Private Not a single one left behind.

[Lanx Velishin]

There wasn’t a moment that she had stopped thinking about what had happened in those mines. What had happened after the attacked occurred. And what had happened..that made him lose the closest thing had had ever had to family. All of which culminated in the rescue that brought him away from those horrid mines feeling empty. The Cathar should have been much happier to no longer spend his days mining for someone else, with the constant danger of losing a limb to a rusty machine becoming faulty.

It didn’t matter. Nothing did without her.

He barely even remembered how they got separated. All he did know was that cave in that cut off half the tunnel from the exit. One side of the cave-in had him..and the other had her. He was on the side with the exit, and she wasn’t. And there was no way to get to her. Not that he hadn’t tried. But by the time he was outside and flying anything remotely spaceworthy, the last transport carrying the slaves were gone. And Sybilla with it. Taking his heart with her.

The next few days were little more than a blur for the Cathar. He remembered talking to the leader of the squadron that had broken them out. Lanx had tried his best to put a smile on his face, thank her for rescuing him and the other slaves from that horrid place. The twilek he had met during the raid had even asked him to stay on as a pilot after they had found places for all the rest of the slaves to be safe. He was a decent pilot then, and had been able to help with the relocation as well. They seemed..happy to bring him on. And he was happy-ish to join. This Starfall Squadron was the best chance he ever had at seeing Syb again.

That was over a week ago. It had taken that long to find a place for the other slaves to put down and help them get settled in. It was another half week before any news of where the slavers of the mines had fled to, and where they had taken what was left of their slave force. Even then, to plan the attack safely and actually get in the position to launch it had taken a while longer. By the time they were finally in hyperspace, it had almost been two weeks since he had seen the grumpy Chiss’s face.

What he wouldn’t give to find her again, have her punch his arm for being annoyed at his happiness or..anything. To just have her back. And it was looking like there was a possibility that this would happen again. They would just have to go through hell and high water to do so. And then some. Not that Lanx would have it any other way.

Well, maybe one other way. The way that they had both escaped that day. Together.

The time for reminiscing was past, however. He was hurrying now, pair of flight gloves in one hand, pilot’s helmet held tightly in the other, and a DH-17 strapped to the outside of his thigh. They would be coming out hyperspace soon, not that Lanx fully knew their final destination. All he did know was that starfall was allowing him to fly a starfighter. Or the cargo ship. Just..fly something to wherever they were going to get Sybilla back. A lot was supposed to be explained at the briefing. He just hoped what they were facing wasn’t too daunting.

His boots echoed throughout the hanger as he came in, near the back of the small group of pilots, looping his arm around a his helmet as he did so. Soon, they would know exactly what they were facing. Soon, they would fly in to the jaws of the enemy. Soon…

Soon, he’d get his Sybilla back.

Hopefully she wasn’t broken by the time he got to her.

| Sybilla | Kiandra Ceryss |​

 

[Sybilla]

Sybilla had never imagined darkness would become such a close and comforting friend. When her life had revolved around the mine’s darkness meant a number of things. A cave in, an unexpected explosion, the light bulb in their quarters finally giving out… it was never a positive thing. Whenever you found darkness in the mines, pain and suffering were sure to follow, but she wasn’t in the mines anymore. She was here, wherever here was. Some kind of correctional facility for people the hutts couldn’t stomach losing to their more excitable guards. Darkness here meant bedtime. It meant being sent to your crowded bunk room to sleep for the next few hours. It meant being left alone.

On this particular night, the guards had sent them to bed early. It wasn’t a strange occurrence, but it did leave Sybilla wondering what they had planned for the morning. Unblinking, hardened eyes gazed up unforgivingly at the dimpled metal ceiling. It was inches from her face, just as the bunk underneath must have been inches from her. Kriffing cheapskates. Sybilla thought to herself as she rolled over to turn away from the rest of the room.

The wall that her bunk pressed up against was made of the same metal as the rest of the building. It was the softer kind of metal, the type that often housed cheaper parts in crappy ships. No surprise there. She had discovered that particular trait the first night she’d stayed here, and since then she’d been scratching out chunks of it to keep herself entertained. Thin lines made by her sharp, uncut nails to signify how many days she had been here. Twenty-one so far and counting. There were a few other drawings there too. A really kriff version of her tool kit back in the mines, an extremely poor attempt at a sketch of her home planet… and him. He was everywhere. Little drawings, big drawings, medium-sized drawings. Everywhere she could fit him, there he was. Everything down to his slightly lopsided right ear to the speckles and stripes of different colour fur that dotted his face.

