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Chapter Text

Dromuund Kaas

Seren closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the other councillors argued around her. She could still feel the pain and shock of Marr’s presence disappearing from the force. Darth Marr, her role model and unofficial mentor on the dark council, had died in wild space while hunting their former emperor alongside the Jedi Battlemaster.

Blast it all. Everyone knew that Marr was going to become the new emperor once Vitiate was finally dealt with - now there was nobody who was as glaringly obvious a candidate. She could feel Lana’s pressing force signature against her walls, attempting to send calming pulses to her. Seren tightened the barrier.

Not even thirty minutes after Marr’s death, the council had called an emergency meeting. Mortis, Acina and herself were the only physically present members. Vowrawn was there over holo, as were Aruk, Rictus and Ravage. They were now attempting to figure out their next course of action.

To add to the chaos, she could feel her holocommunicator buzzing incessantly in her pocket - her crew, no doubt, was worried about how they’d woken up to her screaming and then rushing off. Darth Ezrenki was also a possibility for those who were attempting to get ahold of her.

What finally had her snap was the pull she felt of the spirits in her head urging her to just kill everyone and take over the empire herself.

Lightning spewed from her fingers (a common occurrence when Seren was overwhelmed).

“QUIET!” and there was finally silence as the seniors looked at their youngest member who normally observed silently when she was not taunting Ravage. “We can decide on a new leader at a later date. Right now we must split up Marr’s sphere’s between the rest of us,” he was running most of the unlead ones, after all, “ and decide on what to tell the public about Marr’s passing.”

Marr was a renowned Dark Lord. Defacto leader of the Dark Council after being on it for over 20 years,  Defender of the Empire, and arguably the strongest sith there currently was. The imperials needed to know and there would be outrage once they found out it was their “silent” emperor who had killed him. She thought that Darth Ezrenki would make a perfect choice for Marr’s successor - strong, smart, dependable Ezrenki-

“Tell us, Oculus,” it was Mortis who regained her attention, “tell us who you believe should take over what sphere.”

Tython

Xefae was still shaking as she sat in the Council Chambers, attempting to keep calm. Shorimii was gone - her sister was gone. It was disconcerting to have suddenly been cut off from the Cathar and she realized with a start what the Jedi meant by attachment leading to the darkside.

“Master Yakirr, your thoughts?”

She looked to Grand Master Satele as she fully processed what they were suggesting. Aiding the republic forces with an attack on Zakuul. They killed both Darth Marr and Sho- the battlemaster. How could they think that they could win?

“I do not believe that we can go to war with Zakuul at this time,” Xefae admitted. “We know nothing of their tactics or their force users, they are not the Empire despite the fact that they had the same emperor.”

How could they fight an enemy that they know nothing about? It was simply illogical. There is also the fact that going to war this early would risk Senator Alauni convincing the rest of the Rift Alliance members to pull their allegiance from the republic - if not because she was reasonable then to simply irritate Chancellor Saresh. Alauni never hid her dislike of the other twi’lek.

She sighed when she saw a hint of displeasure in the Grand master's expression. This would be a long meeting.

Port Nowhere

Chessa sat on the counter, her legs crossed and Risha’s new baby - still bundled in a blanket - held delicately.

“You don’t have to be so careful with her, Chess,” Chessa jumped and turned her head, trying not to rouse the baby. Blonde hair, blue eyes, kept her and Gault away from each other with a passion - it was Torian Cadera.

“I’m just still not used to babies, I guess.”

Torian let out a slight laugh and sat on the stool in front of her to adjust her arms. Chessa looked around. Indi was over talking with Akaavi, Gault and Corso were having a drinking contest (That was bound to end badly), Risha was asleep in her room, and the others were attempting to keep little Aris and Attix entertained for Torian and Indi.

“What’s her name?” Torian asked. “Didn’t have time to ask Risha or Ros.”

“It’s Jessamine - They wanted something that sounded similar to my name without being exactly the same and then tried to make it sound like a royal name.”

Torian nodded in understanding. Jessa seemed to like her aunt Chessa, from what he saw. The baby curled happily into Chessa, staying calm and quiet enough that Chessa hadn’t noticed her wake up yet.

Chessa cursed as her holo went off, causing the baby to bawl.

Nar Shaddaa

They didn’t know how they ended up here.

All any of them had meant to do was spend their respective days off on dates, and they somehow ended up at the same place. But here Vesper and Eris stood, glaring at each other. Theron stood by Vesper, ready to grab her arm so they could run - they couldn’t win a fight against Eris and Aric after all. Aric, meanwhile, was confused. Eris had never told him about siblings other than Chessa, and Cipher Nine was a Chiss. How could a human and chiss be related?

