Star Wars – Incident at Talegia, By DrunkenFish Entertainment

Original Concept by Jedireaper

Written by Jedireaper and ShawnMorgan

Episode One - Trouble on Ord Mantell


ALL RIGHTS TO STAR WARS AND ANY OTHER COPYRIGHTED PROPERTY ARE RESERVED TO THEIR ORIGINAL CREATORS, NO INFRINGMENT INTENDED


"I have a bad feeling about this." Darion Blade muttered.

"Tell me about it" Lanna K'rynn answered. The unseen partner in Darion's conversation, her voice was metallic over the invisible com in his ear.

The tall, space worn smuggler smiled wearily as he walked down the dark alley towards the dirtily lit neon entrance of the cantina. "Glad the coms work anyway." He muttered as he breathed in the dank air.

"I'm not seeing any movement from up here boss, just be careful though, there are a lot of shadows down there. Hopefully we get to drop payment, deliver our shipment and then we're free and clear."

"That is the hope." He responded. "Right, I'm at the cantina, I'll talk to you soon."

"At least I'll finally pay off my debt to the Black Suns… and then some." He said mostly to himself and sighed. Taking a step forward he rested a hand just in front of his hip, at the hemming of his coat.

The establishment was seedy, and dark just as he'd expected from the side-alley he'd walked down. "Looks just like a Hutt's ass in here."

One of the Patrons leaving the establishment bumped into him and either heard him, or misheard him. Darion didn't really know, as the alien spat something at him in a language he didn't understand, or the man was just too inebriated to speak it, just as he fell straight into some overfilled refuse containers about three metres away.

"I have no idea what you are saying buddy…." he responded, turning his attention back to the club and entering properly. "It even smells like a Kriffing Hutt in here." Darion commented as he made his way over to the bar, and ordered himself a drink. He stood there for a minute, turning from the bar as he received his Corellian Ale.

Music was rather conflictingly playing from speakers and a band at the end of the room he was in. "Maybe I'm early." He muttered to himself. "Still, this makes a Garbage scow look like a place I'd prefer to be."

"Aren't you going to order a lady a drink?" A soft female voice said from off to his side, causing the Smuggler to half turn around.

"You're a- Zeltron-"

"Oh c'mon, Darion, buy me a drink, I'll make it worth your while." She said almost too seductively.

"A drink? Sure." He signalled the bartender and he fully turned, sipping at the bubbling ale. "But first you tell me lady; How'd you know my name?" Darion guessed that this was going to be his contact, he hadn't been successful after all, through being careless.

"Can we sit down?"

He sighed, he should have been expected something like this, nothing ever went smoothly in his line of work but hey, at least he'd finally pay off his debt to the Black Suns.

He motioned towards one of the partially enclosed, vacant booths. "After you."

They sat at a wall table, each with a Corellian Ale. Darion lounged back in his seat, hand resting on his blaster.

"Well, now that we're all sitting comfortably," Darion said, "I have some questions, "first, is it even possible for the music in this place to improve?"

"No, it doesn't improve and shall we now both put our blasters away hm, we wouldn't want to upset our hosts."

"That was my second question. But obviously, ladies first. And are you going to answer my other question now?"

"Thank you. Well Darion Blade, of course I know your name, you have quite a reputation. From Malastare, to the Bydine gap, and of course from my employer, so really you were expecting me. Blade isn't even your real name is it?"

"Well lady, since you know so much about me, I think It's only fair that I know a little about you too?" Darion leaned forwards, waiting.

"You may call me Firane." She brought out a data-pad as she lowered her hands. "I believe we have a final payment to make."

Darion grinned. "Firane huh? Well sister, you're beginning to talk my language. So how much would you like to pay me?" He chuckled.

She did not seem amused, but offered a sickly smile, one that caused Darion's stomach to knot. "Highly amusing, you will be making the payment to us, if we can just hurry this along, Darion. I have a speeder waiting and the boys do get so lonely without me."

"Do they? Well I won't keep you, Firane. Shall we?"

"Just put your credit chip here against my datapad, to make the payment and your life will be ensured." She leaned forward, deliberately crowding him.

