STAH FARM, NEAR VERINO, ABON, 18 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin)
Benak sat in the Nerf-laced chair. He had been thinking back to the days when his son Uquano had been taken. Uquano was only a young boy when the Jedi had asked for him to add his Force skills to their ranks. Benak grudgingly let the Jedi take in his son, but was glad his two younger children were still at home with him.
The pair of mentioned children, Grelon and Kerin, were as lively and joyful as their older brother had been. The twins exhibited signs of Force-sensitivity, which worried Benak greatly. The Force wasn't something the father opposed, but wasn't ready to show them. If Benak encouraged the activity, they would be snatched up by the Guardians of the Whills or the Jedi again, or some other Force related group. Benak was too attached to his children to let them into harm's way, and ordered them to not use the force. Grelon and Kerin had little idea about what it was they were using, but obediently followed the rules.
As the children had grown up, the Clone Wars had broken out, clones and droids weren't the only ones at the forefront, the Jedi, including Uquano, were there too! Timid by nature, and not willing to bear the sad news of the casualties, Benak moved his family further away from the bustling town of Verino to a quiet homestead where they could continue life devoid of any saddening news from the front. The only thing that gave the two children context of the age they lived in were the periodic hologram messages their elder sibling, Uquano sent on occasion. The twins were always overjoyed to hear some news of their brother's escapades and adventures. The messages even included appearances from Uquano's fellow Jedi, usually a Trandoshan by the name of Kadath, a Gand, and sometimes an Ithorian named Onra. Benak had little problem with these messages, as Uquano rarely gave any grim and gritty recollections of the war, merely painting it as an amazing odyssey through the galaxy than the bloody conflict it was to most of the men on the front lines.
Now, the holo-messages from Uquano had all but disappeared, which confused his family back home. They had lived in peace, ignorant of the reason Uquano was silent. The reason behind the silence, the decree of Order 66, a devious scheme plotted by the Chancellor (and secret Sith lord) of the Galactic Republic, Chancellor Palpatine. It was such a small contingency, so tiny, hidden in a forest of military protocol, but so monumental in its impact. The order gave the clones the order that the Jedi were secret traitors of the Republic, and commanded them to eliminate their Jedi leaders. In the span of a day, hundreds of thousands of Jedi were slain by the captains and commanders and grunts they had forged strong bonds with, gaining trust and comradery with. In the time of a few seconds, all the alliances, all the memories, all the humanity of their bonds, died with the masters, knights, and Padawans. Feelings and companionship fell way to heartless scheming and protocol enacted by a cruelly brilliant mastermind.
Uquano had been caught in the massacre, he defended himself from the now murderous clones as he felt his brothers and sisters be picked off one by one in the Jedi temple. The Rodian Jedi was never heard from again, but no clone knows of firing a fatal shot to the Jedi. It was presumed he was dead, but no-one never found a body. While the Jedi were quickly cut down from hundreds of thousands to a few hundred, there were still a few survivors of Order 66 to be caught, it is assumed Uquano died in the attacks.
Benak, terribly ignorant of the events, was sitting around and remembering days gone by, when sound of a ship landing emitted near the house. Unsettled by the late arrival of the visitor, Benak stood to answer the door. The approaching steps of the mysterious caller put Benak further on edge. Finally, with a sigh, the door was opened, revealing the stiff, gaunt face of an officer of some sort. Without waiting for an introduction from Benak, the man immediately ordered his men to sweep the abode, "Greetings, I am Agent Jollot I've been sent here to find the missing Jedi and traitor Uquano Stah and to arrest the immediate family and friends of said person, you are Stah's father are you not?"
"What? Who are you?"
"An Imperial agent sent by the Emperor."
"An Empire? What about the Republic?"
"Haven't you heard? The Republic and the Jedi are history, the Empire now rules the galaxy."
Shaken badly, realizing that this probably meant Uquano had met a terrible fate, Benak moved to attack out of pure spite. Jollot's men subdued him quickly. Soon, Grelon came down to see what was happening, followed by Narana and Kerin, "What's going on dad?" Benak, being too shocked to come up with any other action simply yelled, "Run!" Narana took Grelon's hand and bolted through the ancient hovel and into the misty Abonian evening.
The three Rodians sprinted through the tranquil jungle, arousing all the sleeping animals as they went. One nasty creature of the slumbering wildlife was angered by the passing people and lashed out at a pursuing stormtrooper.
"Who's chasing us?" A curious Grelon asked.
"I don't know. Something about an empire."
"Empire?"
The young boy was baffled by the turn of events, not sure if this was some game, or a serious pursuit, Grelon ran on intently, waiting for an answer to the chase.
Passing by a steep, rocky cliff, Grelon lost his footing and fell. His mother called out for him, "Grelon where are you?!" Before he could respond, the sound of blasters above him on the path frightened the fallen youth from saying anything.
The distance he had fallen would've taken the fight out of a hardened Tognath, but by a miracle, Grelon had landed still breathing. Hiding in a bush to rest shortly, realizing that this was a dead serious chase from someone who wanted to use him and his family for sinister ends, Grelon's pupiless eyes dripped a few sorrowful tears.
