It was supposed to be a harmless mission—just talk to the locals about staying with the Republic and not defecting to the First Order. It was supposed to be a diplomatic mission to a rural planet. It was supposed to be the perfect, risk-free mission for Ben to cut his teeth on.

But they were wrong. They were all wrong.

Luke and Ben's X-wings exited hyperspace in combat spread position.

Ben held the defender position, 500 meters below and 1.5 kilometers to the left of Luke as they exited hyperspace. Scanners read clear as they entered the exosphere of Apathaska on the night side of the planet.

As they descended to the troposphere, four TIE fighters raced behind them. R2-D2 picked them up on his scanners first, beeping wildly at Luke. "I know, Artoo, I see them," Luke said, tensed. "Ben, we've got company. About 10 kilometers out, 4 marks at 26 decimal 15."

Ben looked at his scopes. "My scopes don't show anything."

"Turn on your visual tracking. Here they come." Luke held his stick steady, his eyes scanning to either side. "On my mark, break right. Three, two, one, break."

Ben banked into a hard right, crossing the path of two of his attackers.

Luke pulled a defensive split, heading left.

Luke swooped his craft around, lining his up with Ben to come into a wedge on one of the their attackers. They jinked left and right to keep the other TIEs off them, green lasers spitting past their cockpits.

Ben broke hard right again, drawing the attacker onto his tail. Luke dropped in behind the TIE and took fired. His shot landed squarely in the center of the fighter and blew it to pieces. He flew through the explosion and cheered. One down.

Ben raced his X-wing into a dive and pulled back up in a yo-yo maneuver, coming in behind another TIE. His blast took out a solar panel, sending the TIE spinning to the ground in a burst of fire. Two down.

Meanwhile, Luke had pulled to the left in a lag displacement roll, pulling his attacker in a looped barrel roll.

The TIE overshot as he fired, green laser bolts swallowed by the atmosphere. Two more TIEs entered the battle.

These two TIEs picked up Ben. Luke raced to intercept, drawing the left TIE into a vertical rolling scissor formation.

Ben pulled into a High-G barrel roll, straining his stomach and his oxygen levels. His R2 unit instantly pumped more oxygen into the cockpit as the pressure changed. He completed the maneuver by forcing the nose of his craft to center and pulled up behind his attacker to take him out.

Luke's rolling scissor nearly ended in a collision with his TIE, but he was able to pull out in time and eliminate it. Four down.

Two TIEs remained. Luke and Ben maneuvered back into combat spread as the two craft approached them head-on.

Luke said, "Ben, take the one of the right. I've got the left."

"Copy that, Master," Ben said as he opened his throttle and ran straight at his attacker.

The TIEs screeched ahead on a collision course, unwavering. Luke and Ben's X-wings crossed at the last moment and split away. Luke zoomed out to the right and carved into a tight turn. Ben dodged left and executed a matching pattern. The Jedi came around full-tilt, each making micro adjustments to their courses to converge behind the fighters. They crossed again and picked up their targets, but the TIE's pulled ahead.

When Luke closed the gap, his TIE pitched into a dive. Ben's peeled up sharply, and the two Jedi diverged to pursue.

Luke followed his target. He flipped a switch, and the readout screen blinked a warning. UPPER THRUSTERS OFFLINE. He steered to compensate and pumped fuel into the tanks, triggering an alarm. UPPER THRUSTERS FLOODED. Both hands on the controls, Luke used the Force to disable the warning and searched for the right moment, priming the engines further. Now!

He flipped the switch and activated the upper thrusters. A flare blasted out behind him. His X-wing swung out, maintaining a predatory dive, and increased speed. The two ships plummeted toward the planet, rapidly approaching a range of mountains more jagged than a rancor's spine.

R2 beeped a warning.

"Oh, no." Luke pressed a pair of orange buttons. "See what you can do, Artoo."

The TIE dodged, avoiding target lock, but Luke used to Force to time his shot. He fired, and his laser cannons discharged. The bogey swerved directly into the hailstorm and was ripped to shreds. Metal and Plasti-carbon peppered Luke's canopy, but he was unharmed.

"Nice going, buddy."

Artoo bleeped and whirred.

"I'll try not to."

Luke checked his radar for Ben's craft but spotted him visually first.

The Padawan had somehow lost the advantage, and the TIE tracked him move for move. Ben spun into a sharp dive and raced for the cover of the mountaintops below. But the TIE pilot followed, gaining ground.

Luke maxed his thrusters and dove to assist.

R2-D2 whined in protest, but fell silent when the First Order ship opened fire. It struck Ben's R2 unit, blowing the green dome from the body in a trail of red-and-gold sparks. Gaining space from behind, Luke neared weapon range. The TIE fired again.

Ben's starboard engine blew off its mount, and the X-wing broke into a wild spin. Smoke and toxins streaked through the air, and fire flamed across the rightward S-foils, igniting the fuel in the tanks.

Luke yelled over the comm system, "Eject! Eject! Ben, eject!"

