Star Wars: Force the First

Jent and Ian stared at each other blankly, both completely baffled by the other.

Jent had never seen another species before, at least not in person, but having read some of the books his tribe had collected, he recognised Ian as being a child.

"Why would someone send such a young one to a place like this?" Jent thought to himself, as he stored away his spear.

Ian watched as the Junker put away his weapon. He was bewildered, his thoughts muddled, and sensing no malicious intent from the rusty cyborg, he inspected his new body.

Ian's once tanned, muscular arms had become thin and pale, unnaturally pale as if he had no blood pumping through his veins; did he even have veins now he wondered. He felt over his face, it was soft; his stubble was gone. On his forehead, he had seemingly sprouted horns and his molars were now sharp to a fine point. Whatever he was now it certainly wasn't human.

"What in gods name... Hey, wait! What are you doing?"

Ian's enthralled inspection of his new body was interrupted by the wheezing sound of Jent's mechanical arms, hoisting Ian out of the pod.

"Let go of me, I said let go!" Ian shouted, his own high pitch, newly pre-adolescent voice irritating him, as he hammered on Jent with his tiny pale fists.

Ian heard the screeching of rusting steel contorting as the rotting skeleton of the ship began to collapse. Realising that the Junker was trying to save him, Ian stopped his floundering and Jent placed Ian atop his shoulders before running towards the breach in the ship's hull that he had entered through.

Jent hopped, skipped, and jumped his way through the ship, swaying almost rhythmically as the ship's rusty steel fragments dropped like rain around him and Ian.

The old cyborg was deceptively fast and atop him, struggling to stay on, was Ian. Currently hanging upside down, his legs wrapped around Jent's neck and clinging desperately to his mouldy hood, Ian watched as the ship's cockpit room gave way, burying the pod underneath.

'It saved my life...' Ian thought, before screaming aloud, "holy sh*t I'm still alive!"

The Junker continued to dance his way through the ship, avoiding the deadly rain of metal with an almost practised elegance; as if he had done this before.

Ian managed to get a grip on Jent's mask and after pulling himself up, he could see the way out. A subtle yellow light jutted from the breach, beckoning to him. Jent saw it too and hastened his pace in a desperate sprint to the finish line.

As Jent moved towards the breach, in front, the support pillars began to fall; threatening to seal off their only exit.

"No!" Jent and Ian cried out.

Ian felt a sort of guilt and rage bubble up inside him and instinctually he raised a hand forward and shouted: "Stop!"

The pillars halted in their decent and not wasting a moment Jent went through the breach, diving through the remaining gap.

Ian lost control of the power he had summoned and, as he and Jent tumbled outside the ruined ship, the pillars behind collapsed and out of the breach ejected a fine cloud of rusty metal particles.

Coughing on the metal dust, Ian sat up and looked back at the ship, "What was that, it was almost like..."

Ian passed out.