Om... Wat? [Galactic Alliance Dominion of Omwat]

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Adele Adonai"]
The glasteel canopy was nearly a foot thick, but the lightsaber plunged through it with ease. With both feet planted against the glass he pulled on the blade with both hands. Inch by inch he dragged the blade along and in a wide arc. Glass shifted through orange and white as it was superheated. As he finished the circle the centre of the slab sagged under its own weight as it started to melt.

With a loud sucking noise as the pressure differential was quickly balanced out the slab gave way and fell into the viewing gallery. Jacen slipped through after it. He didn't even take the time to reclip his saber, letting it roll across the off-kilter deck.

Falling down onto both knees Jacen skidded to last metre to come to her side. His hand went to her forehead, then slipped down the side of her cheek, pushing delicate blond strands away, to find the side of her throat. She was cold, herpulse was faint and slow. What colour was usually their had drained from her skin, even the lines of her tattoos seemed indistinct.

“Is there a medic?” he screamed at the top of his voice, looking around in desperation. Where hers was faint, his own heart pounded in his chest. “Feth it, think you idiot think.”

Jacen slipped his hands under his shoulders and knees but stopped before lifting her from the ground. This wasn't a physical ailment. He could sense her still, but she had fallen deep back within her own mind. There was something else, something dark. Fal was still here and she was trying to hide, he reasoned. Jacen lowered her back down ever so delicately, as if just laying her down could break her. She looked as if she was made of porcelain after all.

He slipped off his outer robe quickly, rolling them up and placing them under her head. He tried to push his fear aside. Sitting back down beside her he kept on hand on the crown of her head and started to think of Baffor trees.



The forest beside the lake. Jacen had bee here before. Again there was that strange sensation if the periphery simply melting as soon as his focus turned to anything else.

“A’dele?” he called. Silence. He turned back and forth, his senses stretching out around him. Her walls were had been broken down, yet he could not find her.

There was a splash. He turned to see a ripple on the surface of the lake reach the shore. Jacen turned and took a step towards the water. In an instant a line of Bafforr trees sprouted before him, their fronds entwined into a wall of flora. She was still defending herself, perhaps even subconsciously. This was her domain, not his, but he could feel her floundering, feel her raw fear. When there was something that needed doing…



The surface of the water broke. Against the faint strands of light that filtered through and danced in the water the looming silhouette was just as dark as the one below. Yet it moved with an assuredness of purpose straight for her.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Post 11 of 20
Objective X: Helping People
Arms & Equipment: Clone Scout (Hold Out) Blaster, DC-15S Blaster Carbine, HoloBoy Advanced

Leaving the strange pirate-thief-nice guy ([member="Andanian Ategann"]) to his own devices, the young clone went back out into the former smuggler hive that had been occupied by the homeless and the afraid. While Alliance medics resumed offering care for the people, the boy thought more about what the pirate guy had said.

Taking the blaster rifle that was slung across his back, the child approached the people who were emerging from out of their hiding places. Showing them the rifle, the boy began showing some of them how the blaster worked, how to aim it, and how to zero the sights on the target. It was an odd thing for people who had been afraid their whole lives to suddenly have power handed to them, let alone the power to protect or defend themselves.

It would hopefully leave a good mark on the world. And make the settlement a more permanent place, where the people could have a fresh start and a home worth defending.

 

[Ayme Katash]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Ayme stood behind the pilots in the LAAT as they navigated towards the crashed frigate. The vessel was in pieces and had ripped the landscape apart in its rapid decent. She had been sidelined for most of the mission to Omwat and was eager for some action. Too eager her master would say. Her gaze narrowed as the figure of her master went sprinting along the hull away from the transport.

Ayme grabbed her lightsaber from her belt on her training robes. The hilt had a thin black leather wrapped around a silver shaft. The blade was bright orange when ignited, something she was only just learning how to control. Her lightsaber skills had been her most challenging area during her short time at the Temple on Sullust.

She felt it, something was wrong. Her feet were moving instantly through the LAAT to the disembark ramp. “Katash the orders were to return.”

Ayme listened to the voice dissipate as she dropped to the hull with less grace than Voidstalker had. Yea still gotta work on that. Her eyes turned up to the LAAT as it ascended out of the canyon.

