Chapter 27 - Lukes Mission (2/2)

- ”You will copy all the information in this archives”- ordered Luke to the keeper passing a big object that was a massive data keeping device that was able to contain almost an infinite quantity of information.

- ”I will copy all the information in the archives”- said the keeper with a relaxed expression.

- ”R2, make backup copies of the data transfered now”- said Luke and the droid immediately obeyed- ”now we have to wait...”

Luke sat down while waiting for the transfer of data which would take a long time and hoped that the information were valuable. When he arrived at this Nebula in the Unknown Regions he was surprised by the high concentration of ionized gases which made the place undetectable and it complicated the things. The original plan was to scout the area and if possible to find the data and inform the Resistance, but the gases created such interference that the communications were cut off and it was impossible to send signals outside the Nebula. Luke pondered the situation and decided to stay and investigate the planets and systems inside the nebula.

- ”Thank goodness I learned some tricks from Han”- said Luke remembering the negotiations he had to do with many people to get the information he needed.

After two years of painstakingly and sometimes frustrating investigation, he finally struck gold and he found the name of a planet that was off charts and that did not appear in any map. Luke was amazed by the level of security of the planet. It was simply just too much and an energy shield covered all the planet similar to what the Empire had done once with the planet Scarif. He managed to infiltrate the planet in one of the cargo ships that provided supplies to the planet and made sure that the shield generator suffer a very sad accident that permitted him to infiltrate his X-Wing in the planet. While the First Order tried to fix the shield of the planet, he started to raid different bases of the First Order under the disguise of rebel groups and little by little he gathered intel that permitted to find the secret base where he was now. After a while, Luke opened his eyes and turned his sight to his right while smiling.

- ”Show yourself you know I can sense you”- said Luke while walking to a clear area in the middle of the archive while talking apparently to the shadows.

- ”As expected nothing less from the great master”- said a voice which was distorted by an electronic synthesizer and immediately a knight of Ren appeared in the second level while a platoon of stormtroopers surrounded the area pointing at Luke with blasters.

Luke did not show any fear or nervousness. His lack of reaction reminded everyone the same behavior of a person who was accustomed to these kinds of situations and considered this event another day in the office.

- ”I must admit that I underestimated your skills, Skywalker”- said the knight of Ren looking at Luke from the second floor with great confidence- ”I really doubted you would discover this base.”

- ”That makes two of us”- replied Luke with an affable tone- ”I doubted myself too.”

- ”To be honest, I was extremely angry when they sent me to this place after our last confrontation”- said the knight of Ren with an excited voice- ”But the Force has guided you to me so I can put an end to your legend... I'm sure the Supreme Leader will reward me handsomely for your head.”

- ”I like your positivism, boy”- said Luke not minding the words of his opponent- ”you said that we have faced each other previously... where was that?”

- ”Humph!”- the knight of Ren rose his chin in a proud expression- ”we battled in Lothemon some years ago...”

- ”Oh... I remember”- said Luke placing a hand on his chin while remembering the moment- ”weren't you the one who had to jump off a cliff to escape?”

- ”That wasn't me!”- shouted the knight of Ren with fury- ”your memory fails you, old man!”

- ”I'm sorry”- said Luke with a grin that showed he did not mean his apology at all- ”that helmet makes all of you look the same... so...”

- ”Enough!”- said the knight of Ren with a livid tone- ”surrender and I'll consider sparing your life.”

- ”We don't have to do this, kid”- said Luke not showing any weak attitude- ”You're the one who should surrender. Let your soldiers go and come with me... You can still abandon the dark path you're taking. It will destroy you otherwise...”

- ”You don't understand the power of the dark side, old man”-said the knight of Ren and Luke showed a sad smile remembering the beloved person that had said the same words to him to many years ago.

- ”I know it better than you imagine”- replied Luke trying to reason with the sith in front of him- ”and I know how it ends. There's no exceptions, every Sith lord including your supreme leader will have the same fate in the end.”

- ”You can't defeat the supreme leader!”- shouted the knight of Ren and raised his hand making all the stormtroopers prepare their weapons- ”and you will never have the opportunity! Shoot!”

