Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Thirty Three: Reconnaissance & Resurgence

This planet belongs to the Darkside...it's icy breath surrounded it in a white haze of broken stars, and the yawning sound of the black expanse of space beyond. But it keeps turning, hovering in the sky like a blue pearl as below storms roll under the fragile atmospheric skin, swirling skies weep glassy tears when they break through the heavy grey smoke. It's almost as if the planet were puffing out its death rattle, it's dying breath. Even the sound of its name was spoken in whispered voices almost as if the mere invocation of it and the creatures it played host to would crawl out of the darkness.

Zorii: Why can't it ever be a tropical planet? Sunshine and blue waters...What does the First Order have against vitamin D? But no...It's always some black rock on the back end of the galaxy...creepy planets...always, creepy planets.

Zorii Bliss held her Y-Wing at a safe distance as she kept the homing beacon's signal in range. She'd followed the Knights of Ren as they fled off Pasaana. Or rather when they had been called back to their Masters heel like the dogs they were. It had taken her a few jumps to find the right path through the star fields. Her charts didn't show anything about this system existing. Ion clouds slowly leaked through a monstrous gravity well on the east pole of the planet, now vacant of the desire to consume the tainted heart of the planet. She watched the blackened patchwork hull of the Knights transport disappear through the smokey whispers of the well piercing down into the darkness enshrouding the planet below. She tried her communicator but the signals kept coming back bouncing off the static charge permeating the planets ellipse.

Zorii: Well, that's just perfect...so much for checking in...Ugh! What am I doing here? This wasn't the plan...this was not the plan...

Unsure of what to do...she did what she did when her directives fell short of what the situation required. She had been in deep cover ever since Poe had botched the last contact. Leia had given her the task of mending bridges and reigniting the old fires that had once been the beating heart of the Rebel Alliance. It was a hopeless errand, the will to fight was bleeding the galaxy redder than the banner of the First Order, soon there wouldn't be anything or anyone left to come to their aide. She could see the Resistance taking it's last breaths, after all, nothing stays the same forever. Change was inevitable, and you either adapt and survive, or succumb to the ending of all defeated peoples. The possiblity of the fall of the Resistance to the First Order made Zorii consider possible futures for herself, none would be worth having if her true allegiance were discovered. She'd always been good at walking in both the Light and the Dark, she had perfected the delicate art that came natural to every woman in one way or another. It was a skill required of any woman these days if she wanted to survive, let alone survive free. Being of self mind and never putting stock in any form of belief, Zorii had learned the hard way that to keep food in your stomach and out of the reach of trouble, you couldn't trust anyone to watch your six. Trust doesn't count for much with a blaster pointed at your temple or a blade at your throat, she'd learned the lessons. And then Leia came along and flipped the entire known world on it's head, Zorii had never known someone like Leia Organa. But she'd proven to be a leader...and when the galaxy was ready to follow, she stepped forward and showed them the way. But that had been a long time ago, things always changed just as she was beginning to get used to them, but at least she knew there was one person that wouldn't leave her high and dry. Not that it mattered much, Zorii was used to being on her own, its how she preferred it. It gave her the luxury of making calls that would've been debated over in a committee before any action would have been possible. Out here...She was the committee and barring any objections, she did what she thought was best. Zorii plotted her life by calculated moves and reliable intel, no mystical all encompassing Force required. She understood the reason so many people looked to the ancient ways of the Jedi, but even they had faded into legend. Their religion was nothing more than something for old men and women to wring their hands over. If there was a benevolent Force that bound every thing and person together in harmony and perfect balance, she hadn't seen it. And without seeing it, without tangible proof there was something greater than her own will out there....Zorii couldn't put her faith in it. Systems were beginning to be purged and the old Alliances...were dying out, or their branches cut before they'd managed to take root and sprout. When Zorii looked ahead there were only two options.