It was a poor replacement. His smile never seemed quite right, neither did his eyes, but it was still him. She hoped he was happy wherever he was, and safe. He deserved safe. He deserved happy too. Even if it was a million lightyears away from her. Suddenly, hot tears began to prickle her eyes and blur her vision. Sybilla huffed as loud as she dared, shoved the blankets against the wall to cover the drawings and turned herself back to face the room. Tears were pointless. There was nobody there to hear them anyway, or at least nobody here who cared. The mines were a dog eat dog world, but the correction facility was something altogether different. Nobody even dared look at each other. It was a place where spirits went to be broken, and they had done a damn good job of it.

Wincing as she attempted to settle on the stump that used to be an arm, Sybilla’s mind drifted to Lanx again. She was glad it was her here, and not him. He was brave, certainly one to stick up for himself, but he wouldn’t have lasted a minute in this place. It would have stomped on his happy go lucky outlook on life till it was nothing but dying embers. Sybilla, on the other hand, was a morbid and grumpy old soul. If anyone could handle this hot mess, it was her. Hope wasn’t something she coveted, so there was no hope for the hutts to crush. Yet she still couldn’t help fantasising about him rescuing her. What would he say if he knew what she had been through? What would he do when he saw the missing arm? The bruises? The scars? The chunks of missing flesh?

Sybilla grumbled again and shoved her face into the stained, piss-poor imitation of a pillow. Tomorrow she’d wake to the sound of the blaring alarm, scratch another day off on her wall, and suffer whatever the hutts had in store for the down and outs that had dared to challenge them.

Lanx Velishin Kiandra Ceryss ​

 

[Kiandra Ceryss]

Making the strike against the Hutt controlled mines had been a success though it wasn't something she could call complete. A shuttle had escaped and from the what she knew, it had contained slaves from the mines. As those who had been saved were moved to possible new homes, Kia set to work to locate the shuttle's destination using all intel that had been gathered on Hutt operations following the decline of the Black Sun's control. Though it took time and several scouting trips, an answer had finally been gathered and ships were mobilized in order to assure that this time, the Hutts wouldn't slip through her grasp.

Standing atop her A-Wing, she knelt down to speak in hushed tones to her Twi'lek wingman. This was an important strike and given the target, time would be of the essence. Glancing around, she waited as pilots gathered and her droid, an R7 unit rolled over to her ship, beeping in confirming tones. Standing upright, she tucked her own helmet against her side with her arm.

"We'll be arriving soon so listen up! The shuttle that fled the mines led us to yet another Hutt installation. That said, this one won't be so pretty. Thanks to Nova, we know exactly what type of place this is." Glancing to her side, she gave a nod to R7 as the holo of a large fortification appeared, laid out between herself and the rest of them. "This, is a Hutt Cartel Re-Education center. Anyone too valuable to kill are sent here in order to be made more.. loyal."

"There are heavier defenses here, as expected. So, we're going in with some heavier support. Pilots, if you spot any transports aim only to disable. Once we arrive, all wings are to launch and form up. I'll be taking Wing 1, Lanx, you'll be with Nova in 2. Blaize, you're in charge of 3."

Pausing for a moment, she looked around at each of the pilots. "Watch each other's backs out there. Once the enemy fighters are dealt with, we get in, load up, and get out. We'll be operating on limited time once we get in the facility itself. Our ships cannot remain in-system forever."

Nodding to R7, the holo faded before the droid rolled off, leaving the hangar. "If you have any questions, suggestions, or otherwise, now is the time. If not, get to your ships and get ready!"

Lanx Velishin Sybilla​

 

[Lanx Velishin]

A..hutt re-education facility? Oh..oh no.

Any sort of slave had heard of these places, and the horrors one might face within their walls. They broke people, slaves down here. Broke them down to their most core essence. Then they took that essence, tortured it to compliance, and left many of those that came out of those facilities only not so braindead enough to complete menial tasks. That was assuming one even made it out alive.

He didn’t even know if Sybilla was still alive in there. Or what state she would be in once he got her out, assuming she was still in one piece, with her mind still intact. Destroying this facility, damaging it as much as possible so it would never hurt someone again, would be a tradeoff. Especially if they his Chiss in any sort of long term harm. If that was the case, and he found her…broken, he would tear this facility down to it’s very atoms.

But that..that wasn’t the way to think. No, he had to remain positive. Sybilla would be alive, and she would be just fine. Knowing that grumpy alien, there was a punch in the arm waiting on him for not getting her out of there sooner. Or for them not escaping together. Both things that he would need to apologize profusely for. Not that the Cathar minded one, single, bit.

