Chapter 16: Kavir, Land of Eternal Storm

The ship lurched to a halt as the ship exited hyperspace, making Vancil a little dizzy despite his experience with it before. Doing a once over that nothing was on fire or going to be on fire, his eyes flicked to the sensors. His gauntleted hands deftly flicked between every single sort of detection the ship had; thermal, magnetic, optical, everything.

Nothing. All the scopes were clear. Clear of any sort of ship or station all the way until their maximum range. It was both relieving and worrying. Relieving because they weren't getting shot, and worrying because there was absolutely nothing.

He double checked just to make sure, even triple checked. Nothing.

Vancil allowed some of the tension to leave his body, and he looked out the viewport into the vast emptiness of space ahead. Well, almost empty.

There floating directly in front of the ship was a tumultuous behemoth of a planet, possibly the size of Coruscant, he didn't know the specifics. At first glance one might even mistake it for a gas giant, with a large swirling mass of clouds raging ferociously across all of its surface, every single part of it with no room for anything else. The Storm. A nostalgic grin formed underneath his mask at the sight of it, at the sight of his home. 3000 years wouldn't halt it, and Vancil would bet good money that it would continue for 3000 more.

Sure enough, the coordinates were on point. He would loathe himself to no degree if he had failed to remember them, the series of numbers he had drilled into his mind ever since his mother had first taken him off world.

"We're not going into that thing, right?" Kandria piped up from his right, snapping him out of his eager nostalgia.

He hadn't even realised it but he had also been increasing the acceleration of the ship subconsciously due to his enthusiasm. He turned his head to Kandria. He had almost forgotten about her. He wasn't quite sure how to treat Kandria. She had simply showed up when he was preparing to leave, taking him by surprise. Mostly by surprise. He had sensed her following him all the way to the hangar, and paid very close attention to her when she entered the ship.

He wasn't exactly sure why he was acting like this. He knew it had something to do with his feelings, but other than that the answer was beyond him. One absolute however was that he felt a sort of…protectiveness? He wasn't quite sure if that was the word. She was quite capable of defending herself after all, even from him. Still though, he felt like he wanted to just…be near her. Just be by her side. Quite perplexing.

Vancil shelved those internal thoughts as he brought himself back to reality. What was he doing? Ah yes, she had asked if they were going in there. A shit eating grin grew on his face that while he knew she couldn't see, she could almost certainly sense it.

Swivelling his head back forwards he slammed on the acceleration, causing the both of them to get pushed back into their seats from the force, Kandria letting out an adorable yelp. The ship hurtled forward, coming closer and closer to the Storm. This matched up exactly with a sense in the Force, which drew him forward.

When the ship broke through into the ferocious gale, the effects were immediate. The ship rocked unevenly and it was much akin to being dropped into a box and tossed around by a hyperactive toddler. Nie impossible to fly in. But that wasn't how you beat the Storm. Not by flying. Vancil cackled like mad man as he continued to accelerate, reaching even greater speeds due to the gale force winds which pushed the ship every which way.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?!?!?" He heard Kandria scream in a strained voice as she struggled to maintain some sort of stability.

"THERE'S AN OLD SAYING OF MY PEOPLE!" He shouted back, keeping his gaze dead forward, "ONLY ONE WAY TO BEAT THE STORM! CHARGE FORWARD WITH TEETH BARED SCREAMING BLOODY DEFIANCE!"

There, a sliver of land, briefly visible through a fleeting patch of clear in the clouds. With all the strength he could muster, Vancil pulled back, the ship groaning at the sudden and violent change in direction as it levelled out. In an instant the Storm subsided to reveal long rolling plains of grass which approached rapidly. Turning on every thruster he could, Vancil reversed as much of the momentum possible without breaking the ship or its passengers.

A hint of worry entered him before he felt it. The raging winds which tried so hard to throw them around and kill them now blew upwards, slowing the descent of their ship dramatically. Nothing could change the Storm.

