A world burns. Her people are scattered, broken, fleeing in terror from the place they've only ever known as a haven.
The time has come.
It falls to me to save them.
Ensign Trask Ulgo had seen it all. Called to service at the height of the Mandalorian Wars, he'd been wrenched from a peaceful, pastoral existence on Alderaan and thrust into the brutal climate of total warfare. He'd stood on so many planets amidst storms of searing blaster fire, seen so many of his comrades fall in an unending slaughter, and watched in horror the genocide of an entire species.
But he'd never seen anything as unspeakably terrible as this.
Half the fleet. His battalion's own ship, his brothers, his enemies, none were spared from the planet's terrible grasp. Sheer luck and a blaster bolt to the neck meant he was on recovery back home. But even across the HoloNet, the total annihilation of so many lives at Malachor V was felt profoundly. So many dead.
And it was his side that caused it.
It was almost a relief to Trask when Revan returned from the Unknown Regions. His faith in the rightness of the Republic and the morality of its actions had been strained since the War, but Revan gave him a scapegoat to blame it on. Nevertheless, two years of peace were far too short. Trask didn't want to know war all his life.
It was this fear that gripped him as he sealed the blast door behind him. But, as the Sith smiled and raised his crimson sabre, he drew comfort from the fact he would die so another might live. Whatever the outcome of this battle, and he knew which was most likely, Trask Ulgo would have died for the cause he'd signed up for so long ago.
He would die a hero.
'C'mon, lady, wake up,' Captain Carth Onasi muttered to himself, gazing worriedly at the comatose woman on the bed before him. Her face was a picture of total exhaustion, marred by burns and cuts from the mangled escape pod. Her body had got a pretty severe battering in their not-quite-textbook crash landing on Taris, so it was hardly surprising how she was trying to recover. But two days? That was a long time to remain in such a state. Too long, in Carth's professional opinion.
He sat with her a while longer, watching her chest rise and fall with each breath, willing her to consciousness. Finally, knowing there were far more useful things to do with his time than wait for a miracle, he stood up, and started toward the workbench. Pulling out his blaster, he completely disassembled it. The force of their landing could potentially have warped any one of the blaster's many components, and the last thing they needed if they wanted to survive on this rock was a junk weapon.
But what use was even the best blaster if she never woke up?
Sighing, defeated, he turned back to the bedside. It was impossible to concentrate when the only face you recognised on an entire planet lay lifeless on the bed next to you.
Not quite the only face, he thought. Bastila's escape pod was somewhere out there too. Protocol demanded he started an instant search for his senior officer, and make sure she was delivered safely back to the Republic. He'd considered going out many times, leaving the girl to wake up and find her own way off-planet.
But as he looked down on her sleeping face, he knew he could never be so cold-hearted. Respect for line of duty he had in spades. Leaving a comrade behind was not, however, an option. Especially not when you survive a Sith blowing up your ship together.
'Guess we're stuck with each other whether we like it or not,' he said, absent-mindedly touching her arm. It was cool, the skin pale and with a sheen to it that belied her current condition. He shook his head in frustration.
If she would only wake up!
Darkness tinged her peripheral vision. In front of her, a woman struck, bringing her yellow lightsaber in a quick combination of slashes, lunges and parries, battering at her defences. All at once, she was wrenched outside her body, and watched as the woman feinted to the left, then struck her red bladed opponent down in a flash of arcing light. The woman blinked, readied herself again, regaining her composure from the short lived fight. For some reason, she almost felt familiar...
Awareness came back to Kalyn in the form of someone's insistent hand on her shoulder.
"No," she moaned, "I'm tired, Trask, let me sleep." She'd never been a morning person.
He kept shaking her, though, and finally she shoved playfully back. "Geroff me, I said I wanna sleep!"
Still he shook her. She growled and opened her eyes, annoyed now at the interruption to her slumber.
