Three days had passed on the stolen Hutt ship. Only meant for a crew of two, it had less living space than the freighter. Though it was the same size overall size as the freighter, the hull was thicker and the engine compartment was larger. Where the previous ship lacked a full weapons system, this one was heavily armed. The only bedroom had a single bunk bed, and it was cramped besides.
While Lori did appreciate the increase in security, she didn't like the increase in notoriety. Even if the Hutts didn't come looking for their stolen ship, word would get out about Armitage. She had only been able to piece together the events in the galaxy at large from a few scattered transmissions, but it sounded like he might be the highest ranking First Order member left.
Lori knew that he was guilty of several war crimes. While they didn't faze her, she knew that Armitage would bear the full brunt of the New Republic's ire if caught. Whatever punishments they had in mind for all of the First Order would likely be condensed down and given to Armitage out of some need for revenge.
She had definitely seen something dark pass over Brixie. And, as much as she hated to admit it, Mitaka might be just as unpredictable.
Even after considering their escape from the last ship Lori wasn't sure what else had happened to Brixie, but the medic seemed more reserved, barely speaking at all. Lori tried to tell herself that everyone was just tense from being stuck so close together. On the freighter they each had a few rooms to hide away in, but here they were almost always in sight of one another.
The only place with a hope at privacy was the cockpit. Lori had only left it a handful of times, usually to check on Armitage and Ardis. When she had to sleep, she did so in the pilot's seat. Not only because they were tight on beds, but also because Mitaka seemed keen on staying in the cockpit as well.
The labels and most of the data readouts were written in huttese. While Lori was pretty sure that Mitaka couldn't read any of them, she also thought that he would be able to figure them out if given enough time alone. While she didn't think that he would go out of his way to turn on her, she didn't trust him not to either.
And there was the fact that Brixie would turn on them the instant she didn't think it would get anyone killed.
Lori shifted slightly in the pilot's seat.
Once they landed, she needed to get rid of Brixie and Mitaka.
Old instincts said to just kill them and be done with it, but Lori didn't want to be the person she had been. She didn't want to pick people up and then drop them the second they became inconvenient. She knew that the cold little part of her that only considered people for what they could do for her would never really go away, but it was just that. A part of her. Not all of her.
She had to get rid of Brixie and Mitaka, but she needed to do it in a way that she could live with.
Just a couple feet away from Lori, Mitaka was intently studying the weapons systems controls, utterly unaware that his life was being weighed. He had done some cross referencing between what was written and what he could recognize on sight. He had no idea how to pronounce anything, but he could identify a few written words.
Trying to slowly cobble together a language was Mitaka's way of distracting himself from the situation at hand. He had no idea where they were going, and at this point he was afraid to ask. Lori had made one quick jump away from the dogfight with the assassin droid. After that, an hour or so had gone by with her intently looking through the ship's navigation logs before settling on a planet that she apparently recognized the name of. Yet, three days later, the still hadn't arrived.
The only thing that Mitaka knew for sure was that they were traveling away from Hutt space.
"We're about to drop out of hyperspace," Lori broke what felt like a days long silence, "go tell the others to get ready for a landing."
Mitaka startled slightly as he looked up from his task. He debated whether or not Lori might be trying to get him out of the cockpit for some other reason, but she seemed to be pulling at the same levers and toggling the same switched that launched them into hyperspance in the first place.
As satisfied as he could be that nothing would happen without him knowing about it, Mitaka left the room.
Being limited on what she could and couldn't read slowed her progress, but Lori was fairly sure she was preparing the ship for a landing. With a heavy rattle and some barely controlled shaking, the ship dropped out of light speed at the edge of the Bracca system.
Known as a soggy rock where ships go to die, Lori hadn't ever had a reason to visit the scrap yard planet. While it wasn't as completely isolated as a similarly populated planet in the outer-rim would be, Bracca was as much of a backwater as it was possible to find in the mid-rim.