The barrage of blasters flew directly to Luke from all directions. The knight of Ren knew that it was impossible to evade such number of shots and even if Skywalker had the chance of wielding his lightsaber, he doubted anyone, even the legendary Darth vader could block so many blaster bolts at the same time. However, just to make sure, he let the onslaught continue for a minute until he ordered the stormtroopers to stop. The cloud of smoke rose and the stormtroopers did not dare to lower their guard against the enemy that should be dead.

- ”This is taking too much time”- said the knight of Ren and waved his hand clearing the smoke from the area. Immediately he saw the figure of Luke Skywalker standing in the middle of a destroyed floor as if nothing had occurred. The confusion and fear gripped the stormtroopers- ”how is this possible?”

- ”Well, stormtroopers are famous for their bad aim...”- said Luke smiling and trying to lighten up the mood.

- ”Shut up!”- shouted the knight of Ren not believing his eyes- ”shoot again!”

- ”This is your last opportunity, lad”- said Luke and the knight of Ren felt a cold shiver running through his back- ”there's no cliff this time...”

- ”SHOOT!”

As soon as the stormtroopers rose their blasters and shot, the lights of the area went off and all was covered in darkness. The stormtroopers activated their night vision and heard a cry coming from the left side of the area. They could only see a stormtrooper being thrown violently to the first floor. They had not finished seeing this scene when blasters flew to them from that same area.

- ”He's shooting!”- one of the stormtrooper shouted while going on his stomach- ”Take cover!”

The stormtroopers started to return fire but the enemy seemed to tleport since he started to attack from many places. The worst part for the First Order forces was when he started to throw thermal detonators at them, they srated to panic since they did not know from where they would receive the next attack. The best way to describe the scene was chaos and the battle lasted for many minutes until the knight of Ren could retake the order of the remaining soldiers that had survived the skirmish. The knight of Ren gritted his teeth in frustration, he had started with a platoon of almost a 60 soldiers but now none remained that was able to fight.

- ”You never cease to surprise me, old man”- said the knight of Ren taking out his light saber and looking at Luke who was standing in the same position that he was before as if he had not moved at all- ”you can use those tricks on the weak minds but not to me.”

- ”Keep thinking that”- said Luke also taking out his loyal light saber which had accompanied since the times of the Rebellion against the Empire.

Both force users ignited their respective lightsabers at the same time and looked at each other trying to get the mental advantage. After some seconds that looked like an eternity the knight of Ren moved first and jumped down using a force push against Luke who asily evaded by taking a step to the side. He parried the slashing attack of the knight of Ren who rolled to the side and made a circular attack to prevent Luke from counter attacking. However, Luke had not gone after him and had created space between the two of them.

- ”I'm stronger than the last time we met, old man”- said the knight of Ren adopting an offensive stance and focusing all his hatred against the man in front of you- ”you'll be the stepping stone I need to get more power!”

Luke did not respond and just took a defensive stance and waited for the Sith to make his move. The knight of Ren harrumphed and jumped to the offensive using his maximum speed. He used a frontal stab that was his personal favorite move to open duels and that had won him many victories in the first hit. As he had predicted, though, this was not the case now since Luke easily parry the move, but the knight of Ren was ready and used the momentum of the parry to make circular slash turning all his body. Luke evaded the move but the knight of Ren used two more circular slashes from different angles at an incredible speed. The last hit was just too fast and Luke had to block. The momentum was on the dark side user's side and manage to destroy Luke's stance for a brief moment.

- ”You're mine!”- shouted the knight of Ren in glee keeping the pressure up- ”it seems the years have not been kind to you, old man!”

The battle was not going well for Luke who seemed to have been forced to the defensive side and the knight of Ren could feel the old man was losing strength with every passing second.

- ”I must admit your are better than I expected, old man”- said the Sith enjoying the feeling of being the one on the winning side. He now had to break his concentration to give the finishing blow- ”if only you could have taught your useless padawans to fight like this... maybe that day it would have taken more effort to massacre them in your new Jedi academy!”

He detected the change in Luke's emotions when he mentioned this and immediately used the opening he gave him. He could not give a mortal blow but he still managed to give a frontal kick on his ċhėst that sent the Jedi master many meters backwards but he managed to stay on his feet somehow. Luke changed his expression and immediately rolled to the side just in time to avoid the burning blade of a red light saber that was aiming for his throat.

