Hold G-2, Imperial Prison Ship Manacle
Brakatak felt like he had just gone ten rounds with the Galactic Heavyweight Champion, Mustafarian Mo Aliegh. That was after he realized he was awake at all. When he had come to, he had been floating in mid-air surrounded by what he hoped where blankets in the pitch blackness. Cries of alarm echoed across the hold and the big Gran convinced himself he was still in his prison somewhere onboard the Manacle.
He swiped at the free-floating coverings in the pitch blackness of the hold and accidently smacked the back of his left hand against the hold's wall. "E chu ta!" He howled.
"Brakatak, is that you?" He tried to orientate his body in the direction of the voice he recognized as belonging to his herd's bull Frekfrek.
"Yes. I'm over here, wherever here is."
"Wizard, I can just barely see you. You seem to have gotten yourself wrapped up inside one of the shelters. Are you alright?" Frekfrek seemed to be moving closer, and then he felt the male tugging at the blankets that surrounded him. Within a few seconds Brakatak was free.
"Yes, Bull. I think so." He gave the man his title as a sign of respect in Gran culture; it was also a sign of submission to another's way. Frekfrek just nodded and wadded up the blanket and flung it away. In the zero-g environment it just unraveled itself as it floated away into the blackness. More and more cries for help came from every direction, and Frekfrek started to look more frantic. "I just smacked my hand is all, should be fine in a second."
The nearby viewport let in a tiny shaft of starlight that illuminated their small portion of the hold. His three eyes told him that they must be in a system with a yellow sun for it to be this bright. "I must see to the herd. Find who you can and help them, Brakatak, come find me if you learn anything but don't be stoopa." The bull pushed himself off of the viewport and glided into the area where most of the herd had their shelters. Even after he had disappeared into the abyss Brakatak could still hear the Gran leader yelling for individuals from the herd.
Before he left to seek other survivors, he propelled himself along the bulkhead until he could see out of the viewport. The starship was aligned in such a way that the viewport faced the core of this system. He faced a distant sun that appeared as little more than a giant star in space. With his eyesight being able to comprehend all sorts of different spectrums of light he was able to determine it most definately was a medium grade star that fell somewhere in the yellow scale. There were thousands of like stars scattered across the galaxy so he still had no clue where the fleet had jumped to. His gaze fell upon a distant asteroid field, but he could name a hundred systems with those as well. He put his face all the way up to the transpiristeel and looked as far to the front and rear of the fleet as he could. To the rear he was able to spot a small white bluish moon that seemed to be covered in ice. It reminded him of how a spacer friend of his had described Rhen Var to him a few years back in the prison camp on Desparye. Above the small moon he could just make out the orb of an orange gas giant. "Maybe we're near Bespin. I should have been a navigator." He said to himself as he looked around. "It's got to be better than being a kriffing slave."
It was the picket ships in the line that caught his attention next. A Lancer–class frigate drifted a kilometer away, but Brakatak wouldn't have noticed the thing without the aid of the sunlight. The ship was as completely black and powerless as the Manacle seemed to be. Beyond that a Demolisher class Star Destroyer was a study in bleakness, as was an orbital loadlifter beyond it. The sight of six Nebulon B frigates blacked out on the edge of the fleet made his heart lurch. Those had been the starships he had most yearned to fly one day, and to see them completely helpless almost broke his heart.
He needed to focus on the here and now, Frekfrek was right, he should be concentrating on helping the herd. The fleet would have to help itself.
As the only being with any light in the hold he studied which way to go before making his leap. Because Brakatak was who he was, he naturally pushed off the wall in the direction of the most voices. His eyes were already getting used to the darkness as he came across another group of awakening Gran smothered in their own shelters. Brakatak pulled an ornate rug, which he was sure was quite beautiful in the proper lighting, off of an elderly male Gran who coughed and thanked him. "What's going on, Brakatak?" There wasn't a Gran in the herd that didn't recognize the massive bulk of Brakatak.
"There's been a black out, sir. I think the whole fleet's been knocked out." He explained. They both started freeing the Gran's wife, who was screaming for them to never mind the fleet and get her free. Brakatak couldn't be sure, but he got the impression that the male was taking his time about it.
"Good. I hope Abek, Goddess of the Underworld, takes the scum. Wonder what could have knocked them all out like that?"
"I don't know, sir. I had a thought that we might have flown too close to a pulsar star, but then I had a look outside and there weren't any pulsars to be found."
"Can a pulsar do that to a fleet?" The male asked as they finally freed his wife. The female had trouble getting her bearings without the help of gravity and had to be steadied by her husband.
