AN: Hello again. Small update, I expect there to be 34 chapters total, but that is just an estimate. There's a small chance that this will go to 35 chapters. At any rate, I hope y'all enjoy the rest of the story.
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Lori tried to slow her pace as she left the crew quarters. As irritated and afraid for what might happen next as she was, she couldn't let any of that show now.
Stilling herself into the persona of a wary and somewhat disgruntled shipping captain, Lori made for the set of doors meant for docking and moving between ships in mid-space. As she came to a stop she was quickly joined by Mitaka, who came trotting out of the cockpit that was only a few steps away.
"What did you tell them?" she asked as a series of small clicks and whirrs came from the connecting mechanisms.
"That we're merchants bound for Nal Hutta. We heard the transmission about a fight on Exegol, and decided to stop moving until we learned more."
"And what did you learn?"
Mitaka blinked at her, confused.
"About them," Lori impatiently clarified, her voice a low hiss now that the hatch was mere seconds away from opening.
"O-oh! Right," Mitaka stammered. "They're a patrol ship for the Desilijic clan."
Lori nodded, she purposefully kept away from the Hutt's, but she recognized the name Desilijic. If she wasn't mistaken, they had fallen out of power over thirty years ago when Jabba was killed. She filed that information away while noting Mitaka's mostly true lie. He'd learned to be a more believable liar in the time they spent with the rebels. Lori appreciated the bit of competence, but she mentally noted the fact that Mitaka might be more of a threat than she gave him credit for.
"Good. Now just play along."
"Yes, ma'am," Mitaka acknowledged just before the whirring and clicking gave way to a heavy thud and hiss that was the airlock sealing.
Shortly after, the doors slid to the side to reveal two figures. One was a duros, telling by his blue skin with large pupil-less red eyes. He had a large head with no hair, and a flattened face with no nose. He wore an unadorned synth-leather coat and carried a low powered blaster pistol strapped to his thigh. Lori assumed that he was the pilot, since it seemed very unlikely that that role would go to the downright ancient assassin droid next to him.
The droid's black metal, red sensors, and iconic narrow barrel of a head clearly marked it as being an IG-86. Replaced by the IG-88 during the empire's reign, that droid had to be at least sixty years old. The groaning and stiff movements that it made while walking onto her ship suggested that it was even older.
Despite being put off by the obviously deadly droid, Lori didn't let her surprise show. Not wanting them to get an upper hand by starting the conversation, she spoke first.
"Y'all already talked to my pilot. But he didn't seem to learn much, is there still a war on out there?"
The droid tried to take a long step forward, but was stopped by a gesture from the duros.
"The Hutts don't waste their time with petty things like wars." He answered without really answering.
"Uh-huh." Lori put a hand on her hip to make it look as if she was debating with herself whether or not she would demand a real answer. After she decided that enough time had passed, she offered a follow-up comment that would hopefully get them off her ship as quickly as possible, "I take it they're too busy looking at things that matter, like turning a profit."
The alien nodded his head. It was difficult to tell from his lack of pupils, but Lori was sure that he was trying to take stock of what little he could see of the ship, "Yes, exactly. We'll need to see your cargo. There's a tax for coming into Hutt space."
Lori was pretty sure that the duros was making this tax up on the spot. She was also sure that he wouldn't suffer any consequences for destroying any ship he deemed uncooperative.
Playing along, Lori did her best to look like she was tired and resigned to the fact that the two visitors would get whatever they wanted. "Sure. This way."
All four of them traveled down the corridor to the cargo bay. Lori didn't give the crew quarters a second glance as they passed it, though the door to the kitchen area was still open. She was the first to step into the dimly lit cargo bay, followed closely behind by the duros. Behind him, Mitaka and the assassin droid were walking nearly even, neither one of them wanting the other at their back.
Just as the tension between the two was about to come to a head, the duros called out to the droid, "take stock of the cargo. See if there is anything for them to pay that tax with."
The droid's headpiece made a muted grinding noise as it looked away from Mitaka, but it did what it was told. The former lieutenant considered the scene with an obviously nervous air about him.
Lori must have hidden the stretcher as it wasn't in plain sight. Mitaka wasn't sure where she had put it, and while it might not be found at a glance, such a large piece of equipment wouldn't be difficult to find.
Even for Lori, such a thing would be difficult to explain. Mitaka doubted that they would have a chance at fighting back if that droid decided to attack. While he didn't think that Lori would give either of the two visitors a reason to fight, he was also sure that they would get violent if they realized that any of them were former First Order. While he and Lori had been mostly nameless officers, and he was nearly unrecognizable besides, General Hux was a notorious and easily recognizable figure.
Mitaka shuffled slightly, giving an accidental visual cue to his stressed thoughts.
Lori noticed, and while she had been impressed enough with his earlier actions, she didn't trust him not to fold under additional pressure, "You go on and get back to the cockpit. I don't need you picking a fight with the droid."
Stalling slightly, Mitaka cast a nervous glance up at Lori. As he did, he noticed the duros suspiciously eyeing him.
Spurred on from that, Mitaka trotted off back down the hall and away from the visitors.
