EARTH YEAR - 2015 C.E.
15 years and some odd months since the Empire rose to power(a.k.a. mid-Season 2 of Star Wars Rebels)
Kanan was never a fan of simple missions. Following "maybes" and "what-ifs". They almost always end up being a bust, waste of time, or a trap. He closed his eyes as he leaned his head back against the co-pilot seat, next to the twi'lek captain who flew the metal giant through the stars. It was quiet. Nothing to do and near nothing to see.
"Kanan, luv, I know you aren't a fan of this mission, but can you at least try to stay awake? I need your eyes in case you see something I don't."
"This phantom signal we're following is either from a ship, which you can't miss, or just a fluke, which you don't need me to tell you," Kanan remarked.
"Well, this is the Ghost. If any crew and ship were meant to chase a 'phantom' signal, it would be us," Hera said. "Besides, you're way more interesting to talk to when awake then when you're asleep." she glanced over to the Jedi. "Though, sometimes I do feel as if my words fall onto deaf ears."
Kanan rolled his eyes as he smiled. If there was any silver lining to these kinds of missions, it would be Hera and her voice. She knew how to keep a room alive.
The male Jedi turned to the door once it opened, Ezra entering the cockpit. The young Padawan looked to the two with a tired and bored look. Typical fifteen-year-old.
"So...any luck on this signal? Have you guys spotted anything?" he asked.
"So far nothing," Hera said. "My scanners have been going crazy. That's what we get for being so close to the unknown regions, of course."
"Maybe the person who sent out the distress signal was sucked into a wormhole out here," Ezra suggested. "Isn't that why no one ever comes out here?"
Kanan nodded, "Yeah. That, and this is really uncharted territory. We're just on the edge right now, so we should be safe for the moment."
"How long are we going to be out here looking for this person who sent out the signal? We've already been away from the fleet for two rotations," Ezra said.
"I'm going to call it quits if we don't find them in this rotation. We didn't pack all that many supplies anyhow," Hera assured. "I just want to make sure that whoever sent out that signal to the Rebellion doesn't lose the only chance they may have had."
Ezra sat in the chair behind Hera, bordley spinning in a circle, blowing his long blue hair out of his face every once and awhile. Bored out of his mind. Like Master like Padawan.
Several slow and quiet minutes passed. Time seemed to be ticking by at a slowed pace. Nothing but the darkness of space with sparse dots of white seen for what seemed to be forever. Kanan blinked a few times as he could have sworn that the stars were warping. It looked like a black blanket with white dots had been put in front of them - and the blanket began to twist. He rubbed his eyes, to see the same results. He shared a worried look with his captain, who was seeing the same thing as him.
Hera's worried eyes looked down to see every gauge and sensor on her ship was going insane. Beeping and the shrill of alarms filled the ship now. Chopper sped around the ship, throwing up his mechanical arms in distress as he had no clue as to what was going on. Zeb and Sabine rushed to the cockpit, wide eyed as the rest of them.
"What is going on?" Sabine questioned. "The whole ship is going mad!"
As Hera struggled to keep control of the ship, pulling with all of her might to keep their course, she yelled, "I don't know! It's like a wormhole!"
"I've never seen a wormhole look like that!" Ezra pointed to space, now swirled into a spiral. The white stars now streaks in the twisting nightmare. Nothing and everything all at once.
Hera nearly stood as her boots were planted on the ground and her back arched as she pulled on the controls. Never had she had so much trouble flying a ship. Steering the metal giant onto the right path. Now there was no path.
A flash of white engulfed them all. The ship came to a lurch, sending most of the crew out of their chairs or off their feet. Hera nearly went over the top of her controls as her ship abruptly stopped. She shook her head, gripping at her skull as she sat back down. When she opened her eyes, the captain had to blink a few times.
A bright blue planet, half engulfed in the darkness of the space that surrounded it. White streaks of clouds swirled around the sphere. A gray, dusty, moon orbiting not far from it. Hera looked to her left, right, up, and down. Barely any stars. No planets near. Just one, lonely blue planet. Suddenly, one screen began to work on the Ghost. The location. Hera was curious. She read over it to see this mysteriously lonely planet's name.
"Earth?" Hera knitted her eyebrows.
"I've heard of this place," Kanan said. "It's an isolated planet in a neighboring galaxy."
"No one ever goes there," Sabine said. "The Imperial Academy taught us that no one from our galaxy ever goes there - for good reasons. People almost always get lost trying to find it. It's solar system is always moving."
