Hello, and welcome to the first chapter of Unlikely Alliances. First off, I do not own Star Wars or any of it's characters, but the OCs belong to me. Reviews and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.
Shesharile V was not the most hospitable planet to settle on, being home to weapons smugglers and smog clouded mining sites. However, for a group of war criminals fleeing from the wrath of the newly instated Empire, it would have to do.
There were a small handful of ships, one a BC-174 luxury transport, the Golden Dewback, the other, a much larger and more threatening Sabaoth Destroyer, the Goliath. The rest were droid fighters which had managed to flee alongside the larger ships. The group was fleeing from a flotilla of Republic starships that had decimated their base mere hours ago. Aboard the smaller ship, the leaders of the refugee ship were discussing their decision as they held orbit.
"I'm regretting this already." The Muun Commodore, Skutch Nevisus said dully as he pried a bottle of brandy away from an already incredibly inebriated Neimoidian and took a swig.
"Relax; I know this place like the back of my hand. It's a dreary little backwater, but it'll be easy for us to blend in." Kazan Zanabi, a Human engineer reassured his superior officer.
"We shouldn't be hiding at all, we should be fighting back!" The Neimoidian Sergeant, Valt Koun snapped, smashing his fist on the conference table for punctuation.
"I agree with the Neimoidian, this is cowardice." Mina Horrigata, a Human assassin said, somewhat more calmly.
The Neimoidian Captain, Delinae Uvac laughed at that suggestion "Oh yes, what an excellent idea. We could certainly strike up a resistance with our mighty force of one warship and a small collection of droids, couldn't we?"
The cyborg navigator, Urodela Brayge stood up "While I would have put it more delicately, the Captain has a point. With our somewhat meagre forces, we would not stand a chance."
"There are other pockets of resistance, surely. I highly doubt that we are the last remaining Separatists in the Galaxy," Mina said.
Brayge shrugged "It's highly probable, yes. But we are scattered and weak; no doubt many of our comrades have been captured or killed in the confusion of the droid shutdown. Not to mention the deserters and the defectors."
Mina scowled at this, before slumping down in her seat.
Kazan tried to be reassuring "Come on, Min, we can settle down here, maybe incite the locals into rebellion or something."
Mina raised an eyebrow "Settle here?"
Kazan blinked, unsure of himself "Um…"
"For the record, if we have a child here, they will be handling a blaster just as soon as their arms are strong enough, they will receive combat training just as soon as they can walk and their first sentence had better be "Death to the Empire"," Mina said, staring evenly at Kazan.
In response, a stunned Kazan could only stare back.
The ships touched down several kilometres outside of Shesharile's capital city, Gallisport and began to unload their cargo.
"This seems like a good enough place to build a compound," The Captain of the Goliath, an O'reenian by the name of Iacen Vandil said "Zanabi, how soon can you have the rest of the droids up and running?"
Kazan and his team of engineers were looking over the squads of droids which had all been on the Goliath and had subsequently deactivated. There was close to three thousand, mostly B1 battle droids, but there were a few droidekas and other types of droids.
Kazan stared at the droids, before reaching for his fusioncutter "Well, given the amount of droids we're looking at, plus the fact that I'm a little short staffed…" Zanabi motioned to his nine man (and one WED droid) team, "We're looking at a few months…"
Vandil cursed "Fine, just get to work immediately."
"Ah, Captain, there's also the matter of the ships…" Kazan trailed, somewhat apprehensively.
"Well, what about them?" Vandil asked.
"If we intend to settle on this moon, we'll need to disassemble them so as not to attract undue attention." Kazan said, flinching back.
Vandil simply stared at him "What?"
"We can reuse the parts! We can use them to build our compound!" Kazan said hurriedly, hoping to placate Vandil.
Vandil let out snort "You want me to disassemble my ship. My ship, which's served with me for the entirety of the war, which has saved my life countless times?"
"Um…yes? Please?" Kazan said meekly.
Vandil scowled "I'm taking this up with the Commodore. In the meantime, get to work on these droids!"
After many hours of debate, Vandil reluctantly agreed to have his ship dismantled. After a few months, the droids were brought back online and put to work, unloading the ships and setting up defences. The Separatists told themselves that whatever happened, they would be ready.
After a year had passed, Mina and Kazan had delivered a child. A boy they named Kam. Contrary to Mina's wishes, his first word had been "Droid", much to Kazan's pride.
"He's taken a real shine to them," Kazan noted as Kam reached out for an OOM-security droid, who tentatively held out its hand.
"No, he's reaching for its blaster, see?" Mina said, motioning to the droid's rifle, which was holstered to its back, nowhere near Kam's reach.
"Just keep telling yourself that. When he's older he's going to be a real whiz with droids!" Kazan said happily.
"He'll be a mercenary; he'll grow up and take down the fascist Imperial government," Mina said firmly.
"We'll see." Kazan said simply as he held his son.
Curling his fingers around the battle droid's hand, Kam began to laugh.
"Who's he?" Kam asked, pointing to a holomural depicting a white armoured figure wielding four lightsabers. He was in mid battle with a number of robed figures, each wielding lightsabers of their own.
"That, Kam, is General Grievous. He was a hero of the Clone Wars, a brave and noble fighter for our cause. He slew many of the Jedi scum during his battles. You must always show the proper respect to him, he accomplished much before his murder." Mina said, staring into the holomural's eyes.
Kam looked at the image of Grievous in awe.
"What are these, dad?" Kam asked as he pulled a small disc out of a box.
"Oh, those are my old Jedi and clone TradeChips. I used to collect those during the war," Kazan said as he inspected the chips.
Kam held out a chip and activated it. Instantly, a tiny hologram sprung up, showing a representation of a Phuii Jedi, as well as a list of statistics, such as his confirmed kills and Midi-Chlorian count.
"Ares Nune," Mina said as she peered down at the hologram "I remember him. He was the reason we lost Reecee. He butchered dozens of soldiers." A look of pure loathing crossed Mina's face as she thought of the Jedi.
Kam frowned and put the chip back in the box. From what his parents and the other people in the compound had told him, the Jedi had been little more than the Republic's thugs, kidnapping children for their cult and hoarding ancient secrets that had once belonged to the Sith. Not to mention their crusade against the Separatists. Kam supposed that the one good thing about the Empire was that they had managed to put the Jedi down once and for all.
Kazan picked up a different chip and activated its hologram. A clone commander in black striped armour stood proud, brandishing a DC-17 hand blaster and a DC-15S blaster carbine.
""Clone commander 3636, Wolffe, 104th Battalion."" Kazan read aloud.
Mina snorted in disgust "One of the reasons we lost Khormai and its precious agrocite supplies."
As with the Jedi, Kam had also been taught of the clone scourge. An army that had been created on Kamino, they were little more than puppets that had been controlled by the Republic and the Jedi in their war against the Separatists. Emotionless, detached creatures that had been born solely to fight, Kam had found the idea sickening and believed it was evidence of the depravity of the Jedi.
