To Generic Name: Not commenting on the whole Empire turning on Nax thing as that can easily wander into spoiler territory, but that would be out of character as FUCK for both Gaffi and Jace. As for the rest of what you said; the Empire are the pseudo good-guys because they're the law and order on Tatooine, and not every Imperial is a Tarkin or a Vader. The Empire and Rebellion aren't going to be central focuses of this fic, either, or at least initially. I'm aiming more for something like what Ragtag (the cancelled Star Wars game made by Visceral) was going to be. And trust me, if the Empire does turn on them or vice versa, it's going to be for very personal reasons, not just them going "oh, Alderaan's gone, time to become terrorists lol"
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A couple of the guys from the other teams carried the slaves off back towards the cargo hold, near the reactor room. Dav had to admit, it was finally nice to be back on the Bantha after all this time. The contract with Lostur could be finished up, and he'd be a free man again, working odd jobs with the only friend of his that got away, Rayf.
As he was about to go searching for Rayf, Lostur came into the room, visibly angry. "You slagbrains better have a damn good reason for coming here without my slave!" he said to everyone in the room, but mainly to Kaz.
"Shutchyer 'ole, Boss." Kaz replied with such disrespect that she'd probably be shot on the spot by anyone else. "We 'ot em. Trec and 'is team are throwing 'em with the others." she finished, pointing towards the end of the hall. "Got the Zeltron, too, plus their guardian angels."
Lostur's anger quickly subsided, and he gave a crooked, satisfied smile. "Nice work, Kaz. Very nice work." he complimented, half backhanded from how long this took, and half genuine. "Are they still stunned?" he asked, obviously having something in mind.
Kaz shrugged. "'ell if I know, Boss. Probably will be for the next twenty minutes or so. Why?"
Lostur sadistically smiled to himself, putting Dav on edge, but everyone else totally ignored it. "Whenever this Nax character wakes up, let me know. I want to have a… little chat with him." he said in an eerie, borderline psychopathic tone.
Kaz nodded her head upwards once. "Sure, Boss." she said, and everyone began to filter out of the room, seemingly done with the conversation at hand.
Dav, however, began to poke around the ship, looking for Rayf.
Leaning over a bridge crewman's console, Jace looked at the readouts of the Cranky Bantha one last time. Heavy weapons, illegal modifications, and presumably, an experienced crew. This wasn't going to be an easy fight. The YT-2400 had re-docked not long after Gaffi reported his men failed, and this time it had around twenty people on board.
Standing up from the console, Jace stepped over to the Sandtrap's intercom system and pulled the transmitter out. His finger hesitantly hovering over the button to begin transmitting. Mentally calming himself, Jace swallowed, and pressed down on the button. "Attention all hands," he said in a cold, professional tone. "We are moving to Combat Alert Alpha. Decks five through nine, get to your stations and prepare to engage the enemy. All pilots, get to your ships! I want boarding teams fully loaded in ten!" he said, growing more forceful to emphasize his orders, before setting the transmitter back in its place, and turning to the bridge crew. "Interdiction and tractor beam crews! Prepare to focus on that blockade runner!" he yelled as he walked towards the front of the bridge, staring out the bridge window at the Cranky Bantha, before transmitting those same orders to the escort fleet.
They had one shot at this. Best to make it count.
Dav poked his head into the crew quarters. "Rayf! You in here?" he shouted, looking around. The only other person in the room was… Bolthead, apparently, who had his back to Dav.
Half-turning, Bolthead looked at him, confused. "Huh?" he asked.
"Rayf. You seen him?" Dav questioned, fully entering the room and sitting next to Bolthead, who was idly swirling a drink.
Bolthead's eyes darted around the room in thought. "Whasshelooklike?" he slurred, obviously drunk, before leaning back in his chair and nearly spilling his drink.
"Scraggly, dirty blonde, kinda looks like a bantha ran over his face? Ring any bells?" Dav continued to press, impatiently tapping the table.
Bolthead leaned further back, making random drunken noises while he thought. "I...thinahknoem…" he slurred again, before yawning, actually spilling his drink onto the floor this time.
Now they were getting somewhere. "Yeah, that's him. You seen him?" Dav asked as he stood up to see how bad the spill was, before sitting down again.
"…Nah, Lostur mighknowwhere he is. Wansum help, though?" Bolthead offered, drunkenly offering his hand out.
"Couldn't hurt." Dav said as he stood up, and Bolthead stumbled up with him. The pair of them walked out the crew quarters opposite the door Dav came in from, and began to walk towards the bridge.
"So's, why youtryinafind this guy?" Bolthead prodded, not flinching for asking something out of turn.
Dav brushed his hand against the door to the armory as they walked by it, and put his hand on Bolthead's shoulder to try and keep him stable. "Rayf's a friend of mine, we go way back to conning slagged-up politicians on Corellia. When we got betrayed by that Alderaanian noble, he was the only one who got away." Dav explained as the two of them brushed past some random mercs Lostur had hired on around the same time as Dav.
"Butwhy'syoulookinfohim?" Bolthead slurred again, obviously not satisfied with his answer.
Giving him a half annoyed look as they walked past what was supposed to be a meeting room and up a ramp, Dav sighed. "'Cause my contract's gonna end soon here, and I wanted to talk with him about what we should do after it does. Maybe go smuggle for Jabba or something, I don't know." Dav shrugged.
As the two approached the end of the ramp that led to the bridge, they bumped into Kaz. "'Ello, Dav." she said in a markedly neutral tone. "'Ello, dungstain." she said to Bolthead with significant distain, before passing by the two, making sure to punch Bolthead in the shoulder as hard as she reasonably could, and then finally walking off.
Dav looked at what just transpired in disbelief. "Man, why do you put up with this?" he asked seriously. In the short time Dav had been with Lostur's crew, he'd seen Bolthead constantly on the receiving end of totally random and unjustified abuse, mostly from Kaz. It was shocking, actually, even for a slaver crew.
Bolthead shrugged. "Iunno, man. Guess I'm sofragginusetoit that it doesn't even bother me anymore." he replied, sounding slightly less slurred now.
"But why?"
Bolthead looked at him with an 'I-don't-know' expression, so Dav chose to stop pushing the matter, and the two of them finally headed onto the bridge. To their left was Lostur, talking with one of the bridge crew, with that Twi'lek still at his side. Out of the corner of his eye, Lostur noticed the pair, so he dismissed the crewman and waved the two of them over. "Hello boys, we'll be leaving pretty soon here. Didya need something?" Lostur asked, sounding pretty upbeat now that he had his slaves back.
Dav scratched the back of his head. "Yeah – have you seen Rayf?" he asked, and both Lostur and the Twi'lek gave him a look of confusion.
"...Who's Rayf?" Lostur queried, not sure who Dav was referring to.
"My crewmate that managed to come back up here after we got doublecrossed by that noble."
Lostur blinked twice, and then his mouth opened. "Oh. OH. Him. The blonde kid, right?"
"Right. Where is he?"
Lostur pointed out the viewport. "Dead. Shot him myself. Had him spaced not long after." he said nonchalantly.
Dav's jaw dropped. "What the hell?!" he shouted. "Why?!"
Grabbing one of the Twi'lek's lekku, Lostur began to toy with it. "Stipulations of your contract. Did you forget that 'failure to comply with orders' would result in severe consequences, Dav?" Lostur asked coldly, continuing to toy with the slave.
