The journey through hyperspace was very stressful. Sigil was off balance; that stare down with Revan was intense. Her eyes were full of hate and anger, all of that was targeted solely at him and Sigil could only blame himself for this failure.

He failed to raise and take care of her adequately and she succumbed to the influence and temptations of the Sith. He had felt extreme guilt and sorrow once her presence had become dark, spiteful and burning with rage.

His mental and emotional turmoil left him unable to focus on navigating a route for the Acclamator. He could only warn them once they were close enough to an object; at which point the navigational computer can detect mass shadows.

The supplies aboard the ship were only fit for that mission and the spare components weren't enough to fix the leaking and damaged hyperdrive and sub-light engines and have a spare for the other so they prioritized the sub-light engines. The communications array was also badly damaged and couldn't be repaired. Thankfully for them, the armaments however were still usable.

The Acclamator stayed in hyperspace for three days until the nava computer warned of an impending collision. They pulled out of hyperspace right above a lush green world with light blue oceans indicating a tropical world as indicated by the sensors of the ship.

The sensors also detected three ships parked above the planet. The three ships were of one class that neither Hera, Sigil, Zi or any other officer on the bridge for that matter could recognise. 

They seemed to be equal in length to an Arquitens or Nebulon-B. The ships bore resemblance to the Recusant and Nebulon-B with two sections connected by a long and narrow tube in the middle. 

The bridge at the very front was small, barely larger than the tube connecting it to the back section. The back section had two engines just below the level of the tube and the rest of their back sections was shaped like a set of fangs angled away from each other and facing backwards. On the fangs were multiple guns.

"Establish contact." Hera ordered. "We need to know where we are." She continued. "General, our communications array is broken." The comms officer reminded. "General! The ships are launching fighters!" The radar officer said in a panik. 

As soon as he registered what the radar officer said, Sigil looked to her for confirmation. Confirmation for him to assume battle meditation. Although he outranked her, she was the captain of the ship and the mission so she held more authority.l for the moment. She nodded at him, knowing what he had in mind. 

Dropped into a meditative position. Whatever turmoil he had, had to be put aside for the survival of nearly twenty thousand people depended on it.

The laser cannons of the Acclamator swiveled to face the incoming swarm of fighters and bombers. The unknown fighters invoked images of the separatist Tri-Fighters used during the Clone wars.

He had the guns open up in advance against the bombers to diseud a coordinated run. The bombers lost coordination due to his battle meditation and went on to break formation. The disunited bombers were easy pickings for the gunners of Hera's Acclamator.

They tumbled and spun out of control as they were picked off one by one; none having reached even the prow of the mighty ship. The fighters were even easier pickings due to their lacking shields. Seeing all their bombers destroyed, the fleet pulled back to the three ships they came from.

'War it is.' Sigil thought as he commanded the ship forward to the three awaiting ships. The Acclamators charged the three ships who were also closing in at starfighter speeds. Truly a wonder of engineering both classes were.

The Acclamators's larger guns opened fire first. Launching a salvo of ionized plasma which impacted the shields of the lesser ships. The rebel flagship didn't enjoy uncontested firing for more than a few seconds before the other ships were in range and responded kindly to the opening salvos.

Both groups halted their forward movement as they engaged each other at close distance. Using the disadvantage that was the fragile spine of his opponents ships, he angled the ship for a broadside, knowing they couldn't follow suit. 

Now with even more guns pointed at the unknown fleet. The flak cannons, previously out of reach, suddenly found a firing window and used it.

Clouds of black smoke and soot covered the view of the enemy fleet as they were hammered even harder. At last their shields faltered and the leading ships' bridge was directly impacted by a flak round.

The round tore through the exposed bridge and parts of the spine, severing the once whole ship in two. At this, the other two ships reared their heads in an attempt to flee. They were still followed by the vengeful Acclamator.

As they moved for their jumping vector, the Acclamator's guns once again pierced the shield of another one of the ships and struck the engines and presumably hyperdrive since only one jumped to hyperspace while the other was captured via the tractor beams of Hera's flagship.

Once the dust settled, Sigil disengaged his battle meditation. Rising up, Hera patted his shoulder "Great job Admiral." She complimented. "Appreciated." He responded. 

"Prepare a boarding party and dock us with the ship!" Hera told her communications officer. 

Going to the troop hold, Sigil and Zi met the awaiting troops and led them to the docking tube. Going ahead of the rest. Sigil took out his lightsaber and cut a hole in the enemy ship's sealed door. 

The large piece of metal fell to the floor with a clatter, revealing behind it a hallway full of female marines who looked human with one exception; they were all stunning.

Not letting it get to his head, he blocked the blaster bolts flying towards him and his troops. Leading the charge, he reached the first marine and took out his pistol; an A-180 heavy blaster pistol and shot her in the chest.

He watched as her eyes went wide before she dropped. He couldn't use his lightsaber offensively, the men behind him needed cover and he was to provide it.

A fierce close quarters firefight ensued with the rebels barely suffering casualties to the guaranteed protection from the front. Whatever they did suffer, was due to the side corridors which their Admiral couldn't personally enforce.

The ship's narrow structure made it easy to navigate their way to the bridge. The women put up a fierce yet futile resistance as the rebels marched to the bridge. 

Surrenders only took place once Sigil had finally reached the door of the bridge. The marines outside, finally surrendered and were taken as the rest of the ship was reinforced by rebels.

Standing before the blast door, he plunged his lightsaber into it and proceeded to cut out a circular entrance. Pulling back once the circle was complete, he used the force to enhance himself enough and kick down the door.

Lunging right behind the cut section of the door, he stormed the bridge; lightsaber in hand and in a swift and elegant motion, cut down all the half dozen marines in rapid succession and pointed his blade at the captain's neck.