"Ensured? Don't you mean insured."

"We shall see."

"There ya go, sister, all done. Now I'll just be getting my completion signals and we'll-" he trailed off when he noticed the armed mercenaries surrounding the table, pointing blasters at him.

"Don't move." The ugliest one said threateningly.

"Friends of yours, I take it?"

"Wonderful, now if you'd be so kind as to not move, then the boys won't have to put blaster burns through that lovely red coat of yours."

"Guess they didn't want to wait with the speeder huh?"

"Something like that." She gave a vigorous nod.

"I really should have noticed you guys earlier." Darion muttered, as he glanced around at the seemingly uninterested patronage of the bar. "Come here often?"

The blaster in the ugly ones hands whined as it powered up. "Shut it!"

"Please, Darion such a callous person we seem to be today." She retorted.

"I'm sorry, wasn't I already paying enough attention to you, Zeltron?"

The worst of it was that Darion had subconsciously realised he'd screwed up as he'd signed. Something had put him off his game. Then he recalled that Zeltrons, like Falleen, could exude pheromones, not as ubiquitous as them, but effective nonetheless. Damnit. she'd set him up good. Guess it was time for plan B. He just had to think it up whilst talking to her, with a load of blasters pointed at him.

Quila Firane leaned against on the table her smile fading. " Not in the right way, human. Not in the right way. So..."

"Oh, I hope you're listening." Darion mostly muttered.

Quila gave him a slightly puzzled look. "Oh, I am always listening Captain Blade."

Darion smiled internally. 'Good, you have no idea I was checking on my back up.'

"Now, we still need to discuss your life ensurance costs. I'd say one-hundred percent of your original debt should do. Consider it inconvenience payments."

"You're kidding me." Darion grimaced. "Is this the part where I say 'over my dead body' and you reply 'that's the general idea?"

"Oh please, the Solo and Greedo debacle on Tatooine. Spare me."

"Okay then, I'll just be leaving." Darion tried to stand up, but was immediately presented with a blaster in his side.

"Stay right where you are."

"Nice try, Darion, but you dropped a highly valuable shipment of stolen Imperial technology, do you really believe we were just going to let you go? Take him to the speeder."

At her signal, Quila's two henchmen took Darion under each arm, having caught up a little more slowly than their boss. They began pulling him towards the speeder which was floating gently down a dingy little back street, a dingy little backstreet that Darion felt was a doorway to another world, with each passing step he was forced to take, notably the underworld where breathing was forbidden.

"Hey fellas, I know you're keen on being all up close and personal, but I've got a certain reputation for class and I sure don't want our first date down an alley outside a dingy club."

The Zeltron girl smiled. " I would think that it was a step up from some of the establishments you do business in."

"Ya mean like this one?"

"Exactly. Nice to get on the same page at last. Now move towards that alley and do try to co-operate."

"I really don't feel like it, not like I have much choice mind you."

"Choice. Some of us have it, some of us don't and right now, you-"

Two shots rang out and the two bodies holding Darion flumped to the ground, hitting it with a most satisfying thud.

Darion had been waiting for this, knowing full well that Lanna would have moved fast when she realised he had trouble. He Grabbed a blaster and dove into the alley, taking cover. His supposed death trap now his salvation... he hoped.

The Rodian in the waiting speeder was quickly blasted by Lanna who had decide he was the primary target.

"In your next life, dear Rodian, learn to shoot first..." Lanna's voice was gleeful. anyone who knew her well, knew she detested Rodians.

Darion grinned as he recognised the voice of his co-pilot Lanna K'yrinn. She was firing past him at the enemy and also sniping at him, fortunately for him, it was purely verbal.

"What the hell did I say Darion!? I damn well said that they'd try something like this."

"Yeah well, Lanna, I kinda knew that! Considering that I am currently dodging blaster bolts, or haven't you noticed these bright red things zipping past me? And is this really the time?!"

"Back to business as usual then eh?"

"Yup! Did you get us a speeder?"

"Just did! Check out the dead Rodian in the speeder at the end of the alley."

"I think he's already checked out."

