Chapter 1

The hyperdrive malfunction had hurled Galen's ship out of hyperspace with a violent shudder. Warning klaxons blared as he fought for control, but it was no use. The ship's descent became an unguided meteor streaking across the inky black of space.

On the main viewport, a tan-colored planet rapidly grew from a insignificant speck to fill the entirety of the transparisteel screen. Galen's knuckles went white on the controls as he initiated emergency protocols, hoping to at least soften the impending crash landing.

But there was no time. His ship's durasteel hull screamed in protest as it ripped through the atmosphere in an incandescent fireball. The deafening roar was the last thing Galen heard before the violent impact knocked him unconscious.

When awareness returned, his head swam in a haze of smoke and disorientation. Galen weakly pulled himself from the pilot's crash webbing as his flagship lay in ruin around him. A jagged slice across the main viewport allowed gusts of coarse particulates to buffet him.

Coughing against the dusty air, Galen squeezed his way out through the breach in the ship's fuselage. The dim red light of a baking twin sunset assaulted his eyes as he stumbled onto a rolling landscape of sandy dunes and arid rock formations.

"Where...?" His raspy voice trailed off as Galen turned in a slow circle, realizing he had absolutely no idea where the catastrophic malfunction had transported him. This was most certainly not any world he recognized.

Surveying the wreckage, it was immediately clear his ship was unsalvageable. The forward tercerion compartments had been completely sheared off in the crash, exposing his flagship's internal superstructure.

Galen raked a hand through his disheveled hair, trying to balance his disoriented mind. First things first - he needed immediate supplies of water and shelter from the merciless heat pounding all around. Taking stock of his surroundings again, he noticed his crashed ship had carved an unmistakable trench several hundred meters long across the dune sea.

He'd barely made it ten steps in that direction when a chorus of eerie cries echoed across the desert flats. Galen spun to face the source of the unsettling sounds, one hand instinctively gripping his lightsaber hilt.

Cresting the nearby ridgeline came a small band of shallow, skittish creatures hastily pulling cylindrical wooden wagons behind them across the sands. They froze at the sight of Galen, their distressed warbling calls intensifying.

"Easily startled, aren't they?" Galen muttered under his breath, forcing his hand away from his weapon hilt. These didn't appear to be any sort of hostile native.

Rather than flee, the creatures seemed to find courage in their numbers. They moved forward again in cautious unison, studying Galen with intense beady eyes from beneath tattered robes.

Up close, he could make out their distinct rodent-like features topped with old tarnished breathmasks cycling the hot desert air. Though appearing meek, Galen could sense a deeper savviness about these apparent scavengers. His time under Vader's tutelage had trained him well to not underestimate the unknown.

"I mean you no harm," Galen kept his palms visible and acted on instinct, dipping his head in the barest semblance of a respectful bow. "But I find myself in desperate need of supplies. Water. Shelter. Anything you may be able to trade."

One smaller creature seemed to take charge, chittering in its strange alien dialect to the others while gesturing animatedly at Galen. It dug around in the hodgepodge of scavenged goods loaded into the wagons.

After what felt like an agonizing eternity of heat and silence, two familiar ration packs and water pouches were proffered cautiously forward by the apparent leader. Galen exhaled in relief, taking them quickly but leaving behind a few loose random components he'd been able to grab from his ship's wreckage as barter.

The scavengers eagerly snatched up the technological detritus, already bickering in their language as they inspected the bounty. With a few more warbling utterances and hand gestures to Galen, they hitched up their wagons and began plodding on across the endless dunes once more.

Galen slumped to the parched ground, greedily tearing into the meager provisions they had traded. As he drained the warm, stale tasting water, his thoughts turned to the direness of his predicament.

Wherever this desert hell was, he was a complete outsider stranded without the slightest heading to navigate by. The only potential lead were those vague scavenger creatures who understood enough Common to comprehend basic trading principles.

Forcing himself to continue rationing his precious supplies, Galen replayed the brief interaction in his head. If these Were some sort of nomadic traders working across this planet, then they may have insights on safe ports, settlements or any potential way offworld he could obtain.

His battered body screamed in protest, but Galen pushed himself up from the sands with a grunt of renewed determination. One thing was for certain, he couldn't stay stranded out in this wasteland. He had to find signs of civilization to gather more intel on...wherever here was. Shouldering the last of his supplies, Galen set off in the direction the erratic wanderers had been traveling when they came across his downed ship.