"No, but-"
"Then you have no room to complain. You were all made aware of this, and Rayf paid the price for failing to follow orders." he said, before yanking the lekku. "Now get gone. I have work to do." he finished, turning back to a new crewman.
Dav and Bolthead turned back and returned to the crew quarters without incident.
"…Ahmsorryman." Bolthead drunkenly consoled to a crestfallen Dav, who just buried his face into his hands.
What a mess.
The first thing Kyra noticed was the smell. It was bitter, rank with death and blood. The floor was cold and metallic, too hard and smooth to be sandstone like in Nax's house. Her mind was still clouded by the effects of being stunned, and then her eyes shot open.
She was back on the Cranky Bantha, in one of the cells, again a slave. Her worst fears made manifest.
"This is a nightmare. It has to be." Kyra thought to herself, quickly devolving into silent hysterics. She tried to reach for the blaster pistol still tucked away in her duster, but found her arms bound by stuncuffs. There were three humanoid shadows in the cell with her – Thel, Lexi, and Nax, all of them bound and still knocked out. To the cell on her right were two starved Wookies, looking at her sympathetically, before they turned away.
Distraught and with tears beginning to flow down her face, Kyra shook Nax. "…Nax, wake up… please…" she said through the tears. "Please… tell me this is just a nightmare…" she said, hoping she could wake up.
Stirring, Nax rolled over, eyes half opened, with what seemed to be a faint glitter in his eyes. "…Huh?" Nax groggily replied, before sitting up fully and rubbing his head.
Kyra grabbed Nax's shoulder with what little room the four of them had in this cramped cell. "Lostur's got us. We're on the Cranky Bantha right now." she whispered, not wishing to incur their wrath, real or not. Kyra then held on to Nax's arm, scared for what was going to happen next. "This is a nightmare. It has to be." she whispered, sulking into Nax's arm.
Nax looked at her, deadpan, before what she said finally registered. "Sithspit." was all he said, before pulling himself away from Kyra and over to Thel and Lexi. "Up. Both of you. Now." he ordered quietly, shaking both of them awake.
The pair of them groggily and begrudgingly woke up, before turning to Nax, looking at him in confusion. Thel was a blank slate for the most part, but it was Lexi who had the reaction. She immediately started quietly panicking, backing herself into a corner of the cage and curling her body up, burying her face into her knees.
"We need to get out of here." Nax proposed, before his head darted around the cell. "We need to find something to-" he continued, before being interrupted by the door to the cargo hold.
"-Escape?" a sadistic, gravelly voice said behind them. All four of them turned to face the door, and on the stairs that led to the rest of the ship were three dimly lit figures. There was a brief pause of silence, and then the lights fully kicked on, blinding everyone in the hold, causing a ruckus among the other slaves. "Shut up!" the gravelly voice ordered, and just as soon as it started, the racket ended.
As their eyes finally adjusted to the blinding brightness and they moved their hands away from their faces, they found they were all face to face with Allo Lostur, who was looking down at them, smug and condescending. "How lovely it is that you've finally decided to come back to us, whore." he said, referring to Kyra, who was hiding behind Nax, and then he glanced at Lexi. "I'm less thrilled about you, however." he said, moderately annoyed.
Lostur then turned to Nax and Thel. "I'm going to take a guess and say that you," he pointed to Nax. "…are Nax Strag." he said, not really caring whether he was right or not.
Nax snorted indignantly. "Yeah, and I'm pretty sure you're Allo Lostur, slaver captain with a death sentence in forty star systems." he replied, and Lostur seemed very pleased with himself.
"It's forty, now, is it?" Lostur said casually, as if he were making a checklist of systems he had upset for some kind of galactic record. "Regardless, I'm glad to see that my reputation precedes me."
"About as much as the dung on my boots." Nax replied, staring down what may as well have been the face of death.
Lostur simply rolled his eyes. "I see you've got your father's fearlessness. Let's see how that holds up." he subtly threatened, before getting eye level with Nax. "Tell me – do you know what your father did to me and my crew? Why I'm even bothering to give you the time of day?"
Nax gave Lostur a cocky smile. "I remember him telling me a story about he ran some slimeball coward slavers off a frontier world. That wouldn't happen to have been you weaklings, would it?" he taunted, unafraid and unaware of the consequences.
Kyra leaned in close to his ear. "Nax, I don't think…" was all she could whisper, before he shushed her.
Lostur seemed frustrated now. "Close, but worded very poorly." was what he said, before he drew an S-5 from its holster and shot Thel clean in the head, causing him to slump over, dead. "Try being more docile." Lostur maliciously suggested.
"Thel!" Nax suddenly shouted, before turning to Lostur. "You son of a bitch! You'll pay for that!" he yelled, angry at the sudden loss of his friend.
Casually shrugging, Lostur looked bemused. "Will I?" he poised. "I've heard hundreds say the same, yet here I am, still alive." he said, before laughing at Nax's misfortune. "If you had simply kept your mouth shut, your friend would still be alive and well."
The Weequay woman to his side snickered. "For now, anyways." she sneered, getting a brief laugh from Lostur.
Casually waving his S-5 around, Lostur got serious again. "Now, let me explain to you why you're still alive, Strag." he said, his words laced with malice, before leaning down to stare Nax down. "Your father cost me quite a few credits." he said, rubbing his fingers together for emphasis. Nax chose to remain silent. "Kaz – remind me, how much did Cobro cost us, again?"
The woman, Kaz, apparently. rolled her head around. "Wasn't it 'ree million credits, Boss?" she asked, not sure of her answer.
Lostur gave her a pat on the shoulder. "That's right, Kaz. Three million credits, gone because Cobro kriffed us over." he said with hints of old anger in his voice, before turning to Kyra. "And we're going to make all of that back off of you." he finished, satisfied with whatever plan he had in mind for her.
Kyra meekly hid behind Nax, afraid of Lostur.
His gaze falling on Nax again, Lostur sneered. "So, tell me, Strag. Where's your old man?"
"Dead." Nax replied, cold and emotionless, and whatever Lostur had in mind for Cobro vanished immediately.
"Oh." Lostur said flatly, before looking at his crew, confused and not sure of what to do. Quickly correcting his lapse in appearance, Lostur levelled the S-5 at Nax. "In that case, I'll use you as a surrogate. So long, Strag – I'll see you and your kin judged by Vantu." Lostur said, firing a shot.
That same shot broke Kyra out of her ramshackle belief that this was a nightmare.
As she watched Nax slump back, she snapped back to reality. "NAX!" she screeched, quickly crawling over to his fallen body and cradling it. Blood was pouring from the wound in his chest, and Kyra immediately started to apply pressure to it, her one hand becoming incredibly bloody, while the other was just barely supporting his back.
The life fading from his eyes, Nax reached out to touch Kyra's face. Hands trembling while still cuffed together, Nax's hands reached just short of her face, before he passed out. Tears flowing from her eyes, Kyra tried to shake him awake. "Nax!" she shouted. "No, no, no! Wake up! Please!" she weeped, rocking his body back and forth to try and force him to wake up.
No such luck.
Kyra was still reeling with the knowledge that this wasn't some horrible nightmare – that this was real, and that Nax had just been shot. Thel was already dead, and here Nax was, bleeding out in front of her, and not a damn thing she could do to save him.
