Chapter Four: Left for Dead Upon the Sands
In the Northern Dune Sea, a lone dark-robed figure armed with a gaderffii stick and cycler rifle climbs up a treacherous ridge for the latest time in his four years of wandering the deserts. He is Boba Fett. And he had been coming back again and again for one purpose: vengeance. And to have the vengeance he desires, he first needs something that once belonged to him five years ago. Something that belonged to his father.
As he scales the ridge, a massive, rusted domed structure made of durasteel and sandstone slowly enters his line of sight: the Palace that once belonged to all-powerful crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, better known as Jabba the Hutt. Accompanying the main body of the Palace are two towers, each topped with domes of their own and one towering above the canyon below, where a massive cavern has been fashioned into a sort of underground hangar for this complex.
He readies his cycler rifle and uses its scope to get a better look. Swarming the entrance to the hangar are several guards of a diverse array of species. There are humans; rough-skinned humanoids called Weequay; a few Niktos like the biker gang; and the Hutt Cartel's most famed henchmen, green pig-like warriors in tribal fur clothes called Gamorreans. A loud screech echoed throughout the canyon, as he noticed the gargantuan blast door to the hangar shutting. Boba wasn't getting what he needed anytime soon.
Slinging the rifle back over his shoulder, Fett trekked down the ridge, approaching his bantha, Roz. Looking at the massive, horned beast of burden, he sighs.
"Not today old girl," he tersely says. "Still too many guards."
He lets out another sigh, as he begins to climb onto Roz's back.
"It's been four years," he explains. "We have to wait a little longer."
Under the three moons of Tatooine that starry night, Boba sat with Roz by a blazing campfire, roasting bare-skinned scurrier rodents he had shot with a cycler rifle. As the Warrior from the Great Maw chewed into the sinewy flesh of the roasted rodent's leg, he noticed Roz licking her lips, as she gazed at his portion.
When he offered his piece, she bellowed and began wagging her long shaggy tail. He then gently tossed the roasted leg into the air, with it landing in Roz's open mouth. As she chewed, Boba smiled, as his steed enjoyed her meal, which most beings would not know was edible for a bantha, outside the Tuskens (and Fett). After she finished the leg, Boba grabbed his gaderffii stick and began to use its clubbed end to clean Roz's teeth of any remaining pieces of meat before flipping the staff to pick out remains of scurrier particles from between the Bantha's teeth with the spiked end.
As the Warrior from the Great Maw finished tending to his steed, he noticed a blindingly radiant glow out of the corner of his eye. Swiftly turning around, he caught sight of a luminous flashing point in the distance, like a white supernova. Boba gazed on as Roz bellowed, noticing several more erupting again and again, before they descended toward the sands below. He needed to investigate.
In the deepest part of Tatooine's frigid night, a cold, inert form lay resting in the sands at the base of a cliff, as Boba took several tentative steps towards it, his cycler rifle readied. Fett then stopped and slung the rifle over his shoulder before carefully descending onto his knees. Flipping the body over, he came face to face with who seemed to be a dead woman.
Her eyes were shut and face would have been a warm color in daylight. Her hair was woven into a long braid with triangular knots. She was fitted with jet-black leather armor with broad shoulders and orange accents, fashioned from the skin of Lothalite Nerfs, by the texture of it. He looked nearby to find an black helmet with an orange top, reminiscent of one used for jousting nearby, along with a blaster rifle used for sniping. He knew this woman, even if only by reputation. She was Fennec Shand, one of the most famed bounty hunters and assassins, who mainly operated in the Mid Rim.
Checking back on Shand's status, Fett noticed a massive hole that pierced through her clothes and into her flesh, streams of blood oozing out. Boba put the tips of his fingers against her neck, checking for a pulse. He felt a faint thumping from her neck, akin to a wounded animal's last dying gasps of breath. She was alive. And like him, she too was a hired gun, forced into a life that was so short, brutish, and nasty.
Hoisting Shand up into his arms, Boba marched back to Roz, slinging her body over his Bantha's rump. As he mounted Roz, the Warrior from the Great Maw recalled a local rumor among the I'Ka tribe of a giant Jawa traveling the Dune Sea who operated on the wounded with droid parts before they rode off into the desert night.
As the golden light of the twin suns began to appear from over the horizon, Boba caught a glimpse of a massive moving shape crossing the Dune Sea: the Sandcrawler he was looking for. The towering Jawa fortress rumbled across the sands towards Fett, Roz, and the unconscious Shand. A bellowing screech echoed across the desert as the gargantuan gate to the interior of the sandcrawler unfolded onto the sands, with several of the diminutive Jawas scrambling out towards Boba. Unmounting Roz and slinging the limp Shand into his arms, he marched across the sands past the several inquisitive Jawas and into the Sandcrawler.