Not wanting to stay in one place too long, the child raised himself up to continue his escape. To his dismay, Grelon spied a deathly white figure of a stormtrooper. He seemed to be scanning the trees for the little Rodian. Hoping to sneak around the man, Grelon plotted a course in his mind through a small trail of bushes and foliage. Sneaking through the underbrush, the trooper took no notice of the passing fugitive. The way was almost clear, when a fragile twig snapped under Grelon's foot. The guard swung around to see what caused the noise. Spying with a trained eye, he found the Rodian getting up to run to safety. Another beast was awoken in the noise of blasters coming from the guard, and it took out yet another threat.
All that night Grelon bolted through the endless jungle, desperate and bitter. He thought he would never get out of the nightmarish place until he finally came upon a speeder road, for the citizens of Abon to make trips to the neighboring cities. Grelon trudged for hours on the road, not caring where he went, as long as he got away from this, empire his mom had said. He remembered the Force, an 'energy field' as Uquano often called it in his many holo-messages, that 'binds the universe together and lets you do amazing feats.'
Uquano.
The older brother to Grelon, Grelon had never seen him in person, only hearing his voice on a hologram, the closest he'd ever been to this mysterious member of his kin. Grelon wanted so badly to run to his side for protection, but he had no idea where Uquano could be in the galaxy, or if he was even alive. The Empire might've killed him for all the young boy knew. Still, there was always a possibility he was out there, Grelon thought.
Soon, in the waking dawn, a huge metropolis opened before the Rodian's eyes, Verino. The famous spaceport had been the birthplace of Jurijus, and had spawned a myriad Jurijus farms for the curious to visit. This meant Grelon had plenty of ships coming and leaving with spice, smuggled goods, or tourists.
While immediately sneaking on a ship bound off-world would've been the best plan, Grelon was simply too fatigued to carry on. He snuck into an abandoned crate in an alley to rest. Not long after he awoke, just minutes later, the little Grelon woke to the sight of a rough-looking Gran, and a towering Talz staring at him, though they semed to be the same age as Grelon was, even younger perhaps. Taken aback, a startled cry came from Grelon's lips. "Woah! Hey! Hey! Settle down!" The Gran quieted the frightened child, "I'm Vastroni and she's Teko."
The Talz waved in concurrence. "Who're you?" Teko asked.
"Grelon, Grelon Stah."
Still unsure of the two-newcomer's purpose for seeing him, Grelon inquired, "W-what do you want?"
"Heard about your escape, some lady near there and her daughter left here just hours ago. Looks like you can get lucky too and get off this rock with us!"
Grelon wasn't sure whether to trust them or not, but reasoned that there wasn't much he could do at the moment anyway, "You gotta ship?"
Vastroni replied, "Well, it's not mine exactly. It's my father's, we've been going through planets like these, taking in fugitives and refugees who hate the Empire."
Hearing about the opposition to the still mysterious Empire, Grelon was even better convinced that the two could be trusted, and agreed to go with them.
"Great! We better go now, there's a patrol nearby…" Teko whispered.
As she said the words, a group of troopers appeared, holding a hologram of Grelon's likeness. The three children ran through the alley as one stormtrooper took notice of the suspicious bystanders, "Hey, where're you going?" The soldier quickly signaled for the others to follow, and they readied their blasters as they took chase. Vastroni took out a blaster from his belt and shot off a few rounds to cut down their pursuers' numbers. Despite the great number of lasers fired, only one fell to the fire. "Blast it! I'm not much of a marksman. Maybe you're better with it!" Vastroni tossed the blaster over to Grelon's hands. Though he hadn't used a blaster before, the boy was skillful and took out three opponents. After weaving their way through the roads and alleys of Verino, the trio stopped to catch their breath, Vastroni made a short report of their situation, "Looks like we're clear."
Unfortunately, those words weren't true, more troops showed up from the other alleys connecting to the courtyard the three rebels were in. The stormtroopers set their weapons to stun, as the leader warned, "Stop right there!" Thinking quickly, Grelon miraculously did a somersault into a trooper as the others shot at the fugitive. Vastroni and Teko ducked as they watched their new friend take out the enemy with surprising ferocity (fueled by anger at the Imperials for taking away his family). Two soldiers went down shooting each other in a blunder, while Grelon placed a kick into another while trying to dodge a laser. Teko pushed the momentum further by picking up a blaster from one of the fallen troopers and firing on the remaining ones. Vastroni guided them through the alley again "Over here! The ship's not much farther!" After blasting and running their course through Verino, the three finally reached a low-ceilinged hangar with a spaceship idling inside the rust-filled building. Another Gran, most likely Vastroni's father Grelon suspected, appeared firing at the Imperial pursuers. "C'mon! Hurry!" he yelled as the refugees clambered onboard. The ship, the Kinyen Racer to be exact, lifted off with wind blowing furiously as a squad of stormtroopers helplessly watched the rebels escape.
At last, Grelon was finally safe.
He looked around at his new allies' vessel. It felt like home, and Grelon desperately wanted that after what had happened. The captain introduced himself, "I'm Ask Aak, captain of the Kinyen Racer. Welcome to our band."
Overwhelmed by the shattering events that had so quickly happened, Grelon could barely utter a response. But he accepted his new position in the group of rebels, and was ready for whatever lie ahead. Ask prepared the ship for its rampant journey through hyperspace, as the rebels expectantly watched the dotted stars morph into gleaming lines.