A long time ago in a galaxy far far away Luke Skywalker streaks through the hot desert world of Tatooine in his sleek landspeeder He’s racing to see his best friend Biggs Darklighter who left for the Academy the year before Now Biggs is home for a visit and Luke wants to hear all ABOUT his exploits But instead Biggs tells him a dangerous secret HE’S going to leave school and join the Rebellion The Rebellion Even the moisture farmers of Tatooine have experienced the evils of the Galactic Empire and Luke wants desperately to be a part of THE FiGHT
But he realizes that is UNLiKELY Nothing exciting ever happens near Tatooine On this dry and dusty world it’s nearly impossible to keep human workers Even people like Biggs who grew up on Tatooine flee the boring planet as soon as possible But Luke is stuck here working on his uncle’s moisture farm Going nowhere Jawa scavengers offer droids for sale Uncle Owen picks C-3PO a talkative protocol droid who will work well with OWEN’S other equipment Then he chooses a small red robot But as Owen is about to pay that robot malfunctions Threepio points at a little blue astromech droid Artoo is in perfect condition he tells Luke So Uncle Owen buys R2-D2 instead unaware of how these droids will forever change their lives and the lives of everyone in the galaxy
Luke leads the droids to the garage to clean them An oil bath RiNSES the scratchy sand from Threepio’s joints But Artoo is sooty as THOUGH he’s been in battle He even has a piece of metal jammed into his neck crevice Luke tries to pry it out with a startled cry he stumbles backward as a hologram of a beautiful girl appears Over and over she pleads Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi You’re my only hope
Luke is sure there’s more to the message but Artoo won’t play it THE DROiD WHiRS and beeps insisting the message is private and that he is the property of OBI-WAN That evening Luke asks his uncle if the message could be for Ben Kenobi an old hermit who lives far out on the Dune Sea Maybe Artoo was stolen from him Uncle Owen scowls Old Ben doesn’t exist anymore he mutters Artoo is our droid now Take him into town tomorrow and have his memory erased Luke’s parents are dead but he knows his aunt and uncle love him He also knows they need his help But he desperately wants to leave this DESERT world Uncle Owen shakes his head Maybe next year he says Luke sighs knowing from experience that next year never seems to come
