Tales of an exiled Jedi 2

The Nameless dropped out of hyperspace and Anto Tyandas saw the very thing he had dreaded so much it had sent a chill down his spine the entire trip. Above the lush, green forest planet hoovered imperial ships, plural.
The Nameless, though scrubbed of its original identity, still held its core code somewhere. As a Jedi he had no training and no clue of how to erase or change it, if such a thing was even possible. He was, however, absolutely sure that an imperial engineer could dig out that code in about the time it would take Anto to say “I can explain everything”.
He felt a single pearl of cold sweat form between his horns and slowly start to make its way down his forehead. was still on the outer edges of what their radars could detect. With a little luck and most of his piloting skills they hadn’t noticed him yet and he could turn the ship around and make a hyperspace jump away.
Anto’s meaty left hand grabbed the steering as his right started pushing buttons and flicking switches. Firing up the nav computer, choosing a planet at random but a fair distance away, the Nameless slowly started turning away from the planet using the smallest possible amount of engine power to avoid detection.
Just as the forest planet started disappearing from the view of the cockpit window Anto was struck by an eerily familiar sensation. A bit too familiar for his taste and the situation. He had no trouble pinpointing exactly where he’d felt it before. Just outside of his room on the ship, when he’d seen a vision of a small girl with a lightsaber.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit…” In frustration he slammed the steering back toward the planet a bit harder than he needed and slapped the nav computer’s off-button with his whole hand. Slowly the planet came back into view, with all of its orbiting imperial ships in full glory. He cut off the engines and let the ship float silently for a few minutes, his eyes jumping between the imperial ships, scanning them for any activity. But they floated just as peacefully as he was. No guns starting to turn, no fighters scrambled, no engines firing up to give chase. They were just there, watching, waiting.

Back in his room he gathered all he could in a small satchel. He had to travel light and fast, and could not expect to use the Nameless again. No matter how good of a pilot he was, as soon as he got close to that planet he’d ping at least three different radars. He could’ve gotten around it with a cloaking device, but freighters like the Nameless didn’t come with such equipment as stock, and buying one on the black market would cost Anto a whole lot more than he’d been able to earn lately.
He grabbed his last remaining credit chips, a few of the most common spare parts for his lightsaber and the tools, and his robe. He would have to make a mad dash for the planet surface, land at the first place he could and make a run for it and just hope that whatever ground forces were present nearby didn’t just drop whatever they were doing and run to get him. He could manage fighting clones and storm troopers, but even a Jedi master would lose in a battle of attrition. It was a simple fact of numbers, with odds Anto did not enjoy thinking about,

Just a few minutes later he was back in the cockpit. He’d taken a detour to the kitchen and filled the satchel up with food and water. Even lush forest planets like this one could be unpredictable and hard to find edible food on. In some rare cases it could be easier to find food on Jakku than in a forest full of poisonous plants and venomous creatures.
He scanned the imperial ships again with his eyes, they hadn’t moved much and there was no sign that they knew he was there. If they did know they either didn’t care or were waiting for him to make the first move. Anto hoped for the former as it would make it easier for him to make it to the surface without turning into a flaming ball of molten durasteel and flesh.

With a final deep breath Anto engaged the engines and pushed them up to their maximum. The Nameless jerked forcefully as the artificial gravity and stabilizers struggled to keep the spacecraft steady and quickly started to make its way toward the planet. He was coming in fast, too fast for his own liking. Landing at that speed would be an impossibility even with Jedi reflexes, the force, something soft to land on and every benign aspect possible in his favour. The Nameless would tear itself apart on the atmosphere, and what was left would result in a smoking crater as it hit dirt. But he had no choice, he had to get past the imps fast. After that he could slow down and take evasive maneuvers, hoping that they were doing something important on the planet and didn’t dare open fire upon it.

Slight movements on the surfaces of the imperial ships signalled that they were reacting to his presence. Guns were moving, ships were turning to face him. Between them they had enough firepower to turn his entire direction into burning light. Once again he was hoping for the best. Hoping that they saw him as target practice and not a real threat. He got closer each second and he could see the guns warm up. It was time for that fancy flying the pilots had taught him during the clone wars. Just as the first set of guns let loose their lethal payload Anto slammed the breaks and made a 90 degree course shift. The stabilizers screamed, and the Nameless shook like mad, but the turbolasers missed their mark with some distance to spare. Still with the engines going at full capacity Anto turned the Nameless toward the planet and made a mad dash toward the space between two of the imp ships. If he could just get in between them he’d enjoy a brief moment of safety before he’d have to worry about landing while getting fired upon.

