Well, I guess that went relatively well, I don't have much too much to say about the last or current chapter as I have stated just below.

Writing this part first because I don't know how much I'll be able to write for a little while. At the time of writing this, I and much of Britain are still in shock and mourning over the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll. Eventually, our grief will reside somewhat and we'll try to get back to normal but considering how major an event this is it will take some time to adjust.

His Majesty Charles lll has now become King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island as well as the head of state of 14 countries and the Head of the Commonwealth of Nations. On behalf of the British public, I wish him well and the very best of luck.

God Save The King

Chapter Two: Mutual Understandings

"Jack!"

Found in a nearly impossible explainable and unimaginable situation, James' mind didn't think about the things he should have been, like what were two of the creatures standing in front of him, both of a species he had never seen before. Though they both looked in the vaguest sense, human, one was easily a foot taller than he was and had purple skin of varying strength all over what he assumed was him.

The other had been the one that first spoken directly to him when he awoke, awoke being an understatement for what occurred when he had opened his eyes and snapped up in an instant making everyone in the cabin jump. It looked and sounded like a woman, she had tried to approach him seemingly unarmed even after James had already pulled his weapon in them in a reactive defence.

Unlike any of the others, even the tall purple one, she had what James thought were tails from the top of her head and a shade of green skin that he hadn't witnessed any other intelligent creature, one that spoke English and was trying to appear non-threatening.

After waking up in the strange ship with unknown people, two of them of a species he didn't even recognise, his first instinct after snatching his small holographic display was to reach for his sidearm. However, when he tried, the pistol's iron sights weren't even fully aimed away from him before an invisible force sent his arm flying backwards and by extension his whole body.

His M6C had been pulled out of his hand and fell to the ground with the remaining kinetic energy causing it to skid across the sheet metal flooring, screeching as it travelled before coming to a complete stop. Though a rugged and well-designed weapon, falling to the floor always had the chance of causing a misfire within the weapon and sending a bullet shooting out at whichever random direction it had been pointing at.

Luckily though, aside from the force that pushed on his shoulder causing him to unintentionally discharge a single round towards the floor, no more gunshots were heard. Instead, James started to panic as despite being in front of several living beings, he was alone.

"What, Who?" The woman who had said that her name was Hera asked him as he began frantically looking around his environment after he had said a single word which to her, sounded like a name.

James shortly stopped "My co-pilot, Jack, we were on the Infinity when that bastard Jackal tried to snipe me, he pushed me out the way but part of it hit him," He said, having given up on searching the part of the ship where he was.

"Infinity? There wasn't anybody else in that ship" One of them said to him, he looked toward the younger woman.

"What! That's impossible, he was on the ship with me when that light thing blinded me,"

The one that Hera had said was Ezra stepped in his path.

"I don't know what that means but Sabine is telling the truth, there wasn't anybody else there, there was hardly any ship left in one piece anyway," He said.

Where is my ship?" He asked, seemingly more calm.

"Follow me, you can see it from the cockpit," Hera said to him.

James silently turned to follow her before she stopped just a few steps forward, "But first, would you mind telling us what you're name is?" She asked.

He only thought about it for a couple of seconds, his name wasn't any sort of top secret UNSC or ONI information that he would be court-martialed or executed over if he revealed.

"James, James Alfred Bailey" He stated.

"Okay, follow me James" She repeated to him, addressing him now by his name that they all knew.

They had only walked through the ship for less than a minute before they reached the cockpit, James assumed the ship couldn't have been that much larger than his Longsword after the short distance they had walked from what looked like a storage or common room through a hallway with 4 closely spaced rooms, from their spacing they couldn't have been doors to more corridors. They had to have been small rooms, possibly crew quarters.

Possible layouts of the ship were all that he could think through walking through the ship until they had reached the front where the cockpit was. When they did get there and the doors to it slides open, he walked through behind Hera.

"One moment, I'll hit the lights," She said, taking a seat at what was more than likely the main pilot controls.

James squinted his eyes looking forward out of the main forward window, apart from some small bits of metal that were illuminated as they slowly floated past the cockpit becoming exposed to the light from within the ship. There wasn't even a silhouette of his Longsword, which he knew was by design, the sleek black paint on the ship was specially made and applied in order to reduce its signature on both ship instruments but when in the blackness of space.

Within a second, large external lights mounted on the ship lit up and James' eyes went from squinted to wide and shocked. Looking out into space he could see his ship from the rear where the smooth panel that would form the exit and entrance ramp was normally raised against the hull, instead, though, it wasn't even there.

It looked as if someone had ripped off the door with their bare hands using no precision at all. With the lights now revealing almost everything, there were countless hundreds if not thousands of pieces of debris, ranging in size from tiny specs of metal shards bearly visible to the naked eye, to large chunks of metal with gashes and rips all over them.

