Sunday, June 16, 2024

Star Wars: Vergence VI, Prologue

  The following entries are selected excerpts from The Calrissian Chronicles: Volume 3.

Datalog 63:3:13

This is Landonis Balthazar Calrissian IV reporting in. Although you can call me Chance.

It has been a week since the attacks on New Alderaan and Hosnian Prime, and a week since my old man and I set out to find Kadara. My sister that’s been missing for… stars, has it been thirteen years already? I don’t even want to think about it. It’s still thirteen years too many.

Dad says not to get my hopes up about making any progress any time soon. He’s already been searching for her since we first lost her, and had practically given up until we reconnected and decided to renew the search.

Right now, I don’t want to think about the worst-case scenario. This ship is called the Best Chance for a reason. We’re going to find her, or die trying.

Anyway… we’ve made a stop at Pasaana. Dad says he came across the planet during one of his earlier searches, back when he was traveling with Luke Skywalker. He had been impressed by the humble nature of the native people, the Aki-Aki, and decided to set up a small retreat for himself there, for when he wants to get away from the craziness of the galaxy and his many, many enterprises.

It was also here on Pasaana that he and Luke had found a ship belonging to an assassin they had been hunting down seven years ago. Apparently they had come across a family that had been trying to get away from this assassin—Ochi, I think he said his name was—and they had done everything they could to protect them, only to get sidetracked by some Sith acolyte. Eventually, they found the parents dead in a crate floating in space, with no sign of their daughter. They then found Ochi’s ship here on Pasaana, reaching the conclusion that he had been taken by the dangers lurking in the Forbidden Valley.

Dad wants to go back to that ship. He thinks there might be something he and Luke had missed when they first explored it. It might not be much, but he thinks it’s worth a shot. He’s working on the theory that whatever happened to that little girl from the family he and Luke had been following might be tied to what happened to Kadara, as well as Luke’s nephew and plenty of other children that have been lost over the past several years.

Even if we don’t find anything… if nothing else, it will give us a chance to catch up on the time we’ve missed together. That alone I think will make this all worth it.

UPDATE: Nothing of much note on the ship other than this weird droid. Basically just a wheel with a sideways cone for a head. Calls itself Dio or something like that. Nothing to be found in its memory banks. Dad finds it charming though; says it reminds him of someone he used to know. I guess we’re keeping it….

Datalog 71:3:1

Well, well, well. Thing’s have just taken an interesting turn.

The last seven years have been dry in turns of progress. Nothing but dead ends and circles. But then, within the span of, what, a month? Everything went to hell.

First, we returned to Pasaana to find Ochi’s ship gone. No idea who could have taken it; Chance thinks it might’ve been bandits or scavengers, but I doubt it. That ship’s just been sitting there for fourteen years and only now does someone decided to just come up and grab it for themselves? No, there’s something fishier afoot….

Before we could investigate further, I got news from Leia. Her son Anakin had went missing while on a mission to find these things called Star Maps, and these alien invaders called Glorians had started to attack the Galactic Alliance, starting with worlds such as Kashyyyk and Kaal.

This is where things get weird. Somehow, these Glorians have the means of moving entire systems. Yes, you heard me right. Last time I heard something like that happening was when Han’s crazy cousin Thrackan tried to use Centerpoint Station nearly eighteen years ago. No idea whether there’s a connection or not; I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this whole thing.

Anyway, we’ve needed to reorganize our priorities. I want to help, but Leia doesn’t want us to give up the search. So I’ve decided to compromise. I’ve decided to expand Tendrando Arms to set up new plants on the some of the planets Chance and I have visited. Not only does this help us mark places on our map but it also allows Tendrando to build battle droids to help the Alliance in the war against these Glorians.

Tendra… bless her heart for being patient with me. I haven’t spent nearly as much time as I would’ve liked to, but she’s insisted that I do everything I can to find Kadara. She’s not Kadara’s mother, but she already treats her like her daughter. I cannot state how much I love that woman. Han’s right; I hit the jackpot with that one.

While Tendra helps us with that, Chance came to me with an idea. It’s probably the wildest idea I’ve ever heard, but at this point… I don’t know what else to try.

Probably the only place in the galaxy that we haven’t even attempted to explore is the Unknown Regions. For obvious reasons, of course. The only client state that we have any semblance of contact with there is the Chiss Ascendancy, which we are on loose terms at best with. The Empire has better relations with them, but I’m not exactly enthused about reaching out to them to set up a meeting with the Chiss.

Still… our options are limited as it is. Fortunately, I happen to know a few people who might already know how to get into Chiss Space without having to go through the Imperials. I know we’re supposedly on “good terms” with them, but… well, you know how it is.

