s. Chewbacca crosses over. Lando tells him to save Maz on the bridge…but the bridge is sealed off by debris except for a small hole through which Maz and Chewie can see each other. It is clear she is not getting out; not even the strength of a Wookie will get through this mangled mess of metal. In a poignant goodbye, Maz reaches through the hole and Chewbecca kisses her hand. She rubs the spot cherishingly, “A Kiss from a wookie…now I’ve lived a full life!”

An alarm calls for her attention and she yells to Chewie…” There’s another round of mines coming in fast…too many for the new guns on the Falcon…go…complete the mission!” Instinctively, Chewie now goes to aid Lando, but Lando tells him to just get the trigger aboard the Falcon…”Chewie, you got to find that fleet and take it out!” Chewie carries the trigger through the airlock, but unforeseen by Lando, does returns from the Falcon to save him, much against Lando’s coughing protests. Chewie grabs the steaming pipe with both hands, screaming in as his paws sizzle from the heat. He throws it aside, freeing Lando. Even in such pain, he still cradles Lando and carries him into the Falcon.

Chewie does his best, without the ability to manipulate the controls due to burnt paws, to get the Falcon on its way…it is very hard. The ships separate and Maz gets the thrustors on line with enough speed to places her ship between the wall of mines tumbling at the Falcon…Over the radio she laughs, “This is for all of you thousand-year olds out there…you still can go out with a bang!”

The Icon attracts the approaching mines. The ship explodes.


CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE MYSTERY REVEALED

After further contemplation, DJ decides there is a reason to choose a side after all. DJ figures he needs help for his next plan and Rose’s engineering skills would be an asset. He has to free her. He grabs a wrench and is going to shut down C3PO because he thinks he is on the wrong side….DJ chases him, but C3PO informs him with a wrench to the bolts on his neck and DJ ready to take off his head, that the droid was the spy the whole time…DJ is impressed, “The players been played…. I didn’t think you had it in you, Goldie!”

The prisoner across the way throws Ben and to Rose vegetables grown on his balcony. “This has more nutrition than the room service here,“ The man jokes.

Ben is still intrigued by him, and continues where he had left off, “There’s more to your story, You never told me your name.”

The man answers, “I don’t know what you’re talking about...a story? My name is Enid. And for the record you didn’t tell me yours.” Rose offers hers over-eagerly, but Ben does not, and instead asks, “Well, you wouldn’t even tell me you are imprisoned with your wife, so I figured there is likely even more that you’re hiding.” It seems like even a little piece of the force is stirring in Ben.

The man made a first move to protest, “I still don’t know what….” But trailed off. They were exposed. “Dear, you can come down here and say hello to our new neighbors.” And then to Ben and Rose, “You have to understand we have to protect ourselves. The less someone knows about us the better.…. we have to be careful.” The woman offered, “I’m Nar.” Rose introduces herself, again, interrupting Ben.

For the first time in a while, Ben seemed to have some animation, “We may help each other…Enid, Nar...I’m Ben.” Enid questions, “What do you need from us?” Ben answers, “Something I’ve been emptied of….without it became blind, paralyzed….worthless…”

“What would that be?” Enid wants to know. One word from Ben, “Hope.”

“HOPE?” Enid practically laughed. “Our story may be the furthest thing from hope.”

Ben started to put the pieces in place…”Snoke imprisoned you…never spoke of you…must have been for years…”

Nar wants to know, nervous, how he knew Snoke, and Ben explains, though eclectic, “He robbed MY hope.”

Ben continued to tell them their story, “You were hunted…. like the Jedi…. but you are not Jedi yourselves…your family lines….one, both…I’m not sure…you come from Jedis…” The emotion drains from their faces as he puts it together….

Rose is listening intensely as well. Nar had nothing left to hide, “We ran, at the end, from world to world…we were making our way back to Republic controlled space.” Ben interrupted her and finished the story, “Until you came to a place that might as well have been the end of the world…. a long time ago….” As he says this, Nar raises her hand to the wall of their cell and runs her fingertips slowly across its surface…. the wall is filled with scratches….a neatly spread count…we see as the view expands…it fills the entire wall…their days of captivity….years and years…a calendar waiting for conclusion….just like…..

Ben needed to know what he couldn’t completely sense, “Why did you leave her?” They spoke of it in ways they had never had, “There was a man we were told we can trust, in seclusion with his wife on Jakku…. Lor San Tekka (Max Van Sydow’s character on Jakku in The Force Awaken) A wise man, a gentle man, a man one-with-the-force who could protect her… but in the rush, something went terribly wrong…we had to leave her so close to him, yet….we had to rely on others on Jakku to finish the journey and never found out if she made it….we had to run again…we never reached the Republic territory and soon…Snoke found us….but he didn’t know of her….we called on the force to hide our thoughts….we called on ourselves just not to think of her….not call out to her… for all of those years…” They shed tears and console one another….

