The quiet wisps of wind passed through the grass blades still wet with morning mist. In the far distance, a creature's early howls echoed as Dantooine's burning orange sun slowly came up over the hills, illuminating the plains with its warm touch. And Ben was there to watch it all, perched on a small hill with his legs crossed. A slight breeze caught his dark brown hair that hung loosely and ruffled the tan cloth of his robes.
This had become almost a routine for Ben, sitting in this spot and watching the sun. The rising ball of fire consuming his vision and attention. . .
Until, in a flash, he was in a speeder. Smoke poured out from its front, but he could not see the flames from where he was seated in the back. There was no roof to speak of in the small transport, leaving him open to the harsh smoke and forcing him to try and cough it out of his lungs. In the front were two other people, a woman dressed in black, the other a man in normal civilian clothes that could blend easily into a crowd. The woman's long, blond hair flapped wildly about among the smoke, but couldn't get a good enough look at the man.
"Pull up!!" The woman screamed, pointing forward.
"I can't!" A soft, yet hard-edge voice replied. The woman seemed to unbuckle her safety belt and throw herself into the back, arms spread wide—
And then, he was back. Ben's head rested sideways on the grass, with the rest of his body. Sweat beaded down his face, tickling his warm cheeks and forehead.
He sat himself up, brushing the moist hair from his eyes to find the sun had almost fully risen. Ben sighed aloud. The Jedi Council had told him these visions were a gift, but he only saw them as an unnecessary burden. It started a few years ago, in the middle of the night, and he had went running to his master, Niana Gallai. Now, he didn't bother to wake anyone up. And lately, it had just been the same one, over and over again. The only silver lining was this; the few hours he got to spend alone almost each morning, watching the rest of the planet awaken and loosing himself in needless thought.
But it seemed that even that had to end prematurely.
Ben sensed Gallai's presence a few seconds before she approached, hearing the grass crunch under her boot. "Padawan," The female Bothan said, her voice rich and soothing, even in the morning. "I'm sorry to disturb your meditations—"
"I'm just watching the sun rise, master." Ben cut her off, getting to his feet. He wasn't the tallest young man, and stood eye-to-eye with her. Her raven hair was wrapped in a tight braid slung behind her head, leaving her ears to be the only thing sticking out. Her body was covered with a long, almost robe-like light brown dress. On her belt hung two identical lightsaber hilts.
"Then I'm sorry to disturb your 'watching'," She said, a mild hint of sarcasm in her voice. "But we've been assigned another mission. We leave immediately."
Ben had to suppress his anger before it could show. It didn't help. "But we just got back from a mission last night. Late last night."
"I know, Ben." She reached out and touched his shoulder as he began to turn away. Gallai was normally a tight-knit teacher, but she did know when to let the armor drop. "But everyone is on double duty; we can't be excluded just because of being a little ship-lagged."
He almost pushed the argument, but didn't, instead slumping his shoulders in defeat. "I suppose it's nice to know I'm not alone." Ben commented as they made their way back to the Enclave.
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The courtyard that acted as one of the hangers was a wide space, with nothing but a small repair shop in the corner and a few floating security and maintenance droids floating around. Other then that, it was a ghost town. In the center of it saw the Burning Phoenix, it's almost perfect oval shape obscured only by the two wings that came out from its top and bottom upon flight. The cockpit viewport was dead-center in the middle of the craft, though it had not other floors, just small pockets of space.
Ben picked it up during their mission to Ord Mantell, at first simply needing a ship unaffiliated with either Jedi or Sith, but over their few months there, fell in love with it. He added a few modifications here and there, a couple his master would probably look down at him about, if he had told her about them.
He reached into his pockets and pulled out a small remote. He pressed the second-largest button on the left, and the entrance ramp rose down, touching the ground a second before they got there.
"Good girl," Ben muttered affectionately, patting the inside of its hall as he reached the top. Behind him, Gallai rolled her eyes.
The cockpit had been built with only one seat when they got it, but Ben had another installed beside his, a pointless gesture he later learned. Gallai never sat in it, instead taking a liking to standing behind it with her arms crossed.
His hands danced across the console that spread out from one side of the cockpit to the other, the engines coming to life and with the control yoke in his control, carefully guided them up and out the hanger and up into the atmosphere. As he did, Gallai filled him in on the details of the mission. The Bounty Hunter's Guild had recently taken out a contract with the Sith Empire, giving out bounties for Jedi. The Jedi Council wants them to go to their main base stationed on the planet Taren and negotiate a treaty with them to stop the contract.
"Do we have a plan?" He asked, focusing on his instruments.
"The Force will guide us, I'm sure." Gallai answered behind him.
"So that's a no."
They broke through the gravitational field, and smiling to himself, Ben pulled the lever connected to the hyperdrive back, causing the stars to pull back, and then jump into them. He only hoped his master was right.