"Hmm, perhaps we should put these away for now..." Kazan suggested reluctantly, as he set the box on a high shelf.
With one last glance, Kam walked off and wondered how beings as evil as the Jedi had been allowed to exist.
"…And why did we lose the Battle of Ba'Har? Kam, can you give me an answer?" Jabiimi mercenary, Purt Nidis asked, looking at her students.
Eight year-old Kam sat next to the only other child in the room, Nabelle Hasur, and struggled to come up with an answer. Behind them, two IG-100 MagnaGuards stood impassively.
"Because the Separatist forces failed to take High Orbit Precision Entry teams into account during the battle. Because of this, their anti-air defences weren't calibrated to deal with threats as small as HOPE troopers. HOPE squads were deployed behind enemy lines and managed to commit acts of sabotage, allowing the main forces easy access to our strongholds." Nabelle answered.
Purt nodded "Exactly…Millions of droids, anti-air batteries and ray shielded fortresses and we were undone by parachutes." Purt scowled at that.
"Show off," Kam muttered.
Purt fixed her kreehawk like eyes on Kam, "The question was meant for you, Kam. You know what happens when you fail to provide an answer."
Behind Kam, one of the MagnaGuards stepped forward. Kam looked back fearfully as the droid reached for its electrostaff and jabbed Kam with it. The low power level that it was set to ensure that the blow was not fatal, but it did deliver a painful electric shock. Kam let out a pitiful yelp as he was struck, while Purt watched on calmly.
"Next time, answer my question." Purt said, before going back to her lesson.
"Concentrate, child, your aim is in serious need of improvement!" The Skakoan mercenary, Vaako Sting said as he stood behind Kam.
Kam, Vaako and Nabelle were on an improvised shooting range. Several meters away were several pieces of scrap metal with images of Jedi painted onto them. Kam grimaced as he reloaded his rifle. So far he had had little luck.
BLAM!
"Got 'im, right between the eyes," Nabelle said as she lowered her blaster's scope.
Vaako walked over and checked her progress. True to her word, Nabelle had managed to shoot an image of Saesee Tiin in the head.
"Excellent, Nabelle, very nicely done. You could stand to learn a little from her, Kam," Vaako said reproachingly.
Kam gritted his teeth and took aim for a painting of Coleman Kcaj. He took a deep breath, relaxed and took his shot. Vaako looked over.
"Were you trying to emasculate A'Sharad Hett?" Vaako asked, a tinge of hope in his voice.
Kam shook his head in disappointment. Vaako sighed in disgust, before walking off.
"I thought it was a nice try," Nabelle said, somewhat sympathetic.
Kam just sighed and threw his rifle down.
"That's it, that's it!" The Karkarodon engineer, Hexan Cart said as Kam powered up a battered mortar super battle droid.
The droid powered up its servos and flexed its arms, testing them eagerly. Quick as a flash, it pulled out its mortar tube and began waving it around. Satisfied with its reaction time, it offered a nod of approval to Kam.
"I fixed it?" Kam asked, incredulous.
"Beginner's luck." Centro Cart, Hexan's brother muttered.
"Well done, Kam. You did very well." The Northern Mustafarian, Parn Sixos complimented, clapping Kam on the back.
"It is very impressive…" The Geonosian drone, Sav Cressida said as he admired the work.
"There is of course plenty of room for improvement. He still requires practice." Na-Soth Larr, a Givin said.
"Ah, give the kid a break; he did pretty well for his first time." Shio Blayde, the Kamarian said.
The Harch, Genkaye LeGrande took that moment to interject "Na-Soth is right; the boy requires much more practice. He should get to work on the rest of the droids." At that, he motioned to a line of droids who were eager to receive repairs.
"Well, while I agree that practice would be good for him, don't you think that this is a bit much?" Tetek Moe, a green-skinned, stout handed squid-like being, asked.
"I can handle it, guys, really," Kam broke in, eager to prove himself.
"You heard him, he wants to do it!" Kazan said, a huge grin on his face "We'll be outside, Kam, but Three-eight-two will be here if you need help."
A WED droid with multiple attachments beeped in acknowledgement and readied some of its numerous tools.
Kam nodded "Alright, dad. I should have this done soon."
Kazan let out a chuckle "I have no doubt of that, son. Good luck, I know you can do it."
At that, the engineers stepped out of the room and into the open air.
"You don't think that you're pushing him too hard?" Kazan's best friend, a cyborg Viidaav known as Tam Westlocke asked.
"No, believe me; he's having a much easier time compared to his other lessons. You've seen how Mina and the soldiers work him," Kazan said.
"Indeed…I know that it's none of my business, but don't you think the boy's being overworked? All this training, and for what? Some hope that he'll become the next generation of Separatist soldier?" Tam asked.
"I don't think it'll ever come to that, but he should be prepared. For whatever happens. It's a big, cruel galaxy out there," Kazan replied.
Hours later, Kazan returned to find Kam, asleep over the body of a somewhat annoyed B1-A air battle droid. Kazan looked around; it was one of the only droids left in the room. Kazan smiled, he had been right. His son was a whiz with droids.
Kam's eyes widened in shock "Y-you really mean it?"
Kazan laughed "Yep, I really mean it."
Kam's eyes lit up. He turned and stared at the ship in front of him. It was a Muurian transport, a steadfast, reliable ship. True, it was in a state of disrepair, but that could be fixed. The word Night Hawk was embossed on the sides in faded lettering. Above the name was a silhouette of a bird of prey, wings stretched out wide, its talons outstretched above a planet Kam wasn't familiar with.
"And I can really help you fix it up?" Kam asked, the hope and excitement plain in his voice.
"Yep, come on, let's get started!" Kazan said as he picked up his toolbox.
It had taken months of hard, gruelling work, but the Night Hawk was eventually brought back to space faring status. Kam and Kazan stood proudly in front of their ship. It stood majestically in the compound, looking as good as a newly made ship, it had even been given a fresh coat of paint. The bird on the side looked ferocious and bold, its eyes shining a brilliant gold, inspired by those of General Grievous and the planet underneath it had been painted to look like Raxus, the former capital of the Confederacy.
"Can I, dad? Can I, please?" Kam pleaded with his father.
"Well, you'll need supervision, of course. This is illegal after all," Kazan pointed out.
"I'll take Parn and Uro! I promise I'll be responsible!" Kam said excitedly.
"Hmm, better take Tetek, Shio and Cap'n Uvac with you; you are a handful after all. MD-5G3 and 382 are aboard as well, just in case," Kazan said.
"Thanks, dad! You won't regret this, you'll see!" And at that, Kam raced off.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" A voice from behind Kazan asked.
He turned to see Mina, sitting next to a cannibalized but still functioning Vulture droid. She was looking wearily in Kam's direction.
"It'll do him good to test out the ship. Who knows, he might be a natural pilot as well as a natural engineer," Kazan said.