His thought process was interrupted as Vesper’s Holo rang.

“Lana?” she questioned distastefully. There wasn’t a reason to hide talking to a sith. Eris already knew both of them.

“Hello, Cipher. I have a proposition for you. You should meet me on Nar Shaddaa so we may talk Please, do bring Major Aldari. It is important that she hear this as well.”

So much for a day off.

Chapter Text

Zakuul - Present

If Lana had her way, Major Aldari would be the commander of their alliance. After all, they needed one and breaking into Zakuul to get one? Not the most sound plan Theron had come up with. But stubborn Vesper threatened her with bodily injuries if Lana had went near her or Chessa, the Major threatened to go back to the Republic, and the Barsen’thor, Darth Occlus and Darth Ezrenki “mysteriously” disappeared.

So here she was, standing in front of Arcann’s most prized possession. The carbonite prison of the Battlemaster of the Jedi Order - Shorimii Vela. Lana quickly entered the passcode and readied the cure to carbonite poisoning.

They couldn’t take any chances of her dying of carbonite poisoning right after getting her back. As the Cathar stumbled out, Lana assured her it would only hurt for a moment before firing. The blonde was quick to lunge forward to catch her before she could hit the ground.

The less noise they made, the better.

She waited for the Cathar to recover. Soon, Shorimii was looking up at her in confusion. 

“Lana? Yo-you saved my life.”

“I spared you from dying this very instant,” she corrected. “We still have quite a ways to go. Gear up, quickly.”

At the door was T7-O1, a jedi droid that the Barsen’Thor had found in her ship one day, when leaving Tython for the final time years ago. T7 was managing the security system to keep the sith from being detected.

T7 turned suddenly. “Vault guards = arriving. Lana + Jedi = get ready.”

Shorimii’s head snapped to the droid at the familiar beeping. Teeseven, her closest pal. Maybe, she considered, it was time to give them the lightsaber upgrade the T7 unit had been asking for…“My friend to the rescue!” for now, she grinned.

“Jedi = still in danger!// Everyone = still in danger!”

“Why? What’s happening?”

Lana gave a tight smile. “The empire and the republic have all but fallen to the man who imprisoned you. You are our last hope.”

“Me?! What about Xefae? What happened to her?” Lana nearly groaned. She hadn’t bargained on the jedi arguing with her.

“I will explain when we are safe, I swear, but for now we must leave!”

She ignited her lightsaber as she heard T7 detach from the door. It opened and she was blocking the blasts from the skytroopers.

Some things, she had time to explain whilst they fought their way out of where Shorimii was held. One such as they were not, in fact, in a prison of any sorts, but a vault where Arcann - the new Emperor of Zakuul - kept his most prized possessions.

It was gruelling for Shorimii - she hadn’t fully recovered and had to use vast amounts of the force to support her. If she ran out of the stamina or control needed to trust the force to support her, then they would be in trouble.

It felt like hours before they arrived at the door that was their next obstacle. “Where’s T7?” Shorimii found herself asking when Lana used the force to open the door. She frowned, unable to recall when the droid split from them. 

“Generating false security alerts in other sectors. Capable little astromech- Yes, I read you.”

She raised a hand to her mouth. A strange voice that the jedi didn’t recognize was speaking through Lana’s comm. “An updated timetable would be good.”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“No, no problem….” the voice assured “but we are starting to feel a bit exposed out here. You find the Outlander yet?”

“Yes. I’ve patched her in.”

“Great-” the voice sounded sarcastic now. “I’m Koth Vortena. Welcome to the most suicidal rescue mission in history. Hope you’’re everything Lana said you were.”

Lana sighed. “Be patient, Koth - we’re on our way.” she turned off her comm abruptly and turned to Shorimii. “Koth will fly us out of here just as soon as we’re out this door.”

“Not Chessa?” Chessa Aldari, the best starpilot in the galaxy, and Shorimii was at least familiar with her. Theron had recruited her way back for Yavinn and Rishii, after all. For someone who disliked Jedi after Shorimii pointed out that one of her companions was force sensitive and should have been in the order, Chessa was alright.

“No, not Captain Aldari. She has other obligations at the moment.” Meaning that either Lana had her doing some sort of dangerous smuggling run, or had no clue where she was. Knowing Chessa though, Shorimii was willing to bet it was both.

