Chapter 5 – Desolation Alley
Location: Oovo IV, Imperial Maximum Security Prison in the Outer Rim
Time: 5 Years Before the Battle of Yavin
It only took the Imperials three weeks to sentence Ash Ulrand and Art Regfeld to fifteen years in prison for their alleged involvement in Kurka the Hutt's highly illegal spice empire, and for multiple counts of murder and resisting arrest. Their claims of literally being enslaved and reduced to cogs in a drug making machine fell on deaf ears, with the prosecution eager to make more progress on cracking down in the Outer Rim drug trade.
Although their current predicament seemed the opposite of fortunate, Ash and Art were among only three survivors on the Veiled Lady, the other being Tooni, whose fate was unknown to the two friends. She'd been dragged off to another ship and likely sentenced somewhere else far away, though it was unlikely she saw it as anything other than another fun adventure.
How nice that must be, Ash thought to himself as he sat in his cell.
This was the first time that Ash and Art had ever been locked up for anything. They'd gotten by, very luckily, in their old spice dealing days, they never had to spend even a minute behind bars. This was the real deal, they'd be spending quite some time with some very dangerous and hardened criminals, on a desolate and harsh moon no less.
Oovo IV wasn't nearly as bad as Kessel, at least here one could actually hope to survive the duration of their prison sentence. That's not saying much, though, as riots were not a rare occurrence in the site's history, and its relatively easily accessible location made it a prime target for anyone looking to bust a high profile criminal out of the box. It was a huge facility that dated back to the days of the Republic, but, like most things these days, it had devolved and its conditions worsened under the Empire. Corruption, killings, extortion, drugs, all rampant through every cell block in the facility.
Art had wasted no time in getting acquainted with the other inmates. It had only been about a month, and he already had himself a small crew. It wasn't a network or anything, at least it wasn't yet, but it was enough to have them keep an eye on Ash, to make sure nobody tried to hurt him. The two friends found themselves on opposite sides of the same cell block, and had tried to remain in as much contact with one another as possible in such a controlled environment like prison.
The cell that Ash now called home was about eight foot by eight foot, with a dull, depressing shade of faded tan on the walls and a dimming light in the corner of the ceiling. Aside from the toilet and the two beds, there was very little for him to call his own. In his cramped cell, Ash sat in his bed, reading one of the holo-books from the prison library. It was slim pickings there, very slim, but he was to happy to have anything to do other than just sit and rot the whole fifteen years. On the other side of the room, Ash's roommate, a Rodian named Kai, was up to the same thing.
Standing a few hairs taller than Ash, Kai was a very typical looking Rodian, green bumpy skin, starry looking eyes, and a distinct scent that reminded Ash of a faint burned plastic. He'd been locked up for his involvement with the Rebellion, apparently some of it was classified, so he wasn't allowed to share many stories with his cellmate. A little rough around the edges at times, given his past, but Ash thought it somewhat nice to have another green counterpart to spend his days with.
"Huh, did you know that in Gundark tribes, the female is the leader of the pack?" Kai asked.
"I didn't know that, does it say that in your holo-book?" Ash replied.
"Yep. It's one of those nature books. It's alright I guess." Kai said as he turned off the reader.
"When do you think they're going to give us some real holo-books?" Ash asked.
"Probably the same day they decide to serve us real food..." Kai said as he stood up, "Speaking of which..."
Ash figured his friend had seen the black clad and visored guards approach the staircases on each end of the cell block. The cell doors all slid open in unison, the routine that had become all too familiar in his month of prison.
"Chow time, dirt bags!" one of the guards called out from down the steps.
Ash and Kai, along with the other prisoners in their cell block, stepped out of their cages and stretched very briefly, having spent the rest of their day in a box that would be cramped for one person, let alone two. Ash looked across to the other side of the block, and nodded at Art. In single file lines, the prisoners were funneled down the stairs and into the cafeteria, with several armed guards lining the walls, their watchful eyes covered by those black visors.
One by one, the orange jumpsuit clad prisoners of all kinds of species and walks of life went down the line for their rations. When it came time for Ash's turn, the usual kind of pale slop thing was plopped onto his brittle metal tray. It only got less appetizing as the days went on, but what was the alternate, to starve? As a matter of fact, there were a handful of prisoners who had, and the guards couldn't have been bothered to do anything about it.
