Lexa's crew were gathered on the main deck, a tide of sceptical frowns and reserved concern as they listened to the blonde woman's speech. 

"You thought you could help her before and look how that ended," Cal recalled, arms crossed across a broad chest. "Why will this be any different?"

There was no denying that Clarke's initial attempts had failed miserably, but she had been misguided in her effort. This time she knew what had to be done. They were now a week behind the Jedi and no closer to locating her or the elusive holocron's. The crew were understandably reluctant to put their lives on the line without substantial results.  

"You've been lucky so far," Sharr chimed in, "but this might get you killed along with the rest of us."

A murmur of agreement rippled through the group who were well aware of the danger posed by the dark Jedi. It was near impossible to predict her intent or feelings towards those who had once been her friends. There was no guarantee that she held any regard for their lives, not anymore.  

"You'll just have to trust me on this," Clarke urged, frustrated that she was unable to voice the absolute faith in her heart that this would work. "I can do this, preferably with your help."

Lexa had chosen her crew with delicate accuracy, making optimisation of resources the first priority. Each individual possessed unique skills that complemented each of their colleagues, allowing for the maximum efficiency possible. 

Battle prowess, intellectual excellence, and technological genius made these people an exceptional team. Clarke would feel a lot safer in her mission knowing that they supported her efforts. 

"We can't just stand by and do nothing! We're only here today because of her," Bekk noted, addressing the gathering with his gruff tone. "If the Commander needs our help then we will not abandon her."

A wave of nods began to surge through the crew members, each reminded of the fateful day that the Jedi had swept into their lives and provided a future that they could be proud of. She had not only chosen a crew that was smart and battle hardened, but unwaveringly loyal. Treating them with respect and kindness had gone a long way to securing their trust and friendship. 

"Then it's settled," Cal confirmed, turning away from his colleagues to address the blonde smuggler. "You have our full support."

Clarke smiled broadly at the crew, quietly relieved that they had agreed to help her. The task would have been exceedingly more challenging without them. 

"Then prepare the ship for departure, there's no time to lose."

Bellamy leant against the wall as he watched the crew scuttle into action, peeling away in different directions to carry out their assigned duties. He was impressed by their perseverance. Personally, he would have given up hope of the Jedi's recovery a long ago. In fact, he had. 

His presence thus far had been to ensure Clarke's safety and he had succeeded for the most part. Now it was time to leave. The blonde woman turned to him expectantly, but she soon recognised the apologetic glint in the brown eyes. 

"Thank you, for everything you've done," she stated quietly, sad to learn of her friends departure but forever grateful for his help. "We couldn't have done it without you."

"I think you'd have managed just fine," Bellamy replied with a brief smile, sweeping forwards to pull his old friend into a tight embrace. 

"Look after everyone," the woman whispered against his shoulder, a twinge of sadness in her chest that she hadn't been able to reunite with her old smuggling companions. "Maybe one day I'll come and find you all again."

"You'd better," the dark haired smuggler replied, loosening his grip before he could change his mind. "But this time over a drink in a cantina, no more Sith battles please."

Clarke grinned and slapped him heartily on the arm. "You wouldn't have it any other way."

The ship would be ready to depart in a matter of moments. There wasn't any time to waste. Bellamy's fellow smugglers would be waiting for his return and his sister would undoubtedly be pissed that he was taking so long. 

He nodded meaningfully at his old friend, a silent promise that this wouldn't be the last time they spoke. 

"I know how much the Jedi means to you," he said as the blonde escorted him to the ramp. "I hope you can save her. You brought out the best in each other."

Clarke bit her lip and nodded, unwilling to speak for fear of ruining her confident composure. "Thank you."

A shrill voice chirped over the intercom to relay the ships readiness to depart. It was time for the friends to go their separate ways. 

Bellamy turned to leave, but a sudden reminder sparked to life before he could fully descend the ramp and hurried back onto the ship, much to Clarke's surprise as he swept straight past her towards the bunks. 

