The Escape of Boba Fett
The air was humid and the view was black. Solid black. The sounds of those lying in the stomach of the Sarlacc were a mix of the moans of the dying, the grunts of those lying in uncomfortable positions, and the retching from the fetid air.
This however was not the worst situation that Boba Fett had ever found himself in. It was just the situation of the moment. The vibro-axe that had shorted out his utility jet pack had overloaded the power cells. That didn't mean he was defenseless or without resources. Opening up the wrist guard on his right forearm, Fett triggered the small auxiliary power cell that allowed him to then activate the rebreather and dark vision features built into his helmet. He only had minutes to do what he needed to do, but it would be enough.
Once able to see, Fett removed his pack and pulled the shorted out cells. He quickly checked the others and haphazardly rigged it up so that the primary cells could come back online. It even worked. Sporadically.
The carbine was destroyed. That much he knew. A check of the other deadly weapons he kept on his person revealed that the flame thrower, wrist laser, wrist rocket, poison darts, and vibro knife were still intact. He'd lost the grappling cable, but that was easily replaced.
Looking around him Fett noticed that the bodies quit falling about the same time as a horrendous boom could be heard, muffled, over the other sounds in the Sarlacc's stomach. The burning sensation he felt only helped to remind him that his time was limited if he was going to get out. The digestive juices of the creature were starting to work.
Fett started looking for something he knew had fallen out of his utility belt. He'd felt it fall when he landed in the stomach of the vile creature. His efforts in looking for the object were hampered by the sporadic way his suits power supply kept trying to quit.
On a whim, Fett checked his rocket pack. It was fueled up about half way. If he couldn't find the thermal detonator he was looking for, maybe he could figure out a way to detonate the fuel in the pack. The rocket inside the rocket pack might also be an option.
Whatever it was, Fett knew he needed to act quickly. The power cells he'd rigged up were acting more and more like they were going to give out and not come back on again. He redoubled his search for the thermal detonator.
It took many more moments of methodical and increasingly urgent searching before his fingers closed around the explosive device just as his power gave out again. He knew that he'd only have one chance at this.
The smell of burned wiring told him what he'd suspected already. That the cells were cooked. He was in the dark now. His rebreather and dark vision were the only things working and even they had precious few minutes left.
Fett started pulling bodies over him to shield himself from the blast of the detonator. The Gamorrians, Weequay, Niktos, Klaatus, and other aliens that Jabba had kept in his court were all famously tough skinned. Their hides would make a better shield than the bodies of simple humans ever could.
He was about to activate the detonator and toss it out when the idea came to him. Why not use the power cells from the vibro weapons, blasters, and other equipment to help augment the blast and increase his chances for escape? There was no way of knowing it would work, but there were a few devices within an easy arms reach that he could use to try.
Grabbing those devices, Fett removed the power cells from a couple blasters, a vibro shiv, and his own useless carbine. He put all of these into a satchel he'd yanked off a Nikto guard, threw in his detonator, activated to go off in three minutes, and tossed it on top of the pile of bodies in the stomach of the Sarlacc. He buried himself under those bodies as best he could and waited for the blast to go off.
The wait became agonizingly difficult as the auxiliary power to his dark vision and rebreather cut out. The burning sensation of the stomach juices was increasing. It had eaten its way through his clothing and was burning his bare skin now. The smell was horrific as he lay face down in it. His own stomach wanted to give way, and he'd seen enough in his life for it to take a lot to make that happen.
Fett closed his eyes as he waited. He replayed the battle in his mind. It was the one thing he'd not let himself think about as he tried to effect his escape. Now, as he waited in the depths of the Sarlacc, his mind would touch on nothing else.
Visions of Skywalker swinging his lightsaber, striking down those trying to subdue him with blinding speed brought back a vicious memory from his youth. A vision of a Jedi striking down his own father, decapitating him in the middle of that arena on Geonosis. Fett had been twelve. Now, more than thirty years later, here was another Jedi threatening to do the same thing to him.
The Jedi were supposed to have died out. That had been the plan all along if the rumor was to be believed. Fett himself had taken part of that purge. He remembered well as a young adult and new to the Bounty Hunter's guild how he'd taken on bounties to hunt down Jedi. It was how he'd honed his skills and in no small part how he'd gained his reputation as one of the best hunters in the galaxy.
Now, here on Tatooine and millions of parsecs away from the galactic core, there was a Jedi. What was worse was that the Jedi was friends with Solo. He'd even learned that it was the same person whom he'd glimpsed on Cloud City as he was taking Solo to his ship after he'd been encased in carbonite.