Ash made his way to the table where Art, Kai and several others had lay claim to. There was Decimus, a burly, gruff looking Quara Aqualish who had made a name for himself in the prison as a bodyguard for anyone who could afford it. His current client was Koorivar next to him, Qotak, who also happened to be Art's cellmate. Qotak had been busted guarding one of Black Sun's many spice freighters, a very hot one at that, hot enough to land him in this place.
"Sup." Art said as his friend sat down.
"Hey." Ash replied.
"It's a good thing you just got here, I have something to tell you all." Art began.
"Oh man, does it have to do with Volt?" Kai asked.
"As a matter of fact, it does..." Art continued, "See, he hasn't taken a liking to our... aggressive expansion in this prison. This morning his crew jumped Moloch, only let him live so he could be a living message to us to back off, or something like that."
"He's recuperating in his cell right now, old lizard's a mess." Boelo, a fellow human inmate, chimed in.
"That's right," Art said, "Volt's a Noghri, he's got some kind of code of honor, he's not gonna just kill one of us right off the bat. Next time, though, I'm not so sure. I say we get the jump on him and his boys before that can happen."
"Hey man, do we really need to do that?" Ash asked, "I mean how big are you trying to make this gang of ours?"
"We need as many of the other inmates on our side as possible. The fewer guys we have backing us up, the bigger targets we are. It's how we're gonna make it through our sentences. Volt knows about us, Ash, how we were slaves before this, he thinks that makes us weak, in over our heads. That overconfidence is what's gonna put him down." Art said.
"So are we going to kill anyone who we think might be allied with Volt?" Ash asked.
"That's kind of how it works, man. You feel bad for these shitheads or something?" Art asked.
"Not really, but don't you think the guards are going to crack down on us murdering other inmates?" Ash replied.
"He's got a point, I mean isn't that what they're here for?" Kai added.
"As long as they don't feel threatened themselves, we can get away with it. They're not here for our safety." Art stated.
"How do you know that?" Kai asked.
"Boelo, you've been here the longest out of all of us, why don't you tell us?" Art asked.
"The gangs here have been killing each other since the days of the Republic. I've seen it a ton of times, guys getting shanked, beaten to death, set on fire, choked out, any horrible way to go that you can think of. The guards don't seem to care all that much, it's not like they're the ones in danger." Boelo said.
"So why don't all the gangs just start killing each other? What are they all waiting for?" Ash asked.
"Like I said, the guards only intervene when they feel like their safety or the facility are in danger. An all out gang war fits that description pretty well, and everyone here knows it." Boelo said.
"Think about it man, Oovo IV is up there in high security prisons, they put people here that have connections with the rebels, the underworld, and they put killers here. This isn't a jailhouse on Coruscant, or one of the prisons on Corellia, this is where they put the undesirables. We kill each other off, we're doing them a favor." Art added.
"Alright then, so what's the plan?" Ash asked begrudgingly.
Several hours later, in the recreational yard, the prisoners were given the last bit of free range of the day, albeit still confined within the prison walls. The rec area was a large auditorium sized room with bright lights and cameras aimed everywhere, cold steel floors and nearly indestructible and pressurized windows providing a view of the bleak, inhospitable and rocky terrain of Oovo IV outside.
The rec yard at this time was bustling, it was one of the only times that prisoners from other cell blocks were able to congregate. No matter what, nobody could be seen sitting around doing nothing, there was plenty of time for that in their cells. Some prisoners spent their time here lifting weights, practicing various sports, congregating with their respective gangs, but not Ash and his friends, not this time. It was time to set their plan in motion. Amongst the hundreds of prisoners walking around everywhere, Ash and Kai were able to blend in to avoid detection from Volt's crew.
Boelo was in his position, making a deal with some potential new clients in their drug trading. Technically, because these new clients were from another cell block, they were supposed to be Volt's customers, and that's exactly what Art had been hoping they'd notice.
Sure enough, a Mon Calamari bodyguard spotted this activity and split off from the rest of Volt's gang, taking a Kiffar henchman with him towards the buy. As Ash saw this, still in cover behind several other unaware inmates, he turned to Art and nodded, the signal that they were waiting for.
