Location Unknown
The calmness of space was briefly disturbed by an explosion of purple light. Reality strained as a crack appeared. The fracture widened and grew as an unnatural purple light shone from the rift.
A cloud of debris and a small two-engine fighter emerged out of the rift before quickly sealing shut. With no power or control the fighter drifted through space, rotating uncontrollably.
Inside the cockpit, Orlen awoke with a groan. Blurred vision slowly cleared up and he could feel a stabbing sensation on his left arm, almost as if he was being repeatedly poked with pins and needles. Examining it, he could see that his orange flight suit was singed and charred near his bicep. Looking a little further, he saw a clump of exposed wires.
Turning his attention back to his surroundings, he started assessing the damage to his fighter.
Looks like instruments and displays are working, no engine or weapon power though. I do have maneuvering thrusters, let's stop this rotation before I get sick.
With a quick touch of the controls, the uncontrolled rotation ceased, and the fighter straightened out.
Looking out of the cockpit window, he could see a nearby planet and past it, what looked like a standard main-sequence star. Looking closer at the planet, he thought he could see a shade of blue.
Looks like there is water on that planet, hopefully, that means people. I can find a new ship to get back to Massassi Outpost with.
As the fighter drifted closer, he began to make out continents and indications of vegetation. Clouds and weather patterns meant an atmosphere.
Even better, looks like it can support life. Would have really been bad if it was a water world.
A plan started to form in his mind. Shields still worked which would protect him from burning up on atmospheric impact. All he would have to do is a few course corrections to ensure he would be over land. Once he was low enough, a quick ejection and he would be safely on the surface.
Plan made; he did a quick check to make sure he was still strapped to his seat. Would not want to end up like Commander Korin and be flung from the seat as soon as it ejected.
All that was left to do was wait till he got closer. Turning the defector shield on, he was relieved to see power levels remained stable.
The planet started to drift from the center of his view to the side. "Shit." He said out loud as he turned on his navigation computer and scanned his course. "Kriff, Pfassk, Kark!" He muttered a barrage of curses as the navigation computer indicated that his momentum was too high and that he would pass right by the planet and spiral into the sun. His thrusters will not be enough to slow the fighter down enough to be caught by the planet's gravity.
Switching his display to the diagnostic page, he saw that his port engine still worked, it just needed to reconnect the control computer to it.
Silently wishing A-wings had astrometric droids like Y-wings and the new X-wings, he pulled the panel covering the wire runs and started to get to work to jury rig a power connection. Pulling a tool from his vest, he started cutting wires and reconnecting them. Working carefully in the cramped cockpit, he was eventually able to connect the engine to the fighter's computer.
Once repairs were done; he examined the mess of wires. Well, it is not pretty, but it will have to do work. With maybe a ten, no fifteen percent chance it will explode.
Orlen turned the fighter with his thrusters to face the planet. Don't know how long the engine will last, better get myself orientated in the right direction. All I should need is a few seconds.
"Here goes nothing." He said to himself as he turned the engine on.
The left engine roared to life and the fighter shot forward straight to the planet. It did not take long to reach the atmosphere and flames quickly appeared on the front of the ship. The shields held and the flames caused by atmospheric entry did not affect the ship.
As he passed into the upper atmosphere, Orlen was relieved to see that the environmental scanners indicated the planet was Type One, meaning breathable air, standard gravity, and pressure.
The engine is holding, I think it might be time to change the plan and land normally. Let's see if I can just repair it myself. With a new plan in mind, he steered the ship to the center of the three visible continents.
Orlen reduced engine power, letting the air resistance gradually slow the ship to a more manageable speed. The flames caused by friction with the air dissipated and eventually disappeared, allowing a better view of the land below him as he descended.
Visually scanning the landmass with his eyes, he was able to see signs of civilization far below him. As the ship passed overland, he thought he could see what looked like a town on the water's edge. Further to the west was a larger city.
While Orlen was deciding which settlement to land near, the distinct sound of a dying engine made itself known. With a final gasp, the engine cut out and the fighter began to plummet from the sky like a brick with wings.
Orlen acted immediately and quickly stopped the fighter from spinning out of control and establishing a glide.
"Alright, back to plan A!" He declared while reaching down for the ejection handle.
Pulling hard on the handle, the fighter's canopy blasted off as detonations severed its connections to the ship. Orlen felt the wind blast his face as he braced himself for his seat rockets to ignite but was met with disappointment when nothing happened. Looking back ahead, wind blasting his face, he noted that the ground was getting closer at an alarming rate.
"Shit… Alright, how about a plan C."
Pressing a few buttons to be ready to manually fire thrusters, Orlen was ready to try one last desperate gambit.