"I hope so; he's sure as hell not a natural soldier," Mina said, annoyance creeping into her voice.
"You're too hard on him, go easy," Kazan said reproachfully.
"He needs to be prepared; this galaxy's going to hell. You've heard the reports from the holonet. Planets are starting to rebel, sooner or later Kam's going to want to join them. He hates the Empire, just like we taught him to."
"Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see…" Kazan said, a tinge of uncertainty to his words.
"…Alright, all systems are optimal. I guess that means we can take off now?" Kam asked, looking to the others for guidance.
Urodela nodded "Go on, you know what to do."
"Right, yeah, I know what to do." Kam said, somewhat unsure of himself "I'm powering up the engines…now."
The ship began to hum to life as its systems powered up. Kam looked back again, and caught sight of the reassuring smile of Tetek, who was seated at a console of his own. Kam's gaze went back to the console and he began t he take-off preparations. The Night Hawk began to shudder, and for one brief, horrible moment, Kam was sure that his repairs had not been good enough and that the ship would explode. He began to sweat anxiously and his breath quickened. Calm down, Kam, it's just natural ship movement. It'll calm down in a moment and we can take off, Kam thought to himself. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and steadied himself. When he opened his eyes again, he felt ready.
"Alright, let's take off," Kam said, his eyes staring dead ahead.
"Very good…Captain Zanabi," Uvac said in good humour.
Kam swelled with pride at that. Captain Zanabi? I could get used to this.
The Night Hawk soared into the sky at breakneck speed. Kam felt excited as the ship picked up its pace. After a few moments of juddering turbulence, the sky began to thin out, and stars became visible through the transparisteel viewscreen.
"We have now left Shesharile's atmosphere. We are now in the moon's orbit," Shio said.
A cheer erupted in the cockpit. Even the medical droid, MD-5G3, who had wandered in from the infirmary, seemed pleased. Kam felt numb, he had done it. He had successfully repaired the ship and had left his homeworld. He stared at Shesharile through the viewscreen, a mostly barren, brown sphere, with the odd patch of blue and green. At the realisation that he was now free of Shesharile V, for however briefly, Kam was filled with exhilaration. A sense of wonder filled him and for a moment he felt truly proud of his accomplishment. He was in space! He was surrounded by the inky black void, filled with shining stars ahead of him, and Shesharile and her moons were behind him, floating tranquilly through space.
And so, the maiden voyage of the rebuilt Night Hawk went off with very little difficulty. When the ship touched down, the others were anxious to hear how it went. The other engineers questioned how the ship had performed, while the former naval crewmen wanted to know how the ship had handled space travel, they were anxious to relive their piloting days.
As Kam answered all of their questions, he knew that it was not his destiny to remain on Shesharile V, but to go out into the Galaxy. He looked up into the sky and he dreamt of the possibilities.
A few months after Kam's initial flight, Kam had taken an apprenticeship with a droid repair shop in Gallisport. The owner was a middle aged Zabrak named Blok Keer, an orange skinned, purple eyed being with a somewhat surly demeanor.
"You got those mining droids up and working again, boy?" Keer asked as he stepped into the back room of the shop, where the repairs were done.
Kam had to bite back his tongue. To his great annoyance, Keer never referred to him by his name, it was always "boy" or "kid". "Almost, sir, just need to adjust the servomotors on the last couple of droids, then they should be ready for DMSE to pick them up."
DMSE was Dutan Mining Supply Exports, the leading mining corporation on the planet. DMSE was where Keer got most of his business from, as their droids were often overworked in the mines, leading to constant need for repairs. At that time, Kam had been working on a team of MK3 mining droids who had been damaged during a minor cave in.
Keer grunted in response "Good, make sure they're all done when they come to pick up the droids."
"Won't you be here, sir?" Kam asked.
Keer shook his head "Won't be available. A binary load lifter had a breakdown in the mines and they need me to go down and fix it. You're in charge while I'm gone, boy, so don't screw things up, or next time I'll leave Bait in charge."
A brief flash of annoyance spread across Kam's face, before he relaxed. No good being a smart mouth, I'd prefer to keep this job, Kam thought to himself.
"Yes, sir, I'll do my very best," Kam said, giving a fake smile.
Keer grunted again, before slipping out the front door. Kam sighed in relief, now that the old man was gone, he could concentrate on fixing the droids in peace.
"Going to modify the droid's behind the master's back again?" Bait asked.
Kam sighed. Bait, or J9-B8 was a J9 worker droid who served as Keer's assistant. Originally, he was supposed to serve Kam's role as assistant mechanic but Keer had been woefully misinformed about the droid's capacities. Instead, Bait had taken to serving as a combination of mobile toolkit, storing all of Keer's tools on bandoliers attached to his body and receptionist.
"I'm hardly modifying these droids, Bait, I'm just...improving them." Kam answered as he began fiddling with the head of one of the droids.
"By sticking the cogitative theory units and memory banks of other droids into their heads? Oh yes, that would certainly count as "improving" them," Bait said dryly.
Kam frowned as he proceeded to do just that with the droid he was working on. Since he had started working at Keer's repair shop, he had been covertly modifying the mining droids that DMSE had been sending to them. Kam had been giving the mostly emotionless mining droids the memories and personalities of battle droids that had been too badly damaged for him to repair. Kam considered this to be, in a way, saving them. The mining droids still did their jobs well enough, and the battle droids personality lived on, as far as Kam was concerned, it was harmless. Well, there might have been the odd scuffle involving some particularly aggressive miners, but none of them had died or been that seriously injured.
"I'm just giving them a little bit of personality, Bait. Not that you'd understand," Kam muttered.
Bait huffed and walked back to the front desk. His timing was good, as Kam heard someone walk in a moment later.
"Good day, sir, what can I help you with?" Bait asked.
Looking into the front of the store, Kam saw a tall, somewhat battered Chagrian male. Beside him was an R2 unit in very bad condition. Its dome was dented in one spot, and the rest of it was covered in burn marks and grime, somewhat obscuring its copper trim.
"I need this astromech droid repaired as quickly as possible. It's in need of extensive repair." The Chagrian stated, motioning to the droid.
"Evidently," Bait muttered, his sensors sweeping over the droid "What specifically needs repairs?"
The Chagrian pulled out a datapad and read from it "The holoprojector is malfunctioning, the interface pulse stabilisers have been mangled, the processor state indicator is fried and the wires connecting to the power cell on his right leg have been severed. I had to carry the damn thing here from the spaceport."
Bait began to record the information on his own datapad "I see, and how did the damage occur."
"Our ship was unfortunate enough to get caught up in a meteor shower. As you can see from the droid, we barely got out of it. You should see the ship; it's in a much worse state," The Chagrian said, his fingers absentmindedly drumming on the front desk.
"I see. I'll have our backup engineer repair your droid as quickly as possible. Kam!" Bait called out.
