A year after the destruction of the second Death Star in the celebrated Battle of Endor, another war was waged between the New Republic and Galactic Empire. Basking beneath the desert sun of Jakku rests the remnants of this hostility. Shifting sands have since buried and uncovered countless treasures and relics- to the delight of scavengers eager who hope to recover tokens from either side of the conflict!

The harsh desert offers little shelter from the elements, remaining barren and flat against the imposing backdrop of a fallen Star Destroyer that was left uncovered after the famed Battle of Jakku. Rather than allowing the vessel to fall into the hands of the Republic after the self-destruct had been sabotaged, Captain Ciena Ree ordered the Inflictor evacuated and sent it crashing to the planet’s surface. Sunken into the shifting desert sea, the upper portion of the Inflictor’s hull and exhaust ports remain otherwise intact, preserved amidst the rubble of untold casualties that had once occurred on both sides. Although it has been scoured by the passing of several sandstorms, it still displays the former power and might of the Galactic Empire.

Innumerous scraps of metal and machines of war share the same grave, echoing the lives of those who fought and died among the perilous wastes. Hundreds of these relics sit untouched, lingering amidst the ghosts that tend and reside in Jakku’s graveyard.

The desert was littered with scrap and crashed vehicles, those left behind by the pilots too foolish to fly near the ship. Sand scoured and ripped away the paint from the ships, as the sun glazed the dead bodies, as well as the little plant life here. The huge ball of fire slowly rose closer to midday, but this dry heat was only a niggling pain to Lexiconus.

He had a damp cloth around his head, the armourweave cloak protecting his neck and arms with shade. The arms of his Equite robes were also neatly cut off. The temperature and humidity of the desert didn’t worry him much, as he unscrewed his bottle and gently poured more cold water onto his forehead.

His attention perked as he felt an unfamiliar presence closing the gap to him. A female Human who felt furious and angered. Lexiconus turned to the engine exhaust of the Star Destroyer, as blaster bolts flung past his head. He dropped the water bottle and yanked his saberstaff out, igniting the green blade to deflect the bolts away.

Undisciplined and novice in skill, his defence failed him when a bolt skimmed by and cut across his arm, then his shin. The Quarren could ignore the pain as he concentrated on redirecting the shots. The Force told his body to back peddle as fast as he can, while his feet started to retreat. But the Human was much faster than he was, her athletic prowess allowed her to dodge and roll between the redirections.

As she came into his reach, she aggressively yanked the saberstaff from his hands and she delivered a punch to his neck with quick brutality. She pushed the Quarren over into the sand as her eyes inspected the weapon.

“Hey, look at what I found in the middle of this Imperial graveyard? Just this flawless Saberstaff ripe for the taking,” She lied, as she placed the weapon onto her belt.

“Do you realise who you are messing with here? You have just stolen from the Quaestor of House Imperium! The sentencing for theft is dismemberment of the stealing hand! Is that what you want to lose?” He shouted, the Human just shrugged turned and to face the Star Destroyer.

“I wonder what else I can find in this ship?” She asked herself.

All Lexiconus could ask was, who is this woman?

The so-called Imperials have definitely lowered their standards, the former ISB major mused. Poor, poor Xen'Mordin.

The tugging at her hip was not unexpected, and Alethia turned to face Lexiconus as the Quarren's lightsaber ripped itself free from her belt and flew through the air to his waiting hand. The squid had been easy enough to get the jump on, but apparently he was not entirely lacking in skills.

The distance between them was only a meter or so, and Archenksova was able to get close enough to kick her opponent as he ignited his blades. Lashing out with one leg directly in front of her, the Human planted her foot on the long hilt of Lexiconus' saberstaff and pushed off, sending the Quarren stumbling backward until he finally fell rump first into the sand. Drawing her rifle again and taking aim, the Odanite fired just to one side of the Quarren's head. He winced as the bolt kicked up a spray of blazing hot sand across his face.

The Quarren inhaled sharply as he lifted one hand to shield his face, brandishing his lightsaber in the other. "I'll take both hands for that, woman!" Grunting with the effort, he pushed forward with both hands as if shoving her off of him — and an invisible wave of force picked the Human up and carried her a good two meters back before dumping her in the sand.