More importantly, ships from all over the galaxy were hauled here to be cut to scrap. Even something as specific as the Hutt markings on this ship would get lost and quickly forgotten in the endless shuffle of ships on the planet below.
Or in the swarm of ships that sat in low orbit. As Lori drew closer to the stormy planet she came upon a cloud of tug-ships. For a moment she couldn't clearly see the large vessel that they were wrangling to Bracca's surface, its dark gray silhouette lost against the similarly colored atmosphere.
But then, the large thing listed to the side, its dozen crackling engines giving out one by one until it was left a cold black husk. As the nearly two-mile-long ship breached the atmosphere, a hot red cone formed around it's pointed tip. The dull glow cast a flickering gleam over the ships near black surface.
What might be one of the last Resurgent-class Star Destroyers in the galaxy unceremoniously slid towards Bracca, eventually disappearing completely beneath a bank of clouds.
Hopefully that will keep everyone busy down there. While Lori could have considered watching a star destroyer be sent to its grave as an omen, she thought of the ship only in terms of what its presence could do for her.
With the space around Bracca quickly clearing, Lori moved the stolen Hutt ship into orbit. She had been improvising for the last several days, and now was no different. As she hailed a landing pad, she readied herself for more close calls and hasty lies.
.***.***.***.***.
Armitage sat at the edge of the bottom bunk.
He'd made some progress over the last few days, but he was still in rough condition. He'd taken his first walk without assistance late yesterday, and even then he was still completely reliant on his cane.
On his short journey around the ship he found that the thing as more cramped than he remembered. Besides the bedroom, there wasn't anywhere else for the others to sleep. He had asked Lori about it, only to find that Mitaka and Brixie had strategically chosen when and where they would sleep in order to keep an eye on her.
Armitage had already been on edge knowing that they were probably the subject of a manhunt, but the knowledge that they might be betrayed at any moment by a former lieutenant and an impressionable rebel made the stress borderline unbearable.
Even worse was the fact that the medic had occasionally peeked into the room over the course of their trip, not once saying anything to him. Armitage was fairly certain that she had just been checking in to make sure he hadn't done anything to Ardis, who hadn't left his side since they had all tumbled onto the ship. Days later and Brixie's unsaid accusation still grated at him.
The only thing that helped him cling to sanity and some sense of calm was the fact that Ardis had been warming up to him.
At first regarding him as little more than a stranger, the infant had quickly grown fond of Armitage. It had taken days of repetition, but he had earned the title of 'da' from the child.
Now, Ardis sat beside him on the bed. She had been tantalizingly close to taking a step without clinging to the edge of the bed, but Mitaka had come into the room only a second ago with a warning that they were about to land.
In preparation, Mitaka set the infant onto the mattress. He had given Hux a purposefully wide berth, managing to avoid him for all the time that they had been on the stolen freighter.
"Lieutenant," Hux called out before the man cold rush out of the room again, "I have a question for you."
Feeling his shoulders deflate at an old title he hadn't heard in well over a year, Mitaka slowly looked up, "Yes, sir?"
Hux looked the young man over. He was scarcely recognizable, and Hux was sure that he would have never guessed his identity had Lori not told him.
Mitaka squirmed under Hux's gaze. It felt just as judgmental and dangerous as it ever had.
"What do you think of our situation?" Armitage purposefully asked a broad question in the hope that Mitaka's answer would reveal what the young man was worried about the most.
"I-I don't… Do you mean being on the run? It's quite unfortunate." Mitaka wasn't sure that there was any way to answer that without making himself look bad in some way.
Realizing that he had been too general, Hux clarified, "Yes, it is. What about being trapped with that rebel woman, what do you think of her?"
"Brixie?" Mitaka didn't like the tone that the general used to mention the kindly medic, "She's… been quite hel-. Useful. She's been useful."
