Private Sounds like a Journey.

[Aiden Porte]

Hyperspace
En Route to Kuat
Alina Grayson

The mission to Kuat carried with it the weight of both secrecy and peril. The world was no mere waypoint, it was the beating heart of the galaxy's war machine, home to the sprawling Kuat Drive Yards, a fortress-shipyard ringed around the planet like a crown of steel. Its docks and platforms stretched into orbit, birthing the warships that decided the fate of empires. Every corridor, every hangar bay, every access conduit was watched by engineers, and security droids.


The assignment was simple in words, but deadly in practice: infiltrate Kuat and rescue a Noble by the name of Jaina Kadnessi , ensure her safety and extract her from the location. Since the fall of the Alliance to the Empire. The Core Worlds were in tatters, many were fleeing the onslaught of the Empire's might. Aiden for the last few months had been conducting rescue missions deep into the heart of Imperial territory and here was another. He would have help this time, the newly Knight Jedi would be assisted by a good friend and Jedi Master Alina. He had fought with her a time or two and persuaded her to join the Republic of Naboo, now directed as the High Republic.

Recon reports had painted the picture of a labyrinth of scaffolding, thrumming with the constant roar of engines and welding torches. Shadows stretched long across the skeletal frames of half-built destroyers, where sparks rained like falling stars. No doubt the Empire would be looking to begin their conquest once more after they secured the area.

Aiden Porte sat in the pilots seat, his hand resting on his chin, he looked to be deep in thought for the past several moments. He hoped they would receive word from Jaina very soon. They couldn't afford to wait any longer. The ship he possessed had its stealth capabilities so they would be able to slip through seemingly undetected. However once they landed, it was to be a different story.

"What do you think, Alina?" Aiden inquired as his concentration broke and he looked over to her.


For the two Jedi, Kuat was not just another mission. It was a descent into the lions den where steel was forged and there was a price to be paid in blood.

 

[Alina Grayson]

Alina stood at Aiden's side in the cockpit, her gaze fixed through the transparisteel canopy as Kuat rose into view.

It was impossible to ignore. Not just the planet, but what surrounded it the endless web of shipyards, scaffolds, and drydocks forming an iron halo above the world. Colossal destroyers stretched out each surrounded by swarms of lights and movement. Sparks rained like comets from spires that pierced the stars, and the low hum of industry seemed to resonate even through the hull of their ship.

She had never been here before. And even through years of war and training, it stole her breath for a moment.

"Maker…" she murmured under her breath, the words barely audible. "It's like a forge that never sleeps."

Her attention shifted as the console blinked with an incoming transmission. Aiden pulled it up, the encryption flickering briefly before stabilizing. A voice, calm and clipped, filtered through:

"Transmitting coordinates, we can talk here."

Alina stepped forward, eyes scanning the terrain data. "It's… remote. A utility access path by the looks of it. Cargo shuttles probably use it to bypass the noble estates entirely."

She glanced toward Aiden, voice low. "Smart. If someone's trying to stay hidden, this is where they'd be."

Her fingers brushed lightly over the hilt hidden beneath her travel cloak disguised, but never far. Her armor was gone for this mission, replaced with practical clothing built for movement and silence. Even her presence in the Force was quieter, more restrained a candle in the distance, not a beacon.

"Well, lets go rescue a noble."

Aiden Porte

 

[Aiden Porte]

Aiden's hands tightened briefly on the flight controls as Kuat loomed larger in the canopy, the planet's iron halo of scaffolds and drydocks stretching farther than his eyes could track. He didn't often let himself pause—there was too much to do, too many calculations—but even he had to admit, it was awe-inspiring. Sparks rained past like distant fireworks, each one a reminder that this world never rested, never slept.

He stole a glance at Alina. She was already focused, eyes scanning the utility path data like a hawk. He admired that about her—always three steps ahead, even when the galaxy was a blur of threats and opportunity. He was glad she agreed to accompany him on this mission, she was a good friend to him.

