Private Echoes in the Forest | The Jedi Order

[Aiden Porte]

Sven Halestorm​

Aiden moved fast, every motion deliberate, the Force alive in his veins. The corridor ahead split with the hiss of his saber, metal glowing red-hot before giving way. He didn't look back, he didn't need to. He could feel Sven behind him, the survivors between them, their fear balanced by the steady rhythm of trust.

Blasterfire cracked through the dark. Aiden deflected the first shot, then another, sending red bolts ricocheting into the walls. "Keep moving!" he called, his voice sharp but controlled. The Togruta stumbled; he caught her arm, guiding her forward before stepping into another swing, blade sweeping clean through a trooper's rifle.

Smoke filled the air. The scent of ozone and rain mingled as he looked toward the hangar's faint light ahead. "We are there, I will clear the area above. Once we are through lead them through the back out of here and towards our vessel.," he muttered, breath steady.

And before the words had finished leaving his mouth, he was already turning back toward the storm.

 

[Sven Halestorm]

Push Through

Tags: Aiden Porte​

Sven felt the shift the moment Aiden surged ahead, like a ripple through the Force, sharp and bright, determination cutting through the fog as cleanly as his saber cut through steel. But with it came something else. A familiar pattern. A dangerous one.

He stepped forward immediately, blade rising in a calm, disciplined arc as a fresh volley of blasterfire hissed toward the survivors. His movements were precise, almost gentle in contrast to the chaos, redirecting bolts past frightened faces, catching another on the return swing before guiding the group around him like a river finding its path around stone.

“Aiden, wait.”

His voice carried, firm but not harsh, cutting through the clash of blasterfire and alarms. Sven deflected another shot, the impact vibrating down his arms like distant thunder.

“You’re not going alone.”

He strode forward, the blue glow of his saber painting soft halos across the corridor walls as he stepped into the space Aiden had rushed toward. The hangar light flickered ahead, hazy, pale, promising open ground but also exposed danger.

Sven angled his blade to his side, stance strong and centered. The storm outside wailed against the open bay doors, rain-driven wind howling through the metal gaps. He caught Aiden’s silhouette rising toward the upper platforms.

“I’ll take the high flank,” Sven continued, already moving to intercept. His voice lowered so only Aiden and the Force would catch the vow beneath it. “No more sacrifice plays. Not today.”

A trooper rounded the corner; Sven’s saber flashed once, clean and quiet, sending the man sprawling. Behind him, the survivors pressed closer, braver now beneath the shield the Jedi formed around them.

“You lead them out,” Sven said, meeting Aiden’s eye across the distance, rain-slick wind tugging at both their cloaks. “But not without me. We finish this together.”

He lifted his saber in a salute that was half humor, half challenge, wholly steadfast.

“Now go. I’ll clear the rafters. Anyone foolish enough to stand in your path will answer to me.”

With that, Sven surged upward into the rising storm, a streak of blue cutting through shadow, ready to make sure no Imperials threatened Aiden’s push, or the lives entrusted to them.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Sven Halestorm​

Aiden's pulse thrummed in rhythm with the hum of his saber as Sven's voice reached him through the storm. He didn't slow, just enough of a turn to catch his friend's eyes through the haze.

The Force pressed around him, thick with danger and clarity both. He could feel the Imperials converging, the panic behind them, the hope ahead.

"You're right," he said, voice sharp but laced with a solid steel of trust. "Stay close."

He pivoted, cutting through a low beam as blasterfire sparked against the walls. The hangar opened before him in flashes of light and motion, rain sweeping in from the storm, ships half-buried under scaffolds.

Aiden moved first, deflecting two bolts, clearing the path for the survivors as Sven's blade ignited behind him like a second sun.

"Together, then," he muttered, settling into stance. "Let's end this."

Aiden felt it before he saw it, that spark and shift. The exact moment when fear stopped swallowing them and something fiercer took its place.

He turned just as one of the rescued civilians, an older engineer with shaking hands and blood on his collar, knelt beside a fallen trooper. The man hesitated only a heartbeat before pulling the E-11 blaster free. Another survivor followed. Then a third. It wasn't panic, desperation, but resolve.

Aiden's breath caught, not in alarm, but in something deeper, something that struck him squarely in the center of his chest. The Force resonated with it, like embers waking into flame.

He watched the engineer stand, back straighten, shoulders set. The man's fear had not vanished, Aiden could still feel it, sharp around the edges, but courage now wrapped around it like armor. A young Twi'lek girl followed suit, lifting a rifle far too big for her arms, jaw set with a determination that had nothing to do with skill and everything to do with refusing to fall again.

