Luke Skywalker Volume 1 #4

With a pack full of supplies, Luke hurriedly grabbed his 6-2Aug2 hunting rifle before calling out,

 

 

“I’m spending the night in the workshop Aunt Beru.” Faintly, he heard her response,

 

 

“Don’t stay up too late!”

 

 

“I won’t!” Luke called back halfheartedly before embarking up the steps out of the Lars homestead. Pausing only to admire the setting dual suns, he continued walking far past the workshop until he reached a small rock formation surrounded by moisture vaporators. It took the better part of a half an hour for Biggs to show up, grumbling to himself angrily while fumbling with his own supply pack. Chuckling, Luke asked, “Glad you’re going to the Academy now, aren’t you?”

 

 

“Oh, you know it. I only wish Fixer hadn’t-”

 

 

“Hey, it’s fine. We’ll make this fun, plus, think about what we can hold over Fixer after this. It’s not like he came to stay out here.” Luke finished his sentence while lowering his rifle to the ground to use it as a walking stick. Rolling his eyes, Biggs placed his backpack over his shoulder as the two began to walk towards the Jundland Wastes. Attempting to lighten the mood, Luke restarted a conversation the two had earlier, “Didn’t you have a story about the Clone Wars? One that you heard at the Academy induction ceremony? You never got to tell it.”

 

 

“Yeah, because Fixer’s a moof-milker...eh, I’ll drop that. Anyway, yeah, I have a Clone Wars story.”

 

 

“And?” Luke prodded, causing Biggs to think back before saying,

 

 

“It was something that happened here years ago. Nobody knew the names except they knew Jabba was involved and it was bit of a covert op. Basically, Jabba had a son-” Luke burst out laughing before composing himself and saying,

 

 

“I’m sorry. Just…Jabba had a…continue, please, go on.” Biggs gave Luke a look that suggested, well, where do you think Jabba came from?, before continuing his story,

 

 

“The Jedi were attempting to kill the child. Took it to some place called Rugosa. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, two Jedi went rogue and tried to bring the kid here to kill them in front of Jabba.”

 

 

“That doesn’t seem very Jedi-like.” Luke said suspiciously, to which Biggs replied,

 

 

“Luke, the Jedi tried to kill the Emperor. They tried to destabilize the government. This story was just an example of how it didn’t start just before that attack on Coruscant. The Empire’s told us all of this, you should know.”

 

 

“Yeah. I just have some…feeling, I don’t know, that maybe it’s propaganda.” Shrugging at this, Biggs replied,

 

 

“I wish at this point I could afford to believe it was propaganda, but who’s gonna prove the Empire wrong?” Luke sounded somewhat defeated as he said,

 

 

“No one, I guess. So, how’d the story end?”

 

 

“Oh, right, some Count that worked with the Confederacy saved the child and brought them to Jabba. The day was saved, the Jedi were forced back into the shadows, but the war still raged on for a few more years. Just think of all the lives that could have been saved if the Jedi had-” Biggs stopped mid sentence as he and Luke both recognized where they were. Black melons, opened and emptied inarguably by the Tusken Raiders that religiously feasted on them, marked the entrance to the Jundland Wastes.

 

 

“After you, Count Nefarius,” Luke said, half jokingly with a hint of spite behind his words due to his strange gut feeling on the subject matter they had been discussing, “Welcome to the Wastes.”

Done