"Quiet, clean, fast," he muttered under his breath, the mantra rolling off his tongue as naturally as breathing. The engines hummed beneath them, in sync with his pulse, a mechanical heartbeat that mirrored the planet's own. "No fireworks… unless we absolutely need them."

The ship angled toward the hidden route, slipping between the skeletal frames of destroyers under construction. Sparks glimmered past like falling stars, and Aiden could almost feel the heat radiating from the welding arms through the hull. The thought made him tighten his grip slightly—control here wasn't just important, it was survival.

"Smart. If someone's trying to stay hidden, this is where they'd be."

"Well, lets go rescue a noble."

He shot her a glance, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. "Ready?" His voice was low, calm, but steady.

He exhaled slowly, letting the tension drain for just a second. Then he let the ship slip forward, engines quieting as much as they could, hugging the shadows of massive hulls and scaffolds. Every twist of the corridor mattered. Every spark, every moving crane could be their undoing. But that only made the thrill sharper. Aiden felt the familiar rush—the mixture of danger, purpose, and the unspoken trust he had in Alina. This wasn't just a mission. This was precision in motion, a dance across the edge of chaos, and he intended to make sure they both came out of it alive.

The ship passed by without a hitch, path towards their designated landing on the planets surface.

Alina Grayson

 

[Alina Grayson]

Alina steadied herself as the ship dipped toward the planet, her hand tightening around the back of Aiden's seat when they broke through the cloud cover. The descent was swift but measured, the vessel sliding neatly into the streams of orbital traffic. Cloaked or not, moving with the current rather than apart from it made them harder to detect, and Aiden handled the maneuver with practiced ease.

As the ship leveled out, she released her grip and drew her cloak tighter around her shoulders, the fabric whispering against her armor as she turned toward the ramp. Behind her, the steady hum of the engines softened while Aiden guided the ship toward the designated landing zone.

Reaching the bulkhead, Alina braced herself with one hand against the cool metal. She waited, poised and patient, until the landing struts met the duracrete below with a muted thud. The vibration echoed faintly through the hull. Only when the engines wound down and silence settled over the cockpit did she glance back. She lingered there at the hatch, waiting for Aiden to join her before she keyed the ramp open.

 

[Aiden Porte]

The struts locked down with a final shudder, and the ship's hum bled away into silence. Aiden sat for a moment longer in the cockpit, letting his breath even out as the weight of the planet pressed in. Kuat. Even in orbit it had felt alive, thrumming like a living forge. Down here, the silence was almost louder, a deceptive calm layered over the steel bones of the Empire's greatest machine.

He powered down the last of the consoles, fingers moving with a familiarity born of repetition, and rose from the pilot's chair. The cloak at his shoulders shifted as he stood, its edge brushing against his boots. He felt the faint pulse of Alina's presence in the Force just ahead, quiet, measured, deliberately dimmed to keep her from standing out. A candlelight, careful not to burn too bright.

When he joined her at the ramp, he found her waiting, braced against the bulkhead. Their eyes met briefly, and for that instant words weren't needed. The mission was already pulling at him, danger heavy in the air, as tangible as the cold duracrete beneath the ship.

He reached to his belt, fingers grazing the hilt beneath his cloak but not gripping it. A reminder more than a readiness. His voice, when he spoke, was quiet but steady.

He gave a slight nod, more to himself than her, then gestured for her to open the ramp. As the mechanisms groaned and the first sliver of Kuat's night air seeped in, Aiden felt the shift within himself, the familiar edge between stillness and motion.

Aiden placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. She didn't have to come with him, but she did.

"Thank you again."

Whatever lay beyond that hatch, he knew one thing with certainty: they had to move as one.

Alina Grayson

 

[Alina Grayson]

Alina stood near the ramp's control panel, one hand resting lightly against the bulkhead, she keyed in the sequence to start lowering the ramp before she could start. She tilted her head slightly at Aiden's touch the squeeze was brief, but meaningful and for a moment, her expression softened.

