The Rise of the Final Order - A Star Wars Story

Chapter 13

Kelsa Antilles

"Well, I guess I'm going to Vandor now," Kelsa remarked as soon as the transmission with Chancellor Kryze ended. She turned to face Lieutenant Connix, who had been standing on the other side of the holotable, watching the transmission. "Am I cleared to do that already?"

Connix nodded. "Considering the Chancellor herself told you to go, I would say yes."

"Well, OK then," Kelsa muttered. "I guess I'll need a new ship."

"There's one waiting for you in the hangar," Connix said.

"Is it an X-Wing?" Kelsa asked hopefully.

"Yes," Connix responded. "Your droid is already there as well."

"Perfect," Kelsa said, already making her way to the door. "See you later then."

She left the transmission room and made her way down to the hangar. Sure enough, there was a brand new X-Wing waiting for her, BB-11 already waiting in his spot.

The mechanic, a blue-skinned Theelin woman with spiky green hair, was just finishing up fueling the ship, and when she noticed that Kelsa was coming, she came over to meet her, wiping her hands on a dirty cloth.

"She's all ready for you, Captain," the mechanic announced in a cheery voice.

"Thank you," Kelsa replied. She looked over the Theelin's shoulder to look at BB-11, who tweeted excitedly at her.

"Of course, ma'am," the mechanic responded. "Good luck on your mission."

"Thanks," Kelsa said, and the mechanic nodded before walking away.

Kelsa climbed up the ladder on the side of the X-Wing and into the cockpit, closing the hatch as she strapped herself in. She turned on the thrusters and ran a quick preflight check, making sure everything was running correctly.

Once the preflight check was complete, and everything was in order, Kelsa called back to BB-11, "Here we go, BB!"

With expert skill, she lifted the X-Wing off the floor and eased out of the hangar. Once she was clear of the New Republic vessel, she punched in the coordinates for Vandor and prepared to make the jump to hyperspace.

"Alright BB, you ready?" she called back to her droid companion. He chirped happily. "OK, making the jump in five, four, three, two, one." At the end of the countdown, she pushed forward on the lever and made the jump.

When she emerged from hyperspace, she was greeted by the giant blue-gray ball that was Vandor. The planet was covered in oceans and mountain ranges, which didn't help narrow her search for Crimson Dawn's headquarters at all.

She entered the planet's atmosphere, carefully piloting through the thick cloud cover, and emerged over a snow-covered mountain range.

"See anything?" she asked BB as she looked around for some sign of Crimson Dawn-or really any sign of civilization for that matter.

BB beeped a negative, and Kelsa sighed. This was going to be a lot more tedious than she thought.

It was about an hour before she found somewhere that looked inhabited on the planet. It appeared to be a village of some sort, built into the mountains with wooden walkways to get from place to place.

Seeing nowhere else to start looking, Kelsa decided to land there and see if she could get any information about where exactly Crimson Dawn was.

As soon as she landed, she popped open the canopy of her ship and slid out, then turned to look up at BB-11.