"The entire planet... gone?" Sylphiel gasped, her emerald eyes widening in shock. "Why would the Empire destroy it? A world's too precious to just blow up."
Draekmus looked away, watching the rising suns.
"The Empire only cares for power. If they can reinforce their strength through the mere threat of destroying a planet, who would stand against them? Entire systems could be held for ransom."
The shrine maiden nodded, watching as the Onderion Raptor touched down, the droids making their approach towards the hut.
"Looks like our ride's here..." the soldier said, packing the last few things before moving outside.
Sylphiel joined him, grabbing the journal on her way out. 'The information could come in handy' she reasoned.
As she emerged from the doorway, a high-pitched whistle echoed through the air. Wondering what it was, the padawan turned towards Draekmus, only to see his face pale in fright.
"Get down!" he shouted, tackling her to the ground. Before Sylphiel could even object, a missile whizzed through the sky, turning the Raptor into little more than a smoldering crater, a TIE/sa bomber flying past.
"Damn... Vipera must've gotten a squadron under her wing to attack us." he growled, as a Sentinel-class shuttle landed, offloading several squadrons of troopers.
The soldier gritted his teeth, drawing two blaster pistols.
"Looks like this is our last stand..."
Sylphiel stepped forward, pushing Draekmus aside.
"I think I can see a way out of this, Mr. Draek." she said, closing her eyes. "Could you please cover me while I prepare a Dragon Slave?"
The soldier raised an eyebrow, before turning towards the platoons.
"Sure. I don't know what you're planning, but I hope it works," he gruffly replied, carefully shooting off each Stormtrooper.
"Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows," the padawan recited, as a Scout trooper raised his sniper blaster, only to be picked off with a well-placed shot by the soldier.
"Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows" Sylphiel continued, red-colored energy beginning to swirl around her.
"I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand". Draekmus fired another two shots, before discarding one of his pistols, the ammunition exhausted.
"Hurry up..." he mumbled, throwing a thermal detonator among one of the squadrons, spewing bits of stormtrooper all over the sand.
"Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess." She finished, the energy gathering into a powerful sphere between her hands.
Draekmus gritted his teeth as he threw his last grenade, his second pistol's final round igniting the explosive.
"This is it..." he winced, bracing for the inevitable.
"Dragon Slave!" the padawan called out, pushing the energy sphere forward, as a thermal grenade arced through the sky.
The soldier gritted his teeth, before throwing himself forward, intercepting the explosion. The second, larger explosion was all the soldier saw before everything faded to black.
When he finally came to, Draekmus looked around, noting an impersonal, Imperial style predominated the area. He laid on a bench, rigged to be a bed.
He tried to get up, only to hiss in pain, and fall back over, clutching his chest. It felt like his chest collapsed, then someone repaired it.
"Oh, you've recovered..." Sylphiel said, walking towards the soldier, and gently feeling his forehead with a bare hand. "Are you feeling well?"
Draekmus groaned, and, with great effort, and a little help from the shrine maiden, managed to reach a sitting position.
Immediately, he looked down, noticing that his armor had been removed, revealing his chest, heavily scarred, but looking like it had spent a day in bacta.
"How long was I submerged?" he inquired, still amazed at how easily the healing fluids could reverse damage from even a grenade.
Sylphiel stared blankly. "Submerged? What do you mean?"
The soldier grumbled, frustrated at her ignorance.
"Bacta! How long did you have me in a tank?"
The shrine maiden looked blank at him again. "I, uhm... I used a healing spell." a flash of recognition waved across her face.
"Oh! I know. Bacta, of course! That healing fluid my master told me about! No, I couldn't find any."
Draekmus looked at his injuries again, startled.
"A healing spell? This I've got to see..." he said, as the shrine maiden gently laid the soldier back down.
"Please, if you could just relax..." she said, closing her eyes and laying her hands on his chest.
"Recovery!" she said, a white light moving from her hands, accelerating the healing rate of his body.
After a minute, with the exception of a couple of minor scars, the body was once again whole.
In disbelief, Draekmus moved his hand over his chest, startled to see that there was little to no pain.
"Impressive. Heals faster than bacta, and doesn't leave that smell..." he shuddered.
Sylphiel leaned back, letting out a sigh.
"The only problem is... well, your hand..." she stuttered, trying to think of how to best put it.