Aiden stepped toward them, saber angled low, his voice steady but warm.

"You don't have to fight," he said, but even as he spoke, he realized the truth. They already had., they had been fighting from the moment they survived the crash. From the moment they held each other together. From the moment they refused to break.

The older man met his eyes, fear replaced by something brighter. "Master Jedi… we're not hiding again."

Aiden nodded once, a slow, solemn acknowledgment of courage earned the hard way.

"Very well," he said quietly. "If you stand with us, you stand together. No one breaks formation. No one runs alone."

He raised his saber, its blue light reflecting off their determined faces.

"You survived the Empire once," he said, voice rising just enough for all of them to hear. "Now let's make sure you walk out of this place as free citizens, not prisoners."

 

[Sven Halestorm]

INTO THE NIGHT

Tags: Aiden Porte​

Sven felt the moment shift.

Not through sight, nor sound, but through the quiet pulse of the Force,

a tremor of courage awakening in those who had known only fear.

A spark catching.

A flame refusing to die.

He came to stand beside Aiden, blade angled in a ready guard as the survivors took up the weapons of their captors. Not out of vengeance. Not out of rage.

Out of choice.

He looked at them, truly looked, and what he saw lifted something inside him he had not realized had grown heavy.

“Then we walk together,” Sven said, his voice soft but resonant, reaching each exhausted soul. “And together, we leave this darkness behind.”

The storm outside roared through the broken hangar doors, rain sweeping in sheets across the durasteel floor. The hangar’s emergency lighting flickered fitfully, casting long shadows that danced across crates and half-disassembled shuttles. Troopers were converging on their position; he could sense them tightening formations, trying to reclaim control of a situation that had slipped from their grasp.

Too late.

Aiden moved first, guiding the group forward. Sven stepped into position at the rear, his saber a steady halo of blue light guarding their path. The survivors formed a tight column between them, frightened, yes, but walking now with purpose, with fire.

Blaster bolts erupted from the upper catwalk.

Sven pivoted, sweeping his saber upward in a clean, effortless arc.

One bolt, two, then three more, each deflected harmlessly into wall or ceiling.

His voice carried through the din, calm as a temple bell.

“Keep moving! The path is open, do not stop!”

Ahead, past the scaffolding and service platforms, their ship waited, its silhouette like a promise forged in steel. The boarding ramp hissed open as they approached, the vessel’s engines warming with a rising hum that vibrated through their boots.

Aiden reached the ramp first, guiding the front ranks aboard. Sven dropped back, covering the last of the survivors as they scrambled up the incline.

A trooper lunged from the shadows

Sven turned, blade flashing once, clean and decisive.

The soldier fell, harmlessly disarmed.

“No more,” Sven murmured, stepping onto the ramp backward.

“No more prisoners. No more fear.”

When the last of them was aboard, he tapped the panel beside the hatch. The ramp began to rise, sealing the storm outside. The roar of blasterfire dulled to a distant thud as the metal doors locked into place.

Inside, the survivors collapsed into seats or onto the deck, breathless, shaking, but alive.

For a long moment, they simply breathed,

present, alive, anchored in the Force and in each other’s certainty.

Sven’s voice came quiet, almost reflective.

“They did more than survive,” he said, glancing at the engineer still gripping his rifle as though it were a lifeline. “They reclaimed themselves.”

He rested a hand on Aiden’s shoulder, steady, warm, filled with a simple pride that needed no embellishment.

“Set our course,” Sven said gently. “Let’s take them home.”

Outside, the storm raged on.

Inside, the engines thrummed, lifting them from the broken hangar floor.

As the ship rose into the rain-filled sky, leaving the outpost and its darkness behind, the Force settled around them like a breath finally released.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Sven Halestorm​

"They did reclaim themselves," Aiden agreed. "But only because someone showed them the light still existed."

He inclined his head toward Sven, respect, gratitude, the quiet acknowledgment shared only by those who had stood in darkness together and refused to yield. "Thank you, for everything."

"Let's get them home," Aiden said, stepping into the cockpit as the ship broke free of the storm clouds, "They've earned a dawn after all this."

He set the coordinates with steady hands, feeling the survivors' presence behind him, sensing the ship filling with something brighter than relief. As the stars stretched into lines and the vessel leapt to hyperspace, Aiden allowed himself a final exhale, slow, deep, certain.

"They survived the night," he whispered to the blue swirl before them. "And now, they'll see morning."

-End Thread-​