"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes." - Leia Organa of Alderaan
The fireworks glistening in the night sky above the dingy streets of Mantana'doo's festive Market District rivaled the light of the three moons that illuminated the fresh puddles of water on the boisterous streets and thickets below. A single Star Destroyer rested above quietly, hovering over the deceptively quiet mountain range nearby. Most that lived in Mantana'doo, like fourteen year old Umamu, knew that the mountain ranges were battlefields between the poor of Mantana'doo trying to scavenge and mine whatever they could to survive.
Umamu never had the chance to see the Festival of the Forest and unfortunately, today wasn't any different. Instead of enjoying the festivities in the busy city with everyone else, he was lugging around a ruck twice his size and a rifle that had enough recoil to send him into hyperspace if he ever shot it. Luckily for him and his Tognath owner, Sak-Dai, these "loot trips" as Sak-Dai called them, rarely escalated into much more than a fist fight or shouting contest between junkyard vendors. The boy shook his head as he eyed Sak-Dai up ahead, annoyed that he had fallen behind so far from him and he hadn't waited for him.
Umamu climbed up a steep incline to reach the top of the hill where Sak-Dai decided to stop for the night. He followed a putrid smell of rotting grease and deathstick residue which marked Sak-Dai's makeshift tent. The Tognath was sitting down with an electroscope half the size of his head glued to his beady white eyes looking out at a bright, yet peaceful night sky.
Sak-Dai huffed, still sitting cross legged. "Freck. The fireworks are making it hard to see."
He got up and moved positions around until he had covered every vantage point on the hilltop. Umamu sighed. He was not looking forward to carry the massive weight to yet another mountainside.
The Tognath grumbled and huffed as he frantically reset the electroscope dials.
"You see something, right? Tell me you see something."
Umamu's lips stayed glued. He just stared at Sak-Dai with his big brown eyes.
Umamu never had a problem holding his tongue to avoid a beating. The last thing he wanted was for the lacerations on his shoulders to open back up and have to hike carrying three times his weight while his back was on fire.
"E chuta!"
The Tognath threw his bottom down on the ground, defeated. In a sudden fit of rage, he threw the electroscope down onto the ground, making strong clanking sounds as it tumbled down the cliff.
It didn't take Umamu's extensive expertise in repair to know that that electroscope had seen its last days. Sak-Dai prepared his tent and rolled out his natty sleeping mat, defeated.
Before going to rest, the Tognath popped his stinky head out and looked at Umamu, who had been looking curiously through the rifle scope.
"Put that down! We go back to town before sunrise." he grumbled. Umamu set the rifle down at his feet and plopped onto the ground, backpack first. The clanking of spare parts from the ruck meant that the trip hadn't been a complete failure, but they had missed out on something big. Sak-Dai hadn't told him details, but the potential for some serious credit making was definitely there. Leading up to the Festival of the Forest, Sak-Dai had become much more agitated and proactive than usual. He was scrambling his communications, upgrading his defense droids in the shop, constantly evading Stormtrooper patrols at night to "visit friends"; whatever he was looking for tonight, it was serious business and that much Umamu knew.
Umamu rested his head on the backpack and looked up at the three moons of Had Abbaddon. He wanted to travel to all three, but he biggest one, named after the forest spirit Jia, was his dream location. The rich merchants that visited Sak-Dai's store often spoke of it as "heaven". He would pray to Jiaa, hoping one day he would make enough to leave everything behind and start anew. He looked on with curiosity, this time with the rifle electroscope. The boy peeked out towards his master's tent and quickly shouldered the rifle to look at Jiaa again.
Curiously, something looked a little strange this time. There was a small black dot that was getting larger and larger, almost eclipsing the emanating halo of reflective light. He looked on curiously as the black dot took the form of an "X". Suddenly, the solitary "X" multiplied into five and then ten and then twenty "X"s which arranged into two separate wedges. Umamu followed them as they made their way over to the solitary Star Destroyer under the cover of fireworks. Red lights emanated from the tips of the approaching ships. The bright lights were soon followed by thundering explosions from the Star Destroyer turbolasers and the screaming of TIE fighters that instantly threw Sak-Dai out from his tent and rattled Umamu's teeth, sending them both up in the air for a second.
"What the?! Whats going on?" ached the half-asleep Tognath, scratching his head as he crawled out of his flattened tent.
The boy said nothing for a moment, in awe of the spectacle above them.
