Lucitor Reo stared in horror at the body of Luke Skywalker lying flat in the mud.

"No! I didn't kill him!" Reo shouted. "That is - I mean, he moved right in the way! You saw what he did!"

"Damn it, Lucitor!" the Devaronian shouted. "If you were going to waste him anyway, why didn't you let us do it?"

Lucitor Reo glanced at his soldiers, then turned back to Luke. The fallen Jedi Master lay in a heap with his arms hanging limp at his side, his feet turned slightly inward. He was not breathing.

"I didn't kill him!" Reo screamed. Further enraged that he looked like a fool in front of his men, he could only think to save his pride by shouting, "This isn't my fault!"

* * *

Regis made his way up to the Righteous. He was completely out in the open, as there was no cover in the mud bowl other than the giant pile of scrap, but that was on the other side of the ship. He tried to keep the ship's boarding ramp between himself and the Cheka, but with eight of them standing around waiting for something to shoot, there was no way he could hide from them all. His pulse was drumming in his ears so loudly that he could not make out what their leader was shouting. Whatever it was, he was glad that Luke's strange plan had them all turned away from the ship.

He crept under the shadow of the Righteous, then placed his gloved hand on the boarding ramp. Still the blue-armored Cheka kept their back to him, even as he clambered onto the ramp. He made his way up and peeked into the opening to make sure another unit of Cheka was not waiting for someone to try to sneak into their ship. He saw no one within the entrance.

Turning back, he saw no sign of Sindo. Alarmed, he climbed partway down the boarding ramp and looked back the way he had come. He saw her still creeping up to the ship, looking out of place in her clean, white stormtrooper armor. He could tell that she was distracted by the Cheka unit. He waved to her impatiently. Seeing him, she doubled her pace.

Regis turned to look at the Cheka, and finally got a good look at their leader. A brilliant white cape fluttered as the pink-robed figure waved his arms, shouting about something. His voice was so strange, and his cheeks were so puffed out, that Regis began to wonder if he had eaten a mouthful of gravel in order to impress Luke.

"What in the world is that thing?" said Regis.

Though he spoke more quietly than a whisper, making no more noise than breathing inside his black death trooper helmet, Lucitor Reo whirled around as if Regis had screamed in his ears. Regis's blood ran cold as the deformed Lucitor glared at him.

"Imperials!" Reo shouted, stabbing the air with his golden lightsaber. "Kill them! Kill them now!"

At once the Cheka turned and, seeing two stormtroopers, they fired. Blue blaster bolts seared the port side of the Righteous as Sindo rolled behind the boarding ramp. Regis flung himself into the ship as a bolt smacked into the doorway, sending molten metal spraying overhead.

"Sindo! Are you okay?!" Regis screamed, scrambling away from the entrance as still more bolts flew past him.

"No! I'm pinned down!" she shouted into the comm. "I'm stuck back here!"

Regis's mind raced. He could hear nothing but the tortured shriek of bolts striking the boarding ramp. There was no way that Sindo could even get off a shot without getting hit, and with no room to maneuver, the Cheka could simply flank her. He pushed himself onto his feet and ran deeper into the ship.

* * *

Lucitor Reo felt an unbelievable rush at the sight of the two stormtroopers. Though it was a fact that a few Imperial generals and Moffs lingered on the edge of the galaxy, seeing that he was now under assault from two stormtroopers completely vindicated the New Republic narrative that the Empire was everywhere, and its evil adherents were biding their time, waiting for their chance to lash out at innocent nonhumans. Even though Reo already knew it was true, his heart raced with the understanding that it was even more true than he had previously understood.

And now that he was about to kill these Imperials and present their bodies as a trophy to the Galactic Senate, it would surely erase the embarrassment of accidentally killing Empress Organa's brother.

"Hey. Don't get distracted."

Lucitor Reo turned and saw Luke rising to his feet. It was impossible - one moment the living Force had withdrawn from him, yet now he was crackling with surging waves of power. Luke gestured. Reo braced himself just as a wave of power hit him, pushing him through the mud on his feet. Several Cheka were not so lucky, and went flying, even colliding with their teammates.

Lucitor Reo stared at Luke in awe, intimidated by the power of the exiled has-been covered in mud. Luke wiped a bit of mud from his chin and smiled at Reo, as if he had also surprised himself.

"That does it," said the horned Devaronian, turning his rifle toward Luke.

"No!" Reo shouted. "Concentrate on those Imperials. This one is mine!"

Growling, the Devaronian turned back to the ship. "You four, flank that one! You, you, and you, come with me and-"

A Gamorrean with tusks so large they protruded from under his blue helmet suddenly fell to his knees as the back of his head exploded, the remains of his brains going up in a puff of smoke from an unseen blaster bolt. As he fell over dead, the delayed report of the sniper's blaster bolt echoed throughout the mud bowl.

