Kissed by Fire: Cal Kestis

Chapter 4

As soon as Greez left hyperspace, the first thing all of them saw was a massive hurricane winding over the planet of Zeffo. It stretched far across the atmosphere, Y/n standing up from her seat to peer over Cal's shoulder as she got a better look at the view.

"Heck of a storm brewing down there," Greez commented as he fidgeted with the console. Passing a glance to Cal, he continued. "This might not be the best time to land."

"Something strange," Cere began, listening closely to the headset in her ear. "Those winds are interfering with our comms."

"Hey, Cordova mentioned something about peace in the eye of the storm? Well, I can just make out a settlement in the middle of it," Cal spoke up from the scanners.

"Then we have to get there," Cere insisted.

"It's definitely worth a shot," Y/n shrugged from her place behind Cal.

Greez grumbled out, "Copy that," hesitant on sending his ship deep into the massive storm. "Y/n, you might wanna take a seat for this."

The doctor sat down, saying, "Don't have to tell me twice." She clipped her blaster to her belt, finishing up rewiring the grappling hook on her gun.

When they entered the atmosphere, immediately the crew of the Mantis felt the shock of the storm hitting them. The wind bumped against the ship, creating turbulence as Greez maneuvered through the tunnels of wind that he could. They came closer and closer to the eye of the storm, finding themselves surrounded by snow covered mountains and winding rivers. One particular lurch in the Mantis' path cause Cal to let out a nervous breath, holding on to the armrest of his seat. Greez scoffed slightly, glancing at the boy when he spoke.

"Couple of bumps ain't gonna kill ya, kid." He laughed with gritted teeth before muttering to himself, "Unless the wind picks up."

Beep beep bo-beep! BD-1 trilled from his place on the dashboard, looking over at Greez with an accusatory stance.

Greez did nothing to acknowledge the droid except say to Cal, "Can you tell that bucket of bolts to keep his opinion to himself?"

"I'm sure everything is under control," Cere attempted to calm Greez's grumbly demeanor.

"Course it's under control, it's just a little tricky," Greez sniped back, his hands gripping the steering console tightly. He made a tight turn, putting the Mantis into landing mode once he spotted a landing platform where he could safely keep the ship. The rain and winds battered down onto the windshield, Y/n wincing at the sight. "Okay. Hold on, hold on, hold on!" he let out, pushing down the switch as the Mantis finally touched ground with a loud thump to the floor. Cal gripped his chair, looking back at Y/n with a disbelieving grin when Greez laughed, "Ha! Perfect landin, heh. Greezy money, baby."

"But I'm still getting a lot of interference on the comms," Cere broke though his joyful moment. "It's gonna take me a minute to get them back up."

Cal shrugged, letting BD-1 onto his arm as he stood and said, "I'll search for signs of Cordova in the meantime."

"Cal," Y/n called him as she stood, gaining his attention with a quirk of his brow. "I'll come with you."

"Y/n, no. We don't know what's out there-"

"Which is exactly the reason why you should let me come," Y/n argued back. He sighed, putting his hands on his hips as she said, "With the comms down, we aren't going to have any communication with you until Cere can get them back up. It's safer to go out there in a pair instead of alone and risk you getting injured, or worse."

Cal stared at her, debating in his head whether this was a good idea. She raised her eyebrows at him, waiting for an answer, until he closed his eyes and said, "Alright. You've... got a point. Let's go."