2) Chapter 1 – Deadly Reunion.
"Are we far enough out?"
"I think it is safe to say so, Captain."
"Great. Cut the hyperdrive and power up the sublight engines, then bring in calculations for the second jump."
"Roger, Captain."
The ship began to rumble and shake, slowing down considerably. The blue tunnel filling the cockpit began to twist and turn, the lines turning to dots and the colors fading to black. Within seconds, the windows were filled with dark space and the bright little lights that were stars. Now that they were surrounded by the abyss, Dash Rendar breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was a close call."
"Indeed it was" said his robotic co-pilot, Leebo. "Might I suggest we NOT do something like this again?"
"You know what they say, Leebo" Dash replied smoothly. "No pain, no gain. Gotta take risks, sometimes, it helps the pay".
"Yes, but you do realize that too much pain results in no gain, if you know what I mean? Don't you think you're taking risks a bit too high?" Leebo interjected.
"Come on, we've been through worse before" said the brash pilot with a smile.
"Like what?" Leebo asked dubiously.
"Skyhook battle, over Coruscant? With the other Alliance nutters?" Dash reminded him.
Leebo was silent for a second, something Dash took as reluctant agreement. But then he spoke again.
"You know that Gorga isn't going to take this lightly? That he's going to pursue you across half the galaxy for this?"
Dash smirked "No worries, Leeb, not like he's going to find us. And even if he does, what's he gonna do? Send his lackeys over? A few short pulls from ol' Blastey here and they're on the ground" he replied, patting his trusty pistol which he always kept holstered on his side.
"What about the others? Should we contact them?" the droid questioned.
"Nah, not yet, let's wait until we make another jump closer to a planet we know, then we'll signal them at the rendezvous point" Dash said. "Speaking of which, where exactly are we again?"
Being a droid, Leebo could not make any facial expressions, but Dash knew that if he could, his eyebrow would be raised quite a bit now.
"You mean to say you didn't check where you put the co-ordinates for the jump to lightspeed before you actually did so?" Leebo asked, now with a tone of irritation behind his robotic voice. "This is exactly what I mean by 'too high a risk'."
"Calm your gears, Leebo, we're in the middle of nowhere" Dash said calmly. "First, no one's gonna find us. Second, all we gotta do is check our navicomputer and see where we are. Then we just set the co-ordinates for the meeting point with the others".
"If you say so, sir" Leebo responded, with the vaguest hint of an exasperated sigh.
Dash suppressed the urge to chuckle. It was a good thing he had a droid with him. No one else would have the patience to work with his stubbornness and calm demeanor at times when it would be most annoying. In fact, his very first co-pilot, a Rodian, died twenty seconds into the first mission. Aside from being a co-pilot, though, Dash probably would call Leebo his closest friend. He was the only one to have stuck with him for so long, and his skills with piloting were quite impressive (although they didn't come close to his). Dash actually owed the droid quite a few favors, too, which went to show how much of a team they were, even if Leebo did tend to get a bit smart-mouthed at times (which he did. A lot).
For now, though, he had to get out of this empty space and regroup with the others. Step one: check navicomputer.
Skating over the various monitors and knobs, the scanners and switches, Dash arrived at the navi'. Looking it over, it appeared to be that they were at as close to the definition of nowhere as it could get. There was absolutely nothing nearby. They were quite some distance away from the edge of Mandalorian space, and beyond that was the reaches of the infinite, outside the galaxy. It would take some time, of course, about a few dozen parsecs approximately, to reach the edge itself, but if you got there, you could see the galaxy stretched across your cockpit. Dash never went there, but he had no reason to believe it wasn't a sight to behold. He had to put that on his bucket list at some point.
"Well, Leebo, I guess we're alone" Dash said. "And quite far away from any place that might seem habitable".
"I suppose so, sir" Leebo chimed, although there was a bit of uncertainty to his voice. "When do you want to make the second jump?"
"As soon as we can, let's give the ship a moment or two to breathe and we're outta here" was the reply.
