Kaneq

Prologue

"Mayday, mayday, mayday! Red Harvest, do you copy? I'm in need of immediate assistance!"

'Communications are down. Reactors are down. Ion engines are down.' he muttered to himself.

Qaa'hhl's fingers were frantically pressing the buttons placed on the control panel in front of him. No matter how many times or how hard he pushed them, he got no response. The constant cry of the alarm seemed to be the only function on his ship still working. The red light kept flashing on and off, accompanying this cacophony of loud, insufferable noises. The pilot's breathing got heavier. The closer he was getting to the planet's terrain, the more pieces began burning off his starship. Chunks of metal plates detaching themselves from the ship's main body and flying by behind him. The backside of the cockpit was aflame. More than half of his left wing had been destroyed.

Then suddenly, the heat being emitted from the burning electronics did not trouble him anymore. It felt as if the warm air of Jakku's desert was softly blowing against the back of his neck. And the alarm, it had ceased bothering him. It was loud no more. To him, it sounded like a low, humming song, echoing inside his helmet. The red light flashing around him now reminded him of the twin suns of Tatooine as they set, sinking themselves beneath the planet's horizon, slowly yet steadily, one after the other. Soon, he would sink too, he realised. Qaa'hhl Lyconn took a deep breath and accepted the fate that was already written for him.

Looking through the cracked viewport of his spacecraft, the landscape of Odacer-Faustin gradually revealed itself. It was all white. Endless, vast plains covered by white snow. But as he was approaching closer to it, he began spotting small black blemishes of dark, rocky stone, protruding from the ground like jagged spears. They were the tips of ancient, arrogant mountains and hills that defied the cold reign of the snow, somehow remaining uncovered by its thick, white veil. Not a bad place to die, the experienced pilot thought, yet by no means the planet he had planned to call his final resting place. Well, things didn't always go as planned.

A long sigh escaped the human's lips, he couldn't hold it back any longer.

This is the end.

"Long live the Empire."