"The door is completely gone, how did you even find me alive in there?" He asked, still in shock.

"You tell me, we came out of Hyperspace and investigated it, you were in there half frozen to death with a helmet on, that I assume had some basic life support in it," Hera said assumingly.

"It's able to recycle air but only for so long, however, the hell we got out here must have been recent, none of this explains why I'm here and Jack's not though," James said downcast.

"There might be something" He heard from a voice behind him.

James and Hera turned around, it was one of the other humans. He didn't know his name but was more interested in what he meant.

"Kanan, we already said it probably wasn't that," Hera said to him.

After Hera had said that, James' curiosity turned somewhat desperate, "What, Kanan is it? What is it?" He asked him.

"When we pulled you out of there, there were scorch marks all over the interior of the ship, possibly blaster fire though from who have no idea, but I said that if there was somebody else, they might have been taken," Kanan explained.

Before he could ask anything more Hera intervened "And I told him that it was probably from something else since the ship was in the middle of nowhere and we don't even know who it belonged to, let alone who was piloting it," Hera said, somewhat scoldingly.

"But is there a chance it was from a Plasma-based weapon?" James asked the both of them, internally praying that they would say yes.

"It's possible," Hera said.

Kanan started to walk back towards the common room as James followed behind him and then Hera followed him, he assumed to make sure he didn't get up to anything malicious in the cockpit.

James' face formed a small grin, "Okay, brilliant I just need to find the nearest UNSC outpost with a communications relay and they'll send out a search team," James said slightly cheerful without letting his hopes get too high.

"Sounds good but the nearest what outpost?" Kanan asked him confused

James stopped walking for a second and gave them both equally confused looks, "The UNSC, United Nations Space Command…?" He said again expecting them to know what he was talking about.

"Never heard of it, is it some kind of mercenary group or a local government," Hera said

James' brow lowered, he hadn't thought about that part. He was on a ship he didn't recognise with two new species he had never seen. Apart from speaking the same, why would they know anything about them?

"I'd understand the confusion if it was just you and that tall guy, but I know three of you are human, at least I think so, so I don't know how you don't know about the UNSC its a Galactic-wide organisation and our government's military section,"

"Who's 'our'?" Kanan asked.

"Humanity" James stated plainly.

This came as a slight shock to both of them, they had once again by now reached the area they were in before with everyone else still where they were, as though they were eagerly waiting for them to come back.

"Wait, are there only Humans in your government?" Kanan asked him causing a few ears to perk up in the room as he said it walking into the room.

"Well yeah, have you also not heard of the Human-Covenant war either?" He asked looking around the room.

He only received confused head shaking, James thought to himself, so far everything was only adding to the mystery that started from the moment he woke up and here he was trying to piece it all together just hoping for a clue that would lead him to his friend.

"Largest conflict in Human history? The first contact between Humans and Non-Humans that almost lead to the extinction of Humanity," James continued, hoping that something would ring a bell.

Their looks stayed almost the same though now considerably more shocked at learning of a war involving a Galatic military organisation involving only humans against another race.

"None of you has heard of the war, UNSC or the Covenant," He said to himself.

"Is that why you asked what I was after you woke up?" Hera asked, having been able to put a small part of what was happening together.

"Yes it is, I've never seen your kind before in my life, or yours," James said, gesturing to both Hera and the tall purple one to his left whose name he still didn't know.

As if she had run out of shock, Hera looked genuinely curious instead, "I'm a Twi'lek from Ryloth, I'm guessing you've never heard of that planet?" She asked.

"I'm afraid not, do you mind asking me what your species is?" He asked turning to face the one person that hadn't spoken to him yet, not even sure if he understood him.

"Lasat, the name is Zeb," He said with a voice that suited his stature.

James seemed content with his answer, "There's still one thing I don't understand though, if none of you knows about, well anything, then how are you speaking English?" He asked, hoping they might know the answer to that at least.

"English? You mean Basic" Ezra said from behind him.

"I've never heard of Basic, is that what you call this language?" James asked him.

"It's what everyone calls it, it's the most spoken and written language in the galaxy," The one he was sure he heard called Sabine said to him.

"None of this makes any sense," He said as he sat down on the side of the large booth-like seat.

Leaning against the door frame leading to the cockpit hallway Kanan spoke up, "You know what I think?" He said

Pulling his hand from his face and looking up at him he asked "What?"

"I think…I think you're from a different galaxy than ours," He stated.

Once more, James' brow curled in confusion and deep thought.

"What was the last thing you remember before waking up on the Ghost?" Hera asked, trying to uncover something they might have missed.

