The Kaleesh: A Star Wars Novel

Chapter 1: Antebellum

I was running, running for my one life. I can't outrun them, not today, not tomorrow, I never can. The Huk caught up to me and beat me into the ground, viciously, stomping on my face and punching me in my ribcage until I shrieked with pain. "Please stop, I beg you" I cried. "What was it your father said Sheelal? Show no mercy to the Huk? Only care about the Kaleesh?" said a Huk criminal. Without hesitation the Huk would continually beat me to the verge of death. "Get away from my son you filthy Huk!" screamed a figure from a distance. With little ability left, I slowly tilted my head to see my father running at the Huk with a loaded Relby-V10. The Huk looked startled for a brief moment, but it didn't stop him from charging towards my father. With a quick blast from the Relby the Huk was on the ground dead. I felt so exhausted and in so much pain. He approached me and helped me get up. "Qymaen you need to stop coming out here so late at night, there's bad people around here". "I'm sorry father I was just so hungry, I wanted to see if the prime minister had any extra food". "Qymaen you already know the prime minister is already under enough pressure with keeping the Huk off of our planet." I was bruised, beaten and completely traumatized. I thought the pain would never stop. "Let's get you inside Qymaen, we'll fix you up nicely". My father carried me back to our small, cheap, wooden shack to cover me in bandages. "Good thing we scavenged some extra food from the neighbors while you were out on your little adventure Qymaen". "Sorry father I just need to support our family and this planet as much as possible. When is it I can actually learn to kill the Huk?" "You're not even close to being ready for that Qymaen, you can start when you're a little bit older". Naturally I wasn't too thrilled by that, I had the gut instinct like I could easily slaughter the entire race of Huk, but I couldn't even dream of doing that until I was trained properly. The Huk made me mad, enraged, furious! "Just a little longer Qymaen" I always tell myself. "Just a little longer until you can enact your vengeance against them". Next dawn, where I was still incredibly injured and suffering, I went outside in the morning light to look around and see what was new. There was so much injustice to our people on our planet of Kalee. Just today I saw a Huk and a Rodian ganging up on a random, defenseless Kaleesh. I wanted to tear their heads off and mount it in my room, but I knew I would die a terrible death if I even attempted it. I went to a shore to sit down and think about my life. I didn't care for my life a whole lot. I love my family and my people, but I'm growing up in a state of debate and controversy between us and the Huk. Speaking of that, I heard a faint echoing from the town hall. I heard...protesting and chanting. My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to check out the situation. As I opened the huge wooden oak doors to the church where I heard the echoing, I walked into something fascinating. I saw hundreds, no, THOUSANDS of Kaleesh in this one room all talking over each other and yelling constantly. It was so loud but I could pick up a few words from the huge spectacle; "kill...us...them...Kalee...Huk". I knew it, it was a war debate! Just the utter thought of such a planet like that of Kalee...going to war with the Huk? I hated the Huk as much as anyone but war? How would that possibly go? Who would die, who would live? These are all questions I can't ignore but I can't ask either. I know that I will not get over it though, it's not my preferred lifestyle. That was the end for today, I just went back home to bed with a sick feeling in my stomach. Something clearly wasn't right here. Next morning I woke up incredibly early. Not naturally however, no, someone shook me to wake up. It was both my father and mother. "Qymaen please wake up, we need to leave our home now!" "Father what is happening?" I asked. "It's happened, the Huk and Kaleesh Battle, it finally happened. We cannot be in the cross fire of all this." When my father was worried about something, you knew something very bad was happening. We all packed our stuff and left as fast as possible. Leaving was crazy though, roads were blocked 0ff, there were blaster shots not even that far from any of us, our kind were scrambling to the dropships to escape the planet. As I was running with my family I noticed different glimpses of different Kaleesh and Huk physically fighting. They both looked evenly matched but I noticed how bloodthirsty our kind was, I suppose I never really realized that before. I saw different Kaleesh painfully biting into the arms and faces of the Huk. I almost felt bad for them, but I didn't. I hated them. They almost killed me and my family on multiple occasions. Anyway the prime minister of Kalee was signaling us to board the dropships. Then something magnificent happened, not in a good way though. We all saw the biggest ship we've ever seen just flying above the dropships. Then all of a sudden I go blind for a minute and get knocked back very far. I had no idea what the hell just happened, just that it did. Then I saw it, the dropships were destroyed by ion missiles from the other, huge, ships we saw. This was no longer an act of battle, it was full out warfare and death. Luckily I saw my parents lying on the ground next to me. I was terrified for a moment until I realized they were still breathing. I can't say the same for anyone else though. So many Kaleesh, the prime minister, they were all cold dead on the dirt. Something built up in me for seeing that, something fierce and angry. I carried my parents, somehow, to some shade to regenerate our health a little. It was all insane, all of it. I don't know if this is the end of our people or not, it all happened so fast. The only way to help out in a time like this is to learn how to fight back.