Draekmus looked at his right hand, which was heavily crushed, looking sickly and out of place compared with the healed skin on his arm.
"Oh, well... to be honest, I'm not surprised..." he admitted sheepishly, taking out a knife and cutting the flesh on his hand away in a nonchalant manner, causing the padawan to wince in sympathy pain.
After a moment, she noticed two oddities: one, his hand wasn't bleeding, despite the cuts. Secondly, the bones underneath were metal.
"I doubt that even your healing spells work on artificial cybernetics." Draekmus said, completely removing the skin covering the cybernetic hand, as he pulled out another tool, gently prodding here and there.
"The explosion has cut the artificial neural pathways, so I feel nothing." he explained, as he wrenched his hand and, with a sickening pop, the artificial limb detached from a socket attached to the soldier's stump.
Sylphiel looked at the soldier as he walked into the next room, the cockpit of the shuttle that the droid Tau had flown into space.
"Ah, master! I am glad to see that Mistress Lahda's healing skills have repaired your systems. I have already set us on a course for the fourth moon of Yavin. That is our nearest base, in relation to here."
The soldier nodded, as he casually tossed the hand at the droid.
"Very good, Tau. I'll take over keeping an eye on things while you repair this." he said, as the LE-series droid looked over the hand, before walking out into the hold.
He sat down in the pilot's seat, letting out a sigh.
"I'm just glad I programmed Tau and Geenine as well as I did. Otherwise, I don't know how well we could have gotten away."
Sylphiel looked at the pilot, letting out a small giggle.
"So that's why they seemed to know how to fly this. I don't think I could ever learn how to pilot. There's just so... much I'd have to learn at one time."
The soldier let out a small laugh.
"If you'd like, I can teach you when we get to Yavin IV."
The shrine maiden seemed to glow in excitement.
"R-really? It-it won't be too much... you know, trouble, will it?" she stuttered, taking interest in her hands all of a sudden.
Draekmus shrugged.
"Nah. Besides, it would be nice to get behind a starfighter again. A freighter is nice, and a battleship is great and roomy, but nothing will ever replace the sheer thrill of flying along, inertial compensators dialed back, in little more than a cockpit and engine."
The shrine maiden secretly smiled. 'Finally, another skill I'll have over Miss Lina.' She spoke, her voice a little choked by the offer. "T-thank you, Draekmus..."
The soldier shrugged, brushing off the comment casually.
Sylphiel looked out across the viewscreen, letting out a sigh.
"No matter how many times I see it, I'll never get used to seeing this hyperspace dimension." she said, entranced by the kaleidoscopic display of colors.
Draekmus let out a small laugh. "Out of all the new things you come across: people, nebulae, starships, worlds, and you pick hyperspace as the one thing?"
The shrine maiden chuckled nervously, scratching her cheek.
"Yeah, I know it's strange. But, you know, I'm just a backwater girl."
The soldier let out a grunt as he reviewed the hyperspace timer.
"It's the small stuff, though, that makes life worth it. If we didn't appreciate the simple things, I doubt the galaxy would be as sane as it is."
Sylphiel nodded in agreement, briefly admiring her guide's sage words.
After several minutes of silence, Draekmus spoke up. "So, what do you think of this civil war?" he asked casually, looking at her lazily.
She focused for several minutes, gathering her thoughts.
"Well..." she started, frowning. "I don't like the Empire's tyranny of sending people to die nor do I like how they use giant weapons to hold back rebellions. Reminds me too much of Miss Lina." she shuddered, praying that Inverse didn't somehow hear her.
On a distant planet, a redheaded sorceress shuddered.
"Something wrong?" the Golden Dragon Filia asked, her face looking inquiringly at the woman.
"Nothing. Just a... feeling. Like someone's talking bad about me." the sorceress replied, shaking her head.
Draekmus nodded, his eyes closed.
"What do you think, Mister Draekmus?" she asked.
"Well..." the soldier said. "I've seen firsthand the ruthlessness of the Empire. Even though my mother still wants to focus on neutrality and diplomacy, being the bigger person and all that happy stuff, I realized that simply waiting for a miracle isn't going to work. Sometimes, you have to make your own miracles."
Sylphiel nodded, letting out a breath.