Activating the landing gear, Vancil landed the ship with a rough jolt. He kept his grip on the controls for a few more seconds before releasing them, his hands shaking slightly. It had been a while since he had done that.

For some reason, Vancil's jaw had suddenly begun hurt quite badly. His head was swimming as well. Something seemed wrong, and he could distinctly tell that something was now pulling on the front of his cloak, as though shaking him to and fro. His vision, once blurry, refocused to see Kandria hanging over him, a white-knuckle grip on him as her eyes screamed bloody murder. Ah, that would explain it.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT YOU PIECE OF-"

Her voice filtered out as his dazed look settled on her quite beautiful blue eyes. He felt like he could get lost in them forever. Even despite her masked appearance, Vancil quite clearly remembered her face, its image being automatically engrained into his mind the second it was revealed. Yet, like with other things about her, he was not sure about the exact reason.

"You got pretty eyes…" Came his slurred voice, shocking the both of them into stillness. Man, she must have hit him pretty hard for him to be saying stuff like that.

Kandria remained silent; her pretty eyes boring into his mask as an unreadable emotion came into them. He had no doubt it was possible for him to read that emotion, but he happened to be a little punched at that moment. Without a word Kandria straightened up, walking off somewhere behind him. Probably to the ladder that took you down to the rest of the ship if the quite sound of shoes on metal was any indication.

Then again, he could just have a concussion.

*****

Kandria looked out at the expansive windy grasslands outside the ship. The hangar doors laid open, allowing the wind to gently blow over her sitting form, her arms wrapped around her legs to them closer. It was strange though. It was like the wind was comforting her. Like a reassuring pat on the shoulder. She shivered, and it wasn't from the cold. She couldn't really tell what was happening at all when Vancil had forcefully pushed through the hurricane that somehow covered an entire planet, but near the end, the wind that had been trying to kill them moments before had stopped, and even seemed to have helped them, although she wasn't quite sure.

Vancil…

She had punched him quite hard. She must have, for him to say that of all things. Why did it bother her so much? She withdrew further into herself, her mind a hurricane not too dissimilar to the impossible one raging above the ship. He had been throwing her off more and more the longer she was around him. Then there was that feeling. Her heart had stopped upon hearing the words leave his mouth, and the strange feeling grew even more deep within her.

Kandria decided to distract herself from these thoughts, observing the landscape beyond the ship. Even without a deep knowledge of weather and environments, Kandria knew that there was no way for this place to look like it did. The storm which raged miles above seemed to not even touch the ground below, and there was not a single drop of rain or snow falling. The most it seemed to be doing was gently flowing down while occasionally throwing the occasional strong gust. And yet, she had never seen greener grass. How could she even see? It was as though there both was and wasn't a sun. Not a single tree either. Simply one rolling, occasionally hilly, steppe.

Her bewildered gaze was taken away from the preposterous scene and flicked backwards as the sound of heavy armoured boots on metal drew closer. Vancil walked up beside her, his own gaze kept ahead as he nursed his jaw.

"You got a good punch." He said, as though they were discussing the weather.

Kandria looked forward as well, a flash of lightning from above lending a sense of blue to the ground in front, "You too." She said, referencing their first fateful battle on the Rakatan ship.

Vancil chuckled lightly, "Quite the force wielders we are. Devolving every fight into a fistfight as though it were a bar brawl."

An amused smirk entered Kandria's lip. Even if she didn't know what this 'bar' was, she still got the gist of it, "I recall using the Force to send you flying once."

"And I recall kicking your ass twice over before saving it."

Kandria laughed, "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Not unless you can somehow beat me three times and save me twice." Came his sarcastic reply.

A content smile was all Kandria could give. He couldn't see it underneath her cloth mask, but it was more so to herself than to him. That smile disappeared quickly however as she sensed several presences surrounding the ship in a perfect circle. Frowning she stood and looked over to Vancil who almost certainly sensed the same thing.

Vancil shook his head and sniggered softly, "Man, this is just an unbelievable amount of déjà vu right now."

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