As Boba wound his way through the interior of the sandcrawler, Shand in his arms, he took a look around, hoping to ensure that this was the right Sandcrawler. He noticed several parts of wrecked podracers from back in the days when Tatooine hosted the Boonta Eve Classics. As his eyes fell upon several of the Jawas, a few of them shifted and began chattering to the others, prompting them to eye Fett, seemingly with caution. Were they hiding something?
Tuskens and Jawas have had quite a feud, Boba noted, dismissing his suspicions.
Soon enough, Boba heard the sound sparks spattering, as the one he was seeking dissected an old protocol droid for parts. It was a giant Jawa in flowing black robes, akin to the I'Ka Tribes', towering over the others at around the height of a young human teenager. Under the darkness of his hood, the giant Jawa, known to the I'Ka only as The Doctor, wore crimson red goggles, their lenses glowing like the eyes of a beast in the night. Boba stepped forward, kneeling as he lay Fennec's dying form onto the floor of the sandcrawler, next to The Doctor.
"Are you the one they call The Doctor?" inquired Boba.
Sparks stopped flying as The Doctor paused his dissection of the protocol droid and looked to Boba. He nodded and chattered in a voice deeper than the other Jawas, reminiscent of A'Kagri's grunts. Boba could vaguely understand what The Doctor was saying, as Tuskens and Jawas shared a common ancestor, meaning their tongues vaguely coincided.
"Okay, I'll call you Doc, if you insist," replied Boba.
He pointed at Fennec.
"She needs your help," explained Boba.
The Doctor chattered, showing Boba the palm of his hand. With a sigh, Fett reached into his pouch and pulled out a few credits he had stolen from a local Huk gang in Mos Eisley. The Doctor quickly swiped the credits and began calling the other Jawas to help him begin work in reconstructing Shand's gut. As the Jawas began pulling apart the protocol droid, which was evidently going to be used to restore the master assassin, they looked at Boba yet again, shifting.
"What's their problem?" asked Fett.
The Doctor looked to Boba and gestured for him to leave the room as they worked. He was about to protest, when the Jawas stopped working. With a sigh, he complied and made his way out.
The Warrior from the Great Maw sat in a dim, dusty room in the Sandcrawler, his red-scarred head just a few feet from touching its ceiling. He looked around, noticing Jawas moving droids around, taking a cautious look at him every once in a while, as if he were a hunter seeking Jawa meat. Soon enough, he caught sight of one younger Jawa heaving a dusty, battered white camtono canister across the room.
"Ooof!" exclaimed the Jawa, as he dropped the camtono.
"Clunk! Hiiiiiiss!"
The camtono hissed as its sides opened upon crashing onto the floor. Several brilliant violet silicax crystals were spilled all over the floor, scattering across the room. Their colorful hue caught Boba's eye, as he grabbed one that landed by his feet.
"Where did you get this?" he inquired.
All the Jawas looked at him, their goggle lenses seeming to brighten with alarm. They looked at each other repeatedly back and forth, as if deliberating every single chatter they would answer with. With a nod one of the Jawas turned back to Boba and gave an explanation, chattering with his strange little voice. The warrior raised a non-existent eyebrow.
"You got them from Cobb Vanth," Boba repeated. "A settler from Mos Pelgo."
The Jawa giving the explanation nodded before adding more chatters and stopping suddenly, as if realizing it revealed a secret.
"And you gave him some armor in exchange?" Boba attempted to clarify the Jawa's second sentence.
The Jawa quickly gave a series of clarifying chirps.
"Special armor from the Clone Wars, interesting," mused Boba, repeating the Jawa's words. "I myself am a brother to those who fought in them."
As Boba looked at the Jawas, he could almost get the sense that they were relieved. As if they were hiding something. As if they had just thrown him off of its trail. Before he could inquire any further, The Doctor's deeper-voiced call echoed down from the bottom of the sandcrawler. Fennec's surgery was complete.
Head throbbing and the world spinning around her, Fennec Shand's eyes cracked open, allowing her to see the blurred view of a campfire, in the midst of a twin sunrise. With several pained groans and a hefty cough, she looked up to see what appeared to be a black-robed Tusken Raider and his Bantha tending to the fire. Well, at least he appeared to be a Tusken, for on closer inspection, Fennec saw his face unwrapped, unlike most Tuskens. And this face was completely human, aside from its deathly pale hue; being covered in red, vein-like scars; and lacking eyebrows. Yet in spite of the stranger's unusual appearance, Fennec could swear she had seen him before.
As she strenuously propped herself onto her elbow, causing aching throughout her entire body, the stranger in the black robes, grabbed a black gourd, cracked it open, and set it in front of her. Looking at her, he gestured at the gourd, as if telling her to drink. The wind howled as she struggled to keep herself propped up, groaning as she did.
"What happened?" Fennec asked.
She looked to the stranger who remained silent, yet made strange motions with his hands before taking a sip from his own black gourd.
"Hello?" she snipped.