Ben's canopy burst open, and his ejection seat flew past Luke, Padawan limp in the harness, head lolled to the side. The TIE fired a moment later and blew the X-wing in half. Luke flew into the twin trail of flames and his targeting computer locked.

He fired, but the image of Ben, lifeless in his seat, stole his attention.

The TIE exploded from the direct hit and rained down in a pyrotechnic shower toward the mountains that were reaching up at an alarming rate.

Luke pulled up and searched for Ben's parachute, but the warning claxon of two incoming TIEs interrupted him.

"Give it all you got, Artoo," he said, pulling his X-wing into a steep Immelmann climb. Luke flooded the fuel tanks, setting up for another high-G yo-yo maneuver against R2's objection. He lit the fuel and hoped for the best.

The X-wing looped high and sped up. When it reached the apex of the turn, Luke lined up on the target now in front of him and fired.

The TIE shattered on impact and blew apart in a pair of overlapping rings of flame. But the other TIE retaliated with a tight burst of laser fire that strafed Luke's X-wing and struck the power converter.

R2 beeped at Luke.

"I know you did, Artoo. I know! Bypass the converter and see what you can do about boosting the shields, will you?"

The droid bleeped a string of harsh tones, and Luke checked his display console.

"Great. That's great. No shields."

More laser fire blasted from the TIE. Luke pulled his X-wing between the mountain peaks to evade the pursuit, but the fighter followed.

Rolling and turning without the buffering of the power converter proved difficult even with Luke's Jedi skills. He jerked in his seat, arms shaking in painful movements, but he could only think of one thing.

Ben!

Luke slammed the steering yoke hard left and bounced in the cockpit as he rounded a rock spire. The TIE closed in, lasers blazing. Cracks in the pinnacle burst and faces of stone dropped like a juvenile Krayt dragon shedding its scales. The twisted spire crumpled onto itself and then fell over.

Ten thousand metric tons of rock slammed into the TIE, covering it in a tomb of shale and granite. Luke jammed the throttle and searched ahead for any bio signals on his scope, but the display only flickered before cutting out.

Luke drew in a long and steady breath, reaching out with the Force. His eyes picked up a black smudge in the distance, smoke tendrils squiggling up into the blue sky.

Ben's ship!

Fifty kilometers beyond the debris field of the fallen X-wing, past the two halves ripped apart that had careened into the planet's surface, a parachute fluttered in the wind. R2-D2 tinkered with a power coupling, and Luke's ship returned to functioning status.

When the landing gear touched down, the canopy opened, and Luke sprang out to the muddy ground. His boots sunk into the mud.

The recent rain slowed his progress to the ejection seat covered with Ben's parachute. Feeling nothing, he feared the worse. He detected no movement other than the expended sail blowing in the breeze.

Luke yanked off the chute and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

He's alive, Luke knew, although he couldn't sense his nephew's location.

The safety restraints had held and had been released on purpose.

The Jedi gazed over the seat and spotted a trail of footprints with two continuous lines between them. His hope renewed in an instant at the indication that someone had dragged Ben away to safety. But something didn't sit right with the Jedi Master.

Luke returned to his X-wing as smoke poured from the power converter's compartment. The astromech droid had lowered himself with his electro-magnet and was suppressing the fire with his built-in extinguisher.

The Jedi Master opened the storage bay under the cockpit, burning his hand on the hot metal of the fuselage. "Ow!" He shook his hand to cool it. With the Force, he grabbed the large extinguisher and attacked the power converter. Soon the flames were out, but the X-wing was disabled.

"I don't think this thing's going to start up, Artoo," Luke said. "Looks like were stuck here for a while."

R2 beeped at him again, asking a question

"I don't want to break radio silence until we know what's happened to Ben. I'm not leaving here without him."

Luke stripped off his orange flight suit to reveal his Jedi blacks—much less noticeable at night than the bright orange and white of the flight suit. He grabbed emergency rations and water and started his trek across the plains under the moonlight.

The droid tried to follow him across the terrain.

"No, Artoo, you stay here with the ship. Low power mode until I return."

R2 beeped back, disagreeing with this command.

'"Artoo," Luke said with raised eyebrows and tilted head. "That way." He pointed back to the ship.

R2-D2 beeped a few more things as he turned 180 degrees and rolled toward the fighter.

Luke looked across the terrain in all directions. Moonlight illuminated the mountains edging the grassy steppes to the north.

Did you know . . . 

● This chapter has the fingerprints of my wonderful editor MichaelHoliday all over it. I call him "The King of Action." This chapter would be very boring without his work. (Don't worry. I return the favor with my specialties: copyediting and emotional writing.)

● Ben is now 16. One year has passed since the last chapter arc. And, as he indicated in the last passage, he is playing the part of the perfect Padawan. Since Luke has been on many missions through the year, he takes Ben's behavior at face value, relieved that boy is settling down as a fine Jedi Padawan.

Tell me what you think . . .

● What would you do if your Padawan was shot down during his first mission?