"My father actually named me after one of their goddesses," Hera told. "He heard of many tales from here. Not many have ever made the trek here."
"Or back," Kanan said. "The reason travel has always been banned here is like Sabine said: it's near impossible to get to or leave from. It has strange Force properties as well. I heard many Jedi tried to escape the Empire by going to Earth - the planet completely masks the presence of any Jedi there. No Jedi can use the Force there, and neither can any Sith."
"So...what do we do now? Go visit it?" Zeb joked. "That place is nothing but a bunch of low-tech humans constantly at war!"
"For a planet that is known for being so savage and war-torn...Earth looks...not burnt to the ground," Ezra commented, looking at the beautiful green-and blue orb.
"Because they have a hardy planet," Hera said. "Tales say that many eras of ancient species have gone extinct on Earth. The planet will kill its inhabitants before it will succumb to dying."
"Well, seeing that they're all alone, I imagine they'd also be afraid to do too much damage to it. They have nowhere else to go," Sabine said.
As Hera punched in coordinates back to the fleet, the ship continued to beep at her, telling her that they were invalid. She growled in frustration, "Are you kidding me?! This ship can tell me where we are, but has no idea where we are! That makes no sense!"
"How long do you think until we can get that fixed? We're running low on food," Kanan said.
Hera let out an angry sigh, "I have no clue. Chopper, get working on the coordinate system. See if we can make a jump back into our galaxy."
The droid let out a few grumpy whirs and beeps before rolling out of the cockpit. Sabine, Zeb, and Ezra shared a glance. Unsure. They were unsure.
Ezra could sense something deep in his bones that something wasn't right here. Never had he had such an off putting feeling that wasn't necessarily evil - like that Sith on Lothal. It wasn't a harrowing feeling, neither was it pleasant. Even from hundreds of miles away from the planet, he could sense the planet's aura. Its pure energy. It felt like the pure essence of the Force. Neither good nor evil. Neither comforting nor distressing. It was just there. It was there and it was strong.
Little did the Padawan know, his Master sensed this more than he could even imagine. Kanan did his best to quiet his hands, itching to make some kind of nervous motion. Something wasn't right here. The Force was never so strong with a planet before. Never has he seen the fabric of the universe twist and turn like that before his eyes. This was far beyond anyone's control. They were at the will of whatever brought them here.
The crew didn't do much for the remainder of the hours they spent on that ship. Hera decided to put the Ghost into orbit with the planet's moon to conserve fuel. She raised an eyebrow to see the coordinates saying the name of their moon was just "Moon". No significant name. No meaning. Just a dusty rock filled with giant craters orbiting the lonely blue planet.
Maybe the name was a mistake on the coordinate's part, Hera thought to herself, no way would such a lonely planet name their only moon that. The stories she heard from her father, a man who came into many pilots who claim to have laid eyes on this blue planet. It had vibrant cultures. "A thousand planets on one rock" she would hear. Thousands of languages, religions, and cultures. But only humans. Some say the planet was the birthplace of humans and many animals seen in their galaxy. But, the planet remains for most part a mystery. Some even say time runs different here in their galaxy. Though Hera was no Jedi, she still could feel things. She can read a room. She can read Kanan, the Jedi whose heart stopped when he saw the planet. She could tell this planet was not even close to whatever she had ever seen in all her years flying.
That's why Hera was so hesitant to send Kanan, Sabine, and Ezra down to its surface. Chopper couldn't even begin to figure out what was wrong with their coordinate system and had no clue how to get back to their galaxy, meaning they could be there for a long time. They could only go so long without food.
So, Kanan took the two teens to the planet in the Phantom with little bags full of their credits. They took off their armor. Kanan didn't remember much of his lectures about Earth in his Youngling years, but he remembered that their people wore simple clothes. They weren't advanced enough to create armor like they had. So, they kept their attire as simple and plain as they could. Ezra wore his plain white nightclothes, Sabine in all black, Kanan in his green sweater and dark pants. To be even safer, Sabine put some temporary brown hair dye in her and Ezra's hair. Who knew if this planet had advanced enough to develop wild hair colors and dyes?
Knowing there were no Jedi nor Sith on this planet, they left their lightsabers on the ships. Even their blasters. Kanan remembered that about Earth - their weapons were more primal. Their blasters weren't armed with energy, rather with pieces of metal. So, they just brought a couple of small pocket knives and a heap of hope.