She ran across the finding the tell tale remnants of Voidstalker’s race to Adele. She could sense another presence behind her from the LAAT, someone had been crazy enough to follow her she supposed. There wasn’t time to investigate, based on the turmoil she was feeling through the Force time was not on her side.

She dropped down into an opening and continued running through a ruined cooridor. She reached a locked door and placed her hand on the controls. She had to take several deep breaths to focus but slowly she could feel the circuits reconnect and then the lock disengage. With a exhalation of relief she scurried the rest of the way until she saw her master leaning over Adele’s prone form.

“Master?” Ayme spoke softly as she struggled to catch her breath.

Something behind her broke through her senses sending her system immediately into alarm. The lightsaber in her hand ignited instantly as she moved into a protective stance in front of the veteran Jedi.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Post 12 of 20
Objective X: Helping People
Arms & Equipment: HoloBoy Advanced

He'd given away both of his blasters.

They had been the last remnants of the past that he'd brought with him from the Clone Wars. So, in a way, it was like giving away who or what he was, or had been. But, it was also giving away the past that never was. He was a clone, but never a clone trooper. He'd been created for a clone war that was over. The act of surrendering the past invited the future to hold something other than a blaster for him.

After he was done demonstrating range skills and marksmanship, the boy had shown the denizens how to field strip or clean a blaster. And then helped with distributing medicine and care packages from the shuttle that had come from Sullust.

 

[Joza Perl]

Unprepared. If there was one word Joza would use to describe herself in this situation, that was it. Her experience with combat was limited to that of the training sessions held in the Jedi Temple on Sullust, where the threat of death was nil. Heck, this was about the furthest her experience with planets other than Zeltros went. She was nervous yes—very, but she was also excited, eager to get her feet wet as much as possible.

She gazed down at the wreckage of the frigate, a bad feeling welling in the pit of her stomach. Wait…was that? Her eyes flared as she caught the figure of [member="Jacen Voidstalker"], and apparently she wasn’t the only one who had seen it. She turned on her heel to see [member="Havock"] disembarking, charging after her master. Wh…what is she doing?! She was going out there? Alone? The pink skinned woman bit her lower lip and rocked back and forth on her feet for a moment, trying to decide what to do. On one hand their orders were to return, but on the other…

Brushing the hesitation from her mind, Joza hurried forward, following Ayme’s path of travel, skidding down the hull while digging her heels in to maintain balance. Her hand reflexively tightened around the hilt of her lightsaber as she struggled to keep the other woman in her line of sight as well as keep her wits about her. She didn’t know what was going to happen, and the unpleasant feeling she felt in her core only seemed to grow.

At last both Jacen and Ayme came back into sight, though the former was kneeling over the body of a rather pale woman who she didn’t recognize right away. Joza slowed to a stop as she approached them, a bit out of breath and looked toward Ayme with a questioning gaze, wondering if the other Padawan would be able to provide an explanation.

Her breath hitched in her throat and she dropped into a defensive form, sensing something out of place. She glanced over at Havock and swallowed thickly, lighting her saber alongside her as she took a step back toward A’dele. She would do what she could with her minimal skills.

 

[Ayme Katash]

The noises were getting louder. She could hear shouting as someone made their way through the corridors. Ayme struggled to keep her breathing undercontrol. She started to recite the Jedi code in her head, her lips moving to the words without sound.

The pale woman stood to her right holding her lightsaber at the ready. She looked nervous but was holding it together valiantly.

Ayme turned slightly, just enough to see [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] as he continued to stare at [member="Adele Adonai"] on the ground. “Master…” She closed her eyes briefly and attempted the same probing through their Force connection only to be similarly met with silence. On our own for now then.

A door smashed open, the durasteel flying and slamming into the wall opposite it. [member="Joza Perl"] and Ayme both narrowed their gaze as their muscles instantly tensed. A large Trandoshan with a gash in his face stalked through the ripped open doorway. His lightsaber ignited and held lazily in his hand. The Rodian was close on his heels only he was not as nonchalant about his stance, his red saber held high above his head ready to strike.

“Little girls, my favorite.”

Trask leaped forward sweeping his blade at Ayme’s head which she narrowly blocked with her orange blade. Her body lowered in the opposite direction of the strikes of her blade. She pushed against the larger man’s strikes to increase the distance between the acolyte and her Master. With a sweep of her hand a piece of metal debris flew close enough to the Trandoshan for him to flinch backward and provide an opening for a well placed kick to his chest. The move gave her a moment to breath but fueled his anger all the more. This was not going to be an easy fight.

