Star Wars: Darkness Rising

Chapter 1: Landing on Lehon!

"Where are you young Jedi...? It's been a year! Are you no longer interested in my offer!?" said the cold, dark voice. Ezra jolted awake in his cabin, cold sweat pouring down his face. He realised he was panting for breath a few moments later. Ezra closed his eyes, entering a slight meditation trance, and calmed himself. It was getting harder to do so every time he needed to. In the months since losing Oolrund, Ezra had been plagued by the nightmares on a nightly basis. He knew he had been losing a lot of sleep, and the crew and troops had noticed, they hadn't been in another battle yet. The nightmares with the voice terrified him. He saw sights of battles, so much more ruthless than anything he had seen. The scenes would often shift to slaves being tortured. Physically, mentally, verbally, Ezra quietly suspected even sexually. Sometimes, he would see them be beaten only because their captors had wanted to. Those were the l;ucky ones he saw in the nightmares. The unlucky ones were cut to pieces while they were still alive, given just enough Bacta or pain medication to keep them conscious. As the flesh and meat from the insides of whatever beings Ezra saw that night were cut up, they were eaten. Some bits of meat as he heard the creatures in his dreams call it, was cooked on an open fire. All of the slaves were forced to watch. Worse, they were forced to eat it. If they refused, they were tortured even more. The worst part of all besides the voice, was how much pleasure he could see on the creature's faces. They were enjoying them. The dreams had made Ezra sick on more than one occasion. The dream always ended with the same voice, asking the same question. The same question that had woken him up. Sabine had finally woken up, and Ezra knew he should go and see her, but he couldn't bring himself to. They hadn't spoken since they had kissed. Every bit of Ezra's being had wanted to do that, but when she had been the one to start kissing, he had wanted to be the one to pull away. After that, she had been in a coma for months. The Chiss did have Bacta, and Ezra had used enough on Sabine to try and heal her, but it had only been enough for her cuts, fractured bones and bruises. The doctors on his ship, The White Wolf, had informed him that Sabine had suffered a head trauma. After testing and treating her, Ezra had been told it was something they called an 'Epidural Hematoma' and it had seemed serious. Ezra sighed, and checked the time, wondering, even hoping, he could get more sleep that wouldn't be plagued by his nightmares before he was needed on the Bridge to take over the watch. He groaned, and got out of bed. He had to be up in a few minutes anyway. Ezra dressed, clipped the lightsaber he had been using temporarily to his belt, rubbed the last remnant of sleep out of his eyes, and made his way to the bridge. In the three months or so that Sabine had been in a coma, Ezra had been trying to stay busy, and had hardly visited his friend. Ahsoka hadn't left Sabine's side, and nor had Rex. He hadn't spoken to them much either. Ezra sighed, and made his way on to the bridge. "ATTENTION! GENERAL ON DECK!" yelled the most senior officer there. He was a Mid-Commander. Ezra nodded. "At ease" he said. Ezra walked over to the command chair, and sat down. "Whats our progress?" he asked. "Skywalker Thrana took a three-hour break and returned to duty maybe an hour ago. we should reach Lehon either today or tomorrow, where new units assigned to our battlegroup will be waiting" the officer replied. Ezra nodded. "Alright, take a break" he said. The officer saluted and left. Sighing, Ezra sat down, and forced himself to stay awake for his shift on watch. As he sat there, Ezra couldn't help but think about Sabine. He found himself looking back on what had happened before she had ended up in a medically induced coma. "I've missed you so much" he said. Sabine nodded at him. "I missed you too" she said, her voice barely audible. Without thinking, she leaned and kissed Ezra, solidly and passionately on the lips. It lasted for a few moments before Ezra kissed her back, just as passionately as she had kissed him. Neither of them knew what would happen next, as Sabine's body finally shut down and slumped to the ground, and Ezra noticed her injuries for the first time. Sabine Wren closed her eyes, and felt Ezra kiss her again softly one last time before everything went black. Ezra hated himself for not noticing the injuries sooner. If he had, then Sabine wouldn't have nearly died, had died, during the surgery to try and repair the trauma to her head. He sighed. After the medics had arrived and airlifted her back the Skywalker academy, Ezra had forced himself to stay with his army and buy time for the battle medics to do their work. Oolrund had falls roughly three days later, cutting Ezra's army to pieces by ninety-five percent. The stormtroopers, Deathtroopers and a few thousand Chiss had survived. The total he had now didn't include the Chiss military who had been evacuated with the Skywalkers. In total, he had maybe thirty thousand ground soldiers left of the few hundred thousand typically assigned to him.. There was a bright side though, Thrawn had managed to keep the entire Battlegroup in one piece. The surviving patrol cruisers and three frigates were travelling with his fleet to Lehon. Ezra had assigned them to his battlegroup, and the twenty-three thousand Chiss soldiers to his army as well. Ezra's plans hadn't been so lucky. The majority, such as convincing Ahsoka, Rex and Sabine to capture Thrawn and return him to the New Republic to stand trial were still possible. Another plan had risked being destroyed several times. Having secretly studied Stormtrooper armour and the materials within the Chiss Ascendancy, Ezra had a new plan. He'd compared the armour the imperial soldiers wore to the battle armour of the Chiss. Both had their own sets of advantages, but the imperial armour was lighter and more durable. Ezra couldn't focus. His mind wandered back to Sabine. Had she meant to kiss him? What had happened? It wasn't just nightmares of the voice that had kept him from sleeping. It was nightmares of Sabine. In those dreams, she had typically found him too late, and had fought beside him in a last stand against the Grysk. Sometimes, she had found him in time and he had ordered the retreat, but she had died from her injuries, a look of sadness in her eyes. Ezra was the one to close them. Real life hadn't been too different. Sabine hadn't died, but it had been close. Ezra had found that out when he had reached the academy with his army. The medics had informed him that she'd certainly been through a lot. She had fallen through the sky, bruising the bones in her legs and ribs, been attacked by a Grysk supersoldier, dragged along like dirt by several Darshi, and she had been hit by an explosion that had caused her head injury. Through all of that, she had still ran to him, and after she had kissed him, and he had kissed her back, she had went limp in his arms, unresponsive. Ezra knew from what little first aid training he'd been given by the Chiss that her body had shut down from her injuries. The medics hadn't downplayed how lucky she was. If she had been going for another minute or two, she almost certainly would have died. Ezra had been the one to apply pressure to her cuts, the one to do CPR when she had stopped breathing temporarily, and he still felt like he had failed. He should have gone to find her. He clenched his fist. He couldn't think like that, he had made the right call. At least he hoped he had. Even now, Ezra had no way of being certain that his choice had been the right one. He banished the thoughts from his head, and simply sat in the chair, and did his job. Lead these people and the evacuees to safety on Lehon, after that, he would talk to Sabine.