Untitled Document

No one much heard of me before I started flying. Sure Dad had done well. Everyone knew Huff Darklighter, farming magnate, and maybe a sometime sly dealer, but the fortune he made on moisture farms didn't get passed on to me, I had to earn my way. And Luke and I made our own reputation racing our beloved landspeeders, doing daredevil dives round Beggars Canyon. Luke never quite managed to- keep up with me but he had the eye of a born rifleman and could pop the womp rats like Daniel Boone. Luke had to admit, I was the better pilot. Nobody who saw me edge through that outcropping called Stone Needle could say otherwise. Just ask Deak or Fixer. They tried but couldn't quite make it. Fixer was better on the sand skiffs. Well, he had to be good at something.

I w as a natural for the Space Academy and graduated with honors. At the Academy I grew up, realized the Empire couldn't go on the way it was and decided I belonged with the Rebel Forces. Finally, I made contact with them, and in my first commercial posting, as first mate on the Rand Ecliptic running cargo out of Bestine, I was still determined to work for the rebellion.

I wanted Luke to join me but when I returned to the gang on Tatooine after my graduation, even my persuasive powers couldn't convince him. Uncle Owen had asked him to stay on the farm one more year, and that was that. It was hard to take. I always thought we would strike out together. Guess he just wasn't ready but deep down I knew it was only a question of time before Luke turned up at the Academy alongside me, that is, if he didn't end up somewhere before that in a smashed skyhopper on the downside of Beggar's Canyon.

On the Rand Ecliptic I got lucky, teamed up with some of the officers on board and we took over the ship and directed it to the Rebel forces. It served us well. And then real life began. I joined the Red Squadron. Didn't take long before I had my own ship, with the three stripes on the wing. Just like being back in Beggars Canyon, I used all the tricks-the roll under fire, using all my cannons while keeping the ship in a spin-'the Darklighter maneuvre', going in fast, keeping close, and in constant motion. It was all working for me at the Battle of Yavin, the Death Star was in our grasp and we were going in tight and clean. I was covering Luke, Wedge had peeled off hurt, Vader was right behind me, and I was closing in fast . . .