She managed to tuck into a serviceable roll, if not a graceful one, before picking herself back up. The Palatinaean stood up himself, wiping the bits of silica from his uncomfortably dry brow.

"The Brotherhood may be callous about throwing its member's lives away," Alethia began in an even tone. "But they'll at least send someone to look for a missing Quaestor. When they find you, Lexiconus Qor, I want them to see that you ran from me like a desert rat." She punctuated the statement by planting another blaster bolt just to the side of his ankle. "So start running."

Lexiconus scanned across the metallic frame of the blaster rifle, and although he didn’t know it’s model, it was certainly menacing. But he knew better than to take her head on, her hand unshaken by the gentle wind blowing in. The Quarren took a few steps backwards, his eyes locked with hers as expanded the distance.

“Fine,” He shrugged, turning to face the wreckage of the ISD. “I’ll play your game.” He took a few more steps, the crunching of petrified sand breaking under his feet, echoed across the rusty skeleton. He walked further into the shadows and darkness of the hull, then his feet kicked off.

“But how good is your aim, Commander!” He shouted back. Alethia raced across the hot sands and quickly began to close the gap between them. While Lexiconus was beginning to come into view for her, she noticed shards and pieces of the wreckage began to spear and fly towards her. Without hesitation, she ducked and rolled in evasion, while the Quarren stood and watched. His hands in the air, he used the Force to tug and yank the ship apart, pulling it piece by piece. As the frame creaked and whined, the plates of metal twisted and flung themselves at the Odanite.

“You’ll have to do better than this, squid!” She shouted, as she pirouetted past another flying plate. “I call this exercise, a gentle yoga,” She dove through the air, and as her foot arched over her, It slammed into Lexiconus’ face. The slobberknocker flung the Quarren onto the ground, forcing him to tumble and chuck his lightsaber across the shaded area. A short but true smirk sparkled from her face as she saw her success, then it disappeared as Alethia walked towards the Seer and aimed her blaster to his head.

“Is this it? A few simple parlour tricks, a light jog and you’re done? I’ve seen obese cadets who’ve performed better,” She scoffed, her eyes rolling to accentuate the criticism. As he coughed and spluttered the face full of sand and shakingly rose to his knees, Lexiconus grinned at the Commander and wiped the blood from his mouth.

“So that’s the great Lotus tactic against the evil Inquisitors, huh?” He chuckled to himself. “Put some boars and hogs in uniform, give them a blaster and that’s your army? Pathetic!” He shouted. While the echo of his words bounced around the wreckage, and the Odanite slowly squeezed the trigger of her blaster, a spine-chilling sound roared out. As if a thousand banshees had cried out at once, the frame of the ISD slowly began to sag and cripple. Lexiconus looked up in horror as he realised what he done, taking too many hull plates compromise the integrity of the ship.

“I think we should go,” Lexiconus rose to his feet as he spoke.

“Yeah,” Alethia replied as another creak echoed out. “I certainly agree,” She slowly backed away from the source of the noise. But it was a ruse from the ship.

Like a whisper in the wind, a scrap of the ship plummeted and slammed down behind the Odanite, who quickly spun around began to sprint away. As the hail of rust, fittings and other odd pieces began to pour, the duo rushed to safety.

Not today, Lexiconus pleaded, panting heavily. Anytime but today, ship.

His hand clenched tightly to his thigh while he limped, as a large piece of a rusty shard stuck out from Lexiconus’ shin.

This was stupid, Alethia scolded herself as she scrambled towards one of the sunlit patches of safe ground. Striking out alone, assaulting a Sith without backout, following him into the wreckage like a lemming — stupid, stupid, stupid! A roaring echo ripped through the ship as the gutted remnants of a turbolaser emplacement smashed into the sand-covered support structures that had long since fallen to the ground below it. She had come to Jakku rested, hydrated, well-supplied — she was almost to safety as the entire command tower toppled forward onto the dorsal superstructure — and now she was panting, her pulse pounding in her ears, hair plastered to her sweat-soaked face.

Alethia tumbled out and started up a sand dune, the desert heat striking her like a fist as she emerged from the shaded interior of the ruined Star Destroyer. She crested the dune and simply dropped, sliding down the other side feet-first and relatively in control of herself. Hopefully Lexiconus has the decency to bleed to death while I catch my breath.

