Fleur, or as she preferred; Aeos drummed her fingers lazily across the oak wood of her desk. Very close by her hand stood a mug of strong sweet tea, with another cup waiting for her pending guest.
Her desk was clear of datapads for once, but this did not mean it was less messy as usual. No, spread across her desk’s surface was sheets of papers, pens and markers.  Aeos pulled a hand through her very short ash coloured hair, ignoring the curls and spikes bouncing about across her head.  She smiled wryly and picked up a marker again and continued to scratch something out on one of the sheets. She recently quit her non-active status as journalist and got accepted as a designer in the Engineering Corps. Right now, she was making an attempt to impress her new superiors.

A knock from the other side of the room interrupted her; Aeos grumbled and glanced down at the paper again. She smiled mischievously as she recognized her boss; Rizzit’s facial distinctions in some cartoon she dotted down.

“Come in,” she called out.

As the door slid open, Aeos made quick use of the opportunity to study the younger woman in front of her; Sergeant Brightstar.  A strange combination of colours played across the woman’s visual features, the auburn hair with violet eyes certainly attracted second glances from fellow humans not used to this pigmentation found in Brightstar’s eyes. Aeos’ sharp and practiced eyes penetrated the air, glancing at Brightstar intensely as the latter simply stood and waited at the door after a short and crisp salute.

After a minute or two, Brightstar coughed nervously, not appreciating the attention. Aeos ignored the cough for a few more prolonged seconds as she managed to pick out a few faint scars that Bright has not managed to hide with her hair.  Aeos found her eyes attracted to Brightstar’s one artificial arm. By first glance no one would’ve guessed this condition, but Aeos being Brightstar’s commander were aware of many things about her trooper’s medical history. Aeos clenched her own leather gloved fist. While it was not artificial or anything, the scarring done by a dagger driven and twisted right through her palm was reason enough to replace the whole hand that seems to have lost its feeling.

“Have a seat Sergeant D’Jonoc,”
“Brightstar is fine, Ma’am,”

Aeos ignored the offered and gestured to one of the two empty chairs in front of her desk.

“Have some tea,”

This time, Aeos gave a small smile, unable to hide her joy at the prospect of offering tea. Brightstar who managed to catch the smile, visibly relaxed though she still kept her tongue. 

“Well, Star, I have been meaning to meet up with you, and just congratulate you on your promotion,”

Brightstar, surprised allowed their eyes to meet. Icy blue contrasted heavily with her own violet eyes, and Brightstar smiled softly.

“Thank you Ma’am,” she muttered before quieting down again for another sip of the delightful tea Aeos provided.

Just at that moment, a rapid knock proceeded with the disturber just walking in, interrupted the two ladies.  Rannik smiled cheekily at Aeos, a rare display of emotional innocence, since this man seemed to prefer a brooding face for the majority of time. Aeos rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Has no one taught you any manners, and sit down Sergeant D’ Jonoc,”

Brightstar meekly took to her seat again, when Aeos interrupted her salute. For the next minute the poor girl was left forgotten in her seat while Aeos and Darr-Rann found themselves in a heated discussion about a small trip to Ansion.

“Rannik, no!”

“Come on Fleur, let’s go, please?  He asked, plopping down in the seat next to Brightstar.

Aeos hastily searched for an excuse that would corner Darr-Rann in leaving her alone.

“I’ll go if we go with my ship,” she muttered.

“Done deal!” Darr-Rann exclaimed happily with glinting eyes.

“You do realize I’m talking about that yacht Rizzit gave me,”

Darr-Rann nodded with mischievous eyes, though he clearly wasn’t considering or even realizing the consequences. And he clearly didn't know what ship Aeos was referring to.

Aeos groaned, knowing she just lost her argument with the Wildcard Platoon Adjutant.

“Fine!” she muttered, standing up abruptly, forgetting about Brightstar’s presence and slamming her hands down on her desk in a impish and child-like manner. 

Unbeknownst to Aeos, Brightstar was having a rather tight fit of laughter at seeing her usually very formal Commander behaving this way.

“Awesome, I’ll see you next week at the docks then, will need to plead Doc for some leave,” he sighed and pulled himself out of the chair. A mere minute later and Darr-Rann had left the room leaving behind a fuming Aeos and a stunned Brightstar.

“Ma’am…erm…”
Brightstar shifted uncomfortably in her chair which captured Aeos’ attention.

“Yes, Sergeant?”

Brightstar coughed again, while trying to gather some wits.

“I was wondering, if you are traveling to Ansion by the default markers, any chance I could hop along with the ride? There is a space port that lies directly between the Sian System and Ansion which I’ve been intending to reach…of course you don’t have- never mind….” 

Brightstar bit back on her lip, avoiding Aeos’ brilliant gaze.
Aeos stifled a sigh. She had to admit, that must have taken guts to ask, considering the difference in their rank and all. She knew what it was like at Bright’s rank and position to be traveling long distance.

“No problem Sergeant, keep it to yourself though, I’m not about to become a taxi fare for everyone, aright?”

Brightstar glanced at Aeos surprised who have taken a seat back into her leather chair again. Nodding vigorously, Brightstar excused herself from the office to start making preparations such as getting an approve leave-note from Kami.

Aeos chuckled when the door closed, leaving her alone with her sketches again.

“This will be interesting,” she mused and bent over back to her Rizzit comic again.

Darr-Rann was beginning to wonder if he shouldn’t have accepted Fleur’s offer. I doubt this thing can even fly – It looks like a light breeze could send it falling to pieces he thought to himself as he walked up to the side of The Smudge, running one hand along the tarnished hull.

Demonic would have a fit if he saw this – there were multiple cracks along the outer armor, and the Ion Engine’s projectors seemed to be dented on a slight angle. The transparasteel viewing dome was covered in traces of dirt and the occasional scorch mark. This thing can’t have passed inspection.