Everything they had worked towards had just gone up in smoke. Nax was dying, and here she was, a slave again. Nothing actually mattered. It was just Lostur toying with them. She was always going to end up a slave, no matter what.
"And THAT is why you don't run from me, whore." Lostur said, establishing his dominance over the situation, before signaling for his crew to leave with him, leaving Kyra to cry over her dying friend.
Time seemed to pass very slowly as Kyra mourned Nax, quietly weeping over his dying body. There was never any chance of her escaping in the first place – she would've been back here one way or another.
"Hey." she heard a voice say, and Kyra looked up. In the place Lostur had been standing, there were now two men she hadn't heard or seen enter the hold. One was vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn't place exactly where she had seen him before. The other was the smuggler captain, the one Lorn had double crossed. The captain was carrying a syringe of transparent blue liquid, clearly showing it to Kyra. "You gonna let us help your friend, or would you rather he'd die?" the captain impatiently asked.
Kyra sneered at the both of them. "You're working for Lostur. Why the hell should I trust you?" she asked angrily, holding herself close to Nax.
The captain glanced at his friend, and then back to Kyra. "Let's just say that my friend and I have some… personal grievances against the crew. We figured this was the best way to get back at them. I've got my emergency injector prepped for your friend here – you can either take it, save your friend, and get revenge on Lostur, or you can tell me to leave, have your friend die, and you get to stay a slave." he said, before shrugging. "Your choice, really."
Kyra opened her mouth to reject him, about to tell him how worthless she was in a fight, and then closed it as Nax's words echoed through her mind.
"I'm having none of that defeatist garbage, especially not from my bounty hunting partner."
Finally realizing what she had to do, Kyra pushed Nax's body to the edge of the cell, towards the captain, who then bent over and pushed the syringe into Nax's arm, before retracting it and tossing it aside. "Right, your friend's gonna be stable for now. Let's get you free. Bolthead?" the captain asked his friend. Complying with whatever silent order he had been given, "Bolthead" approached the door and sliced the lock with a fusion cutter he had been hiding, and the door opened out. Bolthead then cut the cuffs on both Kyra and Lexi, sending them clattering to the floor. As soon as they were free, Kyra grabbed her A280 from her duster and tossed it to Lexi, before taking the A280 from Nax's duster and charging it.
The captain and "Bolthead" continued to open the slave cells, negotiating with each of the slaves inside to not kill them as soon as they were free. After several minutes, all of them were free of their restraints, and they had a group of angry slaves that rivalled whatever remained of Lostur's crew. Kyra jumped up on a stack of crates to get everyone's attention. "Listen up!" she yelled. "We're taking this ship over! That rat bastard Lostur's hurt each and every one of us, so I say it's time for a little payback!" Kyra spoke, as if a hidden fire in her had been suddenly stoked. "You!" she glanced at the smuggler captain. "Is there an armory on this ship we can use?"
The captain nodded. "Yeah, but it's towards the front, near the bridge. We're gonna be unarmed getting there."
Blast.
Kyra pointed to Lexi, "Bolthead", and the captain. "We're the four people with blasters, so we're taking point." she ordered, showing a previously unseen and unknown side to her with how she gave orders. "Wookies, I hate asking you this, but you need to fall in behind us and shield everyone else."
The Wookies looked around at the crowd of slaves, and then roared in agreement.
"Then it's settled. Move out!" Kyra ordered, but before anyone could take a step, they heard the hyperdrive spool up and the intercom crackle.
"This is your captain speaking, we're jumping to hyperspace in ten."
As the pitch and whine of the hyperdrive grew higher, Lostur's voice came in again. "Five."
"Four."
"Three."
The whine was nearing its peak. "Two."
And then suddenly, the hyperdrive shut down, and a new voice broke through the comm system. "This is Captain Jace Weyland of the Imperial Interdictor Sandtrap to the crew of the Cranky Bantha. You are all under arrest for crimes against the Empire. Surrender your ship immediately, or face lethal force." he ordered calmly and efficiently.
"Screw you!" Lostur defiantly yelled back, and the comm system shut off.
They would need to be fast about this.
As Viper Squadron launched from the ventral hangar bay of the Sandtrap, Cutter pressed down on the squadron commlink. "Bile, Cooler, Bizarro and Coffin! Form up on me!" he ordered, and four different variations on "copy that" came through the commlink. "Our job is to soften up that CR70 for the bombers, then our guys can board!" Cutter directed.
"That's a CR70?" Cooler's comm cracked as they passed out from the tip of the Sandtrap.
"It's got a C20 pack and a bunch of other illegal mods, but that's a CR70 alright. Big deal." Coffin replied casually as the squadron formed up with the Arquitens TIE group.
"Thirty kilos out, minute thirty to engagement." Bile reported, and multiple TIE squadrons – not just Viper, acknowledged. The remainder of the flight to the corvette was occupied by thirty seconds of relative silence from all comms, with only the hum of the twin ion engines drowning out the deafening quiet. When that half-minute was up, however, the corvette immediately opened fire.
"Scatter! Break formation and engage!" Cutter shouted over the commlink, and the formation they had all been flying in disappeared, and was replaced with a swarm of TIE fighters moving erratically towards the corvette.
Finally, the swarm was on top of the corvette, circling around it like a nest of angry hornets, green laser fire flying everywhere. "Those are quad laser cannons! Stay in their blindspots or get vaped!" Bile yelled, the sound of his TIE firing echoing through the comm.
Swooping under the corvette, Cutter brought his TIE practically to a crawl, and started firing his weapons into the engines, the deflector shields catching each and every shot. As the corvette pressed forward towards the Sandtrap's fleet, Cutter took notice of a missile pod on the ventral part of the ship. Pivoting his TIE around, Cutter proceeded to open fire on that specific part. The deflectors kept blocking the shots, but he kept the trigger held regardless.
Soon, the bright spurts from the deflector shield faded away, and Cutter's shots started getting through, before finally destroying the part. "The shields are weak! Bombers, your turn!" Cutter said, alerting the fighters to the corvette's situation.
"Copy that, Cutter. Butcher moving in to take out defenses."
With that, Cutter pushed the throttle down and swooped up to rejoin the swarm. Towards the edge of his viewport, he could see four TIE bombers moving in, two on each side. The ship's point defense systems were too busy focusing on the swarm of fighters to notice them, and paid the price dearly.
"Rounds out." Butcher's comm cracked, and as soon as the words left his mouth, a small cluster of proton torpedoes was fired along both the port and starboard of the corvette, knocking out all of the quad laser cannons in one bombing run. "Splash." he said, reporting the targets had successfully been hit.
On cue, four turbolaser shots were fired from the Sandtrap, three of them perfectly hitting their marks on the quad turbolasers, while the fourth directly hit the hyperdrive, making escape impossible, even without the interdiction fields currently in place.
As the guns fell silent, the TIE bombers circled around towards the engines, preparing to fire their payloads again. "Rounds out." Cyclops reported, and another cluster of torpedoes hit their mark on the engines, completely disabling it. "Splash." Cyclops reported again, before breaking off.
"Attention TIE wings, maintain position near the Cranky Bantha while the Arquitens and boarding teams move to position. Hold fire unless directed otherwise." Captain Weyland suddenly said over their comms.
