The giant corporations that started from Night City

Chapter 360: Jedi Master Obi-Wan! Destroyer Star Destroyer! Burning Glass!

Tatooine, Juan Wasteland.

Paul and his crew followed Luke's landspeeder to Obi-Wan's hiding place, a simple hut located among the hills with a slaughterhouse nearby.

Although the building looked inconsistent with Obi-Wan's identity as a master of the Force, Chirrut, who was sensitive to the Force, immediately realized that what he saw was extraordinary.

"This is the knowledge base of the Jedi Order. It should have been destroyed by the Imperial Army a long time ago. I didn't expect to see it here again."

Chirrut was overjoyed. As long as they had these things, the Jedi Order would be revived one day!
"I think this should be the only remaining repository of Force knowledge in the world."

At this time, an old man in a brown robe came out to greet everyone. Although he looked very old, his sharp eyes and energetic spirit made it easy to see that he was different from others.

And this person is none other than the Jedi Master who lives in seclusion on Tatooine - Obi-Wan Kenobi!
Obi-Wan is now nearly sixty years old. If he were an ordinary human, he would have become an old man with difficulty walking.

But he looks young and vigorous. Not to mention old, with Obi-Wan's current energy, it would be easy for him to kill a few Sith Force warriors.

In fact, the average lifespan of people who learn the Force is longer than that of ordinary people. If nothing unexpected happens, they can basically live to over 200 years old.

Even for a novice Force-sensitive person, it is not difficult to live to two hundred years old.

However, the Jedi Knight profession is a high-risk industry. Most people die in battle before the age of 50. Those who can survive to the end are basically masters who are invincible in the world.

Two robots, one tall and one short, C-3PO and R2-D2, followed behind Obi-Wan. They recognized Captain Cassian, who worked for the Rebel Alliance, and happily came up to him and said:
[Captain Cassian, it's great to see you here. I had given up hope of finding the organization after landing on such a remote and barren planet.]

C-3PO started talking incessantly as soon as he saw his old friend. Cassian had met Princess Leia many times, so he naturally knew what these two robots looked like.

"Well, stop talking nonsense. Your master, Princess Leia, is still waiting for us to rescue her. Tell us quickly if she has left any message."

Cassian had no time to listen to the robots chatting in front of him. With a beep, the R2-D2 robot played the holographic video stored in its body.

That was the video Princess Leia left for Obi-Wan asking for help.

[Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, you fought alongside my father in the Clone Wars all those years ago, and now he begs for your help against the Empire.

I regret that I cannot personally present my father's letter to you. My spaceship is under attack and I am afraid we will never meet again.

Now I have obtained data information that is vital to the Rebel Alliance and stored it in the body of the R2 robot. My father knows how to retrieve the data. Please be sure to...】

Princess Leia in the holographic image had not yet finished speaking when a violent explosion forced her to stop recording, which also meant that she had been captured by the Imperial Army.

In this video message, Chirrut realized Obi-Wan's true identity. He looked at him in surprise and said in astonishment:

"You are Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader's former teacher?!"

"I'm sorry that I taught such a scum."

Obi-Wan sighed and shook his head apologetically.

In fact, when Darth Vader was still Anakin, his earliest teacher was Qui-Gon Jinn. At that time, Obi-Wan and Anakin were both Qui-Gon's disciples.

For Anakin, who has been without a father since childhood, Qui-Gon Jinn is his father and the key person who fills the fatherly love he has lost.

If Qui-Gon Jinn had not died under Darth Maul's sword, Anakin would most likely not have turned to the dark side of the Force, but would have become a famous Jedi Master like Obi-Wan.

It's a pity that after Qui-Gon Jinn's death, Obi-Wan, who took over the position of teacher, could only continue to act as the elder brother in front of Anakin, and was unable to educate and guide Anakin like a father.

Anakin himself was not very convinced of Obi-Wan, so Palpatine seduced Anakin and made him the successor of the Sith Lord.

