A ship dropped out of orbit, the sight of Yaven making the pilot sigh.
“What am I doing here again?” he muttered, taking his feet off the control panel – careful not to bump any controls – and sat up. A small droid, a BB unit, BB-3, that he has stolen from its malefactors a year ago buzzed quietly.
“Yeah, I know why, something about a rancour being left on planet, but why am I here?” he sighed, throwing his arms in the air. The droid buzzed again, and he sighed.
“I guess, but money isn’t as important as my life. I mean, that’s a rancour!” He spun in his chair, turning to face the droid. “You’ve never seen any, but I have. I grew up on the same ball of sand that they come from.” He scowled, turning back to the window.
“Well, let’s get this over with.” Spotting a likely place to land, he began to prepare the ship for landing. As it spun, slowly becoming horizontal, the cockpit spun as well, keeping him upright.
Once it can to a stop, the pilot climbed down, joining his droid on the floor of the ship. Giving it an absent pat on its head, he quickly dressed into his battered mandolorian armour. It wasn’t originally his, neither was the ship. They belonged to his mentor, Boba Fett, but had been passed down to him.
Taking his blaster, for even though his job was to only observe the rancour, to see how well it was surviving on Yaven, he wanted to be sure.
Then he opened the back, and looked out into the woods. Sighing, he stepped out, scanning the forest through his helmet. BB-3 rolled after him, buzzing and beeping softly.
“No, you can’t come with me,” Jeb said, turning back. “Its way to dangerous here, watch the ship.”
The droid bleeped mournfully, slowly rolling back into the ship. Once the door was up, and the droid safely inside, Jeb activated his jetpack, flying into the air and over the trees.
He saw nothing for a long time, flying for hours over the forest. Shuffles of small animals, and cries of birds were the only sound. The mercenary began to grow bored, hoping that he would soon see a sign of the rancour, if only for something to happen.
Suddenly, the trees stopped. It happened suddenly, and stopped in surprise, hovering over the large, empty piece of land that look surprisingly like a landing bay.
Interested, he dropped down, landing on the platform. It was flat to the ground, and in a large clearing. To the north, a small cluster of buildings lay.
Confused, Jeb began to move towards it, his blaster at the ready. He soon made it to the buildings, and what he saw made him grip the blaster all the more. There was one large one and a few smaller one around, seeming to be barracks.
But it wasn’t that which had made him nervous. In front of the building lay bodies, dead people. He stepped back in shock, before moving forward. Questions began rushing through him mind, who were they? What were they doing on Yaven IV? No one lived here, that was why those who hired him had let the rancour lose there four years ago. But most importantly, how had they died? Was whatever killed them still around?
They seemed to have been killed recently, only just before he had arrived on the planet, just this morning. And they didn’t seem to be killed by a rancour.
He scanned the bodies, making sure that no one was alive, and began a search of the settlement. It seemed to be well established, having been here for a few years. A faint memory came back, something about a new Jedi temple to train more jedi. But he hadn’t paid it much heed, and didn’t know much about it.
A quick examine revealed that there was no one living in the settlement, if something as advance as this could be called a settlement. Jeb had also decided that this was a jedi training facility, due to the high number of lightsabers.
He had never seen one before, but after examination, and nearly cutting off an arm with the blue blade that had leaped out of the hilt, he decided that these were indeed the weapons the jedi used.
Still wanting answers, he began to search the forest, thinking that someone would have escaped. As he moved out, he did see a few bodies, not as many as in the main settlement, but some. Coming up with nothing, he began to do a fly over, scanning the near forest with a heat scanner.
Finally he found something. The heat tracker had located something larger than any small animal that would live in the forest. Slowly flying down, he landed in the woods and surveyed the scene.
The trees were scared with char marks, and one was even cut in half, its hollow inside showing the small play house of children.
The leaves were tossed about, showing signs of a fight. Adding to this were the two figures. One was a young togruta, a male, cut nearly in half by some strange weapon. It seemed to have been cauterized, no blood coming from the large wound, and none staining the leaves around.