"You do not need to thank me, I am happy to help. And likewise, helping people is important. That said you are welcome.."

The ramp descended with a shudder and a hiss, letting in the weight of Kuat's night. No birdsong., the coordinates had lead them into a rarely used hangar. She stepped down first, her boots echoing against durasteel ramp as she stepped off into the hangar. It was dark and, her hand went immediately to her lightsaber. Her senses were on high alert, but she had not yet ignited her saber, a lone figure stepping forward just a bit from the shadow.

"Apologies for the somewhat inhospitable welcome. Please follow me to Lady Kadnessi, she will explain. the situation."

Alina paused a moment, glancing back at Aiden and giving a slight shrug before turning to follow the strange man, whoever he was he did not sense a threat from him.

 

[Jaina Kadnessi]

Jaina stood in one of the hangar's secondary rooms, flanked by a pair of House guards in dark ceremonial armor. The door opened with a soft hiss, and the Seneschal stepped through his expression practiced, composed as two Jedi entered behind him. They were alert, visibly cautious, their presence calm but clearly coiled for danger if it came. She couldn't blame them. This world was teetering.

A breath slipped from Jaina's lips, subtle but genuine relief. She inclined her head in greeting, then gestured toward the seating arranged at the low table.

"Please, sit if you wish," she offered, voice relaxed but carrying a weight. Though both Jedi outranked her in station by many galactic standards, here on Kuat, her words carried the full weight of one of the Ten Houses. It created a peculiar imbalance one she neither flaunted nor ignored.

"Masters, thank you for coming," she began, her tone even, respectful. "I apologize for the circumstances of this meeting."

She gave a shallow bow, straightening as she continued.

"My name is Jaina Kadnessi, Matriarch of House Kadnessi. As I'm sure you're aware, Kuat is in turmoil. The collapse of Alliance forces in the Core has left a vacuum one that too many are eager to fill."

She paced a step, then stopped, clasping her hands in front of her.

"In response, we've been quietly rerouting those fleeing persecution or conflict across the Core to Kuat those who seek passage, shelter, or simply a way out. One such group, Jedi among them, was intercepted en route. They were trying to reach you, to join your evacuation corridor."

Her expression tightened slightly, jaw firming as she delivered the crux of it.

"We know where they are. But I cannot act directly. Sending Kadnessi forces would be seen as an act of aggression against Kuat's current provisional leadership and might ignite civil war."

She let that weight hang in the air, green eyes locked on theirs.

"I need you to retrieve them. Quietly. Discreetly. But swiftly. Because if we don't… someone else will."
​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Aiden smiled as Alina spoke, showing a small nod and look as he held much respect for her. It was then a voice called from the area.

The stranger's words echoed in the hangar, calm but clipped. "Lady Kadnessi." Aiden rolled the name in his mind. Nobility. That complicated things, though perhaps also clarified them. Nobles often had as much to lose as to gain when the Empire was involved. The trick was finding which.


"Lead the way," Aiden said at last, his tone level, measured. His gaze flicked once more to Alina before falling back to their guide. He kept his steps light, his awareness stretched outward, every nerve taut. The hangar doors sealed the night behind them, and with each step deeper into Kuat's shadows, he felt the weight of the mission settle heavier on his shoulders.

Trust would be needed. But caution, that would keep them alive.

Aiden listened without interruption, every word measured against the weight of the Force that hummed beneath it. Jaina Kadnessi stood firm, every syllable wrapped in the confidence of her House's station, but he caught the undertones, strain at the edges, maybe uncertainty.

"M'lady Kadnessi, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Jedi Knight Aiden Porte, this is Master Alina Grayson."

Aiden inclined his head slightly, his voice calm, deliberate.

"You've taken risks already. Hiding fugitives, rerouting refugees… that's no small act of defiance. I respect the choice."

His gaze sharpened as he leaned forward just enough to narrow the space between them.