 

[Adele Adonai]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Havock"] [member="Joza Perl"]

Rays of light would shift.

Shadows danced and water rippled.

Glacier blue began to melt amidst the magma that bubbled from within. Helpless. Lost. Alone.

And just as Adele felt as if she were to be engulfed whole, her hand outstretched towards the quickening surface, another shadow took its place.

Another hand caught her own. Blunt, scarred fingers curled around alabaster, holding tight. Holding steady. Not letting go.

Familiarity hit her. Jacen.

A savage tug drew her upward, just as the translucent maw chomped down onto empty space. Rage went ripping through the depths as those biolumincenet lights shot through its dorsal line, revealing it for what it was. A dark fearsome creature snapping it's monstrous jaws as large as its head, its anger rolling enough to send a sonic reverberation that shot forward in a burst.

No.

Panic flared. Fear intensified and that desperation grew.

She broke the surface with a great gasp, water erupting around her as the concussion hit. Hands shoved Jacen back, as if to protect him from what lay beneath. The temperature fell several degrees, ice forming a the edges then surging forward as a barrier over the surface of the pond. Another shriek seem to prompt a savage shudder, cracking the ice with a sickening crunch.

Yet the ice held. the shivering woman standing under the howl of a flurry, her breath coming down in short, rapid puffs of condensation. Her hair was a tangled blonde mess, carving along over her face like damp veil frosted by ice crystals. The Iridonian couldn't move, then began to sway.

Stumbling, she fell forward, lids rising one final time.

But it wasn't glacial blue that peered through the veil, but a bright amber in their stead.

 

[Joza Perl]

Whoever was approaching didn’t sound friendly, and certainly wouldn’t appreciate their presence there. Joza bit her lip as her thoughts jumbled together, sending her into the beginnings of a panic. This wasn’t like training in the temple on Sullust where she didn’t have to worry about being ambushed, or seriously injured, or dead. This was real, a real battle. And in an instant, all she wanted to do was go home, back to Zeltros, back to the safety of her mother’s arms. She shouldn’t have left, she knew deep in the back of her mind that she couldn’t handle—

The sudden violent removal of the door startled her from her thoughts, causing the young Zeltron to jump in place. The primal need to survive took over, smothering her panic for the time being. She quickly glanced around the room, noting the positions of [member="Jacen Voidstalker"], [member="Adele Adonai"] and [member="Havock"] before her eyes settled on the two new guests.

Joza moved as quickly as she could, her body working off of nervous adrenaline as she swung her saber upwards to clash with Keeno’s downward strike. She gritted her teeth together, putting as much force behind her blade in an effort to pressure him back. They broke even, pulling back at the same time before the pink woman blocked another strike aimed for her right side.

In an attempt to put more distance between herself and the incapacitated Jedi, Joza swung her blade toward Keeno’s left, the blue of her lightsaber streaking through the air. It was an obvious move, one that her opponent read easily and parried to the left and away from him. In retaliation, the Rodian’s blade made a swift strike for her neck. Joza stumbled, leaning her head back and avoiding the majority of the red lightsaber—save for the part that grazed her cheek.

Startled, the Padawan cried out in pain as her free hand flew to the fresh burn mark on her face, her shoulders slumping. But the adrenaline was still pulsing through her, even if her hands were shaking now.

Seeing an opening, Keeno laughed raucously and twirled his saber briefly in his hand before aiming another swift strike at the Zeltron’s neck, intending to finish the fight. But his blade would not find its mark on the young woman’s neck—not yet, anyway.

Realizing that she was at a disadvantage in her current position, Joza dropped her center of gravity and caught her opponent’s lightsaber with her own before it could reach her neck. Grinding her teeth together as blue met red, the young Padawan took control of the clash, sliding her blade along his until she had enough force to parry his blade away before bursting upwards and head-butting him in the chest.

Keeno stumbled backwards, looking somewhat taken aback but shook it off as Joza hurried to close the gap between them.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Joza Perl"] [member="Adele Adonai"] [member="Havock"]

To the outside world Jacen was as still as a statue. Much of the colour had drained from his skin, leaving him just a few shades from A’dele. One hand still rested across her forehead, another on her wrist. He made no overt reaction to the battle that had erupted within the viewing gallery of the crashed frigate.

