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:: An ongoing episodic story of fan-fic set after Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and inspired by George Lucas' historical draft concepts ::
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Next movie 'Starfighter' commences ! !
31st August 2025 |
In a surprise announcement, it was revealed that the next movie, Starfighter, had commenced filming ! Being shot in the UK, this is directed by Shawn Levy and written by Jonathan Tropper, with cinematography by Claudio Miranda, and stars Ryan Gosling in the lead. The cast list was also announced :
Ryan Gosling - hero protagonist
Matt Smith - villainous general ?
Mia Goth - villain ?
Amy Adams - mother to FG's character ?
Flynn Gray - teenage protagonist ?
Aaron Pierre
Simon Bird
Jamael Westma
Daniel Ings
We know very little about the film's plot, other than it is said to be set about five years after Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker, and due for release May 2027.
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| As I did with the progression of the Virtual Edition Episode X, I will post below sections of the prose for Episode XI as I draft it.... Scenes follow with Han and his agent Jayvis discussing how best to proceed ; Luke seeing beguiling and enticing visions on Ansenne Five ; Master Jedi Flo-Ra and Knight Jannee investigating the unusual presence of a recent plasma burst on a cold planetoid in deep space.
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Han had rushed back to the Imperial transport shuttle, with Chewie waving him on board. The disguised Wookiee settled himself in the main cabin, while Han made his way to the cockpit, where he found Jayvis and the flight attendant.
“That was cutting it close...” Han grumbled, as his breathing calmed.
“Sorry, Hux, but we’ve got a tight schedule here...” Jayvis flicked a glance at the attendant.
The woman didn’t notice, but glanced down at her hands clasped primly at her tummy.
“Indeed ! We can’t be hanging around all day,” she snapped. “If you want to be part of the shuttle flights team, you need to learn judicious time-keeping !”
Han raised an eyebrow at Jayvis, and then turned to face his colleague.
“Of course, ma’am, I’m sorry, ma’am.”
Han was keen to discuss what Professor Floydwood had revealed, and Jayvis was impatient to find out if his contact had been worth it.
“And well you should remember that !” she nodded briskly re-enforcing her point.
Jayvis turned to face his colleague and flashed a smile. “Elsa, love, why don’t you go out back and check the manifest for the next drop ? P-Five, isn’t it ?”
“Of course, Jay,” answered Elsa, dutifully.
The flight attendant nodded, and stepped out of the cockpit.
“She must keep you on your toes,” Han mumbled with a grin, as he slipped into the co-pilot’s seat. Through the cockpit window, the industrial cityscape of Imperium could be seen flickering below them.
Jayvis smiled, and agreed.
He leaned in earnestly, and whispered. “What did the professor say ?”
“Some sort of hyperspace propulsion catapult system giving them a high energy weapon,” Han answered, his voice low. “I’ve asked for some plans by the end of the shift as evidence.”
Jayvis rubbed his chin ruefully, and shook his head. “I don’t believe it. That thing could be a game-changer...”
Han nodded. “Lightspeed projectile, remote firing... worse than the Death Star !”
Han went on. “He says they’re being watched.”
“Probably,” agreed Jayvis. He leaned on the steering yoke, and the shuttle banked past the spire of a tower.
“So I’m wondering if we can lift him before tomorrow ? Could we locate his family today, and get them somewhere safe ?”
Jayvis ran his hand through his hair, and sighed. “I don’t know about that. But we ought to be able to find out where they’re housed.”
Han nodded. “That might be enough. I can get my friend to pull them out.”
“I could check the city database at P-Five when we land.”
“Good, but don’t take all day. If there are eyes out there, we’ll have to work fast.”
Night had fallen on Ansenne Five, and inside the passenger cabin of the P-Wing, Threepio had shut down and Artoo was on a standby mode, his lights flickering on a gentle rhythm.
Luke was deeply asleep, but the Master Jedi was quietly mumbling and moaning to himself.
Within his mind, Luke witnessed fleeting images and snatches of voices.
Those Stones. Travelling through them to anywhere now and at once. A substitute for hyperlanes that only the Jedi will know and can master. Using Leia to oversee the galaxy, reporting on any problems, and sending out his Jedi Rangers immediately to resolve the disputes. A wide-reaching judicial hand that can penetrate all the dark corners of the Galaxy. Make society truly safe and free once more. Finally purify society of its criminality. A Golden Age of the Jedi Order once more. All-seeing and all-knowing Jedi, in a guiding role, of course, rather than the self-serving and egocentric politicians who dictate and impose.
On the narrow cabin bunk, Luke fidgeted and spasmed in nocturnal frustration.
Uncle Owen growling in despair. His cowed teenage-self this time standing up to the gruff old man, shouting back, standing his ground, refusing to comply. Guilt-ridden. The same teenager, now swinging his father’s blue lightsabre back and forth, cutting down the army of stormtroopers arrayed outside the farmstead. His Aunt and Uncle overjoyed with relief, impressed at their nephew’s prowess, gushing with gratitude.
