Chapter 4 – Gimme Liberty, I'll Give Them Death.
Location: The Veiled Lady, Kurka the Hutt's primary spice manufacturing ship.
Time: 5 Years Before the Battle of Yavin
It had been two years of servitude onboard Kurka's private cargo ship. Two long years of manufacturing that slob's narcotics, of being subject to beatings and humiliation from guards, of being denied basic sentient rights. Quite enough to drive anyone mad. Ash and Art had been there long enough to blend in with the rest of the slaves, filthy, hunched and miserable. All except for Tooni of course, still cheerful as ever.
"One more rack ought to do it." Art said as he finished up his step in the process.
Ash, Tooni and a Saurin slave worked together to speed up the cooking process. All the while, they could practically feel the cold, uncaring glares of the guards watching their every move. They knew better than to make prolonged eye contact with them, as the guards took that as time spent not working. But every now and then, Art would look back at them, very briefly, attempting to communicate non-verbally his complete and utter hatred of the henchmen. If looks could talk, that's what his would say at least.
"Don't piss them off again, man." Ash said.
"They don't need to feel threatened, I'm unarmed and malnourished." Art replied.
"It's not about feeling threatened, it's about respect with those brutes. It'll provoke them." Ash reminded.
"I just really hate them. We've been here way too long, and I swear, Tooni, if you say something about how it's not really all that bad..."
"I wasn't going to! I'm trying to give you some space!" Tooni said.
"We should just bum rush these pricks, get 'em when they're not expecting it." Art suggested.
"I don't like violence..." Tooni said.
"You're too small anyway," Art said, "but the rest of us..."
"You know eventually they're going to get fed up with you and just waste you. It's not enough I lost Bihan, I don't want them to kill you too." Ash said.
"It'd almost be better than being their property." Art said as he sunk back into place, finishing up the batch.
"Hey," Ash said as he put his hand on his friend's shoulder, "there's going to be an after. I just don't want what's happened to ruin you. We've been through so much, man, but we've got to be able to come back from it."
"I hope we can, bro." Art said with a glimmer of hope.
About half an hour later, the slaves finished up the day's work. The henchmen all walked around the stations, inspecting them for debris, waste, imperfections and the like. By now, the slaves had it all down perfectly, but it didn't stop the grunts from doing their obnoxiously thorough quality checks. Once that was complete, they ushered the dozen or so slaves back to their quarters.
"Faster." a Nikto guard said as he shoved Art.
Ash caught ever so briefly a murderous look in Art's eye, and made direct eye contact with him and shook his head, trying to get his friend to avoid showing any sign of rebellion. Art swallowed his hate and moved on, what was left of his pride long gone. Ash knew it was difficult but it was the only way to stay alive.
With their tiny cages in sight, the slaves prepared for yet another night. However, everyone, including the guards, came to a halt as the ship very clearly rattled quite strongly, a metallic echo shimmering through the floor and walls. Several seconds later, the alarm began to blare through the halls, a shrill mechanical wailing accompanied by a pale yellow light flashing.
Just as suddenly, and also just as unexpected, Art took the opportunity to spin around and clock the Nikto guard in the face, knocking him out cold and catching his rifle before it could hit the ground. In what all seemed like an instant, Art angrily mowed down two other guards with the rifle, screaming in a primal way that seemed to have been held in since his day of enslavement.
A Gamorrean guard nearby prepared to swing his vibro-axe at Art, but not before Ash and the other slaves tackled the guard to the ground, realizing Art had taken the initiative they had been secretly hoping for. As they took turns pummeling the pig-faced guard to death, Ash looked over to see his friend had swiped one of the guard's knives and was stabbing the unconscious Nikto guard in the throat.
Can't see Kurka letting this incident slide, Ash thought as he resumed stomping the Gamorrean to death.
Art, already covered in blood, continued the brutally stab the Nikto over and over again.
"HOW DO YOU LIKE IT, YOU PIECE OF SHIT?!" Art shouted.
"Dude, he's dead, we gotta keep going!" Ash said as he pulled his friend off the mangled corpse, "Everyone grab a weapon, they still outnumber us!"
The other slaves scrambled to snatch up the weapons dropped by the now deceased henchmen. Tooni took several steps back, a terrified look on her bat-like face.
"This is horrible! I don't want any part in this!" she said.
"Stay in your quarters, then!" Ash said, "Everyone else, let's show these guys who we are!"
"Where should we go?" a Duros slave asked.
"The armory, we'll load up on guns and grenades, destroy what we can't carry so that the bastards can't use them against us. I say we hit the guard's quarters after that." Art thought out loud.
"But you don't even know why the alarms are going off in the first place!" Tooni shouted as she headed back to her quarters.
She was right, and they knew it. While the alarms had been their saving grace, any number of things could have triggered the alarms, whether it was a breach in one of the windows, pirates, a fire, or a chemical leak, the six escaped slaves had no idea what they were about to get into.
"We can figure it out as we go." Art said, leading the way down the hall.
It didn't take long for the slaves to encounter more of the crew, two human henchmen, clearly unprepared for the sight of escaped and armed slaves. Before they could react, both guards were gunned down by Art and one of the other slaves, pummeling them with blaster fire and leaving their charred remains on the ship's floor as they continued towards the armory.
More guards came storming down the hall towards the slaves, clearly ready for a fight. With little cover and no escape routes, the slaves had no choice but to oblige them. Dropping to one knee, Art steadied his aim as best he could and opened fire alongside his comrades. Ash hoped that their numbers and fury would make up for their lack of combat experience.