Art was positioned by the weights, where another member of Volk's gang was working out, lifting a huge barbell on one of the benches. He stayed behind the gangster, this one a human, out of his field of view. Art carefully lifted one of the smaller weights up off the rack and smashed it into the unsuspecting henchman's head, making the man lose his grip on his own weight and drop it onto his neck.
At the same time, the Mon Calamari and Kiffar were about to break up the buy that Boelo was at, but were intercepted by Decimus and Qotak, both armed with shanks. The fish faced alien cried out in agony as the shank from Decimus plunged into his side, while Qotak slit the throat of the Kiffar henchman.
Dazed and weakened by the blow to the head, the human henchman was unable to fight back as Art put all his might onto the barbell that was pinning the man's neck to the bench. Two more members of Volt's gang rushed towards the commotion, unsure what exactly to do in this situation. Emerging suddenly from the crowds, Ash and Kai both impaled their targets using their own shivs.
Ash's target, a Tognath, screamed as the back of his neck was pierced by Ash's shiv. This time was different from their escape on the Veiled Lady, when they were killing slavers. These were fellow inmates. Ash felt nauseous as he proceeded to finish off the Tognath by jamming the shiv into the side of the alien's head, feeling he had accomplished nothing by doing so. As Kai finished off his own target, Ash could see a similar look of shock on the Rodian's face.
"You okay?" Ash asked wearily.
"Yeah, I guess so." Kai replied.
The two looked over at Art, who had just finished using the barbell to choke the human henchman to death. He seemed to relish in the chaos, like he was at peace in it. Gone was the look of the former slave, he seemed to fit right in with whatever this was now. Uneasy, Ash and Kai headed towards Art, as did Boelo, Decimus and Qotak.
"See, what'd I tell ya?" Art said, "The guards couldn't care less."
"Seems like you could care less too, bro..." Ash said, "We just killed a shit ton of people."
"It's a dog eat dog world here, Ashy Boy, kill or be killed." Art proclaimed.
Just then, a snaggletoothed Snivvian approached, one of Qotak's contacts in another cell block. Clearly disturbed by the carnage around him, he stepped around the bodies and avoided the puddles of blood and made it to the group.
"We have Volt and one of his men, they tried to flee, just like you said they would." the Snivvian said.
"Excellent, let's finish this." Art said as he followed the Snivvian towards the exit.
Ash and Kai looked at each other, not eager for the bloodshed to continue. Nothing could change what had just taken place, five people just lost their lives over a turf dispute. However, there was still time to fix what was about to happen. Art and his gang didn't have to push through the crowds of inmates this time, they parted as the gang got closer, allowing free passage to their final targets. They now had the attention of the other prisoners, and surely the guards as well.
Three other prisoners had Volt and one of his Weequay henchmen down on their knees, in preparation for execution.
"Hey." Art said with a smile.
"You killed my men," Volt muttered, "we only beat your Trandoshan friend to send a message."
"Yeah, well we killed your men to send a message. Only it wasn't to you, because you'll be joining them real soon." Art said as he raised his shank high in the air and swung it down.
"WAIT!" Ash shouted as he grabbed Art's arm mid-swing.
"What the hell, man?" Art said as he looked back at his friend, bewildered.
"We made our point, man, we don't have to kill them all, right?" Ash asked.
"This isn't over til we put this guy in the ground, he attacked our people." Art said.
"He still has connections, he can be useful!" Ash said, "Look, you want blood, but we got it already. Message received, right Volt?"
"Thought it wasn't for me." Volt replied.
"It can be," Ash continued, "People are going to be afraid to work with us if we just keep butchering people who fall in with the wrong crew, but if we bring in Volt and the rest of his guys that we didn't just kill, they'll see we're willing to act like professionals. Isn't that what this is about, getting respect? Feeling safe?"
"I suppose so..." Art said as he pondered his friend's words, "Alright Volt, today's the luckiest day of your life. People are tired of you being top dog in here, it wasn't hard to find the help we needed to pull this off. We've come to relinquish you of your place at the top of Oovo IV. Don't worry, though, Ash here has ensured that you'll still have a place here. You still have a handful of guys left, yeah? You can still be their boss, but you work for us now. Go."
Art's gangsters loosened their grips on Volt and his Weequay associate, allowing them to leave in peace. Although proud that he was able to talk some sense into his friend and spare more needless bloodshed, Ash was still unable to shake the feeling that he was reliving the death of Bihan, only this time from the other side, the oppressor.