Star Wars: Dark Empire #4

Betrayed by their friends and pursued by everyone's favorite bounty hunter, Han and Leia try to escape from Nar Shaddaa. Meanwhile, the Rebels in combat over the planet Calamari receive aid from an unexpected source, and Luke falls deeper into the grip of the Dark Side!

Overview:

Han and Leia are greeted by Boba Fett, Dengar and Han’s old friend Mako (who seems to have changed sides). Boba tells Han that he has waited a long time to kill him. Han and Leia blast their way out of the backdoor, and flee through the streets. Quickly they come to a dead-end, an abandoned spaceport of Nar Shadda. Han and Leia counter the bounty hunters’ attack. Suddenly, a stray shot hits the passing floater of a hutt. The hutt falls off, and Han and Leia take this chance to get on the floater. They manage to evade the bounty hunters and fly upwards to find Salla Zend’s ship and the Millennium Falcon attached to it.

Han thanks Salla for the rescue, but it is short lived, because it seems that Boba Fett has already given chase in his Slave II spaceship. In the meantime, Leia opens the box given to her by Vima da boda. She finds an ancient but working lightsaber inside. As she activates the lightsaber, her force awareness is amplified temporarily. She visualizes Luke, now turned to the dark side, and in command of a fleet of Imperial starships. Leia tells Han that they must hurry.

Elsewhere, over Mon Calamari, Lando and his Rebel troops are in crisis. Their captured Star Destroyer is in the grip of a World Smasher. More World Smashers have ascended into orbit for a full frontal battle with the Alliance. Suddenly though, the World Smashers start self-destructing. It is revealed that override signals from Byss were the cause.

Over Byss, Salla Zend’s Starlight Intruder makes it through the forcefield, using stolen Imperial Code , but Boba Fett’s Slave II gets deflected. The Intruder makes it into the hangar, and the Millennium Falcon detachs itself to penetrate even more through the security net. Leia uses the Force to evade the security and the Falcon touches down in the inner hangar. As soon as Han, Leia, Chewbacca and C3PO get off, Salla and Ninx takes the Falcon out of the clutches of the Imperials. Luke’s hologram appears before Leia, and the boarding party are escorted into the Emperor’s inner sanctum. Luke reveals that the Emperor still lives.

Inside the cloning laboratories, Luke confronts them, asking them to unhand their weapons. Leia draws out her lightsaber, and notices Luke missing his prosthetic right hand. The Emperor comes forward and deactivates Leia’s lightsaber with a simple Force gesture. As he leads them to his cloning facility, Leia tries out her Force and breaks a heavy canister on the Emperor’s head. But there is no effect. The Emperor seems elated by Leia’s anger, and says that her time for training has come. With that, he sends out enough Force lightning to knock her out. Han is enraged, but Luke holds him at bay, saying that he will do whatever it takes to restore peace to the galaxy, even if it means his death.

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