So here we are everyone! Chapter Two! I hope everyone enjoyed chapter one and will enjoy this one as well! Thank you to all those who reviewed! I have the first four or so chapters already written up and am now planning to introduce Poe in chapter five or six, potentially just with his first appearance in five and then actually in chapter six. Let me know what you think of both this and the chapter! :)
She didn't remember the crash when she woke. She assumed that was a good thing. She didn't particularly want to remember the rush of the ground towards them or the feel of her stomach in her mouth as their ship turned and rotated in open air, not knowing what was to come except death.
She was surprised then, when she woke in the same seat she'd crashed in, sparks flying around the bridge as she came to. It took her a moment to realise what had happened. That she was alive and the ship had crashed after being shot down by a TIE fighter. She was lying sideways, she realised as she tried to force herself upright, her whole body screaming at her as she did so. Around her she could hear some of the other crew starting to come to as well. Veruna wiggled around, trying to regain some sensation and ease the headache that was throbbing at her temples. Finally, she managed to undo the emergency harness and fell out of her chair. She groaned as she pulled her feet underneath her, realising that she was in fact standing next to the systems station on the other side of the bridge. She limped slightly as she attempted to regain her balance on the curved glass that served to lookout of the ship and protect them. She shook the man who was slumped over his station.
"Grosby?" She feared the worst when he didn't respond until her slowly started to blink his eyes open.
"Where are we?" he asked as he also watched his son try to sit up and discovered himself in the same position veruna was in. He, too, undid his safety harness and landed next to her, allowing her to catch him.
"I don't know. Somewhere in the Undiscovered Region. We're in First Order territory."
"What do we do?" Mace asked and Veruna looked at him and then over to her friend, still slumped in his chair, unmoving and pale.
"You're the pilot now. It's your call to make." There was a heaviness in her words that clung to the room. Mace nodded as his shoulders sagged, looking at the floor and nodding.
"Search the ship for survivors and gather what supplies tou can. We need to try and find out where we are and find some shelter before the First Order sends troops down.
"You know that if the First Order finds her..." Veruna trailed off, knowing that if their enemies found their ship they would develop the technology.
"We'll hide her the best we can once we've got the survivors out."
"And those that haven't survived?"
Mace's shoulders sagged further when his father stepped in.
"Leave them. We don't have time for much discussion." The trio nodded and set about their work.
It was a long heartbreaking job to carry out. Veruna had to climb through miles of collapsed tubes and piped and corridors. Her headache was growing worse the more she continued and every member of crew she'd come across had been staring at her blankly with clouding eyes. Even reaching the medbay to retrieve her kit didn't lighten her mood at all, not when there were so many she didn't even have the oppertunity to try and save. Perhaps I should've stayed here to help, she thought as she looked at the bodies thrown off of biobeds and onto the floor. But then I'd be with them, she tried to justify but somehow it didn't sit right in her head.
Once again, she found herself falling and then blinded as she made her way out of the ship. The ground beneath her was solid and did nothing to help cushion her aching body. Grass tickled her face as with squinting eyes she looked up to see that they had crashed in a valley. Grosby stood waiting for her with one of the twins, Yaneé.
"Did you find anyone?" he asked grimly, as though he already knew the answer. Veruna shook her head sadly and she watched the old man deflate. It wasn't just his son he'd had aboard, he'd also had a daughter, Serana.
"I'm sorry, Groz." The man shook his head.
"There's nothing you could've done, Sabé." It was odd hearing her first name after being called by her second for so long. It was a painful reminder of all that she wasn't. Their silence was broken as Mace came back supporting another. Both heads of the men were down but Sabé assumed by the mass of dark curls that it was Mace's love, Xxarr. They both hobbled out, supporting each other and rejoined the group.
"Did you find anyone else?" she asked and Mace looked up and shook his head, with tears streaming down his face. Veruna looked around with a lump in her throat and a heaviness in her stomach. In a matter of minutes their crew of fifty had become five.
"We need to hide the ship," Yaneé finally said. They were the first words she'd said since she'd discovered her dead twin across the room. They turned to look at their ship, its silver bullet-like shape reflecting against the foreign sun.