"Shavit, Ulgo, you're gonna be sorry you ev-"
Blinking hard, her brow furrowed as she processed the unfamiliar face above of her, which for all intents and purposes, was not the face of Trask Ulgo. Spooked, she sat up fast, grasping the sheets up to her neck.
She stared at the guy, who backed off a ways.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," she said after a pause. "but I seriously do not remember sleeping with you."
The response was so unexpected, Carth couldn't help but smile a little.
Grimacing, Kalyn scanned round the bed, trying to make sense of things. The scene before her was unfamiliar. An apartment, totally decked out in permacrete and durasteel. Two bunks, a workbench. Cold air whistling in through cracks in the roof and rust on the walls next to her. Not your average top-fly destination.
Not your average Hammerhead-class warship, either.
She turned back to the man, noting the scuffs and burns on his clothing.
"What happened?" she asked, dazed by the unfamiliarity of her surroundings and the throbbing in her head.
"As you can probably tell, we're not on the ship anymore," said the mysterious stranger. "I'm Carth. The Endar Spire was destroyed by the Sith. We took the last escape pod together and crash landed on Taris. You took a pretty good beating on impact, so I dragged you to this apartment. You've been under almost three days," he added, seeing how pale her skin was. "How're you feeling?"
Kalyn eyed this 'Carth', then tossed the covers off her and stood up, grimacing as she stretched. She took a step, gingerly placing her foot on the grubby floor, and when her body didn't protest, she shuffled around the room, inspecting her surroundings fully. Glancing out the misty window, she took in a sprawling megatropolis of brilliant blued durasteel, sunlight ricocheting off the metal in all directions, and fluffy white clouds miles below. Quite the view.
Carth followed her progress as she crept round the room, trying to get a judge of her. Her injuries made her hunch over slightly, but everything about her manner said she was used to carrying herself with confidence. Her quick reactions after waking credited her adaptability and control over her fear. Her attempts at humour too. From what he'd seen on the Spire, she could handle herself against most Sith. Together, they had a better shot at finding Bastila than Carth did on his own.
A groan followed by a muffled thump brought his attention back to the present. The girl- she'd still not told him her name- was down, passed out after her stretch round the apartment. "Dammit!" he swore, rushing over. "Hey sister, hey! You slept enough already!" he said, waving his hand in front of her face. Sure enough, her eyes fluttered open, and she inhaled sharply, surprised to find herself on the floor. She went to push herself up, but stopped, pulling a face as her head swam.
"You gotta eat," said Carth, pulling out a survival packet from inside his jacket. Ripping the silvery wrapper apart, he held out a high-energy nutrition bar. She accepted gratefully. She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten,
Crunching the remains of the sugary meal down, she stood up, slowly this time, relieved when her head didn't swim. Carth stayed near, arms ready to catch her.
"You know, I never did catch your name," he said, as she took his support back to the bed.
"Probably cos I didn't tell you," she breathed, chest tight from the effort of moving. Seeing his frown, she prodded his arm gently. "I'm just kidding. Name's Kalyn."
"The transfer?" Carth asked, intrigued. Interesting how he should end up with her.
"Three weeks now," she said, closing her eyes.
"Right."
Carth sat, pondering this new information. The circumstances of Kalyn's transfer had caught his attention as soon as the order cam to his computer. What could possibly make an untested private critical to a Jedi operation? Making to stand up, he decided to let the matter rest until the girl was strong enough to get around a bit.
"Carth?"
"Yeah?"
"Back on the Spire, I bunked with an ensign called Trask."
Carth stayed silent, knowing the question and the response he'd have to give.
"Did he make it down here too?"
Carth looked her in they eye, unsure how to phrase his answer.
His silence was answer enough for Kalyn.
She turned over to face the wall, eyes stinging as memories of Trask washed over of her in a jumble of emotions and images. This is what you signed up for, she told herself, people die in wars, that's the whole game. It didn't do much by way of comfort.
Carth looked down at the silently grieving woman, sadness for the loss of his soldiers filling him too. Still, what was done was done. They had a job to do.
The search for Bastila was about to begin.