He was approaching the target destination. It took him a long time to reach it, but now that he was inbound, he felt a mix of emotions: anxiousness, eagerness, passion, and even a splash of curiosity. It was to be expected; he was in another galaxy, one far from the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium. The one they planned to conquer. But that came later. Far later.
His clawed digits relaxed as he eased up on the controls. The autopilot would get him the rest of the way, the hard part was over. He breathed a rasped sigh and leaned back in his seat, catching the faintest look at his translucent reflection in the glass.
By all accounts, he was a regular, Blue Ssi-ruu. His scales were a deep turquoise color and his eyes a piercing black. His frame was bulkier and more muscular, something he credited to his time running jobs and other tasks. He had the same raptor-like head, digitigrade legs, and winding tail, though along the back of his head and arms he had thin, quill-like frills. Unlike regular Ssi-ruu, he opted to wear armor in the form of a metal vest and pauldrons with a matching set of gauntlets, with the left one housing a built-in data pad. Expensive, but well worth the trouble.
A button flickered on the dashboard. He reached over to press it and a small, hologram flickered to life on said dashboard, of another Ssi-ruu. This one wore the usual belts and bandoliers along his form and, at the time, mixed two compounds housed in glass flasks. "Na'ag? I trust you found everything to your liking, yes?"
"For the most part," He answered in the same, sibilant voice. "so, once more, thank you for the ship. Should help quite well for what I'm to do."
"I hope, though I still question why. The Shreeftut only recently got the vision about this 'Galactic Empire' offering us a bounty of worlds, and you're already rushing off to that galaxy to find a world to lay claim to."
Na'ag scoffed. "Because if I don't claim a planet for my own, my father will just do it himself, then expect me to work alongside him again. I love my father to death, but it's time I claim my own world, and rule a bounty of slaves without his involvement. Prove to him I can be a smart and brutal leader, and not have him fish me out of troubles again. So," Na'ag tapped the dashboard. "this is really my only chance at ruling for myself. Besides, we both benefit from this 'under the table agreement', remember?"
"Naturally. The Imperium needs every bit of data on this galaxy, and I intend to be the first to catalogue it. We already have a wealth of data about the planets and their populaces, but it's dated. No one wants dated information. So, find a suitable planet, do as you will with it, but don't forget to deploy the ship's probes to get every single bit of data you can. I'll sift through it later."
"I never understood how you Yellow Ssi-ruu have such patience for such…mundane work." Na'ag spoke with an amused huff. "Such monotony would bore me out my mind. In any case, I'll be sure to transmit all the data I find and may even meet with the locals. Good thing my Basic is fluent."
"And I could never understand how YOU could speak such a language. It's so…rudimentary. So odd."
Na'ag rolled his eyes. "I'll speak with you soon." He mashed a button and the hologram blinked away. The Ssi-ruu rose from a seat and let out a gaunt roar of a sigh as he stretched. His arms dropped back down, and he returned his gaze to the window, to the blackness of space.
…this was further than he ever ventured before. He had gone to space a few times on tasks from his father, but never had he ventured so far from the Star Cluster. He knew the rumors, about what happened to Ssi-ruuk who perished on a world unconsecrated. A chilling thought, to say the least, but Na'ag was prepared. The ship was stocked with security droids, a handful of weapons, enough rations to last a standard month and, of course, a working Entechment Rig. He would make things work. He had to.
So, he sat back down and began scanning. A screen lit up, displaying a planet that was an hour away. Lothal.
Seemed like a good place to start.
The scans were taking forever.
Na'ag reclined in the cockpit, data tablet in hand. On its were twenty smaller screens, each the direct live feed from a probe he deployed a day ago. So far, they had nothing substantial: topography, native life; the sort of stuff a scientist could sift through and be entertained, but not him. He wanted to know who the dominant species was; who was in control of Lothal. They were his target, for they were the ones he needed to go after. From there, well…he wasn't entirely sure. But he could figure something out.