“We always felt, though he didn’t know for sure who was out there….our brothers, sisters, children….that Snoke kept us here as bait to lure would-be rescuers….as time passed we lived in constant fear that if she grew up she would be drawn here to do just that…”

Ben tells a secret that only the force could reveal, “Well, she is doing that: She is coming...right now….” He touches his scar, “And don’t worry. I think she can handle herself.”



CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE BATTLE OF LA-DUN BEGINS

Rey, looks off momentarily from her x-wing controls, pauses for a tremor in the force, and then back to work. Hundreds of ships ready for their hyperjumps to begin the raid on La-Dun. Hoop tanks are manned inside the belly of armored landing ships. Han is the driver of one and Finn is the Main gunner of the same. Luke, Rey, and Poe are among the pilots of the half dozen of x-wing-x’s.

Poe is in contact with Gisha Ackbar on the flagship she just renamed ORGANA. Poe displays his gratitude with, “Nice touch, Gisha.” But their main conversation is of the loss of communication with the ICON and THE FALCON…Not knowing what the fleet should expect or if Lando’s mission was successful…the raid must commence.


The x wing-x’s will head for the surface colony with the transports ready to drop the land-assault teams, and the evacuation fleet would follow behind after an all clear sign. All of this hinged on the First Order fleet above La-Dun being neutralized…yet still no word from Lando. They knew there would be jamming…

The ships jump to the south pole. The entire First Order fleet is waiting for them! Gisha shouts, “It’s a trap!” She immediately orders the other ship captains to commence the hyperspace jump strategy if they are to have a fighting chance. The plan had completely fallen apart.



CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THAT FAST-CUT CLIMAX WHERE ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE ALL OVER

We catch DJ and C3PO in the middle of a conversation with a guard…”we’re working on a surprise party for the Supreme Leader. We expect a great victory today!” That gets them to the elevator…” We need to get to the supply room on level 2”…once the door closed…” or the prison tower on 56”…. DJ reveals Kylo’s lightsaber, stolen from the light saber tree, “We can use this!” C3PO brushes his arm away, “Please point that another direction.”

Ben is given new purpose to make sure the reunion between Rey and her parents takes place. The force starts to return to him. The shield beams around his cell begins to fluctuate. The shield is controlled by Kyber crystals to theoretically dampen the force. Enid clutches Nar’s hands, “Let’s help him…” She reminds him, “It’s been a long time…”

The hoop tanks are dropped outside the colony, out of range and angle of the guns of the battle islands, but they are still met by imperial walkers, the big new cool kind. (Credit where credit is due -The hoop tanks are a throwback to the Track Tank of Ryan Church on page 167 of the Art of the Clone Wars – one of the most under-utilized vehicle designs of Star Wars, plus would definitely make a great remote-control toy!) In the distance lies their objective, the rising hive towers, the floating battle islands, the hundred-foot-high wall surrounding it all.

The terrain of La-Dun outside the colony is one of sandy and gravel-filled dirt hills and minimal brush vegetation…and the most unique feature is endless winding creeks with stony riverbeds…like whimsical veins across the planet’s surface. When one of the hoop tanks is struck by walker fire, one of its large wheels is seen bouncing over the hills and rolling on its side to rest in a rocky creek bed. Han hits the throttle full speed. Air support comes from those harrier-like fighters…TIE fighters respond. Finn lines one up with an anti-aircraft battery and blows it out of the sky…

Hux is at the lightsaber tree with his henchman Sylus, and bb9e. Hux is observant enough to see something missing. Oddly, he claims a couple himself, even though he already has a blade at his side…they replay a security record and see DJ and C3PO at the tree. There are traitors within the castle. No one is getting off of this fortress…he orders all escape pods launched…

The battle of the south pole continues with the liberation ships popping in and out from hyperspace, some hitting their targets with missiles and cannons successfully, but many in the brief moments of exposure are being picked off by the larger First Order ships. The small ships just don’t have the shielding against such strong cannons.

The x wing-x ‘s manned by Luke, Rey, Poe, and the three Republic fighter pilots take on the battle islands and a squadron of TIE fighters…. Rey performs barrel rolls and other maneuvers that has Poe and Luke chiding her. “Take it easy!” She, in the midst of battle, is a happy warrior; can’t get enough of flying.… Poe requests a direct patch in to BB-8 to ask for foregiveness, “I am SO sorry, little buddy! You hang on back there!” The droid is getting the ride of his life. They lose an x-wing to the battle stations, but their stronger shielding serves the rest of them well. They do enough damage to the battle islands to commence the next phase. “Clear for transports…clear for transports…let’s set a lot of people free!”

