ORD MANTELL
72 HOURS AFTER BENEVOLENT RISK'S DESTRUCTION


Jekk Casol applied more pressure to the deep wounds in Bend Carriggan's chest, which had been bleeding profusely since he was butchered. The jagged rock collected a stream of dark blood where Jekk had dragged the writhing spacer across the rough ground. It was nightfall, the dusk sun's glow casting a dusty light across the ragged peaks and cliffs of the Ord Mantell mountain region, shining through the billowing smoke rising from the wreck of the Shadows Grand beyond the summit. The view of the Mantellian valley would have been a beautiful sight to behold, if carnage hadn't stained the holocard-esque vista, and if the destroyed mouth of Bend Carriggan wasn't moaning and coughing up blood and pus.

"Kid, I always thought when my time had come, I'd be spaced," whispered Carriggan. He was cringing, biting back the curses he couldn't utter in agony through his wounded lips. His tormented eyes showed defeat. "Ord Mantell. I don't want to die here. I shouldn't have jumped the Risk. I should have died with her."

"Hey, come on — don't talk like that, Cap'n, you're going to be just fine," Jekk lied blatantly. He didn't exactly have a medical degree in practice at comforting a man through the gates of death. "There's probably a settlement over those mountains there. Don't worry, we'll get help, Cap'n."

"Captain," Carriggan echoed, laughing forcefully, coughing and shuddering as a deathly cold began to overtake his broken body. "I'm no captain any more, my old girl is blasted across a thousand klicks of galactic vacuum. And now I'm going to die on this blasted rock ... far, far away. So, just save the sanctimony, boy."

Though he wasn't entirely correct — most of the Benevolent Risk's twisted frame had probably been completely consumed by Ord Mantell's atmosphere, as it's empty carcass plunged into the abyss, but Jekk wasn't planning to rob the old smuggler of his poetic last words, factual inaccuracy aside. He was gripping the old man's sleeves tightly, white-knuckle tight, transfixed by the shock of approaching bereavement. He watched silently as the old man lay for a while, as his breathing became progressively laboured. Carriggan spluttered, spraying red droplets across Jekk's sleeve. He grunted again, closing his eyes.

"Sorry, boy."

Jekk Casol watched in quiet despair as his chest rose and fell slowly, each excruciating breath of air tearing the life from the old spacer's seared lungs. He opened his mouth and struggled to inhale, and died, lungs emptying, heart ceasing, the mind no longer desiring oxygen. Cursing, Jekk tugged at Carriggan's sleeves in vain, kicking away from his corpse like it carried a contagious disease that must be purged. He crawled away cursing, stumbling to his feet, but nearly collapsed as blood rushed to his brain and he was abound with a sickening vertigo. With a disgusted hack, he leaned against the rocky mountain wall and retched, spraying stomach bile and saliva across the ground.

He collapsed, and lay there for a while.

Revolted, and numb, Jekk recollected his thoughts, as he gazed out at the Mantellian sunset. The valley was beautifully bittersweet. Birds flew above the treetops of forested thickets that crowded around groves and grasslands, rising as hills and rocklands scattered throughout. The sunset was an amazingly vibrant gold, and as stunning and surreal as it was, it felt natural. After a long while, after Bright Jewel had dipped beyond the mountains, and the dim, red glow was fading into a melancholic purple-blue, Jekk finally summoned the courage to tear his eyes from the beautiful scene and drag the old spacer behind a small cluster of rocks. The stink of his rotting cadaver had already pierced the sweet, mountain air. It was putrid. A swarm of marauding birds hovered in circles above the outcrop, awaiting their feast. Jekk removed the blaster pistol from Carriggan's hip, overcome by fury, and fired off a round into the air. They scattered with shrieks of panic.

"Get the Hell out of here, you sick bastards!"

He watched them flutter away. His arm slackened, and the pistol fell against his thigh. He sighed, and bent to remove Carriggan's equipment. "I hope you don't mind if I borrow a few things, Cap'n," he said, as he unbuckled his hip strap — plasma torch, charge packs and all from the slain carcass. He tugged the old man's jacket up over his face, and carved a few words into the rock with the end of his blaster, then stood back to observe the handiwork. It wasn't much. The rocks were very silent guests, and said nothing in eulogy. Jekk uttered a few customary words of passing common at Corellian funerals, and turned away from the chilling scene.

Marching across the tremendous mountains that seemed to dominate all of Ord Mantell's surface, Jekk hoped against odds that he wouldn't stumble upon another prowling, hungry beast, or worse — a pack. He had no idea what nomenclature it bore, but he wasn't eager to come close enough again to ask. He didn't have much firepower, just the small blaster pistol now slung at his hip, and the plasma torch tucked into his boot. No food or water. No bedroll or lodging for shelter. And he'd left both his datapad and comlink along with his other possessions in his personal quarters aboard the Risk.