The immense wheezing metallic voice : “It is useless to resist... don’t let yourself be destroyed... No, I am your father !” The wounded warrior pushes out with his left hand and the Dark Lord’s lightsabre hilt smacks into it ! The Knight leaps away from the sensor vane with a formidable and triumphant yell, and slashes down upon his unarmed opponent with his foe’s crimson sword, slicing the Sith Monster into eternal silence.
The sinister familiar cackle and blinding white light... but his Jedi palm meets the Master’s lightning, and contains it and draws it in and subsumes it to silence. And then blasts it back out with even more ferocious energy, obliterating its former owner.... And Luke taking the Imperial throne and proclaiming his executive order to his new fleet to stand down and to his new armies to lay down their weapons.
And then striding through the scarlet-hued Imperial Palace, finding a cowering Darth Kayos and a snivelling pleading Darth Monstross, and silencing their pitiful apologies and their hollow devious pleas for mercy.
And holding the Pirate Leader fast by the immense power of the Force, immobilising him so he can’t destroy the reactor, withdrawing his last breath one second at a time for every refugee he had killed or re-routed away from their safe haven.
A sibilant whisper : If only you had had the sssstrength back then...
Now the Grand Master Jedi, dressed in white robes, a golden halo of power emanating from him, gazing from his spire high above Coruscant, clear blue skies, crowds far below cheering for him, adulating for him, proclaiming his just and merciful rule.
The soft beguiling hiss came again : Let the sssstonesss lead you and the answersssss will be yoursssss.....
Luke blinked open his eyes and looked around him. The darkness was broken by soft blue and green hues from the ship’s vital support systems, as well as the familiar blinking blue lights of his Artoo unit.
The Stones.
He couldn’t wait. He had to return to them and discover their secrets now!
He gently swung his booted feet off the bench seat and set them to the floor. He gathered his white overcloak, now streaked with dirt and dust, around him, and silently rose. He glanced at the two droids, seemingly shut down, and quietly made his way to the back of the ship. A wave of his left hand, and the boarding hatch opened with a quiet pneumatic hiss. As he stepped out into the night, Artoo beeped to himself ; a sequence of coloured lights flickered into life, and his short-range sensor array slid up out of his domed head and began to swivel back and forth.
Jedi Master Flo-Ra and the Jedi Knight, Jannee, were sat in the cockpit of a P-Wing transport starfighter. The human women were regarding a small holo-map that was being projected into the air between them from a console on the instruments dashboard. The map, a section of local space, showed red and yellow specks surrounded by linear squares and rectangles. Accompanying these stars were smaller coloured dots representing planets and their primary habitat environments, with white spots next to them marking their satellite moons. Looking closely one could see scattered here and there rogue dead planets and moons that had broken free of their parent star.
Outside the cockpit window loomed a cold white moon, the dark smudges of craters visible, but so too a thin pale yellow hazy line drawing a penumbra around the dark limb of the shadowed planetoid. The sphere was large enough to generate its own thin atmosphere, a relic of times past. A nearby star had adopted the rock and now provided a soft bath of dim white light.
Jannee was long-limbed in stature with long fair hair tied back. Master Flo-Ra bore a muscular body and a mane of red hair. Both wore ochre-coloured simple Jedi tunics with skirts and leggings.
“There she is,” confirmed Master Flo-Ra. “That’s the planetoid that Master Leia had indentified.”
Jannee nodded, then turned to an instrument scope beside her, its light flickering over her face.
“Expected levels of ambient background radiation outside. There’s a trace of an increase in plasma. That wouldn’t be indigenous, so we have to assume that spike was recent ?”
Flo-Ra reached across her pilot’s panel, and flicked some switches and slid some levers. A side screen flickered as the readings changed.
“Thin atmosphere, methane and nitrogen, traces of oxygen,” she reported. “Igneous rock, legacy sedimentary flows, simple bacterial microbes.”
“Not much here. So what’s so special about this place ?” enquired Jannee out loud. “What’s caught Master Leia’s attention ?”
“That plasma spike,” answered Flo-ra insightfully. “The Jedi Council and the Pan Alliance have been tracking an increase in illegal mining of hot plasma.”
“But there’s no plasma, hot or cold, on that moon ! It’s almost dead !” remarked Jannee.
“Almost,” agreed the Master Jedi, noting to her companion that life is tenacious and can be found almost anywhere.
“So,” she went on, “your reading of a recent hint of background plasma tells us that something which isn’t normally here – and probably shouldn’t be here – is present sometimes.”
Jannee nodded. “And that’s sufficient for us to investigate it.”
“Yep !” agreed Flo-Ra. “Let’s go in and land, and then we’ll suit up and run some more diagnostics on its surface.”
As Jannee deactivated the holo-map, Flo-Ra flipped some activator switches that fired the engines, and then she leaned in on the steering yoke, pointing the nose of the craft at the largest crater.
The P-Wing hull was marked with purple stripes, designating it as a non-aggressive utility vehicle ; it bore a simple cannon for self-defence, but it was not as armoured as the larger MPV.
The ship dived towards the moon, and then levelled out on its approach to the large crater. Closer in, they could see several sub-craters within its boundary, as well as broken alluvial fans alluding to its geological history interrupted by its catastrophic record and more recent meteor strikes.