Soon enough, the Arquitens were within range, escorting the boarding TIEs. The ship was dead in the water, now. All that had to be done was take it.
Getting to the armory was a total non-issue – most of the crew seemed to be on the bridge or in different rooms, nowhere near the armory. That didn't mean they weren't in the armory itself. Stacking up against the door, Kyra counted down from three, and then the four of them breached. As soon as they entered the armory, however, there was another explosion, this time further back in the ship.
"Engines are out. All hands not on the bridge, get to the armory and gear up for boarding action." Lostur said over the comm system. All of the slaves poured into the armory as soon as the announcement went out, and began taking weapons from the racks. Wookies grabbed their old bowcasters and cradled them like one would their own child, before roaring in defiance and setting up in cover near the entrance on the other side of the room. A couple of the Twi'lek and human slaves grabbed A280s, DH-17s, and E-11s hanging on the walls. Lexi grabbed a strange looking blaster pistol and charged it, before setting up near the door they had entered the armory from.
Pretty soon, the entire armory had been picked clean, barring Kyra's DL-44 and CR-2, and Nax's Deecee and scattergun. She grabbed the former two, charged them both, and then threw the latter two over her back by their slings. Kyra then turned back to the entrance, about to leave, but someone grabbed her and stopped her from walking out. "Where are you going?" Lexi asked her, concerned for Kyra's well being.
"To take care of Lostur." Kyra replied coldly.
The slightest hint of a frown crossed Lexi's face, and she let go of Kyra. "Take care of yourself, Kyra." she wished her friend.
Giving her a brief smile, Kyra nodded and walked out, weapons at the ready. Trying not to make any noises, she passed by a T-junction, stopping, listening for footsteps, and then proceeding. She kept one hand on her DL-44, and the other on the wall. At the end of the long corridor was a ramp of sorts that definitely led to the bridge. She just had to get there unscathed.
Suddenly hearing footsteps further ahead, Kyra ducked into what looked like a conference room, and hid under a table. About five guys ran down the corridor she was just in, and when their footsteps were far enough away, Kyra got out from under the table and kept the pace up, finally getting to the ramp, the sounds of a firefight erupting behind her between the slaves and the crew.
Steeling herself, Kyra calmed herself to get her heart to stop beating so fast. Throwing her CR-2 over her back by its sling, she readied her DL-44 and raised it, slowly stepping out onto the bridge. At the far end of the bridge was the viewport, and she could faintly make out a swarm of TIE fighters and several slightly larger ships, and at the bridge consoles were crewmen dressed in clothing that was in various states of disarray and mismatching. Slowly walking around the bridge, she pointed the blaster at an elevated platform to her left, right where Lostur was sitting.
"Hands up." Kyra ordered, and Lostur suddenly noticed her.
A sly grin befell his face, and he slowly raised his hands in surrender, before getting up. "Congratulations. You got me." he said in a mocking tone, walking towards Kyra slowly. She refused to flinch, and kept the blaster trained on him. "What are you going to do with me, I wonder?" he mused.
"Turn you in to the Empire, coward." she replied coldly.
Lostur faked shock. "Oh, no! The Empire?!" he exaggerated. "I can assure you, I can pay you three times whatever the bounty on my head is." Lostur advised.
Kyra refused to back down as he got closer. "No." she said firmly.
Lostur shrugged with his shoulders. "Well, I tried." he said without a care in the world, before tackling Kyra to the ground, pulling a knife on her. She barely managed to grab hold of his right arm to prevent herself from getting stabbed, and it took all of her strength to even hold him in place. Visibly straining, Lostur smirked at her. "This is the price for defying me, you whore!" Lostur angrily said to her, before putting more pressure on her. "I'm gonna carve your face up, and then instead of selling you like I planned, I'll turn you into the crew's rape-meat!" he ranted, the knife getting ever closer to her face. "I'll make you sleep with your useless piece of shit friend's body, too! A reminder of why you'll be that way!" Lostur threatened her. The knife now inches away from her face in this losing battle of attrition, Kyra had to think, and act, fast.
Quickly moving her head to the side, Kyra let go of Lostur's arm, and the knife stabbed harmlessly between her neck and her shoulder. Caught off guard, Lostur was pushed to the side by every ounce of strength Kyra had, causing him to let go of the knife. Snatching the knife from where it had been stabbed in the floor, Kyra pounced on top of Lostur, and wasted no time in stabbing his chest. "DON'T FUCKING TALK ABOUT NAX THAT WAY, YOU FUCKING BASTARD PIECE OF SHIT! I'LL KILL YOU!" Kyra screamed, enraged at what this monster had put her through, and had the gall to threaten her with. She stabbed him at each word for emphasis, completely blinded by her emotions and personal feelings, focusing solely on killing Lostur.
When the bloodlust subsided, Kyra looked down at her work. Lostur had both of his hands clutching Kyra's arm as she held the knife in his throat, his grip slowly weakening and eyes glazing over. Kyra slowly removed the knife from his throat, and all that came from him was a weak, bloody gurgle, before Lostur's head rolled to the side, and he let go of Kyra's arm.
Lostur was… dead?
The realization didn't have long to strike Kyra before her thoughts were interrupted by someone else. "Boss!" Kaz suddenly yelled, and Kyra scarcely had time to get up and meet the charging Weequay woman. Raising the knife to stab her, Kyra instead was punched in the face, disarmed of the knife, and on the floor, looking down the barrel of a blaster pistol. "Yer 'onna pay for what you did to Lostur, bitch!" Kaz yelled, both enraged and saddened.
Before Kaz could kill Kyra, however, there was the sound of a blaster rifle shot to Kyra's left, and a red bolt hit Kaz in the head, killing her instantly and sending her careening into the wall. Confused, Kyra looked down the ramp, and up came a small squad of stormtroopers. They immediately moved to secure the bridge, while one stormtrooper with red armor trim and a red pauldron with a white cross on it tended to Kyra. "Are you alright, ma'am?" his vocoder cracked, checking Kyra for any visible wounds.
"…I am, thanks. Are you a medic?" she asked, already knowing the answer. The stormtrooper nodded as he continued to look Kyra over. "My friend got shot – he needs medical treatment soon or he'll die. Please, you have to help him!" Kyra pleaded, hoping it wasn't too late for Nax.
The medic looked over to who Kyra assumed was the squad leader and repeated what she said. He glanced at her, and then back to the medic. "Take four guys and go check it out. Shoot her if it's an ambush." he ordered through the vocoder, taking two of his men further into the bridge to secure it.
Kyra stood up and grabbed the stormtrooper by the arm, practically dragging him back to the slave holdings. "This way! Come on!"
Kyra was escorted to the bridge of the Sandtrap by a squad of stormtroopers, who left her as soon as she was on the bridge. Civilians weren't normally allowed on the bridges of Star Destroyers for fairly obvious reasons, but Weyland apparently made an exception for Kyra.
Weyland greeted her with a firm handshake. "Greetings, Miss Kyra. I would have asked you to debrief me personally, but someone you may know was involved with this operation, so I find it prudent that you debrief us both." Weyland said, maintaining a professional attitude, before moving to the communications console. As the lights in the room dimmed, Weyland pressed several buttons, and a hologram of Gaffi appeared on the console.