Now, Anakin, who has transformed into Darth Vader, has killed countless Jedi Knights and brought great fear and trouble to the Rebel Alliance.

This made Obi-Wan often blame himself. If he could play the role of a teacher well, perhaps so many things would not have happened!

"Luke, you have to come with me to Hollande. I'm old now, and I need a young person to help me a lot."

Obi-Wan said, looking at Luke Skywalker.

Of course, he couldn't have said this to mean that he was really too old, but rather that he wanted to take this opportunity to bring Luke to his side to give him some good training.

After all, for a chosen one like Luke, only I am qualified to teach him.

"No, I have to stay with Uncle Owen and Aunt Belu. I'll be wherever they are. There are so many people here who can help you. Why do I have to go to Hollande?"

Luke has lived with his adoptive parents for so many years. It would take him a while to leave his warm little home and go out and face his destiny.

"You are the chosen one."

At this time, Chirrut, who was sensitive to the Force, stood up and said to Luke: "I can sense that the Force in you is different. You have more talent and potential than anyone I have ever seen."

"If you don't take what God has given you, you will suffer the consequences. This is your fate. You will face it sooner or later. There is no escape."

The last person to be recognized as the Chosen One was Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker, but Anakin had been bewitched by the Empire and became a Sith Lord.

This made Obi-Wan deeply aware that gold will shine sooner or later, and if he is not careful, the enemy will snatch it away.

That's why Obi-Wan is so good to Luke. If he didn't keep this promising young man to train himself, he would definitely be abducted by the Sith to be an apprentice.

However, even though Luke knew that he was a unique protagonist, he still did not feel too emotional.

In his opinion, he is still a happy young man in the moisture farm, an ordinary child living with his adoptive parents, and the task of saving the world will never fall on him.

Here, after learning that Luke's adoptive parents had been picked up by the giant company's airship, Paul stood up and said:
"Master Obi-Wan, please let Luke come with us. You have more important tasks to complete now."

Immediately, Paul took the opportunity to tell Obi-Wan the mission assigned to him by the headquarters.

When Obi-Wan learned that Darth Maul, the enemy who killed his master, was not dead yet and was doing evil things on Mandalore, he was filled with anger.

His reaction was first surprise, then extreme anger.

What was surprising was that Maul, the guy who was cut in half by him, was able to hold on by relying on the dark force and was even rescued by someone.

He was furious that his lightsaber failed to kill with one strike, allowing Darth Maul, his enemy who should have been killed long ago, to live for so many more years.

"Okay, then I'll leave Hollande's mission and Luke to you for now. I'll go to Mandalore with your people to kill Darth Maul!"

Obi-Wan, who was saying that he was old just a second ago, suddenly became full of energy. Faced with enemies, he had to avenge his teacher.

While everyone was talking, Paul suddenly received an early warning from the giant enterprise's detector that the Empire's warships had arrived at Tatooine!
In an instant, the already dry air became even more scorching, and the arid and hot Tatooine began to heat up continuously, as if the little moisture in the atmosphere had been squeezed out.

Paul, who had ample combat experience, immediately realized that this was a precursor to an orbital beam bombardment!

“Get down quickly—!”

Before anyone could react, a scarlet beam of light fell from outer space straight toward the center of the desert. The beam that pierced the sky struck in an instant, and a dazzling flame rose up.

The flying dust rushed straight into the sky, and the point where the light beam landed generated extremely high temperature, vaporizing almost all the surrounding matter.

The fine and hard sand turned into a syrupy liquid and spread all around.

The surging shock wave continued to spread, and the entire desert seemed to have turned into a boiling ocean, with terrifying heat radiation sweeping in all directions.

The unfortunate residents, Jawas, wetbacks and other creatures living in this area were all engulfed by the surging heat wave. They were first burned into charcoal and then blown away by the shock wave.

