Star Wars: The Age of Peace

I was sitting in the pilot's chair, my fingers resting lightly on the controls of the small cruiser as the countdown to realspace ticked away. I was ready to pull the hyperdrive's lever to kick us back to normal space when the numbers reached zero, making me smile without thinking about it. The familiar hum of the ship's systems was giving me a comforting presence, making my left hand reach over to the comm panel and key it on.

"Master, we're almost there. You might want to come up to the cockpit."

"..." For a brief moment, there was only static, and then my Master, Ben Skywalker's voice crackled over the comm. "On my way."

Keying the comms off, I exhaled and looked back at the computer, then at the front, gazing out at the tunnel of hyperspace stretching endlessly ahead. It had been six years since the mission on Valkyss, six years of training, development, and different trials. For the past four years, I had been Ben Skywalker's Padawan, and I had seen more of the galaxy than I had ever done while growing up back home. We were rarely staying at the Academy for more than a few months at a time. I never knew Master would be so busy, but I wasn't complaining. It was the most exciting part of being his Padawan. Each mission had tested not only my resolve but also sharpened my instincts and honed my direct connection to the Force. And yet, no matter how wild these past years were, how much I thought I learned, there was always more to discover right around the next corner.

Ben's training regiment had been rigorous from the start, pushing me to confront my fears and insecurities whenever we encountered something that made me... uncomfortable. Luckily, the son of Grandmaster Luke Skywalker turned out to be a patient but demanding teacher. Someone who was emphasizing the importance of balance—not just in the Force, but in my personal life too, giving me enough time between missions to relax. Which was something I was looking forward to when we left the spaceport we were at previously. We were about to head home, and if everything went right, I would meet up with Vila. I hadn't seen her for about a year now, as she was also traveling with Master Kyle Katarn, who took her under his wings at the same time when my Master claimed me as his Padawan.

But... It seemed that moment would need to wait because right before jumping to hyperspace, my last scan, which was done on a whim, spurred by a strange feeling, made me pick up a very weak distress signal. So, instead of heading home to Yavin 4, we were heading to investigate its o

However... As my Master always said, there are no coincidences when it comes to a Jedi. Maybe... my connection to the Force had deepened significantly, and it was he who said it, not me. It turns out that I had developed a knack for sensing the emotions and intentions of others, sometimes even if I were far away. Very... far away. Integrated into my intuition on a subconscious level. Maybe it was why my piloting skills had also improved tremendously, knowing everyone's move before they even did it. And, of course, thanks to countless hours spent at the controls of our ships when traveling, navigating through asteroid fields, dodging and outrunning pirates.

My thoughts were interrupted as the ship's navicomputer beeped its arrival warning, and Ben entered the cockpit, his presence as steady as ever. I watched from the reflection of the screens before me as his gaze flicked to me before settling on the displays.

"I'm dropping us out now, Master," I told him, pulling the hyperspace lever instead of a greeting. I watched the blue swirl outside turn into mottled starlight and then back to little pinpoint, glowing gems.

The ship shuddered as it reverted to realspace, welcoming us in, well... nowhere, really. Before us was the Talus Minor system, a forgotten corner of the Outer Rim. The system's dim, aging star was casting a weak light over the three planets orbiting it, none of which were capable of supporting life. The outermost, Talus Tertius, was a barren rock with no atmosphere, its surface pockmarked with craters and ancient mining facilities. The middle planet, Talus Secundus, was a gas giant with swirling storms of ochre and gray, not something that would be worthy of mining at all. Then, lastly, the innermost planet, Talus Prime, was the one we were approaching—a small, rocky world with a thin, methane atmosphere and a single moon.

Talus Prime, from the records I managed to dig up, had once been home to a modest mining colony established way before the Clone Wars to extract rare minerals for one of the CIS supporting systems nearby, but... Other than that, nothing. The colony itself had been abandoned shortly when the war broke out, and its inhabitants were either killed or forced to flee during the rise of the Empire, never to return. Not that it mattered now, anyway. The planet was a ghost of its former self, its surface dotted with crumbling structures and rusted machinery, lost, forgotten forever. However... The distress signal was coming from this direction, and after entering the system, I managed to pick it up once again. Following it, I watched as the navi-computer showed that it led us not to the planet itself but to its moon.

"Huh..." I frowned as I checked the scanners. "I don't see any active settlements down the surface. Not from the planet or the moon... But that distress signal is still repeating."

"It isn't coming from them." Ben stepped forward, peering at the readings. "There," he said, pointing toward the edge of the horizon and not on the ship's computers. When I looked up from the scanners, I could also see it.

A massive shape drifted through the void, silhouetted against the distant stars, becoming visible when the sun's rays hit it from the right angle, making it shine against the backdrop of the rocky moon. Its long, dagger-like frame was unmistakable, even after decades of abandonment. At first, I thought it was an Imperial I or II, but no... the shape was different. Quickly running through my memory, I quickly found the answer: a Venator-class Star Destroyer. A relic from the Clone Wars era. The ship was dark, its engines long dead and gone cold, yet the signal was coming from within it.

"It was left on a stable orbit? Otherwise, it would have already crashed... Hm. No life signs," I murmured, adjusting the ship's sensors to scan the derelict ship. "But the beacon is still active, and it IS coming from inside."

"It indeed does," Master said as he crossed his arms, becoming thoughtful for a moment. "Eighty years adrift… and now, of all times, the signal is reaching us. A bit late if you ask me."

