Star Wars: Return of the Sith
4: Escape Down the Hydian
By Nanaki
Brentaal Station
"You have GOT to be kidding me." Was Tenn's first reaction on seeing Jerin's ship. She was no expert on starships, but this one was clearly very old. Unlike most cruisers, this one had a fairly compact living space, with large, forward curving wings that seemed to be mostly weapons emplacements.
"Hey, like Fett's old Firespray, this is a lot more deadly than it looks." Jerin explained as he hit a button on his belt to lower the landing ramp. His ship was a Marauder missile frigate, built to deliver explosive missiles instead of the more common laser cannons, although it packed plenty of those, too. The ship was over two hundred years old, though the engines, weapon systems, and shield generator were all under ten years old. Jerin had renamed the ship Sword of Justice when his father had given it to him four years ago. "Arfive, get us ready to go!" Jerin called as he walked up the ramp.
Following Jerin through the narrow main hallway to the cockpit, Tenn saw an astromech droid with a cylindrical head interfacing with the ship's computer, and the engines roared to life before they had even sat down. "Well, it looks like it's probably faster than station security." She admitted.
Jerin snorted. "She's got a 0.38 hyperdrive rating." He bragged as he sat down behind the controls.
Tenn frowned. "Only military ships can be faster than 0.5."
"This IS a military ship." Jerin grinned. "But for Mandalore, not the Republic."
"Wait a minute..." Tenn seemed to be thinking something over. "If you are one of Fett's descendants, then you'd die the second you came in contact with Mandalore's atmosphere, because of the nano-virus the Imperials scattered."
"I never said I was related to Fett." Jerin pointed out. "The Sith just assumed. But I am, actually." He smiled. "And back when the Galactic Alliance developed a counter-virus to the Imperials' nano-machines, my ancestors kept it quiet. Mirta Orade wanted the Empire to think that they'd failed all along." R5-C7 made a whistling sound, and turned his photoreceptor toward Jerin. "Okay, we're ready to go." Jerin leaned forward over his controls. "This is Sword of Justice calling Brentaal Station control." Jerin said. "Just letting you know I'm heading out now."
It took a few seconds for someone on the other end to reply. "Um... Sword of Justice, station security would like to have a word with you."
"I wasn't asking permission." Jerin answered calmly, then flicked the communicator off. He turned back to Tenn. "Well, it appears we'll be leaving quickly." As the ship rose up to hover above the flight deck, a blast door began to close off the wide opening that usually only had a low powered shield to keep the atmosphere from escaping. Fortunately for Jerin, it was closing slowly, making jerking motions that indicated it hadn't been used in a long time. "I hope you're strapped in," Jerin grinned again, "because I don't turn my inertial dampers all the way up to a hundred percent."
"Why?" Was the only thing Tenn had time to ask before Jerin turned the ship on its side and blasted for the entrance at top speed. The tip of the left wing grazed the ceiling as they shot out into space, with the blast door grinding to a close a few seconds later.
"Because that's the way I like it." Jerin explained simply, then turned to look at her again. "I should probably ask where we're going." He said dryly.
"You're... really not taking me to the Hutt are you?" Tenn sounded surprised.
"I'm getting a stronger and stronger feeling that Korgo knew the Sith were going to be after you." Jerin nodded. "Even if he didn't, he failed to mention that you were Force-sensitive, which is a pretty big detail to overlook." At Tenn's questioning glance, he elaborated. "Capturing a Force-sensitive unharmed requires additional preparation, and more backup plans than a typical capture. Needless to say, it also requires much more payment."
Tenn drummed her fingers on her knee in thought. "When Negian said that Korgo works for the Sith, I didn't think that he was lying. But if that's true, why would he send a bounty hunter when the Sith were already going to be there?"
Jerin shrugged. "Maybe the Sith didn't tell him. Maybe he wanted to capture you and present you to them as a gift. Maybe he wanted to get rid of me, though I can't imagine why on that last one unless someone payed him a ton of money. But..." Jerin glanced at his navicomputer. "We'll be ready to jump onto the Hydian in about forty seconds here, so where are we going?"
Tenn let out a long sigh. "I'd like to go home, but that's probably the first place they'd look for me."
"Home is Ryloth?" Jerin asked, and she just nodded. "Well, we could go to Coruscant..."
She shook her head. "Too many people know me on Coruscant. I don't want my friends getting dragged into this mess. Plus, even small businesses on Coruscant have several dozen security cameras."
Jerin nodded. "True enough. Well, we could go to Mandalore."
"I'd rather not." At Jerin's questioning look, she elaborated. "I don't think I'm brave enough to handle a whole planet full of you."
Jerin laughed. "It's not that full, but I know what you mean. Fine then, we'll go to Kuat."
"What's on Kuat?" Tenn wondered.
"To be specific, the orbital shipyards above Kuat. My parents are both in charge of security units for Kuat Drive Yards." He explained. At that, the navicomputer beeped. "And if you change your mind on the way, that's fine, but we need to get away from here right now."
Tenn shrugged. "Kuat sounds fine."
"Then KDY, here we come!" A rogueish grin appeared on Jerin's face as the stars outside became a blur, to be replaced a second later by the swirling colors of hyperspace.
.
"Sithspawn!" Lucia swore under her breath as she skidded to a stop from her Force powered sprint. The main docking bay didn't contain any ships that looked like they were about to take off, plus the blast doors had been closed, apparently too late. Several officers from station security were moving around the dock, but they looked more confused than anything else. Reaching out with the Force, Lucia sensed that Tenn was still close to the station, but quickly moving away. This close to the Hydian Way and the Perlemian Trade Route, she would be in hyperspace before Lucia could even start to commandeer a ship of her own. Lucia was somewhat relieved to sense that Tenn felt more irritated than anything else. Maybe that third dark sider really wasn't working with the Sith. Or maybe the trap just hadn't been sprung yet.