No body is left in the blink of an eye!
All this happened so suddenly that if Paul had not received the early warning from the detector, he would not have realized the danger was coming.

The culprit for this human tragedy was the turbolaser cannon of the Imperial Star Destroyer.

The particle beam produced by this laser cannon is directed through a stream of energized blaster gas, and the energy capacitors stored in the turbolaser turret are continuously charged as the particle beam flows into the barrel.

Finally, a huge beam of blasting energy was fired, and the destructive power caused by it when it fell to the ground was equivalent to the explosion of more than 10 million Hiroshima atomic bombs!
In addition, there was far more than one warship firing turbolaser cannons. This time, a huge Imperial fleet landed in orbit around Tatooine.

Without saying a word, they launched an indiscriminate orbital bombardment on the entire planet of Tatooine. Since smuggling crimes were rampant in this place anyway, they just killed a few bugs.

At this moment, Cassio Tag, the naval commander of the Imperial Fleet, sneered at the bombardment of Tatooine:

"The lightsabers in the hands of the Jedi Knights can bounce back blaster beams. This time I want to see if they can bounce back the laser cannon of the Star Destroyer!"

In Tag's opinion, the Force of the Jedi Knights is no longer applicable to this era, and only the powerful Star Destroyer is the most powerful weapon of domination.

In a sense, General Tag's idea was not completely wrong. After all, no Jedi Knight had ever been able to bounce back the laser main gun of a Star Destroyer.

No one has ever seen a Jedi Knight who can swing a sword on the ground and cut a Star Destroyer in space in half.

In the Star Wars universe, the sword that opens the gate of heaven has never been seen, let alone heard of.

However, what Tag didn't know was that when the Force became strong enough, the user of the Force could forcibly pull down a Star Destroyer from the air!
For example, Darth Vader, and Luke Skywalker who grew up later.

At this moment, on the ground of Tatooine, Paul threw out a bubble shield at the critical moment, and together with the Force barrier deployed by Obi-Wan, everyone was protected.

But facing this indiscriminate orbital bombardment, Paul and Obi-Wan's shields alone could not hold out for long.

Obi-Wan quickly ordered everyone to go into the hut before the others were injured and unable to move.

"Go in quickly, don't just stand there!"

Soon, under the cover of Paul and Obi-Wan, everyone quickly moved into the house where they were hiding.

Having lived in seclusion on Tatooine for many years, Obi-Wan could not have failed to prepare for the Imperial fleet. There was a refuge basement under his cabin, where the real Jedi knowledge base was hidden.

As everyone entered the Jedi Knowledge Base, Obi-Wan immediately used the Force to control the heavy stone door to fall, sealing the entire basement entrance tightly to avoid the orbital bombardment of the Imperial fleet.

At this moment, the indiscriminate orbital bombardment launched by the Imperial Fleet is still continuing, feeling the constant tremors and roars coming from the ground.

Everyone, including Paul, felt increasingly complicated and heavy!

Especially for Paul and Cheryl, it was the first time for them to feel the taste of orbital bombardment. After all, before this, only the world giants bombed others.

How could it be their turn?

At this moment, Paul subconsciously held Chinnie's hand tightly. This mission was life-threatening and it might be the last time the two of them would work together.

With the Tarkinist style of the Galactic Empire, they don't care about the consequences of doing so. After bombing everything on the surface of the planet, all the enemies will disappear.

The hell on earth that took place on Tatooine was recorded in real time by reconnaissance aircraft in outer space and transmitted back to the headquarters of the Myriad Worlds Base.

When seeing this scene, everyone was worried about Paul on the front line. What if Paul and Obi-Wan died on Tatooine?

Then Reed, who was fighting with Darth Maul on Mandalore, could only face the trouble of Death Watch alone.

"The Galactic Empire's insects are always bombing and destroying things. How can they possibly protect the Milky Way?"