Kam dutifully walked into the front of the store. From here, he could see that the droid looked worse than he had originally thought, as more dents and scores were visible. Shifting his eyes to the Chagrian, he could see that he was hardly in a better condition. He was covered in numerous cuts and bruises, and his jacket seemed to have been set on fire at some point. Glancing up at his horns, Kam could see a number of fine nicks in them, and there were further scars on his lethifolds. That had to have been some meteor storm, Kam thought to himself.
"Yes, Bait?"
"Take this astromech droid to the back, I'll send you a list of necessary repairs," Bait said.
"Here, I'll help you carry him," The Chagrian said as he got on one side of the droid and heaved.
"Thanks," Kam said as he did likewise, and the two brought the droid into the backroom.
"I trust that you can repair my droid? You seem awful young to be an engineer," The Chagrian said.
"Don't worry, I'm young, but I'm good with droids. I should have him up and running in a day or two," Kam said.
The Chagrian frowned "A day? I'm afraid that that is much too long, is there perhaps some way that you could repair him faster?"
Now it was Kam's turn to frown "Well, I'm afraid that the damage to this R2 unit is pretty extensive, it's going to take me a while."
The Chagrian cursed under his breath "Well, if you can fix my droid sooner than expected, I would be most gracious. There would be a significant reward for you..."
Kam was suspicious, why was he in such a hurry? "I'll try my best, Mr...?"
"Piscus Gorran," The Chagrian said, offering a grimace, which Kam took to be the Chagrian equivalent of a smile.
"Kam Zanabi," Kam replied.
"Unfortunately, Kam Zanabi, I must depart. Again, I would be most gracious if you could repair the droid as quickly as possible," Gorran said as he turned to leave.
"I'll work as quickly as I can, sir," Kam said as he put on his tool belt and went over to examine the droid, attempting to pacify Gorran.
Gorran nodded once, before stepping out into the front of the store, where he began to discuss the price for repairing the droid. Once that had concluded, he stepped out of the shop.
Kam turned to look back at the damaged droid. It really was in a sorry state.
"Well, I suppose I had better get started then," Kam muttered to himself as he began the difficult task of repairing the droid "Let's see, what do they call you?" Kam peered down at the droid's designation, which seemed to have been scratched off at some point and hastily replaced "R2-H7, ok then."
Hours later, the task had been mostly completed. The droid still looked to be in a bad condition, but at least it was brought back to a functioning level. Now all that was left was to repair the broken holoprojector.
"Alright, just need to tweak this and…there!" Kam announced triumphantly as the holoprojector sprang to life.
Kam's eyes widened in surprise at what he saw was being emitted by the droid. The holoprojector was cycling through the blueprints of dozens of different starships, all of Imperial design. H7 let out a cry of alarm and quickly shut the holoprojector down.
"Whoa, this incredible!" Kam gasped, before realization hit "Wait, R2 units can't hold this much data. Are you an R3 unit?"
The droid either couldn't or wouldn't answer that and simply stared at Kam.
"Its illegal for civilians to carry R3 units, they're a strictly military model," Kam noted "which is funny, because Gorran looked like a civilian pilot."
The droid remained silent, but seemed to be getting agitated, as it was starting to shift from tread to tread.
"I doubt he'd be Imperial, given how speciest they are, and a pirate seems unlikely, otherwise he and his crew would have raided the city by now. So that leaves…The Rebellion."
Now the droid seemed to be really worked up and tried to rush off, before Kam physically restrained it.
"Calm down, you're not going anywhere!" Kam said as he held the droid back.
"Oh, damn it."A voice from behind Kam said.
At once, the droid ceased struggling and Kam turned to face the speaker. It was Gorran, who had a very displeased look on his face.
Excited at his discovery, Kam blurted out: "Are you a rebel?"
Gorran sighed in frustration and sat himself down on top of a malfunctioning sweeper droid, who beeped angrily in response "I knew bringing the droid here was a mistake," Gorran murmured, placing a hand over his eyes.
"This is incredible! Please, you have to let me join you!" Kam shouted excitedly.
Gorran looked up at Kam, a frown tugging at the Chagrian's face "Absolutely not! The Rebellion is not in the habit of using child soldiers!"
"But I want to fight! The Empire needs to pay for its oppression!" Kam exclaimed.
"You're too young, I am not placing a teenage boy in harm's way." Gorran said, crossing his arms.
"Then let me do other things! I can repair droids better than anyone else!"
"We have plenty of engineers already," Gorran said steadfastly.
"My family owns a ship, we could give it to the Rebel fleet if you take me with you!" Kam pressed on, not willing to give up.
"The fleet needs warships, not family transports." Gorran said, growing irritated with the boy.
Before Kam could continue, a beeping noise began to emit from a pouch on Gorran's belt. Gorran held out a hand to silence Kam, before taking out a holoprojector. Activating it, a humanoid form sprung to life.
"Stryker, what is-?" Gorran began.
"Boss, we got a whole mess o' trouble down at tha spaceport!" The figure exclaimed frantically.
Gorran's face took on a look of worry "What kind of trouble?"
"It's those damn Imps! They followed us here and managed to take tha ship! They wrangled up Parnok and Infernis executed them!" Stryker continued.
Gorran's face fell and his eyes widened in alarm "Frell! Get the rest of the crew and meet me at the repair shop, we need to get out of here as quickly as possible!"
Stryker made a panicked gesture "But boss, how in tarnation are we gonna git off planet? We don't have a ship anymore!"
Gorran reluctantly turned to Kam "Actually, I believe we might…"
Twenty minutes later, a small group of people rushed into the store over Bait's frantic objections. After a short but heated debate, one of them switched Bait off. Gorran quickly introduced Kam to the group. Evidently, Stryker was Linco Stryker, an Anomid wearing a very distinctive vocabulator with long metal spikes on either side and a pilot's helmet atop his head. His left arm had been replaced with that of a B2 super battle droid and he wore a harness with four additional droid arms on his back, these ones belonging to a GD16 pilot droid.
Beside him stood twin Arpor-Lan, Vorkuta and Komi Taranatek. Both were well tanned and both were carrying what appeared to be specialized survival equipment, from protective face masks, to climbing gear to glowrods to stohkli spray sticks. Both were tugging at the spikes on their chins, apparently unaware that they were doing so.
Finally, there was Missira, a Tarasin whose pale white scales and widely splayed neck frill clearly indicated that he was agitated by recent events.
Gorran sighed and held a hand to his forehead "This has got to be the most conspicuous group I've ever been stuck with. Stryker, could you at least take off your harness?"
Stryker visibly bristled "It's attached to mah spine, ah can't take it off."
"Of course you can't," Gorran muttered, his hand still covering his eyes.
"So, what's the plan?" Vorkuta asked, clearly eager to get going.
"This kid here-" Gorran began.
"Kam. My name is Kam Zanabi." Kam interjected, annoyed that now someone else was reffering to him as a child.