After a couple painstaking hours of walking through the tight darkness, he came across a trickling mountain stream that pooled into a small spring. Flutterplumes hovered above the rippling water lazily, glowing in the dark. Jekk surveyed his mangy appearance in the reflection cast by the ominous light of the Mantellian moons upon the murky water. His clothing was ripped and tattered, his face was covered in dirt and ash, his messy black hair matted. He rubbed the stubble growing at his jaw with dissatisfaction. He despised the rough texture of facial hair. Scratching at his neck, he extended a palm to the pool and drank the cool water thirstily, until his abdomen was bloated and the water had quenched both his hunger and his thirst. All he'd eaten in the past seventy-two hours was local vegetation — grass — and the limited rations from the escape pod's survival pack. Despairingly, he wished he'd carried some sort of travel canteen. He made a mental note to always carry basic survival gear with him on any mission in the future ... if he managed to survive the Mantellian wilderness.

Jekk rested by the spring for as long as he dared, worried that a roaming wild beast might get thirsty as well. He decided to search for a cave or crack in the rock to sleep away another chilly night. He pulled out the plasma torch and ignited the warming flames, using it as a heat source. The plasma torch singed away the cloak of shadows that had besieged him, but he still felt shrouded in something far more sinister as he marched along. The dropping temperature of the mountains began to cause his exhaled breath to expunge as condensed vapor. The plasma torch, however, offered little comfort as he trekked through the barren nothing of the Ord Mantell badlands, with hopelessness that burgeoned like Felucian mushrooms. He found a small cave, and tucked himself inside, similar to a watch-critter scurrying through the hallways of a Plawalian prison. A marauding bird perched atop a crooked, dead tree, awaited the necrosis of the starving human within. Soon, he fell into an uneasy sleep — tormented by nightmares of a furious beast striking down a faceless adversary.

Suddenly, Jekk awoke.

He sat up, and his shirt stuck to his tingling skin. He lay in cold sweat. The freakish sounds of something heavy moving a few metres away echoed throughout the cavern. A shaky hand dropped to his hip and unstrapped the blaster pistol, wrenching it from it's holster. He gripped his plasma torch tightly, pointing his weapons at the crack in the mountain wall. A faint dawn's light was shining upon the narrow view of the Mantellian landscape visible beyond. The beast they'd encountered and fled must have tracked him down, stalking the trail of his human stench straight to his hidden camp in the crack. The beast made it's awful grunting sounds, and scraped it's gigantically sickening claws across the sharp rock like an old furnace in an encased industrial dome on the surface of Rodia. The monster's face peered in through the crack, a deranged smile splitting it's hideous facial features. With a yell, Jekk ignited the plasma torch and held it high in the encroaching darkness. The creature roared, spraying spit everywhere, then tore at the crack's frame with it's massive reptilian hands. The cavern was collapsing!

"Dammit!"

Forcing himself to ignore the paralyzed feeling of fear that froze his boots to the rock, Jekk swung his plasma torch to hold the beast at arm's length, as he blundered out of the crumbling cavern before the rock buried him within. He aimed carefully, and squeezed the trigger hard, but the blaster shot ricocheted off the beast's tough, scaly skin. The beast roaring in his ears, he cursed it's thick hide as more shots skimmed across. They did little damage, only enraging the beast, as it emerged from the dust of the sepulchered cave — a bipedal, yell0w-black hulk of a creature, sticky saliva dripping from his fangs. It was quick, way too quick for the reflexes of the tiny human before it. With a savage strike, it brought it's terrible claws down upon it's enemy. Jekk cried out in pain as he felt skin rip and tear, bones and ligaments shattering. His blaster smashed apart, parts scattering across the ground, and Jekk crashed monolithically to the hard rock.

Head swimming, eyes blurred, mind dazed and body stunned, Jekk Casol could only stare in horror at the glowing eyes of the horrible beast rearing before him, as it lifted a leg for a brutal stomp. Luckily, Jekk was able to roll out of reach, ignoring both intense pain and burning, salty blood pouring down into his eyes. The beast reared for another stomp, but Jekk rapidly spiraled away again. Hopelessly pessimistic, Jekk knew he was going to crushed and picked apart, muscle by muscle, bone by bone, devoured like some kind of wilderness prey. The beast was about to stomp again, a triumphant gleam shining in it's slotted eye that could have been some kind of sick amusement, when a massive, silver-black machine flung from a cluster of trees and thick underbrush and tore into the beast's side, knocking it onto it's back with a resounding — crash! The machine, which Jekk recognized as a swoop bike, smashed and grinded along dirt, launching mounds of it into the air. A lone humanoid lunged from above, a vibroblade glinting from the beam of light cast by the awakening Bright Jewel, as he landed flawlessly beside his felled prey's body. From the humanoid's build, Jekk assumed he was a male.

Determined to get it's revenge, the beast quickly stood, anger and confusion causing veins to pop from it's neck, and blinded by bloodlust, it attacked without thinking. The armed humanoid was too agile, dodging it's attack and slicing at the beast's calf muscles, as he circled the demented monster. A black liquid poured from deep gashes like engine oil spewing from cracked motor casings, as it feel to it's knees and cried out in anguish. The swords lunged again, once more executing a flawless landing upon the beast's shoulders, and plunged his vibroblade deep into the beast's horrible mouth and down it's throat, as it howled in vain. It gurgled, spraying more black liquid everywhere, then slowly knelt and fell to the ground, dirt and tiny rocks rushing to escape it's collapse. After a brief moment of recuperation, the humanoid stepped down from the shoulders of it's kill and stuck fast the dripping vibroblade into the dirt, panting hard with exhaustion and relief.