With a mechanical groan, three landing struts extended under the ship, and the P-Wing settled in a small swirling dust cloud. As the dust dropped, so did the whine of the engines.
Inside the cockpit, Flo-Ra directed her companion to suit up in an EVA whilst she powered down the ship. Jannee nodded, and, ducking a little for the ceiling, she moved to the passenger hold and storage bins just behind the cockpit.
She opened a wall compartment and retrieved an EVA suit. She slid her skirt off and clambered into the booted one-suit, fastening it up her front as she did so. Flo-Ra then appeared and stepped over to the same compartment, reaching for her own space suit.
“Good job we added a larger suit for you !” smirked the Master Jedi.
“Well, larger means taller, but too wide in the middle !” laughed her companion. “I feel a little lost in here !”
Jannee reached into the compartment and withdrew two helmets, passing the smaller one to her colleague.
They both securely fitted their own helmets, then made their way to the back of the ship where the boarding ramp and hatch could be found. A small squat R7 droid sat on little hydraulic legs. As she passed it, Jannee flicked a switch on its head, and the droid lit up as it activated. With a slight hiss, the legs inflated a little and extended to about a quarter of its overall height.
“Time to do some work, little fella,” smiled Jannee. Her voice, heralded by a soft click, sounded tinny from under her helmet.
The droid beeped and warbled, and obediently stepped over to the egress hatch and paused.
Flo-Ra moved across to another storage unit which revealed some field diagnostic equipment. The kit was bundled on collapsed telescoping legs. The Jedi Master passed two arrays to Jannee, and held a third in her hand.
She activated a pressurising bulk head door behind them, which closed and a hissing sound and accompanying rhythmic alert beep notified them that a vacuum was being created in the boarding atrium. A green light illuminated over the egress hatch, and soon after the door slid open and the boarding ramp extended out and down.
Ar-Seven Bee-Three-Two trilled happily and marched down the ramp.
The two Jedi, moving a little awkwardly in their EVA suits, followed the droid, and out on to the dusty surface.
The crater they had chosen to land in was vast. Its cliff walls were barely a thick line on the horizon around them, encompassing several smaller dips that marked other sub-craters within the parent. The ground was fairly level where they had arrived, but in the near distance beyond the far side of the ship were strewn boulders. The colour palette was varying degrees of grey and brown-black, with a few streaks of red.
Master Flo-Ra gestured in one direction away from the ship.
“Go about a hundred paces that way, Jannee, and set up one kit over there. And then another hundred that a way,” she pointed again, then dipped her helmet. “I’ll go over there, so we can triangulate. Ar-Seven, head over to the approximate centre to collate the readings.” She glanced down at the droid. “It’s the plasma levels we’re after, don’t forget,” she admonished it.
The droid beeped a confirmation, and began to waddle towards the space the Jedi Master had indicated.
“I’m sure he’ll get the correct data,” called out Jannee as she began pacing her walk.
“Yeah, but he’s known to get a bit excitable about field work !” chuckled the other.
The two Jedi measured out their distance, and then paused. They methodically assembled the tripod legs of their respective kits and opened up the differing sensor arrays. An activator switch was flicked and the instruments lit up, some with steady lights, others with pulsing glows.
Jannee made her way across the final vector to complete the triangulation with her last piece of equipment, while Flo-Ra produced a datapad with which she could monitor the results ; then she stepped away at right angles to her tripod. She moved some distance away so as not to interfere with the sensors, and soon after was joined by Jannee.
“Thin atmosphere, methane and nitrogen, traces of oxygen,” she reported. “Igneous rock, legacy sedimentary flows, simple bacterial microbes.”
“I’m getting more data on the atmosphere above us,” noted Master Flo-Ra. “An acidic oxide reaction suggests the microbes under the rocks interact with the gases in the air around us.”
“I wonder what catastrophe befell this little world ?” mused Jannee. “I wonder what it could have become ?”
“An interesting proposition,” the Master Jedi responded, and then added ruefully, “But keep your focus on the present reality. Beware of unnecessary distractions.”
From within her helmet, Jannee nodded.
Ar-Seven squealed and chirruped.
Jannee looked over Fo-Ra’s shoulder to the datapad.
“Minimal plasma here ?”
“The four-dimensional interpretation suggests a greater amount in high orbit, trailing off to negligible amounts as it reaches the surface,” noted Flo-Ra.
“What does that mean ?”
“The obvious, I guess,” reasoned the older Jedi. “There is a trace of plasma here, but when it occurred, it vectored towards the moon but didn’t fully reach it.”
“Its temperature gradient dropped as well,” identified Jannee as she reviewed the initial findings. “So what ended up cold began hot.”
“Ar-Seven,” Flo-Ra called out to the little droid, “Can you determine the point of origin of system entry ?”
She glanced up at her colleague. “We might be able to provide a feasible trajectory that the tech guys at the Jedi Temple can work with...”
“... And calculate possible origins for the plasma,” agreed Jannee.
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| Nathaniel Reed, 31st August 2025 |
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