The stranger remained silent. The master assassin suddenly noticed a strange feeling in her abdomen, as the aching subsided. Looking down, Fennec almost jumped. Exposed to the world, was writhing, whirring mechanical parts filling the area her intestines used to be. The stranger stared in silence as the elite bounty hunter widened her eyes.
"What did you do to me?" Fennec gasped.
The stranger made those strange hand motions again. Fennec rolled her eyes. The stranger gestured at the black gourd again. With a snort, Shand raised it to her lips, dowsing her nose with a fiercely putrid smell. Recoiling, yet out of options for water on this desolate wasteland of a world, she took several sips from the gourd. Wiping her lips using her sleeve, she began to inquire about the stranger's intentions
"I'm worth more alive, am I?" Fennec asked.
The stranger nodded.
"I'll pay double my bounty," she responded.
The stranger shook his head, declining the offer. So this was it. Fennec would be turned over to the Bounty Hunter's Guild. Yet, as if the stranger read her thoughts, he shook his head again. If not money, then what was he after? Fennec looked him right in the eyes before speaking.
"Who are you?" she inquired.
To her surprise, the stranger actually answered in Galactic Basic, rather than the strange hand motions he had been using.
"I am Boba Fett," was his reply.
Fennec snickered, "That man is dead."
"I was," the stranger claiming to be Fett continued, "Left for dead upon the sands of Tatooine. Just as you were. Yet I was found and rescued by Tuskens. The I'Ka tribe to be exact. The greatest warriors of the Dune Sea."
Didn't know they had names for their tribes, Fennec thought.
Fett looked solemnly at the campfire before continuing, "They took me as one of their own. As a son. As a brother. I tried to help them. But they wound up dead. The only sign of a culprit was the mark of the Kintan Striders. And I will make them pay."
"Speed bikers defeated the greatest warriors of the Dune Sea?" Fennec asked, scoffing at the absurdity of it all. "That sounds like a long shot."
"I agree," Fett replied. "I suspect the Pyke Syndicate is behind this."
"Then why make the bikers pay?" suggested Fennec. "You know they aren't the ones who did it."
"I cannot take on an entire Syndicate," explained Fett. "But I still need to blow off some steam."
"A little petty for someone of your reputation," scoffed Fennec, "Isn't it? Well, if you are Boba Fett."
She looked at him. Fennec saw in this man the facial features of the many clones of Jango Fett that had fought all across the Galaxy shortly before her career began. She had even been on a job related to clones before early in her time as a mercenary. This man could be Boba Fett, who was well known to be a clone of Jango.
"I need your help," Boba admitted. "My Firespray gunship, Slave I, is in Jabba's Palace, which I hear has been taken by Bib Fortuna."
With a sigh, Fennec scoffed again, "It's your ship, why don't you just ask for it back?"
"I might not like the answer," explained Boba. "Let's just say I'm less persuasive without my armor."
"If I help you, my debt is paid," Fennec requests, staring right into Fett's eyes.
"As you wish," Fett replies, softer than the way he typically delivers that phrase.
After a day's worth of crossing the vast expanses of the Dune Sea upon Roz's back, Boba and Fennec approach the treacherous ridge which overlooks a canyon that separates it from Jabba's old Palace. Upon arrival, Fennec peers through the scope on her sniper rifle. Several guards, Nikto, Gamorrean, and others stand by a small hovercraft, a skiff, as Fennec's cursor hovers across them. Zooming in, she adjusts her view until she catches sight of a dome-like shadow in the darkness of the hangar.
"Your ship's there alright," confirmed Shand. "How many guards?"
"It's hard to say," explains Boba. "The gate opens, some go in, some come out."
With a sly smirk, Fennec replies, "Let's get a closer look."
Boba looks down at the stock of Fennec's rifle, watching as she pulls out the back, revealing a small metallic orb-like drone. After being switched on, small red lights shine from dots on the drone, penetrating into the night, as it lifts up and drifts rapidly towards the hangar.
Later in the night, as Fennec sits by a campfire, Boba is standing by Roz, cradling her head.
"It's time Roz," he tenderly explained, "Time to say farewell my friend."
"Wuurrr!" she bellows, giving Boba a lick.
"You served me well," he chuckled. "I am going to miss you too, old girl."
Fennec gives a sideways glance.
"Now go!" he calls. "You're free to roam the Dune Sea."
Roz slowly turns away, with Boba watching as she marches into the depths of the Dune Sea, probably off to make baby banthas with other banthas. Fett turns back to Fennec who is giving him a skeptical look.
"Shouldn't you get your ship back before that?" she asked.
"Why?" he replied in sign. "Either I get it or die trying."
Boba looks on as Fennec sighed in frustration.
"What are those anyway?" she grumbled. "What do they mean?"
"Sign language of the Tuskens," Boba explains in Basic. "I could teach you some."
"Please," groaned Fennec.