"I'm not sure, but I think we would have all been baked by a pulsar's radiation by now, if that's what really happened. In fact at school I . . . "
"That's nice, Brakatak," the Gran's wife cut him off, "but I'm sure a big strong lad like yourself would help the herd more if you were out looking for those that need help. We'll be fine here until they get the inertial dampers back up and running."
"That's just what Frekfrek told me to do."
"Well good, Frekfrek is a pretty smart fellow. We should be fine now." The male explained.
"Thank you, Brakatak." The female added as Brakatak waved goodbye and moved into the ever darkening hold. He swiped his hands outwards as he moved along gathering up blankets and linens and shoving them in his wake. He felt like he was swimming at night in a giant kelp forest in the seas of Kinyen. He pushed the sudden pain of homesickness aside as he recognized several voices he knew. When he tried to turn towards them he realized he couldn't stop his forward motion. Without the inertial dampers online, nothing would ever stop his forward motion unless he smacked into it. He swung wildly to grab onto something that could stop his passage, when suddenly he felt his leg brush against something. He reached down and grabbed a hold of a small eyestalk and was greeted by a youngling's yelp of pain.
"What are you doing down there, kid?"
"Let go off my eye and I'll tell you." The little Gran voice called out. Brakatak's motion had been stopped, so he grasped for the back of the kid's shirt and pulled himself to the deck. The youngling had been crouched down grasping a hold of a drainage grate. "I don't want to fly off." He explained.
"Good move, kid, you mind if I push off. I've got friends over there somewhere."
"Alright, but if you see my mom can you tell her where I am." Brakatak had no idea in the dark which of the three dozen Gran younglings he was talking to, but he assured the boy he would. He braced himself against the kid's knees and slowly pushed off as to not let the boy lose his grip on the grate. This time he didn't stop again until he crashed into the far wall of the hold. In the inky blackness he hadn't been able to brace himself for the impact, and was pretty sure one of his eyestalks was going to be black and blue the next day.
His trip had been right on target though. "That crash can only be friend, Brakatak." A voice hooted though the void. Suddenly he felt himself being assailed as two small humanoids crawled on him only to give him hugs of joy. Brakatak could feel their giant bundles of hair, which in lightness would have been colored with multiple streaks of colors.
"It is Brakatak; nobody else is as huge as a cruiser." Keatly laughed.
"Keatly, Ashlei, Frip, are you all right?" the big Gran asked.
"Yes, we awaken in air. Not happy, rather wake in water. My tub is vanished." Frip explained.
"We found Frip and a couple of soaking wet Gran together. The Gran went to go help other Gran so the three of us decided to see to what's left of our shelter." Ashlei jumped in.
"There wasn't much, we think it floated that way." Brakatak had no idea of the direction Keatly was indicating because of the darkness, but he wasn't worried enough about their meager belongings to care.
"That not exciting news. Firrereo girls tell him what we find." The clicks of his Ishi Tib friend's beak seemed to clatter faster with his excitement. Brakatak wasn't sure, but he was beginning to think that his friend might be upside down in orientation to the rest of them. He smiled at the mental image.
Ashlei spoke first. "The shield's down. We can get out. We already checked it out and there were prisoners in the hallways. We heard Ugnaughts and some Ewoks moving about out there."
"We need to get out there and find out what's going on. You girls stay here; me and Frip are going to tell Frekfrek about this."
"No way, we're coming with you. We don't have anybody, but you guys on board." Keatly objected. Brakatak was touched. In the past few days, while his Gran herd had ignored him, he hadn't realized how close he had grown to the fellow refugees he had shared his shelter with. It was nice to feel needed, he thought.
"Astral, but you must stick close to me and Frip. There's lots of ways to get lost out there, and also Black Sun has some of their beings on board. They would love to get their hands on a couple of young Firrereos." Frip clicked his beak in agreement. Brakatak grabbed a couple of nearby sheets and handed them to the girls. "Tie yourselves to Frip and my backs. We will carry you. In zero-g it won't even be tiring." The girls did as they asked and giggled when they discovered that the Ishi Tib was indeed upside down in relation to the rest of them.
When they were ready they pushed off the wall in the direction of the Gran shelters. They could hear Frekfrek getting a head count of the herd as they approached. "Brakatak's here. He yelled as he made his approach. In the blackness he bowled into a large crowd of Gran who had been listening to their leader for guidance. The herd must have been up against a wall as their presence stopped Frip and his forward inertia.
"Good to see Brakatak's family is still with the herd." Frekfrek said out of the darkness "Are your friends with you?"
"Yes, I've got my three shelter mates with me. We have good news." Brakatak announced to the herd. "The shield gate that prevents us from leaving the hold is down. We can leave."