From the surface come Aerial TROPPERS with jet packs, thousands of them head towards the hives, to counter the intruders, hold back the slaves.

At the prison tower… Sparks fly as the force field comes down around their cells. The actual metal bars are much easier to eliminate and Ben’s cell door flies across the room with his motion. Rose gets so excited she can hardly contain herself….” Oh my, Oh my oh my!” …. then she gets a hold of herself and attempts to justify her spastic outburst, “I never really get to see the force…”

They hear the initial sounds of a battle in the air…explosions, the big guns on the battle islands firing, fighter craft screeching through the air….

There is rotational forcefield of a much more powerful design around the entire perimeter of the tower… even against the Force, it is too strong at the moment, too difficult to take out…. however, there is an announcement from the computer with a clang of claxons that surprises the potential escapees… “outer-shield offline!…outer-shield offline!....outer-shield offline!…”. The main tower door opens. In steps DJ and C3PO. DJ has his wrench in his hand, “Yep, that’s right…. You can thank ME for that!”

Ben is still driven to get Rey’s parents off the fortress for her and to safety. DJ asks what side Ben is on. Rose comments about the irony of that coming from DJ. When he is assured that Ben has turned to the good side, he hands him the Kylo Ren Lightsaber that he stole from the tree in the throne room. Ben, DJ, and Rose look at a computer terminal and there are no escape pods and they know of no ship available. They have to float the island down to the ground by turning off the gravity repulsors.

Rose is up to the task, “I may not have the Force, but I got this.” She taps her finger against her temple. Ben has a kind parting word with her about the who-in-the-galaxy-are-you? line used earlier. He tells Rose, this came from his mother, Leia, when he was younger…only, in reality it was less of a rude question coming from someone else sarcastically, but rather more like something you are told to ask yourself looking in a mirror, a self-reflection, a daily affirmation…. he says Rose should be very comfortable with her answer. C3PO will have go to help interpret with that type of computer at the repulsor reactor.


CHAPTER NINETEEN: EVEN MORE OF THE FAST-PACED MULTI-EVENT ACTION CLIMAX


Lando is out of commission and Chewie’s hands are so burned he can’t manipulate the controls. Lando needs to get a message to Luke so R2 patches through the Liberation communication… they find out that they are on the opposite side of the planet, with the only weapon in the Liberation’s arsenal that could win the day so far away…they need a solution. Chewie could probably do basic flying, but the maneuvers that may be required once they meet up with the First Order fleet…they would be blasted in seconds. Lando wants to radio and see if Luke could use the Force or something. Luke disappoints him, “it’s good, but not that good.” Lando says his thinking is foggy right now… he was hit in the head…worth a shot…sorry…but Luke tells them something even better… they do have a pilot!

After serving as astromech for countless missions…R2 will finally will get his chance to pilot a ship! A camera zoom into R2’s “face” when he hears this to convey his elation. Luke gives him an “old friend” pep talk as R2 doesn’t really need it as, in no time at all, he is heading for the cockpit and plugging into the Falcon’s control panel. He elevates himself on his legs to get a better view out of the cockpit canopy. There is an alarm…a new set of mines are tumbling towards the Falcon. Now would be a good time to move. R2 punches it with a mechanical scream of approval…the Falcon is zipping around the globe, skipping on the atmosphere as it does….

The liberation has begun. Skiffs and shuttles pull up to the hives. On one of them, Lieutenant Connix runs inside a huge atrium and yells to the upper floors as the slave laborers look down at her. “Hurry! The Liberation is here! Make sure no one is left behind! This is a fight to free you!” There is blaster fire zipping through the air and ships and soldiers engaged in battle around them. When a group of enslaved prisoners are confronted by troopers with blasters drawn to keep them in their place, more prisoners surprise them from behind, including a wookie or two. Some of the stormtroopers are thrown off the edge of the hive. The thought of freedom motivates more of the oppressed to join the fight.

Poe takes out the guns on a battle island, as the hoop tanks breach the wall and enter the city…a walker falls into a rocky creek bed. Liberation Troops jump out of the tanks and engage the aerial stormtroopers with their own jet-backs. Luke and Rey take on a dozen Tie fighters and you know the outcome.

