Pursuit

So I started writing this last summer I think and finished like... idk when. Haven't worked on it awhile and hadn't posted it because I wanted to look through it because I feel like my writing ability became better during the process of it and I wanted it all to be on even ground. But right now I'm just not interested enough in it to edit it. I'm gonna post it so you guys can form opinions and possibly help me when I do develop the interest to edit it.

Thanks

Prologue

The sound of a rushing river could be heard in the distance. The skies began to close into twilight as the star attempted to grapple its way back into sight, falling behind the fat, bulbous trees of Saleucami. The planet known for its outrageous temperatures began to reflect into bitter cold. Though at the time, it felt quite nice.

On top of the hill, above all the trees, sat a small cabin. It wasn’t the finest place to stay, but it held a homey feeling to it; it was not a modern type building. And as the star’s light was beginning to fade, it became more and more apparent that there were lights in the cabin. An orange-like glow illuminated from the house, contrasting with the darkening land around it.

The floor of the cabin was kriin-wood, an expensive Alderaanian trade item used for the floors of palaces and throne rooms. The furniture of the living room was Corellian leather colored a jet black. At the end of the couch was a fire place with a small fire place beginning to spark. On the other end, on the arm rest, was a beautiful array of dark red hair. The straightened strands fell from over the other side. Lying on the couch was a striking woman who slept with her hands together as if using them as a pillow.

She lay wearing a white, see-through, cotton weave tank top that ended at her thighs. Underneath were only black undergarments.

The door crept open revealing a large man carrying a few logs. This man wore an unshaven face and hair that stretched down to his neck, along with a dark brown, overcoat to protect from the spiraling cold weather.

The door closed unwantedly hard and made the man stop in his tracks. To his dismay, the woman had been woken as she sat up with a rush.

“Kalbon, is that you?” she asked.

“Yes, Lil. I just needed a bit more wood for the night,” the man explained as he walked up to the fire place. He placed one of the pieces of wood into the fire and placed the others to the side. Kalbon walked over to the couch and sat next to Lily. She lunged to him and wrapped her arms around his next. Of which, he returned the favor happily.

Lily gently kissed him and then sat back against the couch, sliding her hands around Kalbon’s waist. Kalbon sighed from exhaustion. They were finally able to rest. After a few days of arguing, Lily seemed to have become at peace with the past. Neither of the two thought they were wrong in their actions, but feelings were finally beginning to settle.

“I had a nightmare before you walked in. I was basically awake for a few seconds,” Lily admitted. Her eyes still closed as she relaxed against Kalbon’s chest.

“What about?”

“It was about what would’ve happened,” Lily’s voice was soothing even after she brought up the matter.

“Oh?” Kalbon turned his head slightly, genuinely intrigued.

“Yes,” she answered.

Kalbon nodded as if he understood. Though he was unsatisfied, he didn’t feel it was anything to push. Slowly, Kalbon’s minded drifted off to the first time he had met Lily. He was running a search in the Myrkr system when the Star Jade picked up a distress call.

When he reached the outpost on Myrkr, he found it was Imperial. Wire flew out from the walls, sparks flew, and dead bodies were everywhere just as the smell was. The bodies looked to have been ripped apart and eaten at. Finally, he came to a locked room. Kalbon ignited his lightsaber and cut a rectangular hole in the door. It fell forward as Kalbon was met with an Imperial blaster barrel in his face. On the other side was a dark skinned man dressed in Imperial armor. Next to him, was the red-headed woman named Lily holding a vibroblade to his stomach.

Kalbon disignited his lightsaber and placed it on his belt. He placed his hands in the air. He explained why he had come and the soldier explained why they sent out the distress signal. The Sith Lord, Darth Rakutis, in charge of the group had abandoned the outpost just as all the defenses mysteriously stop working. Next thing they knew, the outpost was being ransacked by vornskyr, wolf-like creatures that use the Force to hunt.

Resentful of the Sith now, the soldier, named Malken, and Lily chose to join Kalbon as Republic bounty hunters. As the months went by, Kalbon soon fell for the Hapan Imperial and they began to pursue a relationship. However, Malken would soon die in an explosion on Mandalore as the three attempted to take in a war criminal.

Soon after, Lily and Kalbon halted their bounty hunting career and settled down for awhile on Dantooine. After awhile, they returned, only to meet with Scott Chain and his wife. And after a few life changing adventures for Kalbon, Lily seemed to want one of her own. As far as Kalbon could tell, she wanted closure; however she seemed to want more.

A few days before….



The vacuum of space forced itself onto the raging ship, itching to get in. Kalbon was feeling as if it may succeed, given a few minutes. His sky blue lightsaber pranced around his body as blaster bolts bounced off into the walls of the Imperial cruiser. He was given only a small area to work as it seemed the hallway he was in was closing in on him. Kalbon discarded the notion as it felt as if it were only a form of claustrophobia.

Across the hall were Imperial troopers, raining fire onto Kalbon’s blade. They seemed just as compacted as Kalbon felt. Nearly shoulder to shoulder they stood. Kalbon slashed away the bolts and threw a hand up, launching one of the troopers into the air. He cracked as he impacted and then fell to the ground. The slight shock in the other troopers opened up a time window Kalbon needed. He spun his lightsaber into the crowd of troopers as they fell with gasps and cries.

Kalbon ducked and sliced at the boots of the troopers. As he leaped up from the ground, he sent a pulse through the Force, knocking all the troopers to their backs. Kalbon continued down the hall as the troopers attempted to recover. One rose, only for Kalbon to decapitate him upon his retaliation.