James took to thinking for a moment before speaking, "Jack and I were fighting our way through the carrier's hanger bays, trying to get to our fighter and join the fight in space but when we got there, a needle round from a sniper hit his armour after he pushed me out of the way," He explained, closing his eyes for a brief second remembering the details of his best friend taking the shot meant for him.

"Needle round?" Ezra asked

"Bloody painful things, don't let the pink fool you, some of those damn spikes are as long as my arm and sharp enough to go through almost any organic matter," He said, catching a few winces.

Trying his best to remember, he continued, "I remember the shot hitting his shoulder armour and splitting in half, both bits shot in different directions so fast but one bit went straight through his right torso and I dragged him into the ship away from the sniper. I tried to stop the bleeding when…" He trailed off.

"What, do you remember something?"

He nodded, "Just outside the ship, it was one of the Forerunner artefacts stored in the hanger, the other needle fragment must have hit it and done something to it, when I turned around it was spitting out this blinding light and shaking like it was going to throw itself to pieces," James said, stopping to catch his breath.

"And then?" Kanan asked with him and the others already forming questions in their mind.

"I thought I had stabilised Jack and ran to try and close the door to the ship when the whole thing started to fall to pieces and it sent out this golden light and then I went blind, I must have hit my head on something after that because the next thing I remember was waking up here," He finished, clutching his hologram from outside his pocket where he had stored it.

"I don't know what a Forerunner is but is it possible that whatever that was and whatever it did send you and your ship here?" Kanan asked.

"Even we don't know too much about the Forerunners, they were an ancient and extremely powerful race that had almost god-like technology, it was part of the reason the Human-Covenant war started actually but I think it's possible that whatever that thing was must have had something to do with how I ended up somewhere that isn't my own galaxy," James speculated.

"They were that powerful?" Sabine asked.

"Absolutely, they could build entire shielded planets and made weapons that could wipe out entire galaxies of life,"

Kanan's hands dropped to his sides, "By the force if the empire got their hands on that sort of technology" Kanan said in horror.

"What empire?" James asked having heard of an empire for the first time.

Sabine answered him, "THE empire, formed from what was the Republic into the tyrannical government that rules over this galaxy with an iron fist," She said with a degree of anger.

James was already getting the feeling of what it was, "I'm assuming you aren't big fans of theirs," He said.

This time it was Zeb that answered, "That's putting it mildly if there is any way we can bring pain to the empire, we take it," He answered with his arms crossed.

James looked slightly weary, "I've known a few insurrections that claimed the same thing against the UEG, our civilian government, just how bad are they?" He asked, hoping he hadn't ended up in the hands of the same type of rebels the UNSC fought before the Great War.

Sabine took to his slight concern over them, "I know you don't know them but believe us when we say they deserve everything they get, they kill anyone they consider to be a threat in any way they deem fit and have subjugated every person on every planet they can get their hands on, including mine," She said with clear disdain towards this empire.

Adding on to Sabine, Ezra spoke up "My parents were killed trying to escape an Imperial prison somewhere, I swore I hurt the empire along every step of the way," He said.

Taking a sigh, James stood up. "You?" He asked looking at Zeb.

"They all but wiped out my people, ISB agents led the attack on my planet and killed everyone," Zeb said with a pained but angry look.

Hera took James' attention, "There isn't anybody that hasn't suffered against the imperials in some way, I consider myself one of the lucky ones, my own father leads a resistance movement back on Ryloth against the empire,"

"Can I assume they did the same to your planet?" He asked, looking at Kanan.

"I was raised at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant from a child, I never knew my planet or parents but before the empire was fully formed, the chancellor declared all Jedi as traitors to the Republic and the clone army we had fought alongside for three years turned on us, I was one of the few that survived, unlike my master," He said stained.

"I'm sorry, I won't even ask about a clone army that sounds too confusing to me but if I may…What is a Jedi?" James asked.

While some of the other questions and statements had caught them all by surprise and had aroused their curiosity, this one had completely stunned them.

"How…How do you not know what a Jedi is?" Ezra asked.

"What? I thought we already established this isn't my galaxy" He asked, wondering why his question had pulled all of their attention.

Kanan tried to get over his shock, "The Jedi were the Peacekeepers of the galaxy, when the chancellor issued order 66 for all Jedi to be executed there were over ten thousand of us," He said

"And now?" James asked.

"I honestly don't know, a hundred maybe more, maybe less but they're nearly all in hiding but it's the midichlorians that give a Jedi their power, it an energy fired that exists within every living being, you don't know anything about it?"

James' confusion and curiosity were both in overdrive, "No, what powers?" He asked.

