Title: A Rock Might Help
* * * * * Luke walked carefully, his head hurting slightly and his body feeling strange in the continuously changing gravity. The space suit he wore was tight against his skin and the mask was a slender shield from an atmosphere too thin to support human life for more than a few minutes. And hot... it was so hot here were only a few moments ago, it was very cold. The suit protected him from that as well but he still managed to feel its effects. He looked behind him and saw his wife and Tara, her apprentice, holding hands as they kept up with him. Without the Force as their ally they would not have made the journey from their ship to the tiny unmanned station as quickly as they had. And time was of the essence. Luke turned his masked face up and saw the silent but deadly space battle taking place above their heads. His balance faltered as the scene flowed away over the horizon in a lazy dance to be replaced by shining objects in space. They were on a large asteroid right in the middle of the Cazaydian Field where, hundreds of years ago, stood a bright moon. Now, it was apart of a slow moving stream of rock, some dead, some alive with microbes and sand plankton. The asteroid field was not a dangerous one until any number of collisions occurred. But, thankfully, it was generally quiet. “Luke, come in?” “I’m here, Han.” “Where are you?” “We’re making our way to the outpost now”, he said into his mic. Nova and Tara were at his side now and the taller held out her hand and pointed to an outcropping of powdery white rocks nearby. “Is that it?” she called, her voice making it passed her mask and to his ears but only as a muffled wording. He nodded. “It’s in sight. We’ll have it done in ten.” “Make it five, Kid”, Han called. “We’re running out of time up here.” * * * * * Above the asteroid where the three Jedi were making their way to the outpost, the ’Millennium Falcon’ swirled around a battalion of Imperial Ties and Majester Stingers as those enemy ships tried to protect the strange assault craft that floated closer and closer to its mark. The ‘Megalith’ was a dart-shaped weapon equipped with a hyperdrive, power array and guidance system and was just over half the size of a Super Star Destroyer. The intel was sketchy at best. All attempts to stop it by force had failed and, now that the New Republic was here, they were being kept busy by enemy fighters from L-Ten. Lenthos Seven. Population: about 200,000 sentients… And they were all about to be wiped out by a weapon of mass destruction to prove a point. The confiscated Tie Fighters were not being piloted by imperials at all. In fact, this had nothing to do with the regrouping Imperials. The Majester Stingers held the same pilots, all members of a faction at war with Lenthos Seven, all of them from the world of Lenthos Ten. L-Seven had joined the New Republic two standard years ago, even with the hostilities of L-Ten well known by both parties. L-Ten had been invited to parlay as well but only if they ceased the cold war that hung over the system. Now, it had all come to a head. L-Ten had joined forces with the Majesters, a small time mining unit three systems away, and were aiming to annihilate the populace from the surface. They had not expected the New Republic to come to the rescue in time. Nova bounded too hard when they reached the tiny station and nearly left the ground. The gravity was a low thing at times, effected by rotational speed. Tara grabbed her and both used the force to keep themselves down. Luke grabbed onto the station front. And that’s all it was really… a large mainframe with a shelter. It was what was controlling the massive assault craft above them. They had trustworthy intelligence that told them the strange ship was an unmanned weapon and that it was being controlled by droid remote from this station. Apparently, it was made to look as though L-Seven was destroyed by an unknown enemy. But that was before the New Republic came into the picture. Now, it was a war that L-Ten could not possible win. But they may be able to finally annihilate their centuries old enemy before they were stopped. Hatred ran deep here and made people do insane things. “Turn it off, Luke.” His gloved hands shot up. “I don’t know how! There’s no interface!” “Too bad Artoo isn’t here.” But when Nova looked again, she saw no jack-in point. “Never mind.” His helmet nodded. “Can you make sense of it?” Nova leaned in and Tara jumped to her side, staring at the odd, colored markers on the top. There seemed no discernable way in. “What is that?” “Code?” “Maybe…” Nova shrugged. “Cut it up with your saber?” The male stared as though looking for another option but found none. Stepping back, Nova and Tara watched as Luke pulled his saber and lit the green jewel. Into the panel it went, throwing a couple of sparks. The sparks died almost as fast as they were born and the panel fell away. Underneath was… Luke, Nova and Tara all stared in dismay. * * * * * *
Han jerked the ‘Falcon’ around, spinning much too fast around the massive weapon’s hull. He was trying to stay away from its shields but aiming to get the Stingers and Ties to dip too close or atleast make them rethink firing on them. Chewbacca roared from his spot in the top gun turret. The Megalith was coming into range… The vulnerable world of Lenthos Seven was a bright ball of blue below them. The comm crackled. “All New Republic craft. That weapon is slowing and is powering up. It’s going to charge… Move out of the way.” “Damn it!” cursed Han, taking another pot shot at a passing Stinger. He grabbed his own mic and yelled, “Luke!” * * * * * *
Turning his eyes down toward his screaming mic, Luke felt dread pull in his belly. They weren’t going to manage this… “Han… Our intelligence was off.” He looked at the false panel and the rock that lay behind it. “There’s nothing here that controls that Megalith.” “What?!” “It’s a prop, Han!” Nova bowed her head, trying to come up with ideas. A shadow flowed over the little group and covered them with darkness, momentary blotting out the tiny orb that was L-Seven “Umm, masters?” Luke and Nova turned their heads as light shown on them again. Tara was staring up and pointing. “You know, a rock might help.” Both looked up and watched as a particularly large asteroid spun in an unstable orbit toward Lenthos Seven. It would eventually get pulled back within the confines of the field but… Nova and Luke looked at one another then at Tara, then at the asteroid. They looked to the dart-like glow beginning to eclipse the world they came to protect then back at a wide-eyed Tara. “Can we do that?” the older female looked to her husband and ask softly. Luke clenched his fists. “Size matters not.” Nova watched him hold his hands out. Nova took his right, Tara, his left and she grabbed her apprentice’s gloved hand. The husband and wife joined their energy first, the bright connection surpassing their skin or cloths then reached out for Tara. Her bright essence touched theirs and the group flared.