Their attention was grabbed when a screen flickered to life. T7 was showing them the security cameras, she just knew it. The droids way of warning them that someone was coming. There was one of the Zakuulan knights, and then there was a woman with brown hair and dressed in all black…

Something about her felt familiar, and she told Lana as much.

“No…” She could practically feel the panic rise up in Lana as the feed showed the woman stalk up a hall, and stop to speak to the knight. “No, no, no, no…we were so close.” They watched as the woman chocked the knight, who had apparently said something she disliked, before looking up at the camera they were watching her through.

It was as though she knew they were there.

“Everybody makes mistakes,” she hissed and the camera went fuzzy.

“We’re not ready, not for Vaylin,” Lana turned to face the former prisoner, hiding her fear as best as she could.

“I can feel her searching for me,” Shorimii murmured.

Lana nodded. “Her strength in the force is astounding, even for her family.”

With that, the blonde returned to prying open the door they had to pass. Shorimii ran forwards, and Lana waited until she was through before releasing her hold on it and running through just before it closed. In front of them were more enemies.

“Skytroopers. Vaylin is far from alone.”

Lana killed one, Shorimi handled the other two. They turned left and were met with more. The few civilians in the room were quick to take off and hide for the duration of the fight. They passed through more halls before Koth was speaking over comms again.

“Hope you’re not too close!”

“What’s happening?” Blaster fire could be heard through Koths side.

“Nothing I can’t handle, but we need to move the pickup.”

“We don’t have time for this!” Lana seethed.

Lana’s clear anger did not appear to phase him, however, as he continued talking. “Well, if I land now, I’ll be shot to be pieces, so just think of it as a personal favour to me, huh? Duck through another tower and I’ll find you.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing…” Chessa always did.

“Love the enthusiasm!” his voice was taking on a sarcastic tone. “Always love our little excursions, Lana! Be back with you shortly.”

He was still alive and Lana did not appear to be plotting how to decorate his ship with his blood. “Are you two…?” she trailed off, knowing the sith would get the hint.

Lana looked disgruntled and then disgusted. “I’m going to pretend that is not your greatest concern at this particular moment.” Then, as an afterthought, “No, I am still with Occlus.”

Almost as soon as she finished speaking, the building they were in rattled and shook. The two took off once more to get further from Vaylin. They got to the elevator and stood in awkward silence as it started moving.

As exhausted as she was, she did not miss Lana’s staring at her. “What?”

“It-It’s good to see you,” 

“I have a million questions right now.”

“I know. The answers will have to wait.”

The elevator came to a stop, and they stepped out into another fight. Shorimii was muttering curses under her breath and yelling.

“Of KRIFFING COURSE they have a walker. Why could it not have been an astromech? Or another droid? Why, of all things, did they have to send a void damned walker?!”

She was cursed. She had to be. She passed her trials to be a padawan, was knighted the same week, had a padawan thrown onto her at the end of the month, ended up in a fight with the blasted emperor of the galaxy and somehow had a pet sith who she fell in love with.

Then, because nothing could remain simple, the emperor she thought she killed turned out to still be alive and she was whisked off to deal with him - until, of course, he blew up a planet. Finally, Marr called her out to wild space - where he did not have his sole ally on the Dark Council, Darth Occlus, and they were captured, the sith killed.

And now this?

Shorimii collapsed in pain as they were crossing the bridge. It was all becoming too much for her, even with the adrenaline kick from constant running and fighting.

Lana ran back to her upon noticing and pulled her up with an arm under her shoulders to support her. “Fight through it!”

They passed through another door and into a different building. Suddenly, just when they had a moment to breathe, something hit the walls outside, causing the building to shake and debris to fall from overhead. “WHAT’S HAPPENING?!”

“It’s Vaylin! She’ll bring the entire city crashing down on you if she has to!”

Koth came in once more over comms, asking if his scanners were glitched or if the two had actually ran into a skytrooper factory. 

“We can handle a few droids, come on!” Besides, if she had to pick between an insane force-sensitive child and a bunch of droids, she’d pick the droids until she had time to recuperate her strength and find out where, exactly, her crew had gone off to. She had expected Scourge to come tearing in there, ranting once more about how she couldn’t be caught by the person she was supposed to kill - not Lana. 

But the two went back to fighting their way through the factory. The moment they finally came upon actual people, not just droids, they ducked behind nearby plants and listened to them panic about a reactor about to explode.

Lana said that there was nothing they could do, but…one one shoulder was Scourge, telling her to get out of there as a few thousand lives were not more important than the rest of the galaxy, on the other was Kira pointing out that Jedi saved anyone they could. 

