I don't own Star Wars, this is a fan fiction only.

It was a new age for my planet. For as long as I can remember we dreamed of what was beyond the reaches of our planetary system. You would often picture strange new worlds, new civilizations and uncharted wonders to be discovered. All this was definitely not what I first thought off as I got my officer's commission.

I studied a bachelor's degree in electronic engineering thinking that at most I would be repairing computer equipment back in the base. I instead get sent to something that was a nightmare. It turns out the Marine Corp got sick and tired of being treated as the dumbest of our four military branches, and actually set up a research wing that worked along side NASA.

As a lieutenant with expertise in designing electronic and electrical equipment I was one of the few leather necks that was unlucky enough to get sent to the new special projects division. The newest nightmare was working day and night on the eggheads newest project.

They tasked me to check the wiring on their newest project. They actually were trying to make an interplanetary ship out of an F-34 aircraft. It was an electronics nightmare. First we had to reinforce the hull to stand the fact that this thing was supposed to exit and enter our atmosphere.

That was done mostly by me and most of my division trying to use current space shuttle technology to the new ship design. The next thing was that travel in space actually took longer than the other scientists figured. Me and my colleagues manages to make a rather simple looking air recycling system. Guess working on submarines came in handy.

As the nightmare dream of NASA finally came close to completion they came up with shall we say unexpected engine design. They actually had the nerve to make the engine be propelled by manipulating the composition of space vacuum. That's right the eggheads made an engine that propelled the ship using the particles in the vacuum of space.

I looked at my division head and began shaking my head. "Sir now we need to find the poor fool that is going to test fly this little deathtrap of a ship. I know it will take no less than a miracle to get that engine to work."

I sure didn't like the way he was looking at me. "Well John it turns out the highly trained scientist in NASA don't want to risk losing one of their precious and highly trained astronauts to test fly as you said this deathtrap. So Lieutenant John Walker it is my privilege to inform you that you will be the pilot for this ship's maiden flight."

I tried to laugh as he said it at least until the Colonel told me he was actually being serious. "Great, just great. Can I have some leave to say good bye to my folks, sign my life insurance and my last will and testament before I am shoot out into oblivion?"

Colonel Rikard was a nice guy most of the days, but he was dead serious as he said that I could write a letter and all other paperwork had already been taken care off by the division legal staff. I guess they thought that I might want to try and run for dear life. It actually never occurred to me until my future ex told me this herself.

Well everything was not negative after all, my lover pretty much told me she planned to have my pet cat stuffed, she had already plans to dump me and marry this astronaut by the name of Chriton. So in retrospect flying to my death would help my folks to pay off the mortgage on their home and give my cheating lover a chance to actually marry the guy she was currently sleeping with.

As I looked at it me flying this deathtrap didn't seem like such a horrific thing after all. It could be the fact that my superiors didn't even try to talk with the other people in my division or it simply was a fact that nobody was going to miss or cry about the death of a jarhead.

The flight in the space shuttle made me realize that if I heard one more joke about how my food coming out of something that look like a toothpaste tube. The old deathtrap turns out was a wonderful way to excuse myself from their ever insulting company.

As I strapped myself in to what I expected to be a rather quick and hopefully memorable death. I came to appreciate the subtle beauty of my situation. Basically I was one of those monkeys that they launched into space during the early stages of our species space exploration age.

Just for giggles they sent me out of the space shuttle cargo bay while playing the Marine Corps Hymn. As I turned the engines on my biggest surprise happened. The blasted thing didn't implode and it actually began to move through space. That is when my commanding officer had the wonderful idea for me to see how fast could the bucket of bolts go.

I figured it couldn't possibly get worse so I did as they ordered. The ship flew for the most part like one of those grocery carts in my local grocery store. That was until the engine began to give a sudden unexpected jolt and the control panels began to look like a panel of Christmas lights.

I did my best to steer it to a flight path that could steer me away from the possibility of ending up a smoking crater on the moon when I realized the speed display actually cracked and I had no clue just how fast I was going or could tell where was I? To me the scene outside looked like I was flush down a whirlpool of some kind.