"Something to report, Weyland?" Gaffi asked.
Captain Weyland stood up straight. "Yes sir; the Cranky Bantha was disabled by my fleet and boarded approximately twenty minutes ago. I have someone prepared to debrief you." he said, and Kyra stepped into the hologram's projector.
"Hello, sir." she said respectfully.
Gaffi appeared at least slightly surprised. "Ah, Miss Kyra, I was expecting you. Tell us, what happened on the Cranky Bantha?"
She nervously scratched the back of her neck. "…Well, I'm not sure of the specific times, but when I woke up from being stunned, I thought I was in a nightmare. I woke Nax up, and we were trying to figure out how to escape. That's when Lostur and two others came down to the hold to taunt us." she sniffled briefly, before refocusing on Gaffi. "Nax defied them, so they shot and killed Thel. Then they talked more, and then Lostur just… shot Nax. Snapped me back to reality." Kyra explained, and Gaffi appeared curious.
"How did you escape?"
"Two traitors in Lostur's crew set Lexi and myself free after giving Nax a bacta shot to stabilize him. After that, we freed the other slaves and led a rebellion on the ship."
"Those would be Dav Foss and... "Bolthead", I believe. They've been remarkably co-operative with our questioning, and appear to not be involved with Lostur's more... egregious crimes." Weyland added.
"…I see. And what became of Lostur?" Gaffi inquired.
Kyra swallowed, not out of fear, just nervousness. "I tried to arrest him, turn him in for the bounty. He ended up tackling me and tried to stab me, managed to disarm him and ended up killing him."
Gaffi appeared thoughtful. "I see. Is Nax okay?"
Before Kyra could respond, Captain Weyland spoke first. "To my knowledge, yes. Our medical staff are currently treating him right now. Speaking of – Kyra, you're free to see him. I'll take over the debrief from here." Weyland said, dismissing her. "The medbay is on deck three, Nax is in room two hundred."
With that, Kyra left the bridge, taking the lift down to deck three.
Now that she had some time to herself, she thought about everything that had transpired in the past hour or so. She had been broken out of being a slave, hastily organized a slave rebellion, and killed the man who would have hunted her the galaxy over, all in under an hour.
She was truly free now, and she had no idea how to go forward. She still hadn't told Nax that she had nowhere to go, and she wasn't sure what to do now, but the feeling of finally being free was exhilarating to her, and she couldn't help but smile. Opting to take her mind off the long ride to deck three, Kyra began to think of a song she could vaguely remember. No memories of how she learned it, of course, just the song itself.
It wasn't long before Kyra was humming along to it, until she was interrupted by the lift suddenly stopping. She opened her eyes, and the digital counter near the lift panel showed up as "DECK THREE," and then the doors slid open. Stepping out into the moderately busy corridor, Kyra looked around for any indicator of where Nax's room. Spinning around on her heels, Kyra's eyes darted around, partially slackjawed.
"Excuse me, miss? Can I help you?" a stormtrooper asked behind her, and Kyra almost gave herself whiplash with how fast she spun around to face him. It was actually the stormtrooper medic who had given Nax additional aid before he was brought on-board the Sandtrap, or at least going off of his voice, he was.
Kyra blinked several times, and then finally managed to respond. "Y-yeah. Where's room two hundred?"
The stormtrooper took his helmet off, and gestured further down the hall. "This way, ma'am." he said. The medic was obviously young, but he still bore the scars of combat, namely a slash down the middle of his face, but he was otherwise very handsome. Bright blue eyes and golden blonde hair that was just barely regulation standard, but he radiated warmth, like the kinda guy you'd have some Jawa Juice with and shoot the shit. "Going to see your friend?" he asked, trying to be friendly.
Kyra rubbed her shoulder. "Yeah." she replied, and the medic laughed.
"Hah, I know the feeling. Empire takes care of their own, but it doesn't hurt to check up on my buddies after the action." the medic said, keeping his spirits up. "Say – you sounded pretty shook up when you told me that he was shot. I don't mean to pry, but that sounded like you two were more than just friends from the tone of your voice back there." the medic said, suddenly serious now.
Caught off-guard, Kyra tried to deflect the question. "We're just bounty hunting partners, probably gonna go our separate ways when all is said and done." she replied, a hint of sadness in her voice.
The medic nodded in understanding, surprisingly. "I see." he responded as they rounded the corner.
"I'm Kyra, by the way." she suddenly said.
"Huh?" the medic said, surprised, before catching up with what she was doing. "Oh. I'm TM-Six-Eight-Twenty-Two." the medic said, matter-of-factly.
Kyra just giggled. "Forget your real name?"
The medic looked dumbstruck for a moment, and then snapped to reality again. "Sorry, it's just that I'm so used to dealing with uptight officers all the time. I'm Lehvan Ulgo." he finally greeted.
Another Ulgo?
Kyra wasn't alone in thinking that, as three men asked him what he meant by Ulgo. "I'm from Alderaan." Lehvan answered. "Lower on the hierarchy, but I'm still an Ulgo nonetheless."
"No way! So are we! We were with Lorn on a mission planetside, got kidnapped and ended up on that hellhole 'vette!" one of them said, shocked.
Lehvan tapped Kyra on the shoulder and pointed further ahead. "Go on, room two hundred's just there on the left. I wanna talk to these guys, maybe get Lorn on the horn for them." he said, chatting with the three men like they were childhood friends.
…Just how big was House Ulgo?
Shaking it off, Kyra brushed past a few uniformed officers and headed to room two hundred. The room itself was spacious enough. Had enough space to hold a bacta tank, everything to support the tank, and a droid charging station for the on-duty 2-1B droid, who was currently observing Nax, floating in the tank. As soon as the door automatically shut behind her, the surgical droid turned and waved her over. "How is he?" Kyra asked out of concern.
The droid glanced back at Nax. "He was near death when he was brought in. The blaster he was shot with penetrated most of the tissue – hit him between the right lung and his heart, nicked the sternum. He's lucky to even be alive." the droid said in a masculine, but monotone voice.
"Between the lung and heart?" Kyra pressed.
"Yes – hit them both, but penetrating that deep slowed the bolt enough that it didn't do full damage to either organ."
Kyra stared at Nax, sleeping in the tank as the bacta inside healed him. "That's not gonna cause long-term problems, is it?"
The droid shook its head. "No. The bacta I've administered will have healed any potential damage in a day's time." the droid dutifully answered, before pausing. "You're welcome to stay as long as you don't touch any of the medical equipment."
Nodding, Kyra opted to watch Nax in silence, refusing to leave the room until he was out.
Finding himself floating in a bacta tank wasn't exactly the first thing Nax expected to open his eyes to. Through the blue tinted water, Nax could see that he was in a room that looked much like a medbay, and not like the hellhole slave pen he had been in before.
Just where was he?
Looking around while being sure not to accidentally tear the breathing mask off, he could see someone approaching the tank. White hair, familiar duster…
Kyra.
She pressed her hand up against the glass, and Nax gave her a thumbs up to acknowledge that he knew she was there. A door opened further back in the room, and a humanoid figure stepped through, catching Kyra's attention. The figure then gestured towards the open door, and Kyra walked out. The figure – now obviously a droid, approached the tank's control panel and hit several buttons, before pushing what looked sort of like a lever down.
