Starlight

Night stood in the room again. This time something was different though. He was backed against the wall in the last sliver of light. Darkness surrounded him on all sides. He brought his saber up to drive and block the pounding attacks, but failed, has his body took more and more punishment. His head was pounding and his arm hung limp at his side. A small light grew on the opposite side of the room. The light grew until the dream dissolved and he awoke in the sparking remains of the bridge. John was dragging him to his feet.

“C’mon now, you aren’t dead yet.”

The bridge was dark and bodies were scattered around the room. A small fire burned in one corner while a few soldiers searched for other survivors. By the way they were shaking their heads the result wasn’t good.

John helped him outside to where other survivors were being treated. Night’s vision swam and he fell to his knees. John was at his side immediately.

“Whoa there, you need to be careful. You have a concussion. That much I can tell. Let’s get you laid up against a tree and then we’ll talk what’s what.”

John led Night to the edge of the clearing. He raised his hand to call a medic but Night waved him down.

“I can heal myself later. We need to discuss what happened.”

John plopped down next to him.

“Well where do we start?”

Night rubbed his chin.

“What happened after I blacked out?”

“After you collapsed the ship fell from hyperspace. We had come out near a terrestrial world, so that was good. The gravity well caught us and reeled us in. The ship started venting when we entered the atmosphere and we lost our engines. I’d say maybe twenty people died on re-entry. Otherwise I think casualties were light.”

The medic had come over while they were talking and had wrapped Night’s head up. He jumped to his feet and walked towards the group of people.

“Run roll call. See who we have.”

John pulled out a small datapad and began reading off names. The casualties were higher than expected.

“How did we lose forty-eight people of an eighty person crew? Isn’t this bucket supposed to be unbreakable?”

Night kicked the ship, venting his rising anger. Some many had died, was it really worth it?

Master Durron hopped out of a tree beside Night.

“Don’t blame her. She wasn’t the one disobeying her superiors’ orders.”

Night whipped around to Master Durron.

“Don’t even get me started. You were perfectly content to let us be captured by the Sith armada. If it wasn’t for your lack of orders we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Master Durron waved his hand around in the air.

“Lack of orders? I specifically told you not to take us to hyperspace. I also told you to try to raise the enemy ships. Where did you see a lack of orders?”

“How about when you didn’t order us to fight back? Or to run? You left us to sit there, like bantha fodder.”

Master Durron was screaming now. Spittle flew from his mouth.

“THAT’S BECAUSE WE WERE BANTAHA FODDER! IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU, MOST OF THOSE PEOPLE WOULD STILL BE ALIVE!”

John shoved his way between them.

“Shut up! The both of you. As your commanding officer I order you to both stand down and walk away.”

He whipped his pistol out and pointed it at Master Durron’s face.

“If you say one word about my heritage, there will be twenty shots in your eye before you can blink, clear?”

Master Durron stared him down with a look of pure hatred.

“Crystal.”

Night turned and stalked towards the tree line. Master Durron jumped back into the tree he had been hiding in, leaving John alone to face the small crowd of survivors.

“We are leaving in half an hour so get what you need for the road. We have crashed on an unknown planet but scanners say that intelligent forms of life exist. We will try to seek them out and find our way back to Corscant. If it doesn’t work out we may have to fight our way out, so take weapons, as well has food and water. Pair up and gather supplies. That is all. WHO ARE WE?”

The soldiers answered with loud, strong voices.

“WE ARE THE CALVARY!”

John nodded and set off into the woods to find Night.

Night had found a small stream and was cleaning his armor. The breastplate was covered in ash and soot. Night first ran it under the water, and then scrubbed at it with his hand. He ran his hand over the scarred and scratched surface. It had several fresh, burned out gouges. He ran his hands over a particularly broad delve. It ran from the ribs down to the edge of the plate. Night noticed the fact that the edges of the cut had been burned. It looked similar to a lightsaber cut. The only problem was that this plate had never been hit with anything. Lightsaber or otherwise, so how had it gotten cut? Images of bright light and agonizing pain flashed through his mind. He opened his eyes into another vision.

He stood in the rain with a man shooting a blaster at him. The shots thudded against his chest and as he fell he saw John standing there holding the blaster. Then a crimson saber pierced his back and the vision faded into darkness.  He shot up alert with John shaking his shoulders.

“Night, Night! What’s wrong with you man? Are you daydreaming or are you just trying to ignore me?”

Night shook his head. He gazed at his armor. It was now clean and unscarred.

“I’m fine, just… zoned out for a second.”

John pulled Night to his feet.

“C’mon, we’re leaving out soon and we need you’re help.”

Night nodded.

“Yeah, I’ll be right over; I just… need a minute.”

“Are you okay? You seem… out of it.”

Night shook his head again.

“I just need a minute to think is all.”

“I’ll see you in a few then, okay?”

Night nodded

“Yeah.”

John walked away and Night once again stood alone in the woods. A branch snapped overhead. Night ignited his lightsaber.

“Who’s there? Show yourself!”

He turned in a small circle but didn’t see anything. With a grunt he snapped on his armor and walked towards the crash site.

She let out a breath of relief. The human had been very alert and had almost seen her. She didn’t understand the language it spoke. She didn’t know how it had heard the twig break. It had been tiny and she had almost missed it herself. Yet the human had whipped around like a tree had fallen. Then there was the glowing light from the small metal object. It had been a blazing blue and had come form both ends. Was it a weapon of some sort? A tool? She decided to keep tracking the humans. If they showed no signs of aggression then they would reveal themselves. If they were violent however… things could get messy.