THE PATTERN OF STARS
Jori Lekauf was dead.
Cloud watched the words scroll across the repeater screen but failed to fully understand the extent of what they meant.
Jori Lekauf…was dead.
He pushed a hand back through the mess of his straw-coloured hair, impossibly bright blue eyes shimmering in the backwashed light of the terminal screen, and let out a short sigh of sorrow and resignation.
The two men had met only once, upon the remote Outer Rim moon of Dxun during a boarder skirmish between GAG and Imperial Remnant personnel and a rogue contingent of Vagaari warriors that had spiralled out from Chiss space.
The Empire of the Hand had dispatched the 501st Legion's Aurek Company in response to a standard request for help, crossing the divide in a short amount of time. They had swiftly set about bombarding the clustered craft around the remote moon of Onderon with the sort of extreme display of firepower that had been such a common occurrence during the era of Palpatine's Empire.
The affair had lasted less than a standard cycle, a simple reinforce, strike and withdraw mission before political questions were raised about how acceptable it was for the Empire of the Hand to become so involved in dealing with core world military conflicts and whether they should be policing the Vagaari at all.
Cloud didn't bother to follow the HoloNet regarding such issues. To him, and to all of Aurek Company, it had been a simple matter; an emergency signal had been broadcast on frequencies commonly used by Imperial Remnant forces when contacting the independent outpost and, as such, the Empire had responded.
He remembered the representatives of the joint Remnant and GAG staff boarding their flagship after the battle, the tall profile of Corporal Jori Lekauf as he had stood behind his commanding officer, shaking hands in turn with Cloud's own commanding officer, Chak Fel, Aurek-Seven's commander, Twister and finally, Cloud himself.
As an Imperial Stormtrooper, Cloud's own features had been hidden behind the plastoid, featureless masque of his helmet yet there was no denying how similar their faces were. Perhaps Lekauf's blond hair was fractionally darker than Cloud's, perhaps his eyes were a slightly different shade, but the expression was they same.
In that instant, Cloud knew they had shared a common point of origin; Lekauf the grandson of an aide to Darth Vader and Cloud a Stormtrooper in the legion that had, in the past, served as Vader's own honour guard.
Behind the dark curve of the helmet's eye markings, Cloud held the other man's gaze for a moment and then released his hand from the firm shake, staring straight ahead, as Lekauf had moved down the line, shaking the hands of Shadow and Watchman.
The screen of the HoloNet terminal flickered and Cloud let out another short breath, rubbing his temples with calloused fingers.
Jori Lekauf, grandson of a man that both Aurek Company and the entire 501st held in the utmost respect, was dead.
The Stormtrooper smiled sadly, reached out and deactivating the terminal, plunging the room into complete darkness.
He lifted his head and, after a time, he was at last able to make out the pattern of stars behind the darkness of the endless skies.
Slowly he lifted a hand to his head and, in the darkness of his quarters, saluted a memory.