It took the small shuttle nearly six hours at sublight speeds to reach a point where it could jump to hyperspace. Raezyr was so bored, he was half tempted to scrap the plan, dump the shuttle, and just swoop in to Altax IV, vaping the entire monastery.
Instead, he kicked back in the pilot's chair and threw his legs up on the console, and amused himself by asking Aitchkay dumb questions. A human would have long ago stopped answering him, realizing that he was only making fun of them, but droids were programmed to serve their masters.
"So, how come you don't have any little Aitchkay's running around?" Raezyr asked, watching Trychon's small shuttle through the cockpit windows.
"I beg your pardon, master? Am I to understand you are inquiring as to the possibility of me procreating?" the droid said in his synthesized voice.
"Sure... you know how it goes, droid meets droidette, they fall in... what ever a droid would fall in, then get together and literally pump out a few new models... it's a story as old as time," Raezyr said, trying to keep from snickering.
"Frankly, Master, I don't believe droids do that sort of thing, at least not to my knowledge. As for me, I am at my most content state when fulfilling my programming, which of course, consists of..."
"Shut up, Aitchkay," Raezyr interrupted, as the comm crackled to life and Trychon's voice came from the speakers.
"Okay, finally ready to jump to hyperspace. I'm feeding my speed and coordinates to the rendezvous location to you and the Stalker," Trychon said.
"Receiving the data now... Ready on your mark," Raezyr replied.
Trychon counted down and in a flash, all three ships slipped the boundaries of light, with nothing to mark their passing but the remains of a ship owner who, but a few hours ago, had hoped to make enough on a sale that he could send his son to the University on Coruscant.
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The trip took several days longer than it would have normally, as they only traveled at the speed the shuttle could manage. Raezyr felt bad for Trychon, sitting alone in the shuttle for a week. Of course, I don't have it much better, with only a droid for conversation, he thought to himself.
They spent the time much the same way, in meditation and study of their tomes. Raezyr had the room to practice lightsaber sequences, and was tempted to access Lord Var's holocron, despite the fact that they had agreed not to do so while separated.
Still, the agreement hadn't extended to the other holocrons, and he played with them for a time, but with no success. He would have thought they weren't even working, except for the fact that he could feel the Dark Side energy within them. Better this way. Trych would be pretty mad anyway, he thought.
Finally the time approached and the three ships exited nearly simultaneously out of super-luminal speed, and into the outer edges of the Bermatrix System.
They picked an outlying planetoid and parked the ships into orbit around it, docking both the Razor and the newly acquired Monk's Star with the Stalker. There they transferred what they might need back and forth between the the ships, while they waited for the appropriate time to make their "landing" on Altax 4.
Vikon had given them the precise coordinates and time of day they were to enter the atmosphere. They weren't sure why it was important, but he seemed to think it was so they waited, and rested until the time came.
Having made the proper, or improper adjustments, Raezyr and Trychon gave orders to Aitchkay to shut down and plug in aboard the Twilight Stalker and then boarded the shuttle, leaving the Razor still docked.
They could see the line separating night from day almost near the location they were to land as they approached the green and blue planet. "You ready for this? Strap in because it's going to be rough."
Trychon double checked the straps holding him in the co-pilot's chair and gripped the arm rests as tightly as he could. Even with his limited flying skills, he could tell they were coming in too steeply, but according to plan.
Raezyr reached forward and flipped several switches as they neared the planet's atmosphere, and the shuttle suddenly lurched as it's engines began squealing at an alarming pitch. The ship began to shake, and Raezyr gripped the steering yoke tightly in both hands after switching the comm to an emergency frequency.
"Mayday, Mayday! Can anyone read me? This is the Monk's Star, we are going down, I repeat we are going down!" Raezyr yelled over the rattling, vibrations and violent screeching.
Trychon was sure they were going to fly apart. He could feel the temperature rise as flames began to appear in the transparisteel canopy in front of them.
On the surface, a lone figure looked up his meditations in the monastery gardens and watched as a fireball streaked across the early morning sky. His eyes followed the fireball as it descended rapidly and plowed into the forest just a few kilometers away.
Quickly he gathered his blue robes and ran to wake his brothers. If anyone survived that crash, they would need medical attention, and quickly.
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