He had to laugh at the situation. Solo was free of the carbonite. A Jedi Knight was a friend of his and he was down here in the pit of hell waiting for that stupid detonator to go off. Calrissian had been hiding in Jabba's court for weeks and he'd not recognized that either. Was he getting too old for the game?
WHOOM!
The Helmet he wore and the bodies he'd packed around himself had dampened the worst of the noise. Still the feeling of disorientation was profound for several long minutes. When he felt like he could finally move, Fett started picking his way out from under what was left of the mangled bodies that had been above him. The sight of the harsh Tatooine sunlight made him smile under his helmet. He'd done it.
He took only a minute to gather his gear and a small hold out blaster pistol from a Klaatu that had somehow survived that superheated blast, and then set to work on his rocket pack. He opened up the fuel lines and activated the thrusters. With a sudden roar and a hard jerk Fett was lifted out of what was left of the Sarlacc and it's meal and into the hot Tatooine sunshine.
Banking hard to avoid the inferno of what had once been Jabba's sail barge, Fett landed a few dozen meters in the sand and stared at the wreckage. That had been the loud noise he'd heard.
So that was it then. There was no way that Jabba could have survived that. One of his most lucrative employers was now burning away on the sands of Tatooine. Then a thought that made Fett smile stole into his mind; the Hutts would pay dearly for the bounty on the ones who had killed Jabba. The prospects of such a hunt would be lucrative indeed. Perhaps even enough to retire on, should he choose to do so.
First however, he would need to get back to the palace.
With the suit's power cells damaged or dry, Fett couldn't activate the remote call for his ship. That would have made things too easy. He'd have to find another way to get back to the palace.
Looking around the wreckage, Fett found several dead guards, thugs, and even a couple other underlings of Jabba's court. He started going through their pockets for things that might be useful. There wasn't much.
He did find a blaster on one of the thugs. It was not unlike the kind favored by Solo, except maybe a little smaller. The thug, a Rodian named Leebo, even had a spare power cell for the thing. Sticking the cell into a pocket and the blaster into his belt, Fett kept on looking.
"Freeze," Said a voice from behind him.
Fett ignored this and kept working. There were very few in Jabba's court whom he thought might pose a threat. However, he didn't get to be as old as he was by being stupid.
Ignoring the voice behind him for a moment bought him time. Fett simply touched the plate that activated his wrist laser as he continued working. When the sound of a laser blast followed the pulse of energy that burned into the sand next to where he was working, Fett knew it was time to pay attention to the person behind him.
Slowly he stood up and turned around. He could feel the aches in his muscles and bones from his time in the Sarlacc not to mention from his age. The burns were painful but bearable. The air was fouled by the smoke from the flaming wreckage but it was still a million times more breathable than what had been in that pit.
The site that greeted him as he finished turning around made him smile with contempt. It was a the Quarren from Jabba's court, the squid-head's name escaped him just then, and he was covered by two Weequay guards, both of whom were wounded. The Squid-head looked very uncomfortable. Fett knew he had this.
With a twist of his wrist, Fett fired his wrist laser at the Quarren and saw him go down. The two Weequay stepped forward to engage him but they were easily dealt with. Drawing the blaster he'd just pulled off the thug, Leebo, Fett shot them both in the head. The Squid-head made a sound as he started writhing in the sand.
"Next time, stick with something you're good at," Fett growled as he fired the blaster into the head of the Quarren.
The being went limp on the sand. Fett grabbed up his blaster and checked it against the one he'd taken from Leebo. The Quarren's was the better weapon by far. He yanked the power cell from Leebo's gun and dropped it in the sand. Now it was time to return to the job he'd set himself to doing before; finding a way back to the palace.
As the day began to draw to a close, Fett was thankful for the still burning wreckage. It provided him with light to see and it's heat would stave off the freezing temperatures of the night.
He prepared to settle down for the evening and more thoroughly go through the pile of things he'd found and assembled. It was small, but there were some promising things in it.
There were power cells from the weapons he'd found, a set of electro binoculars, a couple comm links, and a few pouches of water; the most precious commodity in the desert.
It was as the first stars in the sky were winking into life that Fett finally unsealed and then removed his helmet. He grabbed one of the water pouches, uncapped it, and drank deeply as he looked up at the night sky.
The water was warm and gritty. Nevertheless it felt good as it went down, washing the taste of the smoke and the air from inside the Sarlacc from his throat. It didn't take very long to drain the first container. Fett was reaching for the second when he heard it. The unmistakable sound of approaching swoops. He smiled in anticipation. Fett had been expecting this.
Tatooine, being a hot, desert world with few natural resources was sparsely populated. Those who did live there, aside from some moisture farmers and business people of one type or another, were typically those who made their living doing things like smuggling, transport, or the criminal underworld like Jabba the Hutt and his court.