Nax felt the sensation of rushing water going down his body, and the bacta drained into the bottom of the tank, leaving him standing. The mask almost immediately popped off automatically, and then the door to the tank slid open, letting him walk out. The medical droid that had let him free handed him a towel. "Dry yourself off. Your clothes and weapons are in the corner, and I've left details of your injuries on your datapad." it said in a matter-of-fact manner. "Also, your friend wishes to speak with you."
Nax gave the droid a nod of acknowledgement, and quickly dried off, before slipping into his normal clothes. As he did so, he heard the faint hum of a ship's engine. "Say, where am I?" he asked the droid as he threw his duster on.
"You're on-board the Imperial Interdictor Sandtrap, in orbit around Tatooine, sir. You were brought in from the Cranky Bantha by your friend and given immediate medical treatment."
Nax gave another nod of acknowledgement, this time more hesitant. Taking his Deecee and scattergun, Nax threw them over his back by the slings, and then put his hat on. Just as he did, Kyra entered the room, brushing past the medical droid who was leaving the medbay.
The two of them just stared at each other silently, until Kyra ran up to Nax, grappling him into a tearful hug. "…I thought you were done for…" she said, clearly elated, as she tightened her grip around Nax.
"It sure as hell felt like I was." Nax remarked as Kyra pulled herself away from Nax, but still staying in the hug. "Speaking of – what the hell happened after I got shot? Why are we on an Interdictor?" Nax questioned.
Kyra closed her eyes and swallowed, preparing to speak. "…Well, after you got shot, I kind of just… broke. I wanted to give up, let it all go up in smoke. Two of Lostur's men came to me-"
"Who?"
"The smuggler captain, and I think one of the ones who found me when you turned Vark in. They turned traitor and were gonna break us out. The captain is actually the one that got you stabilized long enough for a medic to treat you and bring you to the Sandtrap."
"…I'll give him my thanks, but continue."
Kyra wiped a tear from her eye, and shook her head. "Right, so, they bust us out, and I remembered something you said to me, about you not having any of my "defeatist garbage", especially from your partner. After that, it was like I was a totally different person. I took charge of the slaves, lead them to the armory, and then went to the bridge to grab Lostur." Kyra explained, her expression dimming a bit.
"…And?"
Kyra swallowed again. "…Well, he disarmed me and forced me the ground. He was going to stab me in the face, said he'd make me sleep with your corpse. He even threatened to turn me into the crew's…" Kyra said, stopping herself. "…t-the crew's…" she struggled, before burying her head in Nax's chest. "…'rape-meat'." she said in a hushed, almost shameful tone.
Nax pulled her back into the hug. "Suns, Kyra…" he said, shocked and bereft of words. Although, perhaps Nax shouldn't be too surprised that Lostur would go that far.
"…A-after that, I kind of just… saw red. I overpowered him, and didn't stop stabbing until he was dead. I… I'm sorry that I screwed up the bounty, Nax." Kyra apologized, and Nax was frozen still. "…Are you mad at me?"
Nax suddenly pulled Kyra into the strongest hug she had ever felt. "No – I'm proud of you. Damn proud. I don't care about losing out on the full bounty, you killed the bastard that would've hunted you 'till the end of days." Nax said gleefully, tightening his grip on Kyra. "The death price is enough to get us a ride out of here, anyways." he continued, before getting close to her ear. "And to think; you thought you were useless, yet you managed to kill Lostur." Nax whispered to her. "Be proud of that."
Kyra couldn't help but smile.
The two of them stayed like that for what felt like hours, but was really only a few minutes. There was a distant, but familiar electronic gurgling, and the door opened again with Arfive, the strange droid that Thel owned, and Lexi. "There you two are!" Lexi greeted as the pair broke their hug up. "We've been looking for you for hours!"
Arfive and the strange droid both gurgled and beeped out a hello, before Arfive bumped Nax in the knee. "Ow." Nax playfully said, before looking at Thel's droid. "When the hell did that droid get fixed?" Nax asked.
Lexi glanced at the droid. "A few days back. Arfive actually did most of the work, and for reference, she's Teethree-Kay-Tee, but Arfive's just taken to calling her Katy, and so have I." Lexi stated, petting the droid's pan head. "Now come on, we've got a shuttle waiting to take us down to Tatooine."
As soon as the shuttle landed, Nax was already at the ramp, waiting it for it to drop down. As it slowly descended, Gaffi's figure became more evident, as did the contingent of stormtroopers with him.
"Strag." Gaffi said.
"Sir?"
Gaffi fished around in his uniform, and pulled out a credit stick for Nax to take, which he did. "Your payment, one hundred thousand Imperial standard credits, as detailed in the bounty listing."
"…But I didn't take Lostur down – Kyra did." Nax corrected, confused.
"Correct. Kyra also lacks the account to transfer the funds to. While setting an account up is easy, doing it on Tatooine is less so, and with the amount of funds you've just been given, I'd prefer having them out of reach of the common mugger. Wouldn't you agree?"
Nax shrugged. "…Yeah, I see your point."
Gaffi turned his attention further up the ramp. "Speaking of – Miss Kyra," Gaffi said to Kyra, who was just now going down the ramp. "You've done not only a great service to the Empire, but also to the people of the Outer Rim. You have not only my thanks, but the thanks of untold thousands of sentients. You and I both know how much of a monster Lostur was, and we'll all be sleeping easier knowing that he's dead and gone."
"…Thank you, sir." Kyra said respectfully.
Gaffi then turned back to Nax. "I'm also aware of your speeder situation. Specifically, your lackthereof. As such, I'm giving you an impounded V-35 that is now technically property of the Empire. Considering the fact that you'll probably want to take your belongings and the lack of space on a BARC speeder, this is probably best for you." Gaffi explained, before checking his chronometer. "That said, I have business to attend to."
With that, Gaffi and the stormtroopers left the docking bay, leaving Lexi, Nax, Kyra, and the two droids to themselves. Heading outside, they immediately laid eyes on their new speeder, which was as Gaffi said, a V-35 Courier. Opening the side doors, the interior was actually kinda stupid looking. The driver seat was in the middle of the speeder, between the two passenger seats on the side. Behind that was the storage space for basically whatever the hell you wanted.
Pushing the passenger seat down, Nax picked Arfive up and set him in the cargo area, before doing the same with Katy, and then pushing the seat back up. Sliding into the driver seat, Lexi sat to his left, while Kyra slid over the hood and hopped in to his right. As soon as they were in, Nax set the speeder off for the homestead.
The ride there was thankfully uneventful – no pirates or slavers to watch over their shoulder for, no insurgent ambushes or Imperial stops, just a calm drive home. Of course, that didn't stop Lexi and Kyra from bickering over how little space there was to sit in the speeder.
Nax blew air up into his face. "Family speeder my ass." he thought as the two girls fidgeted in their seats.
A good while later, and they finally arrived at the entrance to the homestead. As the door opened and Nax parked the Courier inside, the three of them got out, with Lexi taking Arfive and Katy out for the time being, while all five of them headed downstairs. "You wanna head out tonight?" Kyra asked, sticking close to Nax, who looked at the wall chrono.
"…Nah, I feel like hell. Let's pack the stuff up, eat, sleep, and then we head out, first thing in the morning." Nax replied, yawning.
