Read Star Wars - 215 - Jedi Prince 06 - Prophets of the Dark Side for Free Online Page A

the bottom of the embankment, alongside Ken.
    Suddenly Artoo burst out with a warning. "BDwooEEEEP TWeeEEEG!"
    "Watch out, Master Luke!" Threepio translated. "There’s an arachnor climbing down the mushroom right behind you!"
    Luke drew his lightsaber, and he made a sudden lunge toward the arachnor. Failing to destroy it in the first sweep of his glowing green blade, Luke suddenly felt his movement hindered by a sticky substance-the arachnor was weaving a web around him!
    Luke aimed his lightsaber at the arachnor’s long, spindly legs, slicing them one by one. But with every passing second, Luke felt his shoulders, then his legs, then both his arms trapped as if he were stuck in glue.
    Luke dealt the arachnor a fatal blow, right at the gnawing mouth on the underbelly between its spidery legs. A split second later Luke’s lightsaber slipped away from him as his hand became caught in the web. Luke couldn’t reach down for it. All he could do was crane his neck upward, to check out a strange sound that was coming from the sky.
    FWOOOOOOSH!
    Standing at the edge of the embankment, See-Threepio saw what Luke heard. The droid glanced up and spotted a spacecraft appearing out of the clouds, descending toward a small tower that rose above the mushroom forest.
    "Ftwiiiiing ChEEEpz!"
    "You’re right, Artoo," Threepio said. "That spaceship appears to be an Imperial command speeder. And that tower down there-why, I didn’t notice it before-it may actually be a small Imperial sentry outpost!"
    The Imperial command speeder landed near the small Imperial outpost. No sooner had the spaceship set down than five Imperial stormtroopers stepped outside, bringing with them the prisoner who was to serve as a sentry on this miserable planet: Grand Moff Muzzer. It didn’t take long for them to detect the presence of other humans nearby, and at once, two of the stormtroopers set out to look for them.
    Hiding behind a tall mushroom near the top of the embankment, See-Threepio and Artoo-Detoo watched. Still trying to free his ankle from the tentacle-bush, Chewbacca looked down the hill to see what was happening also.
    "Wooooofff!" Chewbacca barked.
    "Tweeeez Bdoooopz!" Artoo beeped, anxiously rotating his entire body as his tiny radar reflector popped up from his dome.
    "Artoo is quite right, Chewbacca," Threepio said in a soft voice.. "Shshshshhhh-you’ve got to be quiet, or else those stormtroopers will discover us, too." At the bottom of the embankment, the stormtroopers were boasting to one another about their discovery of two humans trapped in arachnor webs.
    "Well, if it isn’t Commander Skywalker. Quite a catch!" the leader of the stormtroopers said. "This should be worth a big promotion!"
    Luke tried once again to reach his lightsaber, but he was so tangled in the sticky web, it was hopeless.
    One of the stormtroopers removed a small stun-beam pistol from his utility belt. "This should keep you both under control until Kadann gets to talk to you," the stormtrooper said. He fired, targeting both of the Rebel Alliance prisoners. The stun-beam had precisely the expected effect. Luke and Ken were rendered half unconscious, barely able to move or think at all, let alone concentrate on the Force. Then the Imperials turned their pulse-mass generator on the arachnor webs, melting the webs completely. Without the support of the webs to hold them up, Luke and Ken both tumbled to the ground, scarcely able to bend their limbs because of the effects of the stun-beam.
    Luke and Ken were quickly overpowered. Their hands were pulled behind their backs and fastened with Imperial locking wrist-cuffs. Then a stormtrooper snatched Luke’s lightsaber as a souvenir to present to Kadann, plucking it from the ground where Luke had dropped it. The Imperial turned the lightsaber on, gleefully watching its green, glowing blade. The stormtroopers forced Luke and Ken to their feet, pushing them along. The prisoners’
    stunned legs could barely move, but they were