“Up there on the ridge!” a commander barks. “Bring those two down here.”
The closest cluster of troopers trots over to the tree to capture the droids.
“Well, they’re on their way, Artoo. Are you sure this was a good idea?”
“Bzrreee-whee!”
“Freeze, don’t move,” orders the first of the troopers to arrive.
“Oh, we surrender! We surrender!” assures C-3PO with his hands up.
So far this has all been rather likely. Are you ready for the unlikely part? The idea so unlikely that even the Emperor couldn’t foresee it?
Well, I hope you are ready because…
“MIRRRRCHIWAWAAAAA!”
As the troopers step forward to deactivate the droids, a net, closely followed by a band of Ewoks, drops from the tree limbs above.
Tangled in the net and encumbered with too much armor, the stormtroopers are rather easy prey for the Ewoks.
Not to go into too much detail, but while stormtrooper armor is indeed stronger than either Ewoks or Ewok weapons…there are joints in the armor, small gaps just about the right size for, say, Teebo’s spear.
And as for that small gap at the neck, between the helmet and the shoulder armor…well that’s just about the size of the razor-sharp knife that Romba made from the tooth of a boar-wolf he slew.
“Oooooh! Stand back, Artoo,” C-3PO calls as the slaughter begins.1
REMEMBER ALL those troopers and biker scouts and big equipment that were guarding the main gate earlier?
That’s what we’re up against now.
And the Ewoks are looking down on all this from the treetops. Looking down at more soldiers and war machines than they’ve ever seen or ever imagined.
It would be easy, sensible even, for the Ewoks to sit quietly up in the branches and not get into a fight with this great horde of evil.
But don’t make the same mistake the Emperor did. Don’t underestimate them!
High in a tree, an Ewok blows a long, ominous note on a hollow horn.
Burrwhoooooooo!
From near and far come answering calls.
Burrrwhooo! Burwhooo! Burwhooooo!
From the trees all around the edges of the clearing, Ewoks shoot arrows and drop rocks onto the crowd of troopers below. The arrows are relatively ineffective, except when they strike an unarmored officer. But the rocks, dropped from such a height, are enough to knock a stormtrooper out of commission for a while. There will be time to finish them off later, figure the Ewoks…and who knows? They may be tasty.
Even when the troopers realize where the rocks are coming from, they can only fire aimlessly into the leaves.
When more Ewoks pop up behind a ridge to fire arrows, the troopers find easier targets. Several Ewoks fall, but most retreat back into the undergrowth.
The troopers charge, the biker scouts hit their accelerators, and the four AT-STs stomp after them, too. But what they don’t realize is that once they leave their little manmade clearing by the bunker, they are entering the Ewoks’ forest. And right now that forest is one big trap.
BRRRRWHOOOOOO!
Troopers find themselves caught in nets or tumbling into pits before they can get a clean shot at the furry creatures scampering through the brush.
Biker scouts run into vines stretched between trees or lose control after getting clonked on the head by a bolo. One meets a nasty fate when a vine is looped over his front stabilizers, wrenching him into the nearest tree.
Even the AT-STs run into trouble. One AT-ST commander spots some Ewoks trying to set up some kind of catapult. While his gunner blasts away at the device, the commander twists the controls to send the great metal walker rushing to the spot. The catapult is destroyed, but seconds later so is the AT-ST, as two logs swing down from the trees and crush the cockpit betwixt them.
And where there are no traps set, the Ewoks get by on instinct—biting, clawing, swarming, climbing, hiding, and then lunging out to do it all again. Alas, many are dying, but few fall who have not first struck some blow against the monsters in their forest.
And every Imperial that so much as stumbles, finds himself covered in angry Ewoks, each one looking for that spot to slip a knife through the armor.
“Mirchiwaawa!” screams Teebo, plunging his blade into—well, let’s not say exactly where. But as he raises his blood-drenched fist into the air in triumph, the rest of his tribe answers: “Mirchiwawaaaa!”