Jack Wells couldn't help but curse. The Imperial Army's method of handling the situation was quite efficient, but its unpopular and brutal rule would only bring more hidden dangers.

Although there are not many good people on Tatooine, and it is even a dirty place full of evil desires, this area is the core area of ​​underground dark transactions.

Both Jabba the Hutt, the leader of the criminal group, and the Neimoidians, the leaders of the Trade Federation, have their own industries on Tatooine.

The Imperial Army's indiscriminate bombing had completely offended all businessmen in both the black and white worlds!
Especially after the Neimoidians were suppressed by the Empire, their voice in the Trade Alliance has become increasingly smaller.

On the contrary, the Hutts, who have been making a fortune in silence, have been making a lot of money in recent years.

Capital and power are closely linked. The wealthy Hutts naturally want to use the trade alliance to satisfy their own political interests.

So in a sense, the financial backer behind the Trade Alliance during this period was actually the wealthy Hutt Group.

But the Imperial Army directly blew up the Hutts' largest smuggling exchange, which would surely anger all the Hutt consortiums and cause the Trade Federation to become more opposed to the Empire.

For all the forces in the Trade Alliance, the purpose of the Imperial Army's actions was clearly to warn and force them to surrender.

"We are sure to win this battle."

Li Ang faced the hard light screen and said calmly.

He had realized through this round of inexplicable orbital bombardment by the Imperial Army that the factional struggle within the Galactic Empire was becoming increasingly serious.

The conflict between Palpatine, the Trade Federation and the Old Republic is intensifying. Even if adjustments are made now, it is too late to repair the relationship between the two sides.

Faced with internal and external troubles, the empire is only one step away from collapse from a head-on blow from a global giant!
……

"Keep blasting, don't stop!"

The Destroyer Dreadnought commanded by Tag was the main flagship leading the bombing. This battleship was equipped with five thousand powerful turbolaser cannons.

The bombing that Paul had just seen was just the result of one of the turbolaser cannons.

When five thousand laser cannons opened fire at the same time, Tatooine, which was originally covered by vast desert, gradually turned into a hot magma star.

Countless flowing magma converged into a stream, forming a bright scarlet river, but the water flowing on it was high-temperature glass water.

Once cooled, they become sharp glass shards!

Obviously, this "burning glass" gameplay, which is the same as that of the Covenant, is also applicable to the Imperial Army.

Cassio Tagg looked at the tragic scene below without any emotion in his heart.

From his perspective, he was acting on behalf of the empire, eliminating evil and cracking down on criminal activities for the empire's rule.

There was nothing wrong with him doing that!

However, what Tag didn't know was that just two hours ago, his direct superior, Wilhuff Tarkin, was ordered by Palpatine to confiscate his military power and suspend the implementation of Tarkinism.

The ruling direction of the Galactic Empire will change from brutal suppression to appeasement. At least for the current rebellion, it will mainly rely on negotiations and ground force maintenance of stability, and try to minimize the fleet's deployment rate.

What Tag is doing now is exactly against Palpatine.

At this moment, the businessmen and criminals on Tatooine who were unwilling to sit and wait for death began to spontaneously cooperate and escape by spaceship.

After all, this is a trade center, with plenty of spaceships of good performance. A large number of criminals board their own smuggling ships and desperately flee outside the planet.

But unfortunately, Tag is still firmly implementing the Takin Doctrine. The only thing he has to do for this gang of criminals who want to escape is to intercept them and kill them all!
No one can escape from his hands.

Faced with the well-deployed and tightly-defended Imperial fleet, the criminals eager to escape from Tatooine were completely desperate.

What happened to the free trade we agreed on? Why did they just wipe them out? !

Soon, all the spaceships trying to escape were ruthlessly destroyed by the Imperial fleet, and a dense rain of artillery fire fell over the orbit of Tatooine.

As the glass-burning process progressed, the surface of Tatooine was covered with shocking red blood scabs.

