A/N: Hello everyone! This was inspired by the stories of myself and a friend of mine who would be mortified if I mentioned him. Go watch these movies, J!
This story is intended for younger readers but I think everyone is going to have a good time!
Enjoy!
"Whaddya think?" Annah asked.
She spun around and around, admiring her new jacket from every angle she could see.
It was real red-brown Bantha leather with fantastic fur fringe and a trademark rippled trim. But what she loved most was the orange firebird logo on the shoulder, bright as her persimmon hair.
54-G3 nodded his small, boxy body and whistled his appreciation before beepbooping a question.
"Joining? Nah, I'm not old they got me a job on the base, on Dantooine! Maybe then in a year or two, if the war isn't over by then, I can join up, become a real rebel!"
The droid beeped a dry reply.
"Then I'll learn! Sheesh! You don't need that much skill to use a blaster anyway."
Another snide series of sounds.
"Oh, hush."
Annah didn't mind her current job at the Cantina, after all she was only bussing tables and doing dishes and mopping floors.
And anything was better than slavery.
But she dreamed of bigger things, more heroic things.
It was not hard to feel the Empire's chokehold on a world like Er'kit, from the random searches and checkpoints to the Stormtroopers patrolling the sparse streets.
The only people who seemed to benefit were those who owned a scrap of the crimson desert, or those who owned its people.
A speeder zoomed by outside Annah's underground home, sending cascades of sand tumbling through the windows and making her cough violently.
Sage beeped wildly in frantic alarm.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" she croaked over his anxious beeps.
Flopping down unceremoniously on the bed beside the droid, she patted a hand lazily on the top of his squarish body.
"Why are you so worried about me joining the Rebellion anyway? Half the people at the Cantina are in with the Alliance anyway."
The droid booped a bitter reply.
"You can't throw anyone, so what's your point?"
A noisy answer.
"Yeah, well, I'm not throwing anyone either!"
Sage sighed a long, low whistle, his miniature receiving dish and bent antenna drooping.
"What is it?"
He beeped somberly.
"You can tell me anything, Sage."
His ocular projector flickered and faltered to life; Annah covered her fist with the sleeve of the coveralls tied at her waist and wiped away a coating of dust.
The droid sounded gratefully.
Finally, a bluish image of a man began to resolve, his dark hair an unmanageable and graying mop, his eyes rimmed darkly and heavy with exhaustion.
"An Imperial Science Officer?"
The uniform was unmistakable, black and gray and intimidating, as was his rank, an impressive bar of color.
The man stood at the counter, in a lab presumably, dropper in hand, petri dish sitting in front of him.
"Project Nova-Stardust, test number 47," he announced as he adjusted the camera's lens, "Let's hope this one isn't a complete failure," his words dripped with sarcasm.
He took a deep breath to steel himself before releasing a droplet into the dish.
Nothing happened.
He let out a frustrated sigh.
He was about to give up, set aside the dropper, but then he decided to add another, then another drop until the mixture began to fizzle.
It popped and crackled, sputtering and spattering, the dish rattled on the counter's surface as it shook and shuddered, until with a great crescendo it stopped.
The scientist approached the counter slowly, as if afraid of his own creation. Gingerly, he picked up the petri with the tips of his fingers before smashing it down. He brushed away the shattered glass, all that remained was a round, hard precipitate, clouded white.
Sliding it down the counter's edge and into his hand, he began to examine it before looking left and right, seeing if there were any witnesses to his genesis.
He switched off the camera and the image disappeared.
That substance could be something - anything - but a feeling leapt in Annah's heart. She knew.
"That was kyber crystal," she said breathlessly, "Real, synthesized kyber crystal."
The droid beside her nodded his whole body sadly.
"The jedi used them for centuries in their lightsabers, that's powerful stuff, really really powerful. If the Empire has a way to straight-up make them-"
Sage sank low on his rollers and booped lowly.
Annah leapt up.
"We have to tell the Rebellion. This is too important, this could change everything!" she cried, pacing.