And the other tribes take up the call, too! And the forest rings with their fury!
IMPERIAL OFFICERS, ducking a constant barrage of arrows, have been sending more and more troopers into the forest to put a stop to it all.
Now only a dozen or so troopers remain to guard the prisoners. But surely that’s enough to handle—
BRRRRWHOOOO!
Another horn blows and Asha leads the tribe’s fiercest warriors in a mad leap from atop the bunker.
“Mircheeewawaaaaaaa!” she screams as she lands on the back of an Imperial officer, reaching her wicked hunting knife over his shoulder and—well, never mind what she did next. The important thing is that the officer doesn’t even have time to shout a command to his confused troopers.
As the stormtroopers try to fend off their tiny attackers, Han and Chewie hurl themselves at the closest guards and the chaos is complete. Leia and the rest of the strike team charge in to grab the guns away from their distracted captors.
“GRRRRHHHWGRRR!” Chewie lets loose a Wookiee war cry as he clobbers the trooper who had confiscated his bowcaster. Raising the mighty weapon, he begins blasting away and charges into the woods after the fleeing troopers.
The strike team takes up positions on each side of the bunker, and for the moment, the bunker entrance belongs to the rebels. Unfortunately, the bunker door does not. It has closed again.
Han punches in the code, but nothing happens.
“The code’s changed!”1 he hollers to Leia.
“We need Artoo!” she yells back.
“Artoo! Where are you! We need you right away!” Han barks into his comlink.
Not far from where we left them, R2 and C-3PO are relatively safe behind a log.
“Beek-ull-deep,” chirps R2 matter-of-factly, and rolls out into the clearing.
“Going? What do you mean, going?” calls C-3PO. “This is no time for heroics! Come back!”
But of course, R2 doesn’t come back and C-3PO, yet again, has no choice but to follow. Or does he have a choice? After all, couldn’t he stay hidden behind the log, too? Is it possible that after all he’s been through his circuits have developed something along the lines of bravery?
Whatever the answer, he and R2 head across the clearing, which, I’m sorry to say, is now buzzing with blaster fire as some regrouped stormtroopers launch an assault on the rearmed strike team.
“Oh dear!”
HIGH ABOVE THE ENDOR moon another battle still rages.
Lando and the rebel fighter pilots have succeeded in drawing the fire away from the rebel fleet, but the cost has been great. Their fleet gets smaller and smaller every minute and yet they hardly seem to be making a dent in the enemy’s fleet.
Still, it could have been worse. Lando had worried that the Star Destroyers would use their countless cannons to pick off the X-wings, but so far that hasn’t happened.
“Only their fighters are attacking,” he mutters, half to Nien Nunb and half to himself. “I wonder what those Star Destroyers are waiting for.”
The commander of the Eclipse, the Emperor’s own Super Star Destroyer, is wondering the same thing. He has maneuvered the ship slightly away from the battle and now has a clear shot at the rebel cruisers, including Ackbar’s command ship.
“We’re in attack position now, sir,” he tells Admiral Piett.
“Hold here,” says Piett.
“We’re not going to attack?”
“I have my orders from the Emperor himself. He has something special planned for them. We only need to keep them from escaping.”<
br />
Was there a bit of a sigh as Piett gave that explanation? There was certainly a look of disappointment on the commander’s face.
Neither of these officers would ever complain about an order that came directly from the Emperor.
But the whole thing seems rather anticlimactic. Both men have been chasing these rebels their whole careers. Piett, in particular, has his reasons for wanting to beat Ackbar once and for all. And now here he is with the Mon Calamari ship in his sights and he isn’t allowed to pull the trigger.
“What is the Emperor up to?” he wonders.
The Emperor is up to no good, as you can imagine, reader.
He’s had a delightful time watching both Luke and the rebel fleet crumbling at the same time. But now…it’s time to smash them both.
“As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed.”
Luke doesn’t even turn around. He’s not ready to admit that his friends have failed and he’s certainly not ready to be called “my young apprentice.”