"Give me the electrosco- that rifle!" said Sak-Dai as he snatched the rifle away from the boy and stared intently through the scope. A distinctive Imperial cargo shuttle, followed by its own squadron of TIE fighters appeared amidst the battle and nearly blew out their engines trying to reach the safety of the Star Destroyer. Almost immediately, the starfighters were swarmed by the flying "X"s. The distant Star Destroyer desperately attempted to shoot volleys off and launch more fighters, but they came too late. The shuttle hurled toward the ground in a flaming, molten mess, crashing down on an embankment below them.
"Leave everything!" said Sak-Dai as he grabbed his satchel and tumbled down the hill. Umamu tried lugging his ruck, but Sak-Dai motioned violently for him to follow to the base of the mountain.
"Take the gun, wamp rat!" cried out Sak-Dai, nearly out of breath. Now lighter, the boy charged down the mountain, tripping on loose rocks and branches in the darkness, but fast enough that he had caught up to Sak-Dai.
"Keep the rifle shouldered and cover my back. We get in and out fast."
The orange and red light that highlighted the branches of the dark trees in the forest and made it a little easier to see where Umamu was stepping but tripping or carrying a heavy load was no longer his worry. They were getting closer to whatever Sak-Dai had been waiting for. And it was huge. The skies above were brighter now, not with celebratory fireworks, but with the blinding flares of superlaser cannon fire and ship blaster fire. TIEs were being blown to bits and the flying "X"s had dwindled to about three before they blasted off toward the horizon in a desperate attempt to shake off the swarm of TIEs behind them. One of the ships was trailing smoke and seemed to crash on a mountainside while the other two desperately tried evading the TIEs that erupted from out of the Star Destroyer's belly. They weren't going to make it.
As they approached the molten metal, Umamu's heart began to race as he heard aches and screams. The crashed ship was an Imperial Lambda class shuttle and whatever Sak-Dai was planning to do, it was going to lead to nothing but disaster. The failed attack by the "X"s showed that very clearly but the stubborn Tognath continued to press forward.
"This is illeg-" mumbled the boy.
"Oh now you talk!" growled the anxious Tognath before reaching the fiery crash and jumping into the fire.
Umamu gripped the rifle with his now sweaty palms, trying to catch a breath. If Stormtroopers were to arrive on scene before Sak-Dai could make it out, it was he who was holding an illegally modified slug rifle and it would be he who would answer to the Empire's wrath.
The boy slowly raised the trembling rifle toward Sak-Dai's figure in the fire. This was his chance. An escape. Umamu held his breath as his right index finger touched the cold trigger.
Before he could squeeze, Sak-Dai jumped out of the fire with a black box in his arms.
Sak-Dai grunted and stood there, staring at Umamu. Umamu tried pulling the trigger but his muscles were paralyzed. Suddenly, Sak-Dai grabbed the rifle out of the boys hands, and slammed him down into the ground.
"That's what I thought."
A swift kick to the ribs blew out the breath Umamu held. Before he could even land on the ground, Sak-Dai grabbed him like a rag doll and dragged him along to escape the inevitable search party.
Crowds of scavengers crossed paths with them as they rushed toward the crash site with baskets and backpacks – anything they could to stuff valuable scrap from the still smoldering shuttle. It seemed like half of the town had arrived while the other half abandoned the celebrations to observe the aftermath.
Sak-Dai had dragged the boy in one arm and the black box in the other for about five kilometers whilst avoiding the main roads until they arrived at Mantana'doo's bustling gate.
"Move, move, , outta my way, move…" grumbled the Tognath as he nudged through the filthy crowds that were rushing over to the brightly lit tree line until finally, the boy and his master melted into the sea of people partying on the main street that connected to the Market District. Sak-Dai slowed down and let go of the boy to avoid any suspicion. He tried covering a much of the black box a possible with his trench coat.
As he and Umamu waked back to their shop, they looked around cautiously for any Imperials.
Some of the rich off world party goers were watching the dogfight above from their segregated open-air bar seats, cheering and toasting. Crowds upon crowds of them also meandered through the streets still, despite the ongoing battle above.
"They caught a pilot, I heard." said one of the wealthy drunkards in an exaggerated, repulsively adorned robe.
"I bet its the Rebels." giggled one of the women next to him.
Umamu looked at Sak-Dai looking for answers and saw that the Tognath was fidgety.
He took off his coat and completely covered the box, picking up his pace in the process. Umamu desperately tried catching up and was doing his best to avoid being swallowed up by the mass of dancing bodies. He threw out his hands in desperation, trying to grab hold of anything as Sak-Dai's figure faded out into the Market District. If Imperials found him without paperwork and without his owner, he would be in serious trouble.
