=== Coruscant
10:00 hours
Home of Tracen McLawrey ===

Rain sat on the edge of the bed she had been "borrowing" for the last year, her chin resting in her hands. She sighed and took a look around. She couldn't believe she was still here. It had been a year since Tracen and his crew had found her near dead on Mygeeto. She didn't remember much of what had happened to her or to say the least why she was even there. All she can remember is that she had been on a leave of absense from the army. She had used her own ship the Dathomiri Eclipse to travel there and that it had been severly damaged after she had been rescued. She wondered idly if Tracen ever found a way to get it back to Coruscant and fix it up. She hoped so as that ship held most of her possessions.

Her violet eyes searched her room. She did have some of her possessions here. Like her Barabel Microbe Vest sitting in the corner along with a stack of weapons that she had had on her at the time of her rescue. They include: A Treppus-2 Vibroblade, A Neuronic Whip, one set of Flyhigh Throwing Knives, and a DH-17 Light Blastr Pistol. Two things she noticed were not among her weapons were her Fireblades and her Thorn Daggers. Those weapons had saved her life on countless occasions and now they were gone. She had found out from Riko that her Fireblades had been completely destroyed durring her fight, and that her Thorn Daggers had been taken by her attackers.

She sighed and stood to get dressed. Pulling on a pair of Sira's hand-me-down pants and black shirt of her own Rain ran a brush through her flame red hair and let it fall around her face, to hide the jagged scar that ran from her right ear to just under her right eye. She knew she couldn't cover it all but she could lessen the effect it had on others not of Tracen's crew. She also wore long sleeves and a glove on her left hand to hide her new cybernetic replacement limb covered in synthflesh.

Rain looked at herself in the mirror. The woman she saw there looked different, strange and empty from the girl she had once been. She traced the scars on her face with her real hand but clenched her droid hand. It was apparent to Rain that she was now a very different person from the warrior she had once been. Somehow though she knew she would have to go back. She needed to go back.

As close as Rain had grown to Tracen and the rest of his crew, she couldn't fool herself any longer. These smugglers and sometimes bounty hunters were not her family. The only family she had now was the squad she had left behind on Tadath.  She missed them and now she needed to get back to them.

Taking a deep breath, Rain strode to the closet and grabbed a bag and started to empty out her drawers.

"I'd hate to know what you're up to," A voice said from the doorway, distinctly male and gaurded. "but my curiousity is overwhelming me. So at the risk of sounding Cliche, where the hell do you think you're going?" That voice almost undoubtedly belonged to Tracen himself.

Rain was not afraid to face this man that rest so clearly seemed to hold in such high regard. It wasn't that she didn't respect Tracen, she just didn't see any reason to fear him like the others did. "I'm going to Tadath." She said shortly as she closed the bag and slung it over her shoulder. She stared at him with dull eyes.

"Are you sure you're doing the right thing?" He asked with compassion. Tracen had fallen in love with Rain over the year that she had been with the crew. He would never admit that to anyone but the truth was still the truth. Trace had even been the one to pay for her droid arm.

"Trace I need to go back." Rain said. "I know that you and the rest of the team have tried to give me a purpose, but I don't feel that I do. I need a purpose or I'll lose myself more than I already have. So yes I think I'm doing the right thing."

"I hope so, Rain. I really hope so. For your sake." Tracen said shaking his head and turning to leave.

"Tracen?" Rain called to his back. He stopped and tilted his head. "Thank you... for every thing"

Tracen just smiled and walked out the door, passing Sira as he did.

"I heard your converstion with Trace, and I think your going to need a ship to get to where you are going." Sira said with a toothy grin. "Come on, follow me." With that she left the room. Rain followed closely.

Reaching their destination at docking bay 96, Riko waved them inside the bay and placed his hands over Rain's eyes. He guided her to a spot and stopped. "From us to you." He said uncovering her eyes.

There before her, rain saw the Dathomiri Eclipse. Her ship had been recovered and fixed to brand new conditioning. She walked foreward. Touching the hull she smiled feeling somewhat complete, but not totally. "Thanks guys. This means a lot to me." She said.

"Hey, just treat her well ok." Sira said rubbing the back of her neck. "I wish you well. And don't worry about Trace we'll take care of him."

Riko grinned and hugged Rain. "You take care, I don't think Trace wants to have to save you again. Though I don't mind."

They all laughed and finished their goodbyes. Rain boarded her vessel and felt its familiarity  consume her. Wasting no time she input the cordinates for Tadath and took off.  She would have to face a lot more when she arrived but for now she was content to just sit back and relax.