Something like a large fire out in the middle of the dune sea was bound to attract some attention. Sure enough a swoop gang was approaching from the south east, the direction of Jabba's palace.
Fett waited tucked down behind a large sand dune as the gang approached. None of them looked like anyone he recognized from around the palace. Not that it mattered. When one of the gang drove his swoop within range of the blaster he carried, Fett took his chance.
He hit the man on his second shot, knocking him out of his seat and into the sand. The swoop immediately came to a stop. The rest of the gang cleared out of Fett's range as he jogged over, climbed on top of the hovering one man vehicle, and gunned it into motion.
The rest of the gang lost no time in their pursuit, which was exactly what Fett had expected. This was fine. Fett had spent his share of time on a swoop and was very skilled in handling them.
Hitting the accelerator he sped ahead of the gang only to turn around and come back at them. He steered with his legs and fired at the other four gang members as they approached him at breakneck speed.
One of the gang was hit and steered his Swoop bike into the person next to him. The other two had to veer wildly to avoid hitting their friends. As he'd hoped, the two survivors lost control of their bikes and sailed off into the desert. He heard one crash some distance away as the notoriously difficult to drive Swoop hit something, probably a rock or a dune. By the time the other one came back, Fett would be long gone.
By the time he got back to the palace, it was dark. The desert sands were just starting to give the heat absorbed during the day back into the sky. It hadn't cooled off much yet. He pulled the Swoop around the back of the palace and down to the hangars. There were only a handful of ships that docked here. Jabba's transport, a couple Z-95 Headhunters, and in the large, main hangar, the ships kept by the other hunters or mercenaries that Jabba employed.
The Slave I, Fett's ship and one that he'd kept up lovingly since the death of his father all those years ago, was berthed in it's own stall. As a matter of personal security, Fett stayed within his ship when he was at Jabba's court. It was a simple matter of security since no one could enter the ship without his personal clearance. The ship's security systems had been programmed specifically for that purpose.
As he pulled into the hangar bay, he noticed that one of the ships was being prepped for take off. It was an older vessel but Fett knew that it was one of the best ships that had ever taken a berth in Jabba's hangars.
The engines were fast, the hull thickly plated with armor, it had hidden gun ports and rocket launchers, and a communications suite that was second to none. He knew this because Fett had taken it upon himself to explore the ship when he'd seen the owner.
She was human, youngish, and very beautiful. She was also very dangerous. Fett had seen her do things that required a strength that her physique wouldn't suggest she had. She was blindingly fast and exceedingly smart. He would even wager that she'd give that Jedi Skywalker a good run.
It was in that moment that she came around the back of her ship and saw Fett standing there looking in her direction. She froze and returned his look with an icy cold glare of her own.
"Jade," Fett said by way of acknowledgement.
"Fett," She nodded slowly, "I heard there was some trouble in the desert today,"
"You might say that," Fett answered as he turned away.
He kept his hand near the handle of the blaster as he reached up and manually coded in the sequence that would allow him to board his ship. Normally he'd be able to activate the code remotely, but since his suit's power was out, it required the manual code entry.
"Looks like you've been through the Rancor's den," Jade said as she finished the preparation of her ship.
Boba Fett grunted. He knew by that statement that Mara Jade wasn't going to pull one on him, "I've been through worse,"
"I bet you have," Jade responded, her voice receding as she turned towards the boarding ramp of her ship.
Nothing more was said between them. That's the way it had always been though. Fett didn't trust Mara Jade. There was just something about her that he couldn't put his finger on. She'd always been cordial with him though, so he had no reason to distrust her other than his instincts.
The Slave I's boarding ramp extended and the hatch opened. Fett glanced over at Jade's ship as it's power systems kicked in and she began her take off procedure. He climbed the ramp and shut the hatch.
As soon as the hatch was closed, he started removing his clothes and gear. He'd save what he could and discard the rest. He had spare clothes and gear in his ship.
As he redressed and put on the gear he had, he knew what his next step would be. Skywalker, Solo, Calrissian, and the rest would have to pay for their actions today. The Hutts would be furious when they found out and the bounty on their heads would be astronomical. Fett wanted in on that.
His next stop would be Nar Shadda. He knew that there would be money to be made just for being able to give his account of what happened. Maybe the Hutts would even give him the first chance at taking the bounty.
There was another, deeper, reason that Fett wanted to go after Solo and his friends. It had been a long time since he'd lost a fight so badly. The burn in his chest and his stomach that he was feeling wasn't from the Sarlacc. It was the thirst for revenge. And it would be his. Some day and some day soon, he would be taking his vengeance against Solo, Skywalker and the others. It would be a glorious day indeed.