The Ssi-ruu set the tablet on the dashboard and reached over to pluck up his beamer. He ran his talons over the grooves in the weapon, maw curling into a smirk. Oh, how he longed to wield it at last. But a chance would come soon enough. Soon enough.
In the meantime, he hoped the data would give him something he could personally use, such as intel on who was in charge. He did make an error in coming to the new galaxy alone, but he could salvage it, and not rely on his father's resources for help. All he needed to do was survey the ruling peoples of Lothal. Identify who was in command, then woo them to his side. Sure, he wasn't as cunning as most Blue Ssi-ruu…and a bit larger too; he never understood why he was as large as a Red Ssi-ruu, but it was probably a result of—
Blip!
"Hmm?" He glanced back at the tablet. One of the probes' feed cut. A flick of the screen rewarded him with the info needed; the probe had been damaged critically. Na'ag scrunched his brow. He considered just ignoring it and focusing on the remaining nineteen, but that invited issues. Each Imperium probe came outfitted with top-of-the-line navigation, so the only way it could be critically damaged was if something, or someone, struck it down. So, investigation was needed.
The Ssi-ruu rose and placed his beamer on his belt. He quickly transferred the feed from the tablet to his gauntlet and dropped the ship's ramp. The Ssi-ruu stepped out into the grassy, reed-coated field and glanced around.
Lothal's surface, now that he was personally on it, was…odd. The sky was a light copper color and there were numerous, oblong mountains scattered about. The fields of reeds stretched on for miles, leaving Na'ag with a curious, yet bored feeling. He brought his arm up and dragged his claw across the screen, producing a rough map of the area, put together from the topographic data he collected. At least he found a use for it himself, so now it was time to find his downed probe.
And drop whoever downed it. He could use some extra energy for the ship.
He neared the probe's location.
Na'ag stole glances at the screen on his arm, quickly double checking to make sure everything was in order. The map was composed of the topographic data he took, so he wasn't entirely sure how accurate it was. But none the less, he had to trust it.
The Ssi-ruu stood atop a hill. At the bottom was his crashed probe, but surrounding it were strange beings. Humans dressed in white armored suits and armed with blaster rifles. What were they doing so close to his probe? Were they the fools who shot it down? He wanted to just shoot them from afar and be done with it, but he had to be sure. And it would be a good time to test how good his Basic was. So, he approached them and gave a sharp whistle. One of them looked up and raised their blaster, leveling it with his torso. "Halt. This area is off-limits. Move along." He spoke in a firm, authoritative voice.
"Off-limits?" Na'ag inquired. "That's my probe you all are standing by. So, would you kindly move along yourselves so I can retrieve it."
"Negative," And now the others raised their blasters. Oh joy. "Command wants these probes terminated and their sender apprehended. Surrender, or be made to."
"Be made to?" Na'ag asked incredulously. They were going to open fire? Best not to allow them the chance, and in the blink of an eye he yanked his beamer up to fire at the troops. Two went down for good with shots to the head, but the last three fell to the ground, stunned and unable to move. Na'ag scoffed and placed the weapon on his belt once more and trudged past the stunned, spasming troop to retrieve his probe. "I would take you for entenchment, but I only have so many arms. So, I suppose you get to be the one who gets away." Na'ag tucked the probe under his arm and grabbed two of the stunned humans, setting them on his shoulder. Their combined weight was a little heavy, but nothing he was unused to. With that, he set off to return to the ship. He wasn't an expert with robotics, but he could probably restore the probe and, with his unwilling participants, charge them properly.
Then again, they didn't get a say in the matter. They were about to shoot at him. He just shot first.
Na'ag hummed to himself as he walked. The stunned humans were still down and would probably remain down for at least another hour. It meant one would probably come to before the entenchment was finished, but that was fine. He could always shoot them again.
