Undesignated Star System
Knight Squadron was an elite starfighter unit within the Alliance Military for two reasons. The first was that its pilots were made up of the best and brightest pilots available, chosen by the Squadron Leader. The second was the identity of the Squadron Leader; Commander Kelveste Ravni; who had once upon a time been a Jedi Knight of the Old Republic. As a result, Commander Ravni was not only an extremely capable pilot but also a formidable warrior and a leader that any member of Knight Squadron would follow to hell and back. The Squadron had been designated as a special tasks unit, and was kept secret from the majority of the Rebel Alliance; including the young force-sensitive boy, with the name of a famous Jedi, who had destroyed the Death Star. Commander Ravni had argued strongly in favour of being allowed to reveal himself to the young Skywalker, however he had been overruled by Alliance High Command, arguing that survivors of the Great Jedi Purge were few and far between, and knowledge of them had to be kept strictly secret. As a result, Commander Ravni and Knight Squadron had played a vital, if largely hidden, and if its membership was a closely guarded secret, its reputation preceded it.
It was perhaps hardly surprising, therefore, that when a Rebel scout had located a hyperspace wormhole, appearing to lead to a distant and previously uncharted galaxy, Alliance High Command had chosen Knight Squadron to be the first major Rebel unit to explore the far side.
Amongst the twelve T-65B X-Wing starfighters, the backbone of the Alliance Starfighter Corps, was Lieutenant Keylara Ky-Nomi, a Twi’Lek of only sixteen years. She had been taught to fly by her brother, who had fought against the Separatists on their homeworld of Ryloth during the Clone Wars, from a young age and she had lived a blessed life, at least until the Empire came to Ryloth, and she along with millions had fled the planet. Her family had been particularly unfortunate, as their fleeing transport had been set upon by pirates and she had been captured; her brother and every other of her family, killed. She would have been sold as a sex slave, despite her then-tender age of only ten years, however she remembered what her brother had taught her and was able to escape; stealing a Z-95 Headhunter she had escaped the pirates and was picked up a few days later, exhausted and dehydrated, by a Rebel warship.
The Alliance, unwilling to employ children in combat, had refused to allow her to fight, instead embarking her upon a period of intense schooling to regain some of her education, before at age fourteen, allowing her to take on non-combat roles and to embark upon advanced flight training, with a promise that she could fight once she turned sixteen. Sure enough, he superiors had kept their word and they had commissioned her into the Starfighter Corps, where she soon gained the attention of Commander Ravni who surprised everyone by offering the young, undoubtedly skilled but inexperienced, Twi’Lek a place in the Squadron. This was her first ‘combat’ mission with Knight Squadron, although not the first time she had seen combat, and in any case there was no intelligence to indicate that the Empire had any knowledge of this place and as such they weren’t expecting to encounter enemy forces. What they were expecting to encounter, and part of the reason why Alliance High Command had sent a Jedi, was the unknown, and that as exciting as it was terrifying, and although Keylara couldn’t speak for the others, adrenaline was flooding her system as the squadron emerged on the other side.
“Scopes clear,” Knight Two, the squadron’s second in command, reported crisply after a few moments. “No hostiles.”
Keylara let out the breath she had been holding and tried to force herself to relax. They had treated this as a combat jump, and every other combat jump she had been involved in had resulted in Imperial forces upon them in very short order; everything from a squadron of TIEs to an Imperial Star Destroyer. By contrast, this felt almost like a routine jump, even if her eyes were still twitching all around her looking for any trouble. Forcing herself to breath deeply she looked down at the sensor display, powered by the very capable sensor suite in her X-Wing’s nose cone, and took in the system that they had found themselves in. Looked like a main sequence star with a dozen or so planets, rock and gas giants, spread across the system; no indication of habitation as far as she could see. Leaning forwards she punched a query into her system and the computer dutifully confirmed that the fourth planet appeared to be habitable.
“Looks like we’ve got a habitable planet,” Commander Ravni, Knight Leader, commented over the net even as Keylara was thinking the same thing. “Alright Knights, maintain formation and follow father; let’s go take a look.”
Keylara nodded to herself and followed the others as the squadron surged forward towards the planet. It didn’t take them long, for the hyperspace wormhole was in between the fourth and fifth planets of the system, and they were soon slipping into orbit of the lush garden world. Keylara ran a few quick scans and confirmed that the atmosphere was breathable and the climate was temperate.
“What you say boss, fancy a trip to the surface?” Knight Two queried, asking the question everyone in the Squadron wanted to ask.
There were a few moments of silence as the Commander clearly considered the request.
“Sure, why not,” Commander Ravni replied, resulting in cheers across the squadron. “Not so fast, Knights Seven and Eight, you’ve got the short straw; four-hour combat air patrol.”
Groans answered, but the two X-Wings separated from the rest of the squadron and assumed a patrol orbit above the planet even as the rest of the Knights began to make their way towards the planet.