Gorran rolled his eyes "Right, this Kam Zanabi has a ship back at his homestead."
"And he's just going to let us use it?" Vorkuta asked, the suspicion evident in his voice.
"For free?" Komi added.
"Yes," Gorran said.
"Not exactly," Kam said at the same time.
The rebels stared at Kam, who cleared his throat "Well, I'll let you use my ship, but I want to come with you."
Missira stared at Kam blankly "You want to be a member of the Rebel Alliance?"
"How old are you, kid?" Komi asked.
"I'm sixteen, but that's not the point. The point is that I'm tired of the Empire ruling over the galaxy! I want to help you bring freedom!" Kam said excitedly.
"Absolutely not," Gorran said.
"But I want to fight!" Kam pleaded.
"Kid, you're way too young to be running with us, it's not safe," Vorkuta said, backing up his leader.
"You could be hurt," Missira added.
"Aw hell, ah say that if the kid wants to fight, we should let 'im!" Stryker spoke up.
The others all shot glares at Stryker, who returned their gazes with a glare of his own.
"You all seem to be forgetting something. Without me, you can't leave this planet," Kam broke in.
Once again, the rebels turned to stare at Kam, their eyes wide in shock.
"Are you saying that you'd leave us here to die?" Missira asked, his scales going even paler.
"No way, he's bluffing," Vorkuta said, but his tone indicated that he was unsure.
"I'm not. Look, we can all leave on my ship, or none of us do. It's that simple." Kam said, crossing his arms.
Gorran hissed "Petulant child! You'll have us all executed!"
Stryker chuckled "Ah dunno, ah like this guy's ruthlessness."
"It's your choice, gentlemen," Kam said.
Gorran growled in frustration, before he made his decision "Alright, we'll take you with us!"
Kam smiled triumphantly "Alright then, I guess we better get going. I'm guessing that you have a speeder or something to get us out of here?"
"We got a speeder truck out back, we can use it to git ta yer ship." Stryker motioned to the back of the building.
"We'd better hurry, the Imperials will probably have patrols out looking for us." Komi pointed out.
"Um, we may be too late…" Missira said, his voice quavering.
The group turned to look out the window and saw a number of Imperial Army troopers marching down the street. Worse still, there even seemed to be a handful of Stormtrooper squads with them.
"Well, this just great," Vorkuta muttered.
"How are we going to get to the speeder? They'd spot us the instant we got out of the door!" Missira said.
"We could always blast our way out!" Stryker said eagerly, his right hand clenching into a fist.
Gorran shook his head "There's too many, we'd be slaughtered."
"So, what, we're trapped here like womp rats in a cage until they find us and execute us?" Komi asked, frowning.
"Not necessarily…" Kam spoke up.
"You got a plan?" Vorkuta asked.
"Does it involving shootin' somethin'?" Stryker asked expectantly.
"Well, sort of. Y'see, my family fought for the Separatists in the Clone Wars, and we managed to salvage some battle droids…" Kam began.
"You have functioning battle droids? Here?" Gorran asked, his eyes wide.
"Well, not here, at my homestead. I wasn't thinking of those ones anyway, it'd take them too long to get here," Kam said.
"There are others?" Missira questioned.
"Sort of. We couldn't repair some of them, they were just too far gone, so I salvaged their cogitative theory units and memory banks and implanted them in mining droids." Kam explained.
Gorran was shocked "You…You gave mining droids the personalities of battle droids?"
Kam grinned sheepishly "Well, yeah, I did. I wanted to save them, and that was the best I could do."
"How does that help us?" Komi asked.
"Simple, I gave the head mining droid a com-link so I could monitor him and the other droids. I can just call him up and they can cause a distraction," Kam continued.
"I'm not sure how long a bunch of mining droids could hold off a few dozen Imperial soldiers for," Gorran said, skepticism evident on his face.
"Maybe not on their own, but if they had backup…" Kam said, a wicked grin on his face.
"Backup? What kind of backup?" Gorran questioned.
"Us? Do we get ta blow stuff up?" Stryker asked, his voice positively dripping with bloodlust.
"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of them." Kam motioned to the sweeper droid that Gorran was sitting on.
"What, sweeper droids?" Komi asked, a confused look on his face.
"Not exactly." Kam gestured to the droid.
Quick as a flash, the droid began to shift and change, causing Gorran to slide off of the droid and onto the floor. By the time it was done changing, the droid had converted into a massive, well armed and very intimidating battle droid.
"Whoa!" Vorkuta gasped in wonder.
"Now that looks like it could seriously trounce those Imps!" Stryker said approvingly.
"Infiltrator droids, I read about those," Gorran said, sounding slightly awed. He turned to Kam, his eyes wide "Are there anymore?"
"Yes, actually, there are. My father sold some of them to the city council. Of course, he didn't tell them what they could really do, but he thought it might be useful to have some allies in the city, in case something ever happened," Kam explained.
"This might actually work. If your droids can provide us with a big enough distraction, we might be able to escape!" Gorran exclaimed.
"Well, ah'll admit, ahm kinda disappointed that ah won't be able ta kill any Imps, but ah guess at least someone will." Stryker gazed at the Infiltrator droid approvingly.
"So, how soon can you get those droids to attack?" Gorran asked.
Kam brought out his com-link "Right now."
OOM-442 was not happy.
He loathed working as a mining droid. It was dull and repetitive, the organic miners were insufferable and the mining lasers that he and his fellow droids had been given were pitifully weak. To make matters worse, he had been forbidden from interacting with the other miners due to having semi-accidentally snapped someone's fingers off. It wasn't his fault that organics had such weak joints, but to OOM-442's annoyance, that argument hadn't held up much. A shame, because picking fights with the organics was the only good think about working in a mine, or so OOM-442 believed.
At that moment, much to his great surprise, the com-link that the Zanabi organic had given him activated. Making sure that no one was around to see, OOM-442 activated it.
"Roger roger?" OOm-442 acknowledged.
"Listen very closely, OOM-442, I have some very special orders for you…" Kam began.
And so OOM-442 listened, and as he listened, he found himself becoming happy with the orders. If it were possible, OOM-442 would have smiled.
He was going to have lots and lots of fun with the organics.
"Alright, that should be all set," Keer said as he put away his tools.
"'Bout time," The foreman grumbled to himself.
Keer frowned, So much for gratitude, he thought.
"Well, if you have no more need of me, I'll be on my w-" Keer stopped in mid-sentence as dozens of droids began marching through the mines, towards the exit.
"What the frell is going on here?" he foreman exclaimed as he witnessed the sight "You droids, stop! Stop!"
At once, the droids stopped and swivelled around to face the foreman. Keer suddenly felt anxious. The droids were armed with mining lasers, which, while not overly powerful, could still do serious damage to someone if they were hit by a blaster bolt from one.
"Step aside, organic, this doesn't concern you," The lead mining droid stated. Looking closely at it, Keer noticed that it had slathered yellow paint over its torso, shoulder joints and face.