Leebo nodded his head and went back to monitoring the systems. The Outrider was the other part of Dash that he cherished immensely. If he owed Leebo a few favors, he was indebted to the ship for life. He had owned the ship for almost two decades, and it had never failed him. A lot of people, especially in the smuggling circles, considered the Millennium Falcon to be the fastest ship in the galaxy, but Dash always considered the Outrider to be faster, and if not, a close second. Han Solo, the captain of the Falcon, was almost as big a braggart as him, so the dispute was obvious. They continually challenged one another to a race to see which was faster, and at one point the Falcon actually beat him. But Dash was determined to try again. However, Han had joined up with the Rebellion against the Empire, which was now the Republic and the Remnant, respectively. Dash was thought to be dead, but he preferred to keep it that way. It was better to be remembered as a martyr than to be chased by half the Black Sun goons across the galaxy for that bit of drama back on Coruscant.
The fiasco on that planet was helpful to Dash in more ways than to keep a low profile. Many years after the destruction of Xizor's palace and skyhook and the death of the crime lord, Dash happened upon Xizor's old bodyguard and personal assassin, Guri. She was, by all meaning of the term, unusual. Not because of her stunning beauty or lethal fighting prowess, but also because she was a droid. A human replica droid, the only of her kind programmed to be an assassin. She was Xizor's personal weapon until he snuffed it, where she then wandered the galaxy and happened to meet him (by a ridiculously bizarre coincidence) in a bar. She was reprogrammed to have the assassin part of her deleted and was left with zero memory of what happened before. They then teamed up, and Guri agreed to be the template for a new series of human replica droids, one of which would be a replica of Dash's older deceased brother, Stanton, who had died long ago. It was Stanton's death that turned Dash into the smuggler he was now. But Dash was grateful to have him once again by his side – in a manner of speaking, of course.
Not long afterwards, Dash and Guri parted ways, but once again met in another bizarre coincidence on Ryloth. Apparently, they had both been carrying out jobs for the same crime lord, both of which went awry. The criminal boss, obviously, wasn't very pleased, and called out his mercenaries against them. They happened to be at exactly the same place when the job backfired, and they teamed up against the incoming mercenary army. The troops were dispatched with relative ease, though, seeing as they were just crooks with guns, not professionally armed and trained soldiers like the Imperial stormtroopers., and Dash teamed up with Guri once again for this job.
It just had to go pear-shaped again, though.
The original plan was for a shipment to be delivered via Guri's ship, the Wasp, which was very similar to her previous ship, the Stinger, only this one didn't have weapons on it (it was rented very quickly specifically for this job). Guri and Stanton would pilot the Wasp, while Dash would stick to the Outrider and provide the escort guns. This was the kind of mission where having at least three problems was considered normal, and they wanted to be prepared for everything.
This job, however, backfired in a different way. There wasn't three problems, but one very huge one.
They had just hypered into Saleucami, their destination, when out of nowhere popped up several Interceptor IV frigates: pirate vessels of the Zann Consortium. Ambushed at the last second, and outgunned by heavily armed pirates eager to board their victims, Dash did what any sane smuggler would do: drop the mission. The Wasp dropped the cargo, turned, and hypered away before they could be destroyed by the enemy ships, while the Outrider stayed behind to hold them off for a bit. The last transmission Dash sent to Guri was to head over to Shola with Stanton and meet him and Leebo there. Although the Outrider took some laser bolts, it was still working perfect; he could rely on her for that. She even took down one of the frigates by blowing out the engine coolant systems and rupturing the emergency life hatches. Once they had a clear screen, Dash immediately hit the hyperdrive and they rocketed away.
Seeing, though, as they were stuck far out in space, near the edge of the galaxy, it looked like Dash was going to have to make them wait for a while.
"How are all systems going, Leebo?" Dash called back to the droid co-pilot.
"All systems are checked" came the answer. "Green lights, the ship's working fine".
