Krest | A Star Wars Story

Chapter 8: Kaliida Station

"Never give up hope, no matter how dark things seem."

-Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season 5 Episode 20

Krest looked at himself in the mirror, more importantly, he was looking at his new cybernetic eye. He frowned at the pale and almost milky prosthetic that he'd been using for a few days. Even though his vision was now normal it was still unnerving to see the large jagged scar that now ran down his face, accompanied by the white, cataract-like cybernetic replacement his face was an eyesore to be sure. After his rescue and the subsequent shouting match between him and Skitarr, Krest was shipped to Kaliida Shoals medical station to get a cybernetic eye replacement while Skitarr and his men stayed behind on Christophsis. During his time at the station, Krest took it upon himself to change his appearance up. Perhaps in an attempt to make his face a little less frightening now that it looked like he got into a fight with a Trandoshan and lost. Krest now sported a thin mustache on his upper lip and the sides of his hair were faded. But in the end, no matter how much he changed nothing could cover up the trench that ran along his face.

Krest sighed and finished washing his face in the sink before drying himself off. He changed into his black body glove and walked over to a locker where his armor was kept. Because Krest wasn't in critical condition he was placed in a large room with several other troopers with less urgent injuries, they didn't talk as most of the time the men slept or tried to make the best out of their time away. Krest put his armor on and left the room. As he walked through the hallway, the alarm began blaring and clones both in armor and in officer's uniforms scrambled. Krest followed suit and sprinted to the bridge, where he found Nala Se the Kaminoan in charge of Kaliida station and several naval officers looking at holomaps displaying the nearby area. Krest scanned the maps and then noticed there was a single red dot en route to the station.

"Captain, I'm glad to see you." Nala Se said in the usual drawn-out way every Kaminoan spoke and bowed.

"What is the situation Madam?" Krest replied, scanning the maps again.

"A single Separatist frigate, the Malevolence is en route to the station." Nala Se explained. "We're preparing to evacuate the entire station."

"But it's a single frigate, isn't our ship still nearby? That should be plenty of security." Krest replied.

Behind them an officer cut-in. "The Malevolence isn't just an ordinary ship. That thing's a cruiser killer, reports say it's got some kind of secret weapon on it. Took out General Plo's fleet in the Abregado system."

Krest stroked his chin as he pondered the incoming threat. If a single frigate took out an entire fleet then this station was easy pickings. There was little to no combat personnel on board let alone any kind of defenses save for a couple of blockade runners nearby. You'd think a medical station would have some decent defenses. Krest thought to himself.

"Captain?" came Nala Se's voice breaking through his trance and snapping him out of it.

"Huh,?"

"Captain, since you are the highest-ranking officer on station beside me, I must ask you to aid me in coordinating the evacuation. I know you're still in recovery-"

"It's alright madam, let's get these wounded men outta here." Krest nodded. "I need someone to patch me through to the blockade runners, I'll see if I can coordinate some kind of defense to buy us some time."

"I'll leave you to the defense of this station." Nala Se bowed and turned to a pair of medical officers.

From the corner, an officer flashed a thumbs-up indicating that he was patched through to the blockade runners. Krest nodded and tornado n his comlink. "Corvettes this is Captain Krest, 76th Defense Corps,"