Residual Effects

(Sorry for delay guys. Holiday weekend, brother's birthday, then traveling to Florida which is where I'm currently writing from. I'm building a lightsaber at Disney for my 23rd birthday on Friday! I'm quite excited for that. Anyways, going to do my best to get as many chapters out as possible before I'm busy with Disney parks. Hope you all had a great holiday weekend!)

I just stood there for another minute, smiling as I enjoyed the view. Despite having not seen too much of the galaxy, I could confidently say that Kessel, this small and thriving world within a maelstrom, was one of the wonders of the galaxy.

After that minute slowly ticked by, I wished I could rewind and live it again. I was at peace. Alas, I had places to be. I turned to Violet and gazed upon her for just a moment. "Come, we have a job to do. We can admire this view once more after we conquer the system."

I stepped off the platform and walked towards the doors that led out of the bridge. They slid open as I heard Violet catching up with me. The elevators were directly to the right after passing through the doors. I pressed the button to go down and the door opened almost immediately.

The both of us stepped in before I pressed the button to descend towards the main hangar. Fortunately, this elevator went straight to it. There were other elevators throughout these cruisers that were specific to certain areas.

I glanced at Violet. "What do you think we'll find down there?"

Violet briefly made eye contact with me before returning to the wall with a blank stare. "Well, I would say rocks are a pretty good bet."

I rolled my eyes. "Ughhh, come on. Do you think there is any sentient life?"

Violet shrugged. "It's pointless to make guesses. There is basically no information on this system. We are going to be writing our own history here."

I sighed. "Come onnnnnnn. Can't we come up with some crazy ideas? It's fun to be a conspiracy theorist sometimes."

Violet rolled her eyes and glanced at me. "Fine. What do you want to hear? Oh, there's gonna be a huge tribe that sacrifices everyone's first born to a volcano to stop a bear stampede from demolishing their village. How's that?"

I smiled and then chuckled. "Hahaha, that would actually be super interesting. See? I knew there was a vibrant imagination in there. Wouldn't that make this less boring?"

Violet shrugged as the elevator stopped moving. She stepped towards the door and spoke without looking back at me. "I prefer income sources to be boring. It mean's nothing is going wrong."

The door slid open, and I watched her walk out in silence for a moment. "Fair enough. Guess I'll need to entertain myself while we are down there."

Violet sighed as I caught up with her. "Just don't get into trouble please. Despite it being suuuchhh a PLEASURE for you to be around, it will become my problem."

I smirked and looked at her as we walked towards the array of shuttles in the hangar. "Oh please, just admit that you don't hate me."

She shrugged and pointed towards a shuttle. "There's our ride."

There were people everywhere. I could only describe it as organized chaos. Scrambling technicians, suspiciously calm pilots, and the sloppily presented guild members.

It was quite easy to tell the guild members apart from the employees. Whether the employees were locals or players, they were all professionals and carried a different air around them. They were dressed in similar ways and direct in the tasks they were completing. While this was ANV's first official operation, these people had experience or were led by someone with lots of experience.

The shuttle that Violet had pointed to was a Rendaran-Class Assault Shuttle. It was slate gray with purple trim. The purple was because that was our guild color. The entire board agreed that it was the perfect color for us since it represented strength and independence.

Purple is also often used by royalty. After this operation, our guild would have it's own sovereign system so it would be fitting. There was a lot of thought that went into the color but it boiled down to a few key points.

First, our guild was not backed by any country or government. We were free from politics and bureaucracy. Secondly, ANV was owned by its members and not by a corporation. While Berkshire may have a stake and some say in how the guild is run, I trusted them because that's what family does.

Besides, they have only brought benefits so far since they are much more capable of running a, soon to be, multi-billion-dollar organization than a group of 20-somethings. Board meetings may be boring but they are much more efficient than arbitrary decisions by a guild leader.

Lastly, of course, was our strength. Due to our connections, we had a very strong military. From what our intelligence corps has gathered, very few other guilds have been capable of getting a meeting with a large shipyard to get any capital type ships. In addition, we have been very generous to our members in terms of equipment. Of course, the equipment must be related to a guild quest they are going on but it stills has helped keep our member's equipment a cut above the rest.

While I was admiring all of this, I noticed Violet slipping away. "Hey! Don't just change the topic like that!"

I chased after her, quickly arriving at the shuttle. Before I could try to get her attention again, I noticed that the cabin was filled with people. None of them were seated yet.

Suddenly a voice came over the PA system. "Attention all personnel, departure will occur in T-1 minute. Board your assigned craft immediately."

I shrugged before taking a look around the cabin. Quickly, I noticed that Jeremiah and Tomas were standing next to each other while two separate groups had congregated around them. The look of the two groups was distinctly different.

Clearly, the people next to Jeremiah were all engineers. It was easy to tell based on how they were dressed. They had no weapons and no armor. This was a stark contrast compared to the well-equipped group of people behind Tomas. They were armed to the teeth but all extremely disciplined. Not a single drop of sweat could be seen on them as they mentally prepped for a crucial operation.

