"Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating."
-Karl Von Clausewitz
A mysteriously cloaked short figure made its way through the market square. This figure walked slow, careful to avoid being seen by the battle droids patrolling the city. The Separatist army had taken control of the planet Yssubed 7 about a week ago; they were searching for a Republic listening outpost where it was rumored to be hiding. They had been searching the entire planet and had found nothing. But their cruel leader refused to leave until he confirmed the rumor. This figure heard of this leader's cruelty but never learned of his name. The figure only heard the battle droids refer to him as, "The General". The figure shook its head about this nonsense, it had a mission and it was determined to find a trader named Thump Icky if it was going to get what it was looking for.
This figure moved through the streets avoiding confrontation with the citizens of this planet. The figure didn't particularly enjoy socializing anyway; it made it feel uncomfortable with trying to talk with strange people it barely knew. It found a store that seemed to fit the description the figure's source informed, nevertheless, it took a piece of paper and with its white, sleek hands that were covered by the cloak, it studied over the paper's address information.
"Yep, this is the place." It thought. It put the paper away and walked inside; the inside of the store didn't seem like anything of interest. Spare mechanical parts were strewn about, many old speeder coverings, rusted over engines to space ships that shown that they were beyond repair and of course, dirt.
This entire planet was covered with dusty plains and suffered from sand storms from time to time; this city was built behind a large rocky outcrop that protected the city from these sand storms. But dirt still came in from travelers and space pilots. The figure looked about at old pieces that were scavenged from the Clone Wars; a majority of these pieces were Republic made, it made the figure question whether the Republic could still keep order despite the numerous star systems the Confederacy was taking over.
"*May I help you sir?*" a low-pitched voice called to the figure. It turned and looked at its speaker, he was rather large but his head was narrow with its eyes on the sides of its head. He fit the description of Thump Icky, but it had to be certain that was him. The figure walked up to the front desk to talk to him without anyone else hearing, which wasn't too much of a problem since there wasn't really anyone inside except the two of them.
"Yes, I'm looking for an Thump Icky." The figure spoke in a muffled voice.
"*What's it to ya?*" the figure knew it might run into this, luckily it had been given a code phrase to say in case it ran into this problem.
"Nothing… *except that when the truth is found to be lies…*" Thump stood there for moment before leaning forward and replying.
"*And all the joy within you dies…*"
"*Don't you need somebody to love…*" the two said at the same time. The figure held up the note it had been given; Thump took it carefully and read it over. He then turned to the figure and nodded.
"This way…" Thump said in English. The figure went under the curtain as instructed by Thump, inside was a staircase going down.
"I'm surprised you haven't been discovered yet Thump."
"hmf. Those seperatists only search for signals that stand out. Not like them and their "please notice us!" signal power. They think they can take over our planet and restrict the non-mechanical, they keep saying "we're illegal". Balderdash I say!Why don't they kick themselves out? they're immigrants too."
"I try to avoid getting involved with any side." muffled the figure. With that, Thump nodded and they resumed going down the stairs.
At the bottom there was a large complex. In the middle was a large device that didn't look like a satellite but one could tell that it was a reconfigured version of a signal listening device. From the look of the staff that was around, the figure could tell that this was the rumored Republic outpost.
"You're lucky you came. The Separatists have been buckling down in this area; we've been trying to send out last minute messages we intercepted. May I take your cloak, Mr.?-"
"Please…" the figure pulled back its hood to reveal a maroon white egg-like head. It's muffled voice was replaced with a feminine one. "There's no need for Mr. or Ms., Mr. Icky. Call me Eve…and I wish to keep my cloak, I won't stay long…"
"I- certainly Eve. Damn…"
"Something wrong?"
"No. I was told of your arrival but I thought- you know…I thought-"
"That I would be a databot?"
"Er- yes." He looked away embarrassed.
"You can apologize later Thump. The Separatist ship routes…"
"Oh yes! Right over here." Thump walked over to the device, the Eve probe followed, she hovered this time, since she had no more need to hobble her body to look as if she was walking. Thump's large fatty two fingers punched in several commands as a small information chip popped out. His fingers gripped the chip as he turned and handed it to the probe. "There you are ma'am. All the pre-determined routes of the Separatist space movements, right here on this chip."
The Eve probe took the chip out of his fingers and she examined it for herself in her smooth white fingers. She finally had what she was looking for, this chip contained information on the Confederate space cruisers and army routes that were plotted for the next week. She had run into these battle cruisers all too often while flying out searching for plant life; the last one she ran into forced her onto this planet. She was sick and tired of being discovered and shot down like she was just a pest in the galaxy; she heard about this Thump Icky who could provide her with battle cruiser routes that would point out where all the ships would be flying and when they would be expected to get there. Sure, the Republic would pay handsomely for this information but she didn't really care, this was not her war, she wanted this information for herself. They could have it when she didn't need it anymore but by that time, the information would prove useless. After looking at it for a minute, she finally looked back up at Thump.
"Thank you very much Mr. Thump and here is your end of the bargain." she opened her compartment and pulled out a bright glowing blue crystal and handed it over to the chubby alien who gleamed at his reward.
"Ah, Tezib Nemrac…the invisible crystal…with this, we can finally block ourselves from the Separatist army and still track their movements, the Seperatists will never find us and we'll be the best listening outpost in the Republic!"
"Careful Thump. You know the old saying, 'you can't be a pimp and a prostitute too.'"
"What does that even mean?" he asked.
"Figure it out Mr. Icky. Figure it out." she placed the chip inside her compartment and closed it. "Nice doing business with you-"suddenly a loud kaboom shook the complex, everyone stopped working and got up. A second kaboom came, blue sweat beads as large as Ottelogir bullets ran down Thump's head.
"Oh no…they found us!" With that, came a third kaboom, this time, debris flew, the Eve probe held up her hands in front of her face to prevent rock shards from flying in her face. By the time the dirt cleared, battle droids began pouring in.
"Hands up! Nobody move! You're all under arrest by order of the Confederacy of Independent Systems!