"How are we going to hide it? It's not like we have a cloaking device fitted."
"I think we should be able to make something between us," Xxarr spoke up as he looked at Yaneé. The two nodded before turning to Mace for permission. He gave a short, sharp nod with a clenched jaw. His eyes were cold and Veruna felt a tug of sympathy for him. He'd never wanted to be in charge. That responsibility had always fallen to Jed, but now he was dead and Mace was suddenly in charge of trying to keep four people alive while they were stranded on an unknown planet in uncharted territory. As they watched the duo disappear back into the ship to try and work on a device that would help hide the ship she took a moment to take in their surroundings.
From where they stood in the valley that they had crashed in it was simply grassy, but as she looked down she could see that they were in fact in a mountain range. Forests covered much of the landscape but she could also just see a sea in the distance, or at least a large body of water. Looking up, she could see the peaks of the mountain range capped with snow, jagged and beautiful. No bout, there would be streams and rivers that ran off it to fee the body of water below. There was a light breeze in the air that made her skin prickle slightly but otherwise it was a comfortable temperature with a gorgeous blue sky. She squinted her eyes as a black spot appeared in her vision, thinking that it was just her eyes playing tricks on her in the sudden brightness after having been in artificial light for so long. But it continued to get bigger and bigger. Soon, the unmistakable noise of a TIE fighter was filling her ears, make her limbs shake more than they already were.
"We need to go!" she yelled as she turned towards the two men.
"Xxarr and Yaneé are still in there!" Mace exclaimed, yet he'd already grabbed his father's arm and turned him towards the thick forest.
"They know how to survive!" Veruna replied hastily and the trio took off sprinting towards the forest.
From the first step, Veruna's legs felt like they might give way beneath her. Mace and Grosby didn't appear to be faring much better ahead of her, tripping over tree roots and rocks. Soon they could hear the sound of Stormtroopers behind them, their noisy footsteps and the conversations they were having.
"Quick!" Mace called, "climb a tree!" Both he and his father quickly scaled up into a tall tree where they were hidden somewhat by the canopy and by the earthy tones of their clothes. Veruna wanted to cry, not sure how much longer her tired and sore body would support her for, but even so she jumped to grab hold of the nearest branch before heaving herself up, the effort making her vision swim. She'd barely recovered as she forced herself up higher and higher. She soon found a sturdy branch within the canopy where she could see her friends and rest comfortably. The Stormtroopers passed below them, unaware. Veruna pulled a knife out of her bag, and got herself into a position where she could jump to attack one. There were only five and she thought that the odds were looking good if all three of them attacked with the element of surprise. She looked over to Mace and he met her gaze. Realising what she was about to do he hurriedly shook his head, his blue eyes wide. Veruna nodded, understanding that rather than attacking them Mace wanted to let them leave, and go back to the First Order to tell them that there were no survivors. He was ensuring their safety. A moment passed as the Stormtroopers paused and looked around. All they could hear was birds as they kicked at underbrush and rocks, anywhere they could've hidden. One Stormtrooper looked up and Veruna could've sworn that she met his emotionless helmet's gaze but a few seconds later and one of them spoke up.
"It must've been some local wildlife we saw. Come on. Let's head back to the ship." The others were quick to agree and followed the first out of the forest.
They waited until the heard the sound of the TIE fighter leaving, this time followed by an Atmospheric Assault Lander. The trio breathed a sigh of relief before carefully climbing down from their respective trees and meeting in the middle. Veruna reveled in the woody smell that surrounded her and the green. She'd missed the green of her home planet while she was away and being able to take in the sights and smells greatly improved her mood. This forest was different than her forests though. The forests on this planet were dry, the top layer of the earth and mulch dry and dusty and it only grew damp beneath. The heat wasn't heavy and muggy like where she was from.
Mace and Grosby joined her.
