Snow whipped across the wasteland in needling sheets as Blue, her bare lekku exposed to the biting cold, climbed the jagged ridge toward the distress beacon’s last known coordinates. The storm was rolling in fast, too fast, and every step felt like wading through powdered ice. Her double‑bladed lightsaber hung at her hip, its weight a familiar reassurance against the vast emptiness around her.


Halfway up the ridge, the ground trembled. A deep, resonant thud rolled through the snowpack, followed by another, closer this time. Blue froze, hand drifting toward her hilt. The ridge’s crest loomed just a few meters above, its edge blurred by swirling white. Then something enormous rose over it; eight spined legs first, then a massive, leathery body, Blue white, like the ice around them and dusted with frost. The alien spider’s many eyes glinted like cold black stars as it hauled itself into view, mandibles clicking in a slow, deliberate rhythm.


Blue ignited her saber with a snap‑hiss, twin blades casting azure light across the storm. The creature let out a low, rumbling screech that vibrated through her bones. She steadied her breath, centering herself in the Force despite the biting wind.


The crashed ship was somewhere beyond this ridge, but first she would have to survive the guardian that had claimed it.