Hux heard how carefully Mitaka was choosing his words. Lori had made it clear to Hux that Mitaka's loyalty to them had been waning. As much as Hux would have liked to think that no one would dare betray the order after living among rebels for a year, the proof that Mitaka could was hard to deny.
Taking note of Mitaka's questionable loyalty. Hux spoke just above a hush, "I see."
Seeing an opportunity to leave, Mitaka didn't reply but instead quickly ducked out of the room. Shortly after, the ship jostled weakly to the side, a sign that they had touched down.
Ardis wobbled at the sensation, only to be kept upright by Armitage putting a hand against her chest. Instead of falling off the bed, she teetered back with a mildly confused look.
Looking down at Ardis, Armitage the tried to deny the troubling reality that was settling down around him. There were many terrible things that might be waiting for him, and there was no way of knowing when and where they might be coming from. But, for now, he had some small pleasure at his side.
"You'll hurt yourself if you fall to the floor." Armitage explained to the infant, even though he knew she didn't fully understand, "the bed is much softer."
Ardis was content enough to be getting attention. In search for more, she sat back up before purposefully plopping onto her back once again.
.***.***.***.***.
The streets were clogged by masses of dead eyed and tired workers. Lori slipped between them as Brixie struggled to keep even. As she went, Lori noting that crowd was diverse enough, with a few human faces intermingled with aliens and droids. She didn't want to stake their lives on it, but she was sure that she could disguise Armitage well enough to get him down a street or two without being recognized.
Lori had brought the ship down in what might pass for a settlement. There weren't any buildings, so much as there were repurposed wreckages that people lived out of. Discarded hulls dotted planes of twisted metal that made up the landscape of the planet, and most if not all of the people on the streets wore some variation of the same blue and orange poncho.
And it was pouring rain. Sheets of persistent rain came down from the smog laden air, simultaneously giving everything a dirty yet glistening sheen.
To Lori's pleasure, it didn't look like there was any kind of guard for the town, First Order leaning, or New Republic affiliated. It seemed like the people here had been forgotten, and as desolate as it made the place it was all the more convenient for Lori.
Brixie, on the other hand, didn't see a convenient place to disappear so much as she saw throngs of people that were surviving without living.
"What are we doing here?" she impatiently asked, ready to hear some carefully calculated response.
"First things first, we're dumping that Hutt ship." Lori spoke over a shoulder. She made an effort not to look paranoid, but she was keeping a keen eye on the crowd.
"And then?" Brixie pressed.
"And then we find a place to sleep for the night." Lori purposefully gave an answer that didn't hint at her future plans.
Brixie noticed, "Then?"
"Then," Lori replied a little more forcefully, "we all get a good night's rest in real beds."
The medic stopped to give Lori a sharp look.
Lori paused slightly, looking back to her companion, "Don't look at me like that Brix, we've all had a long week. Can't we just pretend to get along for a night or two?"
They both knew that Lori was plotting on how to make her escape while bringing Hux and Ardis along. Brixie resented the fact that Lori was being so evasive. Even now, after her lies had finally surfaced, she was still trying to play coy. Lori was genuine with her request that they stop being so critical of each other for a few nights at least, but it was clear to her that was wishful thinking.
"Just say you're going to try to run away." Brixie still hadn't moved.
A few confused glances came from the passing waves of people, Lori didn't like the idea of attracting attention so quickly, "Fine. I'm going to make a break for it as soon as I get the chance. But it doesn't look like that chance will be tonight, now come on."
Reluctantly, Brixie took a step to come even with Lori.
Thoughts and questions swirled in the medic's mind, most of them demands for explanations that she knew she didn't want to hear. She kept them all to herself as Lori eventually led them through the crowd and to what passed as a market.
Lori seemed perfectly at ease among the shady back alleys and questionable storefronts. As much as Brixie didn't want to admit it, she stayed near Lori for some semblance of safety. Not that she felt much better as Lori began chatting with passersby and asking around for where she might be able to sell an old ship for scrap.