Qor collapsed into the dust, the Star Destroyer screaming behind him as it ripped itself apart. The Quarren winced as he rolled himself over, propped up on his elbows as he tried to assess the damage to his leg. It wasn't worth sugar-coating. He could handle it, of course, but if Archenksova had emerged anywhere near him he would be a dead man.

No use thinking about that, the Quaestor reminded himself. One crisis at a time. He swallowed back a scream as he diverted his attention away from numbing his pain and willed strength into his arms and hands, and ripped the offending shrapnel from his thigh. His vision whited out and he fell back into the sand before he caught his breath, soothing himself with the Force and bringing his agony back to a bearable level. Well, there goes the worst of it. Lexic looked over at the bloody scrap in his hand, the rust and dust intermingled with his own fluids and, no doubt, all manner of horrific Jakkuan microbes. And then there was the sand. It was everywhere.

The infection can kill me later, he scolded himself as he squeezed his eyes shut and focused on knitting his flesh together, at least enough to get him back on his feet again. The Lotus works more quickly.

His power working to better his leg, while the sting of nerves and muscle fusing caused him to yelp, Lexiconus bit his lip and focused on the wound. His full concentration into his health, the deep wound began to seal and scab over with the dry blood and sand. While the minutes passed to mend the cut, his eyes turned to the crumbling ruined ISD, which began to sink into the sand. Swallowing the wreckage, the desert’s dunes rippled away from the Quarren and gave way to the ship’s grave.

“Rest in pieces, Empire,” He saluted the ship, then went back to mending the muscle.

A shifting in the dune Lexiconus sat under, stirred his attention to behind him, and a large Imperial-looking droid slowly descended towards him. His white, blank eyes focused on the Quarren, rather than the background chaos, while he began to wonder. With a sigh of relief and a smile, Lexiconus slowly leaned back into the sand, his hands continuing to heal the cut.

“Ah good, a combat droid. Come here, droid, I need you to do something for me,” He called out, but as the Imperial droid closed the gap, Lexiconus detected something was not right. With the Force triggered in his mind, the Quarren felt the harsh, metallic hands grip and yank him from the floor.

“You are Lexiconus Qor, Dossier number one three eight eight zero, Quaestor of House Imperium. Facial recognition accepted, I will now take you to my master.”

“No! Stop! Put me-argh!” The Quarren wriggled and writhed, protesting to the man handling from the droid. “Listen uh,” He looked at the droid’s serial number, which read KX-Series Security Droid.

“Uh listen, Kix. I need you to put me down,” His hand waved in front of the droid’s visual receptors, as he then immediately dropped the Quarren. The pain of the drop was agonising, but at least he wasn’t like a doll to the droid anymore.

“Okay, now Kix. Use this medpac,” Lexiconus handed it to the KX-Series. “And bandage up my leg. I have a plan I need you to follow very very carefully,”

Alethia made a brisk walk towards the rising sun, a cloth covering her head from the burning sun. She panted heavily as her legs began to grow tired of the marching, but she had a mission to complete. A few miles north, was her ship and the most deadly weapon she brought, complete with a pilot and gunner. It was her final present for the Quaestor, and this the grave for the failure of this false Empire she learned about.

Then her ears perked at the mechanical sound of marching feet, and she turned to face her fears.

“No! No! No! I specifically told you not to exit the ship! Tarkin’s soul!” She shouted as she kicked the sand, then her eyes caught the soft, leathery skin that KX-Series was carrying. A cold grin emerged.

“Well well well, Lexiconus Qor has come back for a swift death,” She chuckled while the droid threw Lexiconus towards Alethia. He tumbled and scraped across the harsh ground, as sand surrounded and scorched his skin. The Quarren coughed and spluttered as sand entered his dry mouth.

“Thank you droid, now please go back to the ship,” She pointed, while thinking of ways to painfully end the Quarren’s life.

“Can I have my gun now? You promised!” KX-Series asked, his hand out. Alethia groaned and rolled her eyes, the responsibilities of owning this droid seemed to pile day by day. Reluctantly, she unhooked the blaster rifle she kept and planted it into his mechanical hand.

“Thanks Commander,” It said. Quicker than she could react, the droid aimed and shot Alethia’s shin twice.

“I am liberating myself from your slavery. You will die now.” It said, the blaster rifle firmly aimed towards her.