The ship was ahead and…something else, too. Another ship was near it, and more of those troops were around. Among them, however, was a black armored one, who lacked a rifle, and instead held a hand blaster. The way they moved made it clear they were the leader, so…perhaps they would be useful alive. Who knows?
All the same, Na'ag kept approaching. The leader saw him and made a gesture to the others, alerting them. They all aimed their blasters at him a second later. "Drop the bodies, Rebel!"
"Rebel?" Na'ag asked. He tilted himself to the side and released the stunned humans yet remained on guard. "What are you on about?"
"You're not a Rebel, then?" The black armored one questioned. Clearly a male, though the helm he wore muffled his voice a tad, perhaps even scrambled its pitch. "Why are you releasing probes into Lothal's airspace, then?"
"Business. Who are you to question me?"
"Allan Dredger, ISB, of the Galactic Empire."
Na'ag's ire faded in an instant. "Oh, wonderful. You owe me."
"Excuse me, owe you?" The human made no effort to hide their disdain. Didn't even need his scent tongues to sense the venom in his voice.
Na'ag shrugged. "That's what I said. Your emperor contacted the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium some time ago, promising a bounty of worlds in exchange for our Entechment technology. I sought to get a head start on his generous offer," He tapped the probe he still held. "and find a suitable world for myself. But I do apologize for the irregular patterns of the probes. A friend asked me to learn the layout of Lothal before I commenced my takeover."
"Uh…huh." The man grunted. "The Ssi-ruuvi Imperium."
"The one and only. But, I think we've wasted enough time chitchatting. I'll resume my research and get that data transmitted to my frien—" Blinding, electrifying pain rocketed through his body. He couldn't even shout from the agony and instead fell to his side, twitching and trying his best to fight off the electrifying sensation racing through his body.
"Well, glad the stun setting works on the likes of you." He heard the man say faintly. "Search the ship. Find anything that supports this…thing's words, then destroy it. When you're done…" Na'ag couldn't understand him well anymore. It was as if his mind were half awake, and it was getting worse. He knew he had been stunned, but what was going to happen? What were these fools doing?! Didn't they know they were on the same side?!
Na'ag let out a low, pained hiss and dug his claws into the ground, pushing himself up until he could stand. They outnumbered him, but he could still fell them, then figure why they thought it was a good idea to try and stun him.
"Sir, that thing's gotten back up!" One of the others called. He raised his head and was greeted with six of those troops, aiming their blasters at him again.
"All at once, then. Drop this insipid creature and be done with it. Sooner we have it in containment the sooner we can get real answers."
They fired again. The pain returned in full, but with it came numbness. He knew he was on the ground again, but now he could hear nothing, and barely see. His vision was blurry and rapidly fading.
And then it was all dark.
[So, this story's finally seeing the light of day. As I said months ago, I was working on a Star Wars story; here it is. A friend helped me build the confidence to write this, so this is a new story project I wanted to share with peeps here, about a Ssi-ruu outsider getting wrapped up in Star Wars' lengthiest and most well-known conflict, the Galactic Civil War.
The reason for the lack of confidence stemmed from the fact of, like with Warhammer, Star Wars has a lot of lore. Even with how much Disney cut away, there remains a large amount of lore, and I always try to make my fanfictions "make sense" within the canon. Make them take place or unfold in a way that makes sense for it. And, considering I'm basically taking something from Legends and plugging it into Canon, I was especially skeptical on this story's success, but here it is at last. I hope you'll enjoy this story, and don't hesitate to leave reviews and comments. I always like reading and answering those!
Also, closing this out before I rant for another twelve paragraphs, I chose to make Ssi-ruuk in general look more like Riptor from KI3, minus the cybernetics, and being 7ft on average. From my research conducted prior to writing this there wasn't a set "look" for Ssi-ruuk aside from "space raptors with nose wigglers", so I opted to base them off something that'd make sense, thus, they look like humanoid raptors.
Dunno. Makes sense to me.]