Guest appearance by Luna Okami, alternate character of Turel Sorenn - Dossier 13830. Character used with permission.

Clarity

Sparks from destroyed electrical panels briefly lit the interior of the shuttle as Dante slowly regained consciousness. "Ugh... What the..." the trooper moaned to himself as he looked around.

The attack on the ship had been an ambush once they had come out of hyperspace and descended into the atmosphere. "Guess the natives aren't as friendly as Xen made them out to be," he muttered as he unstrapped himself from the crash seat.

Looking around, he realized that there wasn't much left of the Lambda shuttle that was now crumpled up around him. Luckily, Dante had decided to ride out the cash from the rear compartment instead of the cockpit as that was now a massed up piece of scrap. Unluckily, the rest of the crew had been in there along with most of the survival supplies.

As he looked around for the closest hatch, it soon became clear that he was underwater as the effects of the crash began to wear off. Water was beginning to seep into the shuttle, and it wouldn't be too long until it was full.

Reaching out with the Force, Kell could discern that the craft wasn't sinking so it was probably on the sea floor, and the faxt that the pressure hadn't crushed both the shuttle and the Obelisk yet was a good sign that he wasn't that deep Bellow the surface.

After taking stock of what he had with him, it wasn't much than than his weapons. Dante clicked his comm on just to see if it would work, but no response came to his alarm mode. "Guess I will just have to get out of here first. Time to go for a swim."

The Obelisk strapped his gear on and swam over to the remains of the airlock. As the ship filled with water the pressure began to equalize, and, once it filled the airlock, Kell gave the door a helping hand with the Force. Exiting the shuttle, Dante looked up and saw the sun a less than 30 meters above. Slowly making his way up, Dante also controlled his body to avoid decompression sickness.

Finally he reached the surface to find debris scattered on the water. Spotting a large piece of a wing like, Dante swam over to it and climbed aboard. Looking up at the sky, the sun was just starting to set as the soldier hit the rescue beacon. The waves were gentle as he waited, and Kell pulled out his father's ID tags that he always wore around his neck. Looking at the worn objects that had seen thousands of days of combat wear, Dante smiled at thought of his father and all that he had accomplished. A career. A family. A group of loyal friends. Kell had achieved all of these but one. New thoughts sprung up as he waited patiently for his ride to arrive.

Later that evening, lights appeared in the distance and began moving towards Kell's position. Soon, one of the LAAT's of the Imperial Scholae Guard hovered above his makeshift raft.

"Field Marshal! Grab the line!" shouted the crew chief of the assault transport as he threw the rescue harness. The waves began to get choppy as Kell grabbed the harness and put it around him. After less than a minute of hauling, the commander of the Imperial Scholae Guard was aboard and then on his way to the new base that they were building.

As he sat there drinking the caf that the crew chief had provided him, Kell pondered the fact that he had been retrieved plenty of times over the years, but this was a bit different. It made him think of his father, and it made him think of... Someone else. Clarity. Such a simple thing, but it appears at the strangest times.

There on the depths of space Jedi Ranger Maximus Alvinius sat listening to the final communication between rescue forces from Clan Odan Urr answering his distress message sent out just ten minutes earlier. Three hours he heard was the timeframe it would take before reaching his location. This wasn’t as long as he had thought it would take after his recent rendezvous with Pirates just minutes earlier.

His adrenaline was still pumping and he could feel their physical presence with the uneasy shaking that still ran through his hands as he pressed the different indicators that would boost his oxygen levels while saving what precious energy his ship’s rescue systems had during engine failure.

At this point he knew there wasn’t much else to do, but sit and wait for rescue. Through his mind though he couldn’t help, but recall the action he had just been involved in during a surprise ambush by Pirates in this sector. How could he of not sensed the awaiting attack he thought, or the impending assault with the false stranded ship call they used to lure him in.

As a Jedi it was always their duty to assist any person in a time of distress. He was originally sent on this mission for a standard patrol of the sector in order to show a force of presence with the local planets and also seek to thwart any enemies looking to assault the system.

The cargo ship he came upon was innocent at best, but the manifest showed it carrying merchant supplies along with 20 civilian personnel in transit to their home world. The message stated the twenty year old cargo ship had suffered damage after a recent hyperspace jump that ended here where they encountered an astroid storm that had damaged part of the ship’s reactor core.

Maximus had been flying in the sector for thirty minutes prior and did witness the astroid storm. From afar and knew civilian ships might have been entangled in it’s grip. It was at this point he decided to seek for any ships needing help.

As he approached the astroid belt that had calmed in the minutes since the astroid storm he had encountered the distress call. Weaving in and out of the astroid he made his way over the course of the 150 km he had to cover to reach the broke down cargo ship. As he made his way there he was having a bit of fun remembering his old training days of flying in such areas. It was pure excitement at his finger tips.

Within minutes he approached the cargo ship and communicated his rescue efforts to help the ship would be soon engaged to help get the ship operational. It was in that moment when he was within 1km that 3 Pirate star fighters engaged him from positions within two astroids by the cargo ship.

He knew this fight could be won, but he had to utilize a bit of his piloting skills. Within seconds he was able to engage with a missile connecting to the first fighter approaching while utilizing evacise maneuvers to avoid the 3 missiles locked to him. Each striking a nearby astroid as he zoomed inside of it and out the other in.

Immediately on the other side one of the ships approached around his port side and another from his starboard side. Each fighter locked on as Maximus pressed full power towards the fighter to his left. This was a game of chicken he remembered from pilot school. As he plowed towards the fighter with it’s freshly launched missile coming at him he utilized anti locking flairs and 90 degree maneuver to launch his fighter above the missile and the ships zooming from the front and behind his position. In that moment he watched as the Pirates realized it was to late to avoid the incoming collision. He watched as the two missiles collided with both Pirates smashing into the engulfing flames and each other leaving nothing behind, but debris and fire.

He had his victory, but not before the blast had damaged his engine enough to disable his ship. While he was full of smiles from the victory, he was also full of confusion of how he did not recognize the Pirates impending ambush. This was something he would have a few hours to think about before his rescue party would arrive. He knew he needed to compile all possible scenarios for this illusion in order to take it back to his Clan for further investigation.