Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs. Star Wars belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney. Many thanks to my co-writer ( zazabelle on Tumblr). Please review and critique this tribute to the characters of SW who are never spoken of, the ones who only wished to survive.
Rating: T (sci-fi violence and language)
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. - Albert Camus
The fire, the smoke, the agony.
I couldn't breath.
I couldn't think.
I didn't want to anymore.
The closet door had caved in on me during impact, I couldn't tell if my vision had gone dark or if I was being smothered to death. There was blood coming out of me somewhere I could feel it. Gashes, bruises, blood, I didn't want to move. My lips tried to open, they tried to make a sound come out of me, but nothing worked.
What do I do… What could I have done?
Suddenly, I felt something tug at me. Pulling at my heartstrings.
My guide was still with me.
My mind snapped back into place.
My guide! My guide please help me! My thoughts screamed in panic as the fog in my mind began to clear and the smoke in the room thickened.
I began to wiggle under the weight of the door as I tried to pull myself free.
I saw the fire rise in the hull of the ship, and with that I found my voice.
"Please! You told me this was going to happen! I tried to warn them! Why didn't they listen!? Why won't you help me!" I screamed as tears ran down my face with the taste of soot gathering around my lips.
I built up pressure in my head to try and use the guide. Everything in the room began to become connected in my head. I felt everything. The rapid vibration of the fire. The energy draining from the ship's hull and the draining of… no.
"NO PLEASE! MOMMY HELP ME! SOMEONE!"
I screamed for my mommy, I felt her. Her energy draining with the ship. I felt my family. All of them. Dwindling.
I screamed as the pressure in my head was released.
The door fell away.
The guide desperately pulled at me.
The path was clear, there was somewhere else I needed to be. But I didn't want to go. There had to be something I could do with all this power, with all this rage. I could stop their energy from draining. I could stop their death.
I ran from the path. I ran to my mom. My seven year old legs propelling me on through our burning ship.
The guide still telling me where to go. But this felt different, it felt… wrong. Nonetheless, there she was, shrapnel piercing her skin all over. Her blood spilling out.
"MOMMY!" I ran to her side, her eyes barely focusing.
Her head lolled to her side as she turned to look at me.
"Vis… Go… Please…" she whispered above the sound of my crying.
"I won't leave you! I can fix this! There has to be another way!" I built up the pressure in my head and placed my hand of her as I tried to make the guide fix this.
She took my hand and she took a breath.
"Vis… I feel it now. All those times you tried to explain it to me. The connection to everything. I. Can. Feel. It." Her breath labored, "The guide you talk so much about. Your path does not lay here with me. Your connection, I… we, will never leave you. Your guide connects us. Follow it's path. You can see it. I know you can… Find what you're looking for. I. Love… you…"
Her energy left.
It was gone.
And yet, the guide was still there, so quiet amongst the raging flames, but it was there. The path was clear. The future uncertain. And all I could think about was my mommy laying in the crashed ship that was my home, now burning on a planet I didn't know.
I stood, the guide almost pulling me along by my empty hand as I walked numbly through the smoke filled ship. It took my hand, I would grab an object, and this continued as I shuffled past the bodies of my adoptive scavenger family. I couldn't make the connection cut off, it was the only thing making me walk, but their pain swelled over my body and it was a silently awful relief when I felt their energy slip through my fingers and meld into the guide's path. I was being puppeted, and I felt the familiar pressure in my head trying to snap me back to thinking.
"Please. Just, keep telling me what to do." I choked out as I looked at the trinkets the guide had told me to pick up, one of my tears falling and rolling off the smooth stone my mother loved so much.
The guide flowed on, directing each one of my hollow legs towards the bundle of cloth lying on the ground. The captain's green trench coat. My chest sputtered as I became wracked with tears. I picked it up and hugged the favorite thing of the man that had helped raise me. I felt his bravery in the cloth. It flowed into me as I continued to let the guide push me down the singeing walls of the hallways, down the breaking stairways, and out through a hole on the ship's hull.
I watched as my feet walked through the moist dirt of the dense forest that surrounded the broken ship. I looked down at the trench coat in my arms, as tears kept streaming down my face mingling with the blood running out of my nose, I slipped it on.
In my hand still, I looked at the trinkets of the family who had loved me, the family who had taught me to keep looking for all the paths I could take to find what I was looking for, the family that accidentally introduced me to the guide, the guide that always showed me the way.
I wanted to look back… but there was a new path. I sensed something hiding in the forest. A place I would grow to love. A place I would grow to protect and avenge for the family I couldn't say the same for.
"Where are we going?" I asked as the guide kept pulling me on.
And for the first time, it answered.
Home.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"The vault is sealed captain. The goods are likely still intact." A robotic voice calls out from across the derelict transport ship.
The old CIS droid, a BX series commando droid, crouched at one of the many sealed doors, its connector plugged into the one of the ship's control boards as it scans for the contents of each room. The droid looks over at his organic partners, it's chassis is worn from age but still durable, with a line of fresh white paint down its face and a white eagle emblazoned on its chest. He beckons the two over.