Nova, the onboard droid, watched the smuggler's return with a discontented whir, having silently bid farewell to the irritating man for good. "The exit is behind you."

His words seemed to fall on deaf ears as the smuggler rifled through drawers before darting back out of the room, only pausing for a brief moment to fix the droid with a scathing stare. 

"Always a pleasure NOVA," he lied, at the very least pleased to be leaving the abhorrent droid behind. 

"Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for you," NOVA whirred, tracking the despicable human's movements back towards the exit and hoped it would be the last they saw of him. 

Clarke raised an eyebrow as she observed the far from tender farewell, fixing the smuggler with a questioning stare when he finally returned. 

"Here, I retrieved it from the ship when you left," Bellamy explained, extending a wrapped object towards her with steady hands. "I thought you might want it."

Brief confusion clouded the girls face as she claimed the offered item, gently unfolding the surrounding material to reveal a lightsabre nestled within. Emotion swelled in Clarke's chest as she gently rotated the weapon in her grip, carefully securing the material around it once more when she glanced up gratefully at her friend. 

"Good luck," Bellamy said with finality, jogging down the exit ramp before he could be mistakenly taken along for the ride. He'd had quite enough of Sith dealings and dark encounters to last him an eternity. His people needed him, but he wished nothing but the best for his friend. 

Clarke was left clutching the weapon reverently, lifting one hand in a brief wave before the metal ramp rose to block her view.  She gazed down at the Jedi's weapon with quiet remembrance as the ships engines roared to life, overwhelmed by the enormity of the task that lay before her. 

"The Commander will be pleased to have her sabre returned," NOVA chirped, focusing his yellow eyes on the quiet woman, his spirits far brighter now the intruding smuggler had departed. The crew was almost fully restored, all but one member was accounted for and he was confident that Clarke held the key to her return. 

"How are the odds looking of tracing her ship?" Clarke asked tentatively, letting the covered weapon fall to her side as she addressed the droid. Part of her would rather not know, but she couldn't avoid the inevitable truth. 

NOVA seemed to freeze momentarily, his eyes glowing with enhanced luminescence as the calculations were computed at a speed faster than Clarke could comprehend. 

All of a sudden his head tilted to one side, the jarring movement startling the blonde. "If my calculations are correct then you stand a 3.5% chance of successfully predicting the Jedi's destination from retrieved data."

Despair settled over Clarke, heavy and foreboding as she struggled to comprehend the low figure. It wasn't impossible, just highly unlikely. She had beaten worse odds before, just about. 

"That is, unless you utilise Republic intel and increase your odds to 64.8%," the droid proclaimed in the silence that followed, drawing a narrowed gaze from the blonde. 

"What Republic intel?"

A voice drifted over the intercom before she could interrogate the droid further. "Clarke, we have a Republic transmission incoming. Any idea what they might want?"

Clarke smiled at the droid who was whirring pleasantly at his vital contribution. Lexa hadn't only given her choice of crewmates careful consideration, but also the droid accompanying her ship. Original thought, creativity and curiosity were defining features of the G3E model and Clarke had never appreciated a mechanical being more than in that moment. 

"Good work," she called to droid, already jogging towards the stairs to accept the transmission. She would take any advantage that presented itself and the Republic was one hell of a resource. 

NOVA whirred happily to himself, pleased by his forward thinking. The Republic would have access to information restricted to any outside forces and overcoming the security would be a waste of valuable time. Contacting them had been simple enough, interacting with the sophisticated technology to present an urgent message to the highest ranking officials. 

The Commander would be proud of his contributions. He would make sure to tell her when she returned. 

==========================================================================

Four painful hours passed as the sharpest minds worked to plot the Jedi's course of travel, first identifying the vessel and proceeding to calculate its projection from Alderaan and beyond. No easy task by any means, not when the Jedi had been so careful in covering her tracks. 

Clarke waited impatiently for the moment it all came together in a neat report, not even attempting to understand the complex calculations that Toril repeatedly plugged into the main console, pressing fingers to his temples as he observed the rolling text on the monitor. 