For the next few hours, the Warrior from the Great Maw would instruct the master assassin in several of the basic signs of the Tusken people of Tatooine's deserts over their campfire. Boba took several months to learn from the I'Ka tribe, having spent an extensive amount of time with them, first as a prisoner, then as a member of the group, their honorary brother. He expected the same amount of time from Fennec. However…
"What next after you reclaim your fury from the heavens?" she asked, referring to Slave I.
She did this purely in Tusken gestures, forming the complex ideas through both the sweeping and precise motions of her hand.
"Impressive," replied Boba, in awe. "That demands respect."
"Thanks," Fennec replied in Basic, almost appearing to smile. "But what next?"
"I'm going to find my armor," Fett finally answered. "And I'm going to kill that slimy tail-head, Bib Fortuna. Take his throne. He's always used his power to hurt the weak."
"You want Jabba's throne?" Fennec inquired, an incredulous look in her eyes.
"Yes," he tersely answers.
"Why?" she presses. "You're a bounty hunter."
"I'm done working for idiots that'll get me sent flying to my death by a flailing blind man," he explains.
"Is that it?" Fennec continued pressing.
Boba takes a sharp inhale, followed by an equally sharp exhale.
"The I'Ka Tribe deserved so much better," he admits. "They showed me how much the marginalized can offer. And how vulnerable they can be. Someone with great power needs to protect them."
Fennec nodded. The Warrior saw in her eyes that she was piecing together his intentions.
"And what greater power is there in this part of the Galaxy, than the ruler of Jabba's old empire," Fett proclaimed, looking towards Jabba's Palace, which towered over the landscape of cliffs and canyons.
"Living with the Tuskens has made you soft," scoffs Fennec.
"No," Boba retorts, "It has made me strong."
Suddenly, a humming sound pierces through the quiet evening. The drone is back.
"Time to work," Fennec remarks.
Kriic and Athmot, the green, hog-like Gamorrean captains of the Palace Guard, were walking past Jabba's old kitchen during their patrol. They grunt at each other in the language of their species.
"Hear about rat problem in sewers?" asks Athmot.
"Boss got new droid for it," Kriic grunts in response. "It so cute, with big ear."
Both of the Gamorreans give a grotesque chuckle. Suddenly, a mechanical whimpering echoes from the kitchen, catching the guards' attention.
"What that?" squealed Kriic.
"Let check it!" replied Athmot.
Rushing into the dim, torch-lit kitchen, fit to prepare meals for a king, the Gamorreans find a complete mess. Pots and pans are scattered all across the floor, the multi-armed cooking droid has been completely smashed to pieces, and hot water soaks several surfaces on the sandstone counters. Kriic looks to his right at a large jug, where a whimpering LEP droid, its large rabbit-like ears pointed downwards, tentatively pokes its head up.
"Little guy!" Kriic squeals in Gamorrean. "What happen to you?"
The LEP made several whimpers, squinting its beady yellow eyes.
"Tusken Raider and strange lady break in?" Kriic gasps. "Athmot we need to sound alarm!"
Through a dark, damp hallway, Boba and Fennec emerge into the hangar, keeping themselves tight against the walls. As moonlight filtered into the darkness, Boba took a scan of the hanger. Built into a vast cavern, vast hordes of rats slink all across the floor of the hangar, while small creatures scuttle up the walls. Walking around the hangar, lumbering over several rats, is what appears to be a walking crate; a PLNK-series power droid by the looks of it, with it almost bumping into a massive mountain of actual crates. Additionally many metal drums stand like small watchtowers in the cavern. Several skiffs are parked throughout, surrounding the looming centerpiece of the Palace's collection of vehicles: a large, elongated dome of a gunship, the Slave I.
So that creep has been keeping my ship as a trophy, Boba snarled to himself.
Looking Fennec in the eyes, he gestures an order, pointing at the hill crates, "Stay there. Put your sniping to good use."
Fennec smirked, as Boba readied his Gaderffi stick and they slinked into the hangar.
As Fett hid behind a cargo skiff, he heard the sound of two Gamorreans grunting as they entered through the hallway he and Fennec just emerged from. Most thought these guards to be merely brutish, simple barbarians, no more than animals that could walk like men. However, during his time as a bounty hunter, the Warrior from the Great Maw was able to make a friend out of two guards, recalling their names as Kriic and Athmot. Kriic was a softer, yet loyal Gamorrean, while Athmot had a gruff intensity that Boba could respect. Taking a breath and readying his gaderffii stick, Boba hoped these two weren't the ones he had called friends.
In a sudden flash of movement, Fett swung the clubbed end of his staff. Striking with precision, he smashed it right into the large snout of one Gamorrean. The guard flew across the hangar, crashing into another cargo skiff. Boba twisted his stance, swiftly attempting to bring his staff into the face of the other guard. This Gamorrean parried Boba's strike with his massive battle-axe.