* * *

Vasili smiled as he watched the Cheka soldiers turn about in his scope, and he imagined that his Sonn-Blas F-9E was pleased, too, as she had not shot anything more dangerous than a bottle in years.

He lay on his belly atop the very hill from which Luke had shown the mud bowl to Regis and Sindo. He could see the entire valley, and he had good coverage of trees on either side. Before the Cheka could scurry behind cover, he scoped the first one he saw and fired again. A big-nosed Kubaz stepped back and forth awkwardly with his belly fried by a superheated plasma bolt, then fell in a heap.

"Two Cheka dead!" Vasili said into his comm. "They're scattering! They - ah, boy."

Vasili fell silent as the Y-Wings flying around the area suddenly roared, banking hard as they were ordered to hit a certain target.

"Oh, boy," said Vasili, pushing up onto his knees. "Air support. They see me. Oh, boy, they see me!"

Vasili had already picked out a sizeable log under which he might hide, but hearing the roar of the Y-Wings blasting across the sky, and knowing that they could obliterate the entire hill, he threw out his plans for stealth and ran pell-mell downhill into the jungle with the pistons of his robot leg wheezing in protest.

* * *

As Regis made his way through the freighter he heard the gunner screaming gibberish into his communicator long before he saw him. Turning the corner, he found a skinny Dug sitting before the freighter's gun controls. The creature was a tangle of limbs, with one foot wrapped around the gun control and another foot gripping his communicator. The creature turned to him in wide-eyed panic and gasped into the comm just as Regis leveled his rifle and blasted him in the center of his chest.

"Yes, my friend," said Regis, "there really is a stormtrooper on the ship."

He kicked the alien's rubbery body out of the chair and plopped down before the gun controls. He could hear the pilot's thin voice shrieking on the other side of the ship, no doubt requesting backup, but Regis's attention was focused on Luke's battle with Lucitor Reo. Again Luke fought with his arms down at his sides, and while the Stralucitor was able to match him for speed, his lightsaber seemed to be having no effect. Regis had heard of such weapons before, and how they could sever limbs with monstrous efficiency. But every time Reo swung his golden blade, it almost seemed to flash and bend, merely grazing Luke's body.

Regis was forced to pull his gaze away from the strange fight, as the remaining six Cheka were racing toward the boarding ramp. Dropping his rifle, Regis grasped the ship's gun controls and swung the mounted blaster toward the Cheka.

"Get slagged, you freaks!" Regis shouted, feeling the freighter rocking slightly as the big gun recoiled with each blast. A tall Gungan leading the charge was folded in half with his chest pushed out through his back. As the Cheka turned in either direction and ran slipping in mud Regis swiveled the gun, firing again and again, the sound of his gun only eclipsed by the firestorm raging on the hilltop as the Y-Wings unleashed their fury.

Regis obliterated a second alien as he shouted into his comm, "Vasili! You okay?! Vasili!"

"I'm-" said Vasili, then his voice was drowned out by static and the roar of flaming trees swaying in the wake of the Y-Wings streaking past. Regis flung his fear and rage into the dark recesses of his mind as he fired and sent a third Cheka spinning like a Corellian dancer. The remaining three Cheka disappeared from view.

Regis's gaze fixed on the three Y-Wings banking hard in the distance. His elation at firing on the Cheka was immediately replaced with worry that the fighters would simply blast the grounded freighter with their much more lethal arsenal. He doubted his own gun could do much more than annoy the Y-Wings. He was suddenly distracted by the pilot redoubling his shrieking on the other end of the ship.

"You hear me, Cheka?" Regis shouted, leaning toward the hallway.

The pilot's cries of panic stopped.

"Yeah, you can hear me, alright!" Regis shouted. "You get on the comm and tell those fighters that you killed the intruder. You tell them everything's fine, or I'll come up there and make you wish I was still back here!"

The pilot barked something that sounded like a challenge.

"If you don't mind getting blown up by those Y-Wings, then go right ahead!"

Regis sat in silence. Finally he heard the pilot speaking calmly into his communicator.

"That's what I thought," Regis said under his breath. "Sindo! Vasili! Where are you guys?"

* * *

Lucitor Reo swung his golden lightsaber down through Luke's chest, but again the beam distorted, merely singeing Luke's robe as he fearlessly approached. Reo had never fought such an odd opponent who seemed to favor close proximity; Luke stepped in and hooked his leg behind Reo's, but as Luke prepared to push against Reo's chest and trip him, Reo sensed the attack and flung himself backward. Twisting in the air, he swung his lightsaber, hoping to catch Luke off-guard.

Again the lightsaber's blade lost consistency, refracting slightly as it moved across Luke's chest. Luke spun away as Reo's free hand touched the ground, then flipped back onto his feet. They regarded one another, both out of breath.

"You're not a hologram," said Reo, "and you're not some kind of Force-projection, either... I can smell your sweat every time you try to trip me. But what are you doing to my lightsaber? I'm a Jedi - you shouldn't be able to manipulate my weapon so easily."