After several restarts and countless complications, they finally had coordinates to guide them.

"You're sure this will work?" Clarke questioned the young man, resting one arm over the back of his seat, squinting blindly at the display. Whatever was held on the flickering screen conveyed no meaning to the girl.

"I think so?" Toril said hesitantly, scrutinising the work one final time as Clarke sighed heavily. 

"If that's all we've got to go on, then we're going to have to trust it," she said, having hoped for more reassurance that this wouldn't be a waste of time. 

Toril shook his head sharply. "No, I'm pretty sure this is correct."

It would have to be. He swiftly transferred the coordinates to the main system to be inputted into the navigation device, but Sharr's sharp inhale of breath was apparent when she caught site of the data. 

Clarke strode to the central controls where Sharr was perched to pilot the ship, a frown creasing her brow to witness the dismayed expression. 

"What's wrong?"

"These coordinates," Sharr intoned, peering closely at the display in case she had misread the data. "They originate within the Unknown Territory."

A shared sense of unease drifted through the three crew members at the notion, aware of the regions deadly reputation. 

As the name suggested, these regions were vastly unexplored, home to unidentified planets, creatures, and habitats that were responsible for countless deaths throughout history. Some organisations undoubtedly took advantage of the hostile environments to hide their lawless activity, setting up bases and hideouts in the distant region where they would be far from any lawful repercussions. 

In short, it was not a safe place to be at any time, least of all when there was a dark Jedi roaming the expansive territory. The mission was becoming more foreboding with every strike of bad luck that arose, forcing the crew to reconsider the sanity of their plan. 

"Well, this is going to be interesting," Sharr said weakly, punching in the coordinates and preparing the ship for hyperspace travel. "What could go wrong?"

Toril paled slightly and slumped back in his seat, unable to ignore the unyielding sense of defeat that was already beginning to grow before they had even begun their journey. This was not going to be a simple mission, not by a long shot. 

=======================================================================

Three long days of hyperspace travel dragged by agonisingly, with very little to do but mentally prepare as the crew approached their destination. Clarke had paced the ship a dozen times, carefully avoiding the Commander's chambers that only harboured painful memories and an unsettling emptiness. Finally, she opted for passing the time with much needed sleep. 

She was blissfully enveloped within the relaxed state when a sudden jolt returned her to reality, her eyes flying open when she was nearly thrown from her bed when the world tipped alarmingly. 

"What the hell?" she muttered to herself, blinking away blurry vision as she jumped from the top bunk, narrowly avoiding breaking a leg when the ship arched sharply to the left, forcing her to stumble unsteadily towards the door. 

Sharr's shrill voice echoed over the intercom, strained with concern as their bumpy journey continued. "Toril, get your ass up here!"

Clarke was only seconds behind the panicked man, shrugging on a light jacket as she stepped into the control room.

 "What the hell is going on?" she called out sharply, the words dying on her lips as her mouth formed a silent 'O' when she glimpsed the view through the panel of glass. "That's not good."

Hurtling around the comparatively small ship were hundreds of asteroids, a potential devastating threat if even just one collided with them. It could damage the ship irreversibly. 

Toril hurried to the controls and assisted Sharr with the navigation, a thin line of sweat forming on his forehead. Very few adventurers had delved into an asteroid field and lived to tell the tale. 

"You're meant to be avoiding the asteroids," Cal grumbled when he lunged into the room, forced to grab onto the nearest seat when a sharp movement threatened to unbalance him. "Not flying us into them!"

"You're more than welcome to take over," Sharr replied through clenched teeth. "We're almost through."

Her response was accompanied by an unnatural shudder ripping through the ship as it tore past the final layer of asteroids. 

"The Commander will not be pleased to learn that you destroyed her new ship," NOVA beeped reproachfully, not that anyone was listening as they looked through the wide window at the distant planet lying before them. 

The asteroid may have been an unwelcome surprise, but what lay before them could only be described as inhospitable. 