The rest of his men marched in quickly and detained the bridge crew. All were beautiful women. 'What kind of fantasy is this?' Sigil thought. 'Is this some holo movie or what? What place had this?' He continued thinking.

"Who are you?" He threatened the captain. "I am Captain Ch'ura of her majesty's navy! I demand to be released scum!" The woman said in accented basic. "Where am I?" He demanded. "Don't play dum-" she tried to yell but he pushed his lightsaber a bit closer. She hesitated to continue yelling.

"Hapes cluster." She said more quietly. "That can't be good. Is it?" Zi whispered. "It isn't." Hd whispered back. "There seems to be some form of misunderstanding, we were attempting to escape the empire and ended up here. We request a hyperdrive and safe passage." He offered his ultimatum. 

"Since you killed subjects of her majesty the queen mother there will be no peace." She said. "You fired first, laser brain!" Zi interjected. "Hmm. Subordinate to men? Pathetic." She spat at the General. "Answer." Yafuro demanded, pointing her pistol at the other woman's head.

"It does not matter who shot first seeing as you infringed on her majesty's territory." The Captain replied. "Farewell bantha." She said, pulling the trigger and executing the Captain. Sigil turned to her, not saying a word but gave her a disappointed stare. Zi didn't even shutter under his stare. Looking away from her, he shouted "Bring an astromech and a slicer!".

The pair came and lined up in front of him. To his surprise Hera had sent Chopper. "Yes Admiral?" The slicer asked. "I want you two to extract as much intel from the ship as possible." He ordered. "We'll get on it sir." The slicer said, gesturing for his droid to follow. Chopper however didn't move but beeped.

"Beep boop boop bee." He said. "Alright, I will meet her." He replied. "What did he say?" Zi asked. "Hera wants a meeting to discuss what we gathered about the Hapans." He replied. "Alright I will oversee the crews here." She replied. He nodded and headed for Hera's quarters to avoid it being leaked to spies.

Reaching the outside of her quarters, he knocked. "Come in." She replied. Sigil waved the door open and stepped in. "You requested me?" He asked about the obvious.

"Indeed I have. Did you find out where we are?" She began. "Yes, a colony set in the Hapes cluster." He replied. "Never heard of it." Hera said. "Don't expect you to. They are an isolationist peoples yet they are rich and their society is matriarchal in nature. They are the only humanoids to use such a structure." He explained.

"What is our next course of action?" She questioned. "Well now we have given them a bloody nose and they won't give up." He said, rubbing his chin while running over the facts. "It is best to keep fighting them until they are crippled. Leaving such a foe in our rear is not an option." He concluded. "Your call." Hera said, showing her willingness to follow him head long into battle.

"What of the ship we captured?" She asked. "It is of no consequence seeing as it is heavily damaged." He began. "But we extracted the remaining fighters and supplies." He said, one a side note. Hera nodded "The ship is all yours Admiral." She said with a salute. "Once the chopper comes with the data spike. Set a course for the closest member world. We run it on shifts." He ordered, walking out of the bridge.

Zi and Chopper headed to Sigils quarters aboard the 'Liberator'. Sensing their approach, he waved the door open. "Admiral." She acknowledged, entering his room. "Zi." He greeted back more casually. He didn't need to look up as he sensed a playful glare shot his way.

"Here is all the intel we extracted from the ship." She said, handing him a datapad. "Bee boop boop." Chopper reminded. "Leave it here." Sigio gestured as Chopper placed the data spike on his caffeine table and headed out.

"Please have a seat." He told Zi, gesturing to the couches around him. She decided to sit on the same one as him however.

He analyzed the datapad very meticulously maybe half a dozen times to find any more weak spots in the Hapan fleet. With Zi looking over his shoulder. She got more tired with each re-read and rested herself more against him until she fell asleep. An event that Sigil didn't notice as the re-reads and analysis got tiring for him, as he too fell asleep.

They woke up several hours later, faces mere centimeters from each other as they had fallen asleep next to each other. As soon as they both opened their eyes, they were met with the other's warm eyes. Zi looked down while Sigil looked up. Zi made a nervous chuckle as sweat formed on her forehead yet she didn't move.

After a long staring contest, Sigil moved his hands so they were on the back of her head and pulled her down for a kiss. The tension had built up between them for nearly three weeks so he decided to shoot his shot now that the opportunity presented itself.

She murmured at first due to her head being pulled down so suddenly but eased into it. Just like he initiated contact, he was the one to break it off in order to catch his breath.

Pulling away, Zi pulled her head a bit higher to get a better look at him. His cheeks were red with heat but she could feel the heat rising to hers too. His hair was a mess and his expression was that of breathlessness as he panted for air.

She stared into his eyes more. Those jade embers in his eyes were shining more brightly than they have done in decades. They were shining with light, calling her to them.

Zis eyes told a similar story. A pair of walnut irises were what his gaze had landed on. He could get lost in them if he wasn't careful. Like the oceans of Naboo one must navigate with care else they might get lost. He could stare at them for eternity.

Zi was the one to make a move this time. She ran her fingers through his golden locks as she took in the tenderness of his lips and his warm body against hers. She couldn't get enough of his lips and hair. They were majestic. The best thing she felt for her entire life.

Neither one dared pull away. Stranded in the middle of hostile territory this was the most blissful thing that could happen to them. But their bodies couldn't keep up and they were forced to break off.

They both panted for air yet couldn't seem to get enough as their eyes locked once more. "I love you." Zi said breathlessly. "I love you too." He replied between labored breaths, trying to get in as much air as he could.

She giggled, placing a small kiss on his cheek. He pulled her against himself, resting her head on his chest for the time being.