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The tops of the tallest trees broke against the hull of the Nameless. He was still travelling too fast, but he didn’t dare slow down, not just yet. He could hear the odd turbolaser shot hit the planet dangerously close behind him. Every now and then his radar beeped to life and displayed a cluster of buildings or larger life forms, perhaps gatherings of storm troopers, the radar wasn’t that precise. It all raced past his window faster than he was able to see.
Then the turbolaser fire died down. It told Anto that he was either close to something important that they didn’t want to risk damaging with their fire, close to a large amount of soldiers that could intercept him when he landed or perhaps just at an odd angle for then to fire. Either way, it was the opening he’d been looking for. He eased off on the throttle and started looking for a clearing to put the Nameless down in. The first one he came to that looked large enough would do. As he engaged the landing protocols he could both hear and feel smaller trees getting crushed beneath his ship.

The Nameless touched ground and the main gangplank was lowered with a pneumatic hiss. The thing wasn’t even fully open before a blurry figure in Jedi robes darted out of the ship and toward the treeline. He didn’t bother closing the ship up. There was no use. When the troopers, not if, found it they would break in using explosives if the door was not left open. It would be a sad waste of a decent ship to let it get destroyed like that. Besides, there wasn’t much of worth left in there, and nothing that troopers would value.

He hid in the bushes, knowing full well that his clothes didn’t exactly count as camouflage. But brown did blend in better in the green environment than storm trooper white. He could spot them from a much greater distance then they could spot him.
“Over here, I saw it come down!” he could hear the distorted voice of a trooper just before something shining white became visible through the foliage. Anto sat down and did his best to not breathe. There was a handful of them, five or six, running past, blaster carbines drawn and ready. Luckily they were all looking at the Nameless and not in the bushes.
“Two and three, move in” He heard, followed by the clanging of armour against the Nameless’ interior. Anto took that moment to sneak away.

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He made progress, but slowly. The forest was literally swarming with stormtroopers and yet he hadn’t spotted a structure yet, nor knew the name of the planet. So what were they doing there? He had a hard time believing a young girl with a lightsaber could stir up so much trouble. Not enough to send several ships to handle the situation. They must’ve already been here, looking for something or doing something. He hadn’t recognised the girl but was fairly sure he hadn’t seen anyone like her among the masters and knights at their last meeting, so that meant she was a padawan or worse, self-taught. If so she was not in for a bright future if he could not find her before the imps did.

Eventually he made his way to a safe space. The remains of a house, but one built from stone and wood instead of metal. Nature had reclaimed most of what hadn’t fallen down into a pile already. He had literally stumbled upon it, as his foot was snagged in the roots of a bush that was trying to grow on top of a pile of rocks that had once been a wall.
Bits of a corner still stood, though overgrown, and Anto squeezed himself in as far as he could and tried to pull some branches and leaves in front of him so he couldn’t be easily spotted.

Ok, he told himself with a whisper. You came here because of a vision and a sense. Trusting in the force sure works out sometimes but this time you might’ve done it.

He sat in silence for a few minutes to see that the coast was clear. He’d been so lucky he could barely believe it as he recounted his journey from the Nameless. Storm troopers everywhere, but barely an eye open. They were all running somewhere else, not looking at what was around them. He’d expected to be knee-deep in blaster fire by now, half exhausted and still looking for the girl. Well, that part was still true. Good thing he only had a planet to search, couldn’t take that long.

No,that was ridiculous. He could be wandering around for ages and not get any closer to her, if she was indeed on this planet. But that was the edge he, and the girl, had on the troopers. They had a more powerful ally than any kind of trooper tech.
Looking around one final time, Anto closed his eyes and leaned back against what was left of the stone wall. It felt cold even through his robes, but nice as he had worked up a sweat dodging search parties. In his mind he brought forth the memory of the girl he’d seen on the Nameless. He focused to remember the length of her hair, the colour of her eyes, how many fingers she had… He formed the image in his mind and concentrated on it. The force had sent him a vision of her, the force had told him she was here, he’d risked his life and ship and anonymity to find her, now the force was going to tell him where she was.
“I know you are here, I can sense you” He whispered to himself. He could, there was something, the image in his mind echoed with something on the planet. He could feel her presence like he could feel the stream in water or the heat from a fire. But much like he could figure how how much water was in a bucked by just putting his hand in it, he could not pinpoint her location. By just knowing that she was out there somewhere.
“Tell me… Show me where you are and I can help you. I can feel that you are close, I can find you and we can leave this place. Trust in the force”