When Lori turned back from talking to Mitaka, she found the duros gazing around the room.
"You have a very large number of First Order medical kits." he casually commented, "they must have been very difficult to come by."
She hated offering information, but the fact that the comment was an accusation was obvious. "Someone was selling, and there's always a demand for meds. Not asking questions is good for business."
"Maybe," The duros accepted the explanation, "but it's a shame you didn't learn the source. There's a large price out for First Order personnel these days."
While getting them off the ship was priority number one, Lori couldn't resist the chance to gather more information, "Anyone in particular to keep an eye out for?"
The duros nodded slightly with something that could have been a stifled laugh, "You and your pilot don't look like the fighting types."
"We're not, but a credits are credits." Lori didn't like that the man was being very evasive in his answers. While she didn't think that he suspected her or Mitaka of being First Order, she did get the sense that he didn't believe that they were simple merchants. Working on her assumptions, Lori made another small comment, "A bit of kidnapping on the side wouldn't be the worst thing we've done."
The duros shrugged while he watched the droid work, "Is that so?"
Lori wasn't going to offer any additional information, and decided to leave a comment for the duros to react to instead, "We take whatever work we can get."
In the short while where he considered how to reply, a muffled set of voices echoed through the walls.
The droid stopped.
"Is there someone else on this ship?" the duros asked.
Lori knew that denying the obvious would only make them look suspicious, "I got a couple of passengers. Bunch of dead weights, but they paid for their ride."
"To Nal Hutta?" the duros asked in disbelief.
Wishing that Mitaka had chosen literally any other planet to name as their destination, Lori went with it, "I already told you I don't ask questions."
The duros' wide eyes narrowed slightly before he once again spoke with the droid, "Leave the cargo, find the passengers."
Biting down her fear and mild panic, Lori said, "You'll go and scare them half to death with that thing. I'll fetch them from their room."
While the duros had no way of knowing that someone as notorious as General Hux was just a few rooms away, he was sure that these supposed merchants were hiding something, "I''ll be coming with you."
There wasn't a good way to get out of this.
Not yet at least.
"Fine, fine. But there's no need to bring the big guns," She said while gesturing at the assassin droid, "it's just some lady and a kid."
There was a second's hesitation as the duros looked Lori over to make sure she wasn't armed.
"Fine." He told Lori before turning back to the droid, "continue with the cargo. If there are any problems, then come in with deadly force."
The droid spun one of its sensors, apparently having broken its vocalizer. Lori stuck to character and gave an almost bored roll of the eyes as the two of them left the cargo bay for the crew quarters.
The journey was short, Lori made sure to shut the door between the hall and the kitchen behind them. The duros looked expectantly at her, clearly expecting an explanation as to why she had done that.
"You're welcome to go check on them." Lori gestured to the shut bedroom door instead, "I already got shouted at for barging in on them once, you can take the heat this time."
The duros knew that something was wrong, but he also knew that Lori was unarmed, and something as simple as a shut door wouldn't stop an assassin droid. Heavy with distrust, he walked to the bedroom door.
Lori knew that there wouldn't be a way to talk herself out of this one once he saw into the bedroom. She had to act quickly, and quietly so that the assassin droid didn't come running.
This is a bad idea, she thought to herself as she unfastened her belt and silently slid it from its place.
The duros didn't look over his shoulder as he slid the bedroom door open. He didn't move as he processed the three faces looking back at him. He didn't notice Lori quickly approaching from behind as he slowly recognized Armitage.
In one motion she jumped the duros and wrapped her belt around his neck before kicking out the back of his legs. Falling to the floor with a too loud thus, Lori desperately tried to keep him from shouting for help. Struggling to keep pressure on his neck, Lori put a knee on his shoulders before leaning back. Nearly having the full weight of her body to choke the life out of the man sent him into a wild and desperate state.
Blindly reaching back and trying to roll to get her off of him, the most sound he could make was the occasional muted thud of his kicking feet hitting the ground.
Atop the struggle, Lori nearly toppled to the side. Knowing that she had passed the point of no return, she spared a hand to reach for the blaster clipped to the man's leg.
It was set to kill.
Knowing that the blast would be loud enough to alert the assassin droid, Lori had to spare a second to toggle the thing to stun. As she did, the man beneath her made a final and desperate roll to the side.
Lori toppled to the floor, rolling as much as she could to dampen the sound of her fall.
The duros had just enough time to greedily gasp for breath before Lori twisted to the side and delivered a point-blank shot to the side of his head.
He snapped to a stop, leaving Lori to huff on the ground as quietly as she could manage. As adrenaline began to drain, Lori looked up from her place on the ground. Above her stood Brixie, hands over her mouth and eyes wide with shock. Beyond her, Armitage still sat on the bed, Ardis in his lap and drawn as close to his chest as he could manage.
Lori said nothing, instead opting to bring a finger up to her lips in a gesture that asked for silence. She got it and as she stood up, Brixie knelt down, feeling for a pulse at the duros' neck.
Leaving the medic to her own devices, Lori approached Armitage and Ardis. The infant was being held firmly in place, unable to see the rest of the room from her spot in Armitage's arms.