Both Ezra and Kanan looked at each other before Ezra walked over and extended his hand, from the floor away from him James bore whiteness to yet another thing he couldn't have thought was real outside of a dream. Rising from the floor without any physical assistance was his M6C, the pistol he had previously pulled from his arm.

It stayed stationary in the air, hovering just above the ground in between him and Ezra. Completely amazed by what he was seeing he walked over to it.

"That is bloody incredible," He said in a daze as he reached out his arm before hesitating, "Uh…do you mind?" He asked looking towards Hera who even though she had never said it, he assumed she was the one in charge.

"I think I can trust you unless there is any reason I can't," She said somewhat questioningly.

"I promise not to try anything if that's what you mean," He said trying to reassure her.

She laid out her hand with an open palm, gesturing for him to take back his weapon.

James reached forward with his hand, only hesitating for a second before wrapping his hand around the handle of the weapon, for a second when he grabbed it he felt the invisible force that was holding it in place reducing its weight until Ezra let it go and the full weight of it landed in his hand.

He clicked the small catch on the side, turning on the safety. "Do you mind if I take a look at that? I already looked over that strange rifle you had but that looks interesting as well." Sabine said.

James wasn't quite sure how to respond, "She's a Mandolorian, weapons are pretty much part of their religion," Ezra told him

"I guess so, just be careful with it", He said before somewhat reluctantly handing her his sidearm.

Kanan walked up to the three of them, "That was the force, some people with high midichlorian counts are able to wield it to do stuff like that and more, It should exist within you are every living being where you're from but if it isn't…I can't explain something like that,"

James was in awe, no such thing existed for Humanity in his galaxy. Maybe if they did, the war would have gone a lot differently for them. He looked over to his right to see Sabine examining every square inch of the M6C, clearly encapsulated by it.

"You really like weapons, don't you? You and Jack would definitely get along well," Jack commented.

"Really? I thought you said he was your co-pilot, if he liked them that much how come he didn't become something else?" Sabine asked

It was something that Jack himself had thought about and Joked with Jack about many times but nothing he'd taken seriously, "He was…is my co-pilot but his ancestors were American gunsmiths, those people were more gun obsessed than any I know, it just passed down I guess," Jack answered them.

"He never joined whatever your army was?" Zeb asked him.

"The army mostly just guards UNSC territory, it's the Marines that make up most of the infantry but no, he only became a pilot with me, I would sometimes joke and tell him he only became a pilot because he wanted to shoot the big guns on the ships instead of the M6 or BR rifles the infantry uses," Jake said.

Sabine gave a slight laugh as she handed the pistol back to him, "Wow it looks incredibly unique, if it weren't for the fact that it was a slugthrower I would have assumed it was designed yesterday," She said to him.

"Can I have my rifle, What's a Slugthrower?" He asked, wondering if it had something to do with the type or size of the bullets it fired.

Sabine walked away from him towards a small low room attached to the large bay they were all standing in. James assumed it had to be something related to the upkeep of the ship such as an engine room or ventilation hub since it was so short it couldn't possibly have served much use as a storage room or anything where people taller than Ezra would be consistently walking in and out.

She was only in the small room for a few seconds before the door automatically opened again with the hydraulic noise that was possibly the most heard noise on any starship that James had been on.

"Projectile weapons or Slugthrowers, pretty much anything that isn't an energy weapon," Sabine said as she handed the Battle Rifle to him.

Since he was still in his flight suit and had only used a couple of magazines of both his rifle ammunition as well as his sidearm he was still carrying several hundred rounds on him in total for his small arsenal of weapons. "We always preferred ballistics over plasma, a lot of our capital ships have energy weapons though," He said as he went over the rifle checking it for damage.

Satisfied that there wasn't any damage to it other than a few scratches he pulled the slide making sure that a round was in the chamber, a habit he had picked up from the moment he and the rest of the pilots started what was almost marine infantry training, he checked to make sure the safety was on before holstering the weapon over his shoulder and on his back.

In addition to his main weapon, Sabine had also come out carrying a small bag with her, "This was in the ship next to you, I thought it might be important,"

It was a typically silver and almost metallic box with a pair of fabric carrying handles, with multiple lines of writing on the side detailing its contents in the military font the UNSC had used for hundreds of years.

James knelt down to read the side, he did know what it was, "It's a supply cache, still in decent condition too, I've never been stranded long enough in hostile territory to use one though,"

Around the top edges was a light yellow substance that was used to keep the contents dry from any water it might have found itself in or from the vacuum of space. James removed the small five-inch tactical knife from his flight suit's holster, an optional but almost always taken piece of kit for pilots. He proceeded to slit open the wax-like material around the edge.