She ignored Lana and Koth’s fighting, reminiscent of Kira and Scourge. She had already made up her mind.

“If I let that thing go, I’m not worth saving!”

She ignored her companions' complaints about stubborn jedi in favour of focusing on her slicing attempts. She took a deep breath when the monitor blew, and looked around for something else she could use to stop the imminent explosion.

Finally, she saw it. Two machines hooked up, one on either side. They fought their way to each in order to shut them down, Lana growing more frustrated as they did. 

“ENOUGH!” Lana finally snapped, her last string of patience completely gone. “I’m taking you with me whether you like it or not!”

Just as she finished talking, Shorimii’s efforts worked. The reactor shut down with a much smaller explosion, contained only to one half of the room that threw Shorimii to Lana’s feet. She grinned over at Lana in satisfaction.

Lana let out a growl - impressive for a human, if Shorimii said so herself. “Damn you AND your stubbornness! You just gambled with the fate of the entire galaxy!”

“I took a risk, it paid off,” Shorimii argued.

“You engaged in an unsuccessful attempt to kill us both is what you did!”

“I never said you had to stay,” she snapped finally. “Come on, once we’re out of here you can go ahead and track down Scourge and then the two of you can complain about me all you want!”

The two ran out to a platform large enough for Koth to land on to retrieve them. However, as Lana raised her comm to ask him where he was, a ship crashed in front of the two.

A man with brown skin and dark, curly hair that seemed to stick up, got out while coughing and dusting himself off. Lana’s arm fell back to her side and she glared at him. Shorimii quickly put two and two together.

“Our getaway pilot, I presume?”

He looked up at them in surprise then back to the destroyed ship behind him and back up to them one last time. “Uhh, maintenance issue?” he tried.

Lana scoffed and Shorimii eyed him. “I think Chessa would have been a better option…”

“Yes, I admit, Captain Aldari is better when it comes to piloting skill, however, Koth knows the planet. I never imagined he would crash rather than retrieve the two of us so we can get offworld.”

Koth winced at the comparison to her friend. Had they met before or did he just not like being called second best? Well, fourth best in her mind. Ros was also a good pilot, as was Chessa’s fling and crewmember, Corso.

“We should find a place to lay low and-” Shorimii interrupted whatever Lana’s plan was when she saw the approaching skytroopers.

“Not an option.”

“Koth, see if you can acquire a different ship - we shall hold them off.”

Koth nodded and took off down a path while the two women dispatched skytroopers, They then took off in the same direction, not wanting to risk their pilot ending up dead. Koth was stopped by two knights. Shorimii used the force to launch herself into the air, landing protectively between the man and the knights. Seconds later, Lana was beside her.

“Outlander!” One of the knights said. “You are guilty of assassinating the Immortal Emperor and of evading imprisonment!” 

“We demand your immediate surrender!” The other added.

Shorimii glanced to Lana. “Knights of Zakuul. A policing body under Vaylin’s charge. Force-sensitives.” Shorimii nodded at Lana’s curt explanation.

She looked back to the two knights. “I need you two to explain something to me,” she hummed. “How can he be your ‘Immortal Emperor’ if I killed him?”

The two blanked, stunned to silence by her question. “Stop talking, disarm, and surrender immediately!” clearly, the one on the right disliked her question. Although she was uncertain if it would work, she attempted to use the force to get them to back down.

They resisted and the fource force-sensitives fought, Koth staying back. She blocked and slashed, handling one while Lana dealt with the other. Despite her injury, they were evenly matched. Finally, after rolling out of the way of a strike and slashing at her opponents ankles, he leapt back onto a railing and called for the one fighting Lana.

“Tanek! Run, we’ll fight another day!”

Before the “Tanek” could listen, Lana grabbed him by his throat with the force, lifting him. “You knights. You’re never taught to properly channel your anger.”

Tanek grasped at the invisible force around his throat as his air was slowly cut off. Finally, Shorimii intervened and had Lana release him. She had to show the knights that she was not the monster they made her out to be. 

Perhaps they’d even, eventually, join forces with her against their new emperor. Lana did as told and she explained her reasoning for mercy. Koth approached the two and they all took off running once more…only for the bridge they were about to cross to fall away before they could step onto it. 

They turned around. It was Vaylin. Shorimii stepped forwards and shoved Koth behind her. He wasn’t force sensitive, he’d just be a disadvantage to her and Lana. 

“Vaylin..” Lana stepped to Shorimii’s side.

“I don’t know you. But you…I’ve seen you.” She turned her gaze from Lana to Shorimii and the jedi tensed. Skytroopers landed behind Vaylin and sprinted towards the trio. Lana stepped in front of Shorimii.