At the other end of the alley staying in cover against more accurate shooting, Quila was cursing radio silence. She'd had five Gamorrean mercenaries at the other end of the alley. Not that they spoke much Basic, but even their piggish dialect would have been preferable to the static she now got.

"Quila Firane to units three through five, Credits are authorised for capture of Darion Blade, five-hundred thousand credits on delivery, no reward of also being there, termination of rivals is not acceptable practice."

"Lanna, let's get the frag out of here!"

"Copy that Darion, I'll meet you at the power regulator, by the north tower."

"Just moving this blasted Rodian," he said as he pushed the body out through the other side of the hovering vehicle, then began flipping switches. "Right. I'm on my way up."

Darion kicked the speeder into high gear and swung it's nose around just as he saw Quila's head peering around the far corner. It was only for a moment. He waved jauntily and shot off towards the end of the block.

Darion was only mildly surprised when he found Lanna waiting at the tower already, which must have been around a two-hundred metre dash for her. Her talents continued to impress him at times. "You never struck me as an Antarian Ranger!" He said, grinning, and she grinned back.

"I've never struck you." She smiled.

"You know what I meant!" He responded, as she scrambled aboard with all the grace he'd expect of her. "You know the way to our ship right?"

"Like a Mandalorian blood-hound."

"Then take over, looks like we are about to have company, and, " he added, "it's my turn to shoot."

"Move over then."

"I'm moving, I'm moving. There!"

The modified speeder's detectors blipped as five enemy speeders were identified closing in on them from various directions. Lanna pulled a hard right and Darion looked puzzled as he figured out which way they were heading.

"Uh, Lanna… the spaceport's the other way!"

"Yup! And they'll be on us like Wamp rats if we try to go straight there. So we're taking the indirect route. Hopefully we'll lose them before they catch us."

Blaster bolts cut through the air at them as another speeder fell in behind them.

"Too late, they're already on us!" Darion shouted, as he returned fire.

"Cutting low," Lanna gritted her teeth as she threw the speeder into a dive towards the ground, weaving around one of the power-regulators. "Gonna angle towards those towers over there."

"ARE YOU CRAZY! At this low altitude we're… gonna… get… pancaked!"

"Shut-up and shoot them!"

A blaster bolt zipped across their bow, and the enemy speeder came at them fast, sending civilians scurrying for cover. Lanna grimaced and Darion braced for the course correction. As sure as the empire loathed aliens and women, it came sharply as Lanna refused to endanger bystanders.

It was a quality Darion lauded, there were far too many people in this galaxy were entirely selfish. He and his co pilot were only two thirds selfish. He really wished the universe would stop picking on he and Lanna for that. He recovered fast.

"Aw Sith! The Mynocks are co operating! Two to starboard, two to port, one rear... " Darion shouted as loud as he could. "Get ready to make an express delivery on my mark!"

Lanna smirked, for she knew full well what he was planning. Darion had come up with a slightly insane move after watching a low quality holo adventure about daring resistance fighters.

"May the inertia be with us!" with that she pulled the speeder to a full stop..

The following speeder saw that it would collide with them... and tried to evade them by braking. This was the wrong thing to do as it stalled.

The second part of Darion's move was to have Lanna briefly switch off the speeder's repulsor-lift generators, dropping them several feet. The speeder closing in behind them saw its stalled partner far too late.

The fire-ball was quite spectacular and the light from the collision reflected in the windows of the towers and buildings around them as Lanna powered the engines, and they sped away. This left three more speeders out there. Two were closing in on them even now and Darion was fairly sure the third one would make its presence known again soon.

One of the remaining speeder's flew in from the side firing viciously at them… missing but impacting on civilian buildings. a mother and child barely avoided being vaporised but were trapped behind now burning rubble.

"Lanna we should get out of here before civilians get hurt!"

"I agree. Cutting left. heading for the 'port now."

"Whittled them down enough huh?"

"And this thing's almost out of power."

One of the pursuing speeders tried to ram them and in doing so send them into a large tenement block. Darion's response to this was three blaster shots to the pilot's chest.