Kyra seemed to nod, and headed into the living room with Lexi, Arfive and Katy following her.
Nax, however, went into his dad's room at the end of the hallway, and turned to the cabinet near the door, picking up Zeethree's detached head and flicking it on. The protocol droid's eyes came to life, staring at Nax. "Greetings, Master Strag. What can I do for you?" he asked in his usual chipper voice.
"Not much, Zeethree, just that we're leaving this hellhole tomorrow. And you're coming with. You'll get a new body!" Nax exclaimed, seeming happy for the first time in forever, or at least, to Zeethree.
Zeethree's eyes brightened. "Really, Master Strag?" the droid questioned. "I'm going to get a new body! I'm going to get a new body!" he prattled, before calming himself. "…Master Strag?"
"Mhm?"
"…I believe your father left a message for you to see when you inevitably left Tatooine. He probably wanted you to see it – it's in the top drawer of this cabinet."
Nax immediately set Zeethree's head on top of the cabinet, and practically yanked the top drawer out. Buried under a small collection of clothes was something small and metallic; large enough to fit in the palm of Nax's hand, but not big enough to be cumbersome. Fishing it out, Nax fumbled with it.
It was a holocommunicator.
Checking for any sort of switch or anything, Nax scanned over the communicator, and eventually found a button. Pressing it down, a hologram appeared. Specifically, a hologram of a much younger Cobro, carrying both Nax and Trax as infants.
Nax felt a temporary pang of sadness seeing that, and then whatever was on the communicator began to play.
"Hello, Nax. Trax. I hope this message finds you both well."
Nax's head sank a bit.
"If you're hearing this message, then I'm gone. However you found this message, I don't know, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is what I have to say, so listen very carefully." the hologram continued, holding the two infants closer and higher so as to not drop them, before it flickered. "I don't blame you if you end up wanting to leave Tatooine. It wasn't my first choice, but circumstances forced my hand." the recording continued, before Cobro turned his head to the side, and then returned to whatever he was facing. "Before you leave, though, I have a gift for the both of you. Under my bed, there's a small, red button. I want you to press it." the recording said, before pausing, the hologram shimmering as if it was waiting for a signal to continue.
Nax looked over at the bed hesitantly, and approached it, kneeling down to look under the bed, with one hand holding the communicator on the mattress, and the other searching under the bed for the button. His hand eventually bumped into something that felt sort of like plastoid. Grabbing it, Nax realized it was the button, and pushed up with a satisfying click.
As he got out from under the bed, the wall towards the back of the room began to… move?
Getting closer to investigate, the wall vanished into the sides of the room, leaving a dark, empty space.
And then the lights kicked on, making Nax's jaw drop.
"That gift, my sons, is our armor. Both mine, and Bo's. I have no use for either of them anymore. They're yours now." the recording said with a smile.
"Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum bintar, ner ade." it whispered, before fading out.
Gently setting the communicator on the bed, Nax went to examine the armors. "I love you both, my sons." Zeethree suddenly translated, sounding rather mournful. As Nax took his father's helmet off of its mount, he stared into the visor, with the invisible person inside staring right back at him. Both sets of armor were in muted greyscale tones, excepting the undersuits, which were a cream, almost sandy color. His dad's armor looked like it could fit him fine, but he wasn't sure what to do with his mom's suit.
"…Thank you, dad." Nax whispered to himself.
Glancing over at his mother's armor, Nax bit his lip. Should he sell it? Mandalorian armor wasn't cheap, but…
An idea suddenly popped into his head, and Nax set his father's helmet back on its stand, and then flipped the light switch inside, darkening out everything inside of the false wall. Brushing past the doorway, Nax walked to the living room to find Lexi and Kyra happily chatting with each other. He rapped on the wall a few times to get their attention. "Kyra, can you c'mere for a sec? I've got something for you." Nax said, trying his best to hide a smile.
Kyra glanced at Lexi, and then got up, following Nax back into his father's room. "Sure, what's up?" Kyra asked innocently as she was led into the dark room. "…Uh, Nax?" she called out in the darkness.
Nax flipped the switch, and the lights kicked on, revealing the armors. "Surprise, Kyra."
Kyra stared at the armors, and then at Nax, and then back to the armors. "I…" she struggled, running her hand through her hair. "I thought you weren't a Mandalorian?" Kyra asked, confused.
"I'm not." Nax replied, before pointing at the armors. "But my parents were. Come on, let's see how my mom's armor fits you."
Kyra blinked, and then snapped to Nax. "Wait, you're giving me one of them?"
Nodding, Nax began to carefully take the suit from its rack, looking for a way to get Kyra into it. "I mean, I'd rather not sell it if someone I trust can make use of it." he replied, having managed to get it off the wall. After around ten minutes of fumbling with the armor, Kyra managed to get inside the armor, wearing everything except the helmet. "How's it feel?" Nax asked.
Admiring the armplates, Kyra tried moving her arms and legs around a bit. "…Feels a bit snug?" she commented. "A bit heavy, too." she said as she swung her arms around.
Nax put his hand on her shoulder. "You'll get used to it." he said in a reassuring manner. "Before I let you go back to Lexi, though, I gotta ask – where do you want to go?"
Kyra looked at him, confused. "Huh?" she asked, not sure what he was referring to.
"I mean our deal's basically done. All that's left now is to drop you off on whatever planet you want, then we can all go our separate ways and move on with our lives." Nax elaborated. "You got any family? Any home I can take you to?"
Kyra looked thoughtful, trying to remember something that could help get her home. Wherever home was, anyways. "…No." she replied flatly.
Nax raised an eyebrow. "You don't have anything?"
Kyra shook her head. "I probably do, but I don't remember anything before waking up on that hellhole of a ship." she explained, looking over at Zeethree's head. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want it to distract you."
Pursing his lips, Nax glanced at the remaining suit of armor. "So… what now?"
Kyra sighed, inching her hand closer to Nax's. "Well… I was hoping you would…" she said, her tone leading as she looked to Nax. "…take me with you?" Kyra poised.
Looking at her, surprised, Nax took this in. "…You actually want to come along with me?" he asked. "I would've thought that you wanted to get away, go live a normal life. Not to stick with me."
Kyra shook her head again. "Being a bounty hunter's about the only thing I know right now. And if it's with you, well… it can't be that bad, can it?"
Considering her words, Nax closed his eyes. "If you really, actually, truly do want to come with me, then… sure." he said, accepting Kyra's request.
Eyes beaming, Kyra gently grabbed Nax's hand and squeezed it, causing a light blush to appear on her face. "…Thank you." she said graciously, internally exceptionally enthusiastic about getting to see the galaxy with Nax.
Suddenly, Lexi ran into the room. "Hey, you two know that dinner's…" she said, seemingly annoyed, before cutting herself off at the sight of Kyra wearing Mandalorian armor. "…Where the…?" she continued, and then noticed the armor on the wall, falling silent.
"Don't touch it." Nax ordered sternly.
Lexi shrugged. "Fine by me; Mando gear isn't my style anyway. Now c'mon, dinner's gonna get cold if you two keep holding hands like you're in love." Lexi joked, causing Kyra's face to get redder than before, and she pulled away from Nax, heading to the kitchen to get her food.