Lanx was extremely glad to not being put on the bench, or to the side, and was actually allowed to join in on the fight. Apparently, the Twilek that had rescued him from the mines would be his wingmate, which brought a little smile to his face. Catching the pink alien’s eyes, he gave a little mock salute, tossed his helmet onto his head, then practically sprinted off to his ship. It didn’t look like it would be nearly as fast as what the squadron commander would be flying, he think she called it an..an A-Wing? What he was flying was one of the x-wings. A ship he had flown once or twice, but never into battle like this.

When he finally started climbing up the yellow pilot’s ladder into the ship, the sounds of binary squeaking at him caught his attention just as he was hopping in. An astromech, grey with deep blue highlights, was being loaded into the slot right behind it’s cockpit, and seemed very quizzical who the furry pilot getting into the cockpit was. “Who, me? My name is Lanx. And you are, my little grey friend?” Another string of binary was bleeped out, of which he understood about…half. Syb had always told him he needed to learn more binary, but it seemed unnecessary to him. Now…

“A5…V2? Huh. I like that name.” He flashed the droid a smile, then hopped into the cockpit, pressing a couple of buttons quickly to lower the canopy. V2 started to speak again, with at least this string of beeps being translated onto one of his screens. “Well yes, we are about to fly into battle. I just hope we make it out perfectly alive.” The cathar didn’t pay much attention to the next string of words, busy starting up the ship. It didn’t take long, and soon he was idling, ready for them to finally come out of hyperspace.

Just hold out a little longer Syb. Just a little longer.

| Sybilla | Kiandra Ceryss |​

 

[Sybilla]

The morning bell blared. It wasn’t a bell, really, more like the sound of some animal dying a horrifically bloody death. Nobody spoke as they rose from their beds, including Sybilla. Half of the people she shared a bunk with had been here longer than she had. They were skin and bones. The bruises and scars were so thick it was sometimes impossible to tell what they had looked like before they arrived. Sybilla was grateful that nobody ever looked at each other because looking at the grim reality of her future made her sick to the stomach.

They marched out of the dorms, one by one, to a fenced clearing covered in acrid orange dust. When the guards finally emerged, they seemed in good spirits. Lucky karks. Breaking off to inspect the line, one of them homed in on Sybilla. They seemed to take a particular fondness picking at her. No wonder considering the fuss she’d made when she first arrived. She was an easy target in their eyes.

“Whaddya’ say, little chissy? Feeling like a good girl today?” Sybilla gritted her teeth, so hard she it vibrated her eardrums. The guards here were craftier than the ones in the mines. O, how Sybilla wished they were here instead. They didn’t care. Sure, from time to time they would beat the kriff out of some poor miner for looking at them wrong, but that was it. They didn’t take the time to get to know the miners so that they could pluck at their nerves to gain a rise. They didn’t torture them with their deepest anxieties and fears. They weren’t paid for any of that. Sybilla didn’t know how much the hutts paid the sick kriffers that worked in the correctional facility, but she would have bet her life savings on the fact that any of them would have done it for free.

She took a deep breath, to quell the fires of anger in the pit of her stomach. In some ways, this was her worst nightmare. Sybilla had never been one for keeping her mouth shut. Never took her punches lying down, but that’s what they wanted. Up to now, she had been doing a good job of ignoring it. Partially because the only time she had bitten back was the reason she was now one limb down, though more largely due to the fact that she was stubborn as kriff. If snapping back was what they were after, they sure as kriff weren’t getting it from her.

Unfortunately, in places like this, silence was often punishable too. With little warning, the guard removed the homemade baton at his side and struck Sybilla over the head with it. A metallic taste spread across her tongue instantly, coupled with bright flashing stars that blurred her eyes to the world around her. Pain ripped across her skull and something wet trickled down her forehead, but Sybilla made no noise. She didn’t even lift her arm to catch the droplet of blood that now seeped across her collar. Pleased somewhat by the sight of blood, the guard moved on to his next victim. Sybilla let out the breath she had been holding in.

How much longer could she do this?

For the last few days, she’d been musing over a pact to herself. She had suffered through eighteen days of keeping her cool and ignoring the insults, taking the beatings and the torture without a tear. Forty days, she had whispered to herself one night. Forty days in this place is enough to make anyone do something insane. Sybilla was only just half-way to forty days and she already felt the slowly creeping darkness of insanity in the corners of her mind. Forty days was her cut off point. If Lanx hadn’t come for her by then, then it was likely that he was never coming. If Lanx hadn’t come by then, Sybilla had promised to test the limits of the psychos running this place. The fact that silence was often enough to get a rise out of one of them was proof enough.

A slow and painful death was far more appealing to Sybilla then spending the next few years of her life being forced into submission.