"What a piece of Hutt spawn." Darion Muttered.

The enemy pilot stiffened and then slumped on to the controls heading down towards more civilians. Darion tensed but then breathed a little easier when he saw it explode in a dingy speeder lot. It had been a little too close to the mark.

"Not much choice there boss." Lanna said. Darion knew this but hearing someone else echo his thoughts anchored his mind.

"Thanks Lanna."

"Understood." That one word managed to convey so much between them.

Lanna was a skilled pilot, which often synergised very nicely with her natural multitasking abilities, which at the moment translated in pitching the speeder one hundred and thirty degrees and gaining several metres of altitude.

Darion saw the sensors flash red, the bleeping sounds following a split second later. Darion was about to comment but Lanna beat him to it concerning a different problem.

"Hey Boss, one of them's peeling off. Just one sleemo left on our trail."

"Okay then. Time for the old 'Express delivery!"

"Prep up then Darion, and May the Force with you!"

Darion brought his legs up to the sides of the vehicle and wedged himself in bracing for all he was worth as the speeder turned upside down. It simultaneously executed a hard one eighty degree turn.

Shocked to his core, the opposing speeder pilot couldn't bring his mind back to reality before Darion dropped into the passenger seat, drawing his gun. Darion raised one eyebrow.

"Land. Now." The Speeder landed and the pilot raised his hands slowly. Darion smiled encouragingly "Okay, so far so good. Now get out and walk away."

"O-okay," The pilot stammered. He walked away briskly and darion considered blasting the scumbag anyway.

Lanna pulled up and exited the speeder. She spared a glance at the departing mercenary and then looked darion over. "Tempted to blast him huh?"

"Yeah, but letting him go is less trouble and it means that others will be more likely to accept our surrender."

"Yeah, good call."

Darion smirked at his pilot. She knew him so well.

The pair made their way to the docks uncontested.


"Hey Lanna." Darion spoke as they walked along the corridors.

"Yeah?"

" You ever think we should get out of this game."

"Every single time I get shot at. Which seems to be pretty much every other job…"

"Right..."

"I'm kidding,' Lanna said in a mirthful tone, 'I know we don't get shot at quite that often. Anyway, lets hope we got here before they did. The ship should be in the next bay."

"I wonder if the droids kept it in one piece."

"Yeah, he does have a couple of faulty logic circuits."

"A couple?" Darion smirked at his co pilot.

They walked the rest of the way without talking, easy in each other's company.

Eventually, they came to their ship's bay.

"Well, there she is!"

"Hey, do you-" Lanna stopped as Darion shoved her sideways. Lanna glared at him and was about to complain when he held up one hand, signalling quiet. She nodded and then went still.

They had arrived at the docking bay that the Dawn's Haze was at, to be greeted by several figures moving about in front of the ship, at least three heavily armed Black Suns agents were guarding his ship. The darkness possibly held more.

Maybe they'd spoken a little louder than they'd intended to, maybe the light had glinted off part of their outfit. it didn't really matter. what mattered was that the suns had spotted them and were drawing blasters.

"You think they saw us?" Darion whispered to his co-pilot.

One of them called out. " Throw out your blasters and come out, nice and easy!"

"Ya' think?" Lanna whispered back to Darion's previous question.

"Why?!" Darion raised his voice calling back to the Suns men.

"Because I said so. Either come out or my buddies and I will bring you out!"

"My blaster says no!"

Lanna growled, "What are you, eight years old?!"

"Listen to the lady, Mister Blade!"

"I really don't feel like walking out there into your crosshairs, pal."

"No, and neither do I."

"Alright Blade, you want to talk from in there, fine by us."

Lanna turned to Darion, ready to say something but stopped when she saw the look on his face. He was already at the conclusion she'd just reached, which was that the mercs were stalling for time, so reinforcements could arrive. "I count three, maybe four."

"Yeah, and I think they are just stalling for time anyway, probably a skiff load heading this way."

"We need a distraction…" Darion mostly said to himself.

"Okay you two, here's the deal… you sign over the ship to us and we tell our superiors we couldn't find you. That'll give you time to pay off your debt, eh?"

