Free Star Wars Journal - The Fight for Justice by Luke Skywalker by John Peel Page A

prepare me for the real battle. He ran a full combat simulation with high g forces. It was crazy! There were so many attackers coming at me, I couldn’t possibly get them all.
    So imagine how I felt when Biggs showed my test results to Commander Willard and Red Leader. Yeah, I was pretty nervous. Red Leader approached me and said I only got killed twice. Killed twice! That didn’t sound so reassuring. But Red Leader explained that I had actually done well—considering Biggs had thrown an entire starfleet at me!
    I would get a ship. And my wingman would be none other than Biggs. It felt so great to make the team, and to know that Biggs and I would be up there together.
    I can’t think of many people I’d rather have fighting with me than Biggs. We go back so far together. When he left Tatooine for the Academy, I really started to feel like life was passing me by. Now we’re back together—well, the galaxy had better watch out!
    It was kind of funny when I introduced Biggs to Leia, though. He went all red-faced and stammering, and tried to say “Your Highness” without messing it up. I couldn’t help grinning. I guess it’s weird, meeting a princess for the first time. I was pretty nervous, too.
    But, anyway, back to the point. Han’s wrong about something else, too. There is a chance against the Death Star. It’s not a very big chance, but it’s the only one we’ve got. It seems that the station is virtually indestructible—except for one small weakness. The weapon it uses to destroy planets builds up a huge amount of heat that has to be forced out of the satellite. And there’s only one vent for this. The technicians here have discovered that if this thermal exhaust port can be blocked, the heat generated will stay inside the Death Star and overload the systems in seconds.
    Boom.
    If we can seal the port. The problem is, it’s very small, and it’s located in an artificial canyon, guarded by guns. Most of the pilots who’ve volunteered to fight are convinced it is an impossible target. I’m not so sure. Okay, it’s small, but not much smaller than a womp rat, and Biggs and I could shoot them from our T-16s without much trouble. A lot of the other pilots think I’m crazy, that it’s a shot nobody could make. That’s just defeatist talk. They’ve got to believe it’s possible. Otherwise this moon is going to be rubble after the Death Star arrives.
    I’m in Red Flight, along with Biggs. He’s as convinced as I am that we can do this. I think some of our confidence is rubbing off on the rest of Red Flight, at least. We’ve got to be able to pull this off.
    One more good thing—I’m not entirely alone in my X-wing. We need droids to help us pilot and run the ship, and I’ve been assigned Artoo. One of the techies commented that he’s battered, and they have a few better models. But I won’t go with anyone else. Artoo and I have been through a lot together, and this attack on the Death Star is going to be another joint venture.
    It’s almost time to take off. This might be my last entry. I could die in this raid. If so, then maybe this recording will survive, so someone one day might know how I felt about what’s been happening.
    May the Force be with us all.

THIRTEENTH ENTRY
    I can’t believe it’s over! I’m absolutely exhausted and emotionally shattered. But it’s over, and the Alliance is safe. Only, there have been more losses…
    These past couple of hours have been the most intense in my entire life—a whirlwind of action and emotions.
    The Death Star had arrived at the Yavin system by the time we were ready to lift off. All our X-wings blasted off, and we headed into space. It’s a good thing we didn’t stop to think about it.
    The Death Star wasn’t very maneuverable, but it didn’t really need to be. With its bulk, we could have shot at it for days on end and never hit anything vital, while it could destroy Yavin and all its moons in minutes.
    Besides, they had the TIE