Space in Star Wars is full of drama. Space Opera is not hard scifi.
Breaking Faith [Star Wars SI]
- Thread starter Rictus
- Start date
Chapter 6
- Location
- North Carolina
Chapter 6
11,202 BBY
We stayed on our own ship rather than crossing over to the vessel we were mag-locked to. Here, we knew the ship and only had to keep an eye on three pirates, rather than having to constantly watch our backs for people we hadn't accounted for in an unfamiliar layout. As it was, it took effort just to keep these three from noticing us.
None of us were juggernauts of Force potential like a Skywalker, so the fewer people we had to affect, the better, as it meant we would conserve more energy for later when we really needed it. Because of that, we didn't keep up the Mind Trick constantly as that would be too draining, only long enough for the pirates to stop looking for us or whenever they were in eyesight. Once they were sure the ship was secure, they had all settled down in the cockpit.
The Sullustan was still jittery, looking around nervously every now and again as he worked the controls. I wasn't sure if it was because he suspected something or if he was just naturally nervous. Because of that, I kept a careful eye on him in particular. There were a few times where he twitched and looked in the general direction of one of us before turning back and muttering something under his breath. The other two mostly ignored him, rolling their eyes at how jumpy he was.
Apparently, this was a common occurrence for them.
Chee, Guun, and I didn't speak to each other the entire time, as the sounds would carry in the ship and making unnecessary noise would strain the effects of the Mind Trick. Even the weakest mind would eventually figure out something was wrong if there were too many contradictions. Somehow, Guun kept that damn bird of his quiet and hidden too.
The reason the Mind Trick worked so well was that it encouraged thoughts the target would already have. With the ship appearing to be dead in space, we planted the kernel of an idea that it was abandoned. Even though they searched the ship on the possibility of there being a crew, that single thought remained. Because of that, we were able to latch on to that and blow it up to be the dominant thought and alter their conscious perceptions to match it by inducing a minor audio-visual hallucination.
It was a use of the Mind Trick that bordered dangerously on the edge of the more sinister Dominate Mind. But because we weren't directly affecting their thinking, just exaggerating an idea they formed on their own, we weren't crossing that line. Nor would we, if I had any say in the matter.
They still had the suspicion that something strange was going on due to the presence of the escape pod and the recently used bed. But after they checked for smuggler's compartments and they still couldn't find us, their minds created their own explanations.
But they never once suspected the presence of Jedi. To the galaxy at large, the Jedi were all cooped up on Ossus, ignoring the wars raging around them. There wouldn't be any here.
If these pirates had even an inkling of an idea about the existence of Jedi Shadows, they would have soiled their pants when they found a seemingly-abandoned ship in their trap. Thankfully, they didn't and all the effort we put into this ruse wasn't wasted.
Still, just because they didn't predict SUDDENLYJEDI didn't mean they were stupid, especially with the little operation they had set up to catch ships, so we played it safe and interfered with the three in the cockpit as little as possible.
As it was, I was starting to suspect the Sullustan had actually noticed us moving around despite the Mind Trick. As I recalled, their species had extraordinarily good hearing due to evolving underground. Fortunately, it seemed he'd managed to convince himself that it was just normal noise from the ship. Kind of like how a house creaked and groaned in the middle of the night as it settled.
Despite that, we made the trip with no incident. From our observations through the viewport, we were continuing down the hyperlane towards Sy Myrth, likely towards their base or to a rendezvous point. After a few hours, we dropped out of hyperspace.
There hadn't been any worlds between Sy Myrth and Komnor on our charts after the routine navicomputer update, meaning it wasn't in BOSS's registries. I filed that fascinating little tidbit of information away for later use. It was a small system, with only two planets orbiting a single sun. The larger of the two was an absolutely massive gas giant, around which a dozen moons and an asteroid belt circled in a chaotic pattern.
Most of the moons were dull and lifeless, but one of them sported greens and blues visible from orbit, indicating that it was capable of supporting life. The smaller planet was green too, but the convoy of ships passed it without stopping.
When we got closer to the moon, the pirate leader activated his comm, "Ravager, pause a minute so we can detach for landing."
Our approach paused and several clunks echoed through the ship as the mag-locks were disengaged, freeing the Iron Harvest to fly on its own. The vessel we had been attached to passed over top of us, revealing it to be about frigate size, if on the smaller end at around two hundred meters. The other two ships in the convoy were around the same size, but obviously of different make.
Our ship rumbled as the engines engaged, beginning the descent into the moon's atmosphere. As we flew lower and lower, I got a good look at the landscape as we sped over it. Like Ossus, it was lush and green, with trees and foliage covering much of the solid ground. However, it was much more craggy than the Jedi world, broken up by mountains and sharp crags in the ground.
Soon, it became apparent that we were heading for a particular canyon. As the nose of the ship dipped down, I could see large gun barrels poking out of the walls, each with a good range of fire. A glance up told me that some of what I had mistaken for boulders were actually more gun turrets, disguised as part of the landscape.