"Lerti, pass BX-19 the breach charge." The voice commanded from behind the sealed faceplate of his spacesuit.
"On it captain." A third voice responded.
The Mandalorian female of the two, clad in red and dull white armor, hands the explosive to the droid, who applies it to the sealed door of the cargo vault before walking off a few feet and hitting the detonator without warning.
The captain and Lerti jump back in surprise, their arms shielding their faceplates.
The charge creates a small explosion, shattering the handle, allowing BX-19 to pull open the vault door and inspect its contents. Five light brown cargo containers, left by the ship's former occupants as they fled towards the escape pods.
"A little more warning next time BX?" Lerti asks curtly as they approach the broken door.
"Might I remind you that we need to move fast? What we are doing is not legal, and I didn't realize I needed to be your babysitter." The droid retorted, obviously mimicking the sarcastic voice of another crew member.
"Okay, we got the goods. Now let's load them up and get out off this wreck." The captain ordered as he grabbed the first crate, his two companions following suit.
Silence went through the comm.
"Cholmon! Are you listening!?" The captain nearly yelled into the comm.
"Ya sorry! Roger that captain." The pilot, a Mon Calamari, responded over the comm before going back to lazily tracing the edge of the control panel in the cockpit of his Simiyiar-class ship.
He could spend hours tracing the delicate, ornate curves of the Raving Titan, lost in the beauty of its design. He listened over the comm as his crew began loading up the cargo, only half paying attention to the empty space around him decked in escape pods while the transport ship sparked.
Suddenly he was startled out of his daydreaming by a soft beeping sound, sending a shiver down his spine as he hoped against hope that it wasn't what he thought. Quickly knocking several items off the panel he examined the radar system, a stream of curses rolling off his tongue in Mon Cal.
"Soron we have a major problem. Imperial Star Destroyer incoming."
"Druk! Have they scanned us yet?" The captain growled over the comms.
"I don't know, no way I can tell from here."
"Alright shut it down. Everything but air systems. BX, Lerti, double time it now!" He commanded as he increased his pace as much as he could, the other two following suit.
Back on the ship, the pilot began struggling to shut everything off.
"Nek! Get up here now!" The pilot yelled over his shoulder.
Thirty seconds later a relatively short Devaronian sprinted through the door, panting slightly.
"What is it you need Cholmon?" He asked nonchalantly, as if there wasn't a Star Destroyer bearing down on them.
"Get your red behind down to the engine room, shut down everything!" Cholmon shouted, clearly not in the mood.
"On it, no need for such nastiness." Nek replied with a druk-eating grin, quickly fleeing from the Mon Calamri's scowl.
"Talk to me Chol, how's it looking up there?" Soron asked as he approached the cargo door.
"I can't tell captain, they seem to be ignoring us." Immediately the radar system began to beep rapidly.
"Nevermind, they just deployed TIEs. ETA 3 minutes." Chol groaned.
"Everyone in now." Soron commanded as the other two passed by him onto the ship with the goods, the door closing behind them. He quickly took his helmet off, revealing his black furred Shistavanen appearance with glowing yellow eyes.
"Lerti, man the left turret, I'll get on the right. BX, get to the cockpit and be ready to have Chol use the ion cannon." He then took off on a dead sprint towards the cannon. Sliding into the seat and putting on the headset he quickly contacted Nek over the backup comms. "Nek power the engine back up, we'll be cutting this one close. And make sure the ion cannon is prepped."
"On it boss." Came the reply.
The sleek ship powered back up, accompanied with a pleased grunt from its pilot, and pulled away from the derelict ship, turning to face the incoming swarm of TIE fighters. Chol turned the Titan to face the swarm, turrets already working to eliminate a few fighters.
"Any day now BX." He growled, itching to fire the ion cannon.
"Wait for it." The droid responded.
"They're closing in, I have to fire now!" The pilot panicked, seeming to forget the cool down time of the cannon and his finger hovering over the trigger. "They're almost on top of us!"
"Wait." BX continued, voice never losing its monotone quality. He clenched the back of Chol's seat, running through a million calculations at once, they couldn't afford to miss this shot.
The TIEs sped closer.
They started to fire.
"Now!" The droid shouted as the last fighter came into critical range.
The pilot blasted the cannon.
They chain reaction in the blast disabled most of the TIEs immediately and forced the rest to scatter. By the time the rest of the fighters had regrouped the ship had already escaped to hyperspace. Soron sighed as he collapsed into the gunner's seat, hearing the victory cheers from the Mandalorian across the hall.
Yeah, He sighed mentally, we won. For now…
The captain reached for the comms.
"Alright crew, let's take a look at this cargo that apparently 'the Empire doesn't care about at all.'" Soron said sarcastically as he started for the cargo hold. "I swear when we see Dordo I'm going to ask him for his definition of an easy job."