After hours of travelling, the trio finally pulled into Mos Espa. Nax was driving the V-35 with most of their belongings, including the three droids, inside, while Kyra and Lexi were on the BARC speeders that the Jawas had given them. Checking his datapad one last time, Nax pulled up the advertisement for the starfighter, and checked the name of the shop.
Eemir's Ships.
The sign above the entrance said the same thing.
Bringing the V-35 to a halt, Kyra and Lexi did the same, getting off the speeders and joining Nax as he climbed out of the Courier, bumping his head against the roof accidentally, still not used to the Mandalorian helmet. The shop itself was fairly basic; a squat, rectangular building that probably led to a large lot in the back with a heavily stylized sign out front.
Heading inside, there was a door chime signaling that they had just entered. "Coming!" a man said further back in the store. While they waited, the three of them poked around, picking up some droid parts or other oddities, and then setting them back down. A short while later, and a blonde human with a goatee came to the counter. "Hello, I'm Avadi Eemir, welcome to my…" the man said, before stopping himself at the sight of Nax and Kyra in Mandalorian armor. "…Woah." he said, in awe at the two of them. "…What can I do for you?" Eemir offered, watching his tone so as to not upset the two of them.
Nax fished around in his duster, pulled out his datapad, and showed the advertisement to Eemir. "We're looking for this starfighter. Is it still for sale?" Nax asked.
Eemir sucked some air in and bit his lip. "I'm sorry to say, but that ARC-170 was sold weeks ago. Jabba's men came and bought it off of me." he answered, leaning over the counter. "What were you hoping to use it for? I might have something similar you could take."
"Bounty hunting, mostly."
Avadi looked at Nax like he was crazy, but quickly wiped the look away. "In that case, I'd advise against buying a starfighter. Too little space for the long trips you'll need to go on." he said, pointing at himself. "Take it from someone who used to be in the business."
Lexi stepped up to the counter. "So, what would you suggest we buy?" she asked, impatiently tapping on its surface, eyeing Eemir.
Scratching his goatee, Avadi appeared to be lost in thought. "Well, if you're using it for bounty hunting, I'd suggest maybe a YT series. With the three of you, a Firespray – not that I have one – would be too cramped, so…" Avadi led, before pulling out a datapad and checking it. "Looks like you're in luck! I've got a Thirteen-Hundred in the back of the lot. Twenty thou."
Standing up a bit straighter, Lexi leaned on her side against the counter. "Anything done to it?" she inquired.
Avadi paused, about to shake his head no, and then nodded, as if he had just remembered something. "Come on, I'll show it to you." he said, motioning for the trio to follow him through the back door.
The back-lot was actually a fair bit smaller than what they had expected, only holding about four starships, the YT included. The other three were a war-torn BTL-B Y-Wing, a newer looking X-Wing, and a Scyk that looked like it went through a supernova. On the left, following the wall, there was also a secondary entrance to the lot that led out to the street, large enough to fit a speeder through.
As they approached the freighter, the starboard ramp descended, and Avadi lead them up into the main corridor of the ship, taking them around clockwise. The first room was some obviously a passenger cabin for extremely long trips. A tad cramped, but it had three bunks that looked moderately comfortable.
Continuing on without stopping, the next area was the engineering bay, with a lot of obviously non-stock parts, excepting the hyperdrive, which was the original Avatar-10 the ship probably rolled off the production line with. Lexi pointed the hyperdrive out. "What rating is that Avvy ten?" she asked.
Avadi glanced at it from across the engineering bay. "I think the guy that had it last brought it down to a class one – I ran some checks between here and Geonosis, and the speed matches. Had a look at the insides – the coaxium reactant chamber's fairly consistent with SCRAMmed hyperdrives."
Lexi nodded in approval. "Gotcha." she said, and the trio continued past the port airlock and into the kitchen, with Avadi showing off the relatively modern equipment, as well as the lounge, which had a holotable loaded up with Dejarik and some sort of electronic card-based strategy game. Finally, they headed to the cockpit, which looked decently new. The seat leather was unfortunately dried, though, so they were sort of uncomfortable to sit in.
"So, what do you think?" Avadi asked, hoping to make a sale on the freighter.
"I dunno, this thing looks like it's fairly well kept, but for twenty thousand credits…?" Nax said, suspicious of Avadi. "What's the catch?"
"Catch?" Avadi said, offended. "Who do you take me for? Watto? No, I'm a legitimate businessman, I don't sell half-assed parts like that conniving Toydarian. I just want this damn ship out of my lot." he elaborated.
Seemingly accepting Eemir's response, Nax pulled his datapad out. "Alright. I'll take it. Kyra, Lex, get the ship loaded with the BARCs and everything in the Courier." Nax directed, and the two nodded, heading to fetch the speeders.
Within an hour, the YT was fully loaded, and they were halfway out of Tatooine's atmosphere.
"…You know, I'm kinda gonna miss this place." Nax waxed nostalgically as he flew the ship, albeit with some help from Arfive.
"I thought you weren't the sentimental type?" Kyra replied, curious about Nax's sudden change in attitude.
"I'm not, but Tatooine has its charms."
"It has charm?" Kyra replied sarcastically.
Nax smirked. "Fair enough."
Finally having broken the atmosphere, Nax stared at the thousands of stars through the cockpit window. Hands shaking a bit, the feeling of unparalleled freedom to go anywhere in the galaxy he wanted only just hit him. It genuinely never occurred to him just how stuck he felt on Tatooine.
"Arfive, set a course for Coruscant." Nax commanded, and Arfive gurgled something that vaguely sounded like acknowledgement, before plugging in to the astromech slot in the cockpit and communicating with the hyperdrive and navicomputer, while Katy just watched him work.
As the stars turned to lines, Nax got up, dragging Kyra with him. "I think this calls for a drink." Nax said, referring to a small amount of whiskey he had brought with him from home.
The entire galaxy was at their fingertips, and they were only just getting started.
That's the end of this chapter.
So, they're finally off of Tatooine. I've got a general idea of the plotline I want to do on Coruscant, but in the meantime, here's some bonus trivia.
-The Cranky Bantha fight was originally going to involve the Sandtrap and the Arquitens attacking further in-depth, with a planned run at the gravity wells to escape. I ended up not doing that and just self-inserting my Empire at War tactics, which is mass fuckmurder with fighters and bombers.
-The song that Kyra was humming was actually going to be Across the Stars from AOTC. It still is, but I just removed the details due to them not fitting particularly well.
-The YT-1300 that Nax is in possession of was originally going to be an ARC-170, until I realized the problems that would pose for a bounty hunter such as transporting bounties and also long periods of travel, especially the latter after having read Heir to the Empire where Luke has to basically hibernate at several points.
-Watto was originally going to be the one in possession of the ARC-170, until I changed it to Avadi (who is actually an SWG character of mine!) due to not wanting to have to rely on existing characters in Star Wars for plot stuff.
-There was going to be a bit where the Courier broke down in the Great Salt Flat, and the three of them would have to go to the Lars homestead for help, where Luke would fix the speeder for them. I cut this due to the chapter already being long enough.
-The card based strategy game mentioned with the holotable isn't a reference to Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh or some shit, it's actually a cleaned up, canon friendly version of the Galaxy of Heroes mobile game.
Also, I strongly advise listening to "Under Cover of Night" from Halo CE as you imagine the ending here.
Please leave a review!
'Till next time.
-Tweak