Jacen recoiled from the sting of that push. It wasn't unexpected. Having poured so much of his strength into passing her barriers and reaching that inner sanctum, he had fully expected her to lash out at his presence. The Marshal wasn't fully cognisant of what was happening around him. The ‘reality’ shifted, changed. Something dark moved quickly. All that he knew was that he wanted to feel the touch of her presence, to help draw her back and protect her - if he even could.

Precarious footing seemed to give just enough to give him pause as he stepped forwards. She stumbled, he hastened his pace in case she fell. Her eyes opened as he moved to grab her again.

“A’dele?” It was nothing as simple as a verbal question. Not in this dreamscape. Instead, as he touched her once more, it was reaching out to find that familiar presence. Those eyes…he'd seen them before in a visit once.

 

[Ayme Katash]

Ayme’s body slammed into the wall, her jaw off kilter from the fist that connected with it. The Trandoshan stalked towards her, pushing his advance. She was getting tired, it was taking all her will to stay in the fight and she was starting to wonder how she could possibly win.

[member="Joza Perl"] yelled in pain across the room. Ayme could feel the pain radiating from her neck and struggled against the impulse to run to her comrades aid. The startling reality of her situation quickly came back to her as a red lightsaber swiped at her chest. She swung wildly and stumbled out of the way of the blade.

Ayme could still see Jacen focused on Adele, the two were barely moving. If her master hadn’t been kneeling she would have worried they were not breathing. Even their presence in the Force was distant.

Ayme readied her blade again towards her attacker. She tossed her head in an attempt to sweep her sweaty hair out of her eyes. Blood was soaking the left sleeve of her apprentice robes.

“All right you ugly ass lizard, come and get me.”

[member="Adele Adonai"] [member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Post 13 of 20
Objective X: Helping People Done helping people, time to play
Arms & Equipment: HoloBoy Advanced

Most of the stuff he'd knocked over had been cleaned up.

And now the Knowhere people weren't afraid of the Alliance people, so they were talking and getting along or doing whatever it was that adults did when they just stood around talking.

The kids had come out as well, allowing the young clone to mingle with younglings that were close to his age. Relatively speaking anyway. And then someone had to break out a grav-ball. It was a busted up grav-ball that was only partially inflated, but it was still a grav-ball. With that in hand, the younglings had quickly re-purposed the street into a grav-ball court.

Which made for a rather unorthodox foul on the play. "Speeder!"

With that call, the players divided up on either side of the street, regardless of which side they were playing for. "Speeder coming!"

The jalopy of a speeder lugged by slowly, the younglings each looking up and down the street as it passed. "We're good," the clone affirmed, as they two sides rushed inward while the game resumed.

 

[Adele Adonai]

​

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Havock"] [member="Joza Perl"] ​

She felt hands catch her, drawing her close. There was a vague sense of awareness within the dreamscape, but she could only do so much now. The sound of ice groaning and breaking grew louder, a shatterpoint of fine spiderweb cracks across that mental terrain.

Fingers trembled, a light brush against Jacen’s face. The Iridonian breathed heavily, but she was tired. Weary. Strained to the point where she could not maintain the dreamscape its entirety.

Walls held behind mists became visible black jagged rocks. Their sheer black cliffs jutted from the earth, no longer crystal but solid obsidian. Razor sharp edges and ranges that made one wonder what could possibly have the Jedi Healer at such a state that her sanctuary have such an imposing wall for protection?

At least, until one noticed that the ranges didn’t point outward; but in.

“Don’t look.”

Came her silent plea, choked through against his collar, looking past his shoulder through the spider silk of her hair a gossamer veil, quickening orange eyes darkening to a deep amber as those jutting ranges grew ever higher.

​

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Adele Adonai"] [member="Havock"] [member="Joza Perl"]

“Okay… okay,” he replied slowly. Pressed against him, in this dreamscape, it made him acutely aware of just how drained she was. She was scared, but he wasn’t sure of what. He held her close. It was also becoming apparent how much he’d given of himself too. This wasn’t a world he knew as A'dele did; he was the student here. Pulling her from that pool had not been a physical act, he had given of himself to give her the strength to break free. Just as he did now as he steadied her.