"My city was destroyed by Copy Rezo... And I barely helped my friends avenge that murder..." her eyes snapped to attention, a fire burning in her emerald irises. "This Empire is guilty of murdering an entire world of innocent people. I really want to help take down this Death Star threat."
Draekmus nodded, his face grim.
"Yes, you have a great spirit. Admirable. However, until we can review the plans, I seriously doubt that we'll find a weak point in the station."
The shrine maiden nodded, looking at her lightsaber.
"Impressive craftmanship..." he commented, indicating the weapon. He held out his hand, "May I?"
Nodding, Sylphiel gave him the saber. Draekmus marveled over the simple jewels embedded in the hilt, traced the etchings and swirls surrounding the base, and closed his eyes, carefully weighing the sabre in his left hand.
He opened his eyes, holding the blade in his left hand, activating it with the definitive snap-hiss.
"One end is broadened. Unique..." he said, practicing with a couple of swings, before moving in a number of different twists and turns, carefully coordinated swordsmanship exercises.
Watching him, Sylphiel recalled Gourry, and all his time with her, practicing his own sword skills. Some of the forms seemed to blend her Jedi teachings with a strange form that spoke of power, honor, and defense.
Draekmus deactivated the lightsaber, handing it back.
"It's perfectly balanced. Even one as unfamiliar as I am with your weapon, I find it quite easy to work with. It's said on my home world that a weapon you pour your heart into reflects a part of your soul."
Sylphiel nodded, staring at the lightsaber.
"It seems to also reflect a correlation with your past and your future. I haven't had much opportunity to see your world, but the design seems to be used on an old sword, modernized with lightsaber technology, a perfect weapon for a backwater girl in the modern world." He smirked, as Sylphiel could have sworn that he winked at her.
Draekmus fell silent as he looked over the controls, as a bright idea crossed his mind.
"Miss Lahda, you said you wanted to learn about piloting? Well... we won't have to wait until we get to the Rebel Base for this part." he said, indicating the control board.
"After all, we all learn to crawl before we walk."
Sylphiel looked across the panel, pointing to a lever.
"So this is the throttle knob," she pointed to a gauge. "This is the radar," she pointed to the yoke in front of her.
"And this is the flight yoke, which is used to steer this craft." she finished, relieved that she had managed to remember all the parts. Granted, it took about three hours straight for her to get them right, but in a craft where you have nothing better to do, does it really matter?
Draekmus nodded in approval.
"Very good, Sylphiel. I see you learn fast."
The shrine maiden shrugged, weakly smiling.
"Oh, Miss Juno has been teaching me a bit about ships. Admittedly, I still don't think I can fly one."
The soldier let out a small laugh.
"Oh, don't worry, Sylphiel. Give me two weeks to train you, and you'll be flying with the best of us."
The padawan smiled, feeling confident that he meant it.
"Draek..." She began, her thoughts swirling around about the Galaxy. "Do you think, when this is all over, do you think we could-"
She was cut off as the timer beeped, causing the soldier to turn to the panel.
"We have arrived. I'm afraid I'll need a few minutes as I clear ourselves with the Alliance." he said, pulling them out of hyperspace and into the space surrounding the red gas giant Yavin.
The comm immediately crackled to life, as two X-wings flanked the shuttle, appearing seemingly from nowhere.
"Unidentified Sentinel-class shuttle, identify yourselves." a familiar voice ordered.
"Cool your jets, Wedge." Draekmus calmly replied, keying in a set of passcodes. "It's Lieutenant Beltone and Padawan Lahda, returning from our mission on Tatooine."
The other pilot let out a whistle.
"What are you doin' in an Imperial tin can like that? Didn't you take the Raptor?"
"It's alright, Farlander. I've got quite the story for you all when we land."
"Alright. Code checks out. Great to have you back, Draek, and Miss Lahda." Wedge said, escorting the shuttle on its approach to the jungle moon.
Draekmus turned to Sylphiel. "I'm sorry about that. You were saying something about after all this is over." he said, looking curiously into her emerald eyes.
"Oh, well..." the shrine maiden stuttered, before looking away.
"I just want to see what my home world is like now. It's been almost a whole year since I left on this journey."
She carefully bit her tongue back, refraining from saying anything more.
The pilot nodded, turning away from her.
"Yeah, sure. I'll need to check on my droids stationed in Seyruun anyway."
Sylphiel thought, for the briefest second, she heard a slight tone of disappointment in his voice.