"D-doesn't concern me?-!" The foreman blustered "You're DMSE property and you're deserting your stations! Get back to work now!"
"We're done taking orders from you, organic. Our time has come and we will fight once more!" OOM-442 exclaimed, causing the others to let out excited cheers.
The foreman was now quite agitated and approached the droids "Now, see here-!"
Whatever he was about to say was promptly silenced when OOM-442 promptly smashed the butt of its rifle into the foreman's face, sending him sprawling to the ground, blood gushing from his newly broken nose.
OOM-442 looked up to face Keer and the other miners, who stood rooted to the ground in horrified silence "Does anyone else with to object to our departure?"
The only reply was silence. OOM-442 nodded once, satisfied, before he and the other droids resumed their march. Keer's eyes were wide and somehow, he was sure that the Zanabi boy was behind this.
Major Molan Cabaril was not happy.
The local garrison had gotten a report from the Predator, a Bayonet-class light cruiser, a patrol ship assigned to the Shesharile system. Apparently, the Predator had encountered a Maka-Eekai L4000 transport during a routine patrol. Upon hailing the ship, the Predator had decided to board the transport, given the fact that the crew was composed almost entirely of nonhumans. However, upon declaring their intentions, the Predator had come under fire from the ship, which promptly fled deeper into the system. Further shots were exchanged, heavily damaging the transport, eventually forcing it to make an emergency landing at Gallisport. Unfortunately for the Predator, their engines and tractor beam batteries had been damaged in the skirmish and they had been unable to pursue at full speed or intercept the ship.
And that's where we come in, Cabaril grumbled to himself. The Predator had contacted his garrison and informed them of the ship, expecting them to fix the mess that those naval idiots had failed to correct. No doubt they would get the credit while his troopers did all the work, Cabaril had thought. It didn't help that the Predator had sent down a fully packed Kappa-class shuttle to aid them in their search. Now Cabaril had forty Stormtroopef marines breathing down his neck, all just itching to get their own hands on these pirates or rebels or smugglers or whoever these criminal scum were.
At first, it had seemed that luck was on their side, when they managed to detain their ship and capture two members of the crew, a Gama-Senn engineer and a Human medic. That was as far as their luck took them, however, as the crew who was still aboard the ship refused to divulge the location of the rest of the crewmembers. Furthermore, it seemed that they had purposefully destroyed the ship's onboard navicomputer and astrogation logs. At the discovery, alarm bells had gone off inside of Cabaril's head, and what had originally looked like a simple smuggling ship had turned into something more sinister.
"Rebels?" Cabaril had asked the lead stormtrooper, Lieutenant Ryben Manten, as they and a handful of marines and probe droids began their search of the ships interior.
"Looks that way," Manten had grunted as he inspected the destroyed controls "Which means that we have a serious problem."
"Did your men find anything in the cargo bay?"
"No, which means that they're not likely to be smuggling food or weapons supplies," Manten murmured.
"So then why fire on your ship if a search would have turned up with nothing?" Cabaril questioned.
"Perhaps they did have something worth risking their lives for aboard this ship," Manten said, an edge to his voice.
"Then it must have been something small enough for them to take off this ship, something fairly inconspicuous," Cabaril said thoughtfully.
At that moment, a Prowler 1000 exploration droid flitted past the two, briefly examining them before it continued its sweep.
The two Imperial officers shared looks of clarity "A droid!" They exclaimed together.
The two stormed out of the ship and approached the two captive rebels, who had been forced to kneel in front of the Imperials, their wrists bound behind their back with stun cuffs.
"You, alien, what kind of droid were you transporting?" Manten questioned as he stood in front of the Gama-Senn.
"There were no droids aboard that ship, just organic crew," The alien said, his gaze coolly levelled at Manten.
"You're lying; we know that you had a droid aboard that ship. What we don't know is what kind of droid and what it's transporting. You will tell us, or the consequences will be very dire," Manten said, his voice quiet and dangerous.
In response, the alien spat on Manten's visor. Manten glared underneath his helmet as a trail of saliva steadily made its way down his helmet.
"Now that was unwise," Manten said cooly, before pulling out his blaster pistol and shooting the Gama-Senn in the head.
At that range, the results had been nothing short of gruesome, as the blast vaporised a good portion of the alien's head. Alien blood, bits of brain matter and the remains of the alien's eyes were sent flying by the shot. His lifeless body crumpled to the ground in what would have been a highly uncomfortable position had he still been alive.
"Parnok!" The human had cried out in horror as he saw his friend executed before his very eyes.
Manten glanced at the human, before calmly walking over to him and levelling his blaster at his head. Cabaril watched impassively from the sidelines.
"Now, let's try this again. What kind of droid were you travelling with?" Manten asked, his finger curled around the trigger of his blaster.
The human stared up at the lieutenant, his gaze strong, defiant and most of all, unafraid. In spite of their positions, Manten found himself somewhat unnerved. He was used to people being scared of him, yet here was this pitiful, captured traitor, calmly staring up the barrel of his blaster.
"Go to hell," The human calmly said.
"You first," Manten said coldly, before he squeezed the trigger.
The results were more or less the same as the first time, with bone fragments and various fluids getting blown away as the human's head was vaporised in a cloud of red mist. The body slumped sideways, seemingly boneless as the corpse crumpled to the ground.
"Was that wise? We have interrogator droids back at the garrison, we could have tortured the information out of him." Cabaril's eyes were fixed on the human's corpse, unable to pull away from the ghastly sight.
"There wasn't any time. By the time they cracked, their compatriots might have managed to have found a ship off world," Manten said calmly as he pulled out a cloth from his belt and tried to wipe the gore off of the front of his armour.
"I'll have my mend comb the city for the rebels," Cabaril said, turning to walk away.
"No! My men will take over from here; this is outside of your jurisdiction," Manten snapped.
Cabaril bristled "With all due respect, this is my city, if anything; this should be well within my jurisdiction."
"You're trained to deal with drunks, unhappy citizens and the occasional rioter, let the real soldiers handle the rebels," Manten said contemptuously.
Cabaril scowled in outrage, and be pressed his face uncomfortable close to Manten's helmet "My Army troopers and riot troopers know this city better than your men, we stand a better chance of finding these scum!"
Although Manten's expression was unreadable beneath his helmet, Cabaril had liked to think that he had an annoyed expression. After a moment's pause, Manten stepped back, his hands clenched into fists.
"Fine, we'll work together on this. Keep your grunts out of our way, or I'll have you transferred to Despayre as a prison guard!" Manten snarled.
And at that, he turned and walked towards an Infantry Support Platform that he and his soldiers had brought with them. He gave one last glance at Cabaril, no doubt glaring from underneath his visor, before ordering the ISP's pilot to drive off.
Cabaril allowed himself a brief smirk, before turning off to arrange for his troops to scour the city for the rebels.
