"Amir, can I have this?" Milisen appeared in the cockpit doorway. She seemed to have mostly recovered.
Amir rubbed his temples, forgetting when he had fallen asleep. He only remembered approaching the hyperspace lane entry point.
He opened the nav-computer to get his bearings and found the ship was drifting, engines cut.
Beep-bloop.
BD-4 hopped in, indicating it was his doing. He had noticed Amir was asleep, cut the ship's thrusters, and let it drift freely in the void to save fuel and keep them unnoticed.
Luckily, he hadn't slept long—only four or five hours. It was much better than his previous hibernations that lasted an entire day. Of course, that might also be because sleeping in the pilot's crash seat wasn't exactly comfortable.
Shaking off his groggy thoughts, Amir focused on Milisen. She was holding the double-bladed spinning lightsaber. It was the one he had taken from the Seventh Sister, kept in the ship's workshop.
That's not a toy, little Milisen.
Amir remembered that when he first cut a combat droid with his lightsaber, Milisen had shown a desire for the weapon.
"That's not a toy, Milisen. It's a weapon. You can only use it safely after you learn to control your power."
Milisen was even younger than Jax—only eight or nine years old at most, the age of a Jedi youngling. A complex weapon like that was too big and dangerous for her.
She didn't understand her own power yet, much less how to control the Force. Moreover, what lay dormant inside her was the powerful, volatile dark side.
"But I want it! I promise I won't do anything dangerous!" Milisen gripped the hilt, refusing to let go.
"Alright. But not this one. I'll help you build your own lightsaber in the future," Amir promised.
"Yay!" Milisen jumped happily and patted Mona, who was standing beside her.
Giving a big stretch, Amir turned the ship toward the plotted course.
In the stolen data, he had discovered many important files. They revealed a very rare opportunity—one that could support a fierce counter-attack against the Empire.
Finally reaching the jump point, Amir told the children to strap in and then punched it into hyperspace.
When they emerged, a verdant green orb floated in front of them.
Planet Guderian.
The main hyperspace routes didn't pass through this system. Under Ahsoka's guidance, Amir had adjusted his coordinates, successfully guiding the ship to the planet's vicinity.
After a short sublight flight, The Traveler approached the planet's outer atmosphere. From a distance, it was just a bright, verdant green marble. Only up close could one feel the planet's true dimension.
Plains and mountains intertwined. Greenery and white mist merged. The jungles looked as if they were growing in the clouds, and the mountain peaks seemed to break free from the earth to pierce the sky. The plains hadn't been artificially altered, retaining their primordial environment to the greatest extent.
As the ship descended, Amir saw small tribal settlements. They possessed only essential mechanical devices; the rest was fused with the environment. Houses and great trees were cleverly combined, forming a unique organic architectural style. Coupled with the pervasive mist, the entire settlement seemed to melt into the greenery.
Circling the ship once, Amir instantly fell in love with the place.
He also sensed a thriving Living Force here. Growth and decay, light and dark... the Force had reached a wonderful balance.
Taking a deep breath, Amir retracted his senses. Suddenly, he found his connection to the Force had grown stronger again.
Recalling his experiences, high-intensity use of the Force would overdraw his mental energy. But after every recovery, his capacity would increase slightly.
It wasn't obvious before because the intensity of his usage was low. But in these recent life-or-death instances, he felt a significant improvement.
After checking his condition, Amir piloted the ship toward the settlement at the foot of the mountain and landed in a clearing nearby.
In this clearing, Amir saw two familiar ships. They undoubtedly belonged to Ahsoka and her group.
Opening The Traveler's ramp, the group of children walked down quietly, led by the Rodian boy, Machek.
Ahsoka was already waiting outside, along with Gulina and Lorin. To his surprise, Veronica, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, was also here.
When Veronica saw Amir, she rushed up and gave him a big hug. The red-haired girl had clearly been through a lot in these few weeks. But she herself was extremely resilient, like a tenacious flame that wouldn't be easily extinguished, no matter how much it flickered in the wind.
"You need to get me more ammo. I'm all out!" Just as Amir was feeling emotional about the reunion and about to exchange pleasantries, Veronica spoke.
"Aren't you delivering supplies to besieged planets? Why would you need so much ammo? I left you more than twenty cases!" Amir's sentimental train of thought was instantly derailed.
"Well, that... sometimes, you run into... resistance. You know." The red-haired girl looked uncharacteristically embarrassed.
Ahsoka interjected at the right moment. "Veronica has saved us many times... She's very reliable... although sometimes she does make a bit of a scene."
Okay, better if you hadn't said anything.
"It's fine, there's plenty of ammo!" Amir would build bombs, bullets, and power packs in his spare time. He had plenty in stock. Besides, this was just teasing; they didn't discuss it further.
"This is our old tribe. We've cleaned it up these past few days. It's barely habitable," Gulina said, her voice slightly hoarse with emotion.
"Let's get the children settled first. I hope this place can make them feel safe." Amir glanced at the children behind him. Only Mona and Milisen had the liveliness and curiosity a child should have in their eyes. The others were mostly wary and afraid.
"Leave it to me." Gulina and several of her female tribe members led the children into the settlement. Lorin also actively went to comfort his peers.
Taking another deep breath of the fresh air, Amir gestured to the others. "Come onto my ship. We'll talk on the way."
The Traveler took off again. Their main purpose this time was to find a hidden base location on this planet. Although Gulina's tribe looked safe, it had already been trampled by the Empire once. If they intentionally searched again, it would be easily discovered.
They had to hide in the mountains or deep in the jungle. Shrouded in mist, they wouldn't be easily found.
"Why didn't you call for help? We could have come to save you," Ahsoka said as they flew.
"They didn't have a tracker on me. They could fly away at any time. I was also being monitored constantly. Besides, I was fairly confident I could handle it. It's just that there was a small accident at the end."
"It's hard to imagine that asteroid belt really harbored such a giant creature. An Exogorth of that size is rare," Hak, the Resistance's technician who was traveling with them, couldn't help but remark despite his usual calm.
"The Grand Inquisitor is not an easy opponent. It's hard to imagine you can already withstand his attacks." Ahsoka had clearly dealt with the bald Pau'an before. She looked at Amir appraisingly. "You feel... stronger than the last time we met."
---------------
You can read +100 advance chapters on my Patreon
Patreon(.)com/izan24
TIER 1 you'll get +15 ADVANCE CHAPTERS
TIER 2 you'll get +40 ADVANCE CHAPTERS
TIER 3 you'll get +60 ADVANCE CHAPTERS
TIER 4 you'll get +100 ADVANCE CHAPTERS