As the fighter passed over a forest, alerts rang through the cockpit, warning him of an imminent collision. Just before hitting the treetops, he pulled back on the control stick with all his might, leveling out the fighter. Firing all forward and vertical thrusters, the ship began to slow down to a more survivable speed as the fighter descended slowly to the treetops.
Unable to do anything else, Orlen closed his eyes and braced himself as the ship sunk into the trees. The shields flashed and eventually failed as the A-wing crashed through several trees and impacted the ground, leaving a gouge in the earth and a trail of debris.
Opening his eyes, Orlen saw a pointed tree branch half a foot in front of him. A little bit further and the branch would have gone right through him.
Letting out a breath he did not know he was holding, Orlen carefully unstrapped himself and pulled himself out of the cockpit.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, his knees buckled, and he fell to the dirt. Rolling onto his back, the pilot let himself rest there, slowly letting the stress and adrenaline fade away. After lying for what felt like an eternity, he eventually climbed to his feet and looked at his surroundings.
Feeling discomfort in his helmet, he reached up to unclasp the chin strap and removed it from his head. The ears on top of his head twitched, happy to no longer be squashed under the helmet. Listening around, Orlen could not hear any sounds of wildlife, likely long fled from the area at the sound of his crash. Satisfied he was not about to be attacked by a monster or wild animal he turned to look at the crash site.
There was a trail of destruction behind his fighter, shattered trees, and parts of the ship were littered in the wake of his ship. One of the engines had completely ripped off and the entire back of the A-wing was mangled.
Orlen may be handy at repairing things, but there was absolutely no way he could fix the wrecked fighter.
As the last of the adrenalin wore off, his body painfully reminded him of his burn. Wincing, Orlen walked back to the ship to try and find the first aid kit.
As if the universe was mocking him, it was at that moment that the rockets in the ejection seat fired off. Launching the seat 30 feet into the air before it quickly plummeted and crashed down beside the wreckage.
"Oh, now you decide to work you piece of junk!"
Far above the surface of the world, the goddess of the planet, Ilias barely even noticed what looked like a meteor land somewhere between Grand Noah and the Forest of Spirits. Her attention has been squarely on her chosen hero.
All her focus the past few weeks has been on guiding the hero Luka on his adventure. Ever since he set out from his home village on a quest to defeat the Monster Lord, Ilias has been there behind the scenes helping him along. Every time he failed a battle, she would reverse time and provide guidance on how to win the monster encounter. All to ensure he reached the Monster Lord's castle so she could finally execute her great plan.
She sighed with disappointment as she watched him lose to the Spirit of Earth. Is he doing this on purpose now? Fine, if you want to be that way, Luka, I will give you an evaluation you won't forget. Activating the soul return network, she prepared to punish her hero and then tell him how to defeat this monster girl.
Pulling the first aid kit from the wreckage, Orlen moved to sit on a nearby rock. He was relieved to see that the contents of the kit were undamaged. A bacta spray kit and two spare bacta tubes were inside the small box.
Pulling his left arm out of his orange flight suit, he took the rectangular dispenser and aimed it at his burn. Pushing down on the release button, the dispenser ejected a fine aerosol spray onto his burn. He winced at the feel of the gelatinous medicine covering the wound. The pain immediately as the miraculous bacteria contained in the substance went to work healing the burn.
Unzipping the flight suit down to his waist and letting his fluffy white tail out from under the coveralls, he tied off the sleeves and started walking back to the fighter, going over what else he had to do.
Alight let's see what I remember from those briefings General Draven gave us on what to do after a crash landing. Step one; first aid, that's done. Step two; destroy all intel that can harm the rebellion.
Sitting back in the cockpit of the destroyed fighter, he saw that the batteries were still working. A few button pushes later, the ship's flight log was deleted, removing any mention of the Yavin system.
What is next? Assess supplies, ditch flight-suit, and move away from the crash site. After that, either set up your rescue beacon or find sympathetic locals.
Over the next half hour, Orlen gathered supplies from the ship. Pulling his bag from the cargo compartment, he pulled out a set of civilian clothes and put them on. As he buckled up his belt, he felt the small lump between the layers of leather and his thoughts drifted to what he had hidden in there. Think about that later, it is not going to be any help right now.
Grabbing his holocaster, he turned it on only to see that it could not connect to the holonet. I must have crashed very far from anything if I can't get a signal. Time to get creative.
Slipping the holocaster in his pocket, he jumped back into the A-wing and started ripping out the navigation computer.
An hour later satisfied he had everything he needed started packing his bag. The bacta kit, navigation computer, navigation sensor, rescue beacon, survival rations, a water canteen, binoculars, and a few tools went into the bag. Orlen then strapped his blaster to his hip and put his vibro-knife in his boot.
