Across The Stars
Okay chapter one of a new idea I thought I'd try, a Walking Dead/Star Wars crossover, this one just sets the scene and introduces several characters, some more important in the grand scheme of things than others, anyway, enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Walking Dead or Star Wars or their characters.
Chapter 1: Daily Struggle
The sun rose as it did every day, once more illuminating the surface of the junk planet, Crunus, once a planet used in the Clone Wars as a Separatist Recycling base where they would send damaged droids and ships to be stripped down, the parts used to make new ones. But the Clone Wars were over now, the entire known galaxy in the grips of the Galactic Empire, as it had been for the past five years. Crunus itself had become a massive junkyard with scavengers occupying the planet and starting to gather parts from the dumped ships and such there, selling them at the main settlement on the planet to junk dealers for food, supplies and meagre amounts of Imperial Credits.
This was secretly encouraged by the Empire who also added old ships of theirs to the planet, letting it serve its former function as a recycling planet albeit with most of the important work taken place elsewhere entirely. Some of the scavengers had formed groups and had made shanty town homes for themselves. One of those shanty town settlements was called Ericsons, the inhabitants of this town, aptly named the Ericsons Crew, were somewhat different from the other scavenger groups, consisting mainly of teenagers with most being between sixteen and eighteen years old, with only two younger than that.
They were a close knit group of friends, working together on their scavenging missions and pooling their resources, to increase their chances of survival.
With the sunlight coming in through the window, illuminating the face of one of those scavengers, she blinked, waking up and moving into a seating position. Said girl was sixteen and of medium height with an athletic build with an average sized figure, short curly brown hair and golden brown eyes framed with long lashes and caramel skin.
"Morning Clementine." A voice drew her attention.
Turning her head to the other bed in the room, Clementine smiled at her room-mate and closest friend.
"Hi Violet." She greeted the other girl.
Violet smiled, she was a young woman of eighteen, skinny yet lanky with fair skin, strong features with an average sized figure, long legs and startlingly bright green eyes and short blonde hair with heavy bangs. Clementine was relatively new to the Ericsons group, having only been with them for a year, by comparison Violet had been there four years.
'There's still a lot about Violet I don't know too, she's very...secretive about her past, the only thing I know is that, like me, she's from Coruscant.' Clem reflected. 'Still Violet's always been kind to me, helped me out when I first arrived, we've become really close, I…'
She bit her lip as the heat rose to her face and she quickly quashed the thoughts that were beginning to form. This wasn't the time for her to be thinking about stuff like that.
"C'mon." Violet said, breaking into her thoughts. "Let's go see if breakfast is ready."
Clem nodded in agreement and they quickly finished getting dressed before heading out of their hut.
As they stepped out two familiar faces were just passing by.
One grinned and greeted them. "Ladies."
They turned, Clem smiling while Violet rolled her eyes at his tone.
"Louis, don't even start, it's too early." She warned.
Louis, an eighteen year old tall young man who had medium length dreadlocked brown hair and brown eyes with light brown skin and a lanky build.
"Oh come on Vi, how did you even-?" Louis protested in surprise.
Violet shook her head. "I just know you."
She cracked a smile at that and Louis merely shrugged while the other young man, also eighteen, nearing nineteen, laughed. He was also tall, albeit stockier than Louis, having some muscle with a blonde, slightly ragged looking, mullet, green eyes and fair skin. He was the leader of Ericsons, by virtue of being the oldest member of the group, Marlon. He and Louis were best friends and Marlon trusted Louis implicitly while also looking after and ensuring the training of the other Ericsons members in order to ensure they could protect themselves.
Louis meanwhile was known for his cheerful optimism despite their situation on Crunus, he had a corny sense of humour that remained undiminished despite being one of the longest residents on the planet. He had a caring heart however and looked out for the younger and newer members of the group. Despite the occasional barbs from Violet towards Louis, they were in fact close friends too.
"Well, glad to at least see some of us are up early and ready for work." Marlon remarked with a smile. "Let's go, Omar as usual was the first one up and should have breakfast ready soon."
They nodded in agreement and followed Marlon to the centre of the Ericsons settlement where the 'cook pot' was set up.