After the seal was completely broken he pulled upon the front of the lengthened side of it, even with the seal having been cut into, it required some force to open until it finally gave way. James started pilfering through.

"Huh, extra ammo, combat knife, some basic food and water supplies, an extra combat uniform," James said as he verbally listed off what was inside the container, his excitement peaked though when he reached the bottom.

"Yes!, Bloody brilliant," He said as he lifted a grey device slightly larger than his hand, it had a small digital interface, several adjustable dials and four collapsible pegs, three at the bottom forming a stand and one at the top that was already extended upwards.

The crew of the Ghost gave each other a few glances, "Is that some kind of communicator?" Hera asked him.

James knew it was a reasonable assumption with the signal antenna on the top and adjustable settings. "Almost, it's a transmitter, if we're ever downed or need an evac we can use them to send out an encrypted signal that's only able to be picked up by UNSC receivers," He explained.

"Do you think it will reach anyone all the way out here?" Kanan asked.

His hopes were still high but it was something that didn't immediately come to James' mind when he found it, "Maybe but I don't know where we are or if any UNSC outposts or even supply ships are even within a thousand light years of here," He said somewhat deflated before moving his hand to activate it.

"But even a small chance is better than nothing I suppose," He said about to activate it.

Hera however stepped forward putting her hand between James' and the signal transmitter, "How sure are you that it can only be picked up by your people and not the empire or even pirates for that matter?" She asked extremely concerned.

Knowing how complex transmission technology had become during the Human-Covenant war, he was confident even though he had never heard of this empire before now.

"I'm certain I promise, it would take a 4th generation AI several days, maybe even weeks to break its encryption and even the Covenant weren't able to reach our level of artificial intelligence," He assured her as best he could.

Hera took a step back, "Alright I'll trust you…for now," She said.

Glad he had the confidence of at least one of the people that saved him, he flipped the metal switch on the front of the interface and waited a few seconds as it powered up and immediately started to emit a signal.

Content and thankful with the working condition of the transmitter he set it aside on its now opened tr-leg configuration, "I guess now we wait, I don't suppose you'll allow me to wait here until we reach some kind of safe planet where I can wait or maybe try and track down what happened to my friend?" He asked.

"Well it's not like we're just going to throw you back out there," Sabine said looking towards the rear of the ship where James assumed cargo, as well as people, were supposed to come onto the ship.

"For now then, I guess we have an extra crew member, we have missions to run though so it's not going to be some kind of vacation trip around the galaxy," Hera told him.

James was almost completely sure she was referring to some kind of militaristic action against this empire they had told him about. He had tried to be careful so far, not telling them anything that would be considered vital information but he would want to try and avoid any sort of conflict that might drag humanity, his humanity as he knows knew it into another conflict with a galactic power.

He wanted to make sure that she knew he wouldn't directly involve himself in anything they were planning unless in self-defence, "Ma'am I hope you understand I'll try and do what I can to thank you for saving my life and allowing me passage but I can't be seen as a UNSC pilot killing anyone unless they shoot at me first,"

Hera gave a look of understanding and look like she was about to directly agree with him or try and come to a compromise, she never had the chance though as before any word came out of her mouth, the ship rocked several times causing everyone inside to bless themselves.

"Karabast, someone's shooting at us!" Zeb shouted, "I'm crushing that thing," He said in anger as he immediately went for James' transmitter intent on destroying it.

James lunged at it and pulled it off the table he had placed it on, "Like hell you are!" He shouted as he kept it close to his side and kept his hand on his holster, "It's only been activated for a few seconds it wouldn't have even reached anyone let alone been decrypted yet!" He tried to explain.

Soon after he finished his attempt at an explanation Hera, to James' surprise, came to his defence. "He's right Zeb, whoever this is, it wasn't James who brought them here," She said.

Hera immediately started delegating tasks to everyone "Sabine, get on the Phantom's gun, Ezra and Kanan on the turrets," She ordered, the three of them immediately started using the ship's ladders and walkways to get to the location their captain had ordered them and she wasn't finished yet.

"Zeb, secure the cargo hold and you, you're coming with me," She said while pointing at James.

Always quick to answer orders in the affirmative James quickly responded, "Understood wait, what!" He said as he did a double take while following Hera who was sprinting to the cockpit.

Only a few feet in front of James she got to the cockpit and immediately took her seat in the pilot's chair both she and James heard the engines roar into life and feel the slight vibrations of them throughout the floors and walls. "Wait, Captain, I assume, even if I knew how to fly this thing I don't want to do anything that might cause whoever this is to go after my people," He tried desperately to tell her.

