Intermission 1 - The Tusken of Jakku

Taungsday, Nelona 3rd

Jakku

The Graveyard of Giants

As the sun began to slowly rise in the predawn hour, a solitary scavenger stared up wearily at the monstrous Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer entombed amidst the dunes, its battered frame a grim reminder of the past war. The wailing wind brushed some dirt from the faded paint dubbing the wreck Inflictor as it swept through her robes. She sighed a little at the coolness of it. Even at this hour, the desert was still uncomfortably hot and the wind was always a nice refresher.

She pulled her goggles made from the remains of a Stormtrooper helmet and tasted the air through her Tusken mask

She liked the mask, if nothing else for the simple reminder of where she'd come from. The garb was enough that most people on Jakku kept their distance from her. The fear and reputation of the warmongering Sand People of Tatooine was carried far throughout the galaxy by immigrant settlers. She'd only added her own two bits to the reputation on Jakku proper.

Kangiklub, an infamous pirate gang, had been the masters of the world before she'd arrived. Now, they were just a haunting memory for the locals.

She preferred her privacy; between the gossip around Kangiklub's demise and the Tusken Raiders' reputation, nobody ever pushed it. Especially this far into the desert. Still, the prospect of braving the Star Destroyer on her lonesome was a sharp reminder of how bleak her life was, nowadays. Not just trash-diving in an old Star Destroyer, but this one in particulars.

For decades, other scavengers had launched on and off attempts to get at the precious loot the Destroyer held, but each had failed for one reason or another. Now it was her turn. She was going to have to climb through nearly two thousand feet of twisted metal and collapsed decks to reach the bridge. Only from there could she deactivate the ships lock-down procedures and open the way for the all the prime scavenging spots that eluded Jakku's scavengers for so long. It was quite the daunting task, but no one else was willing to give it another go.

"Can't be any worse than killing a Krayt Dragon," she chuckled fauxly, "c'mon, Rey. Let's go to work."

She pulled out the grappler she'd spent weeks putting together for this job. She wouldn't have enough cable to reach the very top, so she'd have to make the rest of the way on foot. Taking a moment to steel herself, she made her way up the sand dune to her entry point: a large crack in the superstructure. It was only about two feet across, but by its downward angle she concluded it would be wider beneath the sand submerging it.

Rey looked skyward, noting the position of the sun rising in the distance, and got to work. After a few minutes, she made a large enough hole to crawl into the ship ahead; securing the passageway from caving in just in case she needed to make a quick getaway. She turned to darkness above, the air cold and metallic tasting where every sound bounced like a hollow drum. Even the very walls seemed to creak and groan in protest of her presence.

She swallowed her anxiousness and reached into her bag, pulling an illuminant out and tossing it into the air. When it reached a certain point, it hovered in place and produced a bright illumination from its spherical frame. And from this light, the ghost ship was revealed. Hundreds of decks all caved in from the center, it's cargo and contents spilling out into the sand. Jutting vines of electrical conduits ran hither and thither, lights hanging unsupported from the ceiling and crumbling deck plate gave her the feeling of walking into a graveyard.

She couldn't help but imagine ghosts looking at her right now.

"Not here for trouble, guys," she said in the void, "just here to do a job."

She waited to see what would happen, but nothing did. She shook her head, making her way to the center of the ship where she'd start her climb. Her boots echoed loudly off the deck plating, bouncing from wall to wall. In the dark, she heard tiny, indescriptive sounds, the layers of metal and sand making them difficult to track.

Anything that prefered solace could be living here, especially since they might've been driven from everywhere else by other scavengers. She tugged at the metal staff cradled at her side and the blaster hidden beneath her robes. The latter only had a handful of shots left. She'd managed to increase that number somewhat, but it had required decreasing its power expenditure. She hoped she wouldn't run into something big, mean and nasty.

"Don't jinx yourself," she whispered as she pulled out her grappler, "they're as much afraid of you as you are them. Keep your distance, and they'll probably leave you alone."

She aimed the grappler at the uppermost deck and fired. The report was louder than she expected and over the din of the winding cable, she heard something screech in the distance. She looked but there was nothing there, and the sound was gone as she felt the tug of the grapple hitting metal. She shook her head, and pulled on the line. It held firm and after securing it to the ground, she started to climb.

Ten feet up, she suddenly felt a vibration in the line and she stopped. Watching it carefully, she got ready to jump to safety if the line came tumbling down. But nothing happened, and she started again. Then at thirty feet it vibrated again, stronger this time.

"Someone's playing with me. Well, I'm not going down, so deal with it."

She put haste into her climb, making it to fifty feet in a minute. Then at a hundred feet, the line violently jolted and nearly sent her falling. She held on for dear life as she was bounced around until it stabilized again. She was certain of it now: something was above her in the rafters. She took a moment to listen, and she heard the flapping of wings.

