EPISODE III: A CHASE AND A PLAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

“STAR WARS: HEROES OF DESTINY

EPISODE III: A CHASE AND A PLAN”

by

JIM COOK

BASED ON A STORY BY MICHAEL ROMANOWSKI & CO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JAMESJCOOK3RD@GMAIL.COM

HTTP://STAR-WARS-HEROES-OF-DESTINY.BLOGSPOT.COM

TWITTER: @JIMCOOKJIMCOOK

FADE IN

EXT. SPACE

We see a field of stars. As the theme music plays, words CRAWL across the blackness.

CRAWL

The crew of the Dancing Star has found, through one of their member’s mysterious talents, the location of their quarry’s lair. Now en route across the Dune Sea, they seem to have company…

 

INT. DANCING STAR BRIDGE

RENEE MARKOV, TOVI ZAHN, DELOR SEROOL and his sister KOYI’UNA SEROOL occupy the bridge of the DANCING STAR. An alarm WARBLES and Markov silences it.

TOVI ZAHN

What is it?

RENEE MARKOV

Incoming ship. 

Markov activates the visual sensors and an image pops on the screen. A single seat fighter, closing at high speed.

Another alarm WAILS.

DELOR SEROOL

He’s powering weapons.

Delor’s hands fly over the ship’s controls, and the Dancing Star begins to buck.

 

EXT. SKY ABOVE THE DUNE SEA – DAY

The Dancing Star goes into a steep dive. The maneuver doesn’t seem to faze the ENEMY PILOT at all. The fighter increases its speed, closing quickly on the corkscrewing freighter.

INT. DANCING STAR BRIDGE

Delor continues to work his controls like a virtuoso musician. The sensor display indicates that the enemy is a SoroSuub Cutlass-9 patrol fighter.

KOYI’UNA SEROOL

Do you think it is Fortuna’s?

RENEE MARKOV

I doubt it. He’s angry with me, sure, but not angry enough to send one of Jabba’s fighters after us. It would draw too much attention, with all the Imperials swarming around.

TOVI ZAHN

What do we do?

RENEE MARKOV

Contact him. Maybe he’s willing to talk.

DELOR SEROOL

Too late!

EXT. SKY ABOVE THE DUNE SEA – DAY

The Dancing Star’s aft hull is struck by fire from the Cutlass-9’s cannons. The ship’s shields hold, but only just. The Dancing Star goes into a steep spiral to try and evade the attacker.

 

INT. DANCING STAR BRIDGE

Delor slams the controls for the weapons and engines to maximum power.

DELOR SEROOL

We can’t outfight him in this bucket; but maybe we can try and spoof him…

Delor puts the Dancing Star through a spinning roll and puts the ship into a power dive toward the desert floor.

DELOR SEROOL

We can lose him in those canyons down there. I hear the locals like to buzz around down there for races and the like, sometimes to smuggle things past the Hutts.

Through the viewport we see the desert floor approaching very quickly…

Extremely quickly!

TOVI ZAHN

We’re going to fast!

INT. CUTLASS-9 COCKPIT

As the Dancing Star bobs and weaves in her dive toward the sands below, the Pilot jerks and pulls his control stick, keeping his fighter’s nose aligned with the freighter. His fingers work the trigger. Most of the red blasts from his cannons miss the Dancing Star, but now the pilot gets lucky. His shots blast into the freighter’s hull, shattering plating.

 

INT. DANCING STAR BRIDGE

The last hit causes alarms to WAIL, BUZZ, and WARBLE through the ship. Red and amber lights blink on all over the control panels. The flight engineer station explodes in sparks. Acrid smoke begins filling the bridge.

RENEE MARKOV

Somebody get on the guns!

MSBD 14-ALPHA begins working the controls for the after-market A-90 turret the previous owners had installed.

 

EXT. SKY OVER THE DUNE SEA – DAY

The turret tracks the Cutlass-9 for a moment, then crimson bolts streak outward. They score a glancing blow on the fighter’s forward shields, causing a blue flash, but no damage.