"Chopper, do we know who it is?" She asked aloud, down low to him a small droid started chirping in a series of beeps at different frequencies. He assumed it was some form of communication he didn't understand. He also had no idea how he hadn't seen the little wheeled machine when he was in the ship's cockpit earlier.

"Imperials, tie fighters are coming in for another run!" She informed frantically.

"Sit down and get on that gun, I'm not asking you to fly my ship just shoot the main cannon, the trigger is right there," She ordered sternly while pointing at the forward's flight controls with the obvious trigger button on the top left side of one of the handles.

.

Rapidly the ship started moving away from the wreckage of the critically damaged UNSC Longsword, "They're coming up behind us, you guys better be ready," Hera shouted, James, guessed through some type of internal ship communications and was proven right just a second later.

"We're ready, James?" Kanan asked the pilot.

"As ready as I'll ever be I guess, as long as none of these words is important because what the hell is this language!" He shouted out as he noticed that the writing on the digital panel he had to think was the gunner control system.

Even without understanding what was written down, James was ready on the gun he had essentially been ordered to man. He knew he could have refused to do so as Captain Syndulla was not a commissioned officer of the UNSC and had no authority over him, however, not only would he do whatever it took to find Jack but also make it back to UNSC occupied space, he was going to have one big report to write when he got home.

"What! You write different but speak the same! Are you kidding me right now?" Ezra said, voicing his frustration.

Sabine then broke them up, "Just shut up both of you and pull your damn triggers, squadron of Tie's coming in for another pass," She alerted them.

From the front of the ship, James could hear what sounded like high-pitched weapons fire coming from behind them. He couldn't see what was attacking them but he didn't have to wait long, "Three down!" He heard what he had to assume to be Sabine and then an ear-piercing screech came over the front of the ship and he could see them. On both the visual scanner in front of him with the non-understandable words and through the cockpit window.

He saw them, they looked like two flat cuboid solar panels that were used throughout all of human infrastructure to provide power to cities, ships and vehicles across the UNSC colonies. Joined together by a small spherical capsule in the middle where James summarised that it had to be the cockpit for the pilot. They were incredibly small and looked terribly designed for atmospheric flight due to their poor aerodynamic design.

He managed to put two and two together with how the targeting system worked when they passed in front of him and were caught in the scanner's view, the outline of the small fighters came into view on the monitor.

James strongly grasped the controls, knowing that based on its current movement it would fly right into his crosshairs. He was decided, he was going to open fire and it was less than a few milliseconds when the enemy Tie as he knows knew it was almost perfectly aligned with his crosshairs. Just as he had done thousands of times in multiple types of military aircraft he pushed down on the trigger.

At such a close range he knew that whatever the velocity of the type of weapon he was currently operating wouldn't matter, at greater ranges though he had been taught from the first day in flight training to lead and then shoot ahead at the target so the bullets or whatever munition he was using would have time to make its way to the target and hit it. Eventually, he received almost the exact same training for small arms in personal combat.

Instantaneously upon firing the weapons on the front of the ship, James watched a double set of red energy beams blaze out towards his target and collide with it in a large explosion that lasted a fraction of a second as the oxygenless space snuffed it out but after the smoke and flames had been sucked away, one half of the hit Tie's wing had been completely obliterated.

Critically damaged and unable to stabilise itself, it started to spin uncontrollably. Flying in such close formation the squadron of Tie's started to bank away from their inoperable allied fighter craft, for one, however, it was too late.

Before the one that had been flying close to his right could escape, the damaged Tie fighter flew right into it causing them both to explode and send their fuel, ordinance and everything volatile in all directions as it burnt out.

"Well I'll be, that was some fine shooting new guy," Sabine said partially impressed.

Hera on the other hand still looked extremely concerned at their situation, "I'd hold off on celebrations just yet, those were short-range fighters with no hyperdrives, that means there's an Imperial cruiser out here somewhere or maybe even a destroyer," She said.

Below him, James saw the small droid extending some kind of metal attachment it had to a port in the ship's pannel he would get the answer to the question he hadn't yet asked just then, "Chopper what's the status of the Nav Computer? We need to jump to Hyperspace before that last Tie fighter reports our location to whichever ship it came from" She said quickly.

James had heard the ship's Captain say that word several times now, "Ma'am Uh Captain I mean, you said Hyperspace before, If that's what you call slipspace, are you sure it's better to use a Nav Computer and not an AI?" He asked slightly flustered about how to officially address the captain of the ship he was on.

Keeping her eyes on her ships controls and monitoring systems she responded to his question, "If that's what you call it but I have no idea what you mean by an AI navigating us through Hyperspace, even with an Imperial one I'd rather take my chances flying without any coordinates at all, wouldn't be the first time anyway," She said.

