Chapter 3: The Hunt
The ship had been powering for hours through hyperspace now. The Navi-computer was automatically tracking and guiding us through the hyperlane. The mood was tense, all aboard waiting suspensefully. We were hunting now, but we still didn't know if we even wanted to reach what was being hunted.
The flimmer of hyperspace outside the transparisteel windows was impossible to comprehend. The longer you looked, the more puzzled you felt. There was always a new level of detail and intecrasy. It was said that if one stared for too long into hyperspace, one would go mad. I could see that now. "Captain, it seems we are running out of coaxium, there is a civilized planet nearby that I have heard refines and sells". "Prepare for reemergence Dari, were landing". "Understood Captain."
Hyperspace melted away in front of us, and the blinding light from a close star emerged. In orbit of the sun, you could see a small but beautiful marble of a blue little planet. It had no moons nor other natural satellites. As a matter of fact, it seemed to lay completely alone in the system.
The shuttle burned through the atmosphere, its thermal shielding protecting us from the firestorm outside as we pushed through the sky. A trail of mist and cloud strayed behind us as we broke through layers of clouds. The planet was mostly ocean, dots of land and shallows visible in clusters around us. There was one particularly large island that seemed to have some constructs of metal and textile. The retro thrusters burned as we landed on a ramshackle pad.
A group of natives, clad in robes approached us. "You are Imperials, are you not?" One of them asked. He had dark leathery skin, and as he spoke I could see that he had barely any teeth left at all. "Yes, we are here on Imperial business, does that pose a problem of some sort". I answered, trying not to sound aggressive in my manner of speaking, as I had been told I could do unintentionally. "All we ask is that your troopers leave their weapons and remove their helmets then we will supply you with whatever you need". The stormtroopers seemed to object as first, but I signalled them to do as they were told. "Now, what can we offer you?" The man asked us, calmer than before". "We are here to refuel our Shuttle with fresh coaxium". Three children came out of the shadow created by one of the homemade sunroofs, one of them carrying a large cable connected to the building.
After the children were done refuelling the shuttle, I thanked the man and paid the price he offered, plus a little extra I told him to give to the children for their help. As we waited for the charge cells on the shuttle to refuel, I overheard the men speaking about something that interested me. "There is talk of strange times and equally strange folk around". One of the men said in an easy tone to his fellow. "I have heard of a strange spacecraft in orbit of the Dathomir". Dathomir I thought to myself, Dathomir should only be a few parsecs away from here.
Dathomir is a strange planet. Seemingly inhospitable and hostile, but it is full of power lurking in its dark crevasses. It was one of the key points during the clone wars. It is said that the planet is home to a group of religious fanatics, believing in some strange and ancient religion. There wasn't a place you wouldn't rather be.
As we entered a low orbit of the planet, you could see large strange forests and swamps stretching over the surface. All painted red by the dying star that it was orbiting.
Plumes of smoke and ash could be seen on the distant horizon, and parts of the forest had erupted into flame. We guided the shuttle close to the surface, our shadow moving quickly over the swamplands below.
In a clearing, a small town appeared. Flames and smoke rose from the little houses, the streets devastated and the dead scattered in the ruins. "They have been here," I said quietly to myself as I viewed the carnage from the shuttle hovering above.
"Stormtroopers, look for survivors." They spread out, walking through the grey rubble of the ruined town. Suddenly, something moved in the scrap in front of me, and faint screams could be heard. I rushed there and started digging with my bare hands among the sharp shards of metal plating and splintered wood. Soon Rale and Hans joined me, and after a short while, we uncovered enough to get a glimpse of the woman screaming in distress.
She was a middle-aged, seemingly an immigrant from another system. She was scared and a bruised but otherwise in good health. We had given her a blanket and a cup of tea, and she sat across from me in the shuttle cockpit command room. "Explain the attack, how come you are the only survivor?" I asked, trying not to come off as too aggressive. "There were strange men, they… they took the children… all of them". the lady stuttered. "What is your name?" I asked her, ignoring the strange statement. "They only took the humans, the rest were��� the rest were executed…" The woman was obviously in shock, shaking uncontrollably "We need to know what happened, it is the only way we can help preventing this happening in other communities such as your own".
"The machine men took the children. All of them!" Was the only thing she managed to say. Over and over again she whispered in between her teeth. She clung to the blanket so hard, you could see her knuckles whitening from the tension. Who were these machine men? Where they droids maybe? And why had they taken the children?
We could not leave the woman behind, so we decided to bring her along to the station where she could be transferred safely to another system. I felt rather unfulfilled as we pierced the atmosphere and out into the void. We had been searching for days, and still, it did not feel like we had come any closer to finding the ship.
I gazed across the planetary surface, watching and admiring the details of lakes, mountains and red desserts as the world grew smaller under us. Soon we would be far enough away from the planet's gravity to engage into hyperspace. "Sir, there seems to be a disturbance in hyperspace," Dari said as he flickered franticly around scanners and switches. "Could it be interdimensional?" I asked as I rose up from my seat and approached Dari in the cockpit. "No, these are classic starship signals" he answered me as I stood over him, watching him try to track the signal through hyperspace. "Imperial?" I asked him, trying to decipher the codes myself, although I had no knowledge of how to do so. "Those are Rebel ships, and quite large too, possibly a cruiser with an escort, activate the emergency warp space beacon". Rale answered Dari. I flinched as he spoke. I hadn't seen him coming and it felt like he had suddenly just appeared beside me. Now he sat by Dari, tinkering with the buttons on the ship's dashboard trying to activate the beacon.
Suddenly, the ship went dark, as something big blocked out the sunlight that had just illuminated the interior of our shuttle. The Rebel cruiser had just emerged from hyperspace, and now it's escort-ships appeared behind it. "This is Admiral Raddus of the cruiser Sovereign, surrender yourselves, or prepare to be annihilated" A voice came from the radio channel followed by static. "How should we proceed captain?" Dari asked me, removing his pilot outfitted headset. "Deactivate all weapons systems, and prepared to be boarded, this is not a fight we can win" I answered him.
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