She spun around and something very big flew past her head, causing the line to spasm. More wings flapped above, not bothering to hide themselves anymore. Rey considered just stopping for nothing and getting to the top, but that was still seventy feet above. She instead anchored her feet, tangling them in a double loop, and drew her blaster.

"Come on out, uglies," she breathed slightly, her chest tight with the tension, "come out to play."

She heard leather upon air and she spun, firing point blank. The bolt struck home, lighting the air up in crimson light as something screeched and fell in a plume of burning smoke.

"Spast!" she cursed, "Night Haunters!"

There were the bigger and nastier cousins of Mynocks, brought to Jakku like ship rodents centuries ago. There was probably a nest somewhere in the upper echelons of the ship, no doubt feeding on the spare electrical circuitry. However, what concerned her more was that this was probing attack, and that were more roosting above her in the rafters.

The moment she thought this, they attacked. An entire flock of them, so many she couldn't count, swooped down in a cloud of wings, talons and hissing. She fired her pistol into the swarm, recoiling in pain as they slashed at her arms and legs. As they kept coming, she kept firing; conscious of her dwindling supply of shots.

She felt a sudden tug on her line and looked up. The Haunters were trying to chew through the cabling. She snarled and bounded up the line at them. Before they could escape, she had one by the neck and swung it like a club at the others on the line, the Haunters falling with a scream. The one she was holding bit her hand, and she retaliated by squeezing its neck until it broke with a crack.

She threw its body at the circling swarm, quickly moving up the line again. She ignored the talons racking into her body, determined to get to the top. Thirty feet, twenty, now fifteen. The Haunters sped up their attack, forcing Rey to stop and swing at them desperate as their wounds took a toll on her. Then she looked down and saw a much bigger Haunter coming at her from below, its wingspan close to twenty feet in length.

"Gotcha!" she grinned as she let go of the line and fell right on top of the flying beast. It wiggled and tousled, but she wouldn't let go of its legs as the Haunter flew all the way to the top. As the top deck came into view, she let go and rolled across the crumbling plating until she reached stabler ground. The swarm came after her, and she swung her staff at the first in line; breaking its wings and sending it plummeting to the bottom below.

The rest backed off for a moment, but Rey knew they were going to get their courage and attack all at once. She looked around desperately for something she could use, spotting an exposed fuel line next to a depowered blast door. She bounded towards it, the Haunters closing in as she ripped the line out and began spraying the ground and beasts in front of her with the liquid gas.

Momentarily stunning them, Rey drew her pistol and fired. The gas went up in flames, creating a wall of cobalt flame and burning those she'd doused. They whirled and screamed in panic, blindly flying right back into the rest of swarm and setting many of their fellows on fire. They screeched and burned in plumes of oily black smoke, eventually plummeting to their doom or retreating further into the ship.

She let out a strained breath and fell to the floor, panting. "Well… that was exciting."

Rey let herself have a few minutes to rest, waiting to see if more would come as her barrier continued to burn. When none did, she took the opportunity to treat the dozens of cuts dotting her body. After wiping away the blood, she used cyano-adhesive to bind the wounds, more commonly used for electrical parts and plastics. But it worked well enough and it was cheaper than proper binding agents.

With this done, she turned to the depowered door to find a way to the bridge. She'd brought a portable power pack, but she would need it to get the ships auxiliary systems back online. She pulled out some of her tools and tried to pry the door open, but it's locking bolts were in place. She considered trying to rewiring the locking mechanism, but without power that would be pointless.

She ran her hands along the walls, and felt a current of air. She followed it, discovering a maintenance vent, and she quickly pried off the rusty cover. She pulled out a flare and tossed it into the passageway, something small and furry scurrying away.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me," she sighed, "why can't you just take it easy on me for once?"

This however was the only way through. She sighed, pulling out a glow rod and crawled inside. It was a tight squeeze, forcing her to remove her bag and push it in front of her as she made her way through the claustrophobic confines.

"'Come out to the Inflictor,'" she grumbled tiredly, "'we'll find some stuff, sell some junk, have a few laughs'… why did I let Zuvio talk me into doing this?"

She eventually found her exit and pushed her gear through followed by her undignifying clambering onto the floor. She wasn't quite sure where on the ship she was, considering most of the signs had long since decayed into brittle plaster. She moved along the passage ways, eventually discovering the remains of an old grav-lift shaft plus a fire-escape ladder.

She scrutinized the rusting ladder descending to the top hundreds of feet above, shaking her head. "I really need to charge Zuvio double for this."