The Dancing Star goes through a series of flips and slides, finally ending up heading down a long, winding canyon at the edge of a series of serrated peaks and valleys, all jumbled amidst a dry river bed that snakes east and west for as far as can be seen.

The ship flashes past soaring plinths of rust red rock. Cannon fire strikes the freighter, making her shudder and pitch.

 

INT. DANCING STAR BRIDGE

Over Delor’s shoulder, we see a towering cliff face ahead, getting closer every second. At the last moment, Delor pours on more power and speed, causing the ship to streak upward. The Dancing Star parallels the cliff face with bare meters of clearance.

The Cutlass-9 matches the Dancing Star’s maneuver, firing all the while. The fighter’s shots miss and pound into the cliff face, blasting loose burning rock and dust.

Both ships flip over the top of the mesa, and plunge into a vast canyon beyond.

 

INT. DANCING STAR BRIDGE

KOYI’UNA SEROOL

There! Do you see it?

Koyi’una points through the bridge viewport, toward the canyon wall.

DELOR SEROOL

Yeah. Hold on!

Delor pulls the ship into a quick turn, and then we see what Koyi’una was pointing toward: a thin opening in the rock face of the canyon wall. The narrow crack is barely wide enough for the Dancing Star to slip into it sideways.

DELOR SEROOL

Here we go!

 

EXt. SKY OVER THE DUNE SEA – DAY

The Dancing Star banks sharply to port, then turns steeply to avoid once of the red sandstone monoliths. The ship’s weapons blast away at the pursuing fighter, but the wild jerking and rolling of Delor’s evasive action are casusing all of the shots to go wide.

 

INT. CUTLASS-9 COCKPIT

Through the cockpit canopy the Dancing Star pitches to port, standing on her side. She tilts crazily for a moment, then rights herself long enough to slip between the rugged stone walls of the slot in the canyon wall.

The Pilot increases his fighter’s speed, trying to maneuver to follow the Dancing Star into the narrow slot. The small ship twists and turns, following the motion of the Pilot’s stick.

 

EXT. NARROW SLOT CANYON – DAY

The Cutlass-9 follows the Dancing Star into the canyon, trying to keep up with the freighter at top speed. The speed of the big freighter’s passage is creating a wake of turbulent air in the narrow space. The small fighter is fighting against the flow, trying to follow the bigger ship. No longer blasting away with its cannons, the Cutlass-9 is only trying to keep up and keep away from the walls. The push of the Dancing Star’s wake dislodges a large boulder from higher up the wall. It tumbles down, catching the Cutlass-9’s wing, sending the fighter into a flat spin.

 

INT. CUTLASS-9 COCKPIT

The Pilot fights the control stick, but can’t get the fighter under control. He lets out a WILHELM SCREAM as the rock wall gets closer and closer.

 

EXT. NARROW SLOT CANYON – DAY

The Cutlass-9 smashes into the wall of the canyon, bursting into a sphere of flames and metallic shards with an explosive ROAR.

 

INT. DANCING STAR BRIDGE

DELOR SEROOL

That got him!

Delor works his controls, and the Dancing Star pulls up out of the canyon. Once the clear sky is visible through the view port, the crew gives a collective SIGH of relief.

TOVI ZAHN

We still don’t know who they were. Cutlass-9s are pretty common military surplus out here on the Rim.

 

RENEE MARKOV

I wouldn’t be too sure of that, Tovi…

 

Renee manipulates an image recorded on the scanner display, zooming in on the fighter. A distinctive Krayt Dragon sigil is clearly marked on the fighter’s nose.

 

IRIS WIPE TO:

EXT. DUNE SEA NEAR THE FARMER’S VILLAGE – DAY

The Dancing Star sits on a large, flat stretch of salt pan. The domed buildings of the village is visible about two kilometers in the distance. HIRAM and some MOISTURE FARMERS approach in a beat-up landspeeder, loaded down with a big crate.