Lanx Velishin | Kiandra Ceryss ​

 

[Kiandra Ceryss]

Kiandra lingered, standing on the nose of her interceptor, one of her pilots stepping forward as the others moved to their craft. Glancing down, a brow raised at the look that Blaze had been giving her. "What's on your mind? I know that look." Kneeling down, she set her helmet down. "It's the Cathar. Lanx, was it? You're letting him fly? With all due respect.. why?" Lowering her head, she released a sigh before looking him straight in the eyes. "I'm letting him fly because he shows promise. We got him out of that place and he took the controls of that transport willingly. Is it a risk? Sure. But, so was allowing you to get back into the cockpit after you toasted our first T-70. Or did you forget how you earned your callsign?" Her tone turns cold as she calls up the memories of his 'test flight' of the more advanced X-Wings that they possessed. Picking up her helmet, glanced down at him once more before turning to climb into the A-Wing. "Trust me, he'll prove why I'm giving him a chance.. just like how you have proved why you deserved another chance.. Go on, get to your fighter. We'll be dropping momentarily."

Final preparations were made as the canopy of her interceptor closed, helmet pulled onto her head. The distant hum of the ship's hyperdrive had been silenced by the seals of the interceptor's cockpit and was soon replaced by the growing hum of the twin engines which rested behind her. Without a droid, every pre-flight check was made was on her. Taking a glance towards the X-Wing that had been assigned to Lanx, she didn't know exactly who it was that they were going to rescue but she did know that they were very important to him. This wouldn't be an easy strike like the one the squadron had run on the mine.. but it was neccessary.

"Frostbite, we're dropping in five.. four... three... two.."

Finally they had arrived in the system which held the target. Taking a deep breath, she opened her comms to all wings and the ship which housed their craft.

"We have arrived in system. All wings are go. Once out, link up with your wing lead and make for the target. Stay together! They're likely expecting us, so expect heavy opposition. This is why we brought heavier support. Let's get this done and make it back in one piece!"

Awaiting the others' departure of the hanger, her fingers clutched the controls tightly before relaxing. Her left hand leaves the controls briefly to touch the bracelet which rested upon her right wrist. 'Whoever this is to Lanx.. I'd do the same for any of you..'

Lanx Velishin Sybilla

 

[Lanx Velishin]

"Frostbite, we're dropping in five..”

The countdown started soon after Lanx had jumped into his x-wing and gone through the final checklist. He had done it quick enough, at least, in his mind, but just finishing in time definitely shot his blood pressure up a bit. Or maybe it was that this was actually happening. That they were finally attacking the people that had..stolen his friend. His best friend. He didn’t know if they were anything more than that. It was always mentioned that trauma brought people together, same with tough times, but Sybilla was…different. Assuming anything was about as dangerous as flying with only one engine on an x-wing. In an electrical storm. Without an astromech.

“four... three...”

A beeping from the astromech compartment behind him caught his attention, turning to the mini screen on the right to read what the droid had said. He was thankful for that little screen, because if he hadn’t had it, there was a very good chance that he’d had head it wrong. The beeping sounds for some words were just too close. “Yah buddy…I think I’m ready.” Another string of beeps and boops, this time the words making Lanx preen a bit, laughing nervous as he did so. “No..I haven’t flown a combat mission before. This will be the first one if you don’t count the whole..shuttle thing.” What came next, the exclamations of nervous noises didn’t need Lanx to read what the droid had said to know exactly what meant. He didn’t get much of a chance to smooth over the droid’s feelings before the time for talk came to a screeching halt.

“two.."

There was a little jerk as the ship came back into realspace, and it wasn’t long until the ships started filing their way out of the hanger. When it finally came time for him to follow out, he had to take a few deep breaths to sooth growing nerves, gripping the control stick with a tighter and tighter grip. Knowing he’d be holding up the filing would cause some bristled feelings, the cathar was able to pull himself free, lifting the x-wing up, brought it forward just a bit, then turned and boosted his way out of the hanger.

“That might’ve been a bit fast A5..hopefully we didn’t hurt anything.” He let out a little laugh as the droid sounded like it vehemently disagreed with him. Hopefully the droid didn’t hate him too much after this whole thing. Not that he cared too much, provided he got his Chiss back. That’s all that mattered to him.

Lanx followed the other ships in their holding patterns, moving so that he was a few ship lengths behind Nova’s broadside. Opening comms between his wing leader, the cathar turned to look toward the other’s ship as he spoke. “So, wing leader, how long until you think they start shooting back at us…?” He assumed she would know. The twilek seemed someone who knew what she doing. At least more than he did.

| Sybilla | Kiandra Ceryss |​