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The planet of Taren was a rocky landscape, consisting mainly of mountains and mesas nit closely together. A few clearing existed, though there weren't more then four. And in one of them, housed a Sith base. Constructed completely from steel, one felt the chilling draft seep through the walls, especially during the winter. The doors parted and two men strode into the massive main hanger.
Both were bald, with both an age and height difference. The taller of the two had two long, diagonal scars on his hard cut face, the first starting at his left temple and end at his chin, while the other along his right stopped at the bridge of his nose, forming and incomplete X. His dark skin-tight suite revealed his large forearms, as it did his accomplice, he didn't cover most of it up with armor plating. Elongated Lightsaber hilts swayed from both their belts.
"This base is not up to battle like the others in this quadrant are." Darth Bandon pointed out, glancing around. When he received no response, he turned his head to the other. "Viperas?"
That got his attention. "I'll take it under advisement." He said bitterly. He hated it when people addressed him by his real name, simply preferring "Viper".
"Good," Bandon conceded with a grin, raising the hair of his goatee. "Otherwise, it's in perfect operation."
"You could burn it to the ground, for all I care." Viper told him, almost snarling.
"I will, but first need a good reason."
He had a hell of a good reason. Viper knew he should be out there, fighting on the frontlines of this war, not stationed on some pathetic backwater planet tasked with watching a group of children with toy blasters who believed themselves Bounty Hunters. His stomach churned just thinking about it. They made it across the hanger to a pair of fighters sitting in standby-mode near the large closed hanger doors.
"Don't hit the mountain's on your way out." Viper said behind clenched teeth.
Bandon gestured at the other fighter. "I'm sure we won't."
Growling, Viper reluctantly followed the Dark Lord's apprentice's lead, jumping into the open cockpit and shutting the canopy and starting up the pre-flight check. And after only a couple of minutes, they were off, streaking through the hanger doors one after the other just as they parted and up toward the sky past the
mountains.
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Ben walked down the hall from the cockpit, tousling the liquid out of his hair from his quick shower. He had put his robes in the cleaner next to the 'fresher, hoping to get the grass stains out. He went into the cockpit, now dressed in simple white trousers, shirt that came around in the front, and an under tunic, though still kept his belt with lightsaber on the clip.
There was nobody there, until he looked down and found Gallai sitting behind the chair he had installed with her legs crossed, head down and eyes closed.
Glancing at the console and finding everything okay, Ben squatted down beside his master. She seemed peaceful, almost asleep, but something caught his eye. A small glimmer of light bounced off the end of one of the lightsabers resting on her lap. Looking to his left, then his right, Ben reached at it slowly. . .
But just as his finger touched the cold metal, the hilt flew off the belt and levitated over Gallai's head, pointed downward at him. A green-white blade jumped from the hilt, its tip stopping short of Ben's neck. He jerked back, raising his arms up with open hands.
"You need to quiet you're breathing and conceal your presence better." Gallai instructed dryly, eyes still closed. The lightsaber shut down and fell into Gallai's waiting hand, allowing Ben to release his held breath.
Suddenly, the console chirped a mild warning. Getting to his feet, Ben plopped into his chair and deactivated the warning. Then pulled the lever to his left back and brought them out of hyperspace. As the planet consumed the viewport, Ben began to wonder if his clothes would be finished before they landed.
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Space was vast, and Bandon's and Viper's fighters were like amebas blending into back round of stars. The air from life support in his fighter was stale, making Viper cringe as he tasted it in his mouth. Once they broke through the atmosphere, Viper stopped his fighter cold. "That's far enough." He said, opening the comn channel.
Bandon's fighter slowed, eventually coming to a full stop. "Really?" The other man replied through the comnlink.
"Now go, before I vape you out of the sky, kid." Viper warned.
The other's fighter swung around. "Is that so?"
"Yeah." His danger sense beginning to tingle, Viper activated his weapons systems and trained the two laser cannons on the other. Bandon followed in suite.
They sat in empty gravity, primed on each other with itchy trigger-fingers on the firing button. They could see the other through their cockpit viewports, rarely even blinking. The tension between them was thick enough to withstand a lightsaber. Twice. But it was finally broken when Bandon looked down at his console.
"I win." Viper announced with a slight grin before Bandon could fumble with an excuse. He got little to no response from the younger man, him focusing on his instruments. "What is it?"
"I'm not sure, but I think something's coming out of hyperspace. Starboard side."
Both turned, and at that moment, a small speck off in the distance appeared from nowhere, flying in-between the stars toward Taren. Viper was already at work, activating the long range scanner and identification probe he had built into his fighter.
"It's not Republic," He said, watching the screen. "not us, and bears no allegiance to the Guild. Registration codes come up empty. So, what is it?"
"How about we find out?" Suddenly, Bandon fired two shots, and then went soaring toward it. Viper figured it out and followed.
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The warning sounds returned to the console, jumping Ben out of his trance with the instruments. He shut down the whining noise and turned on the long-range scanners to see what was wrong.