"But what you're asking of us is more than recovery. A rescue without consequence to Kadnessi banners or holdings. Which means if this fails, all the blame falls on us."

He let the truth settle without malice, only clarity. Then, after a beat, he softened his tone.

"That said… those people, our people, cannot be left to vanish into Imperial hands. If you can get us what we need, routes, security rotations, even whispers of who's moving against them, we'll find them. Quietly. Swiftly. And without dragging your House into the open."

His eyes stayed locked on hers, steady, unwavering.

"But understand this, Lady Kadnessi, if the Empire is already hunting them, time isn't on our side."

Jaina Kadnessi Alina Grayson

 

[Jaina Kadnessi]

Jaina met Aiden's gaze without flinching. The title he used still felt strange, like clothes tailored for someone else, but she wore it all the same. The pressure of House, legacy, and blood ran through her like current beneath still water. And still when he said her name like that, it sounded less like flattery and more like responsibility. She preferred that.

Alina gave a slight incline of her head, the subtle formality of it belying the fire that always seemed to live behind her eyes. She didn't interrupt just observed, arms loosely folded, her white armor catching the low light of the chamber.

Jaina's expression shifted as Aiden spoke, listening with visible attention. She neither interrupted nor bristled at the edge in his tone if anything, her jaw tensed slightly as he laid out the truth of it.

"You're right," she said at last, voice quieter now but no less certain. "If this fails, it will fall on you. That was always the intent of those who arranged it this way."

She paused, letting the words land.

"But not mine."

A faint bitterness crept into the edge of her voice. "House Kadnessi is not unified. Some would see our hands tied to the throne, our futures traded for survival. The safe choice. The quiet surrender." She looked away for a moment. "Others myself included believe we cannot survive as cowards." Her gaze returned to Aiden and Alina, steadier now.

"I will not send you in blind. You'll have every document, rotation, flight corridor, and trade manifest we've managed to intercept. Their transport was last confirmed near the southern loading zone on Vallok Ridge, near the old mag-rail junctions. That's outside standard patrol zones, but there's movement there off-book, irregular."

"I won't offer you a lie for comfort. But I'll give you what I can. If you succeed, the debt is ours. Not the Alliance's. Not the Order's. Kadnessi's."

Her eyes flicked between them. "I won't forget it."

​

 

[Aiden Porte]

Aiden studied her carefully, weighing every shift of tone, every flicker in her gaze. Jaina Kadnessi did not posture like most nobles he had encountered, there was no vanity in her words, only the kind of steel forged under pressure, the kind that chose conviction over comfort. The Force confirmed what his instincts already told him: her honesty was real, even if the currents around her House were fractured.

He leaned back slightly, his posture still alert, his voice level. "Then we understand each other. I truly don't care for politics, but I do care about truth. And lives. If you give us what you've gathered, we'll find them before the Empire, or anyone else does."

His gaze softened, not pity, not sympathy, but a recognition of someone making choices under impossible weight. He reached for the datapad she slid across the table, its surface alight with coded manifests and schedules. Already his mind began assembling the route: Vallok Ridge, old rail junctions, irregular traffic. A choke point. A trap waiting to be sprung, or salvation waiting to be seized.

Aiden stood, cloak shifting as he rose. He met her eyes directly. "Your debt is your own. We'll carry the burden of this mission. But remember, if we succeed, the Republic and the Order will not forget who stood with them."

He turned slightly toward Alina, catching her watchful expression in the low light. She was ready to move. So was he.

The pieces were set. Now came the dangerous part: stepping onto the board.

 

[Alina Grayson]

Alina offered Jaina a warm smile, the kind that carried both reassurance and understanding. There was no judgment in her expression, only the quiet strength of someone who had seen the burdens others carried and chose to respect them. She gave the noblewoman a nod silent, and respectful before turning to follow Aiden out of the chamber and into the corridor..

Once the door sealed behind them and the quiet settled back in, Alina fell into step beside him, her cloak brushing lightly against her boots with each stride. The path ahead twisted toward the hangar, the subtle tension humming beneath their shared silence.