The two land at the castle for the next part of their mission. BB-8 is told to wait at the ship, but of course doesn’t listen and follows them… Rose reaches the repulsor reactor chamber beneath the floating island fortress with C3PO and DJ…. Ben is avoiding one patrol after another as he attempts to get Enid and Nar to safety…. He looks ahead, down the corridor and senses something…” You can’t go that way… but I have to…” They ask what is down that way, and Ben answers, “My destiny…not yours.”. He hides them in a supply room with a blaster… “you stay here until I draw the remaining patrols to the throne room…Rose will bring the Castle to the surface….once it’s on the ground …then get out of here and find the attacking forces”…

Hux is rushing down another hall with troops…Rey, BB-8 and Luke another… it is hard to tell who will run into whom until….Luke and Rey find their way to the cavernous, empty main throne room and spy the Jedi tree. They climb the stairs and are nearing it until…. stepping right in their way and blocking them comes…. Ben.

There is a silence between all three… Luke reaches for his light saber, but Ben puts his hands in the air…

Ben speaks first, more towards Rey, “….Because I was ashamed.” (THIS IS THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION SHE ASK HIM IN HER VISION)…..

Luke asks one question, “Who are you?”

“Ben Solo… and I have to tell you something…” and then to Rey, “…and to you too…”

He is interrupted by the sound of a lightsaber igniting, then vroooming and then a second…. Hux, Sylus Ren, and quite a few stormtroopers and officers with them, as well as BB-9e, stand down the stairs from them. The trio still has the high ground. BB-8 and that BB-9e focus their lenses intensely on each other.

Ben hits a force field control on the throne/chair and a veil of orange light cascades as a barrier to protect them.

“You’ve bought yourself only moments, Kylo,” Hux laughs, more in the personality of his previous -self then the stiff general. Then to his droid, “He hasn’t been here long enough to alter the security protocols! BB-9e override that force field with my own code.” BB-9e rolls to the nearest control panel and plugs in.

“Oh, Kylo Ren, it seems you’re still trying to rebuild your knighthood…” Hux taunts.

“There is no Kylo Ren, I am Ben Solo.” Hux introduces himself to Luke and Rey as, you could say, a traveler through all eras, a warrior that fought in all wars. He explains that he has in his hand the lightsaber once yielded by the emperor himself, Palpatine, Darth Sidous. And killing the three of them would go a long way of clearing the path for his own ascension to a new throne of a new Empire…yes, killing the skywalker family…and, “looking at Rey, “A bonus beyond my imagination…that I waited for years…in fact.”

BB-9e is almost finished at lowering the force field. Time is running out. Luke raises his saber, but doesn’t light it, and he looks for Rey…She is at the tree. While she still has Luke’s original saber, she is not finished, “And I’ll take this one, too.”

Luke recognizes it, “That belonged to Ben Kenobi.” Not taking his eyes off of Hux and company, and more troops pouring in, Ben calls back, “Darth Vader claimed it on the First Death Star…it passed through antiquity… ‘never been used since…and you chose it today…”

Hux can’t help but also taunt Luke, “Can you trust your padawans this time, Skywalker? One wanted you dead and the other filled with such anger… yes…maybe I will spare you, my child, to be my next apprentice, maybe even…my next host…”

All three ignite their lightsabers. The trio looks formidable in their stance. Luke with his green blade aglow, Rey holding two blue ones in an on-guard position, and Kylo tightly clutching his red.

Rey ( back to that new force concept: it is not the how you fight (mad or calm) but why you fight asks, “Is it okay if I fight with a little angry inside me?” Luke is okay with that, “I’m beginning to think it is.”

Ben, gnashing his teeth at Hux: “How about a lot?”

Luke: “No, there’s still a limit, Ben.”

Ben does calm and offers them a final inspiration as they continue size up the positions and numbers of their opponents, still growing outside the force field. They are words Ben must say if they are to be the last he has for them, “Uncle Luke, I don’t blame you for what happened to me.” Luke is relieved, but warns, “Careful, Ben, there are different ways to blame yourself.” Ben answers, “Oh, I know…but above all… I blame him!” He points the tip of his lightsabers directly at Hux. Ben turns to Rey (and if there is Williams music building to this point on the soundtrack, it suddenly stops as Ben proclaims,) “Your parents never abandoned you, Rey…and they are alive!”

Her look turns to complete yet startled jubilation. She is indeed inspired. Ben steps down the stairs to face Hux, point blades at each other, only the film of the force field between them….

BOOM! Return to soundtrack. The field falls. Hux and Ben start swinging. Rey dives into the sea of stormtroopers in a shower of deflected blaster bursts and blurring blades from her two blades.

Luke confronts Sylus Ren, makes a reunion of it, “Kal? Is that you. How have you been?” “fine!” Kal yells with a lunge at Luke. Luke is practically fighting with one hand behind his back and Kal is working up a sweat trying to land blows that Luke effortlessly repels. Luke offers him some swordplay advice as they fight.