But the Emperor knows his words have caused pain. And he knows what he says next will cause so much more.
“Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station.”
Now Luke does turn to look at him in surprise. The Emperor leans forward as he presses a button on his armrest.
“You may fire when ready, Commander.”
Far away, in the Death Star’s control room, Jerjerrod hears the command.
You remember Jerjerrod, of course. He’s the one who told himself the new Death Star’s massive cannon would never need to be used. Ah, if we only had time to reflect on how this not particularly bad man ended up doing this evil deed.
But we don’t. Because this evil deed only takes one word.
“Fire!”
Out in space, there is a mighty flash and one of the larger rebel ships, The Liberty, is suddenly and silently gone. In its place swirls a cloud of dust and debris and death.
“That blast came from the Death Star!” Lando yells into the comlink. “That thing’s operational!”
“We saw it. All craft, prepare to retreat!” commands Ackbar.
Retreat? Lando has never liked that word. And this time it means abandoning his friends on the Endor moon and leaving the Death Star intact and the Empire as strong as ever, all to limp away with half the ships they came with. And then what would they do? Hide?
“You won’t get another chance at this, Admiral.”
“We have no choice, General Calrissian. Our cruisers can’t repel firepower of that magnitude.”
“Then you’ll need to move in closer to the Star Destroyers.”
“Closer, General?”
“Yes! I said closer. Move as close as you can and engage those Star Destroyers at point-blank range.”
Ackbar is not used to being yelled at over a comlink or being told what to do. But Lando does have a point. The Death Star wouldn’t dare shoot into its own fleet. Still, it seems crazy to tangle directly with a Star Destroyer.
“At that close range,” he tells Lando, sensibly, “we won’t last long against those Star Destroyers.”
“We’ll last longer than we will against that Death Star! Han will have that shield down, we’ve just got to give him more time.”
JUST TO BE CLEAR, R2 is not plodding. He is rolling as fast as he can considering the terrain. But it certainly seems like he is plodding to Han and Leia.
“Come on! Come on!” yells Han.
“Oh, Artoo, hurry,” calls C-3PO, scuttling past the smaller robot and taking cover inside the bunker doorway.
“Get this door open!” yells Han when R2-D2 finally arrives. Then he turns to open fire on a couple of stormtroopers that have been shooting at them from behind a bush.
This time it’s the troopers who have the better aim! R2 has barely plugged into the door’s terminal when he’s hit by a bright red blast. The little droid goes flying, head spinning and smoke pouring out of every interface.
“Oh, Artoo! Why did you have to be so brave?” moans C-3PO.
Side by side, Han and Leia return fire. Hard to see what’s going on in the bushes but it looks like they got one. The other disappears.
Han looks at the control panel R2 opened. Inside there’s a tangle of wires.
“I suppose I could try hotwiring this thing…” he says, though not with a lot of hope.
“I’ll cover you,” says Leia, taking another shot at the troopers’ hiding spot.
MEANWHILE, the Ewoks keep up the fight in the forest. They scored a major victory when they knocked over an AT-ST by rolling several logs at it. The giant metal thing actually slipped and fell. And I fear its pilot and copilot did not fare well once they crawled out of the wreckage.
However, the third AT-ST has been unstoppable, dodging traps and using its twin laser cannons with deadly accuracy. A whole tribe of Ewoks tried to bring it down by stretching out a vine for it to trip over. Instead, the little warriors were dragged along behind it until they let go.
But now they have a new plan…with a new ally. Chewbacca, they discover, is even better at climbing trees than they are.
Several Ewoks lure the AT-ST past a particular tree. Just as it passes underneath, Chewbacca—along with two rather reckless young Ewok hunters, Wunka and Widdle—drops down onto the roof of the big metal walker.
Wunka clambers to the very edge of the roof, leans over, and peeks through the windshield.
“Look!” yells the copilot.
“Get that thing off of there!” snarls the pilot.