Even so, the mere thought that Tenn might be in danger gnawed at Lucia. Tenn Sonata was quite possibly the most gentle soul that Lucia had ever met. Though Lucia was several years older, they had had many classes together at the Jedi Temple, as both had gotten a late start on their Jedi training. However, Tenn had left the Jedi just before completing her training, saying that she really didn't think she could kill another being, even if it was in self-defense or to save innocent lives. From most people, Lucia would have thought it was a pathetic excuse to hide the real reason they were leaving, but coming from Tenn, Lucia had believed it. "Argh!" Lucia sat down on the floor, frustrated that she couldn't do anything right now. Just a few seconds later, she sensed Tenn's presence in the Force disappear from the immediate area, and knew that the dark sider's ship must have gone into hyperspace.
Dirk found her there a few minutes later. Looking up at her husband, Lucia saw that he was winded, but otherwise unharmed. "Hey." She smiled up at him. "I take it the Sith got away too."
"Yeah." He sighed, sitting down next to her. "Although my lightsaber had a disagreement with a couple of their sub-light engines, so they'll be getting away pretty slowly until they jump to light speed."
"Did you get a tracking device on the ship?" She asked hopefully.
"You bet." He nodded, flashing that rogueish grin of his again.
"All right!" She patted his knee, then stood up. "So all we have to do is calculate their final destination based on their course, then get there before they do."
"I'm glad Artoo is the one who'll actually be doing that, and not me." Dirk laughed. "And we don't necessarily need to get there first, since we've got Stealth X-12s."
"True." Lucia stretched out a hand to help him up. "But we'd better not get there very long after Seco, or he will get his grubby hands on Tenn."
"Yep. So let's get going." Dirk dusted off his pants. "Oh, but we haven't finished our investigation into Black Sun yet."
Lucia shrugged. "So let's contact Master Rondo and have him send someone else to finish up. It's important that we stay on their tail."
Dirk looked thoughtful. "Actually, unless they're heading to somewhere close by, it might be better to send out someone from the Academy on Corellia to..." He trailed off as he saw Lucia staring at him like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Ah, forget that!" He smiled. "This'll be a lot more fun."
"Now you're talking!" Lucia laughed.
.
"Negian, I am never listening to you again." Seco remarked dryly as he desperately juked their stolen security cruiser back and forth. With the damage Dirk Skywalker had inflicted on their engines, the ship didn't juke that well, and several quad laser bolts from the pursuing security forces slammed into their rear. Glancing at the controls, Seco saw that the shield generator couldn't take much more of this. "Are we ready to jump to light speed YET?" He turned to glare at Negian.
"If you weren't so busy complaining, I probably would have sensed which route they'd taken already." Negian responded calmly. "Or do you WANT to jump down the Perlemian and find out later that they went down the Hydian?"
"Fine, fine." Seco shut up and concentrated on his flying.
Negian merely closed his eyes and folded his arms. Less than twenty seconds later, Negian blinked rapidly. "The Hydian. It's definitely the Hydian."
"Good." Seco said simply, then hit the button to send them into hyperspace just a second later.
"What's the hyperdrive rating on this crate?" Negian wondered.
"Two." Seco responded, sounding cranky.
"The Mandalorian is bound to have a faster hyperdrive than that." Negian observed.
"No kidding." Seco smiled grimly. "And Skywalker is bound to have tagged us with a tracking device."
"Yep." Negian stretched his arms, then yawned. "When we find them, we're going to have to grab Tenn and get out on a faster ship as quick as we can. Though the Skywalkers might get there ahead of us." Negian stood up, then started heading for the back of the ship.
"Where are you going?" Seco wondered.
"To get some sleep." Negian answered over his shoulder. "We're going to have at least one lightsaber battle when we find her. If we have to fight the Skywalkers too, we'll need all the rest we can get."
"You're a very odd Sith Lord, Negian." Seco remarked as he folded his arms.
"It's the Jedi who labeled us Sith." Negian reminded him. "I think you take that label too seriously. Remember, our goal is simply to learn all we can about the Force, light and dark both."
"YOUR goal, perhaps." Seco whispered when Negian was out of earshot. "My goal is to be able to do whatever I want, whenever I want, and to have the power to ignore the consequences." However, even Seco had to admit that fighting the idiot Mandalorian and Lucia Skywalker had left him feeling drained. Before he knew it, he was nodding off where he sat.
.
"If at first you don't succeed, redefine what you did as success." - Stephen Colbert
.
(Character Name Origins #1: Jerin Danar
Jerin Danar is the name I always use when playing Knights of the Old Republic, except for the very first time I played. When I first put the game in my XBox in 2003, I was unaware that the game was taking place forty years or so after the Tales of the Jedi comics, and I thought that it was just overwriting the old continuity completely. So on that first playthrough, I named Revan "Jerin Qel-Droma" as an homage to what I thought was a now-vanished storyline. Of course, once I picked up the strategy guide, I realized how wrong I was. I was also pretty sure that if Revan was somehow related to Ulic and Cay Qel-Droma, the game would have mentioned it. So, on all subsequent playthroughs, I named the main hero Jerin Danar.
As for Jerin's backstory, I owe that to a different Star Wars RPG. This one was a pen and paper RPG that my first roommate here at Grand Canyon invented himself, because he wasn't satisfied with the existing Star Wars RPG's reliance on the D20 system. We never actually got around to playing a session, but I did generate a character. He was a former Mandalorian on a quest for vengeance who wielded a black lightsaber and piloted a Marauder missile frigate. There are plenty of other details that I'll be using too, but I don't want to give too much away at this early stage.)