"That is good, Brakatak, but there are many dangers to the herd out there. Especially the guards and their blasters, or have you already forgotten the feeling of the force pikes from the camps." Frekfrek said cautiously.
"We should find out what's going on." Someone yelled from the herd.
"Yes, Brakatak can you send your friends out to look around for us. I cannot risk the herd on something like this." Frekfrek sounded as if he was weighing a dozen options at once.
"We can't leave without Brakatak." Ashlei yelled from the big Gran's back.
"Yes, Bull. I must lead them. I do not have any other family in the herd. So they are my responsibility to look after. Besides gathering information is what I am good at. Did you know the entire fleet is in the same shape as we are?" Brakatak heard murmurs run through the herd at his breaking news.
"Very well, you can take your friends, but come back as soon as you find out anything." The herd's leader consented.
"We will, Frekfrek. Has anyone figured out a way to get any light?" Brakatak asked.
"We tried burning some linens, but the fire wouldn't burn right in the zero-g atmosphere," a voice he recognized as Tulopek's explained. "It just caused a bunch of smoke. We had a rough time putting it out once it got going too."
"That alright. Me Ishi Tib. Me will find a way through hallways to another light. We be ok." Frip assured the herd.
"Good luck then." Brakatak felt Frekfrek take his hand in the darkness and give him a firm handshake. "Be safe."
Brakatak pushed off the crowd in the direction of the doorway. Frip must have pushed harder because he heard the Ishi Tib smack into the far wall before he did. It gave him a small chance to brace before impact. After he was assured they were all still there, he led them along the hold's wall till they reached the doorway. He slowly moved his hand forward to check if there was any resistance from the shield. Soon he was sure his hand was further ahead of him than the shield had ever been. He pushed off both edges of the doorway and glided across the blackened hallway to the other side. He heard hundreds of voices from both directions as he and Frip gathered their bearings.
They decided to go left, because they were both left handed. They could hear beings in the dark pass by. Some would beg for assistance, or give them a curse as they bumped into them. A few said nothing at all and passed by in silence as if they were on their own special mission. Around a corner and the hallway was suddenly lit with the green light of an imperial glow rod. A Weequay and a Dug fought over the object at the bottom of a large stairwell.
Brakatak and Frib pushed themselves to the ceiling and moved themselves above the fight. Several Jawa on the stairs seemed to be rooting and cheering for their favorite to win, and when the large Gran landed amongst them they scattered like leaves. They made their way up to the next level before they heard a huge commotion.
An Imperial officer was making himself be heard over a large crowd of prisoners. Brakatak and Frip settled at the rear of the hallway and noted that the prisoners in front of them had packed the hallway for almost three hundred meters. At the front of the green lit column they faced a wall of stormtroopers in special riot gear.
"What goes on Brakatak friend up there? You have best eye in group." Frip asked. Brakatak tried to explain to his three companions as best he could. The stormtroopers had formed a wall five troopers across and four deep. Every trooper had his helmet off for some reason Brakatak couldn't discern, and they weren't using their force pikes or their blasters either. Instead, from what he could tell, they were using batons and vibroblades, or perhaps normal blades as none of the weapons had the normal blur of a vibroblade in action. The first ranks of troopers were using their batons over the upper lip of their shields and every few minutes an officer at the rear of the formation would blow a whistle. The front rank would simply dissolve as they flowed though the formation to the rear rank, and the second rank would take their place at the front of the formation as it moved forward. Several medics were on hand in the rear to give the troopers a drink or any first aid they might need, before it was their turn in the front rank again. A clever system from what Brakatak could discern.
Humans and aliens alike threw themselves at the shield wall to no avail, and suddenly Brakatak realized the formation was actually getting closer to them. The troopers were moving forward as the medics would occasionally guide a beat up prisoner back into holding cells they were locking with manual doors and latches. Brakatak motioned for them to find another route around, but by this time the push of more newly arrived freed slaves had them trapped at the top of the stairs. They were pinned, no matter how hard Brakatak pushed to free his friends, he couldn't make much headway. Suddenly Ashlei screamed.
Brakatak turned and found he was suddenly at the front of the column. The ranks of stormtroopers stood or floated on the writhing and bloodied bodies of a hundred subdued prisoners.
"We no fight." Frip put up his arms and screamed. A trooper motioned for him to move to the side, but another one caught his Ishi Tib friend in the side of the head with a baton. Both Frip and Keatly crashed to the side. The troopers paid her no mind as they moved forward.
Out of the corner of his three eyes he saw a whir of motion. He didn't do anything more than move his body so that Ashlei wasn't also struck by a falling baton, and then for the second time that day everything went black.