=== VE Hangar Bay ===

Rain set the Eclipse down in the designated hangar bay after only a moments wait in orbit. She knew that Tadath control would not recognize the signature on her ship as she had not kept the original encryption from the time that she had bought it. Now she would have to make sure that they recognized it the way it was. A series of beeps came from the R2 droid that sat plugged into her navigation console, They sounded almost excited. Rain couldn't tell for sure as R2-R5 had not been with her as long as her other two droids had been before leaving for Mygeeto.

"I know R5. Tadath is a very beautiful place. You won't find another place like it in all the galaxy." Rain replied to the translation that popped up on her screen. "You shut her down and I'll gather my things." She ordered. R5 went straight to work on the post landing shutdown procedures while Rain jumped out of the pilot's chair and headed towards her quarters.

Gathering her equipment had been easier than she had anticipated as Sira had installed a shelving system in the Captain's quarters that had efficiently organized everything so that Rain wouldn't have too. It took only five minutes to get her things together and then head back to the cockpit to help R5 finish up.

After the post landing procedures were finished Rain exited her ship and took a deep breath. Thats when she noticed a man standing just inside the entrance to the hangar bay. He was staring open mouthed at the Dathomiri Eclipse. He had a familiar air about him. But she needed to make sure.

“Excuse me, sir, but could I ask what your looking for?” Rain asked coming up behind him and setting her bag down on the ground.

“Sheesh, I'm serious, everyone has got to stop doing this.” Apparently she had startled him as he jumped quite a bit more than she would have expected him too. However, he did confirm her suspicions. He didn't turn around though and he had not recognized her voice. So she decided to play with him bit.

“Is that how you greet people?” She asked in mock incredulity.

“I don't know who you are to judge how I...greet...peo....” The had man turned around as a look of sudden recognition took over his features. “Bright?... Bright!”

“Hello RK, nice to see you too.” Rain said with a smug feeling growing inside her. "I thought you were supposed to have been a bounty hunter at one time. One of the best even." She said propping her hands on her hips.

She could see RK's eyes taking notice of her condition, first settling on the scar on her face then on her black gloved left hand. His eyes seemed to sadden for a moment before brightening. "Wow and I thought I looked bad. What the hell did you get yourself into, Bright?" He said as he pointed to the prominent scar.

Rain wished he would stop calling her Bright. She wasn't sure who that person was anymore. Brightstar was an aspect of herself that had disappeared back on Mygeeto with no return in sight. Rain shoved those thoughts out of her mind, rationalizing that Bright was all RK knew her by. "I ran into a little trouble on Mygeeto about a year ago." Rain said her eyes glazing over for a moment.

The change did not escape RK's attention, his eyes narrowed slightly but he didn't press it. "Well, damn woman. Its good to see you again." He said hugging her around the shoulders and picking her bag up for her. "Lets get you some food. By the looks of it you could probably use it. I want to hear everything." He said guiding her out of the hangar and out into the Tadath sun.

A frantic beeping came from behind them and Rain knew that R5 was doing his best to keep up. "You first." She said stopping just long enough for her droid to catch up.

"Well I guess the biggest change here is that Eclipse has been disbanded." RK said with heaviness in his voice. Rain could feel his fists clench. "The rest of the squad was separated and put in different squads. I'm in Wraith now. It happened after Riq retired."

Rain felt sadness envelop her. No more Eclipse? Where would she go now. And not only that, but Riqimo was gone as well. She sighed and kept silent a moment. "I'm sorry, RK. I should have been there." She said

RK looked at her. "Don't be blaming yourself it was bound to happen." He said leading her into a building. "Anyway we need to get you placed before much of anything. You wait right here I'll see if I can find one of the Platoon Commanders." He left her sitting on a bench outside an office with its door slightly open.


=== Storm Platoon Commander's Office ===

"Come on in. Forgive the mess I kinda took over Riqimo's spot when he retired I still haven't quite gotten used to it." A woman said from behind the desk. The desk itself was covered in reports and various data pads detailing different things or missions. The woman was blond and blue eyed and she had an easygoing smile on her face. "I'm Aeos by the way. I don't think we met properly when you were here last, I think I was in the reserves." Aeos said as she held out a hand.

Rain shook it and smiled. She liked this woman already. "Its fine, I'm still just getting used to the idea that Eclipse isn't even around anymore." She said.

"Well it really was a horrible way for it to go, but the past is past. Anyway. Welcome Back trooper. I see you've gotten into a hairy situation while you were gone. Have a seat and why don't you tell me about it." Aeos said indicating a chair.