She mounted the ladder and started to climb. As expected, it groaned with her added weight and she took every step with the utmost care. After a few minutes, she took a moment to rest, carefully observing the bolts holding the ladder in place. Some of them still looked reasonable, but others though…

Fifty feet up, it finally happened. She pulled on the next rut and the left bolt came loose. With a scream, she dangled in the air before she reached up and grabbed the next rut. It too starting to give way a loud screech at a time. With a frantic panic, she leapt forward a rut at a time, racing against the quickly deteriorating bolt line until she spotted a platform above.

As she jumped for it, the ladder gave way and crumbled into the depths below. She grabbed onto the edge, pulling herself up like a madden kitten and slumping onto the floor. Panting harder than she had with the Haunters, she had no idea how long she'd been lying like this. Minutes, an hour?

"I don't care," she sighed, "I deserve my breather."

After a few more minutes, she got to her feet and her hand brushed against something. Her heart jolted in joy as the dust cleared from the sign, the letters reading in Imperial Aurabesh Bridge.

"Finally taking it easy on me, eh Inflictor?"

The blastdoor this time wasn't locked, and she was able to slowly pry it open. When she did, a skeleton fell onto her. It took all her effort not to scream, fall over, or send the dead man falling into the depths. She coughed out the stench of must and set the skeleton against the wall. It had been an Imperial Deck Officer, judging by the tatters of its uniform. It's back rib cage was burned and broken, indicating he must've been shot and he fell onto the door.

Ahead were more bodies, some of them Navy personnel, others Stormtroopers. Even a few had the brown and khaki uniforms of Alliance Commandos. She paled, feeling the place getting to her. She imagined the dead looking at her, and she almost wanted to say sorry for barging into their home.

"C'mon Rey," she whispered to herself, "got a job to do."

She plucked an old DH-17 blaster off the floor, its paint crumbling off when she touched it. It still had a decent enough charge left, at least enough for a dozen fully charged shots with some change left over. She shoved that into her bag, and kept moving. When she turned the corner, she found the bridge… and the crew dead at their stations.

They hadn't abandoned ship. Even the captain was slumped in his chair, staring gravely out his viewport at the world that had taken his ship with hollow eyes. She felt sorry for him, and all the others she'd come across. No one deserved to die like this. No one.

The sight of it all made her think of another time. She felt rain on her shoulders, seeing the flash of crimson blades. The movement of men in masks with terrible purpose, and the screams of the dead and dying. She shook her head from the stupor, placing her hand on the captain's shoulder.

"I'll see about talking Zuvio into giving you all a proper burial."

With that out of the way, she made her way to the control console and plugged in her power pack. After several seconds, the lights in the bridge flickered to life and she began turning on the auxiliary systems one by one. The blastdoors opened behind her, and she left to make her way down into the engineering room.

She had to get there before Zuvio's other scavengers and

It had been night when it happened. One moment, BB-8 had been floating along the constant sand dunes. The next, he'd been scooped off the ground by something big and ugly, and soon found himself in the belly of a fallen Star Destroyer. For most of the night, the damn rodents had attempted to pry him apart and make his electrical guts dinner. Fortunately, much to the droid's pride, they hadn't been able to and resorted instead to cocooning to the wall like a trophy.

He was glad no one from Black Squadron was here to see him in his predicament; he was sure the embarrassment would kill him. Still, he had attempted to escape multiple times, but only once had he been able to break free of the cocoon. He'd regretted it the moment he had.

'Mama rodent is cranky,' BB-8 thought dryly to himself as he looked down at the eggs encircling his spot. He wondered how long he had before the little monsters eventually found a way to break inside him, and he groaned in despair at that. Suddenly, his audio receptors picked up footfalls far in the distance.

At first, he thought it was just more of the flying rodents crawling about. But then those same creatures screeched in rage, which was followed by the unmistakable reports of blaster fire. There was someone else here!

At this, BB-8 tried to wrench himself from the wall but the cocoon was it too strong. More of the rodents scurried off in the direction of the intruder, followed by more blaster fire getting closer. BB-8 turned up his internal volume adjuster and began chirping loudly, the sound bouncing off the wall.

The footsteps started getting louder, the rodents getting more agitated. Then a woman dressed like a Tusken Raider came charging into the room, a pair of blaster pistols in her hands and a collection of burning corpses at her feet.

"Would you stop shouting, please?" she called out in the void, "I can hear you clear enou-"

Something massive stirred in the darkness and the Tusken woman fell silent. It slithered from the shadows, rising on its haunches and towering over the woman. The ground groaned from its monstrous weight; its long slithering tail slowly and methodically swaying through the air dangerous like the rattler of a snake.

It took a step forward, stretching out its long velvet wings and letting out an ear splitting scream. The Tusken woman dropped to the floor in pain and even BB-8 to wince from discomfort. When it finished, it swiped out its tail and sent the woman flying across the room. BB-8 tore at his binding like a mad beast as the Nest Queen launched itself at his would-be rescuer.

