-Tag-
Darin, Sadie, and I landed on Malastare without a hitch. We were dropped off on the outskirts of Corbalant in a ghetto section. I was wearing plain peasant clothing similar to what was worn by the poor people on Malastare, Sadie was wearing her orange and dark blue Mandalorian armor, and Darin opted for a modified cloak. By modified I mean it was made with some super strong fiber and was made for stealth and combat. It had a hood which, when pulled down, obscured the upper portion of his face. Between the two of them, I looked like a hostage surrounded by bounty hunters. I would have rather worn my armor, but this planet was under Alliance control. Wearing my bright white trooper armor would be suicide.
The plan was rather simple. We do simple reconnaissance, then Caty sends in a squad when Darin contacts her, we smash in and grab fuel, and get out before they have a chance to react.
We got a few looks from the residents of this sector, but most seemed to be looks of pity aimed at me. Anywhere that Darin or Sadie looked, people seemed to either freeze in terror or try to avoid eye contact altogether by doing laundry, trying to repair their flimsily built wooden shacks, or skinning some animal for dinner. The whole place seemed tense, ready to explode at any given moment.
After a few kilometers of this, we approached a bridge over a roaring river, and on the other side the road seemed to be paved and the buildings looked much more like some of the ones on Coruscant. There was a guard tower at the edge of the bridge on our side, and a massive gate which kept the people on this side here. At the bottom of the tower was a booth surrounded by glass with a lazy looking guard inside, who operated a button which opened a door to a small cage, then closed the door and opened the one on the other side, allowing the person across.
Without hesitation, Darin walked to the booth, cutting ahead of a rather long line of people. A few wanted to protest at first, but shut their mouths when they got a good look at our little posse. He muscled towards the front and told the guard "Open the door."
"I need to see identification, and you'll need to fill out a form stating your business in East Corbalant. Then you will pay the fee and you will enter."
Darin nodded at Sadie, who went over to the large gate.
"What is she doing?" the guard asked, alarmed.
"She's going to hook up thermal detonators to the gate. Then, we'll blow it sky-high, and all of these people will be free to enter. Or you can open the door, and save everybody the trouble."
Darin put a little Force into the final sentence, and the guard obediently opened the door to let us through.
East Corbalant was completely different from the ghetto we came from. For starters, we walked directly into a bustling marketplace, booths on all sides with loud vendors selling their wares. There were people moving around, baskets in hand with newly bought produce or equipment. A few of the merchants walked up to Darin and Sadie, offering to sell special armor, some ship parts, or some new blasters or other various weapons. It reminded me a little bit of Coruscant, with all the movement and business going on, but the atmosphere was different. It felt more competitive between the merchants, like they were fighting over the potential customers. They must not have any form of government funding, which is why they're fighting for every credit they can get. It was alluring, and I felt the urge to run around like a child and look at everything around me. I noticed Darin and Sadie seemed to be curious, looking around at almost every single booth, and decided now was the time.
"Darin? We all got our commlinks. Is it cool if we look around? See what they're offering?"
"That sounds like a great idea," Sadie quickly piped up. I could see Darin struggling, both wanting to complete the mission and explore the place.
"If we talk to some of the vendors, maybe we can find some information that would be helpful," I said.
That was the nail in the coffin. "Yea, we can look around. For reconnaissance purposes. Just… stay safe alright?"
"Come on. I saw something here I wanted to check out," Sadie said, grabbing Darin's arm and pulling him into the crowd. I made over to a nearby booth to check out the blaster display when the merchant said "Bugger off." I looked at him curiously, and he said "I don't serve Westerners."
"I'm not a Westerner," I said, angry that I was being sent away without even doing anything wrong.
"Sure. Now get away before I call my guards." He raised a hand and two large hairy beasts appeared behind him. They were the same species as I had encountered on Ryloth, but didn't look to be as well armed. They had no protective gear and looked to be very lightly armed. They hadn't been too hard to take down on Ryloth, but then I was fully armed, had a bunch of guys with me, and we had the element of surprise. I had no clue what they were truly capable of, and now didn't seem like a good time to find out.
"Fine. Fine," I said and walked away. The next few booths had a similar frosty reception, until I reached a booth towards the edge that was manned by, of all things, a Seyley. These were the bane of our existence. I tried to avoid him when I heard him say "Hey. You. In the gray."
I looked over, and he gave this half-hearted wave for me to come over. I approached rather hesitantly, and he said "We don't get many Imps around here."
On my guard, I looked around ready for an ambush, and he said "Relax. I don't care." He had his arms folded on the table and lay his head on top of them.
"Why should I trust you?"
"Because I'm old and have bigger problems."
"Then why call me over?"
"You're a military man. I have stuff." He waved his arm at a display behind him and said "My creations. You can come back here and hold them and such. I don't really care."
"What's your name?"
"Vince. You?"
"Tag." I cautiously stepped towards the case, watching him with every step I took to make sure he wasn't going to do anything. When nothing happened, I reached for a ball with a switch and asked "What's this?"
"An EMP. Meant to knock out personal shields for a short time, but not permanently. They will still come back. But it knocks them out no matter how strong they are. Alliance doesn't like it because 'it's not as effective as they'd like'. They want it to be a permanent effect." The tone of his voice made it clear that he thought they were idiots. I put the EMP back and grabbed another ball, this one looking more like a cage with some interesting contraption inside.