"Perfect, all we need to do now is–"
Dash's next words were interrupted when the ship jolted violently to the side, throwing Dash off his chair and sending alarms beeping and lights flickering. Instinctively, Dash grabbed the thrust control and maneuver stick, pushed the former to full while pulling at and turning the latter to the side. The Outrider banked, turned, and began to rocket away. However, the ship continued to shake from what seemed to be a relentless assault on the unsuspecting vessel. Dash brought the sublight engines down to one percent, slowing the ship down tremendously while still keeping the control stick in the same position, then pushed the engines to maximum after a bit of turning. The cruiser fired up its engines and leapt forward, forcing the unsuspecting assailant to sail by him.
"Status!" Dash yelled.
"Shields down to 40%, hull damaged at Sectors 4 and 6" Leebo replied quickly. "Shields can still hold, but if we don't hurry up and get rid of whoever did this we'll be bantha fodder".
Dash didn't have to wait for Leebo to finish his sentence before he checked the scanners. What he saw on the screens made his blood boil.
A ship with a rounded green rear hull and what appeared to be rotating wings on either side was displayed on-screen. The cockpit was located on top, and the hull extended down into a small column jutting out with twin heavy cannons at the bottom. At the back, the engines were arranged in two small circles at the bottom and a horizontal line above them. The description read: 'Firespray-31-class patrol and attack craft'.
Slave I.
Boba Fett.
Dash swore at the top of his voice. How the hell did he find them?
He didn't have much time to consider that, however, before the attacker looped around and opened fire once again.
"Leebo, take the controls, I'll handle the guns!" yelled Dash, and Leebo was in the pilot seat an instant later.
The high-pitched wailing of the bolts lashed out at the unfortunate ship, which had to loop around and turn to avoid the bounty hunters relentless attack.
Although the Outrider was incredibly fast, it was outmatched by the Slave I in maneuverability, and Dash soon found his enemy behind him constantly, railing on the back with red bolts.
"Shields down to 5%, sir, and it won't hold for much longer!" Leebo said loudly.
This was bad. If they didn't fix this in seconds, they could be blown to bits. And that was the last thing Dash wanted at this moment. Leebo was pushing the Outrider to its maneuvering limits, but it still wasn't enough. Slave I was still behind them, still unleashing its red beams of death at the helpless vessel.
But then, Dash came across an idea, one he had improvised while at the Academy a long time ago, and was sparingly practiced by many due to its risk of getting the pilot killed. It was going to be tremendously tricky, but the Outrider had very powerful cannons. If they could pull this off, they might be able to force Fett out of the fight and away from them. He had to take the risk, lest he be turned to scrap along with his ship.
"Leebo, cut the sublight engines, and re-engage when I give the signal" Dash commanded.
"Are you sure, captain?" Leebo replied, surprisingly calm considering the situation. "Shields down to 2%, by the way–"
"Yes, I'm sure, do it!" Dash shouted, and Leebo complied. Dash held on to his chair but kept his right hand on the trigger, waiting for the precise moment.
The stars outside seemed to come to a standstill as the Outrider's speed shrank down to almost motionless. The engine transformed from a huge raging monster into a slow, humming insect. The other ship, having been right behind him and following up his speed along with its attack, did not noticed that its prey had slowed down until it had filled up the Firespray's cockpit. At the last second, its pilot pushed the control stick to the side and the Slave I screamed right over the Outrider. At that second, Leebo punched in the speed adjuster and the Outrider sped off after Fett.
Dash immediately pulled the fire trigger, unleashing a storm of laserfire towards the small attack craft, hitting its rear shields which glowed blue from the effect of the cruiser's cannons. However, the blue shields began to flicker slowly, and soon Dash would be able to destroy Slave I, let alone severely damage. He had him now.
Something in the back of his mind, though, was unsettling. He had known Fett for long enough. Fett was, after all, the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, and arguably the most experienced and relentless. He personally battled both Boba Fett and Slave I on Gall Spaceport, which nearly cost him his life. Why was Fett making this easy? He knew that the Outrider's guns could tear through his ship with relative ease, so why wasn't he pulling out, at least?
Dash's questions were answered fast enough when he looked back at the Slave I again. The damage done to the ship was quite extensive: one circular engine was black and one of the wings seemed to be bent and melted. But that wasn't what drew his attention.