The Tusken drew her pistols forward and fired point blank at the creatures chest, causing it to recoil in pain. She continued firing, the Queen litting up with smoke until her it finally lashed out again at the Tusken with its tail. She flew out of sight, the blasters discharging before they were sent across the room. The bolt struck the cocoon, burning a sizable hole in its webbing.

"You scuta!" the woman cursed as she dodged another of the Queen's attacks, whacking it over the head with a staff. Then she began… unscrewing it? BB-8 didn't know what she was doing, but before she could finish she was suddenly body slammed by a pack of the Haunters. Her staff went flying as they pinned her down under their weight, the Queen towering over its prey with a cackle of triumph.

"'Hey, you overgrown rat! Over here!'" BB-8 roared at the beast, getting it and the rest of the broods attention just for the moment he needed. The droid fired his thrusters at their maximum power, pushing himself against the burned hole until he finally tore through. He barreled at the Queen like a cannonball, bowling it over and drawing both his plasma torch and arc-caster. The Queen swiped at him again with its tail and he bobbed away like a boxer.

"'Burn!'" he bellowed in binary, firing off his arc-caster. With the crackle of ozone, the lightning struck the beast in the chest and dropped it writhing onto the floor. He then aimed his modified torch, letting loose a ball of fire like dragons breath upon his tormentor.

As it burned and wailed, the rest of the brood lunged at him. He dodged their attacks, shocking and burning all of them with vicious delight. They had knocked him around, tried to eat him and utterly humiliated him. He couldn't help it then but let out a manic cackle as it burned them all to smoldering crisp.

"'Burn! Burn, all you! Burn!'"

"Ugh," he heard the woman groan as she tried to get up, "why does it smell like one of Greez's barbeques-oh no! Stop it, you idiot! You'll burn up the entire room!"

BB-8 snapped out of his sadistic stupor and quickly started dousing everything with coolant foam. He let out a binary sigh of relief as the last of the flames died down, and then he caught the Tusken woman reach for something behind him.

"'Uh oh!'" BB-8 whipped around with his arc-caster readied, "'Don't you move a muscle!'"

"Hey…" she soothed with her hands raised, "take it easy, I'm not here to hurt you. Hell, I didn't even know you were here until you started blubbering like a baby!"

"'I am not a baby!'"

"Yes you are, considering the state of this room!" she replied with a huff.

"'Wait… you can understand me?'"

"Yeah, I can understand binary. Good luck trying to get me to speak it though," she chuckled.

"'Okay smartypants, who the blazes are you and what are you doing here?'"

"Well, my little pyromaniac, I'm Rey. And I'm actually grocery shopping. Well, technically, parts shopping, but they're about the same thing."

"'Parts shopping? What are you, a mechanic?'"

"Well, I like to think so. Sounds better than just some dirty ol' scavenger. I mean, look at all this!" she gestured to the burning bodies, "I deserve to be called a mechanic after dealing with this amount of Bantha Ozik! Sure, I don't have a license officially, but I damn well still deserve it!"

"'...you are one odd person, you know that?'"

"Well-"

"'And you like saying 'well!' Stop that, it's bugging me!'"

"I don't care!" she faux-snorted, "I like saying well, and you can damn well know I'm not gonna stop saying it on your account!"

"'Ha, Poe would've liked you! He likes women with a snark!'"

"Who's Poe?"

"'Uh huh, I'm still asking the questions here, missy!'" he gestured his caster at her, "'Who are you working for? Speak up, or I'll jazz you!'"

"'Jazz me?'" she shook her head with a laugh, "Have you ever done an interrogation before?"

"'...no,'" he sighed, "'I've had a hard week and my best friend's gone missing.'"

"Poe?"

"'Yeah,'" he put away his weapon, figuring the woman was too cheerful to be some Imp-wannabe. "'Our ship crashed a day and night ago. We got separated. I've been looking for him ever since.'"

"I know the feeling. I crashed here a while back too. That's actually why I'm here," she sighed, "I work for a Kyuzo named Zuvio, who works for nobody but himself in case you were wondering."

"'I figured as much. What's your name?'"

"Rey. What's yours?"

"'I have a long serial number, but Poe and pretty much everyone else calls me BB-8. Speaking of which, have you seen him? Tall, good looking with black hair? Probably wearing a pilot's uniform?'"

"Heh, I wouldn't have missed him with that description. But I'm sorry, I haven't."

"'Damn,'" he sighed, "'thanks for the rescue. I'll be-'"

"Hold on, I want to make a deal with you."

"'Huh? What kind of deal?'"

She shrugged. "I know a lot of people on this planet. I could put the word out, see if anybody's seen him. And plus, Jakku's not the safest place in the verse… as you've already seen. Why don't you stick with me for a while?"

"'What's the catch?'"

"Well… any chance you might help me take apart a Hyperdrive?"