Suddenly, the droid began to shudder and shake, beeping frantically.
"Hey, hey, it's okay. But if you can't show them that- there's no way they'd believe me without proof."
He stopped shaking. The droid's internal chamber always had a mysterious rattle, it dawned on her why.
He opened his lower hatch and spat out a fragment of the synthesized crystal.
"Someday you're gonna tell me how you came to find all this."
Sage shrugged half his little body.
"This will do," Annah said, picking up the shard and turning it over in the light, "This will do nicely."
Annah raced into the cantina, dodging the crowds, ducking between bodies, sloshing a few drinks and ignoring the protests.
Sage had a bit more trouble evading the thick gatherings and stomping feet but managed to catch up to her by the time she'd bushed through to the bar.
"Where's Danterra?" she asked breathlessly.
Plafina, a Twi'lek with dusky orange skin was pouring a long line of shots with a pair of bottles. She didn't look up but smiled at the girl.
"Annah! Are you working tonight?"
"No, but I need to talk to Dan. It's important, super important, fate-of-the-Galaxy type of thing."
Plafina sighed and gestured with a now-empty bottle to a lighted table in the back corner. A man sat regal as an emperor, both arms swung around the curve of the seats.
Danterra was a regular, there almost nightly, and liked to act like he owned the place. He was also the primary connection to the Rebellion on that side of the desert.
"Ah, I'd heard you'd become our newest recruit," he said, waving a hand to offer a seat across the table, "Anything I can get you, sweetheart?"
Annah sank into the chair, "Only a message to the Rebellion."
She fished in her pocket a bit too long for dramatic flair before producing the kyber shard and laying it flat on the table, sliding it over.
"They're synthesizing artificial kyber crystal, the Empire. I can't name my… informant but it has to be something big."
Dan's friends around the table fell silent.
He gingerly picked up the shard and passed it to one of them, a human with short untidy hair and scrutinizing almond-shaped eyes.
"You're right, this is very big. You sure it's legit?"
Annah nodded, "An Imperial Science Officer is making them. If the Empire has that formula, it can only mean one thing."
"A whole lotta kaboom." Danterra turned to the woman on his left, "Time to holo the Fulcrum."
"Don't."
The man with the kyber shard held up a hand and the table again quieted at his sharp word.
"True kyber crystal has a certain unusual sheen, a kind of rainbow fire called 'the waters of the kyber'. But this doesn't have it."
The man tossed the "kyber" at Annah without warning, making her bobble it in her hands.
"An ordinary piece of glass."
"I can't believe you right now!" Annah cried at the droid she knew was following her up the sandy dune.
The soft stuff didn't make stomping off very effective but it kicked up in big, dramatic clouds which made her feel slightly better.
Sage beeped apologetically as he trailed beside her.
"What do you mean you didn't know? That isn't your crystal?"
The droid sounded a downtrodden reply.
"You found it," she repeated incredulously, "Just- just combing the desert, you came across it."
He nodded his little body.
"And the vid?"
His answer was a long sequence of boops and whistles.
Annah sank down to her knees in the hot sand to get closer to his level. She placed her hands on either side of his boxy form and tilted him up to look him right in the lens.
"You're sure about that? It's not some… sliced holo or some weird staging by the Empire or something?"
He shook from side to side 'no'.
"Okay."
She stood and brushed the blood-colored dust rom her brown leggings.
"Okay. If you really think it's real, if you really think the Empire is synthesizing kyber somewhere, it's up to us to investigate. The Rebellion won't believe us now, not after all of that. But we can figure this out ourselves."
As Annah turned to head back down the sandy hills, the glass shard tumbled from her pocket and into the dust.
She bent down to pick it up again and it almost felt as if it leapt into her hand of its own accord.
In the crimson setting sun, it shone a brilliant, iridescent fire.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading, please feel free to Favorite and Review, I'd love to hear from you!
I'm not sure how often this will get updated - I have the first three chapters done but I'm challenging myself: to write in order and not jump around like usual. Wish me luck and stay tuned!