Standing by the 'cook pot', making breakfast, was Omar, a slightly chubby dark skinned sixteen year old man with brown afro hair, brown eyes and standing at medium height. Seated waiting was two others, a young woman aged eighteen, almost nineteen, and a young man aged eighteen.
The young woman was the second in command to Marlon, again by virtue of age, being the oldest after him. She was above medium height with long legs and a shapely build, long auburn hair, light blue eyes and fair skin, full lips and was smiling sweetly.
"Hey guys, Brody." Marlon greeted them as they joined them.
The others all greeted them, the girl, Brody grinned at Marlon, nodding. The others shared a look, there were rumours after all that there was in fact something between Marlon and Brody. The young man was Aasim, he was dark skinned with a toned build, short black hair and black eyes and somewhat tall. He wasn't as strong as most of the other male scavengers present, but he was quick and able to squeeze through gaps the other boys couldn't, he was also easily the smartest.
Looking over at Marlon, Aasim then explained. "Ruby has gone to try and make sure Mitch and Willy have got up...Tenn is, well…"
"He'll be here." Violet said softly.
Marlon nodded in understanding. "Okay, all good. How we doing with the food, Omar?"
Omar smirked. "Almost ready, now don't rush me."
The others just grinned, knowing that Omar's one pet peeve was being rushed when trying to cook, due to his perfectionist nature.
A short while later, Ruby arrived, with a sheepish looking Mitch and Willy just behind her. Ruby was a seventeen year old young woman of medium height with a chubby, albeit still busty, figure, short red hair, blue eyes and pale skin with freckles. Mitch was also seventeen, tall and strong with brown hair parted over his right eye, brown eyes and fair skin while Willy was twelve, one of the newest scavengers of the group, just starting out and learning what to do.
He was somewhat shorter than average with messy brown hair, brown eyes and fair skin. He was somewhat mischievous but more trust-worthy than he looked while Mitch was hot-blooded and had no qualms about diving head long into danger and constantly took on the more challenging scavenging mission, but seemed blessed by supernatural good luck that rarely saw him suffer for his recklessness.
Ruby was like Omar, not a scavenger, instead she was the group's medic and despite her sassy and assertive nature, usually projected a motherly air when treating wounds. She was also quite strict about manners and could become quite exasperated with those wounded through simply carelessness, as Louis could frequently attest to.
"Finally got them up." She remarked. "You two need to stop being so lazy."
"Urgh c'mon." Willy grumbled. "We're just-"
Mitch quickly spoke up. "Leave it, Willy. We're fine Ruby, we're not late."
"Alright everyone, settle down, sit down and let's just have breakfast and get to work." Marlon spoke up, asserting his authority.
They all did as they were told, Ruby sitting down next to Aasim who became stiff and quite possibly blushing, it was pretty much an open secret that he had a crush on Ruby. Meanwhile Mitch and Willy, who were considered adoptive brothers, sat next to each other too while they waited for their food and the last member of the group to arrive.
Shortly after Omar declared that the food was ready and began dishing out, the last member of the group arrived. Tenn was twelve, the same height as Willy with short dark brown hair and eyes, dark skin and a notable burn on the side of his face. He was similar to Willy in regards to being a new member still learning the ropes, yet was remarkably mature for his age, far more than Willy.
"Hey, sorry I'm late." He mumbled.
Violet smiled. "It's fine, c'mon, sit."
He did so, accepting his food with a small smile, Tenn had arrived at Ericsons at the same time as Violet who was something of a sister figure to him. They all ate while Marlon explained.
"Okay guys, I've got all our assigned tasks already, so...once we've ate let's get to it. Ruby, Omar, you know the drill." He paused and then smirked. "Now remember, Willy, Tenn, pay attention and learn. Everybody else, however we split the work up, if you have Willy or Tenn with you, keep an eye on them, take care of them and make sure they pay attention."
They all smiled at that and agreed. So it was that they soon finished breakfast, gathered their equipment and made their way out of their settlement and into the junk yards of Crunus, none of them noticing the Imperial Probe Droid that floated above them.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.