Chapter 2
Unidentified World, Ash World Sector
Vezz Holstan was not a very happy woman at the moment. Granted, a Zabrak with a sunny disposition is something that you would see in a comedic holovid production. Life wasn't a holovid, however.
Now the lady pirate stood watching over the rest of her crew as they looked over the remains of the fighter they shot down. Hopefully, they could find a clue as to who it was that they shot down and get revenge for one of the ships they lost during the dogfight, a YT-1000 light freighter called Lucky Strike.
"Find anything?" the pirate captain asked.
"No body," one of her subordinates answered, "And the seat from the cockpit gone as well."
Vezz looked at the fighter more closely. It looked like the usual A-6 Interceptors that the Commerce Guild or the Judicial Forces used with.
The whole engagement seemed very strange to the Zabrak pirate. For starters, the fighter that was obviously too small to have a built-in hyperdrive came with a hyperspace sled and was able to maneuver much better than most of the pilots she and her crew went up against. The fighter was able to avoid most of the laser that distracted the pilot from the homing missile that finally took it out of commission.
It reminded Vezz of that whole ordeal she and her group had with the Stark Combine and the day that whole thing fell apart.
"It looks like something's bothering you, Boss," Jybal, a Weequay lieutenant of hers said, "What's wrong?"
"If this is what I think we're dealing with, I think we're in big trouble," the pirate captain answered before turning back to the rest of her crew.
"What do you mean?" the Weequay asked.
"I think we're dealing with a Jedi."
This caused the pirate to pale. Both remembered the day the Jedi beat them over Troiken.
"We need to regroup and plan," Vezz said to Jybal before turning to the crew searching the crashed starfighter.
"Alright everyone, listen up," she ordered, "We're heading back to Locked Bounty and planning things out."
The rest of the crew headed to their ship and began the procedure for takeoff. A few days would pass before the wreak was being observed by another group.
Jedi Knight Duran Jeth observed the wreak of the A6 Interceptor that was piloted by his Padawan, Ry'ven Vonto. It looked like one of the stabilizers had been hit and it caused the ship to crash. Judging by the scorch marks, the fighter was hit in orbit and tumbled threw the atmosphere before crashing, (surprisingly the fighter was mostly intact despite the crash).
After watching the pirates scavenge the starship and leave, the Arkanian Jedi and his three Antarian Ranger companions. Now it was their turn to pick through what was left of the ship. It didn't help them that the sun had almost finished setting.
"Any luck?" the Jedi asked.
"Not much so far, Master Jedi," answered one of the Rangers, a fair skinned Human with blonde hair and blue eyes named Malcom Vant. Helping him pick through the wreckage was a four-armed Xexto named Billibango. Both Rangers wore the standard uniform of a light blue overalls, dark blue knee-high boots, a light brown jacket and a light blue cap.
"There's no body, seat or canopy to be found either," Billibango added.
Another Ranger, a brown furred Wookiee named Ranharr, growled that Ry'ven must have ejected during the crashlanding.
"What's the status of the controls?" Duran asked.
Ranharr replied, saying that most of the controls were either fried from the atmospheric friction or knocked out from the crash landing.
"What about the tracker on the seat?" Malcom asked, "We already know the flight recorder on the starfighter survived. Perhaps the same could be said for the seat's tracker."
The Jedi walked back to his speeder bike and opened a storage compartment. After some searching, he managed to find a datapad that had the tracking function for the A6 interceptor's flight recorder. After some typing on the pad, Duran Jeth managed to find what he was looking for.
"I have a fix on the tracker's location," the Jedi Knight declared.
With that statement, the four climbed on their speeders and took off. Duran led the way with Billibango sitting behind him while Malcom and Ranharr followed behind in their speeders.
Several hours later, they found the seat. It turned out that the thing landed in a river and was currently sitting at the bottom. Thankfully, Duran was able to use the Force to pull the thing out and set it on the bank.
Judging by the state of the seat, Ry'ven at least survived the landing. The chute deployment mechanism looked like it took a hit during the ejection and wouldn't work. It also appeared that Ry'ven cut himself loose from the seat, judging by the sliced straps. The group theorized that the Padawan must have been swept away by the river's current. From here, the three followed the river till they reached a waterfall.
"I bet you he got swept away by the river till he got to the waterfall," Malcom theorized.
Ranharr growled that there was no way someone could have survived that fall.
"I sense Ry'ven is still alive," Duran answered.
The Wookiee asked how could he be certain of that.
"I'd have felt it if he died," the Jedi answered, "Let me meditate for a bit, I might be able to locate him."
Sitting down in the grass, Duran entered a meditation stance and reached out in the Force. Most of what he felt through this method was the presence of creatures that were appearing in the evening twilight.
This went on for a few minutes before he found Ry'ven's Force signature as the presence of others around him.
"I've located him," the Jedi Knight stated to his companions, "He should be about a day or two away by speeder."
"Are we going to try to get to him tonight?" Malcom asked.
"He's not in any immediate danger at the moment," the Arkanian explained, "It appears this world is inhabited."
Ranharr chuffed, asking how he knew that.
"Because Ry'ven appeared to have made some friends with the locals," Duran reasoned as he turned to the Wookie, "We should think about getting some sleep. Tomorrow Malcom and will catch up while you and Billibango return to our ship and pickup us up."
"How come we're the ones getting the ship?" Billibango asked.
"Because Malcom and I are less likely to scare the locals," the Jedi added.
With that the four beings got to going to sleep for the following day was going to be a hard day of riding and perhaps the work of a diplomat, something Duran Jeth was somewhat okay at doing, though there were Jedi that with more qualified diplomats. Hopefully Ry'ven had managed to build up enough good will with these natives, whatever they were, that the Jedi Knight could build upon.
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