The extremely pungent burnt stench and thick smoke rose slowly and diffused into the atmosphere. The planet that was originally crowded with businessmen and criminals has turned into a death star!

General Tag looked at the results of the orbital bombardment with satisfaction, even though it failed to destroy Tatooine without leaving anything behind like the Death Star did.

But after such a round of indiscriminate bombing, even the strongest Jedi would be submerged and drowned in the high-temperature glass magma!

Not long after the first round of orbital bombardment ended, General Tag was not in a hurry to evacuate the fleet.

He planned to wait until the magma on the ground cooled into glass, then send ground troops to land and search thoroughly.

After confirming that the target location, Lars Moisture Farm, was completely devoid of any trace of living things, he submitted a perfect answer to his immediate superior, Tarkin.

"All troops, stand by. Surround Tatooine. Stop any passing spaceships. Don't let any of them go!"

Cassio Tag gave the order in a muffled voice. He didn't believe that the Jedi on the ground could survive his series of attacks.

In fact, except for the Owens who were picked up and left here in advance by the giant company's spaceship, all the other criminals and businessmen were eliminated by Tag.

In the execution of Tarkinism, Tag's performance is perfect!
At this moment, Marshal Jack Wells, who was far away at the headquarters of the Myriad Worlds Base, couldn't help but ask Li Ang:

"Boss, should we send troops to rescue Paul? The Imperial Fleet has surrounded them like this, they can't get out at all."

According to the original plan of the Universal Corporation, after Paul persuaded Master Obi-Wan to kill Darth Maul, they would immediately send a spaceship to pick up Paul and others.

But with such interference from Tag, if Paul and Obi-Wan don't send out an expeditionary fleet to wipe out all these troublesome Imperial troops, they will be trapped on Tatooine forever!
Reed, who urgently needs the help of Jedi Master Obi-Wan, will not be able to wait for external reinforcements for a long time, and I am afraid that new changes will occur on Mandalore because of this.

"The Ninth Expeditionary Corps led by David Martinez is near the sky area where Tatooine is located. As long as the headquarters gives the order, he can go there to support Paul at any time."

Johnny Silverhand at the side also echoed.

Given the current situation, Paul and his team would definitely not be able to get out without external help!
However, faced with Jack and Johnny's rescue proposal, Leon changed his usual behavior and vetoed the decision to send troops to rescue Paul.

"There's no need for us to send out a fleet to help. They will retreat on their own in no time."

Li Ang said confidently.

He had no intention of sending troops to Tatooine to rescue people, but decided to send other people to persuade the Trade Federation, the Hutts and other financial forces.

This is the cruelest knife stabbing the Galactic Empire!

Leon believed that within three days, the financial group would cause trouble in Palpatine's palace.

Cassio Tag, who besieged Tatooine, would also be ordered to withdraw his troops and return to the capital, Coruscant, to be punished.

Of course, Leon didn't think that Palpatine would kill Tag to vent his anger on behalf of the Trade Federation.

Palpatine had suffered hardships and injustices, but he had never treated the Empire's navy unfairly. He treated the Empire's naval commanders like his own sons.

The vast majority of the Galactic Empire's income and expenditure were spent on the Imperial Navy. This is why the later [First Order] organization wanted revenge and re-establish the empire.

Because their former boss Palpatine was really good to them, the kind of person who treated them with all his heart!
"Just keep waiting. In three days at most, the flagship of the Imperial Fleet will withdraw. The remaining small force is nothing to be afraid of."

Leon's confident prediction made Jack and Johnny look at each other in confusion, their hearts full of suspicion.

They didn't understand why their boss was so sure that the imperial army would retreat in three days.

But after thinking about it carefully, Li Ang's words were not wrong.

So the two of them could only nod and remain silent, temporarily suppressing their restless hearts, and wait to see how the situation would develop in three days.

(End of this chapter)