Luke did not answer, but took in a long, deep breath. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. To Reo, it was obvious that whatever he was doing required a great amount of concentration.

"You're bending the blade itself, aren't you?" said Reo. "You're refracting the light! That's impressive, but incredibly foolish. If you had any kind of weapon at all, I think you might have bested me. As it is, you're risking your own life, over and over again, in the hopes that I'll... what? Just give up?" Lucitor Reo worked up a wad of phlegm, then the ass cheeks of his face clenched as he spat it on the ground. "Not likely."

"I'm still waiting," said Luke.

"What?"

Luke smiled. "I'm still waiting to see the power of the Stralucitor."

Enraged, Reo flung himself through the mud, his golden lightsaber humming and flashing as Luke danced away.

* * *

"I messed up!" Sindo said into the comm. "I thought those Y-Wings were going to blast the freighter, so I ran for cover!"

Sindo crouched behind a stand of trees, peering at the last three Cheka as they conferred with one another. It was obvious that they were preparing to storm the ship while the two Jedi dueled near the scrap pile.

"That's fine, Sindo!" said Regis. "I can't cover the entire perimeter with this mounted gun. You would've been overwhelmed if they circled around to where you were."

"Yeah but-" Sindo was interrupted as Artoo rolled up, beeping excitedly. Sindo waved him to silence. "But now there's no way I can get back to the ship, not without those Cheka spotting me!" She considered firing at the Cheka from her current position, and was further enraged by the fact that she only had a blaster pistol; she had given the rifle back to Regis.

Finally she noticed what Artoo was beeping about. On the other side of the clearing, Luke's children were sneaking into Vasili's freighter, just as they had planned. There were many children, not just humans, but also the strange green and red goblinoids, and even a yellow one. The oldest of Luke's children, silver-haired Paul, urged the smaller children to make haste. Sindo could tell by his stony expression that the young man was trying to keep it together when all he wanted to do was run and hide.

She knew he had reason to worry. The big, horned Devaronian Cheka stood and readied his rifle. Sindo knew that the aliens were angry, and if Regis and Luke's plan failed, the Cheka would take their anger out on anything even remotely human.

* * *

"That's enough, Lucitor!" said the Devaronian. "Kill that guy and be done with it!"

"I can handle him!" Reo shrieked. He and Luke circled one another, exhausted and soaked in sweat.

"Of course you can," said the Devaronian, lifting and aiming down the length of his rifle.

Sensing trouble, Luke turned and swung his arm. The Devaronian's rifle whipped backward, smacking him in the faceplate. Seeing an opening, Reo charged and swung. Luke whirled aside, nearly falling as he slid in the mud. Reo would have pressed the advantage, but he also slipped awkwardly.

"Just leave him to me!" Reo shouted, spitting in frustration. "Go and check the ship! Check it!"

Muttering in anger, the Devaronian turned to his two companions. "You heard the man! Go and check the ship."

One of his companions, a near-humanoid, glanced at the third Cheka, then said, "That Ugnaught pilot's awfully quiet for someone who just got his first kill."

The third Cheka, a butt-headed Dressellian, hissed into the comm. "That's what I'm thinking," he said. "First one up that boarding ramp gets shot by that stormtrooper."

"He's dead!" said the Devaronian.

"He's not," said the Dressellian. "Don't be stupid." Seeing that the Devaronian was unwilling to back down, he added, "You willing to bet your life on it?"

The Devaronian removed his helmet, revealing a demonic smile splitting his crimson face. "Believe it!" he said.

* * *

Regis's heart took off at the sight of movement - a big Devaronian running toward the boarding ramp.

"Got you!" Regis hissed, grasping the gun controls.

It didn't move.

Fear gripped him as he examined the controls. All lights were off. He flipped the activation switch off and back on. Nothing.

"You slimy little..." he muttered. He knew that the cowardly pilot had outsmarted him, somehow deactivating the big gun remotely, from his console. Grabbing his rifle, Regis took the narrow hallway opposite the one he had entered and stalked the long way around the freighter's interior. A sort of dull, grinding, murderous rage guided his steps, his years of frustration urging him to action.

Drawing near the cockpit, he saw a short, rotund Ugnaught staring at his communicator with a worried expression. Spotting Regis, his eyes went wide.

"Big mistake," Regis growled, then fired.

The Ugnaught howled as the blast lifted him from his seat and tossed him across the control panel, his chest smoking from a gaping hole drilled into it. Regis raced up to the corpse and, with frenzied movements, he searched for the mounted gun's activation switch. Glancing nervously over his shoulder, he saw no one. He flung the Ugnaught aside and continued his search, desperate to turn the big gun back on. Though he heard nothing, he glanced over his shoulder once again-

The big Devaronian Cheka stood staring at him, his red face obscured by a blaster rifle held level. Regis froze as all thought drowned in a cold wave of fear.

"You human scum," said the Devaronian.