"Let's head back to the ship. We'll stay there tonight and discover more of the planet tomorrow. We might be stuck here indefinitely." It was a grim statement that Mace had made, but they all knew it was the truth. They didn't know how they were getting off this planet at all. The run from the ship had taken only five minutes, yet the walk back took considerably longer. The trio had injures that hadn't been looked at and they were exhausted. Veruna was having enough difficulty convincing her mind to put one foot in front of the other, her head swimming with each step and not fully focused on where she was actually stepping. She tripped several times, barely catching herself before she continued. It seemed an endless walk, yet eventually they reached the ship.
When they did, Yaneé and Xxarr were sitting outside, on the grass. With a relieved cry, Mace ran to him and swooped him up in a kiss. Veruna, however, stood in shock as they looked at the ship they'd left but now in an almost unsalvageable condition.
"What did you do to her?" she asked absentmindedly, drawing all attention to her before Yaneé and Xxarr exchanged a coy smile.
"We had to keep the Stormtroopers from bringing more First Order troops back here and we couldn't cloak the whole ship without it look suspicious, so we improvised."
"You destroyed the ship?"
"We modified a cloaking device we had that was designed to hide camps and simply overlaid the image we wanted overtop. Worked like a charm." Yaneé had said it like it was a simple concept and then kicked what seemed to be thin air. The image of the destroyed ship flickered before disappearing altogether.
"And you did this?" Mace asked her. Her braided, brown hair swayed as she scoffed at him.
"I just wrote the code to show what we needed to show. It was that one over there who actually made the modifications to the device." Mace nodded and drew his partner closer to his side with pride and affection. Suddenly, Mace shook his head as if to snap himself back into leadership mode.
"We're staying here for the night, then tomorrow we'll try and find a more permanent shelter."
As they settled for the night, Veruna fulfilled her duty as medic and took care of the injuries that had occurred during the crash. Most of them were minor, Xxarr had a split lip and Yaneé had a gash on her arm. The most serious injury she'd found was Grosby's who had a cut on his leg deep enough and wide enough to require stitching. The group talked jovially as she fixed them up and they ate a small portion of the food that was on their ship. She sat mostly to herself as she ate and watched the rest of the group. Despite knowing Mace and Grosby since she was a teenager and her mother had died, she still felt somewhat an outsider. Mace had Xxarr and she never really talked to Yaneé. Their positions were too different to spend much time together and she spent most of her time with her twin. She looked up from the bread she was pulling apart and eating as said navigator came and sat next to her. Veruna tried to keep the curiousity out of her gaze as the woman followed the direction of her stare, towards the trio and then further, down the valley.
"What do you think we'll find out there?" she asked.
"I don't know," Veruna replied. Yaneé put her drink down and turned to face her, her fingers absentmindedly playing with the grass by her folded legs.
This time Veruna didn't bother to hide the questioning look on her face.
"I don't know if anyone's told you yet, but you have a cut on your head." That explained the headache, Veruna thought wryly, but Yaneé hadn't finished talking.
"I was wondering if you wanted me to clean it for you?" Veruna had half a mind to tell her no, that she could do it herself but she realized what it was Yaneé was doing. She nodded and handed the woman her medkit. She leant forward as the woman first went about getting rid of the blood that had trickled down her forehead and cheek and dried.
"I never realized how much I didn't know you until we crashed," Yaneé stated.
"I suppose we were always pleasant to each other but never really made the effort to become friends," Sabé agreed.
"I didn't realise we had anything in common."
"I think being stranded on a planet together is a pretty big one." Veruna's laughter at her own joke was joined by Yaneé's own.
"Well, I don't know how to tell you this, but I think it's the most pathetic injury out of all of us." Veruna laughed again and the dark-haired woman gave a bright smile.
"Head injuries tend to be like that," she agreed, "they just bleed a lot."
Suddenly, Yaneé looked bashful, almost shy.
"Can I ask something?" She looked up through her lashes as she said it, meeting Sabé's frowning face as she nodded.
"Do you mind if I sleep near you tonight? It's the first time I've slept without Ronhar nearby and I don't want to ask the others." Veruna felt a pang of sympathy and nodded, unfolding a blanket and laying it over the both of them, grateful for the extra warm as she gazed up at the strange stars until she fell asleep.