Corruck Kazen
Time is the Essence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCQ53pWxDcE
It has been awhile. Scratching his slightly grown beard, Corruck thought. He had been off about business that he was sure he would have to explain to his comrades. They had probably been worried about his disappearance. He didn't flatter himself that they had been lost without him. They had probably accomplished much while he was gone.At the time he had needed time to clear his head. The Rebels had decided to join the Republic and he had needed time to think about that. Nothing wrong with that most definitely, but he had not been sure what to think. He had never been a staunch supporter of the Republic, though he had never been against it either. He had not been sure if would have stayed. He had contemplated just running away, running from it all and setting himself up on a planet in the far unknown regions of space. That would have been betraying of those he had fought alongside though. And always his arm reminded him of what it had cost to come so far. He was a changed man from when he had first joined. Not by much maybe, but he had changed.
He did not know if it was for better or worse, but he knew that he could not just leave. Not without leaving some of himself behind. One of the main reasons he had been alright with joining the Republic had been the fact he had later learned, Matchbox was now leader. Chancellor was probably the right word, but Corruck was not one for those fancy titles. Benefactor had been almost too grandiose a name in his mind.
There had been other reasons for leaving of course, but most of them had been dealt with on his travels away. One problem still worried him, but he had found too little to be able to solve the problem. He hoped that it would be alright, but he did not like the idea of a rogue AI in the galaxy. Especially when it was intended for war. But he didn't concern himself with that right now. He had enough to work on to try and track down the droid hopefully. He had to focus on his arrival. He expected to be bombarded with questions, probably get in trouble for being away without leave.
Corruck would not have blamed them. He felt something like a traitor for running when there the going got rough. He was upset with himself, while still being glad that he had taken a breather. He felt horrible still, abandoning his allies and friends without so much as a notice, just up and left. That was poor manners, impolite, and definitely not professional. Especially after all they had been through together. Battles, diseases, defeats, victories, and everything between. He knew he should have left, he looked forward to apologizing.... and seeing the Recalcitrant again.
He had grown accustomed to the old Z-95 that he had picked up after leaving, buying it from a spaceport that had upgraded to newer craft and had been selling the older ones. It had not had everything he would have wanted in a ship, but it had become like home to him, if a really needy one, it broke down quite often. He was fortunate to not have it stop working in the midst of a flight, though most of its problems seemed to be related to leaving and entering planetary atmospheres. Not very good at handling the stresses was his guess.
He was glad to see Praesitlyn again. He idly wondered if it were still a Rebel base. When he had left there had been a lot of turbulence with a rival power nearby trying to take them out. He remembered the battle of Geonosis. That had not been pretty. More potently he remembered the battle on Makeb. The memories were still fresh and painful. The tortures under Dredge. He had overcome the damage that monster had done, repairing his mental sanity. The physical had been slower, he still had the arm that Armand had made him. Though it was now stained brown and green, something of a signature he had picked up during his time away.
He had come to grooming his hair in order to hide the half of his face which had been burned. Most people found it revolting and he generally agreed. Shaving became a bit more difficult, the only good thing was that her felt no pain on that side. The sound of a plasma torch still made him wince, he was lucky he had taken it so far down. Originally he couldn't have stood the sound, often he would run or become violent. When he could he would have ear plugs on when he went through engineering areas or droid works. Fire did it sometimes to, just seeing it was enough to give him trouble, but for the most part he had that under control.
He brought his fighter down towards the planet, slowly changing frequency of the comm until it reached the one he remembered the Rebels using. He stopped and turned his fighter into an orbit pattern. This was his last chance, if he spoke now he could never turn back. Once he came back in, he would have to answer for his crimes. You deserve it. You never told them everything, yet you often judged them. Time to pay the price for your own shortcomings. He told himself as he opened the comm and spoke over it.
He didn't look directly at the comm, instead focusing on the console of the Z-95, he didn't think he could handle seeing their faces again. "This is... Nemesis calling Rebel ground base. Do you read me ground base?"