“I’ll hold her off as long as I can. The first chance you get - go!” 

Shorimii let out a proper growl, one that only Cathar could produce,  at that. “No way am I leaving you behind!”

“You’re impossible.”

Vaylin drew her own lightsaber, and the two took out theirs. They had to fight, there was no way around it. They were stranded, with their pilot here too rather than in a ship. 

Blaster fire from above forced Vaylin backwards and took out the Skytroopers. The trio spun around as a familiar voice rang out over comms.

“Nice planet you’ve got here, huh, Lana? Nice view of the palace, sketchy people, plenty of action - I should bring the kids next time!” Chessa. 

The ramp lowered and she used the force to throw Koth up to it, herself and Lana stowing their weapons to jump up themselves. The ship started to fly away, and Shorimii felt a slight panic when she couldn’t get a proper grip on the ship. Fortunately, a metallic hand gripped her arm before she could fall and dragged her up, the airlock shutting behind her.

“Declaration: Meatbags can’t fly.”

She studied the droid. It was an HK unit, that much she knew. An assassination droid. It lead her further into the ship, they passed T7 on the way. When did she have time to grab them? 

Instead of voicing her question, Shorimii knelt down to nuddle her head against her friend. They beeped and whirred happily. “Jedi = safe! Captain = saved you! T7-O1 = Happy!”

She smiled, purring as she continued to rub against her friend, relieved that T7 was safe. From there, she could also hear Lana and Koth in the cockpit, Lana questioning their rescuer fiercely.

“Where did you get this?! It’s a Zakuulan ship! And where is yours? Also, how did you know we needed help?”

Chessa laughed a loud, amused one. “One question at a time, Lana,” she said between laughs. “I got this from some knights I ran into when I had Bowie drop me off at the hangar on world. Bowie has my ship, seeing as the kids are on it and I don’t need to traumatize them more, I knew where you guys were and that you needed help since I sliced your comms an hour ago.”

“Everybody, I thank you for choosing Air Aldari! Guns’re locked on, so unless you got the aim of a mando - in which case get your ass to the guns on the ship - I’d hang on tight - it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!”

Chapter Text

Chessa was at Bowdaars new cantina on Zakuul, helping him earn the freedom of slaves. It was nice - she got beat up, of course, she did. Many of the other champions were stronger than her and some were twice her size, after all, but she managed.

But she was a smuggler and had learned to adapt. At the moment, she was watching Jessamine and Lennok Drayen (Risha and Ros’ kids), as well as Akaavi’s daughter, Rudea. They had been with her for nearly two months at this point, with Akaavi having been called by the new Mandalore and Risha busy attempting to keep peace between Dubrillion and Zakuul while helping the Alliance on the side. 

That was when the comm went off.

It was Lana and Koth - the Zakuul pilot she had befriended in order to get information on where the Jedi who was supposed to be the commander of the alliance was being kept. From the sounds of it, Lana had retrieved the Jedi and Koth had ended up in trouble of some sort. Chessa scanned the cantina in search of Bowdaar.

She removed Lennok from her lap, setting the two-year-old down next to his older sister, and told the kids to stay put, giving Jessamine a firm look when she stood to follow.

Finally happy that she would have no missing kids or tiny tails, she approached her friend. “Bowie, we need to get the ship ready.”

The wookie gave a questioning growl. “Vault team ran into some trouble from the sounds of it, I sliced into their comms nearly fifteen minutes ago. Lana chose a sucky pilot.” Bowdaar nodded and gave orders to someone else to watch the place while she went to retrieve the kids again.

She really was lucky they were so used to Port Nowhere, otherwise, she was certain they’d have ended up in trouble - normal kids didn’t mix with cantinas. 

“Aunt Chessa?” Rudea questioned when she lifted Lennok onto her hip and extended her opposite hand for Rudea.

“Not now, Rue, we gotta head to the ship.”

The four-year-old zabrak nodded her spiky head and grabbed her hand, before reaching out her own free one for Jess which the princess took without complaint. Chessa was quick to usher them all out and, with Bowdaar's help, guided them all to her ship where she could strap them all in.

She explained her plan to the wookie. There was a Zakuulan hangar nearby, and if he could get her close enough, she could drop down and steal a ship without being seen. Then, Bowdaar would take her ship and the kids to Alliance HQ. That way the smuggler wouldn’t have to worry about little feet while fighting. In her opinion, they were traumatized enough from growing up in a war.