BB-8 and BB9e meet on a secluded spot on the upper level. Their own fight is intense but also comical. Initially, every time the scene cuts to their battle, they are simply rolling in circles, sizing each other up… again, and again, as the loud and flashing laser battle continues below them. At the second phase, they begin bumping into each other over and over. They roll accidently onto to an elevating floor which takes them up and out of view on a rising piston.


CHAPTER 20: THE TIDE TURNS

R2 arrives at the south pole fleet. Lando, though in pain, in the Falcon’s crew area, activates a holo-map in the air above himself, emitting from the trigger. It depicts the First Order formation they are approaching. He waits…. waits, and then with the downward shove of a plunger the trigger unit lights up. On the holo-depiction a wave spreads out in all directions like the ripple after a stone is dropped into a pond. A hyperspace signal fires out in all direction. The command is heeded by the machinery it targeted and the shutdowns grips the ships.

Kelsaar, on her bridge demands, “Why have we stopped firing? A lieutenant informs the admiral, “we’ve just lost our weapons systems” Then the large destroyer’s engines sputter and go dark. “And our propulsion.” …and then everyone start floatings. “And our anti- gravity!”

Scores of First Order ships start listing and drifting… all guns silent…

C3PO informs Rose, “I am afraid the repulsor is very indignant that we are not giving a good enough reason to override its security protocol and alter the gravity field.” Rose looks up from the control panel with a dawning idea and tells C3PO to convey this to the other machine, “ ‘3PO, tell the repulsor computer to access “surprise party” in its vocabulary files.” C3PO is shocked, “I don’t quite under-” DJ gives a thumb up… Rose is firm, “Just do it!”

Luke and Rey are still fighting Sylus and a large contingency of stormtroopers, having been forced back to the landing platform outside by their sheer numbers. With the two up against an outdoor ledge, more troops come pouring in from every direction. Sylus may not be the best swordsmen, but it is clear he has many friends to tip the battle. There is a shaking of the castle.

Quick cut to Rose, “It worked!” a controlled descension of the castle island has begun. DJ says, “Great, let’s get off of this thing.” Rose informs him that yes, that would happen….in an hour! That’s how long it takes for the anti-grav repulsors to drop the Castle. DJ comments that part really was not made clear in the initial plan! ”It’s a safety feature,” she explains, the engineer in her not the least bit apologetic for the inconvenience.

Back to Luke and Rey now, very much outnumbered and on poor footing. Sylus offers, “I am not at liberty to offer you to surrender, but we will make this as swift as possible…it’s only fair for my ex-master.”

Luke really didn’t want to see his former student come to harm, “Kal, darkness is a choice…and it’s the wrong one…please, this might be your last chance…. join us.”

Kal laughs,” MY last chance?” and keeps laughing.

Poe lifts into view behind Luke and Rey with his x-wing-x and opens fire on the enemy. It is impressive as it is lopsided. It seems as relentless as the barrage on Luke by the walkers in The Last Jedi…that gratuitous.

After it is all done, they wave to Poe as a sort of innocent, twisted thank you. As they step over the score of bodies and Kal’s too, Luke repeats with mocked chagrin, “Yeah…. last chance…”

R2 continues to fly haphazard and Chewie is back seat driving. R2 can’t take it and lets loose a bleeping series of chirps. Chewbecca is so shocked he literally leans back in the face of the little droid’s language and verbal onslaught. Lando hits the plunger one more time…the remainder of the fleet is rendered incapacitated.

In the air, more aerial troopers are trying to disrupt the evacuation from the slave hives. They are fired upon from the skiffs and shuttles…and the Liberation fighter craft.

Ben and Hux continue their fight and approach a shaft…They fall down the shaft, fighting all the way down as they go…eventually, they end in the repulsor reactor chamber. Rose and C3PO jump away…an elevator dings on the other side of the room and BB-8 and BB-9e roll in, still going at it. BB-9e extends a drill…BB-8 shorts it with an electric shock…BB-9e sprays foam onto BB-8’s eye, BB-8 wipes it off with a windshield wiper and flings it back…Then BB-9e rams BB-8 so hard he hits against a vent-door which bursts open and BB-8 falls out as wind rushes in….C3PO gasps, OH NO!” It appears that BB-8 is no more and BB-9e won…

…BB-9e looks over the edge and there is BB-8 swaying in the wind hanging on with his clutch cables. As BB-9e beeps is frustration, C3PO gives a running kick to BB-9e from behind, sending him hurling down to the ground below. C-3PO put his hand up to the side of his mouth in the shouting position, turns up his volume as high as he can, and leans out the vent to yell, “Our deal is off!” We see the BB-9e hit the ground hard and crush, flatten, break apart very violently and with great finality. BB-8 reels himself back inside.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE DUEL COMES TO AN END


As Rey and Luke Rush to the repulsor chamber, Luke falls a little behind to answer a call on his comlink. He motions to Rey, but she is in ‘the zone”. It is R2 messaging his former master. “Slow down…R2…. the entire fleet… that’s great…Lando says the mission was complete? Fantastic. We still need you and the Falcon. Zero in on my signal and get down here.” He starts walking, then stops, sensing something behind a closed door and opens it…and he knows…it is Rey’s parents…he has nothing better to say, “I’m your daughter’s teacher…ah, you should be very proud of her.” We cut to Rey fighting through another squad of stormtroopers to confirm his praise.