The speeder slides to a stop near the grounded ship. Hiram looks up and sees activity on the dorsal hull of the Dancing Star. MYKAR ROSHENK, Delor, and R4-K17 are using fusion cutters to remove and replace the twisted, melted hull plating damaged in the fight with the Cutlass-9. The damage is not fatal to the ship, but she will require some time in a repair dock to be in full form again.

Koyi’una moves forward with arms spread to embrace the grizzled leader of the farmers.

KOYI’UNA SEROOL

Hiram! Friend! Greetings! Come, we must go aboard and discuss our business.

 

CLOCKWISE ROTATING TRANSFORM WIPE TO

EXT. DUNE SEA NEAR THE FARMERs’ VILLAGE – EVENING

The patchwork repairs on the Dancing Star have been completed. Koyi’una stands in the desert twilight, watching the speeder with the moisture farmers return to their village. The last vestiges of the twin suns dip below the horizon and the stars come out.

Koyi’una hears a THUMPING, and MSDB 14-Alpha appears at her elbow. The droid is no longer battered and beaten in appearance. He sports a brand new coat of paint, is highly polished, and gleams almost as if he has just walked off the assembly line.

MSDB 14-ALPHA

Mistress Koyi’una, my master requests your presence in the ship’s lounge.

KOYI’UNA SEROOL

Ok. What do you think of your new look?

MSDB 14-ALPHA

I have no opinion one way or the other, Mistress Koyi’una.

Koyi’una smiles, and she and the droid walk toward the ship’s ramp together in the gloom of the desert night.

 

INT. DANCING STAR LOUNGE

In the cramped but cozy and comfortable lounge a holographic map of the area hangs in the air. Koyi’una is pointing at a long, jagged formation of rock walls and stony floors.

KOYI’UNA SEROOL

The canyon that Old Fang has taken for his own is known to the locals as “Devil’s Gorge.” Few offworlders have ever laid eyes on it. It is several days bantha ride within the Sand People’s territory. Hiram believes the Tuskens will fight to the death to defend the area. He isn’t sure why, but there may possibly be some sort of religious or cultural taboo on the place. Whatever the reason, fighting our way there would be very difficult.

DELOR SEROOL

Can’t we just fly in and land at the entrance to the gorge?

KOYI’UNA SEROOL

Yes, but we’d have to be quick about our attack, getting in and out as fast as possible. Once we show ourselves every Tusken Raider in the area is going to swarm us like a plague of saffron fire beetles. Any long-term stay is simply out of the question.

Koyi’una works the controls of the holo projector, and the image rotates and zooms in on the rocky, tortured terrain of the entrance to the gorge.

KOYI’UNA SEROOL

This is the onl surface entrance to the canyon.

RENEE MARKOV

We could blast the place from the air.

Koyi’una twitches her lekku in irritation

KOYI’UNA SEROOL

Yes, we could, but I think I have another, better, solution to the problem.

Koyi’una adjusts the hologram again, and now a series of subterranean tunnels beneath the desert is displayed. There are many kilometers of them, some winding so deep beneath the surface that they continue past the displayed image.

KOYI’UNA SEROOL

These are ancient mine tunnels. At the time of the Jedi Civil war the planet was controlled by the Czerka Corporation. They were attempting to mine ores here, but the mines were never very profitable. They eventually shut down production. That was thousands of years ago. The shafts and tunnels are still there, and some may be passable. Hiram provided us this map, which shows us an entrance to the tunnel system here, in a place the locals call “Beggar’s Canyon.”

A crimson icon blazes on the hologram, showing a series of caves and tunnels about ten kilometers from the Dancing Star’s current location.

TOVI ZAHN

That’s a pretty dangerous route. It will be torturous going, in the dark, with who knows what living down there.

MYKAR ROSHENK

Yes, but taking that route to Old Fang’s lair would give us the advantage for arriving in his backyard unseen, unknown, and undetected.

FADE OUT