"You handled that well," she said after a a pause, her voice low but sincere. "Not just the negotiation, but her. You gave her space to speak plainly, and still reminded her of the stakes."

Her eyes flicked to the side to meet his for a moment, a small glint of approval there.

"She needed that. Someone who didn't treat her like glass or prey."

Alina looked ahead again, steps purposeful, posture calm but ready. "Now let's make sure her risk was worth it."

TAG: Aiden Porte

 

[Aiden Porte]

Her voice broke the silence, steady but softened, and Aiden let it linger in his mind as their boots carried them down the corridor. The air here was cool, carrying faint traces of oil and old steel, a reminder of how much of Kuat was built upon layers of machinery and power. He glanced sidelong at her, catching the approval in her eyes before she looked forward again. It stirred something in him, not pride exactly, but a quiet confirmation that his instincts hadn't led them astray.

"She's strong," he said finally, his tone low, meant for no ears but hers. "But strength without someone to see it can turn brittle. I've seen too many nobles wrapped in their own glass cages." His hand brushed against the fold of his cloak, fingers brushing the saber hilt beneath. "She doesn't want to be one of them. I could feel it."

They turned a corner, the faint glow of the hangar entrance spilling light ahead of them. His voice carried a faint edge of determination now.
"She's given us her trust, and her risks. That means we don't just succeed for the Order, or for the Republic. We do this for her too. For everyone who's had to fight shadows inside their own homes."


Aiden's stride didn't falter, but as they reached the hangar doors, he let a small smirk tug at the corner of his mouth. "Besides… I'd hate to prove her wrong. And did you see how she was looking at me?" Aiden inquired as he looked over to Alina. "I think she likes me." Aiden said with a smirk and a soft teasing chuckle as he tried to lighten the mood for just a moment.

The doors parted, the vessel waiting like a dark shape against the silver-lit duracrete. Their path was set, the coordinates fixed. Vallok Ridge awaited.

Alina Grayson

 

[Alina Grayson]

A soft laugh escaped her lips as they walked, her blue eyes looking back at him for a moment. "Is that what you saw? Or what you wanted to see?" she shook her head as she teased him before she looked forward again. "I am afraid you are a bit off the mark on this one. Charming though you may be, she is under incredible strain for someone so young. She was focused on preserving life and her house. Perhaps not in that order but none the less that is where her mind was."

As she passed through the hangar door she started toward the ship, her footfalls echoing in the void of the hangar as her cloak billowed behind her. "That said, she was rather impressive. If only more nobles thought and acted like her. The galaxy would be a far better place." a she started up the ramp she glanced back at him briefly, there was a softness there in her eyes that wasn't usually there.

"You don't really understand nobility until you have lived it, or been close enough to see it lived." she added quietly before turning back ahead and walking toward the cockpit.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Her laugh, light, almost playful, drew the faintest smile from him. He shook his head as she teased, but didn't interrupt, letting her voice fill the cavernous hangar. The echo of her words was softer than her steps, but they carried more weight than she gave them credit for.

At the foot of the ramp he paused, watching her cloak ripple as she ascended. Nobility. It was something he had always stood beside but never within. His life had been shaped by discipline, by service, not by the weight of a name or a crest. Yet he had seen enough to know she was right, power came with a cost most never understood, and those born into it bore chains invisible to common eyes.

When she glanced back, that softness in her gaze caught him off guard. Not weakness, never that, but a momentary opening in the armor she always wore. He met it with a steady look of his own, quiet but grounding, before following her up the ramp.

"You're right," he said once they were within the ship, his tone low, more contemplative now. "I don't understand it. Not the way you do. But I've seen what it does to people. How it shapes them, twists them… or forces them to stand straighter than they ever should have to."

He reached the cockpit, settling into the pilot's seat with practiced ease, the ship's systems flickering to life under his hands. He glanced sidelong at her, a small trace of warmth threading into his voice. "You saw her more clearly than I did. Maybe that's the difference. Where I see duty, you see the person beneath it. That's… important."