Chessa’s plan went smoothly, for a change. She stuck the ship into stealth mode, gave the controls over to Bowdaar, and activated her own stealth generator after saying goodbye to her nieces and nephew.

It was only after stealing the new ship that she had issues in the face of an HK unit droid. It was hard, taking it out without damaging it so she could reprogram it. Another ten minutes down the drain. Eventually, though, she had it programmed to protect the Jedi, Shorimii Vela, above everyone else.

“I am HK-55, Master,” the droid said. 

“Nice to meet’ya, HK. Can you give me directions to Arcann’s Vault?”

“Of course!”

And the droid started co-piloting for her, directing her straight to the vault - until she picked up more chatter on Comms. Ahh, Vortena had crashed his ship right in front of Lana. That was bound to piss off the sith.

She ignored anyone shooting at her for the most part until she saw the T7 astromech doid surrounded by the karking Skytroopers. It was likely causing a distraction to protect the Sith and Jedi. She shot them all, landing to let the astromech board. She was then off again to track down the rescue team.

“Jedi = 6 clicks ahead!” T7 chirped from behind her. “Vaylin = found them!”

“Got it!” She readied the guns and came up behind the group, firing at the skytroopers to dismantle them all, as well as force Vaylin back and away from the group. 

“Nice planet you’ve got here, huh, Lana? Nice view of the palace, sketchy people, plenty of action - I should bring the kids next time!”

She could picture Lana’s scowl at her joking nature. Perfect. If you weren’t pissing off a Sith regularly, you weren’t living life to its fullest. Once there was enough distance, she dropped the ramp so they could all hurry up and get out of there.

“HK!” she called, “make sure the commander gets on safely, we don’t know if she’s near strong enough yet to actually get up here!”

The droid made a sound of affirmation and took towards the back to help the jedi while Lana and Koth came up to her. Once she was certain there had been enough time for HK to help the commander, she closed the ramp and took off.

As expected, Lana was chastising her the moment the Sith got to her. 

“Where did you get this?! It’s a Zakuulan ship! And where is yours? Also, how did you know we needed help?”

Chessa laughed a loud, amused one. “One question at a time, Lana,” she said between laughs. “I got this from some knights I ran into when I had Bowie drop me off at the hangar on world. Bowie has my ship, seeing as the kids are on it and I don’t need to traumatize them more, I knew where you guys were and that you needed help since I sliced your comms an hour ago.”

“Everybody, I thank you for choosing Air Aldari! Guns’re locked on, so unless you got the aim of a mando - in which case get your ass to the guns on the ship - I’d hang on tight - it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!”

Everyone stumbled to get strapped in - Koth in the copilot seat, Lana directly behind him with the jedi behind her. She wasted no time spinning the ship into a barrel roll to avoid the blasts and start the countdown to get into hyperspace while she avoided any attacks coming their way.

There was one issue that she hadn’t told Lana: the fuel in this ship was nowhere near high enough to get them to their destination. Instead, the coordinates were latched onto the furthest planet they could get to, some type of swamp. She just had to hope the fuel actually lasted, since she had no clue how much fuel this model used in hyperspace.

After that, they could call for a pickup.

Once they were in hyperspace, she unbuckled and spun her chair around to face the commander. A Cathar with orange fur and white on her revealed stomach. Her face had brown stripes and her eyes were a vibrant green that reminded her of Havoc Squads Aric Jorgan.

Weird.

“Yo! Captain Chessa Aldari, smuggler, best starpilot in the galaxy, and occasional rescuer, at your service!” she kept her voice light as she said the greeting. After five years in carbonite, who knew how this force user would react to anything anymore?

“H-hi, I’m Shorimii Vela, Jedi Knight,” the Jedi stammered a bit, clearly not having expected to be greeted. “I remember you - from Yavin, and before then from Manaan. Theron had you sneak through the lab…”

She trailed off, clearly embarrassed for some reason. Chessa would never understand Jedi. 

“So, I’m curious, how was your five-year nap?”

The Cathar tensed at her words and stared and her with wide eyes. Chessa’s face morphed into confusion. She glanced at Lana, who had frozen. She tilted her head. “Did you not tell her?”

“What…” the Cathar interrupted with a growl at the back of her throat “do you mean FIVE YEARS?!”

So Lana never told her that five years had passed since Darth Marr was killed and the Jedi taken captive. She gave Lana a “you’re explaining this one” look and spun her chair back around quickly. She could hear the astromech beep and whirr in a panic, before speeding under the console by Chessa’s feet. She reached a hand down to pat the droid consolingly.