Datalog 71:3:8

So, we met up with Dad’s contact in the Otomok system and they had a pretty interesting story to tell, to say the least.

Before we could even ask them about getting into Chiss Space, they told us about how their planet’s resources had been mined by the Imperials over the past nine years. The details didn’t exactly square with the timeline of us making peace with the Empire, nor did it sound like something Grand Admiral Pellaeon would approve of. I know Dad is a lot more narrow-minded towards Imperials than I am, thanks to his experiences, but even he had to agree that something about it didn’t sound right.

What was more, however, was that one of the daughters of Dad’s contact had been kidnapped by these Imperials, along with other children living in the system. This only strengthened our theory about there being a greater plot surrounding the disappearances of all these children, and we promised Hue and Thanya we would help them find their daughter. Their eldest daughter, Paige, was eager to join us, and after some back and forth between Dad and her parents, we all agreed to let her join in. Besides, we were probably gonna need a gunner in case we ran into any trouble.

In exchange for our help, Hue gave us coordinates that led into Chiss Space. He also gave us the name of a Chiss friend of his to ask for to make our visit slightly less stressful (Chiss don’t exactly take kindly to outsiders).

Before we can do that, we have a lead on Paige’s sister Rose. Hopefully we’ll be able to find her and bring her home.

Datalog 71:3:15

Well, that didn’t take as long as I had feared it would. But it was also a lot more scarier than I had expected.

We found Rose in an abandoned transport near Jaemus. That was the easy part. The hard part was dealing with a scout ship belonging to those Glorians. I’d never seen anything like their vessels, and for a scout ship it was awfully tough. We pretty much had to play cat-and-mouse with them throughout the system before we were able to find a weak spot and Paige blew it up. If that’s how much it takes to deal with a single scout ship… I don’t want to know what else they have in store for us.

We then brought in Rose, who was dressed in a uniform that looked Imperial but not exactly their standard issue. She told us that her abductors called themselves the First Order and how they had tried to indoctrinate her, although most of the brainwashing didn’t really work on her. She had been stationed as an officer at a station near Jaemus only for it to mysteriously blow up; she thinks that maybe they were trying to get rid of her and the rest of the crew, as most of them were also those that hadn’t been fully indoctrinated. She had barely managed to escape on a transport, which was when we found her. Talk about luck, eh? Guess I’ve still got it.

Anyway, there wasn’t much more she could tell us about this First Order. Sounds like they’re the secretive sort. I’ve decided to send all of this info to Leia, see if maybe she could do some investigation of her own as well as find a safe place for the sisters and their family.

I don’t know about you, but I consider this progress. We finally have a name for the people that have been taking our children—that have taken Kadara.

We’re going to find her. Mark my words.

Datalog 73:2:4

Hey. Chance here. Been a while, hasn’t it?

Can’t say there’s much to tell. The war’s over, which is great, but we’re still no closer to finding Kadara than we were nine years ago. The Chiss weren’t of much help, and the Glorians have kept us busy in the meantime.

Dad did get the chance to talk with Leia while we were on Kashyyyk during the celebrations. She told him that she’s already been running a secret network since the attack on New Alderaan and has put them to the task of finding this First Order and exposing them. Not much progress has been made so far, but it’s nice to know that Dad and I aren’t alone in this search.

Still, I can tell Dad’s morale is low. I don’t want him to give up, but I also don’t know what to tell him to raise his spirits. We’ve tried everything at this point….

…Anyway. I saw Jaina when we were on Kashyyyk. I hadn’t seen her in forever—not since we left on our journey. I thought about finally confessing my feelings to her, since I wasn’t sure if I would get another chance… but it just didn’t feel right. We’re both different people than we were nine years ago. I’m not even sure if my feelings for her now are the same as they were back then.

She seemed to feel the same way; it was all in her eyes and smile. Still, it was nice to hold her, even if it was just for less than a minute.

Sorry, got sidetracked there. I’ll update this again when there’s something worth updating. I can tell Dad hasn’t touched this log since the Otomok mission, so it’ll just be me that you’ll be hearing from.

Until then….

Datalog 78:3:6

Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me?

This is Lando Calrissian. We’ve crash-landed on one of the moons of Endor, with no means of escape.

They’ve taken Chance. I don’t know where he is or who these people are. Please, if you hear this message, send help. Call Tendra. Call Han. Call Leia. Call anyone who can help.

I don’t know how much time I have left. I’ve only got one, maybe two charges left in my blaster.

Again, it doesn’t matter who you are, just please send help. I’m gonna need it.

We’re all gonna need it.

End of datalogs

STAR WARS: VERGENCE

Book VI: The Dying of the Light

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