Knight Squadron touched down on a patch of grass above a coastline, golden sand below them looked inviting to say the least. Keylara completed the shut-down procedure and popped the canopy of her X-Wing and smiled with pleasure as she felt real honest sunlight on her face for the first time in a long time. Climbing out of the cockpit she took off her helmet, and was grateful for the nearby presence of water as she felt the sweat from the inside of her helmet. She kicked off her boots and peeled off her flight suit, leaving her in the vest and shorts that went underneath and set off at a run towards the waters edge; glancing to her left and right she could see that she was not the only member of the squadron that was running towards the sea; after all they had all been stuck in space for force only knows how long. It was the best feeling imaginable as she hit the surf and felt the shock of the cooler water on her hot skin.
Keylara swam for a few minutes before rolling over onto her back and floating, looking up at the sky, enjoying the feel of the water on her skin and the sun on her face; for all she was used to life in space she never forgot what being planetside was like and was determined to enjoy it for as long as possible. Truth be told, she was hoping that the Alliance would, at least, be able to set up a permanent planetary base out here, if they were actually outside the reach of the Empire; more importantly, if they could bring the countless displaced refugees of the Empire’s brutality out here and give them a chance at a new life. As far as Alliance Intelligence could determine, the Empire had not discovered this hyperspace wormhole themselves, and there was already a fairly sizeable cell within AI at work to ensure that they never did, for this was what they never could have had back in their own galaxy; a true safe haven.
After a time, Keylara swam towards the shore and fought her way through the shallows to the beach, deep in her own thoughts about everything they were doing out here, and about the cause.
“Credit for your thoughts, Lieutenant,” Commander Ravni queried, almost appearing out of nowhere given how distracted she had been. “You look troubled.’
“Just thinking of the war back home,” Keylara sighed heavily. “It almost feels almost hopeless sometimes.”
“I know the feeling, it can sometimes feel like we can’t have a hope against the sheer size of the Emperor’s military, and yet we have proven time and again that we are capable of fighting, and defeating, them when the need arises,” Ravni replied. “We must trust in the Force, Lieutenant; the Force showed us this place, far beyond the reach of even the Emperor, where we can build a safe haven, evacuate the countless refugees of the Empire’s brutality, so that, even if the worst should happen back home, we have somewhere where hope will survive.”
“I know, Sir, but it just seems like a drop in the ocean,” Keylara sighed. “We could save billions and still leave countless more under tyranny.”
“Enough drops make a flood, Lieutenant,” Ravni smiled sadly. “And a flood washes away everything in its path.”
Keylara nodded thoughtfully, considering the Jedi’s words.
“You should get some sleep, the first transports are going to start coming through in six hours, I want you flying CAP,’ Ravni told her. “There’s going to be a lot of ships, Alliance and independent associate vessels, you’ll need to be on your toes.”
Sure enough, some six hours later, Keylara was sat back in the cockpit of her X-Wing overseeing the arrival of the first batch of transports. Although only Keylara, and her Wingman, Lieutenant Corran Hextar (Knight Eleven), were actually in space the rest of the squadron were on alert down on the surface, either in their cockpits or very close to them. With every group of transports there was a risk, no matter how many precautions were taken, that the Empire had followed them and would set upon the gathering. So far, so good.
Once the transports arrived they were immediately vectored towards the planet; the logic being that they were safer on the surface than they would be in space if something happened. Once on the surface what they would do next would depend on the type of vessel; Alliance ships would start the process of setting up military bases and key civilian infrastructure, whilst independent vessels associated with the Alliance would set up their own communities or indeed isolated homesteads. The entire purpose of this initiative was to give the displaced and desperate a new place to call home, and the Alliance a safe haven from the Empire. It was something of an ad hoc affair, as there had been judged to be no time to perform detailed scans, surveys or analysis; the recent destruction of Echo Base on Hoth had spooked Alliance High Command to say the least. At least the Alliance ships were following something that resembled a proper plan, and even the independent transports were making sure to lodge their positions and claims with an Alliance traffic control team that had been one of the first military units on the surface, after Knight Squadron of course.
It was in the midst of all of this (barely) organized chaos that the sensors of Keylara’s X-Wing picked up an unknown contact on long range scanners; a ship certainly, it was too big to be a fighter but at this range she couldn’t get more than that. Whatever it was, it had not come from the hyperspace wormhole meaning that it was from this Galaxy. Keylara swallowed heavily as she quickly commed down to Commander Ravni who quickly got his people into action and a few minutes after the ship first appeared the rest of the Squadron was assembling on Keylara’s wing. Once they were in formation, and the transports backing away as a courier was sent back through the wormhole to encourage any Alliance warships to expediate their transit, Knight Squadron began to move away form the planet towards the unknown contact.
As they approached, Commander Ravni broadcast a message.
“Attention Unknown Vessel, this is Commander Kelveste Ravni of the Alliance; this system has been claimed by my Government. State your identify, and your intentions, immediately.”
OOC NOTE: All are welcome, although I ask that if someone has already posted to claim the ship entering the system in my post that you TG me first to discuss further. I also ask that any replies be of a decent length, as I do not want short single paragraph answers. Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!