Luke Skywalker, the Last Jedi, faces his toughest challenge yet. After taking his Jedi vows, he assumes the misbelief that love has no place in his life. As a result, he denies the love he craves in order to establish the New Jedi Order and maintain...
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❶ After the cruiser exited hyperspace, the drop ships began their descent into the atmosphere of Jakku. Namir's spearhead team dropped last of all in the dead center of the phalanx. After they had entered the atmosphere and dropped twenty thousand meters, surface-to-air missiles took out the portside engine and plunged them toward the dunes of Jakku.
Naluma clutched the restraint webbing as the craft plummeted. Some soldiers lolled in their seats, concussed from the hit.
Seated near the cockpit, Namir unbuckled his harness. The centrifugal force pinned him to the cabin bulkhead. He inched over to the jump door, slid his hand to the lever, and opened the hatch.
The heat of the atmosphere rushed into the ship. The wind tugged at Fau's braid of hair and sucked out anything not bolted to the deck.
Namir yelled over the wind, "Out! Out! Out!" He windmilled his arm toward the door. "Stat in your harnesses. Watch the spin of the ship. Unload down the line." He pointed to the grunt nearest him.
One of the freshest of the men unbuckled a moment too early and was thrown against the wall next to the captain, his nose crunching in a sickly squish.
The ship's rotation reached the apex of the safe zone to make an exit. Namir yanked the soldier off the wall and tossed him out. "One more, then wait for my mark."
The next soldier unstrapped and made it out just before the force of the spin worked against the exit.
Over the next twenty seconds, time seemed to slow.
Two more soldiers jumped without incident, but the next batch wasn't as lucky. The pair unbuckled from their harnesses as the same time and clogged the exit. Neither escaped, and the force of the rotation flung them to the back of the ship.
They slammed into each other, caught in the tidal force. The ship made another rotation and this time they were both sucked out, not before slamming the wall and having limbs tweaked at awkward angles.
"Your next, Fau."
Naluma ignored him, gathering in the Force. They needed the ship, the supplies, and the speeder it carried. She hooked a safety tether from her combat harness onto a support pole and then unbuckled her restraint webbing.
Namir yelled at her, "Jedi, I gave you a command to abandon ship."
Through clenched teeth she said, "I am not under your command, Captain. I can bring this ship down in one piece."
"Suit yourself." Out of patience, he jumped from the craft.
As soon as they were gone, Naluma inhaled a cleansing breath, forgetting the spinning of the ship, forgetting the worries of crashing into the desert floor, forgetting her impending death. It was only she, the ship, and the Force now. She remembered Luke's instruction about levitation, "Size matters not."