* * * * * *
The Force was all around them. It flowed in null space collected on planets and ships and pooled in all living things. It was so alive! So… everything… And they felt the ‘Megalith’ aiming itself toward the shining world known as Lenthos Seven. It’s ecosystem and peoples, little sparks of life, fluttered in a breeze of fear and uncertainty. They and the asteroid they were on was the center and, inbetween, was the ‘Rock’… Big, lumbering, rolling energy… old and calm and uncaring of everything… It was not their energy they used… no, that would never work. But their energy called out to the pulsating Force around them, around the asteroid… inside the asteroid. Their breathing changed then steadied as the rock’s energy was urged to roll at a gentle angle. It rolled… faster and faster… speeding up and turning… faster and faster… Like the quickening beat of a deep drum… the Force rolled… The ‘Rock’ was streaking through space… they could feel it. They were the ‘Rock’! Luke smiled when he heard Han yelp.
* * * * * * *
Chewie howled as the ship turned hard as a rolling mass of rock sped towards them. He lost sight of any targets as the outside became a swirl of dizzying color. “Just where the hell did that thing come from?” Han’s voice came in from his comm. Chewbacca called out an answer. “Luke?” Han frowned hard. “No way!”
* * * * * * *
The ‘Rock’ plowed through space slow enough to give others time to fly out of its way but fast enough to meet the Megalith as it came into firing range. The weapon, with its enormous size, was unable to maneuver, if indeed it was capable of such a thing. Comparatively, the rock was nowhere near as large as the weapon. But it only needed its mass and speed to crush the front of the weapon’s array. Which was where the Jedi aimed it. The asteroid slammed into the upper middle of the device, slightly off, but enough to rip through the shield and crush the weapon with such force that it broke in two, bits of machinery flying off into space. There was little fire flowing out into space which made it obvious that the immense craft was unmanned, having no need for flammable oxygen on board. The asteroid looked as though it exploded along with the ship, shards of metal and molten rock expanding in every direction like a work of fire. Han stared up at it from the ‘Falcon’ cockpit, shadows dancing all along the console and forcing the transparasteel to darken for a moment. “Wow.” Chewie answered his calm word and murmured something from the comm. “That, I was not expecting.” “Han? Han”, called a voice from another channel. “You there?” “Luke?” The male leaned over and pressed the channel so he could speak directly to his brother-in-law. “Did you do that?” “Yep!” There was static and a bark of laughter. “I mean… it was all of us! Is it destroyed? We can’t tell.” “Hold on.” Han hit another frequency. “Command-“ There was a cheer moving through out the ships as the enemy vessels streaked away in defeat. To punctuate the ending to the battle, the ‘Megalith’ gave a secondary explosion that sent miles of shrapnel out into space. There would be a thousand falling stars on Lenthos Seven for weeks to come…
* * * * * *
Down on the asteroid, Luke, Nova and Tara all stared at the horizon where the battle was leaving their field of vision. “Way to go you guys!” came Han’s holler from the comm. “It’s over! That thing is history!” The Jedi Master sighed and put his arm around his wife, patting her shoulder. Both adults looked to the young apprentice and Tara grinned, totally without modesty. “Do I have great ideas or what?” END
"I burst out laughing in the middle of the library when I realized whatthey had in mind and how it fit with the given phrase. LoL! It was so creative!"
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