- ”Argh! You failed, Sorninus!”- yelled the first knight of Ren in frustration- ”that was the perfect chance and you screwed up!”

- ”Your kick was not strong enough, Desh”- replied the newcomer who seemed to be another knight of Ren but luke noticed that this one had a more nimble build and had no cape like his companion- ”also it seems this Jedi scum is quicker than I had anticipated.”

Luke noticed his hood had been cut off and was not on the floor. He was shocked about the newcomer Sorninus since he had not been able to sense him at all and the way he had waited until the best moment to strike showed his innate talent for ȧssassination. He noticed the two lightsaber in his hands. They were shoter versions which mimicked daggers and he knew that even though he had exchanged words with the other knight of Ren, he was vigilant and ready for the next strike.

- ”You're really old”- said Desh snickering while watching the face of Luke whose beard and hair had become gray and since he had not had time to groom it gave him a wild look- ”I'll help you reunite with your sister!”

Luke opened his eyes wide for these words and he showed a shocked and confused expression. Desh was surprised and started to laugh.

- ”Don't tell me you don't know... hahahahahahaha!”- Desh started to laugh maniacally.

- ”What are you talking about?”- asked Luke who started to tremble and to breathe with great agitation.

- ”Oh my! You really don't know what happened with the Republic...”- said Desh savoring the moment of torture he was giving to Luke and he started to lick his lips in anticipation to the face he would show him once he knew the full truth- ”the First Order used his new and more powerful weapon and destroyed the Hosnian System with all the Senate and government buildings of the Republic... and that included obviously all the senators...”

- ”You lie!”- said Luke with a horrified expression- ”no fleet would be able to do that... not even the Death Star would be able to have such destructive power!”

- ”Poor old man!”- said Desh laughing at the desperation of Luke- ”the StarKiller Base's is incomparable to the Death Star... it's like comparing a blaster with a Star Destroyer... your sister and your precious Republic is gone hahahahahaha... but don't worry... I'll let you meet her in a moment.”

Both Knights of Ren moved simultaneously using a pincer attack on Luke who seemed to be so affected by the information that he did not move at all. Desh grinned in joy as he already could see the head of the old Jedi flying on the air.

SLASH

SWISH

SLASH

However, even though his face kept the grin he had previously, internally he was in utter shock since he realized that not only had he not touch Skywalker, but his arm was not attached to his body anymore. He fell to the floor and after rolling some meters, he started howling in pain and just noticed that his helmet had been broken.

- ”How...?”-Desh could not believe what had happened for the simple reason that he had not been able to see the moves of Skywalker at all- ”Sorninus! What are you...?”

Desh stopped his shouts when he noticed that Sorninus' body had been cut in half and was lying on the other side of the room with his still opened in shock. Desh started to tremble and observed Master Skywalker approaching him with cold eyes.

- ”Too many unnecessary moves”- said Luke whose face showed not a sliver of pity nor compasion and Desh finally understood that they had been playing on the palm of his hand all this time- ”It always amazes me how talkative you become when you have the upperhand.”

How could have he been so stupid to forget who his enemy was? A legendary force user who had dueled with Darth Vader and had won and a war hero who had ended the Empire in the Battle of Jakku. Desh felt as a small rabbit in front of a lion who could eat him whole in any second.

- ”DON'T COME!”- the knight of Ren screamed and used his remaining arm to create a powerful Force Lightning using al his remaining energy in desperation.

BUZZZZZZZZZZZ

The lightning hit Luke directly on his ċhėst and Desh grinned in madness but instead of being affected, Luke just kept advancing while being surrounded by the electric power which had covered all his body giving him a powerful appearance and for Desh it was as if a deity had come to end his life. Desh stopped his last attempt with unbelieving eyes and saw how Luke vanished the Force lightning from his body.

- ”Now we'll have a nice chat about what you told me before.”- said Luke and Desh felt those penetrating eyes analizing his soul and knew he would not be able to lie- ”and later, we'll take a ride!”

This is how Luke learned about the destruction of the Hosnian System and later about the battle of Takodana and how he flew to battle to reunite with his family.