20 BBY

Mandalorian warrior and bounty hunter Darrious Ordo's stood on the bridge of the "privately owned" Lucrehulk-class cruiser called the Pillager next to Tarson Gale, a human pirate who was very, very down on his luck. There last attempt to take a ship ended in being routed by a reinforced Republic fleet and being sent fleeing to the unknown regions. Ordo hated working with scum like Gale but since he had freed Ordo from a Confederate Banking Clan frigate, Gale would not let Ordo leave, saying "Having a Mandolorian of your reputation and skill around may be useful."

After awhile, Ordo had come to respect the man. He was an intelligent man who was not only a pirate but also a big time black market dealer, selling anything he didn't keep for himself. Now, with his cargo holds filled with nothing but necessary supplies and the war droids that he had acquired with the cruiser, Gale was in a foul mood. Turning to Darrious he asked quite calmly, "Do you know where we are, Darrious? Neither I nor my men seem to have the slightest idea."

Darrious crossed his muscular arms and replied, "Maurlo should know. We aren't far from the borders of Chiss Space. If we drop out of hyperspace in five minutes we will be in the Dromund system of ancient Sith Space."

Gale cocked an eyebrow and said, "Any chance of a catch there?" Ordo chuckled and mentioned several popular hyperspace lanes used by smugglers and Hutt cargo haulers. Gale paced to the viewport and gave the order to Maurlo, his Chiss helmsman, "Have the ship stopped in that area. I think we will stay around and see if there is anything to have there."

As soon as the ship dropped out of hyperspace, the Pillager nearly ran into a Venator-Class Star Destroyer. At first, Gale began giving orders to turn the ship about and flee, thinking that they had ran from one Republic entanglement to another. But, even as the crew sprang into desperate action, Ordo said, "Tars, the ship isn't responding to our arrival. Look closely, its just floating in the gravity well of that planet, Dromund Tyne I think that one is."

Gale called to belay all previous orders and observed. Turning to the big Mandalorian he smiled and said, "Very observant, Darrious. I'm glad I invited you to come along with me." Turning to Maurlo, he said, "Tell Dregs to activate two platoons of B1 battle droids and a couple squads of B2 super battle droids and send them over in a drop ship. I want to know of anything valuable in that ship. Have them transmit the ships logs over too."

Darrious said, "I'm gonna go with them." Gale was beside him in a second. "Splendid idea Darrious, I'll go too. Maurlo, have Desst and a few dozen of the boys meat us at the Plunder."

The Plunder was a purloined Consular-class cruiser that had been fitted with quad laser cannons and proton torpedo tubes as well as a rack of twelve illegally bought Nubean N1 star fighters hooked to the bottom. Hatches had been equipped so that pilots could get to them without danger. Plunder streaked through space, docking at one of the star destroyers bottomhatches. New was already coming back from the droid squads. The ship was fuel of fuel, the armories had both armor and weapons inside. The hangers even had several squadrons of ARC-170s Fighters, V19 Torrent Fighters, V-wing fighters and apparently a trio of JedI Interceptors and an older JedI 'Dartship'. Gale was elated, telling the droids to fill repulser carts with the weapons and armor and had a large number of droid pilots fly over to have the ships taken back to the Pillager. Darrious was looking around one of the cargo holds when Gale's comlink chimed and the droid commander reported his findings in the logs, "Sir, it would seem that the ship was set to jump here at random and that the crew abandoned the ship mere moments before the jump took place. But this happened near the beginning of the war nearly a year and a half ago."

Gale frowned and asked, "What else do the logs say?" The reply came momentarily, "That another derelict vessel was found near Chiss Space while this vessel was on patrol. Apparently its cargo hold was filled with large eggs, all of which were taken aboard here. In fact, it looks like you are in the hold that they are stored in."

Darrious called from a few meters away, saying, "Tars, take a look at this."

There were hundreds of them. They were the size of footlockers and seemed to have strange creases at the top. Gale commed his droid commander, "Any clue as to why the crew evacuate?" The droid replied, "It would seem that they picked up a stowaway creature on when they got the eggs, sir."

Gale rubbed his mustache for a few moments before saying, "Well, if the Reps thought that these were of value, then they must be. Commander, send some labor droids to pick these up and bring them back."

Nearly twelve hours later, the Republic ship was stripped of all extra weapons, droids, ships and supplies of every kind as well as its strange cargo. Darrious looked through the weapons, claiming several for himself. He also took a Nu-class combat shuttle as his own. Gale had a biological specialist and several armed guards go down to examine the eggs while he sat down with Darrious, Maurlo and Dregs to some of the newer foods they had found. They are their meal and Maurlo and Dregs got back to there posts. For awhile, Darrious and Gale made small talk about the find. Finally, after a brief pause, Darrious said, "Tars, I want to leave as soon as we get back to the outer rim. You have been a good…" he searched for the word and Gale supplied it with a smile, "Partner?" Darrious hesitated and then nodded, "Yes partner. But I need to be free to continue bounty hunting."

Gale poured himself some more wine that they had found on board and was about to reply when his comlink chimed, "What is it?" he asked. A gasping sound came from the other end, saying, "Eggs hatching… Creatures inside are parasites… Did something to us… Send help."

The line went dead. Quickly, Gale keyed to the medical area. "Yes?" asked a wet, gravely voice of a selkath. Gale said, "I want a medical and security team sent to cargo hold eight. Something has happened to the men there. Move now!

Inside the hold, Desst, who was in charge of the team that was examining the eggs. Sat with his back against a crate. The strange parasite lay dead next to him but he felt a sickening wait in his chest, right behind his guts. Breathing was hard and so was thinking through waves of pain. He had just the clarity of mind to pull out his blaster incase more of the things popped up. Next to him, a woman lay on her side, trying to get a good breath. Suddenly she screamed and her chest began to bulge. The sound of cracking bones and tearing tissue was audible. Suddenly, out of her chest popped a strange serpentine head. Desst stared dumbly at it before raising his blaster. Suddenly, a rending and tearing pain and noise came from his own body. I groaned and screamed himself. Just before his eyes shut for the last time, he saw another little serpent burst out of his own body.