What did was a small blue blinking light floating towards him.
Dash figured out what it was at the last second.
Sonic charges.
"LEEBO!" screamed Dash "BANK! NOW—"
But too late.
Dash's sentence was interrupted by total silence. He couldn't hear anything, neither the pounding of the blaster bolts or the howl of his own voice. It was as if he was suddenly transported to the Maw in that one instant. There was nothing.
The silence didn't last, and was soon followed by a deafening bang that shook him to the very core and a bright blue flash that filled the cockpit, jerked the Outrider off course, and sent it spinning away. Leebo had luckily seen the explosive as well and attempted to veer off to the side to avoid the worst of it. Fortunately, he had, but unfortunately, he hadn't avoided it all. The explosion had hit the dorsal part of the Outrider, sending it flying. Dash held on for dear life as the ship turned and twisted, alarms screamed and lights frantically blinked in an attempt for attention. At one point, the ship shuddered so violently he was nearly thrown off his seat. It seemed like forever that the ship was gyrating insanely, and the pilot felt as if he was going to be sick.
As suddenly as it happened, it stopped, thankfully before Dash could barf. The swirling patterns of neon lights were reduced to the familiar dot dot dot of passing stars, and the sound of the boom reduced to silence – except for Dash, who was unlucky enough to be a biological human being. His ears were still ringing loudly from the sonic charge – his right one more than his left – but he was in one piece at least.
The Outrider stopped moving and returned to its course of moving straight forward instead of spinning out of control. It had taken severe damage from the skirmish, but it was still moving and functional.
The Slave I had vanished.
"You think he's gone, sir?" Leebo questioned.
Dash snorted. He would bet his ship and his right arm that Fett was still alive. Sure, suffering heavy damage to his nimble ship as well, but alive. He would be damned before he'd let his quarry get away so easily. "Fett? Gone? Hah. He escaped a Sarlacc by himself, he can get away from his own toys just as well. Damage report?"
"Damage seems extensive, but not unrepairable" was the response. "Communications and long range scanners are knocked out, the top cannons are disabled, and shields are gone completely. The hyperdrives have also shorted out: both primary and secondary. We were lucky to get away the way we were."
Dash cursed. "Can we fix it?"
"Yes, we have the necessary tools to do all the repairs, but we'll be unable to do it in this space. We'll need to land somewhere first, and with us being in the middle of nowhere and running only on sublight, it will take some time before we find any planet – especially seeing as you didn't check to see whether we were going near a planet or not when we hypered out of the firefight."
Dash cursed again. Of all the luck…he was alive, but getting nowhere. How was he ever going to get out of this mess now? There was no way he could contact the others or escape from here. He had to figure out something, and something fast.
"Sir?" came his droid's beeping.
"What?" said Dash, rather rudely. Today was NOT going well at all.
"I suggest you check the scanners" was all that came from Leebo.
"You said the scanners were out" Dash said, confused.
"The long range ones. The short range one works well. And I think you should see this".
Dash's heart nearly skidded to a stop. There was no way that son of a gun could have survived…
"Is it Fett?" Dash asked quietly, trying to keep his voice even. What Leebo answered with both relieved and puzzled him.
"No, sir. Something else."
Dash managed to breathe smoothly again. Good thing that bounty hunter didn't show up again, or Dash would DEFINITELY be finished.
"What is it?" Dash pressed on.
"I think you should see for yourself" came Leebo's response.
Dash sighed with annoyance and went to the primary scanner monitor to see what Leebo was up to. And now he was definitely surprised.
"Are the maps working, Leebo?"
"Yes sir, fully updated as usual and in perfect condition, good thing our data banks were untouched by the fight."
"Relay it here" ordered the captain.
"Roger" Leebo responded.
The digital map of the galaxy popped up, replacing the scanner's results. Dash looked closely through the Mandalorian sector and found an approximation to where he was. He poured over it several times before conceding a baffling defeat.
Strange. He had gone over the map several times right now, and before the mission started. Although he didn't check where he was going before he punched the buttons, he was supposed to pop up in the middle of nowhere. All the star systems in the galaxy were registered into the Republic network.