Clang!
As the guard attempted to retaliate, Boba danced out of the way of the axe's swing. Suddenly, a bright red blaster bolt whizzed from several feet to his left and struck the Gamorrean in the chest knocking him to the ground. Boba looked at the limp Gamorrean and then to Fennec's position, where he saw her grasping the barrel of her sniper rifle.
"Nice one," he gestured to her.
"Not bad yourself," she replied in sign.
Boba took a careful look at the dead Gamorrean. The inexperience of these guards was evident in how quickly they were dispatched. Definitely not Kriic and Athmot.
Wrooooooooooooom! an alarm blared from the hallway.
Boba and Fennec turned their attention to the hallway. Dozens of guards, Nikto, Weequay and Gamorrean flood out of the hallway. As Boba begins to run behind a large drum, a Nikto fires his blaster, with the bolt whizzing right past Boba's face.
Fennec leaps off her perch on top of the mountainous stack of crates, firing a shot midair. As the bolt sears through a Weequay's chest, sending him collapsing to the ground, Shand lands right next to Boba. She looks him right in the eye, as several blaster bolts repeatedly fly past them.
"Go, I'll handle them!" she declares.
Boba nods, as a shot from a nikto crashes into a metal drum not far from where he is standing.
"Make sure that thing can still fly," she quips.
Boba rushes for the Slave I, swiftly climbing up the entrance ramp of his ship. He scrambles past the metal interior of his ship, which has collected five years of dust. Hanging onto anything he can grasp as the sound of blasters echo from the outside of the ship, he clambers towards the leather seats in the cockpit of the Firespray-class gunship. Seating himself, Boba flicks a switch and the engine begins to hum. The screens of the dashboard begin to glow a reddish-orange, as the systems go online.
Bang!
An explosion catches Boba's eye.
Back out in the hangar, Fennec has shot the power droid, sending it erupting in a violent burst of fire and shrapnel. That would hopefully distract the guards, while Boba prepared their escape. Shooting left and right, Fennec soon hears some mechanical whirring. As a fiery plume comes from the bottom of the ship, the Slave I begins to levitate above the hangar floor. So that ship can still fly. With a roll, Fennec leaps onto the boarding ramp of the gunship, blasting a few more guards.
She looks a Gamorrean guard in the eyes, as it charges, rushing to board the Slave I.
Crash!
Fennec collapses on her back as the gunship violently shakes.
"What are you doing in there Fett!" yells Fennec.
"We need to get the gate open!" replies Fett, straining from within his cockpit.
"I'm kind of busy!" retorts Fennec, punching at the guard.
The Gamorrean swipes back. Fennec dodges, retaliating with a forceful kick. The hog-like thug is sent hurtling to the ground.
Crack!
The ceiling began to crumble as Fett plowed his ship through the sandstone. Fennec sidestepped to avoid the rain of falling debris. She saw that a Weequay guard was not so lucky.
"Yaaaarrrrrrr!" he cried, as the debris knocked him to the ground below.
Unfortunately for Fennec, his Nikto companion had better luck. He jumps onto the hull of the Slave I, ramming into the master assassin, knocking her rifle out of her hands. A rough, scaly fist rockets towards Fennec. She intercepts it with one hand, striking back with an elbow to his flat, horned face.
"Guns are jammed!" Boba called.
Fennec evades the punches of the Nikto thug, swerving her head and ducking. Shen then delivers a flurry of her knuckles in response, knocking him onto his back.
"I've got it!" she replies. "Close the ramp!"
The Nikto comes around her, grabbing Fennec from behind. Acting quickly, she dives forward, flipping him into the air and hurtling to a dusty grave. Looking to her side, she sees her rifle shaking, as it rests on the unstable hull of the ship. She then looks at a massive sandstone slab, hoisted above the ground by a chain, holding the hangar gate shut. As she analyzed the situation, she noticed that Fett had begun shutting the ramp as she requested.
In a blindingly swift motion, Fennec grabs her rifle, flipping into the shutting ramp. As the ship's ramp is nearly sealed, Fennec takes aim at the chain holding the slab up and fires. A metallic creaking pierces through the entire hangar, followed by a crashing thud. The Slave I's gate is shut.
Adjusting his controls, Boba veers the ship into a vertical position. Engines, roaring, he can see the light of the early rising Twin Suns filtering into the open hangar gate. With a push of a lever, the Warrior from the Great Maw soars on his gunship past Jabba's old Palace, into the skies of this desert world. He hadn't flown in five years. Now he is airborne once more. Above vast landscapes and even into the stars. And what a sensation it was.
"Next time, let's not do that again," quips Fennec.
Turning to the co-pilot seat, Boba finds the master assassin buckled in, sitting as if it had always been hers.
"Next time?" he inquires.
"How's the ship?" she asks, ignoring Fett's question.
"She's in good shape, all things considered," Boba answers. "A little rusty."