I waved. "J, T, what's up?"

They both turned around along with a few of their people. Jeremiah's eyes lit up. "Yooo, what's good man?"

I shrugged as I dapped him up. "Not much, man. On the bright side, we're on the same shuttle."

Tomas chuckled as he dapped me up as well. "Come on, dude, it just makes sense. This group of nerds here are the most important people being transported to the surface. Thus, we have the best task force and a Jedi Knight protecting them in case anything goes wrong."

I shrugged. "I guess that's fair. Might have been better to have me on another shuttle though. My track record with landing on planets hasn't been the best."

Tomas sighed. "Ahhhh, luck has nothing to do with it. Anyways, let's take our seats. We'll be leaving soon."

I nodded, turning around and finding an empty seat next to Violet. Bothering her seemed like a good way to pass the time.

I quickly sat down and reached over my head to bring down the restraining bar. I pulled it down by a sharp pain made me pull my hand away as the bar clicked into place.

(Before y'all say anything, it was the left hand that got cut off. Go look if you want.)

Holding my hand in the air, I found a small but deep scratch on the tip of my right index finger. A bead of blood was starting to form. I stared at it before I started to feel an intense heat beating against my body from all angles.

My eyes shot up to find the entire shuttle surrounded by a ring of fire that tried to break into the cabin. The bodies of Republic troopers littered the floor, all their armor scorched and covered with blood.

Sitting across from me was a man that looked to barley be alive. He was clutching a huge piece of metal that was covered in blood and jutting out of his chest.

He looked up and noticed my gaze which was focused upon him. He tried opened his mouth…

*COUGH*

A thick mist of blood escaped his mouth as he coughed, some of it even soaring through the air and across the cabin to land on my face.

I could feel my heart pounding like a bass drum being struck inside my head. Faster, louder, faster, louder.

"Save me." *COUGH*

More blood splattered on the ground before him as he coughed. Those two words sent me into a tizzy. I was losing it. I had no ability to think. Was this happening all over again?

Suddenly, I felt a hand grasp my right shoulder. My head snapped to the right. In that instant, all of the heat and gore was gone. All that remained was Violet looking deep into my eyes with the chatter of our compatriots in the background.

Her intense gaze did little to help my soaring heartbeat. "Are you okay?"

I sighed, glancing at my right index finger and finding a thin line of blood that was soaking into my sleeve. "I… I don't know."

Violet sighed. "We were concerned about this."

I tilted my head slight, somewhat confused. "About what?"

She shook her head. "The board had concerns about your ability to recover from the Kashyyyk incident. You are crucial to the guild's development."

I sighed, blankly staring at the other people within the craft. "What kind of concerns?"

Violet hesitated for a moment. Because of her hesitation, I looked at her and saw a slightly pained expression on her face. "Come on. Just tell me."

She nodded. "The main concern was post-traumatic stress disorder. I hate to say it, but that seems to be the case."

My heart skipped a beat as I thought about it. This did seem like PTSD, didn't it? "I think it's only from the crash. Nothing else. That was the part of the mission that I really suffered during. The rest of it… I had been prepared to die."

Violet tilted her head in confusion. "Just from the crash? You sure?"

I shrugged. "I'm no psychologist. It's just a guess but it's still my brain. I think I have a decent grip on it. Plus, the flashback was from strapping in. I'm gonna need a therapist for this, aren't I?"

Violet nodded. "Yep. That's what the board will recommend. But it's also my personal recommendation. It didn't feel good to see you like that. Your face was frozen in pure terror."

That made me feel warm inside. She really cared about me. I think I was starting to like her even if it was just a bit.

Then she pulled out a weird brick with a screen and keyboard on it. She then started typing away on the keyboard as a bunch of text was showing up on the screen.

I tilted my head in confusion. "What are you doing? And what is that?"

She glanced at me before going back to typing. "I'm putting down a note to not put you in shuttles until further notice due to possible PTSD. And this is a prototype smartcomm. All of the board members have one. Oh, I forgot, here's yours."

Violet reached towards her belt and unclipped a canvas pouch with Velcro on it. She handed me the pouch and I found that it was quite heavy. "Just take the chip out of your current comm and put it in this one. It is much more durable than the flimsy comm you can get on the market."

I sighed, realizing that I didn't even have a physical comm anymore. I only had my wrist mounted display which… ah, that was gone with my left hand. HA! This was just lovely.

Her face lit up. "Oh! That reminds me. I need to recommend to the board that something be put in place in the case that either you or Galen goes AWOL."

I sighed as she ruined the moment. "Ahhhhh, I feel so loved and cared for."

She looked at me and giggled. "You may have a pretty face, but this is just business."

I raised my brow, staring at her intently. "Did you just flirt with me?"

Violet's eyes widened slightly as she looked away in apparent embarrassment. I watched over the next few seconds of silence as her face was flushed red. She was blushing.

She shyly looked back at me; angst painted all over her face. "I guess, kind of."