Lori wasn't sure how loudly she could speak without being heard by the assassin droid, so she kept her voice hushed, "We need to go."
Armitage looked at the unconscious man on the ground and inwardly cursed. He hadn't a clue about the rest of the ship, but Lori's expression made it clear that this could be life or death. Bracing himself for what would be agony, Armitage coaxed Ardis towards Lori before shuffling his way off of the bed.
As Lori took a hold of the infant, she immediately worried about what to do with Armitage. He tried to hide a wince as his feet came to rest on the ground, and both of them knew that he wouldn't be able to walk anywhere without help.
Brixie had finished her check on the duros, and was calmed slightly by the fact that he was still breathing. Rattled by the sudden attack, she turned to Lori with the intent to demand an answer. Instead, she found Lori standing not but a foot away.
"Carry her, and follow me." Lori said, careful not to speak too loudly while offering Ardis to Brixie.
Brixie hesitated for a second, unsure of whether or not Lori had any ulterior motives.
Armitage didn't like the idea of trusting the rebel with their daughter, no matter what Lori thought of her.
"No," he grumbled, while moving forward and forcing himself to stand.
Even though he had a cane to help support him, Armitage nearly buckled under his own weight. Lori took a quick step towards him. Brixie followed close behind, though that was mostly out of instinct rather than specific concern for Hux.
There wasn't time for a debate, and Lori wasn't in the mood to entertain one even if there was. Not waiting for anyone to rebut her, she pushed Brixie slightly more forward. Armitage tried to avoid her, but lost his balance and ended up reaching out for the rebel to keep himself from falling.
Satisfied enough that Brixie wouldn't throw him to the floor, Lori turned for the door, "Come on."
Brixie protested, but didn't shove Armitage away, "I don't-"
"There's an assassin droid." Lori all but hissed, "It will kill all of us, be quiet."
Brixie stopped for a moment. She had never encountered an assassin droid in person, but she had spoken about them with Anderphan. He usually talked about his time fighting the empire with something like pride or joy, but the few times that assassin droids came up, he usually grew quite or quickly changed the subject.
As much as Brixie hated being in the same room as Hux, let alone being his walking aid, she didn't want to leave anyone to die. Begrudgingly, Brixie followed along behind Lori as she left the bedroom and headed towards the front of the ship.
They moved slowly, and Lori occasionally had to fidget with Ardis to keep the child quiet, but they arrived at the airlock doors just behind the cockpit without incident.
Mitaka had gone to the cockpit as he had been told. Unsure of what might happen next, he had debated shutting the door behind him. Ultimately, he left it open so that he would know the second that the two visitors were gone.
Instead of seeing the droid or duros round the corner, Mitaka was shocked to find Lori approaching with Brixie and Hux in tow.
"What-"
"Shh!" Lori tried to be as quiet as possible while she shushed Mitaka. Instead of saying anything, she nodded towards the airlock that would lead to the Hutt ship.
When the former lieutenant hesitated again, this time nervously eyeing the group, Lori gestured once more before stepping towards the door itself. The thing opened with a too loud hiss that made Lori wince.
Rushing forward, Lori hoped that she was making the right choice as she stepped into the other ship. The rest of the group was following closely behind, but they were unarmed and wouldn't be helpful if there was a fight.
Upon finding an empty room, she sat Ardis on the ground before setting the blaster back to kill and quickly making for the cockpit. The Hutt ship was dim and slightly run down, clearly geared towards fighting rather than long range travel. Though there was only a short hall between her and the cockpit, Lori passed two lockers filled to the brim with blasters and detonators. Though they might be armed here, she doubted that they would stand a chance against the assassin droid.
Spurred on by the grim thought, Lori hurried her pace as she stepped into the cockpit.
Sweeping the blaster and she went, Lori quickly looked left, right, and then up. Finding no one she slid into the pilot's seat without a second thought. As she did, there was another tell tale hiss and thud of the closing exterior doors. Frantically searching the dashboard for the airlock controls, Lori knew that the droid had to have heard that.
Cursing as she went, she found that all the labels were written in huttese. Blindly reaching out, Lori called back to the rest of the ship, "Hold onto something."
Finding the correct toggle switch, she quickly retracted the airlock before yanking the yolk to the side. A split second after the new ship rolled away from the old one, Mitaka appeared in the doorway behind her.
"Figure out the weapons on this thing. I'm prepping a jump to lightspeed; we need to lose that droid."
"Are you sure that's-"
The end of Mitaka's comment was cut off by a dissipated blaster bolt from the freighter.
Spurred into action Mitaka slipped into the co-pilots seat. As he desperately searched the crowded control panel, Mitaka never thought he would be so thankful for the freighter's malfunctioning turrets. Their current ship was rocked twice more by a few weak blasts from the freighter before Mitaka found the controls he was searching for.
At the same time, Lori had been weaving around and hurriedly searching for the navigation panel. Though she found it, there was enough time for the two ships to exchange a few hissing rounds of plasma at each other before she yanked a lever down and sent the ship streaking off into hyperspace.