"There are some good mechanics in Eisley," Fennec offers.
"No thanks," declines Boba. "There's an advantage to being dead in the eyes of others."
A moment of silence passes.
"Your debt's paid," Boba explains. "Where to?"
"Where are you headed?" inquires Fennec.
Someone, most likely those Pyke snakes, had left the I'Ka tribe in ruins. Killed everyone. U'Kaghho. A'Garhha. And even A'Kagri. And there was nothing the Warrior from the Great Maw could do to them at the state he was in. Boba's acid-scarred face turns into a fierce scowl.
"I have some steam to blow off," he snarls.
Later that day, under a sky graying with dust, the entirety of the Kintan Striders Nikto gang race upon their ten speeder bikes, rocketing over the desert wastes of the Dune Sea. They cackle at each other from atop their bikes, as they consider their next targets. As they ride, one of them notices a faint humming sound from behind. He turns around, catching sight of an ovoid gunship, cannons readied, hovering towards the gang.
Pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew! The ship's cannons rain laser blasts upon the bikers, leaving a trail of fire, smoke, and ashes as it goes. Many bikes are destroyed, sending their riders flying to a sandy grave.
Boba grimaces, as he aims the Slave I's cannons with a joystick. Even though he knew full well that the Striders weren't responsible, a fiery passion washed over him. His heart raced, but not with fear As he took out several more of the bikers with a smirk, he saw that he was enjoying this. He was delivering justice for the I'Ka. For A'Kagri.
Aiming for the lead bike, he presses a button on the side of his joystick. A hatch on the bottom of the gunship opens and sends a rocket blasting towards the biker. Upon striking its target, there is nothing left but the fiery wreckage of the bike and the charred remains of the rider.
As Boba steers his ship back into the sky, his enjoyment begins to fade. A suffocating emptiness coils around his heart, beginning to constrict it. Even though he blew off some steam, along with the heads of the Kintan Striders, the I'Ka were still gone. U'Kaghho and A'Garrha were gone. A'Kagri was still gone.
The Pykes will be next, the Warrior from the Great Maw reasoned. Then the I'Ka will be truly avenged.
Looking to his right, he makes eye contact with Fennec. She nods. Boba knew what he had to do next. However, news of today's slaughter would spread fast. And Boba knew, for all everyone knew, he was still dead.
A month would pass since Fett massacred the Kintan Striders. Under the searing heat of Tatooine's Twin Suns, the Slave I levitates above a crater in the desert, at its center a hole that stretches deep below the sands. Nearby is the charred remains of Jabba the Hutt's once ornate sail barge, with its torn tarp draped overhead. This is the Great Pit of Carkoon, home of the mighty sarlacc, which gave Boba his Tusken name. From within the cockpit, the warrior adjusts the position of his gunship, facing it directly into the hole, which had fleshy walls covered in fangs; it was a creature called the Sarlacc. Fennec watched him, almost with a sense of nervousness.
"The Great Maw," explained Boba, "That's what the I'Ka tribe called this beast. It held me in its stomach over five years ago. And that's the last place my armor was."
"In there?" Fennec inquires with disbelief. "It's probably dissolved by now."
"Not beskar," assures Boba. "Even the smallest trace reinforces any metal it fuses with. And my armor is seventy-five percent."
As the Slave I approached the great maw of the Sarlacc, it cast a deep shadow into the creature's mouth, restricting what could be seen. Boba switches on a searchlight, piercing through the darkness. Surrounding the walls of the maw were long, sturdy feeding tentacles, rooted into the sides of the Sarlacc's maw. Deep beyond the fangs and the tentacles, he could make out a pinkish, thin layer of flesh, covered in a slimy ooze that could only be described as the drool of the Sarlacc, which covered the interior of the beast. As he continued searching for any sign of his armor, even the slightest twinkle, he shone a light upon the central hole of the flap, where a bump seemed to be resting, squirming as a creature would in its burrow.
Suddenly, the bump, the Sarlacc's tongue, erupts from its lair in the central hole of the flesh flap, splitting into a beak-like shape and snapping at the windshield of the Slave I. Boba scrambled at the controls of his gunship, as he heard the Sarlacc wrap its feeding tentacles around the sides of it. The Warrior from the Great Maw pulls furiously on the ship's joystick, desperate to escape the Great Maw.
"Shoot it!" cried Fennec.
Having already thought to do so, Boba began firing the cannons of the Slave I just before she finished that sentence. All he succeeded in doing was sending several sprays of sand flying into the air. As he gazed into the beaked tongue of the Sarlacc, it began to pull its feeding tentacles, sending parts of the gunship crashing into its burrow. It was trying to drag them in.
"Hraaaaaaaeeeeghhhhhh!" screeched the Sarlacc, roaring out of its beaked tongue.
Fennec gave Boba a look of abject terror, her eyes widened, gasping for dear life.
"Any other ideas?!" she screams.
