Star Wars_ The Old Republic_ Revan - Drew Karpyshyn [43]
Gale-force winds hammered the ship’s hull, causing it to buck and lurch, and a blizzard of swirling snow and ice limited the range of the Hawk’s sensors. To get close enough for the topographic scan, Revan had to bring them in only a few hundred meters above the surface of the world—close enough that one wrong move could send them crashing into the surface.
T3 beeped anxiously at Revan’s side, crowding the pilot’s chair as Revan fought to keep the ship level.
“Get Canderous up here,” Revan barked. “Tell him to check those grid coordinates again.”
The little astromech droid spun around and sped off in search of the third member of their crew.
A gust of wind caused the ship to veer down and to the left. The safety restraints bit into Revan’s flesh as he jammed the throttle forward and yanked back on the stick, pulling the ship up out of a steep dive moments before it hit the ground.
The ship veered off course, and suddenly a massive glacier jutting up from the planet’s frozen surface materialized on the nav display.
Revan banked hard to avoid plowing into the wall of ice, but even the lightning-fast reactions of a Jedi couldn’t entirely overcome the Hawk’s momentum. The ship was spared a direct hit, but its underside clipped a sharp outcropping of ice.
The impact sent the Hawk into a spiraling, twisting roll. Revan wrenched the stick from side to side, fighting for control. Using the Force, he was able to anticipate and react to the erratic flight with instantaneous precision adjustments, keeping the ship aloft until it regained its equilibrium.
The immediate crisis averted, Revan took the Hawk up to a safer altitude and set the autopilot. Then he slumped in his chair and let out a long, low sigh. After a few seconds he straightened up, readjusted his restraint belts, and checked the instrument panel.
A blinking red warning light confirmed his fears: the impact with the glacier had damaged the landing gear.
Revan muttered a curse under his breath, just as a much louder string of profanity came from Canderous staggering into the cockpit. T3 rolled in after him, beeping indignantly.
“You trying to smash us into gree pulp back there?” Canderous grumbled, plopping down into the copilot’s seat. “I thought you knew how to fly this rusted slag-heap.”
“I thought you said Clan Ordo had set up a camp somewhere on this frozen rock,” Revan shot back. “Couldn’t see a blasted thing on those grid coordinates you gave me.”
“Maybe they moved to another location,” Canderous said with a shrug. “Can’t have gone too far, though. Not in these conditions. Do a ground scan of the area and they’ll probably turn up.”
“That’s what I was doing,” Revan replied through gritted teeth. “Turns out it’s a good way to get up close and personal with a glacier.”
Canderous glanced over at the warning light. “That why that red light’s blinking?”
“The landing gear got smashed up when we clipped the glacier.”
“You couldn’t just fly around it?”
Revan rolled his eyes.
“Go down for another look,” Canderous advised after a few moments of strained silence. “Clan Ordo’s gotta be close by.”
“Even if we find them, then what? You really expect me to bring the ship in on busted landing gear?”
“You’re a smart guy,” Canderous answered, shifting to get comfortable in his seat. “You’ll think of something.”
There wasn’t much point in continuing the argument, so Revan let it drop. Yet he couldn’t help but wonder at the recent change he’d noticed in Canderous.
As long as he’d known the Mandalorian, he’d sensed an underlying tension in him. Like a soldier in enemy territory, he was always ready for a fight. As a Mandalorian, he was never fully accepted by those in the Republic, and he knew it.
Now, however, he seemed different. He was still gruff and taciturn. But ever since they’d left Coruscant, he’d been less grim, more relaxed. He was eager to be back among his own people, and he wasn’t about to let a few minor setbacks like a missing camp or damaged landing gear stop him.
To be fair, Revan had no intention of abandoning their quest, either.