"No deal, seriously is everyone today out to do a little freelancing?!"

The leader of the Guards laughed. "Gotta make a living somehow!"

"I made my payment, so we'll just be on our way, no need for things to get messy."

"If you can show us your completion signal, then we can all go home, and forget about it."

"Even if I had one, I don't think so! Besides, I didn't get one, your buddy back at the cantina was out to make a little profit on her own, you want the payment, go see her!"

"The Zeltron huh?"

"Yeah thats the one."

"This is going no-where fast-" Lanna said, exasperated as she keyed her com. "Four-five-one, four-five-one, wake up, we need a distraction."

There were a few warbled beeps of resignation followed by an almost tired metallic voice. "One moment."

Darion craned his neck to check on Lanna and frowned when he saw what Lanna was up to. She spotted him and nodded.

"Well then, why don't we all go and see her and clean up this mess." The leader of the men responded. "Now come out, before we shoot you out."

The experienced smugglers never had the chance to respond as one of the mercs fired a warning shot that nearly took Darion's head off. He and Lanna shared a look as they both thought this was a very bad motivator for surrender.

Lanna grimaced. "They clearly have a different definition of negotiation to us..."

"Yeah, I think you're right."

At that moment there was a loud clanging sound that echoed through the docking bay, quickly followed by the sound of hydraulic servo-motors. The Black Sun agents seemed bewildered for a moment as both Darion and Lanna glanced over their cover as they realised the Dawn's Haze had powered up her engines.

"Blast them?"

"Good a time as any!"

Sounds of blaster fire echoed out into the hanger from behind the cargo crates as the smugglers made their move. One of the mercs screamed as a blaster bolt cut him down.

His commander shrugged. They'd wake the idiot up later and deduct part of his pay for the time he'd spent out of the fight. He was contemplating his new found riches when a small orb rolled to stop next to his feet. He looked at it for what seemed like an eternity, before finally realising what it was.

"Concussion gre-" Was all that managed to leave the man's lips as he was suddenly propelled through the air towards the crates near the opposite wall to Lanna and Darion, followed by a loud thumping boom. Only one guard was still conscious

"Hey Darion, this place sure is getting untidy." Lanna giggled as she skipped over the prone mercs' bodies and headed up the 'Haze's boarding ramp. "I'm heading for the ship! Cover me!"

"Right!"

Darion's support fire was rapid and accurate and another Black Suns agent fell. The remaining guard took no chances. He flung himself sideways and covered his head, throwing his blaster to one side and smiling at Darion as though they were old friends.

Darion raised an eyebrow, "And how about you?" He kept his blaster trained on the man.

"Hey, hey! I don't get paid enough to get shot. Pretend I'm not even here."

Darion half grinned, looking the man over before shrugging slightly and flicking the setting on his blaster carbine. "Sorry, pal."

The stun bolt caught the man square in the chest, sending him sprawling to the ground, unconscious.

As relieved as he was a minute later to be back aboard his ship Darion knew damned fine well that more guards and bounty hunters would be on their way to his ship and cursed vociferously about this the entire time he was initiating the escape process.

"Welcome aboard sir, I took the liberty of preparing the ship. Will we expecting any visitors, bounty hunters, mercenaries, local authorities, the Hutts? Or worse... Jawas...?"

"Nope, just one droid that can easily fit into an escape pod."

"When can we expect him, sir."

Exasperated, he turned to his friend. "Lanna?"

"Four-five-one, he's being sarcastic, he meant you.."

Four-five-one beeped indignantly, then quieted.

"Boring conversation anyway."

"Let's get going!"

"Yes, let's!"


The YT-1930 freighter, with it's slightly blocky yet curved outline, cleared the atmosphere sleekly. Darion gave the order: "Punch it!"

"I would but there's an Imperial Star Destroyer in our way..."

The com crackled to life. "Corellian freighter. This is the Imperial Star Destroyer Fury's Fist, you are hereby ordered to power down your engines and prepare to be boarded. Failure to comply will result in harsh penalties."

"We just go from bad to worse, don't we?"

Darion laughed.