Kalbon entered the bridge where Lily was already at work. She tore her vibroblade out from the gut of an Imperial guard and was leaping to another. The guard attempted to strike her with his electrostaff, only to have it caught by Lily’s gauntlet and then receive a vibroblade to the throat. The gauntlets were the more modest part of her armor. Along with the pieces of Imperial armor, Lily gave her armor pieces of many other factions.

Kalbon jumped to Lily’s side as they finished the remainder of the bridge resistance, only leaving the lowly officers.

“Who wears the highest rank?” Lily screamed. Her face covered in black facepaint and her hair in a bun. Kalbon was puzzled by the reason she hadn’t worn a helmet, but he couldn’t argue with results.

“I-I do...” shrilled a small, gray man. His uniform told Kalbon he was a Captain. The man walked forward to Lily. Kalbon could feel his heart beating and his fear growing. With a swift gesture, Lily grabbed the man by his throat and lifted him of his feet. Kalbon couldn’t say he had expected this.

“Where is Darth Rakutis?” she yelled at the officer. The bridge shook from the battle outside. Though outside the ship was a battle, the inside was so quiet, Kalbon could hear the breaths and whispers of every person in the room.”Where is he?!?”

“I-I don’t know!”

“He’s lying,” Kalbon said to Lily. Honestly, Kalbon felt like the calmest person in the room. He was nearly surprised by the lack of emotion in his words. Abruptly, Lily smacked the officer with the butt of her vibroblade in the jaw.

“Where is he!? Tell me!” she repeated. The Captain looked around nervously for help. However, not a single soul was moving to intervene.

“He’s on a different capital ship! He’s in the vicinity however!” the Captain explained quickly. Lily squeezed harder on the man’s throat as he gasped again. “He said he felt an attempt on his life so he moved to a different ship upon engaging with the Republic!”

There was a silence for a few moments. Lily seemed to be thinking over what the officer said.

“That’s all I know! I swear to the Emp-” the Captain was cut off was Lily flung his head into the bridge’s floor. There was a smack and blood began to form a puddle around his cranium. Kalbon gulped at the site. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before. Just something that never really seemed to change the way it made him felt.

“Shall we?” Kalbon jested as he motioned toward the doors. Lily for once, was not amused. She passed Kalbon and walked vigorously toward the exit. Kalbon jogged up to follow as the ship continued to rumble.

The couple met little resistance as they entered the Star Jade. Lily was first to walk into the dimly lit ship and stumbled as she entered. Kalbon caught her arm and attempted to help her up before she pulled away.

“Turn on the lights in here. Why is it always so damn dark?” she said with venom in her words.

Kalbon snickered to himself as he jogged over to a control switch to amplify the lighting. Lily went straight to the cockpit when she could see better and started the ship up in record time. Kalbon entered just as they were leaving the docking bay.

“Can you feel him?” Lily asked.

“What?”

“Can you feel Rakutis? Use your Jedi stuff to find which ship he’s on,” she ordered. This time with a bit more force in her voice.

“I don’t know. It’s not like the Force lets us see nametags. There’s quite a few Sith and Jedi around here.”

“Don’t patronize me!” Lily yelled, “We’re going to find him now!”

“Lily, we’re not checking every single ship. That’s just insane.”

“We wouldn’t have to check every ship if you could just pick out which one is his!” Lily was now out of her chair and waving her vibroblade around.

“Lily, get back in the chair!” Kalbon exclaimed. He was trying not to yell but it wasn’t working. Lily dropped her vibroblade and sat back down. Kalbon sighed with relief. Suddenly, he was propelled to the wall and then to the ground as Lily was taking a hard turn with the ship.

“What the kriff are you doing?!” Kalbon yelled. His head hurting from the hit. Lily ignored him and went along her merry little way. She rocked the ship back and forth before finally entering the hangar of a cruiser.

“If you can’t find him, we’ll start with this one,” Lily explained with simplicity reeking from her voice. She immediately rose and ran to the ship’s exit. Kalbon picked himself up and ran after her. The Star Jade rocked along with the cruiser’s hangar as Republic fire bombarded it. Kalbon exited the ship to see Lily making short work of the pilots and engineers she came across. Kalbon rushed over to her side to try and calm her before he felt a cold rush. A thought in the back of his head told him to duck, so he dove for Lily and they both fell to the floor. He could then feel the trail of heat that passed over his head. Igniting his lightsaber, Kalbon rose to clash blades with a bare-chested zabrak with slate gray skin. The muscle bound beast threw his blade at Kalbon like it was a blunt weapon.

Kalbon leaped from the Sith but was followed by the monster’s ferocity. Their blades exchanged blows as Kalbon dodged and parried the stern attacks. He himself sent a blow to the beast’s head. The Sith ducked under it and attempted a shot at the heart. Kalbon parried and replied with an attempt at the feet.

The zabrak jump back and sent a pulse through the Force. Kalbon constructed a barrier and then counter-attacked with his own pulse. This caught the beast off guard, knocking him back. He quickly recovered and leaped to Kalbon with his blade high. Kalbon propelled himself upward slightly with a spin. He parried the Sith’s downward slash and then launched a kick into the beast’s face.

The Sith hit the ground, but grabbed Kalbon’s leg and spun himself. Kalbon was thrown farther down the hangar until he hit the wall. Nearing a state of panic, Kalbon searched for his lightsaber, but found it nowhere in sight. The Sith was already launching himself to make the final death blow. Kalbon gathered his energy and focused on a teaching of the Aing-Tii. As the beast propelled his lightsaber into the wall, Kalbon teleported himself behind the Sith and threw both feet into the back of the Sith’s head, sending him on a collision course with the wall.