Kissed by Fire: Cal Kestis

Chapter 1

A light humming sounded through the cold, stagnant air of the ship. Blue light filtered in and out of the transparisteel windows at the front of the Stinger Mantis as its pilot flew through hyperspace. The pilot, a Latero man, sat in the front seat of the cockpit with his four arms working on the controls, humming a little tune from his large mouth. Beside him in the comms seat sat a dark skinned human female, her eyes pinned closely on the radio in front of her. She held an earpiece up to her ear, listening carefully through the frequencies the Empire commonly used.

Her eyes widened. Through the static of the radio, she could just barely make out the words the Imperials were saying. Turning it up, she let out a breath, a smile making it's way onto her aged face. "Greez," she called to the Latero, but he was too caught up in his humming to listen. "Greez!"

"What?" he finally turned, his brows furrowed at the woman.

"I think we found one," she told him with bated breath, the Latero's eyes widening at her words.

"Seriously?" he responded with surprise evident in his voice. "Well, where we headed?"

As Greez turned back to take control of his ship, the woman stood, saying, "Bracca. And get the guns ready when we approach."

"Bracca it is- Wait a minute, the guns?" Greez paused, looking back to see the woman rushing towards the back of the ship. "Cere! Why would we need the guns?!"

The woman, Cere, walked through the Mantis until she reached the corridor to the engine room. She turned to the medical cot on the side of the ship where a young girl of seventeen was working on organizing the medical supplies set up above the bed. She hadn't noticed Cere's presence yet, her eyes working on separating the bandages, the syringes, and the plasters from one another. "Y/n," Cere called, snapping her out of her stupor. The girl looked up from her work, and Cere said, "We found one."

"A Jedi?" Y/n questioned, standing from her seat on the cot.

Cere nodded her head, gesturing for the girl to follow her. "Come on. We're headed to Bracca, so we better get back up to the cockpit before leaving hyperspace."

"Bracca?" Y/n repeated with a scrunched nose. "That steam pit?"

"Don't underestimate it. It's a good place to hide for anyone that doesn't want to be found," Cere explained as she regained her seat in the comms chair, Y/n taking the co-pilot seat.

"I suppose so," the girl nodded her head, her hands instinctively going towards the gunner controls. "I'm guessing, Greez, that we'll need a gunner?"

"Can't we ever have a trip that doesn't end or begin with a shootout?" Greez grumbled to himself. The Stinger Mantis was his ship, and he didn't like it when his ship got damaged.

Y/n let out a small laugh and a shake of her head. "With this crew? What do you think?"

"I try to be hopeful," Greez sighed, hands running rampant over the controls for the Mantis. "Hold on to your butts, people. Exiting hyperspace in three, two..."

Greez hit the switch, and in a flash of light, the stars slowed down around them, coming to a pause and dotting the dark sky of the space. Ahead, a desolate, brown colored planet hovered before them. "The signal from the Empire claims the Jedi is in one of the lower quadrants of the planet," Cere informed them, once again on the comms.

"Or, we could just follow the blatantly obvious signs of Imperial occupation," Y/n spoke up, causing Cere to look through the transparisteel windows. "They beat us here."

An array of Imperial ships sat waiting above the atmosphere of the planet, multiple gunships being dropped and flown down from the star destroyers ports. "Okay, well, that'll be a pain to get through," Greez hummed, causing Y/n to let out a sigh.