Umamu's throat constricted with anxiety as bodies began crushing his small frame and he could no longer see more than five centimeters from his face. His eyes began to swell up and he prayed to the forest spirits to help him. He desperately tried clawing through the bodies but all that did was end up in him getting nudged between a crowd of nasty looking Rhodians and a thick metal gate.
Abruptly, as if his prayers had been answered, loud speakers from ever corner of the city began ringing.
"All citizens, a citywide curfew is in place, effective immediately. Off-world visitors proceed to the consulate's office in the main city plaza. Failure to do so will result in severe discipline."
The announcement rang deep and reverberated through the towers, cantinas, apartments, alleys, and neighboring mountains. At an instant, wasted partygoers which laid peacefully on the ground were dragged by the semi-competent drunkards who desperately chained arms with the few sober people present, all trying to make it off the streets in large chains. Luckily, this chaos dissipated the crowds in a near instant, giving Umamu the chance he was looking for.
Umamu ran as fast as he could toward Sak-Dais shop.
A familiar muddy road lined with native adobe-styled buildings and heaps of dead droids intertwined with trashed ships indicated he was getting close to the Market District. He looked up at two tall, dull-red smokestacks by a large heap of twisted metal in the center out in the distance, marking Sak-Dai's makeshift metallic castle towering over the smaller shops.
The district was eerily quiet now, save for crowd of about fifty off world drunks yelling profanities and throwing bottles at local Imperial law enforcement and an AT-RCT with search lights. The gunner atop it began yelling back and into his radio, spawning more Stormtroopers
the closer Umamu got to the bellowing smoke stacks. While he held his breath and crammed his thin body into a small slit opening in between two pieces of spacer junk that separated the main road from an alley, one of the Stormtroopers managed to catch a glimpse of Umamu.
"I see you, kid. Step outta there. Now!", ordered the trooper as he set his rifle to stun and jogged over.
"I wont tell you again. I'm not playing games!"
Immediately, Umamu began dragging his body at full force to the other end facing the alley, scraping his chest on the rusty metal in the process, leaving a blood stain streaking across the wall.
The Stormtrooper saw what he was trying to do and immediately raised his rifle.
"Get someone on the other end and catch him. TK-107, hustle it!"'
Another troop apprehending a passed out delinquent stopped what he was doing and dashed across the street, back toward the main street to reach an entrance to the alley.
The lead trooper began firing but barely missed Umamu by a hair as he managed to wrestle free and run into the alley.
Umamu gripped the tear on his chest as he exited the alley and ran full speed toward the smoke shacks to his left.
He looked back and saw the Stormtrooper was at his heels with a baton. The swings made a whizzing sound in Umamu's ears and made the hairs on his back straighten up. Umamu then felt a firm cold grip on his shoulder and was immediately dragged to the ground. He saw only black and thought that the Stormtrooper managed to land a smack to his temple. He lay there, not being able to hear anything but ringing from his ears.
When the dust settled and Umamu looked up, he saw Sak-Dai standing defiantly in front of the Stormtrooper but he could barely make out what they argued about.
"He needs documentation, regardless!" argued the Stormtrooper.
"Fine. Fine! I have the documentation in my shop. Wait here." said Sak-Dai begrudgingly.
"For complicating this, I'm inspecting your shop now."
"Aren't you complicating the situation more by-"
"Do you want me to call another patrol over here to apprehend you too?"
Sak-Dai kept his mouth shut and angrily dragged the boy into the shop, tossing him aside in a corner next to an old HK defense droid. The choking black soot accumulated from the smokestacks fell like heavy black snow as Umamu's back hit the wall. Umamu could barely make out where he was until he heard Sak-Dai's voice. He was slowly regaining his hearing.
"It must be somewhere here..." mumbled Sak-Dai, dusting off his front office's desk and rummaging through papers and holopads.
The Stormtrooper began to lose his patience and began waking around the shop, inspecting the merchandise.
"I don't have all night, now."
He stopped for a moment in front of a table in the back end of the shop, straight across from Umamu, and lifted Sak-Dai's coat to reveal the black box.
The Stormtrooper inspected it for a moment and suddenly drew his rifle from the holster.
"Wait….what the..."
Without word, he spun around and stuck the barrel of his E-11 right in the middle of Sak-Dai's forehead.
Sak-Dai made a strange clicking sound and raised both hands slowly. Umamu stayed hunched down and froze in place. A red bolt of light charged in the E-11's barrel, waiting to be released at any second. Behind him, Umamu could feel the heat emanating from the activated HK droid as it quietly raised its rifle up toward the Stormtrooper's head….