The Search for the Unknown

Chapter 1

"Sir, were reaching the planet now" the pilot says.

"Thank you" I say.

I look out the window next to me. The planet is slowly getting bigger and more detailed by the minute. It has an eerie green colour to it making the planet not so welcome. As we pass the outer atmosphere the co pilot walks up to me. "Sir, General Rieekan will meet you at the hanger entrance as soon as we land".

"Ok, will there be any other people greeting me?"

"Not that I know of sir".

I nod and return viewing the planet surface. The co pilot gets the hint and leaves to the cock pit. By this time we have reached the surface of the planet Khomm and are heading towards the Rebel Base near the city Heh'l. As we pass by other populated areas you can tell war has reached here. Many of the buildings were either destroyed or on the verge of collapsing, but the Khommite people still inhabited these places like nothing had changed but much had changed which affected their whole culture.

For nearly a millennium the Khommite possessed a culture of conformity, this culture was basically everything had a place and it was all in a neat organised fashion. All the buildings and gardens were pre planned. They were in harmony until the Empire came. The Empire destroyed their homes and much of their culture so the Khommites had to do what they have never done before. Adapt. After this they sided with the Rebellion to fight against the Empire.

Now I Grendu Liska'trem Bothan Commando have been stationed here to help with General Rieekan in the search for the hidden Empire base that has been sabotaging with Rebel and Khommite equipment and has killed many of the soldiers and innocent people inhabiting this planet.

"Sir, we're about to land" says the pilot.

I come back to reality, shake my head a little to wake my senses up and to look to the pilot. "Thank you", I nod to him. I then check if I still have everything. Rifle...check, pistol...check, grenades...check, other assortment of equipment...check, my picture... where's my picture. I start to quickly look around my seat heart beating very fast. I sit in my chair nervous and frightened but then I remember. I reach in my front pocket and pull out a small rectangular screen. I press the button on the top right corner and an image comes up. I look to it with happy but sad eyes.

It's a picture of me and my wife Wendall Liska'trem and my little son, Grendall Liska'trem, my wife's name and my name combined. Were all smiling, outside on the porch, Grendal chasing a flying bug around us going on and off screen and me and my wife smiling and laughing away. Oh those were the happy days before this damn war consumed our lives. I shed one tear but quickly wipe it away and turn off the screen as I hear footsteps approaching.

"We've arrived" the pilot states.

I look up, nod, then get up and walk to the door. The door opens and a stair case departs down. We've landed in front of a square building with a hanger attached to the right of the building (my right) it's small and could probably hold only one ship and maybe a few land vehicles but many vehicles were departing and arriving, to be honest it doesn't look like it could hold no more than 50 people but as the same thing with the hanger many people were entering and leaving.

I see General Rieekan standing below the staircase waiting for me. I depart down and come face to face with him.

"Welcome to Home-1, my names Gen-"

"General Rieekan sir", I interrupt.

Rieekan seems shocked at first but gets over it. "Yes you must have been informed . . . anyway let me show you around the base"

We both walk towards the hanger door people walking by us and walking with Rieekan talking about plans and things like that.

"You're probably wondering how there are so many people and vehicles coming in and out of this compound", Rieekan says without looking over to me.

"Yes I was wondering that"

"What you see here is just a part of the bigger picture", by this time we pass the hanger doors and even more people are here.

I look around and spot where all these people are coming from. There are seven elevators half circled around the floor and in the middle is the rebel symbol in red, worn out by the feet that have been walked on it.

"The elevators on either end lead to living quarters. Next to those lead to the barracks, and next to those lead to sick bay, and the final one in the middle leads to a more bigger hanger which contains more ships. Over on the right of the elevators is a wide set of stairs which lead to all the places i've said and others", Rieekan points to the elevator and stairs "which shall we take to your quarters"

"Let's take the elevator" I say.

"Excellent, right this way", Rieekan leads the way to the elevator on my left which has just arrived.

We pill in with other soldiers, pilots, medics, etc. We make our way down to level 23 and the doors open. I nearly get pushed out of the door with the amount of people who rushes out.

"You'll get used to that", Rieekan says while he gets out more gracefully "This place has no time for people who dilly dally since the recent attacks", and his features slightly darken.

"What attacks?" I ask.

He shakes his head "We will inform you about that tomorrow, for now let's get you to your room and get some rest", He leads the way to my quarters, going this way and that. I'm surprised he can manage where he is going.

"Here we are" He stops in front of a door with a inscription on the door, it says 23407

"The first to numbers are the floor where on, and the last three is the room number" he turns to me and hands me a key card "This card will have access to this room and higher level security since your part of task force 1", I take the card then look to him puzzled, task force 1?

He smiles "I'll explain more later, now I have important...business to attend to" he nods to me then he's off gone like the wind.

I stand in front of the door for a few minutes then swipe the card over the lock and enter my room.

It's nothing special; there is a bed, holoboard, and bathroom. Feels almost like home, sorta. I plop my guns and accessories beside my bed. The rest of my belongings are at the end of my bed. I kick off my shoes then lay in my bed staring at the roof.

It doesn't take me long to fall asleep, hopefully things are not as bad here as what i've been told.

But I can tell they're much, much worse.