Rubbing his eyes, Justinios tried desperately to quickly comprehend his surroundings. Smoke was billowing from the front of his speeder, through crumpled durasteel. The Aleena noticed that he wasn't wearing his safety restraints and surmised that his splitting headache was a likely result of that decision. The pain was making recollection of the recent past very difficult for Justinios. His usually sharp mind was muddled, unable to recall the moments leading up to the apparent speeder crash. Reaching up with his reptilian hands he felt cuts on his face and burns on his scalp, more signs indicating he had crashed his vehicle but giving few clues as to the cause.
His neurons were able to force through one detail, he recalled the controls of his craft not responding. That memory was followed up quickly with a strong feeling, as strong as an instinct, that it was not a failure but caused by someone. Just as the blue skinned Proconsul realized his craft had been sabotaged, probably sliced if the controls locked up, a bright light started to shine directly in front of him. Danger, he knew it had to be. If someone sliced his controls and forced him to the ground then whoever was now approaching him had to be looking to finish him off.
Justinios had no idea if this person was alone and if they were targeting him specifically or if they were pirates or raiders that happened upon him by accident. The bad news for them was that it didn't matter. As he quickly surveyed his surroundings, Justinios saw that his lightsaber was laying neatly on console beside him.
*Odd*, he thought to himself but as unlikely it was for his weapon to have landed in that exact spot during the class it was impossible. *It had to land somewhere I suppose.*
Even with compromised vision, the Aleena could tell that the light was moving towards him at the pace of a human sized being walking briskly. It would on him in a few minutes so he knew he had to act quickly. Snatching up his lightsaber, he ducked down under the dashboard of the speeder so that he was hidden from view until someone was standing right over the vehicle. Sensing their approach through the Force, he was certain that only one living being was homing in on his wreck. As the foot falls of his attacker drew near, Justinios waited until the final moment to spring his own trap.
With a boost for the Force he sprang out of his hiding spot and three full meters into the air over the mystery being. As he sailed through the night sky, he ignited the deep blue blade of his weapon and prepared to defend himself. But his acrobatics were not met with the response of blaster fire, explosives or another energy blade. Instead, the red-orange fire of a rocket pack lit up the darkness, temporarily blinding Justinios.
But physical sight was not the only tool in Justinios' arsenal. Reaching out with the Force, he could feel his attacker's presence and charged them head on. But even with augmented speed, the being fired their rocket pack once more, again putting distance between the two of them.
"Justinios, what the hell are you doing?"
The words reached the Aleena's ear through the comlink he still had attached to his skull.
"Did that blow to the head make you feral or something?"
As Justinios looked out into the darkness he could see that his "attacker" was now shining the light upon themselves and it revealed the armored form of Tavens Caedo. The Mandalorian had his helmet on but Justinios was now imagining that his companion had a look of confused anger upon his face. Justinios deactivated his weapon and walked calmly up to the human.
"Sorry about that Tav, I think hitting my head in that crash knocked a few screws loose."
Heavily distorted laughing cut through the breezy night air. "You didn't hit your head in the crash you nut job. You don't remember the fight?"
"What fight?" Justinios asked, now fully confused.
"A Collective squad found us and hacked the controls mid flight. You brought us down safely but they were waiting, didn't you look around?" Tavens shined his light back towards the wreck and behind it were strewn the bodies of at least a dozen beings of different species. "That Gotal over there smashed your head pretty good against one of those trees before you bisected him."
The evidence of a fight was pretty clearly visible to Justinios but the story so far didn't explain everything. "Well then why was I passed out at the controls still?"
"I said we needed to hoof it back to the settlement but you refused to come. You kept insisting that you just needed to close your eyes for a second. You were obviously concussed, and I was done arguing with you, so I went to go find help by myself."
"Well then where are they?" the Aleena asked.
"You left you comlink open and I heard you muttering n your sleep about being left to die all alone so I turned back. It's only about a standard hour's walk back to the settlement, even for your stubby legs, so now that you've had your nap, let's get moving."