Two faint tremors through the Force. Something light, something dark. One familiar, one was danger. Ayme. Not out of it yet. Those ominous cliffs loomed ever higher. Without realising he’d move, he found his hand against the back of her head, as if shielding her from their surroundings. His broad fingers pressed into the damps strands of hair. He didn’t think on the sudden shift in the hue of her eyes any longer. She’d asked him not to look, this wasn’t the time.

Voice low and close to her ear he asked: “What can I do to help? You're not alone.”

 

[Joza Perl]

[member="Havock"]

Joza grunted heavily as she clashed with Keeno, sparks sizzling from where their lightsabers met. Her mind was not completely focused on the task at hand, she was too distracted by her doubt to put her all into this fight.

She pushed the Rodian back, swinging her lightsaber over her head before bringing it downwards in a blue arc. So many things were going on around her. What was going on with Masters [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] and [member="Adele Adonai"]? She hadn’t been able to get a good look at them but assumed they were unconscious or in some sort of trance.

Keeno parried away her strike and lashed out at her side, causing Joza to stumble to the opposite side, narrowly avoiding the red lightsaber. Was her fellow Padawan Ayme alright? She could hear the sounds of grunts and clashed from the blonde’s own foe, but they were distant in Joza’s mind right now. The burn on her face stung, and she wondered how some people could shrug off the pain of their wounds in battle.

 

[Ayme Katash]

Red and orange flashed in the dark ruined room. Ayme was losing ground with each stroke. The Trandoshan was angry and fatigued which in her case became a dangerous combination. The Rodian had called him Trask at one point in the battle, she assumed that was his name since it wasn't a curse she was familiar with. She seriously was considering adding the name Trask as a curse for her future, should she even survive this.

He yelled and moved his saber to the side enough to allow his non-dominant hand to face her palm upright. Ayme frowned for a moment, then felt his intent as half a console slammed into her back sending the Padawan into the durasteel floor. She could feel blood drip down from her hairline to her nose and cheek. It was indiscernible now if the moisture in her hair was sweat or blood.

She willed her eyes to stay open as she spat the dripping blood away from her lips. Her eyes flashed up to see her opponent breathing deeply but closing in to finish her off.

[member="Joza Perl"][member="Jacen Voidstalker"][member="Adele Adonai"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Post 14 of 20
Objective X: Helping People Done helping people, time to play
Arms & Equipment: HoloBoy Advanced

The young clone was making for the endzone with the deflated grav-ball in hand.

He was at the trash can. The lamp post. Almost to the curb, which doubled as their goal line, when he got checked by a Rodian kid. The grav-ball got turned over as the two boys went down into the dirt, with another kid scooping it up and making for the opposite end of their street arena.

Picking himself up off the ground without complaint, the young Mandalorian was sprinting back into the game. He was scraped up and bruised, but absolutely no worse for wear -- as evidenced by the grin that was plastered across his face as he played with the other children. It wasn't something he'd ever experienced, so he never knew that he'd missed out on anything before. Now, no longer part of the Republic's clone army, the boy was getting to experience having a childhood and growing up.

Of course, there was a hole in the right knee of his trousers and he was covered in dirt stains from head to boot. So, [member="Darius Sedaire"] might not appreciate the laundry when the boy got back to Sullust...

 

[Adele Adonai]

​

[member="Havock"] [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Joza Perl"]​

You're not alone.

Those three words would prompt A'dele to shut her eyes, hiding the taint that lay within. His hand cradled her head, the tips of her vestigial horns brushing against the curve of his neck. It was strange. So strange to be held so. All the more stranger to be stripped almost bare and yet have Jacen simply, and genuinely ask what he could do to help, that she was not alone, sent a shiver down her spine.

Was she trembling because of the cold? Or was she trembling at the humbling manner he so easily had come to her aid? The flutter of her ice cold fingers would slowly slide from their light perch over his eyes, sailing with the faintest of trembles over towards his temple. There, her fingers lightly swept into the dark, spiky, mess of his hair, until her palm cradled his own head, and her thumb lay over his temple.

What could he do to help?

Change it.

Control the dreamscape. Her walls had tumbled down. She couldn't manipulate it on her own.

"Bafforr trees." came her strained whisper.