Chessa wondered silently if Bowdaar and the kids had gotten to safety yet. She really did not want to explain to Ros, Risha and Akaavi that their kids ended up in danger if they hadn’t. Especially since the three were sent to her because their parents fully believed they’d be safer.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to the two force sensitives on her new ship. Kriff, if they didn’t both calm down, something would end up breaking. Shorimii was yelling about how Lana should have told her, while Lana was arguing that she hadn’t had time before.

“OI!” She snapped, pulling out her blaster and firing four bolts between the two, shocking them both into silence. “You break something, you buy it! This ship is our only way to safety at the moment, and I, for one, would prefer if it was kept intact!”

The two glared at each other once more, before both sitting back down angrily.

Chessa looked back outside suddenly as the ship came out of hyperspace. She ignored the confused looks the others sent her in favour of looking at the fuel tank.

“Welp, we aren’t making it to Asylum!”

“Why?!” Lana demanded.

“Ships out of fuel,” she turned off the unnecessary engines and grabbed hold of the controls. “Everyone hang on! I’ll guide the ship as it lands!”

Koth scoffed at that. “You mean we’re crashing!”

“Controlled crashing!” She snapped back as she began to steer the ship properly to damage the ship as little as possible as they landed.

The four sentients and two droids stared at the destroyed ship. Chessa’s mind was racing, already cataloguing damages and what parts and tools she would need to fix it. All in all, it was hopeless. She turned to the others in her group. 

“These two said you’re supposed to be a better pilot than me,” Koth began, “I’m not seeing it.”

Chessa bristled. At least she had gotten them all to somewhere that was relatively safe before they crashed! He had just crashed right in front of the people that he was supposed to be rescuing! “So far, I’ve done a hell of a lot better than you!” she shot back.

Lana sighed through her nose, used to dealing with the smuggler. Shorimii’s green eyes just glanced at their surroundings curiously.

“What planet are we on?” a good question. 

“The Endless Swamp,” was the reply from the Zakuulan. “Nobody has ever survived this place.”

Lana gave a sharp nod. “Chessa, contact the others. Somebody has to be-”

“No signal,” she reported. The blonde sighed once more. She was doing that a lot today. “Already tried to contact Theron, can’t get through though.”

Lana nodded once more. “Then we’ll attempt to find somewhere safe to stay until we can find a way off-world or until Theron and Cipher Nine trace you to this planet.”

For once, Chessa was relieved that she hadn’t deactivated the tracker her sister insisted on planting on her whenever she left Odessen. Even if they didn’t make it out of the swamp, they’d get a rescue within two weeks - the issue would be finding enough food and clean water to last until then.

“HK? Anything on your sensors?” The group turned to the droid in anticipation for the answer to Shorimii’s question.

“Confirmation: I have detected a large, metallic object nearby. Analysis suggests a technological construct, but there are no energy readings.”

“Whatever it is, it’s got a better chance at flying than this thing,” Koth commented.

“Unless Lana can magic us up some tools and parts to fix it up, as well as some fuel,” Chessa agreed. Lana gave a half-hearted glare. She really had softened up a bit since creating the Alliance. 

“The force is capable of many things, but it cannot “magic us up” anything. Currently, we need to hide the evidence of our landing - Skytroopers won’t be far behind us.”

“I’ll scavenge, you bury?” Koth suggested. Lana nodded.

“Just like Aaron Prime.”

Chessa really wanted to ask what happened on Aaron Prime, but figured that now wasn’t the time. Shorimii, however, did not have that sense. 

“It sounds like you two have been working together for a while.”

“Long enough…” Koth’s tone was guarded and untrusting. Chessa grabbed her arm.

“Look, I know that you have more questions than answers, but we should keep moving. While these two hide evidence, we can look for some food and fresh water. I have a couple of canteens, but they won’t last as long as we might need.”

Shorimii agreed and the two women departed. They trekked through the swamp, both memorizing the directions they went in and where they turned so they could get back without much issue. They killed creatures that Chessa had never seen before - giant, flying insects and ground ones too. Some were aquatic, but they quickly learned to avoid the murky water to avoid them. 

After nearly an hour of searching, they’d made it up a hill where there was a lake with clean enough water. Chessa removed the lid from a canteen and attached a filter to it instead. She tossed it to Shorimii to fill while she did the same with the second.

They both then began making their way back to the crash site, much slower as Chessa would climb trees to gather fruit.

“Can you please give me some answers, at least?”

Chessa hummed thoughtfully. “What questions do you have?”

“What happened to The Jedi Order? The Republic? Empire, Sith?”