In the repulsor reactor chamber, Hux and Ben grow more intense in their cuts, some even hitting, most repelled. C3PO, BB-8, Rose and DJ look on. At one point, Hux produces two more lightsabers and sends them off into the air like boomerangs. and when they approach Ben he is forced to jump, not to lose his legs, and duck, not to lose his head. This causes Ben to stumble and he lands on the ground next to the reactor. It is a four-foot-high, table-like structure at the exact center of the chamber. At its top there is a hot glow of plasma behind transparent glass and shielding. C-3PO mentions how unfair this fight seems to have turned…

This hits DJ and he reveals to Rose with a reluctant sigh, “Well, I was saving these as souvenirs…but I guess he could use ‘em more than me.” He opens his jacket to reveal 2 more lightsabers. He tosses them through the air towards the battle. “Here, fight with these!” Ben picks up on this and using the force ignites both in mid-air and guides them as they flip through the air…right into hux’s shoulder blades! DJ has to amend his last request, “Or you could just use them to stab’em in the back.”

To ensure his victory, Ben gives one last spearing motion of his own lightsaber to Hux’s mid-section.

Hux gives a look of regret to Ben and falls to the floor, lifeless. Wounded, but very much the victor, Ben stands over him. There is an echo of footsteps on metal as Rey descends the stairway and enters the chamber.

In her head, she hears a telepathic message from Luke, “I will be right there.” She sends one back, “No, it is over.” Luke then uses the opportunity to take his new charges to the landing pier. Even though the Castle is slowing losing altitude, Luke senses he needs to get her parents off the island, faster, “Come with me.”

Just before he reaches the landing platform, Luke hears the whoosh of TIE fighters and huge explosions. The heavy outer door slides open to reveal two burning x-wings-x’s engulfed in infernos. With a dejected stare, full eye contact through those big sullen eyes at the couple (with that you-just-can’t-get-a-break look,) Luke jabs the door control and they close to once again to hide the horrible fiery and thundering scene on the platform.

Luke pulls out his comlink and radios Poe, “Commander Dameron. I’m bringing two to the portside pier for you to evacuate immediately.” Poe acknowledges the order and starts an approach.


CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: THE NOBILITY OF BEN SOLO AND THE END OF THE BATTLE

As DJ picks up the stray lightsabers, Rey helps Ben limp away from the reactor to sit him at the bottom of the entrance stairs. Ben is relieved. At least Hux, or whatever forever entity was inside of him, didn’t have time to imprint on any other victim… he was dead.

Rey comforts Ben, “It’s over, Ben…now something else…can start.”

With absolutely no warning, Ben’s lightsaber flies out of his holster across the chamber…into the hands of Hux as he stands shockingly resurrected atop the reactor’s top, now a glowing stage upon which he stands.. Hux is hunching over from his wounds, but still has a last gasp of life inside of him, “If I end here…So do all of you!” He points the saber down to the reactor and raises it as high as his injuries allow. Rose screams, “The reactor!”

Hux drives the blade into the reactor top, cracking its shield. An immediate glowing plasma plume engulfs Hux and he is vaporized. His form, down to skeleton, flashes and disappears. Ben leaps towards the reactor with his hands raised in front of him…within a second of the breach the initial fiery explosion began to expand and yet…

...they were not dead. For all intensive purposes, they all should have been dead. They all watch Ben holding back the explosion…his palms pushing back against a sphere of fire and holding it in place…. they are amazed, grateful to be alive. Ben Solo has saved the day!

Ben, even though he is using so much concentration on the task at hand, breathes a sigh in relief…but then.…he is pushed back an inch, his boots sliding on the floor…and then another…the day was not saved…no, the cataclysm was not stopped, only being delayed. Rey comes to his side, “I’ll help you!” She examines the way his palms are facing the ball. She yells to everyone else, “GET OUT OF HERE!” They heed her command.