Not using a smart AI or even a dumb AI to navigate was shocking enough to James since most ships in the 26th century used them after they were fully developed and navigation computers were eventually phased out on large capital ships at least. Hearing Hera says that their chances had a possibility of being better going solo though, convinced him that it was more than likely the AI's where he was were nowhere near as advanced if they couldn't even perform basic faster than light travel navigation.

"By the way, just say Hera or Captain, I'm not your commanding officer so you can leave the ma'am stuff behind," She said plainly.

"Okay Captain," He responded, except in rare cases such as with Jack, he would rarely openly call anyone that wasn't family by their first name vocally to their face when they had any sort of authority. He was glad that she recognised it and was fine with him referring to her by Captain or her first name but he did feel as though the latter of the two would happen more rarely.

"Uh, Captain…Is that a cruiser or a destroyer?" James asked her as emerging from behind a tiny moon just large enough to hide it, was a long triangular ship that was a bright grey colour and slowly heading right for them.

Hera looked up as she too saw it, "That is most definitely an Imperial Star Destroyer. Chopper!?" She said with grave uneasiness, urging the little droid to tell her that the navigation computer had finally completed the calculations it needed to safely excel them to hyperspace which James still guessed was their name for slipspace

Unfortunately, it was always as he was about to leave a planet or system that James remembered something that had been drilled into his head through the military training he had received, the Cole Protocole.

As every single human in the UNSC knew, the Cole Protocole and all its subsections were designed to do one thing, keep the covenant away from Earth and her colonies for as long as possible. Unofficially the protocol had suspended as of October 20, 2552, when the Covenant finally found and invaded earth. After the war, with no threats that didn't already know of earth's location, it was relaxed by a lot of the UNSC.

Now, however, he was in an entirely new galaxy with countless new threats that he knew he had not even heard about most and it was still his duty to protect humanity, this meant keeping anything that could lead the people of this new part of the universe to earth or any of her remaining colonies.

Before Hera reached for one of the controls on the ship James, put his arm out to stop it. "What are you doing?" Hera asked sharply.

Keeping his hand from blocking her controls he explained what he meant "We need to blow up my ship!" He shouted loudly.

"What is he talking about?" Zeb asked vehemently from behind them in the common room.

James looked left towards where Zeb was before looking back at Hera, "My ship, it has vital data on it that could lead anyone who accesses it to UNSC territory, somebody out here might already have one pilot, I can't let them get the ship!"

Hera was quick to argue back, "There are over five dozen Tie fighters on that ship, not to mention the hundreds of canons and turbolasers!" She told him.

Desperately, James tried to get her to change her mind "Cap- Agh…Hera please, when the Covenant found my homeworld after nearly thirty years of war they almost wiped out the defences and killed over a hundred million of us in a month, I won't let it happen again, I can't," He pleaded as he felt his voice breaking upon the thought that this single action not taken could cause another near extinction war.

It was silent, Not knowing if any of the others in the ship had heard, he had no idea if she would do as he had practically begged her to do, Hera winced briefly for a moment before opening her eyes and gripping the her controls vigorously to the left, "Kanan, Ezra, swing your turrets around we're coming around for a pass along our new friend's ship, open fire with everything you've got," She ordered.

"Copy that," Kanan acknowledged

Their lack of surprise at her order indicated to James that they had heard what he had said about the month-long Battle for Earth and its casualties, when she told them to fire on the ship he exhaled deeply in relief, "You too and you better hope none of you misses, there is no way we're getting a second shot at this," Hera said to him as she levelled off the controls with the Longsword directly ahead of them.

Lining up the ship just right the canons on all three gun positions were in position and were about to come into range, it was just a little bit more when nearly simultaneously the three of them pushed down on their triggers and sent multiple blaster bolts of energy streaming towards the stationary target.

There was a part of James that didn't want to destroy the ship, perhaps there was a clue that could lead him to Jack or have more supplies in that he would need but he knew that it paled in comparison to what would happen if a hostile force from this galaxy got a hold of the weapons, technology and maps.

The overwhelming power of the combined weapons fire glowed incredibly bright, melting right through the metal of the unpowered and unshielded agile strike fighter, striking a combination of the ship's fuel, ASGM missiles and Moray space mines sent all of it up in a colossal explosion incinerating the entire ship and all its debris in a fraction of a second.

One particular lack of ordinance James was more than pleased was not onboard when the ship was transported wherever he was, was the Shiva-class nuclear warhead that the Longsword strike fighter was equipped to take. At their range, there was a chance that if the nuclear payload was present and went up there was little to no chance that they would have survived the blast from the multiple megaton warhead.