“Change your mind?” Aeos said, walking towards him. Rannik looked over to her, then at the ship, and realization struck him. There was no way he was going to let her get out of this, not that easily.

“Not a bit.” He said, grinning, Hopefully this piece of junk will hold together in hyperspace.

“Fine,” Aeos sighed, “Let’s get on board and get it started up then.” She said, walking up to the hatch and pressing the open button. Darr-Rann nodded and they climbed in, working their way around a series of hanging wires towards the cockpit.

“Bright should be here in about an hour. That gives me enough time to warm the Ion engines up enough that we should be able to liftoff.” She said.

Rannik sat himself down in the copilot’s chair, looking over the various controls in front of him. Aeos began flipping switches, somewhat hesitantly. The lights flickered on, and there was a loud rumble for about three seconds. She sat there, hands raised, ready for action, before calming herself down and grinning. The grin looked so much like Evani’s, for a moment he was reminded of his fallen friend. He shook his head, clearing his mind.

“Okay, we survived start-up; Start putting those Ion engines through their cycles. I’m going out there to keep an eye out for Brightstar.” He said, getting up and crawling back out to the entrance.

He sat on the hatch for about a half an hour, pondering to himself, when he spotted Brightstar arrive. He yelled up the news to Aeos before standing and greeting her. “This… is the ship?” She asked, setting down her things. It was apparent she was as skeptical of its condition as he was.

“Apparently; Fleur is starting it up now.” He said, nodding up the hatch, where the sounds of Aeos swearing violently at the ship could be heard. The two stormtroopers made their way to the cockpit, sitting down next to her.

“Okay, I’ve got the ship up and running, we can take off now, if that’s alright?” She asked them. Both troopers nodded, and Aeos pushes the thruster control forward. The ship shuddered, and began to lift off into the air.

“We’re off.”

Darr-Rann sipped his cup of tea, looking out the window into the swirling vortex of hyperspace. It was good, although it had cooled somewhat. The meal was delicious – Fleur seemed to have an unusual culinary skill not often possessed by a stormtrooper, who often became used to the convience of the packed field rations and military cafeterias. He took another sip and put the drink down, sitting back and closing his eyes.

He reflected on things. Fleur was so much like the sister she never knew – If only the two would have had the chance to have met. He felt a pang of sorrow, mixed with anger. If he had been able to save her, if he hadn’t brought her with him, such a meeting probably would have happened. But he let her come with him, he let her go off on her own and find the base controls…

He sighed. Such thoughts had been with him since the incident, eating away at him. He blinked his eyes open and got up, looking to distract himself with something.

Just then, the ship shook violently, and the view dissolved into the stars of real space. Brightstar, who had been taking a nap, rubbed her eyes and posed the question: “Are we here already?”

Fleur furiously punched controls, muttering to herself. “No,” She said, “This jump still has a couple  of hours left to go on it… we shouldn’t have dropped out of hyperspace so soon, hold on.” She said, getting up and walking down towards the engine room.

Darr-Rann suddenly noticed there was an object in view – It appeared to be some sort of moon or small planet, lit by an unseen sun. That meant they were in some solar system. He looked down at the short range scanner, curious.

Then he saw it. “Fleur, you might wanna get up here for a second!” He yelled. She came running, a puzzled on her face. He pointed to the short range sensors, and the imminently close planet behind them that they were slowly drifting into.

“Oh, shit.” She muttered, sitting down in the pilots seat and triggering the Ion engines. There was a loud sputtering sound as they slowly came online.

“Can you get those going any faster?” He said nervously, looking at the display. It looked like they were being pulled into the planet’s outer atmosphere by gravitational forces.

“Not without blowing the power cabling.” She said, directing the ion stream. “I’m bringing shields online.”

“That won’t shield us from the crash a whole lot.” Brightstar replied.

“No, but it’ll keep us from burning up on entry if I need to find a soft place to crash this thing.” Fleur, muttered back, half-distracted by the task and hand. Darr-Rann and Brightstar looked at eachother, and back at Aeos.

“Uh…  I hope that isn’t high on our list of options here.” Darr-Rann said. Flying in this piece of junk was looking more and more like a mistake every moment.

“It’s definitely getting there!” She said, punching the acceleration on the Ion engine. They began to crawl forward, when suddenly there was a flash of sparks behind them. “Oh, come on!” She said, hitting the control panel angrily. “The power cables are damaged; I’m only getting forty percent out of the engines.”

“Uh… Should we evacuate the ship now?” Brightstar asked, standing. Aeos shook her head.

“This thing doesn’t have an escape pod. I think it did at one point, but it was removed before I ever saw the ship.” She said. “If this thing is going down, we’re going down with it.”

“Wonderful,” Darr-Rann said, “Anything we can do, or…”

“Not really.” She said, ”Just strap in and start praying to whatever gods you worship.”  The ship shuddered violently again. “We’re beginning to enter atmosphere. I’m diverting as much power to the shields as I can without overloading them.”

The ship rumbled as Aeos turned it around, so that they were facing the planet. They seemed to be over a large land mass. “Hang on!” She said, pulling the ship up into an angle as they began to enter upper atmosphere.

They began to pick up speed, descending rapidly despite her efforts to break up some of the momentum. The shield monitors flashed as they deflected the rising heat of entry. The ground was becoming more and more visible.

“This is about to get really bumpy.” Aeos said. She had the Ion engines on a directly opposite angle to that of their velocity, attempting to keep them from building up too much speed. Just as she said, the ship began to shake violently. Warning sirens blared at them, warning them of the obvious impending crash.

“Hang on!” She said again. They reached the level of the trees, snapping them as they plummeted into the ground…