"Sith fighters," Ben said, trying to keep the creeping fear out of his words.
Gallai was behind him in a second, though how she did from sitting on the floor, he did not know. "How many?"
"Just two. Wait . . . I think their comn's are open." He activated their transmission system, syncing it with the fighters and leaning up to their small, flexible microphone. Ben was a hair's breath from speaking, before Gallai put her hand on his shoulder, silencing him and leaning back to let her get the microphone.
"Sith fighters, this is Niana of the vessel, Burning Phoenix. What is you're present—" She was cut off by something slamming into the side of their side, rocking the entire cockpit.
"We're hit!" Ben exclaimed, activating thrusters and trying to get them out of firing range.
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"They're running," Viper said, watching as the unidentifiable ship soared away from them and closer to Taren.
"Then we'll chase them." He heard Bandon say over the comn, pursuing them. Viper followed closely, staying side-by-side with his fighter.
The two began pounding the ship with laser fire, blasting and passing by it, hitting anything that looked important. Viper did his share, though unlike Bandon kept his only two concussion missiles in reserve, just in case. Smoke and flame soon began pouring out of certain areas, forcing the two to dodge the clouds of smoke, though did it with a satisfied grin.
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Ben's close was an almost choreographed dance of flashing lights and warning sirens. Everywhere he looked, it said 'critical mass achieved' and 'warning, disengage and flee to the escape pods', except for one screen. Which said simply: You are encouraged to activate shields.
He almost slapped himself. But there was a design flaw of the vessel, in which the shield controls were not on the actual console, but on the wall behind him.
"We need shields, master!" Ben said, gripping the control yoke with sweaty palms in an attempt to keep them from spiraling out of control and become sitting ducks. To her credit, Gallai was there in two heartbeats, and her jaw almost fell from the array of dozen upon dozen of small buttons, switches, and view-screens.
The ship harshly jerked again, almost throwing off her footing. "Come on!!" Ben screamed over the wails and cries of the computer. Swallowing hard, he reached up and pressed one of the few green buttons in the center, and hoped for the best.
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"Great," Viper murmured, watching as a blue and violet veil of energy fell around the craft, quickly forming a dome. "they have shields."
"Not a problem," Bandon said, pushing his fighter closer.
What got Viper was that he was not attacking, only gliding just beyond the shield, encircling it a few times before pulled his fighter back, and falling behind Viper. "Be ready." he warned.
Suddenly, twin missiles streaked past Viper, leaving a bright sapphire trail. He inspected them to explode upon contact with the shields, but they didn't. Instead they went into it, digging their way through the veil and into the dome. The first one hit the dish from where the shields resonated, the seconds into the guiding wing on the top of the vessel.
The shield dissipated in a flicker, while the wing on top was ripped off from the bottom, falling in-between them as it passed. Viper's question of why Bandon wanted nobody to touch his fighter had just been answered.
Grinning, he switched his weapons control to his missiles, launching them both at the doomed craft. They collided with the back thrusters and engines, destroying most of it in a ball of flame.
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Ben clenched his teeth, watching through the shaking viewport as the terrain of Taren came slowly closer and closer. No response from either engines or the guiding wing, meaning he had no way to slow down, or even steer his ship. Even knowing that, he still tried, and failed. The control yoke was locked in place.
There was no choice left. He whipped around to tell his master to get to the escape pod, but stopped himself, seeing her on her knee's, head down and eyes closed with her forehead wrinkled in concentration. He felt the ship start to balance out under him, and taking in a deep breath, returned his attention to the console. She'll do what she can do, and so will I.
But she didn't know the ship like he did. Reaching out with his awareness, Ben quickly found the reverse gravitational thrusters, though his screen had told him it was destroyed with everything else. In his mind's eye, he saw it was damaged, but not useless. Ben began the manual activation. . .
--But it was too late.
The Burning Phoenix collided with the edge of a mountain, sending it into a downward spiral, spinning viciously. Ben clung to his seat, eyes shut and trying his best to fight the dying urge to vomit. Finally he snapped his eyes open, looking back at Gallai somehow actually standing in the middle of the cockpit, bracing herself against nothing. But before he could call to her, the ship came apart in a thunderous jerk, and Ben watched in horror as it came undone at the entrance of the cockpit, taking Gallia with it in a half-second.
He tried to scream, but after one final impact, Ben was tossed, and everything went black.
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Looming in the blackness of space, Viper and Bandon watched through their viewports as the vessel streaked away from them and into the planet's gravitational pull, leaving a long trail of dark smoke behind it.
"Find them," Bandon ordered before a breath of relief could be released. "Take what you can and burry the remains."
"What about you?" Viper asked, annoyance creeping into his words.
"I must report to my master." And with that, Bandon's fighter turned and moments later, disappeared into hyperspace.
"Good riddance." Viper muttered, returning back to base.