The swordsman uttered something through laboured breathing in a foreign dialect. He was wearing a heavy hood, and hide-armoured platemail. Jekk pegged him for a hunter or a poacher of some kind, but he couldn't discern much else of the silhouetted humanoid, who stood like a black shadow before the arising Bright Jewel. He seemed like a deity as he spoke, "No? Well, a speaker of Basic, perhaps?"

Jekk grunted as he struggled to rise, trying to regain his composure. His perception was as hazy as a Force-induced dream world.

"What?"

"Woah, woah, pal! Take it easy," pleaded the hooded silhouette, as he rushed to a fallen Jekk's side. "You're pretty banged up. Here, let me help you."

"I'm alright," grimaced Jekk. The jabbing, shooting pains in his shoulder and abdomen were reminiscent of beatings he received in the horrible confinement conditions of the prisons on Belsavis. "Believe me, I've taken worse beatings."

"You're pretty damn tough, pal. I'll admit, not many match muscle with a brute like that and walk away, er, well, partially unscathed. You got a name?" The humanoid saviour tugged off his hood to reveal a tattooed face, and a horned skull — the humanoid was a Zabrak. He extended a gloved hand. Jekk wrapped his own frail grip around the swordsman's wrist and the swordsman pulled him off the ground. While Jekk examined the severity of the incisions upon his skin, the Zabrak fetched his sword from the dirt and sheathed it, and Jekk dusted himself off, inspecting a particularly nasty slice through his right shoulderblade.

"I'm Casol. Uh, Jekk Casol."

"That's of Corellian origin, yeah?" The swordsman guessed. He smirked. "I'm Khem Korbalade, smuggler and gambler extraordinaire. I, and my illustriously daring associates, saw your escape pod crash to the surface, along with the Imperial ship. We figured we'd hop on our landspeeders and track you down. That dead monstrosity of flesh I just slew, well, he was very kind in providing some enlightening directions. You need help to walk?"

Jekk allowed the Zabrak to lend a shoulder and they slowly began to limp towards a group of humming landspeeders just a short distance from the dead "monstrosity of flesh".

"All I can say is thank you for saving my life, hunter, I would be dead if you hadn't come along," Jekk said graciously. "What in space was it anyways?"

"Ah, it's an animal native to Ord Mantell. It's called a Savrip. Damn things love to roam around in packs and prey on surrounding settlements. You're lucky the one chasing you was working alone. But, there's plenty of credit to be had extirpating them, and it's the only way to make property taxes around here."

Jekk nearly tripped on a sudden dip in the ground, but the Zabrak skillfully avoided a clumsy calamity. Jekk grunted, allowing the Zabrak to continue.

"We found the rotting corpse of another human who wasn't as fortunate as you," he proceeded sorrowfully. "We buried him. I assumed he was a friend or a companion of some sort. Was I correct?"

"Yes," said Jekk simply.

"Damn, that's too bad. Sorry for your loss," he said solemnly. "If we could have tracked you down quicker, we could have saved your friend, too."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I barely knew the guy."

The Zabrak remained quiet for the rest of their painfully slow trek towards the landspeeder group. Whether it was regret, or an awkward silence in response to the growing staleness of their small talk, Jekk didn't know or care. He was just glad to be alive and breathing. Soon, they reached the circle of landspeeders, and the small group of cloaked figures who sat upon them patiently and silently.

"Hey, nice kill, Khem," complimented a dark-skinned man, puffing on a death stick. Another clapped jokingly. "The hero of the day returns," he chided.

"So, uh ... where are you headed?" asked Jekk, as Khem Korbalade helped him into the back of a landspeeder piloted by a pair of Rodian pilots. He leaned against the frame, and lit up his own white-gray death stick.

"Well, we've got a small encampment about a hundred klicks west across the valley," he enlightened, as he motioned for his crew to pack up. "You can rest up there for a while, maybe head into Trader's Quarter and secure passage off this rock. Although, I doubt it. What with the Republic blockade and all. Either way, we've got plenty of medical supplies and food if you're hungry — and work, if you're broke."

"Ready, boys? Let's fly!" Tapping the frame of the landspeeder with a wink, and tossing his blackened death stick into some bushes, Korbalade left Jekk and climbed into the pilot seat of his own landspeeder. The engines of which were kicked into overdrive, and all at once they ignited, roaring like a chorus of fresh starships outbound for their maiden voyage. Chanting combined war cries and yelling with victory, the group of riders sped off towards the horizon where Bright Jewel had finally risen. As they raced past the felled monster, the collapsed cave, and Jekk Casol's near-final stand, he watched with a satisfied smirk as a swarm of marauding birds picked apart the belly of the beast ...