The Karman Genht
By
Theunknownone
Chapter 1
The two suns of Tatoonie rose slowly above the wind swept desert. He awoke to the first rays that entered his small hut. It had been the first real sleep he had in sometime, he thought to himself, "I think the Imperial Army has me no longer listed as AWOL but now probably dead."
Grall ate a light meal before heading into the cave that was only meters from his hut. He switched on the power generator and the dark, cool cave awoke with light, he looked at his half constructed ship. "It still looks to Imperial," he said aloud as if someone was there to respond. The ship was a combination of sorts, a cargo shuttle and part TIE interceptor. He turned to the table where uniforms from storm troopers, scouts, and TIE pilots were strewed across. Somewhere in his mind he thought desertion and becoming a bounty hunter would have been easy.
He knew he could do this, if not for himself but for his father. The thought of the his father made him remember, the old Jedi teachings of meditation. He sat on the sand floor and closed his eyes. He began to control his breathing, and the beating of his heart. It had taken no time before the walls of the cave, and his age disappeared.
He was back in his childhood, feeling the cool sand between his toes in the early morning hours just before dawn as he walked with his father to this same cave. As a boy his father was a freighter pilot but as the empire rose to power his father had become a smuggler. The day his father died came rushing back to him, his fathers cries through the com-link, running out the hut door to see his fathers ship plummeting towards the ground, out of control being pursued by TIE fighters.
Grall was certain his father was dead, only by seconds the ship managed to lurch up and level off. The craft kicked up sand, dirt and dust as it made a rough emergency landing. He watched his father's ship bounce and rock across the Tatoonie surface. It finally came to rest one thousand meters from where it initially impacted.
The shuttle appeared as if from no where, the storm troopers jumping from the deck even before the shuttle had settled on the ground. He watched for his father to emerge from the damaged craft, and within seconds saw what he had hoped for. Gret Grall, with blaster ready fired at the approaching troops. "Run boy," his father yelled, "get your mother and run!!!" Seconds later the storm troopers like mang fros swarmed over his ship, and was killed. Grall grabbed his blaster rifle and his mother, running for the door they were greeted by another squad of troopers.
"Drop the rifle or we'll blast you all the way out of the outer rim territories", the leading storm trooper said. Grall did as the storm trooper order. Both he and mother were placed in shackles. While being escorted to the awaiting shuttles, a trooper asked him his age. He replied, "Seventeen cycles, sir" He felt as the storm trooper eyed him.
"Sir, another candidate for Basic Training!" the storm trooper yelled.
"Very well then , Sergeant" the officer responded, "take him aboard your shuttle and get him shipped off to the closest training center, we'll take the woman here to a relocation center."
Grell awoke with a shudder. He stood and walked towards the cave entrance, night had fallen. He kicked off his boots and once again walked barefoot through the sand of Tatoonie.