The copilot lifts the hatch in the roof, but is immediately grabbed by Chewbacca and thrown to the forest floor.
Meanwhile, Widdle has already slipped through the hatch and stabbed the pilot through the…well, again, no need for the details here. The important thing to note is that when the pilot slumps forward over the controls, the walker stumbles and Chewie just barely hangs on to the hatch.
“NWWRGGK!” he fusses at Widdle.
Wunka hops down into the cockpit next and helpfully pulls at a control lever. The walker rears back and teeters wildly, almost falling backward. But Chewbacca has now dropped into the pilot’s seat and he quickly gets the AT-ST balanced.1
Then, without wasting a second, he turns and heads back to the bunker, blasting troopers, bikers, and the fourth AT-ST as he goes.
“Mircheeewawaaaaaaa!” yells Wunka.
“MURRGGGGHHHRRRR!” agrees Chewbacca.
BACK AT THE BUNKER, Han has stripped a few wires and now he touches the ends of two together. Sparks fly.
“I think I got it!”
He hooks another wire on and a loud click is heard.
“I got it!”
But instead of the bunker door opening, a second, heavier blast door slams down.
Leia turns to look and then—KRRZAP!—she’s hit by a shot from a stormtrooper’s blaster.
“Oh! Princess Leia!” cries C-3PO. “Are you all right?”
“It’s not bad,” says Leia, clutching her shoulder.
“Let’s see,” says Han, easing her to the ground and leaning down to look at the wound.
“Freeze!”
“Oh dear! Another stormtrooper! Where did he come from?”
“Don’t move,” barks the trooper.
Han looks at Leia. Is it all over?
Leia looks at Han with the tiniest smile. She reaches into her jacket and—with Han blocking the trooper’s view—pulls out a pistol.
“I love you,” says Han.
“I know,” says Leia.
“Hands up! Stand up!” says the trooper.
Han straightens up and then quickly steps aside, giving Leia a clear shot at the trooper.
Pzzzap!
Han turns back to congratulate Leia and then freezes.
An AT-ST has stomped into the clearing, twin cannons pointed straight at him.
“Stay back,” he whispers to Leia, but it’s not necessary. The walker’s hatch pops open and there�
�s Chewie, roaring in triumph!
“Mgrrruuuuuuu!”
“Chewie!” yells Han with relief.
Then he remembers Leia’s injury. “Get down here! She’s wounded!”
Then he remembers the mission: “No, wait! Stay there!”
He turns to Leia with a smile.
“I got an idea.”
LUKE WATCHES the space battle as it wears on and on.
The two fleets are hopelessly tangled now. He can’t be sure but he thinks Admiral Ackbar must have done this on purpose.
But why?
There can only be one answer: because the shield is still up.
That means that Han and Leia have failed. No, he dare not think of them.
He turns back to the battle and watches as a damaged rebel cruiser begins to come apart in a series of minor explosions. But with one last burst from its engines, it closes in on a Star Destroyer.
The cruiser silently explodes and the blast destroys most of the control tower of the Star Destroyer.
A victory of sorts. But not a happy one.
He tries to count the remaining rebel ships…not enough. He knows it’s not enough.
“Your fleet has lost,” croaks the Emperor. “And your friends on the Endor moon will not survive. There is no escape, my young apprentice. The Alliance will die…as will your friends.”
Luke says nothing. But the Emperor seems to hear a response.
“Good, good. I can feel your anger! Take your weapon! I am defenseless. Strike me down with all your hatred and your journey to the dark side will be complete.”
And Luke does! Or at least he tries to.
In a single motion, he whirls, reaches out with the Force for his lightsaber, fires it up, and swings it down to destroy the Emperor.
But just centimeters from the Emperor’s face a bright red blade blocks it. The Emperor never flinches.
Luke looks up. It’s Vader…his own blazing red lightsaber crackling with energy.
And now the two must fight again.
Beware the Power of the Dark Side! Page 13