"And the drone of honeybees."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Eyes blinked slowly. He was tired, so very tired now. Her hands lightly trembled as they moved from his eyes. She must have been so very, very drained. Intrinsically, he knew that if he were to let go of her now, remove his support, she would fall and she would once more be descending into those murky depths. A sound that sent a shiver down his own spine resounded around the dreamscape. As if the lake let out a deep groan punctuated by a series of loud pops that rippled from one end to the other.

Focus.

He was tired, she was utterly drained and distraught. There is no try. Every lesson she had taught him needed to be called upon in this moment. The notion of changing the dreamscape somehow made complete sense to him now. He'd practised this before, had used the very technique to get past her instinctive defences to find her flailing in the deep. The last time he had tried this it had gone awry. There could be no distractions now.

Deep lines of concern across his brow slowly smoothed out. He pulled her closer fractionally as he took in a deep breath.

Scent was often the window to memories. He imagined that bitter hint of Bafforr pollen being crushed between fingers, imagined the feel as he rubbed it between finger and thumb. He thought of her the first time they had attempted this together, how she had moved it around her hand as she asked him questions. There was no more icy thunder, no more rumble of stone.

Why the sound of bees? No sooner had he thought it than it was there. A quiet low drone. It elicited further memories, the dreamscape now taking shape of its own accord. No longer did his focus have to be so honed. He felt warmth carried on a light breeze. Felt the sun on his face.

He let out a long stuttered sigh and risked opening his eyes a fraction. They were in the plantation now. A patch of the flowers he had once brought back for the gardens formed a bed all around them. Ripples of bright turquoise on the purple bed formed a spiral that centred where they stood. A swarm of bees gently moved across the bed, from flower to flower.

He dared not let go. He was acutely aware of how light, how frail she felt. His hand slowly relaxed, sliding down the back of her neck so she could at least raise her head to look around.

Better? he asked. Somehow he knew this was simply helping her stabilise. The Sith had thrown his mind against her own with great force. There was another threat, more immediate, more physical looking. Could she stand on her own? Her found himself reticent to find out and not entirely for fear of her falling.

 

[Adele Adonai]

​

[member="Havock"] [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] [member="Joza Perl"]​

​

​

It was a warmth that would seem to seep into her very bones. The Iridonian felt Jacen draw into himself, exhausted himself, but focusing. The Force would shift within those currents, and everything changed. Gone was the icy lake, the bite of winter, and the obsidian purgatory of before. In its place was another.

The scent of bitter bafforr pollen filled her lungs, the heat of the sun and of his embrace warming the chill. And like the sifting of leaves in the wind, she heard them. The drone of bees in their lazy flight.

The change in the healer was gradual, but poignant in its own way. Her hand slid from his temple, drifting past the curve of his jaw to come to rest along his chest. For a moment, she simply attempted to breathe. This was a dreamscape, she knew that, but it would affect her in the physical world if she let it.

A small nod, and the flutter of lashless lids.

Better.

Focus.

Focus.

There... there is no emotion. There is peace.

The weaver curled up upon herself. Her body growing limp. Peace.

With a sigh that would seemingly expel a weary breath, A'dele sank against Jacen's embrace. The soft lull of the flutter of the honeybee's wings coaxed her into slumber.

Worn, weary, but for the first time feeling safe. A'dele awoke.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Post 15 of 20
Objective X: Helping People Done helping people, time to play Done playing, time for a nap
Arms & Equipment: HoloBoy Advanced

The Knowhere Mandoneers had faced off against the Knowhere Knights and...

...and no one had been keeping score, so the young clone wasn't sure who'd won or who'd lost. And that didn't even seem important. They'd just been enjoying playing together. The game wasn't even called off because of quarters or play clocks. The daylight was fading, and most of the children were being called home for supper.

The small Mandalorian helped the Alliance aid workers pack up what equipment they had back into the shuttle, then boarded as the crew prepared to take their leave of the camp for the time being. Taking a seat toward the back of the cockpit, the dirty and disheveled clone stared from out the transparisteel windows as the town fell away from view. The landscape and sky changing positions as the shuttle's repulsors lifted it away from the planet and the nose was angled up toward the sky.

Blue turned to black, as the layers of atmosphere faded away to reveal the familiar backdrop of stars. Sagging back against his seat, the boy's head listed as he started to nod off.

He'd fallen asleep before they'd even made the jump to hyperspace.