Boba's eyes dart around, until they reach a flashing white button above the cockpit. Of course! One of his father's old tricks.
"Grab the steering!" he commands.
Fennec quickly grabs the lever, allowing Boba to reach for the white, flashing switch. Straining with all his might, he is just about to press it.
Crash!
Boba slips just out of reach, as the Sarlacc drags on the gunship, shifting it from side to side. Fett strains again, reaching for the button. Again it is just out of reach. And the Sarlacc is snapping the beak on its tongue. They are going to be devoured!
"Argh!" Boba grunts in frustration.
Unclipping his seatbelt, he leaps, crashing into Fennec's hand, gripped onto the lever.
"Hey!" she cries.
Ignoring her, Boba lands on the windshield, gazing right into the Sarlacc's maw. The creature's tongue lunges at his face, ramming into the transparasteel.
"Hraaaaggg!" it roars.
Not this time! He declares to himself.
Swiftly turning his back on the beast, he drags himself up the cockpit, hoisting himself towards the flashing button, using a single arm. He reaches again with the other, aiming his finger towards a black switch right beneath the button. He presses it!
Ka chink!
Boba watches with glee as a tube shaped seismic charge tumbles from the shifting gunship's rear into the maw of the Sarlacc, being caught in the grip of its beaked tongue. Snapping it up, the great rooted beast ingests this explosive old trick of Boba's father into its stomach.
"Fire in the hole!" yells Boba.
As blue light glows from between the gaps of the Sarlacc's beak, everything turns to silence for a second. Then… a deafening drum blasts out of the Sarlacc's maw, as a blue shockwave ripples across the sands surrounding the pit, the beast's tentacles going limp, as thousands of cries of what seem to be relief flood out into the desert. Fennec is able to raise the ship out of the now-deceased Great Maw, setting it upright, as she gasps repeatedly. Boba gets back into his seat before looking at her. She looks at him incredulous.
"What?" he asks.
Later, Boba strains as he pulls himself out of the corpse of the great rooted beast on a rope pulled by Fennec. Marching past bits of tentacles and Sarlacc guts, a fiery heat engulfs his entire body; evidently the Sarlacc's metabolism has yet to die down.
"Nothing but junk," he reported to Fennec with a grunt, patting the leftover slime from his black, flowing Tusken robes.
"You're being cooked," noted Fennec, a hint of concern in her voice. "It's too dangerous down there."
Fennec opens a flask she brought from the Slave I and pours some water onto Boba's head. A sense of relief from the heat briefly takes his mind off the armor, if only for a moment.
"My armor isn't there," he laments.
"It served its purpose," assures Fennec. "It saved you from the acid…"
She pauses.
"Well, sort of," she quips. "How old are you?"
"At least forty," he answers, with an eye roll. "It's hard to keep track when you don't know enough Tusken star-mapping."
"Well, you sure don't look like it," Fennec replies. "You sure those Kaminoans didn't mess with your aging?"
"I just need a bacta tank," Boba concludes, taking a sip of the water bottle's contents before pouring the rest over his scorching head.
THe two were left silent. As his head began to throb, the Warrior from the Great Maw began to recall the conversation he had with the Jawas… for some reason.
Special armor from the Clone Wars, he had heard from the Jawa with the crystals. Got them from Cobb Vanth. A settler from Mos Pelgo.
Then his mind flashed back to the night after he escaped the Sarlacc's gut. In a state of delirium, he had grabbed something, before being knocked unconscious. The next thing he knew, no armor.
"Fennec," he broke the silence, a grin forming on his face. "I just might know where my armor is."
"Where?" she inquired.
"The far northern settlement of Mos Pelgo," he answered. "With Cobb Vanth, who bought it from Jawas with silicax crystals."
Fennec frowned.
"How do you know that?" she asks.
"I spoke with some Jawas while their Doctor was fixing you up, " Boba explained. "They acquired crystals in exchange for special Clone Wars armor. I think they were covering up the sale of my armor."
"That's desperate," scoffed Fennec.
Boba ignored her remark and began walking to his ship. He was going to reclaim his armor. At long last.
By the afternoon, Boba was standing by the Slave I on a rocky ridge, speaking with Fennec about their plan.
"You go negotiate with this Cobb Vanth," explained Boba. "Call me your benefactor. I want to remain hidden."
"Sounds like a plan," replied Fennec, "Oh benefactor."
Boba chuckled, as she walked off in the direction of Mos Pelgo from the ridge. Hours would pass as Fett rested, watching the Twin Suns make their journey below the horizon. As he admired this sight he would never tire of, he caught the glimpse of a speeder in the distance. Grabbing his cycler rifle he used its scope to spy on the speeder.
