Even with its small rockets firing precisely, the ejection seat was still falling too fast for the occupant to survive without suffering a major injury. It was also entirely possible for death to occur. The unfortunate pilot in that ejection seat that was hurtling towards the ground was Keyan Farlander, a rebel ace and a member of the resurrected Jedi Order. The wind beat against the portions of his face not covered by his helmet, the magnetic field surrounding him providing him with breathable air, but still letting the cold air through.
Knowing his predicament, Keyan did his best to focus despite the tremendous forces working against him. Master Kenobi had taught his students the basis of controlling one's own fall, it was a simple use of telekinesis that applied to the person performing the task. He began his attempt, failing almost immediately as a sharp updraft of wind hit him in the face, easily breaking his concentration.
He closed his eyes, not wanting to inadvertently see the ground—which was almost certainly getting more detailed every second that he remained falling—and trigger a wave of fear and panic that would lead to him once again using the Dark Side. He focused upon what he needed to do and, with no panic and no fear, did it. With his ejection seat being just over a hundred meters from the ground, the Force intervened and began to slow the seat down enough for a safe landing to transpire.
As the ejection seat came to rest on the ground, Keyan quickly went to work on escaping the immediate area. He was pretty sure that some of the TIE fighters that had chased him and the escape pod into the atmosphere of the planet he was on had seen his landing location. He pulled the helmet off of his head and threw it aside, sure that it wouldn't come in handy later, and jogged to the back of the seat. From there, he quickly pulled out his personalized survival pack. In addition to the standard supplies found in an Alliance issue pack: a blaster pistol, two extra energy cells, a week's worth of horrible tasting field rations, a small canteen filled with water, a water filter, a glowrod and a small medpack; this contained an additional energy cell and a small field comlink.
He swiftly threw the survival pack onto his back, tightening the shoulder straps to accommodate his flight suit, but not before removing the blaster pistol and the energy cells and placing them into the holster on his belt. The pistol—as well as the lightsaber that hung on the opposite side of it—would more than likely come in extremely handy on his way to the landed escape craft that he had seen landing on his way down.
Yet he had another problem to deal with. While using the Force to slow down the ejection seat had saved him from suffering injury, that feat combined with the Force-enhanced escapades that he had pulled off during the dogfight above the planet had left him fatigued. He had to let loose a slight chuckle at that fact, as fatigue from overusing the Force was what caused him to eject during the Battle of Yavin 4. Then, with a sigh, he sat out walking.
Hiding inside one of the caves that littered the surface in which her escape pod had landed, Lynia Delline sat next to the small fire that served as both heat and light. She let the heat spread from the flames to her body, feeling them obliterate the chill in the air that surrounded the hilly regions. Other survivors—about 25 in total—crammed into the medium sized hole in a hill and attempted to keep warm around one of the three small fires lit. Dusk had just began to set in, and the chill was beginning to become worse as the temperature dropped to five degrees. It least it isn't freezing yet, she thought as the majority of the group began to prepare for the long walk to the nearest town.
Not everyone in the cave was leaving, however. Calena Verost, the 24 year-old Coruscanti Executive Officer of Blue Squadron, was staying inside of the cave to guard her husband, a security guard aboard the Independence who had been injured during the evacuation. She was also staying behind for the other member of the group that couldn't be moved, a Gotal pilot from another squadron that had crashed nearby. They were pessimistic, however, about Keyan's survival. They had said that no one could have survived what had happened, although they did concede that they had never seen that happen to a Jedi before. That had filled her with a little bit of hope.
"All right, everyone. Grab your blankets, we're moving out," the second in command—a lieutenant from another squadron aboard the now destroyer ship—said as the sun finally fell behind the plains. Fortune was also by the side of the rebels, as the both of the moons that orbited the planet weren't full.
Thankful that his flight suit helped protect him from extreme temperatures, Keyan continued walking as the sun sat behind him and temperatures dropped dangerously close to freezing. Growing thirsty as he traversed the approximately four kilometers that remained of the plains before they met the beginnings of a mountain range, he took a carefully rationed sip out of his water supply before returning the container back to his backpack. He rubbed his eyes, trying to get the tiredness out of them. He had started walking about an hour or two before dusk had set behind him and, judging by the position of the two moons in the sky, it was already about midnight. Although he didn't have a chronometer on him or any real idea about how fast the planet rotated on its axis, he could reasonably guess that he had about five more hours of travel before the sun would rise again.
At least, barring any major occurrences, he would more than likely make the mountains well before day broke.
"What is this news you bring me?" Emperor Palpatine's raspy voice cut through the darkness of his throne room on Coruscant.
"I have found something…disturbing…during my mission to Bast Castle, my lord," Mara Jade began her rehearsed speech that she had prepared during the flight back from Vjun. "It was the most recent entry to Lord Vader's personal log. Parts of it are missing—there was someone else there who was deleting the file while I was downloading it—but the majority that counts is still intact," she added, relating to the Emperor a brief version of her difficulties on the planet.
"Play the message," Palpatine ordered, slightly anxious to see what his apprentice had been hiding.
"Yes, my lord," Mara stated as she pulled a round object out of her robe. She thumbed a button on the side, causing the device to play.
The first few seconds of the audio only recording were filled only with the sounds of Darth Vader's chilling breathing as it seemingly kept time for some unheard musician. More than likely, Mara thought, Vader was trying to find someway to actually say what he was about to say.
"I have recently found out," Vader's voice said through the recording, "that the young rebel that destroyed the…my son." The missing section that presumably said DEATH STAR IS was completely garbled, corrupted while being deleted by the other agent working against her inside of Bast Castle. She had decided to not reveal this information until the end of the recording, it would help her by giving herself more time to think of possible solutions. "…possible," Vader's voice continued, trying to ponder about what he had just learned at the time of the recording.
"I have to wonder if the entire story that my Master told me about the death of my w—Padmé—was truly the entire truth. I feel that I must investigate this matter further, but I feel that I must keep this suspicion a secret for the time being."
Palpatine sat in his throne, listening to every word that the journal entry of Darth Vader said, even trying to find out the hidden words that were drowned out by the corruption in the file. He had secretly feared that this day would come, when Vader would finally find out or even suspect the truth of Padmé Amidala's death. It had the possibility of reawakening Anakin Skywalker, and even though most of his Force potential had been diminished by the events that happened on Mustafar, Sidious still feared what Anakin could do. And even though he hadn't heard about this child of Vader's until today, he feared what the young man could do. If he was only half as powerful as Anakin had the capability to be…
Killing him was the first thing that sprang to Palpatine's mind. He had to get rid of this threat against his Empire, and that seemed to be the only option at the moment. This young child that looked strikingly like Anakin would end it all.
Wait… Sidious smiled underneath the hood of his dark cloak. It was true that the son of Skywalker could be a threat to him, but wasn't Anakin a threat at one time? Could it be possible that he be turned to the dark side?
Yes, Palpatine thought as he paused to consider every single possibility that this new information brought with it. This could be extremely fortunate… I must consult the Holocron.