Perils of Peridea

Chapter 2 - Empty

Perils of Peridea
Chapter 2
Empty

Here's another fine mess I've gotten me into.... Ezra's negative thoughts were swirling in his mind as he continued to relieve his final act on Lothal, over and over again in his head, like living a nightmare on repeat.

"Like it or not, we're in this together. If I go down, I'll bring you down with me."

Thrawn's words mocked him, kicking him while he was down. They hurt worse than an actual kick to his ribs, to his heart. It ached, deep and dull. He felt defeated and deflated. He wanted to give up so desperately, but he knew he couldn't. Not until he saw this final task thru to its end. As he regained consciousness, Ezra could feel that they were no longer moving. He could feel the cold metal floor against his back, it seemed to help dull the deep ache that was throbbing in his shoulder blade. His body felt heavy. He was absolutely exhausted and drained, but also curious if whatever planet they were dumped on had a different level of gravity and it was weighing him down. He groaned and slowly sat up, squeezing his eyes against the headache that sliced behind them. When he finally braced himself to brave his new reality, he blinked his eyes open, allowing his blurry vision to greet him with pale grey light. The stillness seemed to hang thick in the air. He looked around, it was suspiciously quiet, it felt ominous and unsettling. The Purrgil were gone, the tendrils that had encased the ship and the shattered windows were nowhere to be seen. And neither was Thrawn. Ezra tensed and his heart thumped hard and jumped to his throat. How long had he been unconscious? Shakily he crawled towards the nearest window, his hands getting cut from the small shards of glass that littered the floor. He looked up at the dark cloudy sky, watching as the last of the Purrgil were jumping back to hyperspace. He heard one of them call out. Ezra closed his eyes and spoke mentally to them thru the Force, too tired to try and use his actual voice.

"Thank you. I don't know where you've left us, but I trust you."

The last large Purrgil gave a grateful reply at his selfless sacrifice before vanishing after the others. Then there was nothing but silence. Ezra felt exhausted. Exhausted by what he had just gone thru, exhausted by the dread of what awaited him. He felt the fear of uncertainty. He almost didn't want to stand up and look outside, to see where he was, to see the place that would become his new home, his prison, his hell, his grave. He knew he couldn't hide from it forever. He smirked a sad tired smile to himself, he knew if Kanan was here he would slap him upside the head and tell him to be a man, stand up and face his destiny. Ezra took a deep breath and did just that, bracing himself for what he might see. He gasped as he surveyed the land. It was desolate and depressing, very little water or even signs of plant life or animal life. What he could see looked relatively depleted, a dull barren wasteland. In the distance were rocky hills, everything seemed cold and dark and heavy. How delightful, he rolled his eyes sarcastically. Well so be it, Thrawn would probably feel right at home in a dreary place like this. Ezra turned and groaned, holding his side, his ribs were probably injured along with his shoulder after being shot. He would have to deal with that eventually, but first, he had to find his deadly new roommate.

Ezra walked thru the ship, it was an absolute mess. It was littered with bodies, most of them had been defeated in battle, the others probably did not survive the journey. There were holes and tears in some areas of the ship walls, perhaps some of the troopers were ripped out into space. At this point Ezra felt too drained and empty to care, frankly if it was just the two of them on this planet then all the better, less threats he would have to worry about. The rooms were all a mess too, he would have to salvage thru them later and see what of use could be found. Hopefully there was at least some food, he wasn't sure what this planet had to offer but it looked sparse at best. He was too nauseous right now to worry about eating, he would have to deal with that later too. He made his way down to the landing bay, there were a few ships thrown around the hangar that looked to be in pretty sad shape. Maybe he could repair one and use it to escape at some point? He was sure Thrawn had thought the same thing. Hopefully he wasn't a very good mechanic. Ezra was descent at least, so he had that going for him. Ezra began to pant, he was exhausted but still had a long way to go.