So what was a star system that didn't show up on any of the maps doing here?
Dash went though the map again, and finally gave up. This was weird.
"Leebo, what can you tell me about that system?" Dash asked.
"Hang on sir, I am retrieving the data now" Leebo said, and soon a few beeps and clicks were heard.
"It is a singular, small sized star that still appears to be young, orbited by a planet with a moon. Judging by the size, I'd have to say it is about the size of Naboo. No further information is available at this range".
Now Dash was purely flummoxed. No way was there a chance that they could have arrived at Naboo. That was on the other side of the galaxy. This warranted an investigation. He would also land the ship and repair it as well. That would be striking two nerfs with one blaster bolt.
"Set course for that planet, and update me with more information as we get closer to it" Dash ordered.
"I copy" Leebo beeped, and the Outrider slowly but surely turned towards a small light that outshone the others.
It took nearly fifteen minutes before Dash could make out the planet with its small orbiting moon and its giant parent sun. The sun seemed to be a yellow star, still quite young, while as they got closer Dash could make out more details on the planet.
"Sir, I have attained more information" Leebo's voice rang in. "The moon itself is nothing but barren rock and dust, with nothing of interest on it. The planet, however, is vastly different. It is, coincidentally, similar to Naboo in terms of climate, but only in certain areas. Up near the northern pole and down near the southern, the weather seems to be blizzards and ice, just like Hoth, while in the middle it seems more desert like, akin to Tatooine. There is also a black spot south of the desert areas, but I'm not sure what it could be. Green landscapes cover the areas north of the desert".
Dash pondered for a moment. He wanted to land on that planet and lay low for some time before he took off again for his comrades. But a part of him was also curious to see what the planet held. What kind of aliens lived there? Were they dangerous? Surely, this planet didn't seem as if it had seen much of the rest of the galaxy. Who knows what kind of technology they were capable of – if there were even any there at all.
Dash looked over the scanner once again, which gave him a close-up view of the planet. They were approaching it from the other side of the star, which put them on course with the darker side of the planet. The icy parts were up north and south, while down near the middle of the planet there were also desert areas. Below the desert regions, there were some patches of green landscape, just like Naboo. However, there seemed to be more of them above the desert area, just north of a mountain range dividing the two very different landscapes. In the green areas, there also seemed to be a lot of forests and mountain peaks, as well as lakes and rivers. There seemed to be some kind of life down there judging by the various urban areas that dotted the landscape on the green sections, but the scanners couldn't give a clearer view on them. Down south, there was indeed an area covered in black as dark as the space around them. He looked over the scanner a few more times before deciding his course of action.
"Leebo" he called.
"Yes, sir?" came the answer.
"Fly the ship down to these co-ordinates, in the forest just northwest of this town here" he pointed at the northern green area, at a medium sized village which was in the shadow of an incredibly tall mountain, which also seemed to have some kind of city on there. "Fly around the village from the south and west to avoid detection. Try to keep the ship engines at minimum volume, as well, so that no one hears us. We don't know if the indigenous population is like those Tuskens. I'd best not take any chances for now. In the meantime, I'll head back to the engine and assess the damage there".
"Yes sir, plotting course now" Leebo acknowledged.
Dash sighed again. This had been one hell of a day, and had just gotten much more interesting.
As the planet loomed into view, his eye moved rapidly, taking in all details on this new mysterious orb. Blue, green, purple, yellow…all the colors were there. While they were getting closer, Dash was suddenly struck by a strange feeling: that there was something a bit off about this planet. Something that was unlike anything he felt before.
He shook it off, though. The day had taken its toll on him. All he needed to do was rest as soon as the Outrider touched solid ground, and then he would be able to focus on more pressing matters.
But first things first, the engine.
Dash slowly got up from his seat, still shaking from his less-than-fun roller-coaster ride, and slowly made his way to the main hold, which was right next to the engine room. There he would grab a quick bite to restore some energy in him before going in to check on the machines.
His mind was filled with a billion questions – not the least of which what he was supposed to expect down below.