Captain Ash
Aeshi swiveled back and forth in her captain's chair, watching the blue clouds of hyperspace swirl past the viewport of the Requiem's bridge. It was a small bridge, for the most part- just two seats for the captain and first mate, and a bulky array of extra consoles whose flashing lights lit up the bridge, plus the additional components bolted on around the sides when she refitted the old vessel.
"No, I don't know if I'd go that far," Aeshi replied, glancing over her shoulder at the Imyni sitting in the co-pilot's seat. "Kark, marry, kill doesn't seem like it applies to droids. It doesn't really work, you know?"
A flash of danger caught her attention and she froze for a heartbeat until an alarm blared from one of the aftermarket addons. She locked her seat forward and closed her eyes for a moment.
"That's impossible-" Aeshi said, staring at the readout, before yanking back on the hyperdrive. The ship shuddered and squealed at the sudden deceleration. The safety straps bit into her shoulders and her co-pilot got flung from his seat, squawking as his feathers fluttered everywhere.
The ship came to a sudden stop and silence draped over the bridge of the small freighter.
"What the Force-" Aeshi said- staring at the sight ahead of her. She double-checked between the hyperspace charts and the space ahead of her. The star-charts indicated these coordinates were empty. But she was clearly in a star system.
A single, yellow star shone up ahead, the gravity well that dragged her out of hyperspace, surrounded by more planetary-looking features than she could count.
"Checking channels-" Aeshi said, running the diagnostic checks on the scans before staring out again, cycling through the communications channels. "There's nothing?"
But there were engine emissions, albeit they appeared to be chemical exhaust rather than those she was familiar with. There was one though- somewhere way off at the system's edge, actually behind her. She stared at it. "Twin ion engines? Here?"
Then the missile lock computers blared and she had to jam the sublight all the way forward and thumb the shield. It was too late, though- the missiles slammed against her ship, sending the metal screeching and buckling under the impact. Radiation alarms sounded on the hull.
Aeshi looked up in surprise. Radiation? She checked to make sure she was still intact. She was. Her ship... less so.
"That was a fission weapon?" Aeshi stared at her co-pilot in confusion. The radiation and initial impact had buckled the shields and she was reading hull cracks beginning to leak oxygen. "From a TIE?"
She refocused her attention on the consoles that were flashing at her. "We need to get planet-side," Aeshi said, powering down the unnecessary systems. "Suit up in vacsuit, it might get chilly." After a moment's pause, she considered and redirected power to the comm system.
What sort of message could she send? And to whom? Defiance Nova would have to be one. Get in touch with the Underground and ORION. There was only the spare power for one tight beam, long-distance message. Aeshi keyed in the code- let the listening post get the initial message and get the message spread out.
Requiem- Mayday. Following Coordinates. Archaic fission weapons and TIE emissions detected. System uncharted. Hull breached. Requesting assistance.
That was the best she could do for now. Sealing her helmet, she magnified the different planetary bodies until she spotted one that looked like it had large bodies of water. There were sensor readings of intrasystem vessels but no evidence of hyperdrive signatures. The wounded freighter limped forward. Some of those archaic weapons were armed, though- so at least some were military vessels. Was this a genuine first-contact situation? Her mind raced at the possibility. Aeshi couldn't even remember ever seeing any record of that for centuries. And from what she could see, she was counting close to a half dozen mid-sized planets with evidence of inhabitation.
But what was the first contact protocol? She had no idea. It was something she had never even considered in the past. Better to play it safe rather than sorry. She adjusted the course towards the outermost planet, with the sparsest sign of inhabitation. "See if you can reconfigure the comms to track down old style radio comms," Aeshi said after a moment. "We might be able to pick something up."
The ship limped along slowly for hours, Aeshi adjusting the controls to skirt wide of any potential ship connections. The ship's power was getting low as she finally began falling toward the surface at a gradual enough angle not to burn up on re-entry, although the landing gear bent as the freighter slammed into the ground on an isolated archipelago shaded with some trees, and what looked like long-abandoned wooden shipyards.
The atmosphere was breathable and gravity was slightly below standard, enough for her to lower the ramp and sit down at the base of the ramp.
First contact with a new, unknown system inhabited by intelligence species, and she was stuck on an island. Hopefully, rescue wouldn't take too long and she could take the information back to the League and let the political types figure it out.
