From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi (Star Wars) by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Published: 2023-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

THE MAN WHO CAPTURED LUKE SKYWALKER

Max Gladstone

Commander Altadan Igar walked the haunted moon, guided by the Death Star’s light.

The cool gray glow made twisted paths through strangling trees, and it gleamed off the white-armored Gamma Squad troopers fanned out ahead. The light cast shadows, too, but they were hard-edged and clear. Igar knew those shadows and their dangers, as he knew his body, his weapons, and his squad.

The search for Theta Squad was in its fourth hour, and Gamma Squad was tired. The troopers would not say as much. It was a commander’s job to know.

He pinged for reports.

“Segment clear.”

“Segment clear.”

“Segment—” A curse, a crash, a blaster twang.

He turned to Sector Three. “Trooper Dooze. Status.”

“Fell into one of those crikking pits, sir. Some rodent-thing jumped at me. Ran off. Should burn this place to the ground if you ask me. Sir.”

Poor discipline. A newly minted officer would have broken Dooze for it. But Igar knew that would only cost him his troops’ respect, or worse, out here in these damn thick woods where whole squads disappeared without a trace. The men were jumpy, suspicious, all the words they’d say instead of scared. There were plenty of reasons an officer might not come back. Igar had seen it before.

“Dooze,” he said, “language,” and that was enough.

“Sorry, sir.”

The echoes faded.

Dooze was a good man. He had been close with Scout Trooper Rell of Theta Squad. He might still be close with Scout Trooper Rell of Theta Squad, though the odds of that declined with every hour Theta remained out of contact. Third squad lost this week. They’d searched four hours without any sign. There were so many shadows. This moon ate you, the men whispered back at base, it ate you and it did not leave the bones.

“Convene, all units.” He reviewed the topography scan. “Meet at the overlook north-northeast of my position.”

Positive pings. Movement in the deep forest.

Igar climbed.

No sign of Theta. No sign of enemy action. Just like the others. Telemetry and comms glitched out in among those massive trees. Heavy metals in the bark? The boffins should have found a fix by now, if only point-comms through satellite like prehistoric colonists. But the boffins were busy on the other side of the sky, building the future.

He crested the ridge and stared out alone upon the starlit night.

The sky above was clear, and the Death Star bright. Treetops silvered, like the crests of waves on a black sea. Down there in the deeps he had lost soldiers. He had seen so many forests, on so many worlds.

Should just burn this place to the ground if you ask me, sir. He understood Trooper Dooze. He had been Trooper Dooze, a long time ago.

Back in the Clone Wars, when the Separatists invaded his home and he joined his local militia to fight back, Altadan Igar had believed a war was won through blasters and turbolasers and courage and blood. He wanted to serve, and service eventually brought him to the stars, but he had worn out so many boots on so many worlds that he came to hate the ground beneath his feet.

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