Gacen was jolted awake as the ship came out of hyperspace, they had been traveling down the hyperlane for days now, the last system Angor had been a total dud no civilisation no nothing certainly no way to find Risha. He could give Risha this the Myto sector certainly was a quiet place to hide, now they were arriving at the Gabredor system which sounded just lovely and rural not at all crazy and savage. Gacen looked over to see Ash plotting a route to Gabredor III a jungle planet with a seemingly small civilisation of junkers. Gacen chuckled at the idea of a jungle jawa with a little headband and blowtorch, he looked out the viewport and frowned as he noticed a large green nebulous mass looming around most of the system.

Gacen pointed at it "what the hell is that giant space fart" Ash turned to him giving a less than impressed frown

Ash looked back at the console "well that is the Gabredor nebula a bunch of poisonous gases that cover most of the Gabredor system, it's said they have the power to corrode a ship in seconds" Gacen shuddered at the idea of his lovely ship being corroded and picked up for scrap he'd spent years getting it the way he liked.

Gacen sighed "yikes well let's just find out if Risha was here and go quick I don't trust it not to move towards us" Ash gave Gacen a quizzical look "hey it could happen I dunno about space phenomenons" did nebulas move? he had no idea

Ash turned back to the console as she brought the ship down to the jungle planet "I assure you it won't move that quick, anyway we just need to check the spaceport" Gacen had to admit he was surprised to see a spaceport on a remote planet like this he wondered if scrapping ships was enough to form a lucrative society. He thought he could've been a scrapper in another life, he guessed he kind of used to be but that was different he was just looking for an easy gift when he'd forgotten a birthday, it happened more times than he was proud of.

He put the thoughts to the back of his mind as he followed Ash out of the ship, they were met by two rather hunched looking humans "welcome to our planet aliens please we have many goods to trade and would appreciate if you follow us" Gacen frowned he'd been to backwater planets but this took the cake, the spaceport was basically just a patchwork metal platform made from scrap in a clearing already beginning to be overgrown.

Ash shook her head "we're not looking to buy we just need to take a look at your log of ships that have landed here" the humans frowned at her seemingly confused by the request. Ash thought for a second "do you have a ledger? of um customers?" the humans seemed to understand this.

they nodded "yes yes a ledger we're familiar with what you speak of we can show you after the showing off our wares" Ash frowned seemingly agitated

Gacen put a hand on her shoulder "honestly Ash it's probably gonna be quicker if we just follow them" Ash sighed conceding to the weird custom and they followed them towards the town.

Town was a strong word, what it seemed to be was a large collection of stalls made out of reclaimed ship parts, Gacen's eyed widened wow that nebula sure did destroy a lot of ships. They were directed to the first stall and were met with a short man wearing what Gacen recognised as imperial helmet but he doubted the man had any idea what it meant.

the man bowed before them "welcome welcome to Bucket's shop of ship appliances" Gacen frowned did he think the hat was a bucket?

Gacen folded his arms "two things is bucket your name or because of the hat and what do you have in this stall" Ash took a deep breath she seemed agitated by this diplomacy which was not exactly a shocker

the man nodded "yes and we have many things here at the shop of bucket things to enhance your ship with the power of many others" Gacen frowned he was still no clearer on the name

Gacen began rooting through his stall and came upon a device that looked surprisingly clean "uh what's this it looks like it's not just been ripped from a ship

Bucket nodded excitedly "that is special invention of mine" he paused "well it is invention I found and replicated, it is a shield able to convert the harmful gases of the Gabredor nebula into harmless compounds before they corrode your ship" Gacen's eyes widened that sounded really good

Gacen was intrigued "oh wow seriously where did you find this?" Ash seemed less impressed he bet she just wanted to steal the ledger but diplomacy would win the day

Ash put a hand on Gacen's shoulder "cmon Gacen we're not here to make impulse purchases" Gacen disagreed this would be useful he could tell

Gacen frowned "I don't see any downside to buying it, and it'll probably get us to the ledger faster" Ash sighed conceding ha she just got logiced

Bucket spoke up "I was lucky to find it on one of the crashed ships that tried to hunt the space worm" Gacen's eyes widened the WHAT? "I have been able to replicate many over the years using similar parts from other ships that fell prey to it" Gacen's mind was still racing over the idea of a space worm

Gacen frowned "wait wait wait space worm?" Gacen had seen his fair share of monsters in his day but usually they lived on planets where he could rely on gravity to get away

Bucket nodded "legend speaks of an ancient worm that lives within the nebula some say he grants wishes others say he just eats things, all I know is he has helped bucket profit" Gacen nodded eyes still wide

Gacen did not like the idea of encountering that thing but knowing his luck he would be very soon "alriiight well anyway can I buy one of these shield thingies, do you take credits?" Bucket nodded excitedly as he passed over a credit chip

Bucket shook his hand "oh thank you sir now I can participate in the auction" before Gacen could say anything else he scurried off.

Gacen frowned the auction? before he could question it the two humans returned "are you done shopping sirs we can take you to the ledger keeper now he should be at the auction" Gacen gave Ash a wary look this situation was getting weirder by the second

Ash nodded "sure give us a second though" Gacen thought that was best and they quickly shuffled away

Gacen frowned "what do they mean by auction? I thought they dealt in scrap" Ash folded her arms looking equally confused

"in my experience people being this vague are usually hiding something so expect it to be dark or just plain weird" Gacen nodded he guessed that added up.

They followed the humans until they reached a longhouse building again looking like it was made out of discarded ship parts, this entire culture has Gacen's head spinning it was both under and over developed. They were lead into the building and taken over to a Neimoidian sitting in the corner with a ledger in hand

the humans pointed to the Neimoidian "here is the keeper of the ledger the one who survived the nebula" he turned to them giving them a long stare wow nebula surviver must be a local hero

"welcome to the auction are you a buyer or a seller?" Gacen looked around the room it seemed kinda dark and shady not that he wasn't used to that but it definitely did not seem safe.

Ash spoke up "neither we're just here to find out if someone we were looking for was here, we were told you keep a ledger" the Neimoidian nodded looking to the ledger he was holding.

the people in the longhouse began to form a circle Gacen frowned was this like a fight club or something? how was that an auction? "well I'm not just going to give you that information for free my dear, I'll need compensation" Ash folded her arms walking towards the Neimoidian clearly not intimidated

Ash glared down at the Neimoidian "I could always just take it from you" the Neimoidian chuckled clearly unfazed by Ash's threat

Gacen heard the rattle of chains from nearby "oh yes because you alone could beat everyone in this room seems unlikely" the Neimoidian continued to laugh "and those who do as I say" Gacen saw as a group of hairy Jakal like people were brought into the room chained up in collars, they were pushed into the middle of the room with electo-pikes

Gacen felt his blood boil this was a slave auction, if Bowdaar were here he would've already ripped the head of this guy but Ash seemed to quietly seethe. Ash cracked her knuckles "seems like pretty good odds to me" Gacen saw as the Neimoidian started to look a little worried as Gacen backed up to Ash equally confident

Gacen wasn't gonna stand for this, slavery in all forms was wrong he knew that first hand he cocked his blaster "ready when you are Ash" Ash nodded getting into a fighting stance…