Kanan was unsure where exactly to land. He didn't know which areas spoke what language. He wasn't sure where the Phantom would be spotted. Where there were the most people. Where there were any people at all. So, he let the Force guide him. He flew towards what seemed to be a cluster of giant lakes just below what seemed to be a frozen north pole. He flew closer to the water, which seemed to go on for thousands of miles until he saw some land. It was just before dawn here on this part of the planet. Perfect cover. Too little light to see them clearly, enough light to make the Phantom look like a blip of shadows and lighting against the lake's water. He saw strips of stone sticking out of their shore - a small patch of foliage and trees in the giant city surrounding it. Must have been some kind of park or nature preserve. Kanan slowly placed the ship down in the foliage just beyond the small sandy beach. The three soon exited the Phantom and went around and broke off tree branches to pile on the ship, tore up bushes to place around, and dumped leaves all over it. Once they were confident the ship would be kept a secret from any passing eye, they set out to find some food.
Kanan looked to Ezra for a split second, seeing if the boy had felt the same thing as him. They nothingness that now filled the part of their soul that had once harbored their connection to the Force. Numbness. Fuzziness. The complete cutoff of any sort of connection to the Force. The boy confirmed with a blink and a nod, letting his Master know he felt the same thing.
The city they saw off in the distance was covered in a gray fog. Giants made of metal stood tall in the distant city. They were impressed. They thought Earth hadn't progressed enough to build such a skyline. Though puny compared to most cities in their galaxy, it was still impressive. Their buildings were much more square and wide. Like boxes. Knowing they had to have some food there, they started off in the direction of what they saw of the city. First they came across the parking lot that was connected to the beach they had landed on. No cars. No noise. Silence. Nothing but the giant body of water to make a noise as its calm waters pushed and receded against the dark yellow sand and light colored stones.
They eventually made it out of the park, entering the sidewalks next to the dark roads. Strange. Their roads had painted dashes and lines across them. They were wide eyed when they saw something speeding down it. It wasn't like a landspeeder other than the closeness in size. The vehicle had four black tires that sped against the cement, two bright lights on the front of it, and a roof that encased all that was in it. Windows surrounding the metal beast. They did not float.
The first few minutes they had walked were pleasant. The city around them looked so...peaceful. So beautiful and calm. Art decorated some buildings in an array of vibrant colors. Sabine had to stop a couple of times to soak in the pieces of work. They seemed to have such...soul. For such a dreary and lonely planet surrounded by nothing but a distant star and one ashy moon, these people sure did make a home on this little blue rock.
These pretty buildings and nice homes soon slowly morphed into what seemed to be a rougher patch of town the further they walked. What they saw was mostly roads and what looked like homes. As they continued to walk and the sun slowly began to creep up, they saw more and more boarded up abandoned buildings and houses that seemed to be hanging on by a single nail. The only sort of buildings they assumed were not residential housing were strange to them. They had single, tall neon signs with strange encryption writings upon them. The road signs were the same, though, rarely were they lit up.
Kanan stopped the group and they looked at each other, eyes filled with worry. Bones chilled to the core. Hair raised up on the back of their necks. This place was't like anything they'd ever seen, and they didn't like it.
"This planet has a different language than Basic, Kanan! I don't even know what language that is!" Sabine gestured to a sign. The former Imperial cadette with a plethora of languages in her arsenal now boggled by the scripture written around them.
"Yeah...and I don't like this neighborhood. It looks a lot rougher than where we originally were walking-" Ezra said. His eyes scanned around them. "-and I haven't seen any sort of market. Where will we even find food?"
"Look, these people have to have food. They need food to survive," Kanan said. "Maybe they just have food in one of these types of buildings. Like a shop. Maybe we should split up. Cover more ground."
"I don't know...this place looks kinda rough," Ezra said. "I really don't want to get mugged."
"Ezra, I've been training you for a long time now. You lived on the streets of Lothal. This will be nothing," Kanan assured. "You'll be fine. We'll meet at that park we just left in the next hour. You got your coms, right?"
The two teens nodded.
"Then we'll be able to call each other if something goes wrong," Kanan said. "Now, let's split up and look for some kind of place that sells food. Remember, don't let anyone see your coms and don't act like you've never been here before. I'll see you guys back at the park in an hour."
They nodded, each taking off in a different direction, hoping to find something on this planet that made sense.