I must have lost consciousness at some point and kept flying through space. All I knew was that considering the possible speed I was going I wouldn't be surprised that I end up travelling through time and my crash landing back on earth is the real reason why the dinosaurs died.

Just as I was pretty much feeling I was about to starve I saw my ship's engine finally burn out. All I knew that I was dropping out of orbit on a planet I had no clue where it was or even if I would survive re-entry or even if the atmosphere was anything I could breath. Either way I knew my ship would not be strong enough to leave the planet or have enough of it to even repair it if possible.

I just closed my eyes and decided to pray a final time, who knows I might get my prayer answered and I could end up surviving. This might be the beginning of a whole new life for me. Guess my DI was right after all. Always remain optimistic of your chance and if that fails fake it.

The ship came chasing down and it finally stopped on the surface. The good news is I made it out of the smoldering wreckage that had been my ship. The air was good enough for me to breath and I had my assault riffle with me. I guess my old habit of keeping my rifle maintained and carry extra ammo was not such a bad idea.

The city must be massive since I couldn't even see the sky. "Now all I need is a giant drooling monster that thinks I look yummy. You think something falling out of the sky would draw the attention of someone."

Another old saying soon proved to be true, be careful what you wish for because I certainly got my wish. I didn't get one drooling monster but an entire pack of them. The thing had grey scales, bumps and puss filled looking eyeballs. The thing had more jagged teeth than a shark and it was twice as mean.

Good thing the blasted things were not bullet proof or I might have ended up dead or devoured by the looks of it. I kept blasting the drooling monsters as I kept my distance from them. After what seemed to be hours of constant fighting I finally saw a group of people dressed in what I would call rags. Finally some help, I had no idea what language they spoke but I knew I was wrong as I saw one throw a lightning charge grenade my way.

The next thing I know I am buck naked floating in a strange liquid. I had a weird breather mask on my face. I couldn't move my head, and couldn't see out of my right eye. I couldn't feel my right hand or anything below my left knee.

The one thing I could do is listen out of my right ear noises of strange sounding people, machines and robots. 'This must be some kind of hospital, prison or both. How in the world am I going to escape out of this thing. If the last natives were any indication this is not friendly territory.'

That is when a person came to stand in front of the strange fluid filled tube I was floating in. He touched a weird console and I could suddenly hear a voice of a person. "Good you regained consciousness. I am sorry to tell you those swoop gang members really did a number on you. You lost hearing in one of your ears, an eye, a hand, and everything below your left knee. You are alive but a cripple to be sure."

I could only guess this person was a doctor, and a doctor who clearly sucked in his bedside manner by the sound of it. "So basically my life is pretty much over. I manage to survive atmospheric re-entry, the wreckage of my ship, and over several dozen drooling monsters, and a common thug is what ruins my life."

I heard another voice that sounded a bit gruff clear his throat behind the doctor. "Sounds to me like things have gone from bad to worse for you kid. I don't know you and you don't know me. If you are willing to work with me however I can patch you up. Hell you might even be able to make the scum that did that to you pay for doing that to you. So what do you say kid? Want to get your revenge? Still have a will to fight or are you going to roll over and give up?"

I saw his scarred face and I knew he was a combat veteran if his attitude was anything to go bye. Me give up? Marines don't know the meaning of the word quit. "If you can help me with some armor, weapons and some idea where the hell I am and info I need. Sure sign me up, next time I see those bastards they are going to wish they finished me off!"

The guy laughed and before I lost consciousness again I could swear he said that he liked my attitude. I don't know how long I was under but when I woke up I could see, my hand and leg had been replaced with some weird looking prosthetic. My ear was working but part of my face was covered in a metal I couldn't quite tell what it was.

"So you finally got patched up. The name is Canderous Ordo, of the Mandalorian clan Ordo. Mind telling me who you are?" There was curious yet firm look in his gray eyes, they reminded me lot like a storm about happen.

I put on the clothes and armor. It strangely felt like my old combat gear but it had a much harder exterior than any armor I wore in the Corps. "I got no idea what a Mandalorian is. My name is John Walker, 1st Lieutenant U.S Marine Corps Specials Projects Division. I guess you could say I am a warrior from the planet we call Earth."