The sphere pulses out further. Rey tries to mimic Ben’s posture. He recommends, “You should go too.” She struggles, but knows she is not making a difference, “I can call Luke! Luke can help us!” There is a tremor in her shouts. She is trying desperately to deny where this is going. There is emotion in his voice too as the expanding explosion slides him farther, “You should go!” He is slowing the conflagration, but it is inevitably going to win. “No, No, I won’t!” There is a growing thunder from the explosion.

In an abruptly calmer voice, Ben assures her, “Rey, It’s okay.” And then a little softer, “It’s okay…. go….” She takes her hands off of the ball. Ben adds, “And please, spare me the obligatory may the force be with you farewell …really, I’ve had enough of the force in this lifetime…” Tears are in both their eyes. Their expressions to each other tell us what words cannot. Ben is struggling more to contain the expanding fire. She offers one more time, “There has to be way to save you!” He grins in the middle of apocalypse, “There was…and you did.” (This is in reference to her undying hope about finding her parents….for all the mistakes Ben made in his life…it was knowing Rey that was able to renew the goodness in him…she restored his faith…she had indeed saved his soul…a certain circle of the saga is completed here and what Mace referred to on the Astral plane with Luke…Though Sidious had a part to play with Anakin and Snoke with Ben Solo…that second part of the story was Jedi’s redeeming Jedis….Mace pushed Anakin to darkness and Luke saved him…Luke pushed Ben Solo to darkness…and now Rey saved him…the association of the Jedi was strong and able to correct its errors; it was an endless link, and good in its nature.…)

Rey makes her way to the stairs and after ascending a few she turns around and yells above the thunder, “Ben… goodbye.” He yells one last, quite unexpected message to her as he continues to slip back, his arms tremorring, “Rey…. love your parents….for me.” Then he cannot hold it any longer. She runs. Ben is consumed, and the chamber is engulfed. Fire chases Rey down a hallway. Other explosions join within the castle. The entire island fortress begins to vibrate and lurch.

At the pier, Poe’s x-wing-x is nearly hit by the island. Due to the stress the Castle lists to one side; one of the towers comes crashing down. Rey’s parents jump onto the craft as Poe steadies it. Luke advises Poe through the comlink, “Pull out, Poe!” R2 is banking the Falcon in for an approach and Luke sees it, “The Falcon is on the way!”

More explosions, and crumbling structures, the castle starts to rotate out of control. R2 matches the ship speed with the castle. We see all the heroes jumping onto the Falcon’s roof, BB-8 gets a good speed going and rolls off the edge and bounces onto the ship. The freighter pulls away as the final descent of the flaming, exploding Ren Castle becomes a sharper angled dive, with a trail of dark pluming smoke, ultimately crashing into the wall at the colony’s perimeter.

Poe drops off Rey’s parents to a band of liberators. Oonky Montoor, giant purple squid guy, is among them, brandishing his arsenal in all of his tentacle arms. Through the sliding cockpit Poe tells him, “I’m getting back to the fight…. I’m leaving these two in your protection.” Oonky blurps, ”Rokaaay.”

Poe takes to the air and he’s joined by one the remaining x-wing-x, pilots – a highly decorated Republic Squad leader named Taktotuk. Poe radios to his wing man, “Alright Let’s pick up where we left off…it’s been a long day, Taktotuk, but we have to guard those transports…” Taktotuk informs him, “Poe, that’s going to be hard…we seem to have lost an enemy. No more Tie fighters on our scanners.” And Poe notices something else immediately from the Battle islands, “The last guns on those stations are silent too. What’s going on here?” He looks down to the ground and can make out platoons of troopers, sans weapons, hands in the air, surrendering to Liberation forces wherever they can find them. Taktotuk informs Poe there is a command transmission from the Admiral of the first Order Fleet requesting a reply.

Poe is stunned, but sees nothing wrong in his acceptance of the transmission. “This is Poe Dameron, First Flight Commander of the Liberation Fleet. Who are you?” “This is Fleet Admiral Kelsaar of the First Order…. I have informed all of our forces that we are immediately offering to the opposition full and unconditional surrender.” Kelsaar is still floating awkwardly with her bridge crew in the buoyancy on weightlessness and adds, “Please accept these terms…we beseech you!”

“Just a second,” Poe switches his radio to speak with Taktotuk, yet really just looks cockpit to cockpit and doesn’t actually say any words; both of them just stunned. He re-establishes the radio to the Admiral, “On behalf of the Galactic Liberation Forces…. I accept your surrender.” He opens a channel to his wingman, “Relay the news on every channel to all of our fighters and the fleet.”

Within minutes there is celebration. Slaves walk back off the transports, more stormtroopers are rounded up without any further shots. There are cheers and hugs…

At the foot of the smoldering ruins of the Ren Castle, Poe lands his x-wing-x. He is greeted by BB-8. We hear part of the conversation from Poe to BB-8, “GOOD JOB…it sounds like you guys kicked some ass!” The hoop tank pulls up with Han Calrissian and Finn. Rose finds him and gives him a hug, obviously as friends…

There are lines of stormtroopers being taken as prisoners and celebrations in the crowds made up of every type of creature in the galaxy you can think of.

