The descent to the surface of this long-forgotten planet began with a low rumble and a shake that made reach out towards the armrest of my chair. Coincidentally, I grabbed Vila's arm, who was just doing the sa thing. We simply exchanged a look, recognizing the underlying uncertainty in both of us. She also could tell sothing was off, but like , she couldn't really pinpoint it.
Nonetheless, our shuttle detached from the Reborn with another jolt, and through the viewport, I could see the planet becoming ever larger, its greens and blues finally occupying the full view as we cut through its atmosphere. The closer we got, the more I felt it again—that subtle wrongness in the Force. It was not intrusive, not actually aggressive... It was just... not right. Sothing was not... right.
I don't know how to describe it. It was like breathing normally, as you always were, but slling sothing weird. Yet, when you wanted to take another deep breath, the sll was gone... Only to notice it once again soti later. The Force was still there, but it was changed. It felt... Heavier. There were flickers of emotion in it, I think, feelings that weren’t mine. It was similar to how I felt others' thoughts, a gift I was used to by now, but it was also why I recognized that it was not exactly the cause behind it. There were... tiny bursts of misplaced calm, odd surges of quiet certainty like whispers brushing past the edge of thought, trying to tell sothing without wanting to actually hear what it had to say.
If the others felt the sa way, no one else had said anything about it yet, so I wasn't exactly sure if it wasn't simply who was being a bit more paranoid than usual.
Looking ahead, Vestara sat near the front, strapped in, her expression impassive, while it was my Master who piloted the shuttle. Behind us all, HK was standing by the exit ramp, standing, as far as I could tell, happily in his old chassis again, arms moving around now and then, fiddling with his rust-colored torso. Probably to deal with the programming that almost beca sentient... He hadn't stopped running internal diagnostics since we left the Reborn, and I could tell that it wasn't long before he would be finished.
Looking at Vila again, who was now glancing at the window, our arms still touching, her lekku twitched a few tis before he gently shook her head, chasing away a certain, worrying thought. I could tell... Her shoulders were tense, but not for the sa reason as mine.
I tried reaching into the Force again, just to center myself, but it suddenly nudged at my attempt, sothing so clear and unexpected that it made sure I wasn't just imagining things anymore. The currents ran deeper and slower, feeling like water saturated with sothing thick, turning it more syrup-like.
“Kael,” Vila said, leaning close, her voice low as she whispered into my ear. “You’re doing that thing again.”
“What thing?”
“That thing where you squint like you’re trying to win an argunt with the Force.”
"Because I think I am..." I muttered and then huffed a quiet laugh. “It’s just... sothing feels off. Like the air’s heavier.”
"Yeah," She nodded once, looking at Vestara. “I noticed. But only when I try to focus. When I’m not thinking, it’s fine.”
“That’s what’s bothering .” I grimaced, finally able to speak about it. "This planet is unnatural... Be on your guard..."
"I am always on my guard." She nodded with a half-smile.
When the shuttle hit the lower atmosphere with a muted shudder, flas cut briefly across the transparisteel before fading into clouds. Outside, a thick cloud of water vapor obscured everything for a good minute. Then, suddenly, we broke through, and the island ca into view before us.
It was massive from 'up close,' unlike how it was from the Star Destroyer. Flying towards it, it looked more like a small continent than a simple island. Well, maybe it was... and just looked like an island, thanks to the size of the single continent on this strange world. Below us, dense jungle sprawled in every direction, cut apart by a network of rivers and lakes that sparkled under the intense light of the twin suns. The coastline was jagged, cliffs falling sharply into deep waters below that were surprisingly angry, hitting it with incredible force. As we flew past it, I watched as a about a hundred-ter long and tall portion simply broke off after a violent wave, crashing into the blue ocean, causing white foam to spray upwards, almost reaching our shuttle. As we arrived more inland, the stone ridges kept appearing, becoming strange, angular rock formations that sotis peeked out from the trees like ribs from a buried skeleton.
“This place…” Vila suddenly murmured, pressing her forehead to the glass. “It looks untouched.”
“That's true. I can pick up no settlents on the sensors,” Vestara confird, her eyes scanning the display. “I can also not find any kind of ruins on the surface. If sothing’s down there, it’s buried deep and maybe blocking our eyes.”
"Or buried underground," My Master added.
“Probably intentionally,” Master Katarn muttered from the co-pilot's seat. “That’s what ancient evil likes to do. Burrow deep and whisper upward, trying to manipulate.”
“Reassuring,” I whispered, making Vestara chuckle.
"I know you are worried," she answered as she glanced at Master Katarn. "But I am not here to be your enemy. Neither are my followers."
"Maybe." Master Katarn answered plainly.
[Observation: The terrain is suitably dramatic. Recomndation: Caution and a modest dose of paranoia may make the survival percentage of any atbag lifeform rise a little.]
“Welco back to the conversation, HK-O1...” Vila muttered. "Glad your input is so reassuring."
[Proud Acknowledgent: I’m only stating the truth.]
In the end, after a few circling rounds, we touched down on a broad plateau of hard stone just at the jungle’s edge. The shuttle’s ramp hissed open, letting a wave of hot, humid air that hit like a physical wall rush into the bay. If Yavin-4 was a hot jungle world... This was the mother of all jungle planets. For a mont, I found it hard to breathe as the sll of earth, wet leaves, and distant ozone filled my lungs, doing it at once, overwhelming my senses. Birds—or creatures sounding like birds—cried in the distance, but I couldn't really see them.
