Star Wars: Revelations/ Chapter 4: Lost Within Hope

Thinking about how his life used to be a part of the Grand Army of the Republic, a New Republic trooper awakened, but in the sense of a mental state. He contemplated the horrors and aches of war, how it had taken a toll on most. Ponds then reawakened with a gasp. His mouth was wide open as were his eyes that were staring into a plasma door, not seeing the plasma door. He looked through it and saw nothing but pure evil. Having been stripped from his beloved armor, he pondered hopelessness.

Sinking into his own mind, Ponds finally stood in an upright position and rubbed his hurting head. As he was doing so, he felt a fresh laceration on his temple, with slow droplets of oozing blood discharging. He looked around. He noticed that there were two other cells beside him. He closed in on one of the plasma walls that connected to another cell. In the other cell lay a bed and someone resting. Continuing to close in, Ponds then jumped back from that life-form, who was supposedly resting, that suddenly popped out from under the covers. “Hey, buddy!” A joyful yet low-toned being exclaimed.

Ponds, on the floor, caught his breath and got back up. “By Coruscant! Rahr!? Is that really you?”

“Uh, I think so,” that being replied, touching his body to ensure Ponds’ claim. “Yep!”

“I knew it! I knew you wouldn’t just die like that! I knew it! But wait where’s my armor? Guns? I feel naked without them. And where the Hell are we?”

Refusing to let Patrick Rahr answer, yet another person appeared from the shadows of his cell, “You’re in the Koros-Strohna. The Yuuzhan Vong flagship.”

“Who are you?” Ponds questioned.

“His name is Cougar Stanton. He’s a real jokester!” Rahr said.

“Yeah, I don’t try to be.”

Rahr put his fins on his torso, enjoying a barrel of his own laughs after Cougar’s remark. “Cougar Stanton, huh? I’m Sector Commander Ponds, 33rd Gold Brigade of the New Republic. Nice to meet your acquaintance.”

“Likewise, I’m sure.”

“Tell Ponds why you are here, Cougar. It’s just too funny!” Rahr continued to crack up.

Ponds looked back at Rahr and then turned to Stanton. “Something tells me it’s not all that funny.”

“It’s not. I was formerly part of a Mandalorian terrorist organization known as the Death Watch. That is until a few years back we got ambushed by those savages that imprisoned us, slaughtering all of my men and women with their bare hands,” Stanton informed, coming out from the darkness from where he sat.

“I’m sorry,” Ponds emphasized, trying to distract his peripheral vision that spotted Rahr on the floor, desperately striving not to guffaw.

“Appreciated but you don’t know what it’s like being forgotten, abandoned, not even another little thought!” Once Cougar spoke the word “forgotten” he immediately approached the plasma, see-through wall that divided him and the clone commander.

“No… I do.”

Suddenly, Ponds’ attention span changed from Stanton to his cell door being remotely deactivated. Same with Rahr’s. Then even Stanton’s. “It’s gotta be a trap,” Cougar predicted.

“Only one way to find out!” Rahr yelled as he jumped from his small room to the hallway of the detention center.

Ponds did the same, unbeknownst to ignoring Stanton’s input. He turned to him once more. “Come on, Cougar! Come with us!”

Stanton sighed, “Well, okay, Commander. I’ve done some bad crimes in my past… but I’m willing to make amends for my future.”

“Let’s go my boys!” Rahr waved his arms, indicating the direction he sensed would lead them to a safer spot. Somehow undetected, all three crept to the armory to recover Ponds’ armor. Retrieving it, Ponds could smell the freshness of what it was like to be reunited with his armor, as if a piece of him was missing. “Is it me, or is it awful quiet for a flagship?” Rahr asked, using air quotes for the word flagship.

“Patrick, you’re right. Let’s just-” Stopping right in his tracks, he spotted a former brother staring them down once they entered the main hanger. Ponds’ eyes grasped into his brother’s. Not letting go of the trance, Ponds walked unhurriedly to his sibling. “Why is Scrape just standing there?” Ponds’ tone of voice sounded almost relevant to a droid, no emotion whatsoever.

“I don’t know but it’s freaking me out!” Patrick activated his minty green Jedi weapon and aimed it at the First Order major as he approached him. With not even one blink of the eye, Scrape held his two hands behind his back and patiently awaited for Ponds to also come over.

Finally breaking the silence, Scrape ordered, “Shoot me in the leg.” A chill filled the air as the moment of hesitation grew larger. “Shoot me in the leg, dammit!”

“Okay!” The pink full grown starfish happily agreed right before snatching Ponds’ blaster and shot Scrape in the leg.

“Whoa! Rahr, why?” Ponds yelled, grabbing his gun.

“Well, he told me to,” Patrick replied, looking at the wounded Scrape.

Expressing his agony, Scrape commanded, “Just get outta here! Leave!”

The sector commander exchanged glances with the Jedi master and hurried as if they were beasts aiming to capture and eventually devour their prey. A shuttle craft’s thrusters activated, causing heavy ozone layers to be produced. It zoomed out of the hanger and soon into orbit. A First Order officer quickly went up to the injured major. “Sir, are you alright?” Scrape just looked at him, pertinent to the short lived staredown he had with Ponds.