Putting the heavy backpack on, he took one last look at his fighter before trekking into the woods.
I need to find higher ground and out of these trees. I think if I go northeast, I should get out faster. Pretty sure that was the shortest way out of the woods if I remember correctly.
After a few hours of hiking, he decided to stop to take a break. Pulling his bag down, he grabbed his canteen and took a drink of water. So far, this planet seems nice. A charming forest, no imperials chasing me, and thank the force, no giant monsters out to eat me.
While resting on a fallen log, the quiet break was interrupted when he heard a branch break. Leaping to his feet, Orlen pulled out his blaster and scanned his surroundings. After several minutes of silence, he put his blaster back into the holster.
I am really jumpy today; it is probably nothing. But what if it isn't?
Deciding not to risk it, Orlen put the canteen back in the bag, and reached for the strap, freezing when he felt something coil around his arm. Why is it always monsters with tentacles?
He was yanked off the ground by whatever vine or tentacle grabbed him and saw that he was being pulled up into the trees above him and that it was a vine that held him. Several more vines quickly descended and wrapped around him, making freeing himself much harder.
"Hehehe, don't struggle, I promise my pitcher will feel really good as I eat you."
Hearing the female voice above him, Orlen wasted no time reaching down with his free hand to grab his blaster pistol. Pulling it from the holster he aimed it up at what looked like the origin of the vines. Two red blaster bolts soared into the trees missing their mark. Before he could fire anymore, another vine wrapped around his wrist and twisted hard, forcing him to drop the gun.
"Hey, none of that now. Once you experience my nectar you will beg for more."
Having lost his blaster, Orlen struggled harder to escape, but the vines were too strong. Noticing he was getting closer to the source of the tentacles, Orlen tucked his leg in, allowing him to grab his vibro-knife from his boot.
Above him, the talking continued in a sing-song voice.
"Oh, I am so excited. It has been so long since I ate somethi-. Wait why do you have a tai- Ow!"
The vibro-knife cut through the vine with little effort, and the voice above him cried out in pain. The rest of the vines let go and he fell back down to the forest floor with thud.
"You cut one of my vines off. That really hurts you know. Wait no, don't run away."
Quickly grabbing his blaster and bag, Orlen wasted no time fleeing the area. It is always vine or tentacles. Why are there so many man-eating monsters with tentacles in this blasted galaxy?
After twenty minutes of running, Orlen stopped to catch his breath. Looks like whatever that was isn't chasing me. I better be more alert; I don't want to run into anything like that again.
Though it was kind of weird. I haven't heard about any kind of monster that taunts you while trying to eat you.
Having caught his breath, he continued trekking through the woods, he noted that the trees were thinning out, and not long after he emerged from the woods. Seeing hills ahead, he kept walking for a few more hours.
Setting up camp while he still had some light, Orlen went to work with his plan. Pulling out the navigation computer and sensor he started to jury rig a connection between them and his holocaster. Once night fell, he would be able to use the sensor to feed star data to the computer and display it on the holocaster, allowing him to find out where he was in the galaxy.
With that done, he activated the encrypted rescue beacon and sat down to wait for nightfall. Pulling out a ration bar, he quietly ate while wondering what was happening back at Massassi Outpost. His fellow rebels likely thought he was dead. They better not toss out my stuff. I swear if they finish that bottle of fire-water I have, heads will roll.
Eventually, night arrived, and the sky was illuminated with stars. Getting up, Orlen activated the navigation computer and let it calculate his position. After a few seconds, it sent the data to his holocaster. Displaying a map of the galaxy, Orlen was disappointed to see the words 'Position Unknown' flash back at him.
Kriff! Am I in the Unknown regions, or worse, Wild Space? That explains why I am not getting any holonet signals either. There is no way that rescue beacon is going to be able to be intercepted by any rebel cells. Looks like I will have to find the natives here and hope they have hyperspace technology.
Shutting down the computer and putting the holocaster back in his pocket he stood up and walked over to his bag. Pulling out the binoculars, he scanned the horizon looking for signs of civilization. Eventually, he was able to spot a distant light. Perhaps a town or city? It is too dark to travel tonight though. I'll have to head out in the morning.
Putting the binoculars away, Orlen sat quietly in the dark, slowly growing bored. Deciding it was about time to go to sleep, he found a spot on the ground with no rocks and lay down. Using his backpack as a pillow, he placed his tail on top of himself, hoping it would keep some of the night's chill away. Hoping he wouldn't get attacked by something while unconscious, Orlen drifted off to sleep.
Far above the planet, the calmness of space was once again interrupted by the reopening of the purple rift. Emerging from it, the lone TIE Advanced fighter set course for the planet.