“Apparently, Satele Shan decided to lead the Jedi into war against Zakuul alongside the Republic’s forces. Against the Barsen’Thor’s advice. A lotta Jedi died in that fight. As for the Empire, Darth Occlus was made the new “Empress” by the remaining Dark Council members. She managed to bargain for a sort of peace agreement with Arcann. Ain’t happy about it, but they essentially can’t build up enough weapons to fight with Zakuul. After he almost crushed the Republic completely, Chancellor Saresh also agreed to his terms.”

Shorimii smiled bitterly. “So the fighting between the Empire and Republic stopped because of Zakuul?”

“Oh Kriff no,” Chessa laughed darkly. “The idiots are still fighting each other - Arcann isn’t paying much attention to their weapons so long as he still knows he has the power to conquer them entirely if they dare turn weapons towards Zakuul.”

“But if they were to work together-” Shorimii began, scandalized.

“They could defeat Arcann if they actually worked together, yes, but they won’t. Saresh is a moron and Occlus is actually pretty smart. Found out about Lana’s side project in the first four months and has been using the war as a distraction while she funnels us the resources we need to build a proper military so we can go against Zakuul eventually.”

Shorimii paused and Chessa turned to look at her. “Darth Occlus? A Sith is being more reasonable than the Republic?”

“If there’s one thing Sith are good at, it’s ensuring their own survival,” Chessa pointed out.

Shorimii didn’t reply. Instead, the two continued on to rendezvous with Lana, Koth, and the droids. There were still creatures to kill, and Chessa thought they seemed endless. It wasn’t long until they made it to the crash site to find the other two members of their group had managed to completely get rid of the ship.

With that, they set off to find whatever HK picked up on its scanners.

“Wow…” Shorimii stared up at the large ship in front of them. It wasn’t the biggest she’d seen, but it seemed too big for someone to just… lose. 

Chessa, meanwhile, looked like a child on life day. “If we can get this running,” she started, mental gears turning, “then we can definitely get off world! Not to mention, it would be a kriffing good asset for the Alliance!” 

“Would you be able to fly it?” Lana asked.

“Lana, you should know by now that I can fly anything. Even Corso would be able to fly this when I go on runs.”

Koth, Shorimii realized, seemed startled and hurt that Lana had asked Chessa rather than him. She wondered once again what the deal between the two was.

Koth turned his attention to studying the ship as Chessa started rambling off the stuff they would need in order to get the ship back up and running properly. His loud laugh then drew everyone’s attention.

“Haha! Do you have any idea what this is?!”

“It looks like some kind of old spacecraft,” Shorimii said.

“This,” Koth gestured to the ship, “is the gravestone. This is the only ship that went up against the Eternal Fleet and won! Do you have any idea how long people have been looking for this thing?!” 

“And we just happened to stumble upon it?” Lana asked.

“You said this ship went up against the Eternal Fleet and won. But it’s rusting in a swamp while the Fleet is still around,” Shorimii pointed out.

Chessa was still grinning. “We can fix it up. If it really did go up against the Eternal Fleet, then it can win again with some of Risha’s upgrades.”

Shorimii then remembered that Risha, despite being a queen, was also a mechanic and an inventor. Chessa had only ever trusted stuff that Risha built, to Theron’s chagrin.

“The Fleet is even older that Valkorian, maybe even older than Zakuul! The battle happened centuries ago, nobody knows the details of the whole war but every story talks about the Gravestone: One ship with the firepower to take on the Eternal Fleet. This is fate!” Koth pointed at Shorimii while Lana frowned at him. “We get your Outlander, find exactly the weapon we need…we’re going to win this thing, Lana. It’s destiny!”

If Shorimii previously thought that Chessa looked like a child on life day, Koth definitely matched that energy. Perhaps those two could eventually be friends if Koth could get over his jealousy…then again, Chessa’s ego would just feed his insecurities and jealousy more.

Lana looked uncertain. “It’s certain no coincidence, but destiny?” She shook her head. “I think there’s something else going on here.”

“Do you think this is some kind of set up?” Shorimii aksed.

“No, not exactly,” Lana admitted. “I-I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

“Let’s have a look inside, huh?” Koth suggested. “Your captain already took off running into it.”

Both force-sensitives startled at that. Looking around, they realized that Chessa had, indeed, gone inside the ship while they were talking. Koth’s history lesson likely had her bored. Either that or she decided to get a headstart on fixing it so they could all get off world. She had mentioned earlier that she had kids to get back to.

Without further ado, they went in to investigate.