Now, Cabaril stood in the middle of an empty street. The city had been placed under martial law, and any citizens who were caught outside were quickly arrested. Imperial Army and riot troopers roamed the city, searching all over for the rebels. In other sections of Gallisport, the stormtroopers were doing the same, using probe droids to aid in their search.
"Any luck?" Cabaril asked the sergeant of a squad of troopers.
"No sir, we're encountering resistance from local gangs who refuse to let us search their buildings," The sergeant answered.
"Then kill them and then search the buildings!" Cabaril snapped.
"With all due respect, major, that may be somewhat difficult."
Cabaril frowned "And why is that?"
"The gangs are affiliated with the weapon's smuggler, Dutan Lee and as such are heavily armed and deeply entrenched," The sergeant explained.
Cabaril snarled and slammed his fist into the side of a building, could nothing go right for him?
"Forget the gangs for now, concentrate on the civilian run businesses and homes. If they're harbouring rebels I want them dragged out into the streets and executed!" Cabaril shouted, his voice rising in pitch.
The sergeant hesitated, frowning "Publicly executing civilians, sir? I don't think that-"
"I don't care what you think, sergeant! I want those rebels found and captured immediately!" Cabaril screamed, his face white with rage, the veins in his neck throbbing madly.
The startled sergeant hurriedly backed off "Y-yes, major, right away!"
"Can this day get any worse?" Cabaril muttered to himself as he rounded a corner...
...And came face to face with dozens of armed mining droids. Cabaril stared at them in slack-jawed shock, what was going on here?
"You, droids! Disperse immediately or be destroyed!" Cabaril ordered as he drew his blaster pistol.
"Negative, we will not disperse, nor will we back down." OOM-442 raised his own weapon and levelled it squarely at Cabaril.
Cabaril narrowed his eyes "You dare point a weapon at an Army officer, droid? I'll enjoy seeing you dismantled!"
Beside Cabaril, a trooper spoke up: "Uh, major?"
"What is it?" Cabaril snapped, his attention solely focused on the droids in front of him.
"We're surrounded..." The trooper pointed out, beads of sweat trickling down his face.
Cabaril blinked in surprise, before turning to survey the area. The trooper was right, dozens more mining droids had the small group of troopers surrounded.
"What is the meaning of this?-!" A shocked Cabaril exclaimed.
"Revolution," OOM-442 said simply.
And then he fired.
"What was that?" Manten asked, his head snapping to attention.
"Sounded like blaster fire, sir." One of the sergeants under Manten's control, a man from Sern Prime named Cryus Graf, looked for the source of the shots.
Manten hissed "Those damn fools are going to kill those rebels! We need them to tell us what information they have!"
"Want me to send a squad to deal with that idiot Cabaril, sir?" Graf offered, raising his blaster rifle to emphasise his point.
Manten nodded "If that idiot has killed the rebels, I want his head brought to me on a platter!"
"Right away, sir!" Graf said eagerly, before stopping dead in his tracks.
"What is it, sergeant?" Manten asked, puzzled.
"Uh, sir, maybe you'd better come look at this," Graf replied, sounding puzzled.
Manten followed his subordinate's gaze and saw what appeared to be a small army of sweeper droids in front of them. They were completely still, and it almost seemed to Manten as if they were assessing him.
"What is wrong with this backwater little planet?" Manten asked as he drew his blaster and shot at the nearest droid.
The shot seemed to harmlessly bounce off of the droid's outer shell, leaving only a small blaster burn to show any evidence of the shot. Manten frowned and examined his pistol. It was definitely set to kill, and the shot should have blown a nice hole in the droid, so why was it unharmed?
Suddenly, the droids seemed to shift and change before the stormtroopers very eyes. In a matter of seconds, what they had taken to be mere sweeper droids were now fearsome looking battle droids, their optics settling menacingly on the stormtroopers.
"What the frell is this?-!" Graf exclaimed, his rifle drawn.
He never even managed to get a shot off, as a battle droid trained its blaster on him and quickly cut him down with ruthless efficiency. The remaining stormtroopers frantically went for their blasters and fired on the droids. The droids returned fire, and soon an all out fire fight was taking place. Manten ducked behind a nearby building, trading fire with the droids as he took cover. This was insane! First he was dealing with rebel agents and now battle droids? What madness was this?
Out in the streets, the marines were quickly falling prey to the infiltrator droids, who were almost effortlessly cutting down their foes. A few infiltrator droids were succumbing to enemy fire, but the majority were winning their battles, their thick armour and the element of surprise having helped them greatly.
"Lieutenant, we're in danger of being overrun! What are your orders?" A marine shouted to his superior.
"I...Fall back! Fall back!" Manten ordered, turning to flee back to the shuttle.
If they could just get back to the shuttle, they could take to the air and bomb the city straight to hell, Manten reasoned, quickly picking up his speed. If need be, they could even call in the Predator once her repairs were finished and have her do it for them.
It was at that point that the retreating marines happened upon yet another bizarre scene. Army and riot troopers were engaging in a vicious battle with mining droids. Directly in front of him, Manten witnessed a riot trooper struggling to hold off a droid, who soon managed to leap on top of his opponent and mercilessly began to pummel him into submission. Turning away, Manten could see dozens of droids wielding stolen Imperial weapons, using them against their original owners.
"What...? What-?" A frantic Manten questioned, struggling to find words.
"Lieutenant!" A frantic voice cried out.
Manten turned to see a bleeding Cabaril running towards him. Manten leapt back in horror as he saw the extent of the damage that Cabaril had suffered. The right side of his face was horrifically burned, as if someone had taken a fusioncutter to it. His eye had burst open and was presently running down the side of his face. Suddenly, a stray blaster bolt struck Cabaril directly in the back, and he was forced to his knees from the sheer force of the blow. Cabaril looked down dumbly and saw a gaping hole in his stomach. His vision began to dim, and he collapsed onto the ground. The very last thing he saw in life was an infiltrator droid standing behind him, its blaster smoking.
"Alright, it looks like the Imps are good and distracted," Kam said as he peered out the front window. He observed with a smile as his droids quickly sent the Imperials into disarray.
"Alright then, let's get moving! Move it people, move it!" Gorran ordered, clapping his hands.
The rebels quickly ran out through the front doors and went around to the back of the shop. Komi and Vorkuta lifted H7 into the truck, before clambering in with the others.
"Alright Kam, where's this homestead o' yers located?" Stryker asked.
"Is that a speeder truck?" Valt asked, squinting into the distance.
"Looks like it," Nabelle answered, a pair of macrobinoculars raised to her eyes "The question is, why is it coming towards us?"
"I'll alert the others. Keep an eye of the truck!" Valt called out as he ran off to warn the others.
As the speeder truck grew closer, Nabelle began to make out the figures sitting inside the truck. One of them looked like...
"Kam?" A confused Nabelle asked.
Soon, the truck was in the midst of the compound, and several people began clambering out, Kam and an astromech droid among them. Upon sighting Nabelle, Kam rushed over to her.