Rain sat and began her tail from the time of her leave glad that RK wasn't there to listen to it. "Well it all started as just a simple leave of absence. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you what it was for, I know that I went to Mygeeto. I was there for a couple of days before I as attacked by some off duty NR Soldiers. I think it was an ambush I couldn't really tell you for sure. The next thing I know I'm waking up in a medical bay on a strange ship." Rain went on to explain about Tracen and his crew and why it had taken a year to get back to Tadath. She tried several times to remember the details of her attack but all she got was frustration and a headache.

"I see." Aeos said, staring off into the distance. "Well, I have a couple squads with some openings. Paladin and Jester. You can choose. Jester has three openings to Paladin's one."

Rain thought. She had read about the old Jester Squad before she had left. It had been disbanded and apparently brought back. If Jester could do it than so could Eclipse one day. "I think I'll go for Jester." Rain said, though she kept the reasons to herself.

"Ok Jester it is, Platoon Sergeant Kami is the Squad Leader for Jester, I'll let her know that you're coming." Aeos said standing.

Rain stood took and the two women shook hands again. "Thanks." She said.

As Rain left she passed a trooper going the opposite direction. She smiled and nodded to him. His call sign said Verkur, and he had the Jester insignia on his uniform. She had a feeling she would be getting to know him soon enough. Now to find the Jester barracks.

"Well this is home. Meeting room and armoury are straight ahead, trooper quarters are to the right and everything else to the left. why not grab an empty room, make yourself at home and then try and find Kami so she can get you up to speed, and let you know whats what around here. As for me I have a few things to do, but I usually spend my time here, so if you need anything give me a buzz and ill see what I can do. It was nice meeting you Bright and welcome to Jester." Verkur explained, and with a bow of his head left Bright to settle herself with her new squad mates.

Bright chose a room and entered it without hesitation. She looked around and found it to her liking. It was small but not too small. Behind her her R2-R5 unit entered and beeped behind her. He sounded excited as he explored the various corners and holes of their new home. "Hey take it easy R5." Bright said setting her bag down on the bed. She sat next to it and watched her droid come out of the refresher unit.

Taking a deep breath she stood up. She would need to make a view trips back and forth from her ship to get everything settled in but she was up for the challenge. Before leaving she checked her reflection in the mirror standing on her dresser. The woman that stared back at her was beginning to look familiar. The old fire was returning but not as quickly leaving was the look of the meek smuggler she had left behind. Tadath air was doing her some good, bringing color back to her cheeks. She shook her head and headed back out into the sun. "Stay here 5 I'll be back."

Out in the yard surrounding the Barracks Bright smiled. It really did feel like she was home. Nodding to passersby she made her way slowly back to her ship.

She only had to make a couple trips really as she had even less things than she had figured. It was on her way back to her ship to lock things up that she spotted him. She stopped mid stride and just stared. His hair was different, more brown, and from here she could see that his cybernetic eye was green. But there was no mistaking who that man was. "Jelly." She whispered to herself. She stood there not knowing what to do or even what she would say to him. It had been a year since she had seen him last. She didn't know how he would react.

She wasn't even sure he would recognize her. Her hand went up to the scar that served as a reminder of what had happened to her. She hung her head so that her hair covered the majority of it was covered. When she looked up again he was looking at her.

"Oh boy." She said rooted to the spot.

"Bright!" She heard the man yell over the crowd. She could see him sprinting through the many aliens and fellow VE troopers who where now watching him.

He seemed to neither see nor hear them as he plowed through the crowd reaching her. He lifted her up and hugged her in one strong movement swinging her around like it was seen in those old romance vids. He held her tightly before setting her down smiling ear to ear like he never had before.

Bright had she been her old self would have knocked him end over end. But the day was beginning to wear on her. Not just that, she had missed Jelly over the year she had been gone. And so she clung to him just as tightly as he did her. To be honest with herself though, she had missed Jelly more than she would openly admit. RK was the one who had greeted her upon her arrival but it would be Jelly that she had been wishing she would see.

"I missed you so much Bright." He said hugging her again.

Brightstar found herself laughing into his shoulder and hugging him tightly. She could feel the stares of the others at her back but at the moment she didn't care. She looked up at Jelly smiling herself. The motion felt almost foreign to her and she hoped it would look like a smile to him. "I missed you too." She said. "You have no idea just how much."

Bright stepped back to look him over. He still had that rugged air about him, that air that had so attracted her to him in the first place. He was still fit as she could tell from the arms that seemed to refuse to let go of her. All in all Jelly looked good. She wondered how she looked to him. Would he want to know about what happened to her? Would she be able to tell him? She couldn't even remember what had happened during the attack on Mygeeto. She shook those thoughts out of her mind and grinned again, fighting the urge to touch his face to be sure that he was real and that she wasn't dreaming.

"You are a sight for sore eyes." She told him after taking a deep breath.