Canderous looked at me with a smile and tossed me something similar to my old assault rifle. I took hold of it and it felt like I held it for years. "I think you will find that rifle to be something of an acquired taste. That blasted thing never seems to do what I want it. It's a multi-phased assault blaster rifle. I swear it's like it has a mind of it's own."

I looked at it chambered the first round and while gripping it in my hand I saw one of the scumbags that attacked me. Without even thinking about it I took aim and began to fire against the gang members. In a matter of minutes all the members of the gang were dead. I took aim to make sure they suffered immensely before dying.

I walked over and looking at the corpses realized that some of the gang members were not human at all. Canderous laughed as I put the rifle on my back and fastened the strap. "I guess you remember that these were the people that attacked you, but for future reference it would be nice if you told you planned to start exacting your vengeance against them. The group is called the Black Vulkars by the way and you saved me some trouble. Our employer wanted us to punish this gang anyways."

That caused people to give us quite a bit of privacy. I walked with him to a nearby bar and took a seat on a chair. The waitress came to ask for our order. I ordered something that didn't have any liquor in it. I told her it was against my principals to drink while working.

She laughed and suggested some juice then, Canderous had a glass of this particular planet's much well known ale. "John mind telling me why you keep looking at the people in the bar like you never seen non humans before?" I took a sip of my juice to relax and looked at him.

"Because until a few days ago I didn't even know life existed other than my own species. Earth is not what you call a space fairing planet. I ended on this planet because my ship, which was experimental malfunctioned on me. So excuse me if I find it a bit surprising to find so many non human species."

Canderous decided to give me a crash course about all known sentient species and the customs he knew about. He even explained some of the customs of the different groups or factions in known space. The weird thing I almost felt like his people had the same philosophy as the Corps did.

I decided to tell him a little bit about my past, and he told me a few rather amusing stories. It was easy to see we were getting along rather well, except when this short guy came to our table. He walked towards Canderous completely ignoring me.

"Since when did you start working with others Canderous? You always struck me as the loner type. Not going soft in your old age are you?" I was already pretty upset that this shrimp decided to interrupt our little discussion. I was learning quite a few things about this unknown galaxy that was going to be my new home.

I glared at him and for some odd reason I wanted to knock his block off. This made Canderous smile at me. "Look Calo you usually leave me alone. Do yourself a favor and scram my friend clearly doesn't like your company. I just saw him gun down twenty four Black Vulkars in less than a few minutes. I think he might want to kill you next."

"I guess I should really stop trying to be sociable with scum like you two. I am the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. Pray you don't become my next target or you will not survive my wrath!"

I must say he left the bar looking mighty pissed off, but in the end I couldn't care less. "You know John it takes guts to stand up to Calo Nord like that. As I was saying I work for the local Exchange boss and I take care of most of his problems, or at least problems that require some muscle to deal with."

He took a sip off his glass and continued to explain the situation I found myself in. "It's not what you call uplifting work, but without credits you or me will not survive. Taris I guess it can be described as a garbage dump. You got the people on top crushing those below, the guys in the middle get crushed and we are the ones that get paid to do the crushing. Until we either find a way off this world we do what we must in order to survive, even if it leaves us with a bad aftertaste."

I guess that meant that I was one of the local Crime Lord's enforcers. In the end I felt like I owed Canderous for all the help he gave me so far, and chances are I was going to need his help in the future. I always felt that I should return the favor and so I finished my juice and helped the waitress with some heavy crates. Turns out because I did something no other customer bothered to do we developed a good rapport with the bar and the people that worked there.

"Guess because you decided to help out our drinks this time are on them. Come on John lots of scumbags to deal with and so little time." I looked at him and asked him if I could kill a few Black Vulkars while we work?

"Sure, just try to make it quick. These scum may be pathetic in small groups, but with enough of them they can become quite the headache." I guess it was much like the ants in my world. One or a handful is no major troubler, but an anthill could be quite the different story.