The ship lifted from the hangar with a low tremor, engines rising to a muted growl as Aiden guided her nose toward the dark horizon. Kuat's surface stretched wide beneath them, an endless patchwork of industry and wilderness, steel veins threading through black mountains and pale valleys.

Alina settled into the co-pilot's seat, cloak drawn close, her eyes scanning the glowing displays. Outside, the sky was fractured with faint orange haze where furnaces lit the night, but their course bent away from those hubs of industry. Vallok Ridge was a different world entirely, quiet, broken, a place abandoned by the shipwrights decades ago when the mag-rails had been rerouted toward newer loading zones.

The closer they drew, the darker it became. Lights grew sparse, the lattice of traffic thinning until only the occasional shuttle flickered across their scopes. Aiden leaned into the controls, flying low enough that the ridgelines broke up their silhouette, terrain masking them from orbital scans.

The ridge itself soon came into view: jagged stone rising like black teeth from the ground, streaked with pale dust and littered with the skeletal remains of old rail lines. Towering gantries stood rusted in silence, their frames twisted but still reaching upward like monuments to forgotten industry. In the valleys between, shadows pooled thick and heavy. Aiden eased the ship down toward a hollowed basin, half-hidden beneath the frame of a collapsed rail bridge. The struts extended with a muffled thud, settling them into place. He cut the engines, letting the silence settle in like a shroud.

He glanced at Alina, voice steady, but edged with the gravity of what they were about to step into. "This is it. If Jaina's intel holds, they'll be somewhere inside the junctions ahead. And if it doesn't… we'll know soon enough."

He rose from the pilot's chair, cloak falling into place as he reached for his saber, though he left it unlit. The air here felt heavier, charged, as if the ridge itself remembered the weight of what had been hidden and lost.

When he met Alina's eyes, there was no need for words. The mission had begun.

Alina Grayson

 

[Alina Grayson]

Alina remained quiet for a moment after he spoke, as they walked toward the cockpit The silence stretched for a moment, her breath steady, hands resting loosely at her sides.

“You see duty,” she said at last, her voice low but more gentle now, almost thoughtful. “Because you were shaped by it. I was too, once… though in different halls.” She turned slightly, not fully toward him, but enough to show she was listening to what he’d said.

“I may have been too sharp earlier,” she admitted, her tone quieter. “It wasn’t fair to throw that at you. I know your heart’s in the right place. Always has been.”

Her eyes softened, though there was something distant behind them now, something more personal as her thoughts drifted “When you said you don’t understand it the way I do…” She paused, a faint breath escaping her lips, barely a sigh. “It made me think of my sister.”

The name went unsaid, but the weight of it lingered. Lunara.

“She bore it with pride. Everything the nobility demanded. The posture. The silence. The sacrifices. There was a time I was jealous of her, until I saw behind the mask she wore.” A flicker of regret passed over her features, fleeting but unguarded. She didn’t let it linger long.

“But that’s not this mission.” Her voice steadied again as she met his eyes. “And it’s not yours to carry.” the finality of those words made it clear she was done talking about it.

She rose, adjusting the clasp of her cloak with a quiet motion, walking back to the ramp in silence. her silhouette briefly outlined by the glow of the ramp controls. Alina didn’t wait for a response. She stepped toward the ramp, her posture collected, centered, though the faintest smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

“Let’s go see who’s waiting for us in the dark.” her boots touched the ground with very little sound, she stretched out her senses around them, they had stopped short enough from the coordinates to not alert anyone to their intentions. "This way, I sense fear. Not something you would be looking for in an abandoned area." she started off toward the direction, waiting briefly for him to catch up. As the stepped lightly up a hill when their vision crested it, the could see what looked like a hangar similar to the one they had left earlier with armed guards outside. "So much for subtlety" she mused idly. "What do you think?" blue eyes met his as she waited for his assessment.