Blaster fire flew through the halls, zipping past the combatants in a dazzling and deadly light show. The Duros slave collapsed, three blaster bolts all striking him in the chest simultaneously. With little time to mourn their ally, the slaves pressed on their attack, quickly cutting down the remaining guards in this section of the ship. The carnage now littered the floor of this once grand ship, the smell of burned skin and ozone rich in the air as the slaves finally reached the armory. Dozens of rifles, blaster pistols, packs of ammunition, and thermal detonators lay before them, a freedom fighter's candy store.
As the eager slaves loaded up on their new equipment, the loudspeakers all rang out with the sound of an impending announcement.
"This is Admiral Talbot of the Imperial Navy..." a human voice said over the speakers, "This ship and its contents are now property of the Galactic Empire. You are to stand down and submit to Imperial custody, or be destroyed."
"The authorities! They've taken the bridge! We're saved!" the Saurin slave said.
"Don't be so sure, to them we're part of the crew on an illegal spice ship." Art reasoned.
"That's right, they're probably going to shoot first and ask questions later, if they even bother to ask." Ash added.
"Well at least we'll have some help in taking these guys out." Art said as he walked out of the armory.
With that, the remaining slaves carried their gear out and left the armory, with still a handful of weapons and munitions on the shelves. Ash activated one of his thermal detonators and tossed it into the armory. With a nod towards Art, the group hurried down the hall towards the guard's quarters, away from the massive explosion in the armory, a slightly dulled thud which sent a heavy vibration through their section of the ship.
Reaching the entrance to the henchmen quarters, Art didn't even wait for the door to finish opening up all the way, ducking beneath the still moving door and opening fire on everyone in sight. Having not anticipated such a tenacious assault on their own quarters from the very beings they'd kept in servitude for years, the guards were unprepared as they fumbled for their weapons amid the gunfire. The other slaves rushed in behind Art to carry on the assault, blasting their former masters to bits as the alarms continued ringing.
Some of the guards made their way out of the quarters through the other exits, but most found themselves pinned down in cover behind beds and crates, lest they catch a blaster bolt or two in the face. Spotting two guards crouched behind a crate, Ash tossed a thermal detonator after them, then gunned down the guard attempting to flee from it, with the explosion vaporizing the other.
Within two minutes, the slaves had butchered the guards who stayed in their quarters to fight. As they examined and relished in the violence they had unleashed, the remaining slaves could hear a firefight going on several halls down. It had to be the surviving guards and the Imperials.
"Sounds like the Imps are gonna have our scraps." Ash said.
"I say we take them all out." Art offered.
"Hey, taking out these scumbags is one thing, but the Imperials have an army." Ash reminded.
"Well we're gonna die either way!" Art said as he hurried towards the fight.
"He's enjoying this way too much." an Arcona slave said.
"Agreed. He's gonna need our help though." the Saurin slave said.
The slaves rushed after their friend, who was already at the other end of the hall and fighting in a three way battle. They took cover behind a fallen pillar, with the Imps using mobile cover they had probably brought on-board with them, and the remaining slavers using steel tables as flimsy cover, cowering as they no doubt accepted their fates. As one of the slavers had a blaster shot crack his head open, the last two tossed their guns aside and stood up, hands raised, and faced the Imperials.
"We're done, we surrender!" they shouted, terrified.
"Go to hell, all of you!" Art said as he fired away, killing the two surrendering slavers.
Art was clearly no marksman, or an experienced shooter at that, but Ash could tell his friend was having the most fun he'd had in years. Hell, he earned it. But as the stormtroopers opened fire on the slaves, Ash knew that eventually the Imperials would overpower them with their numbers and superior combat training. Art seemed more determined than ever to go down fighting, but Ash was having second thoughts.
Not how I expected this day to go, not at all... Ash thought to himself.
"Art!" Ash shouted.
"Yeah?!" Art shouted back, his ears probably ringing from all the gunfire.
"Look, maybe we should surrender. If we try to fight the Imps, then we'll definitely be shot. If we surrender, there's at least a chance we make it off this ship alive!"
"Why don't we go for the escape pods?" the Saurin slave asked.
"No, the Imps will just shoot them down. At least here we have a fighting chance!" Art said.
"Yeah until they decide to scuttle the ship." a Bith slave said.
"There's too much evidence on this ship, they won't risk losing it." Ash said.
The slaves tried, in vain, to return fire on the stormtroopers, only to find their numbers dwindling as they were cut down by rapid and precise blaster bolts. One by one they were struck down, until within a few moments, only Ash and Art remained to fight.
"Get down, NOW!" one of the soldiers shouted.
"Shut up!" Art said as he stood his ground.
"I'll blow you away! Get on the goddamn ground!" another one barked.
"Get down, Art, you dumbass!" Ash said as he laid down his weapon.
"We can't just give up!" Art said.
"Freedom was nice while it lasted." Ash said under his breath.
Ash put his friend in a choke hold, a move that caught Art off guard, forcing him to drop his weapon. The two dropped to the ground, with Ash refusing to loosen his grip around Art's neck.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Art shouted.
"Saving your life!" Ash yelled back.
Before Art could fall unconscious, the stormtroopers arrived on scene, pulling the two off one another and cuffing each of them, hands behind their backs.
"Sorry man." Ash said.
"It's alright, I get it." Art replied with a chuckle.
With that, the stormtroopers forcefully brought the two slaves to their feet and led them to the Imperial cruiser. Thankful to still be alive, but unsure of their destination or fate, the two lifelong friends had little choice other than to follow the white clad warriors off the ship.