Star Wars Rebels - Lost

Chapter Eight: The Unknown

The Gauntlet shot through the atmosphere of this new planet, flames licking the glass window, representative of the excitement running through the pair of pilots. After several seconds, the fires dissipated, revealing the lush landmass ahead of them. The sky was emerald green, with a trio of red stars lighting the daytime. Down on the ground, thick jungles of green and purple plants entangled the land. This place looked like it hadn't seen civilised life in a very long time, if ever. It was completely wild. Sabine and Ahsoka were lost for words, neither of them in their vast travels had ever seen anything of the sort.
"Have you ever?" Sabine started, trailing off in silence. Ahsoka could not bring herself to answer, both of them were in awe. But, as they sat there, lost in a trance at the view in front of them, dark machinations worked against them. A sudden, artificial blue light bathed the Gauntlet, causing the dashboard to spark and the overhead lights in the cockpit to deactivate.
"What's that? What's happening?" Sabine asked, panic beginning to rise.
"Something's scanning us...I've lost all controls..." Ahsoka answered, focused on trying to force the ship back into action. Along with the strange blue light came an ominous deep hum, foreshadowing the evil to come. The dashboard continued to spark, as small lashes of electricity burst out. Ahsoka wrestled the flightsticks, a glare on her face as the blue light suddenly disappeared, leaving as quickly as it had arrived.
"We've lost power...diverting auxiliary power to the engines" Ahsoka said out loud, flicking several switches above her. The engines at the rear of the ship began to shoot into life, orange lights appearing within them, but it was too little, too late.

With a flicker of her eyes, Sabine came to, groaning as her head pulsed in pain. At this point, she was wishing that she'd kept her helmet on as she ran a hand through her hair, wincing a little. A glance upwards revealed that she'd been thrown several metres from the crash, presumably smashing through the front window of the cockpit and landing nearby. With heavy breaths, she attempted to coax her aching muscles into action, slowly pulling herself up. She turned back towards the crash site, the Gauntlet was in a state, and it looked like an abandoned shipwreck. But suddenly, a look of panic appeared on Sabine's face as she remembered Ahsoka and quickly looked around for her. A few seconds of searching yielded success, and she found her friend still sat in the pilot's seat, a belt having prevented her from being thrown from the crash. The Mandalorian limped towards her friend, slowly clambering through the smashed window and cursing in Mando'a as broken glass spiked through her hand. She moved over to the pilot's seat and tore away the tattered belt, moving two fingers to the togruta's neck to check for a pulse. Ahsoka was alive, that was some good news at least. Seconds later, the togruta slowly opened her eyes and coughed, leaning forwards. Sabine quickly moved to support her, and Ahsoka nodded gratefully.
"What...happened?" Ahsoka asked, clearly having difficulty remembering the last few moments.
"To be honest with you" Sabine started, glancing out at the wilds around them for the first time "I'm still trying to figure that out myself".

After several minutes of rest, the pair found the strength to stand and clambered out of the wreck of the Gauntlet. Sabine moved forwards and scooped her helmet up from the ground outside, brushing it down and tutting. Ahsoka, meanwhile, was more concerned with the ship, eyeing it up and down with a grimace. She shook her head, still wondering what had gone wrong. She remembered some sort of light, as they entered the planet's atmosphere, and then...blackness. Sabine moved to her side, now wearing her helmet, and sighed at the sight of the Gauntlet.
"What do we do now?" she asked in an uncertain voice.
"Look over there" Ahsoka responded, pointing in the opposite direction. Sabine followed her gasp and frowned, rising over the treetops was a plume of grey smoke, it couldn't be far away. The two looked back at one another.
"Could be civilisation, worth a look" Ahsoka stated.
"But what about the ship?" Sabine asked, uncomfortable with just leaving it there.
"There's nothing we can do about it right now, if we find a way to fix it we can return. Right now, our only option is to push forwards" her friend answered, striding towards the smoke plume with a newfound vigour. Sabine took one last pitiful look at the Gauntlet before sighing and following the togruta into the unknown.