"A miniature dead-zone generator. Created it using tech I designed after studying ysalamir. Creates a zone where Force powers are completely negated. Alliance didn't like it because it's really finicky and has no effect on regular Imps."
I put the cage ball back and started looking at what looked to be a briefcase.
"Miniature coaxium refinery. Alliance didn't like it because they make a ton of credits from their coaxium refineries."
As I turned, I noticed something shine behind a cloth that was hanging down by the display.
"You mind if I look there?" I asked.
"Long as I come with you, no."
Behind the curtain was a semi closed off section that contained a lot of parts that looked rather dangerous.
"This is where I put the stuff together."
The shiny thing that caught my eye was a door, which happened to be halfway open, revealing a large facility. I went inside, looked around, and my eyes caught on something that looked thoroughly amazing. It was a full suit of armor that I had never seen before. The metal was a greenish gray, and looked to be similar to the armor on a tank. It had a large visor where the face was, but not one that could move. Underneath the metal, the mannequin was wearing some sort of black fabric undersuit which looked rather durable.
"Whoa."
"Yep. Whoa's about right."
"What is it?"
"A suit of armor. Some human requested it specially. Wanted to be a one man army. So, I made this."
"What are its features?"
"Shoot, where to begin… well, that metal plating is a specially made combination of Beskar and Zillo Beast hide, which was then coated with melted Zillo Hide. Stuff is basically indestructible. Weighs over 350 kilos. Then, there's that undersuit. Triple layered. All three are interlaced with strands of Beskar and soaked with liquid Zillo hide, making them insanely strong while remaining flexible, allowing for an unhindered range of movement. The inner layers are specially made to cool the occupant. Suit increases speed and strength to unbelievable levels. The helmet has a motion detector like the ones the Seyley elite guard do, and the whole suit has shield generators just as strong as theirs. I made some alterations though, making the shields recharge much faster than the guards ones do. It has a dead-zone generator built into it. I already explained what that means. It keeps a stable internal environment, allowing survival in space or other places where you'd usually die for a bit of time. Problem is, to operate the thing at all, you need Class Three augmentations, albeit with limits to prevent the person from tearing themselves apart. Class One augmentations need no limit. But along with the augmentations, you need a neural chip to be implanted since the whole thing is too heavy to wield normally. The neural chip also dramatically increases your reaction time and scrambles your neural waves which makes them extremely difficult to read for Force users, but needs to be surgically inserted. That'll allow you to feel the same as you do now with running and jumping and such, but with the suit. It has generators and motors that move the suit with you with pinpoint accuracy as you think of moving. It becomes an extension of the occupant, weighing nothing at that point."
I stared in awe at the thing in front of me. "You sure it works?"
"Flawlessly. The client tested it a few times and loved it. He left it here so he could get Class One augmentations."
"What happened to him?"
"He died during the augmentation surgery," Vince said matter-of-factly.
"I have Class One."
He glanced at me and said "No. No way. You can't have it."
"How much for it?" I had no idea how I was going to get the money, but whatever. I wanted it. It sounded amazing.
"Credits mean nothing to me at the moment."
"I'll do whatever I need to. Anything."
He rubbed his eyes. "My family was taken by Zygerrians, so getting them back, as well as providing me safe passage off the planet."
"I can do that.."
"Not alone you can't."
"I have backup."
He nodded. "You can only fit two people in the cargo compartment of their speeder, which is how you'd need to get inside."
"I have powerful allies," I said, thinking of Darin and Sadie, but mostly of Sadie, since she would almost certainly be more okay with this than Darin.
"You would need the suit to even have a shot."
"I swear on my life that if you give me the suit, I will go and find the Zygerrians and free your family."
He eyed me cautiously, then said "Think over it. Tomorrow. Show up here with your 'powerful ally'. Then, you'll get the suit, we'll get you in a speeder, and hopefully you rescue them."
I ran around trying to find Sadie while ignoring the dirty looks from some of the other merchants. I finally spotted her with Darin. They were walking side by side by the dock towards the large body of water the river flowed into. Very few people were around, and the sun was close to setting. I could hear the laughter as I approached.
"Guys! Guys!" I yelled as I bounded towards them. They turned and I saw that they each were holding some sort of food.
"Tag! You have got to try this. It's Nautaben Ice, and it's delicious. Darin got it for us!" Sadie said.
"I'm glad you two had fun. I found something."
"What?" Darin asked, his interest piqued.
"Some of the locals are being captured by pirates. Tomorrow is the perfect opportunity to get in and free them."
"Tomorrow I was planning on hitting the fuel depot."
"I can't go alone to take them out. I was thinking Sadie and I could go free them, and you'd have all the others at your disposal."
"I don't know-"
"It'll work," Sadie said. Darin shot a concerned look her way, and she said "Relax. It's just pirates. I can handle it."
"Right. Just pirates." He looked at me.
If she gets hurt, that's on you.
I was a little jarred by the telepathic message. I nodded, and Sadie, who had walked ahead of us, called "Coming?"
"You go. I'll keep looking for info to help you out" I said to Darin before walking back to the market.
I could understand Darin's worry. He almost lost Sadie once, and he surely wasn't going to let that happen again.