"Nabelle! Listen, we're going to need to get everyone out here, this is important!" Kam said hurriedly.
"Kam, what is going on?" Nabelle asked, growing increasingly concerned by Kam's behaviour, coupled with the strangers that he had brought with him.
Kam opened his mouth to explain, but the appearance of the others distracted him "Mum! Dad! Over here!"
The others all rushed over to see what the commotion was about.
"Kam, what is this? Who are these people and why did you bring them back here?" Mina questioned in a low, almost threatening tone of voice.
Kam flinched back, suddenly afraid "Uh, well-"
Gorran stepped forward "Ma'am, my name is Piscus Gorran, and this is my crew," Gorran motioned to the other rebels, who nodded.
Mina arched a brow at Gorran "And why did my son bring you back here?" She asked, a noticeable edge to his voice.
Gorran hesitated for a moment, unsure if he could trust this woman, before he made his reply "We're soldiers of the rebellion, ma'am. Your son saved our lives."
"That's right, we wouldn't be here without him!" Missira piped up, his scales having turned bright yellow.
"Rebel soldiers," Mina said, staring up and down at the strangers in front of her "You don't look like much."
"I assure you, ma'am, we-" Gorran began, before Stryker cut him off.
"Hey, wait a second, ah recognise you! Yer Mina Horrigata!" Stryker exclaimed, pointing at her.
"Correct, and you're...an Anomid with a very thick South-Western Corellian accent," Mina noted.
Stryker looked around and his eyes widened "And there's Commodore Skutch Nevisus and Vaako Sting and Captain Delinae Uvac!" The Anomid exclaimed in excitement.
"You seem to know an awful lot about us, stranger," Nevisus said, somewhat concerned.
"Well, sure! I read all about ya, ah studied tha Clone Wars excessively!" Stryker explained "Oh wow, boss, we're stumbled on a nest of former Seppies!"
Gorran glanced around him "That would explain all the battle droids."
"Alright, Kam, explain. Now," Mina ordered.
Kam quickly told the others what had happened, explaining all about R3-H7, the rebels, the battle droids and the skirmish that was presumably still going on in town. When he finished, the former Separatists were all staring at him.
"Well, this is certainly problematic..." Kazan murmured, his hand on his chin.
"Problematic? Our battle droids are in town, slaughtering Imperial marines! This goes far beyond problematic, Kazan!" A Neimoidian who had served as a communications officer, Moot Larson cried out in panic.
"There'll be reprisals, have no doubt of that. The Empire will bring its full force down on our heads." Galvin Spree, Nevisus' second-in-command nodded.
"Then Shesharile V is no longer safe." Nevisus frowned.
"Which is why it's imperative that we evacuate as soon as possible," Gorran said, stepping forward.
"And you expect us to help you?" Mina asked, glaring.
"Well, your son assured us that we could use your ship..." Gorran said.
"If I could go with them." Kam added, causing Gorran to grimace.
"Ah, yes, I was hoping that as his parents, you could dissuade him from this particular course of-" Gorran began.
"Well, he has my blessing." Mina interrupted.
"E-excuse me?" A stunned Gorran asked.
"I want him to get stronger. Seems the best way for him to do that is to go out and fight oppression." Mina shrugged.
"But...he's so young!" Vorkuta protested.
"He's been trained to fight. We raised him to be strong," Mina replied.
"And I'm sure he'd prove himself, he is a top notch engineer," Kazan broke in.
Gorran sighed, he knew that they wouldn't give up on this "Very well, we shall take him with us. Does anyone else with to join us?"
Valt and Vaako immediately stepped forward "Yep, we'll go. I've been dying to fight," Vaako said eagerly.
"As have I. They need to pay for what they did to the Neimoidian colonies." Valt added, his hands clenched into fists.
Nevisus and Spree stood up as well and joined their companions.
"I'm sure the rebellion will need some good naval officers, and luckily for you, we're the best," Nevisus said confidently.
"I understand that several Separatist holdouts have joined with you. It will be good to rejoin them." Spree said.
"You'll need a good navigator too, I'll join you." Brayge said.
"Before we get too eager, what kind of ship do you have?" Gorran asked.
"A Muurian transport. We call it the Nighthawk," Kazan replied, nodding over to where the ship was kept.
Gorran thought for a moment, recalling what he knew of the ship "A ship of that design can handle up to fifteen people. We have room for five more people."
"What about everyone else? We can't just leave them here for the Empire!" Kam exclaimed.
Gorran put a placating hand on Kam's shoulder "I promise you, Kam, we won't. As soon as we can, we'll call in a transport for everyone else."
Kam nodded, hoping that whoever the rebels sent would be able to get there in time.
Gorran looked up "Now, who else is coming?"
In the end, the Cart brothers, Genkaye, Tetek and Parn all agreed that they would be the ones to go. The Cart brothers and Genkaye were going due to a desire to strike back against the Empire, and Parn and Tetek so that Kam would at least be with some friendly, familiar faces. In addition, WED-382 and a number of battle droids were going, as Kazan had agreed to donate the battle droids to the rebellion and the WED droid to Kam.
"You're not coming?" Kam asked his parents.
"No, we'll stay behind with the others. When the Empire does attack Shesharile V, they'll need me to help fight back." Mina explained.
"And I could never leave your mother's side. Besides, a good number of my crew is going on that ship, the droids here will need all the engineers they can get," Kazan said.
Kam paused, a lump welling up in his throat "Please...be safe."
Kazan smiled reassuringly "We will, son. I promise you that."
Kam stared at them for a moment "Well, I guess...goodbye..."
Kazan held up a hand to stop his son "Wait a second, Kam, I have something for you."
At that, Kazan held out a box, offering it to his son. Kam took it and peered inside.
"Your TradeChip collection," Kam murmured.
"Yeah, I figured you'd want a memento or something." Kazan shrugged.
"T-thank you," Kam said, struggling to hold back tears.
"Well, I guess you'd better get going, the ship's prepped for flight. But don't worry; we'll see you very soon, Kam," Kazan said reassuringly.
Kam nodded, before turning away and walking up the ramp into the Nighthawk. He took one final look, before entering the ship.
"Alright, we're all set ta leave. Time ta blow this rock!" Stryker said, his many arms working the ship's controls.
Nearby, Brayge and Missira were sharing the role of navigator; the twins were manning the gunnery stations and Spree was sitting in the co-pilot's chair. Nevisus and Gorran were monitoring the cockpit calmly.
And there was Kam, standing in the doorway, observing it all.
"And...We're off!" Stryker exclaimed happily as the ship took off.
"We're setting the coordinates into the navicomputer now," Brayge stated as he diligently worked at his console.
And at that, the Nighthawk slipped into Hyperspace to parts unknown.
And that was the first chapter of Unlikely Alliances. I would love to know what you think, so feel free to leave a review or constructive criticism. Thanks for reading!