"Very late." I nodded while I glanced at my Master. "We have to check it out, though."

"Of course." Ben nodded, his expression showing a faint smile. "Let's move in. But stay sharp. It could also be a trap. We are close to Hutt space, after all."

"We are broadcasting Jedi identifications. If the Hutts are stupid enough to hit us..." I muttered, shaking my head as I guided our vessel toward the derelict warship. Getting close to it, a shiver ran down my spine, making my eyes tremble for a moment. Something about this didn't sit right.

"Trouble?" He asked, stretching out with the force, but I was unsure.

And that was never a good sign.

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "Just a weird feeling."

"I see." He nodded, asking no more, but I knew from that alone that he felt nothing.

"I am getting a match," I muttered, glancing at the computer, distracting my thoughts a little.

The Venator was named Resolute Valor, which went missing in the middle of the Clone Wars. Missing until now, huh? Just by looking at it, it was a haunting sight. Its once-pristine white hull was now a patchwork of rust and scorch marks, a clear sign of battle, missing two of its engines from the back. The ship's massive hangar bay was wedged open, becoming a graveyard of old Republic starfighters, their cockpits shattered and wings broken. This ship was hit... and hard. It was a miracle that it was still in one piece. To see better as we neared it with our small vessel, I switched on the forward-facing floodlights, their beams cutting through the void to illuminate the jagged edges of a massive gash along the starboard side.

"This thing's been through hell," I exhaled. "How is the signal still running after all these years? It can't be coming from anything organic, as the hull is compromised... there is a vacuum inside."

"Good question." Ben studied the wreck with narrowed eyes. "Could be an automated distress beacon that's only just now gotten strong enough to reach hyperspace lanes. Or something—or someone—reactivated it."

Thinking about that, I felt a knot tighten in my stomach. The latter possibility was the more troubling of the two. Was this what was giving me a bad feeling?

"Get us closer."

"Yes, Master!" I obeyed at once.

I brought our vessel in close, searching for a docking point. The Venator's hangar bay doors were partially blasted open, so it was as good as any, leaving just enough room to maneuver inside. Without flinching, I piloted the ship through the gap, setting it down amidst the skeletal remains of long-abandoned starfighters. Dust and debris floated weightlessly in the microgravity of the vessel and the moon, casting eerie shadows across the hangar deck, illuminated by our ship's lights.

"Interesting." As the landing struts engaged, Master reached over and activated the ship's external scanners once more. "Still no signs of life," he confirmed. "But that doesn't mean we're alone."

"Droids?" I asked as I unclipped my harness and stood, taking a deep breath to steady myself. I was no stranger to danger, but something about this place made my skin crawl. Spooky. So, I grabbed my lightsaber from my belt, letting its weight calm me down while I followed Ben toward the airlock, dressing up in our space suits.

A minute later, the doors hissed open, and the silence of the vacuum greeted us as we stepped onto the Venator's hangar floor. Our boots clanked against the metal surface, but there was no air to carry the sound, which only resonated in my mind as my brain added the perceived effect.

"Bee-boop... Dwoo-dwoo!" my Master's astromech, R2D2, echoed from behind us, its voice coming from my helmet's audio systems.

"Relax, R2." He answered him while I read the translation of what he was saying on the display in my helmet. Apparently, he wasn't picking up anything, either. "Stay here and make sure nobody gets on the ship."

"Dwooooo..."

While they were talking, I reached out with the Force, feeling for any presence beyond our own. Nothing. Just the echo of something long forgotten, a distant whisper of memories left behind by those who lived aboard the ship, probably haunting the empty corridors.

"Kael," Ben gestured ahead of me. "Come. Let's find the source of that signal. If nothing else, we need to turn it off so it won't bother others."

"Yes, Master." We moved cautiously, our lightsabers unlit but ready in our hands. "Weird..." I added after we entered deeper into the ship, leaving the hangar bay that was running through its middle behind us.

"To be a signal, some power has to be present," Master answered, unsurprised by what we were seeing.

The weird part was that emergency lights flickered weakly along the walls, casting long and eerie red shadows that seemed to shift in the periphery of my vision. Without thinking about it, my grip tightened around my saber's hilt as we passed more and more rusted doors and shattered consoles. I could swear my suit was picking up the sound of distant creaks and groans that echoed through the ship as if the hull itself were protesting our intrusion. But that should be impossible.

Focusing on the task ahead, we followed the signal deeper into the ship, stepping over fallen debris and the remnants of a battle fought aboard the ship. We even found skeletal remains of clone troopers scattered throughout the corridors, some still in their armor, their helmets cracked, and visors dark. Others were little more than dust and bones, their weapons floating around them, accompanying multiple wrecked battle droids.

"So they were also boarded," I muttered, seeing the destruction.

"That they were... Keep alert; we are nearing our goal."

I stopped as we reached a central command room within the ship's secondary bridge. A control panel flickered weakly inside, the distress signal still looping across its cracked display.

"This is it," I said, stepping forward and checking the frequency.

"Now I also feel... weird," Master said so calmly that it took me a few seconds to register the warning in his voice while he examined the console. "The signal was manually activated," he noted out loud. "Not automated. Someone turned this on."

"..." I swallowed hard while turning around, trying to feel or see anybody... anything. "But where are they?"

"That, my Padawan..." He muttered, doing the same. "Is the question."