Lando is helped down the ramp and heads for his son. He tells everyone that Maz sacrificed herself for the victory…oh, and the ICON was lost. Han jokes, “Maybe you can get the Falcon back.” Chewbecca hears this, raises his bandaged hands, and roars. Barrara plays off his reaction and starts furiously flapping and pecking Han’s head. He puts his hands up to defend himself, “I was only kidding.”

Rose runs at Lando and cocks her arm for a great big punch, but Finn grabs it seconds before she could inflict damage. He explains to her that Lando was the exact opposite of what they thought. DJ approaches them and puts his hands out as if asking to be bound in restraints. “I will accept justice…whatever that is…” Yep. He is still DJ. No one wants to take him up on the offer and Rose simply suggests, “We know that the First Order just brought prisoners from your village here…Go find your parents…”

Rey stands facing her own parents. Her mother, Nar, remarks, “You’ve become so beautiful.” Her father Enid, adds, “We have so much to tell you…to explain.” Rey also realizes, “I have a lot to tell you…I’m going to be a Jedi…” They know, “We know. We’re so proud of you…”

With tears in her eyes and a knowledge beyond the question itself, she asks, “What is my name?” the first part is merely a relieving confirmation from her father, “It’s Rey…” But then the floodgates are opened with, “It’s Rey Kenobi.” The Three hug and cry.

C3PO and R2 are hoisted overhead to the cheers of the growing crowd. Lifting R2 turns out to be harder than they thought. “Do you hear that R2? We’re heroes! How wonderful How wonderful!”



CHAPTER TWENTY THREE: A NEW DAY AT THE JEDI TEMPLE ON CORUSCANT


…The ensemble arrives at the steps of the Jedi Temple. Luke tells Rey, and the others, “Wait here. I will be right back…” With a grin, Poe asks a rhetorical question of Rey, “So what are we starting here?” Rey has an answer, “Half of the worlds of this galaxy are still in need of liberation. Our team is going to be a big part of that.” Poe had something else in mind when he asked her, “Oh, I think we’re starting more than that…” There is an anticipatory pause…And then he speaks louder for all to hear, “I think we’re starting a friendship here…life-long friendships as powerful as the force, if you believe it. Who is in?” Rey shakes her head and smiles, “That friendship would be pretty powerful.” Finn puts his arms around both of them, “Friends forever.”


Luke alone enters the Jedi Council chamber…the voice of Yoda turns him around, “Sit, you will, Master Skywalker. Comfortable, is this one…” Yoda pats the cushion on the-first-of-twelve-chairs. “Someday, these seats filled again, will be.” Luke sits next down to his former master, “Yes, as before…. but also… different then before….” Yoda agrees, “Yes, much different, will it be….and…better. better judged by those who will come after.” As the two speak of the new young vanguard of the liberation, we see the images of Rey, Poe, Finn, Rose, Chewie (sans the badages) Barrara, the droids, even Han Calrissian conversing, so young in their mannerism, laughing, hugging… Luke comments, “ This liberation will be led by new Jedis and non-Jedis alike…” and Yoda adds, “And may the goodness of the Force be with all of them.”


C3PO leaves the group and makes his way to a very high pedestrian bridge outside the Jedi temple with the skyline of Coruscant in the background. R2 follows. C3PO explains, “Oh, all this hero gratitude coming my way was simply overloading my circuits.” R2 understand and C3PO adds, “I admit I may understand your point R2 about being a part of an adventure somewhat better now that I HAVE joined the ranks of hero…but I do say, I think I will take a well-deserved rest from the excitement for a while…” R2 beep-boops back and C3PO counters, “You haven’t…. more adventures?”… as they walk and roll down the bridge and shrink away and the musical theme builds…you can still hear C3PO, “Honestly, when are you going to have enough?”

 

Not sure they are supposed to be posted here, but a thoroughly enjoyable read! I'm looking forward to reading them all now to see all the different directions people have gone with, and the similarities.

 

Impressive WKL, you beat me by 3,000 words.

 

I like the idea of the chapter headings. Looks good from what I've managed to skim over at work. Will have a proper read when I get home (or when the boss isn't looking!)

 

Sorry, so new to the boards...actually new to all forums in general. I literally had no clue what I was doing. I thought I was PMing Darth Chiznuk. A real youngling! Can't wait to read those stories. Very excited. Sorry again...Thanks for the grand effort of Darth Chiznuk and all the writers!!