Leaning over him, soft sobs coming from her body, was a twi’lek. Her back was towards him, and her shoulders were racked with sobs.
He hesitated, before moving forward, making sure to stand on some dry leaves to as not to startle her.
She spun, her hand moving to the metal cylinder that hung from her belt. She hesitated, her hand still on the lightsaber.
“W-who are you?” she asked, her voice a little shaky. “Where are you fro-om?”
“Hey, easy there kid,” Jeb said, taking his helmet off and laying aside his blaster. “I ain’t gonna hurt yah.”
She narrowed her eyes, standing from the crouch she was in.
“What are you doing here? Are you in league with Kylo Ren?”
“Kylo – who? I was sent here ta track down a rancour. It was planted ‘ere a few years ago, my employers wanted ta see how well it survived.”
The girl frowned, her hand moving away from the weapon.
“A rancour? Yeah, we fought one a few years ago. Killed it too.” She looked him in the eyes, and Jeb could see a deep sadness.
“You killed it? Alone?” He was surprised, the only person he had heard of that had killed a rancour on his own was Luke Skywalker, the famed Jedi. But the twi’lek shook her head.
“I had friends. Shosmi and –,” she glanced down at the dead togruta, and whispered, “And Maki.”
Suddenly, she looked up, a light of hope in her eyes.
“Shosmi is alright, right? She’s alive?” she asked, almost begging him to tell her that she was, that her friend was alive. Jeb bit his lip, not wanting to distress the girl, but he wanted to lie even less.
“I haven’t seen any one – livin’ that is. She could of run into the woods.”
She sighed, looking at the leaves between her feet again.
“I need to find her,” she said, after a pause. Then she began walking, picking up speed until she was running towards the buildings.
~*~
Vanha ran through the woods, leaving the strange man behind. She didn’t know who he was, but she didn’t care at the moment. Shosmi had to be alive, she had to be!
Tears blurred her vision as she remembered waking up, alone in the woods, Maki lying dead beside her. Then came the anger, the burning anger against Kylo Ren, against those who had killed him. Then the grief, and with that weariness. She had just stopped, throwing herself over her friend and crying.
Then the stranger came, gallivanting her into action and reminding her of her best friend, Shosmi. Guilt gnawed at her as she ran, guilt for leaving her friend in the time of her need. If Shosmi wasn’t alive, it was all her fault.
She reached the temple. Not slowing, and barley aware of a voice calling her to stop, to answer his stupid questions about a long dead rancour, she rushed around the building, stopping at last in front of the temple doors.
Bodies lay in front of it, all dead. Vanha could hardly bring herself to move closer, could hardly bring herself to search them, to find Shosmi.
Slowly she stepped forward, over a body. She looked over them, hoping, praying, wishing that her friend wouldn’t be here. But her hopes were in vain.
Shosmi lay there, her red hair thrown over her face. She was dead.
Vanha stared at her, feeling nothing. She was drained, emotionally and physically, and there were no more tears to spend. She just stood there, looking down at her best friend, hopelessness and dispar threatening to overwhelm her.
Suddenly, she snapped. All the emotions she had felt over the last few hour came to a head, and she screamed. Throwing back her head, she screamed, over and over again, letting all her fear out. And replacing that fear, anger came.
“I’ll kill him,” she whispered. “I will kill Kylo Ren.” Raising her voice, she shouted, “If you hear me! The next time I see you; it will be your last! Do you hear me!” she screamed.
Suddenly, she felt enclosed. With so much death around her, she felt sick. And so she ran, leaving the bodies behind, pushing her way through the trees. She ran blindly, nothing in her mind, only a burning anger, hate even.
She wasn’t aware of anything expect for the hate, and she ran. Needing to get away from her memories, from her hate. Until finally, she could run no more. She just dropped, laying where she fell, tears seeping from her eyes.
And then she slept. Overwhelmed by the events of the past day, she slept. The hate fear, anger, rage and grief was washed away by weariness, and she slept.