GH-531 sat alone in the darkness, a desolate, rocky, windswept world that held no appeal to the onlookers. Just once, it would be nice to arrive at a lush, green planet, free from mutated creatures and dark forces that only sought to do them harm. Maybe one day, but this was not it. 

"This is definitely the right place," Toril confirmed reluctantly, leaning forwards to scrutinise the display again. "She's down there, somewhere."

Wonderful, Clarke thought to herself. At least a barren world such as this would mean no civilian casualties. 

"Take us down, gently" she requested in the heavy silence that had taken hold, a collective sense of apprehension for what awaited them on the surface. 

All that mattered now was the Jedi and her recovery. Clarke wasn't going to let this hellish landscape deter her from their goal, she would take on whatever nightmares stood between her and Lexa. She wouldn't fail now. 

=====================================================================
They discovered during a relatively simple descent that the planet's unusual atmospheric conditions were scrambling communication signals, vanquishing any hopes of maintaining contact with the ship during Clarke's expedition. If something went wrong then she wouldn't be able to call for help. It was unfortunate and predictably in line with their recent string of bad luck. 

"You can't go out there by yourself," Bekk insisted, watching with a deep frown as the blonde woman packed an assortment of resources into a small bag and did an inventory of her weapons. 

"She won't hurt me," Clarke said confidently, holstering the blaster gun at her waist. "I'm not going to risk your lives in my place."

"We're coming whether you like it or not," Cal chimed in, marching into the armoury to claim his own arsenal. "Lexa might not hurt you, but I'm betting there's a hundred ugly creatures down there that would."

With very little reason to argue, it was decided that Clarke, Bekk and Cal would venture onto the planets surface in search of the Jedi. The rest of the crew would remain to protect and fix the damaged ship that had taken the brunt of several minor collisions with asteroids. 

Clarke was grateful for the breathable Type 2 atmosphere as the trio stepped onto the planet surface, not that she intended to hang around any longer than necessary. As fortunate as it was for them in some respect, it also meant that other, less friendly organisms would be able to inhabit the planet and that could mean danger. 

"Stay alert, we don't know what's waiting for us out there," Clarke warned, casting her eyes over the barren landscape as they began their advance. 

"You don't have to tell me twice," Cal muttered, grip tightening comfortingly on his gun. 

The Jedi's ship had been traced to a nearby position so Lexa had to be close. It was difficult to understand what potential this derelict planet could hold, but the lack of vegetation and established infrastructure would only make it easier to find her. At points it was possible to see the wasteland for miles ahead, but glance the other way and your view was obscured by jagged peaks of solid rock that twisted and arched into the orange-black sky. 

It was from behind one of these monumental structures that the trio were first ambushed by a deadly hunter. A multi-legged arthropod with biting mandibles peeled itself from the rocky crevice and sped towards the newcomers with terrifying ferocity. They would later learn of these Wild Crawlers that inhabited the planet and decided that they needed a far more intimidating name. 

Three heads whipped towards the startling movement and a cry of warning was barely out of Clarke's mouth before Cal was opening fire without hesitation. Blaster fire echoed across the expansive land, but not a single shot hit the creature as it darted lithely behind an outcrop of rock and disappeared from sight.  

"Damn thing is fast," Bekk noted, gun held at the ready in case it re-emerged. "Shouldn't be much of a threat though."

Clarke knelt down to examine the rocky surface as Cal speared the man with a dark glare. "Now why would you say that? Are you trying to kill us all? Where did the damn thing go anyway?"

Clarke ignored their pointless conversation and carefully peered around the pillar of rock to observe the almost unnoticeable tunnel that cut down through the hard surface. No wonder these creatures could appear seemingly out of thin air if they were burrowing beneath the surface. 

She cast her eyes over the ground with renewed interest and couldn't believe how blind they had been. Similar tunnels existed all over the surface, the majority of which lay concealed behind rocky outcroppings or an uneven formation of land. 

"They're beneath