Not stopping to watch the explosion, Hera violently turned the ship around away from the ship explosion. The droid, which Hera addressed as Chopper, chirped out a small series of beeps and bleeps which seemed to somewhat improve Hera's mood, "Good, Coordinates for Seelos ready and not a moment too soon," She said as she pulled down on one of the low centre levers.

As she did so James was glad he had not touched it, accidentally or on purpose since he started to hear a new noise of a slowly rising hum that reminded him of the similar sound that Covenant Type-25 plasma pistols made before they fired an overcharged shot of plasma. In front of him, the darkness of open space disintegrated and became a kaleidoscope of blue, white and black. He thought to himself about it and definitely knew one thing, this was not slipspace.

"Okay, so not Slipspace, what else is there?" James said putting his hand to his forehead and closing his eyes.

For a few minutes, the Cabin was entirely silent, the void of faster-than-light travel was entirely different but looked all too similar to the light passing by them so fast they couldn't point out a single spot if they tried. Trying to contemplate everything that had happened in just a couple of hours and relax in the time he wasn't being shot at, he was in a half-sleep trance for a few peaceful moments until he was pulled out to it by a voice behind him in the doorway.

"Did you win?"

James took his hand away and looked up to see who had spoken to him, It was the boy, Ezra. Behind him was the older gentleman, Kanan.

"That battle on your homeworld, did you win?" He asked again.

The tired pilot could remember a lot of battles and the one that determined the fate of his species' home planet was no different. "Yeah..we won," He said tiredly while slowly nodding, "Though the cost was one of the highest of the war,"

"Is it still there?" Ezra asked.

James nodded, "All but the parts that the Covenant burned to glass," He said with weariness.

Next to James facing him, Hera spoke, "You look like you're about to pass out, we're a few hours out from Seelos, we are on a mission but it's nothing dangerous, in fact, you might be able to find some information when we arrive but for now why don't you get some sleep, I'm sure Kanan won't mind if you use the spare bunk in his quarters," She suggested.

"I don't mind," Kanan said calmly.

Quietly, James stood up from the co-pilot seat and followed Kanan down to the crew quarters but stopped halfway through the door, "Thank you, Captain" He said sincerely.

A small smile appeared on Hera's face, "Get some rest, Captain James," She said

James gave a slight chuckle, "It's uh First-Class Petty Officer but thanks," He said with a slight bit of comfort.

"Follow me then Petty Officer," Kanan said.

Walking behind him and leaving the cockpit the door closed behind him, just out of reach he could hear Ezra and Hera talking. Hera had told him that they were heading to a planet called Seelos, another place he had never heard of but he guessed they were talking about him and not whatever their mission was.

Kanan approached one of the four doors in the hallway and opened it, the pair of them walked in and from the style of the room or lack thereof, James could tell that Kanan was not the type of person to hold onto a lot of personal possessions. It was a state of mind he respected coming from a military background.

James walked past him into the room, "It's not much but- Kanan said before James cut him off.

"Don't worry about it Sir, if it's like a barracks it reminds me of home," He said truthfully.

"I'll let you get some rest, welcome aboard officer, oh and you don't have to call me sir," Kanan told him.

"Understood, sorry force of habit, I know Hera's the Captain but I'm just used to addressing people by rank," He told him.

"I had one once, I was a commander during the Clone wars but maybe we can talk about that during another time, you're a solider yourself I'm sure you can understand it can be…difficult,"

James took off his rifle and leant it against the bunk, "Another time…" He said.

Kanan left the room with the door closing behind him. Alone, he crouched down and sat on the bed looking downwards at the floor. He was too tired to start trying to think about everything that had happened to him, taking his exterior webbing off and laying it neatly to the side but keeping his sidearm holster attached.

Leaning back he tried to fall asleep while unconsciously facing toward the door and not the wall. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his small circular device that had his message on it. Pressing the small button on the side he tried to fall asleep, a single tear fell down his face as he managed to fall asleep.

…

"Okay daddy's listening, can you say Hi…"

"Hi"

"Show daddy how big you've gotten…"

"Sooo Big"

"Good and can you sing…"

"Mary had a little lamb"

"Good singing, how about I miss you…"

"I miss you"

"And I love you…"

"I love you, daddy"

"Good, can you say I can't wait to see you again…"

"Can't wait to see you again"

"Okay, now say bye…"

"Bye Bye"

It's done, a bit more of the new story is finished. I hope you like it. Now that it's gaining a little bit of speed I'm coming up with a few pathways for what to do. I had most of this finished before now so I don't know when the next chapter will be up.

Like I said at the top it's a little difficult to do anything creative at the minute. Not going to say too much here. Leave a review if you want and a Follow or Favourite if you enjoyed reading it. I'll see you guys later.

Rest in Peace your Majesty

God Save the King