To his surprise, he caught sight of a Mandalorian in silver armor riding the speeder. He hadn't seen one of those since he killed a Death Watch soldier, so he could repaint the terrorist's helmet in the image of Jango's to use as a trap for Mace Windu. Examining the warrior's bike further, he caught sight of an unmistakable faded green helmet, accompanying other pieces of similarly colored Mandalorian armor. His armor. Slinging the rifle back over his shoulder, Boba looked on at the speeder. Then, he turned around and walked back towards his ship, awaiting Fennec.
In the settlement of Freetown, formerly Mos Pelgo, marshal Cobb Vanth watched as this Fennec Shand character left town to speak with her mysterious benefactor. She sure seemed shady, and so did her benefactor. They wouldn't lay no finger on his new pal Mando. As he watched, a young Tusken female approached. She was approximately in her teens, dressed in dark robes and letting her dark-brown, curly locks reach her waist, with the top wrapped in a turban-like cloth and held by a tribal pin. She began grunting and signing at him.
"Was that the Warrior from the Great Maw?" was what he picked up from the signs.
"I'm afraid not, err- A'Kagri?" Vanth replied, checking her name.
The young Tusken warrior nodded, confirming that Vanth got her name right.
"It was just a shady woman," he continued. "I hope you'll find your friend soon enough kid."
Vanth looked with sympathy as A'Kagri lowered her head in disappointment. He sure did feel sorry for the kid. And they had just met!
A few months later, in Jabba's Palace, Boba was finally confronting that creep Bib Fortuna, seated upon a throne. The Twi'lek was more obese than Fett remembered, almost to the same caliber as Orn Free Taa, that corrupt Senator from Ryloth. Fett watched coldly, as Fortuna began to panic with Boba's every step.
"Boba," he began in Huttese, with a nervous chuckle. "I thought you were dead. I am so glad to see you."
Boba ignored him.
"I had heard so many rumors," Fortuna explained.
Boba simply pointed his blaster carbine at the now-overgrown Twi'lek and blasted him in the chest. In an instant this Hutt in all but species lay limp, his staff resting on his neck alone. As the Warrior from the Great Maw made his way to the throne, he grabbed Fortuna's oversized corpse and hurled it off his perch. Setting his blaster down, he took a seat, as Fennec took a sip of blue spotchka. He was now the ruler of the most powerful faction on Tatooine. He was now the Emir.
Boba opens his eyes. It had been a few weeks since he took the throne of Jabba's Palace, and he now lay in a Bacta tank, his mouth in a breathing tube. The clear bacta fluid slowly drained from his tank with the push of a button, the LEP rat-catcher droid he had bothered several months ago brought him a towel and his robes. Getting out of the tank and beginning to dry off, he begins to put his robes on when he feels a sudden lurching in his stomach.
"Braaaaaaaaggggghhhhh!"
Out of his mouth ejects a meter-long, serpentine reptile with small legs. On its head are small knob-like horns and its tongue flicks in and out. Boba was puzzled for a moment until he recalled U'Kaghho's words nearly five years ago.
"You are a good guide, Stranger from the Great Maw," he had said. "Now this gift will guide you, from within your head."
"Hmm, so you're finally out, little guy," chuckled Boba.
The Pygmy Sarlacc Dragon, which was apparently the name of the lizard-like creature, flicked its tongue.
"I'll call you U'Kag," decided Boba with a smile.
"Nice pet," complimented Fennec.
As Boba finishes putting his robes on, he turns towards Fennec, who is watching.
"How do I look?" he asks.
Fennec looked to Fett. The former bounty hunter was no longer pale, having regained the tanned skin of his father. However, he still looked twenty years older than he should be and his face was covered in pulsing vein-like acid scars, which made him seem more fierce.
"Still terrible," she admitted. "At least you have your eyebrows back."
"Right," Boba replied. "Fennec?"
"Yes?" Fennec stood at attention.
"When we hold court, speak for me like you did at Mos Pelgo," requested Boba.
Fennec nodded.
Soon, Boba began to suit up. Wearing a dark-colored boot, he placed his knee-plates first. Then, the LEP and another servant droid wrapped his chest and shoulder plates around his body, belting it at the back, before equipping each gauntlet onto his gloved hands. Lastly, they handed him his helmet. Taking a deep breath, he donned the helm of his father once again. He was ready to reign.
Author's Note:
Hello everyone!
I am finally back! Sorry it took so long to publish Chapter Four. I have been incredibly busy with my finals for community college. In the meantime, I see more and more of you have joined my fanbase, with people reading from I didn't even imagine would be a source of fans (even if only one or two). As such, I would like to give my special thanks to the fans I made from Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and everywhere else in the world. Thanks so much! Also, I got my first review that was not from my close friend LP Marcus (who I had specifically requested to review my work), which was on Chapter One. It is from fanfic user Jacob9594 and reads "Well this looks like an interesting start to the Reimagining". Thanks so much for the review Jacob! Means a lot as a writer. And thanks to much to everyone who is enjoying this series.
Best wishes,
-Benedict Sky