Walking down, following the others... The Force didn’t really greet .
When I began trying to use it to block out the heat, that was the part I noticed most. Usually, landing sowhere new brings with it a swell of impressions: lingering emotions that were left behind, maybe so mories buried in the soil, echoes of the lives that once lived in this place. Here?
Nothing.
Just stillness.
Maybe it was because the planet was abandoned for tens of thousands of years. It could be, so there was an explanation for that, at least. While thinking about it, Master Ben was the last to exit the shuttle. He stepped to the edge of the plateau, his boots crunching faintly on moss-covered stone, looking down, which was brave, I thought, so easily turning his back to a Sith. Okay... Revani... But it was strange not to call them Sith anymore. Still, Vestara did nothing and simply walked forward and stood beside him, remaining silent.
In the end, we all stood together, six in total. Master Ben, Master Katarn, Vila, HK, Vestara, and . Probably the first beings to co here in... a very long ti.
"Well," My Master finally spoke up. "We should spread out. Take so initial readings, and then we’ll regroup in fifteen minutes. I will go with Vestara. Master Katarn, you are with Vila. Kael...” He looked at , and I just nodded.
"Co on, HK, let's go!" I nodded, exchanging a glance with Vila. To my surprise, HK didn't complain. He simply followed as we all disappeared in a different direction.
...
....
.....
The jungle was thick, and it was slow to move through the vines and massive leaves blocking my path. The foliage clung to like it didn’t want to let go. Trees were wide enough that three people couldn’t reach around their stumps... Maybe if they were wookies. I wasn't going to head deep, just a hundred ters at best, before angling back towards the ship... But as I did so, the jungle changed, or at least, it changed at the level I was at. Suddenly, there was no underbrush—only ferns, fungi, and strange spongy moss that glowed faintly in the shadow of the trees.
As I walked, I kept trying to open myself to the Force again, to feel what this place was hiding, but each ti, the answer ca back wrong. It wasn’t like the Force was being blocked; instead, it was being bent.
As far as I could tell, there were no predators, at least no animal that noticed and looked at like that. But that was also one of the problems. Everything was too calm, which, once again, compared to how the jungle on Yavin felt, should be impossible. I think HK-O1 noticed it, too, because he stayed close, scanning the trees, his eyes whirring inside his head unit.
“You feel like we’re being watched?” I asked.
[Statent: I do not feel the sa way a atbag does. Addendum: But, no, we’re not. I am not picking up life around us. Correction: That is an illusion. Observation: We are absolutely being watched. I have simply yet to deduce the thod of how they do it.]
That was... nerve-wracking. But I believed him. My senses were attuned to the Force; they relied on it, but he was not. If whatever this place tried to hide, it could be using the Force and mask it, but... Would it be prepared to deal with a droid?
Probably not. Hopefully not...
Then, sothing caught my ear—a faint sound. It was like soone talking or having a conversation. It sounded vaguely human-like, but I could not make out any of the words being uttered. But it was so real that it made turn sharply towards it. At the sa ti, from the corner of my eye, I watched as HK was scanning a patch of moss without any sign that he also noticed the sa thing.
“HK, did you hear that?”
[Query: Hear what? My auditory receptors are functioning at optimal—]
Another whisper.
“...!” This ti, the sounds were closer behind , yet still unintelligible, making spin again, only to hear nothing when I tried to focus. “Never mind,” I muttered, knowing it was not voices I was hearing but the Force. Otherwise, HK would have picked it up, too.
And I wasn’t imagining it. I knew I wasn’t. Reaching out and trying to find it again, I took a cautious step forward. Then another.
The moss, the sa kind that he was now scanning, grew deeper around my feet. The light of the twin suns dimd even further under the thick canopy, the shadows turning day into night. Then... there it was. I could feel the Force brushing against now, sounding like whispers with the added feeling of alien fingers brushing past the nape of my neck. I reached out—by reflex—trying to catch it, sensing where the source of it was coming from.
But then, just like before, the Force pushed back against . Sothing that now happened again, and it was making flinch, causing the clue to slip from my grasp.
"Not again..." I grunted when I tried harder, causing my head to suddenly spin, and when I blinked the feeling away from my eyes, I felt my face go pale. The jungle changed around .
The trees were... older now. At least, they looked like that, becoming darker. The bark on many of them was blackened in places, sotis looking twisted. The ground beneath felt more spongy, the moss thicker, climbing the trunks like veins, causing it to look... different.
“HK?” I said, suddenly unsure what was happening.
And of course... No response. When I turned, knowing he was only an arm's length away from before... I had to co to terms with the fact that he was gone.
"Damn it," I groaned and spun in a slow circle. “HK?!”
Still... nothing. The whole jungle was silent. There were no birds, no wind. Just the faint hum in the back of my head—like an engine humming, its repulsor lifts turned on to make it hover. Wait... was it really an engine? Or is it just my imagination? Was I hearing our shuttle? I couldn't shake the feeling, and I began heading back at once.
I started walking back, retracing my steps toward the ship... Only, the path wasn’t there. The trees were unfamiliar. The slope I rembered descending a minute ago was gone, and the stone outcrop we passed didn’t exist anymore.
I was alone... And most certainly... lost. Which, as a Jedi, should not have happened. But...
"Sothing is wrong with the Force here..." I muttered, raising a hand, feeling afraid. For the first ti, I felt genuinely scared. The Force was responding to , but only if I actually forced it to do so. And the feeling was unnatural.
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