A crude hangar had been built into the canyon wall, large enough to accommodate ships much larger than our small freighter. There, sitting on a landing pad, was a ship that matched the description of the Sweet Muse. Having seen all I needed to, I quietly retreated back to the cargo hold where Chee and Guun were hiding.
When the Iron Harvest set down, we quietly slipped off the ship through a maintenance hatch. While the three pirates set about shutting down the freighter, we used the opportunity to blend in with the crowd of technicians and pirates. Thanks to our outfits, we didn't really stand out all that much and Guun slouched to make himself seem a bit shorter.
Truth be told, I wasn't sure we really needed to do more than not wear our Jedi robes. The dozens of people milling about the hangar weren't all that attentive, though most of their attention was on the returning ships. The majority of the pirates were aliens of various species, though the most common ones I saw were Nikto and Vodran. Even our ages didn't warrant more than a passing glance as I saw a few teenagers moving cargo around.
Nobody stopped us and we were able to find a secluded spot where we felt safe enough to talk.
"So, what'd you see when we were coming in?" Chee asked. There wasn't a hint of her usual insubordination in her tone. Even she recognized how badly this could go if something went wrong.
"I didn't get an exact count, but there's a lot of artillery in the walls of the canyon and on top. Couldn't tell if they were blasters or slugs." I replied, "If we try to fly out when they're still active, they'll tear us apart before we get far."
These pirates were well-armed and the base was well-organized, even if the personnel themselves could use work on security. However, a set up like this would never last against a dedicated military response. Those same guns would barely scratch the paint on a Republic cruiser. If anything, it was geared towards fighting the light attack craft the pirates themselves used.
"We'll have to either disable them or get authorization to get out of here," She hummed, "Or cause a big enough distraction that they'll be too busy to shoot at us."
"We'll see," I answered vaguely before moving on. We'd come up with a more concrete plan when we had an idea of what was going on here, "Good news is, the Muse is out in the hangar. Unfortunately, I have no idea where the shipment is or if it's even still here."
"If we can get to a central terminal or find a cargo manifest, I should be able to find out," Guun offered. Despite appearances, the massive Twi'lek was the second best in our pack of Padawans when it came to computers, second only to Talas.
"Alright, your turns," I nodded towards them, "You guys see anything on our little walk?"
"A lot of guns," Chee replied, "Carried, propped up against the walls. You name it, they probably have it. I think I saw a blaster cannon or two."
I let out a low whistle. Blaster technology at this point in time was…primitive at best and hadn't advanced much since the time of Xim the Despot, with Beam Tubes being considered the pinnacle of the technology. Man-portable blaster weaponry wasn't common, mostly due to how inefficient, cumbersome, and expensive they were. Rather than personal combat, the most common use for them was as siege weaponry.
"I saw some kind of insignia on one of the crates," Guun reported, his eyebrows furrowing, "I didn't recognize it though."
"Yeah, I noticed it too," Chee interrupted, "Belongs to one of the Hutt clans…Besadii, I think. Could be wrong."
"Well, that's a big clue as to which side they work for," I commented, mentally filing her knowledge of Hutt clan insignias away for later.
Nevertheless, it was possible they were an independent group. However, it was unlikely. Setting up shop in contested territory was a dangerous, or more accurately suicidal, move…unless you had backing from one of the major powers fighting over said territory.
While the Hutts seemed to be the most likely patron, it was still possible those supplies had been stolen, just like ours had. Pirates made a killing over the centuries working for one side or the other during the "cold war" years, though the Republic dressed it up by calling them privateers. At least the Hutts called them what they were, even if most of them were slavers too.
"First thing's first, though," I stated, "We should find the crew of the Sweet Muse. If anything, they'll have more information."
"If they haven't been shipped off to Hutt Space yet," Chee remarked dourly.
Unfortunately, she had a point. If that was the case, there was little we could do. Still…
"Let's confirm that before making assumptions," I shot back, though that same doubt was present in my own mind as well, "For now, we should try to find out where they keep prisoners and move on from there."
The Devaronian gave a grudging nod as a reply. Beside her, Guun was a little more invested. For all that the Twi'lek had been reluctant earlier to go along with this admittedly reckless endeavor, he was resolute in seeing it done now.
Leaving our hiding spot, we started making our way through the tunnels carved into the rock, trying to draw as little attention as possible. I glanced through an open doorway as we passed by.
Guun nearly bowled me over as I suddenly stopped and backtracked.
In the room we had nearly passed, a pair of Bimm were singing and dancing on a makeshift stage in front of a crowd of at least a hundred pirates, all roaring with laughter and clapping.
Chee blinked uncomprehendingly at the sight, her mouth opening and closing a few times before she finally spoke, "Is that them?"
Discretely taking out my datapad, I pulled up the pictures Carador had given us and compared them.
"…Yep," I replied, not quite believing what I was seeing either.
"Well, good news is that they're still alive," Guun muttered in a similar state of shock, "Now we have to figure out how to get them alone."
11,202 BBY
We stayed on our own ship rather than crossing over to the vessel we were mag-locked to. Here, we knew the ship and only had to keep an eye on three pirates, rather than having to constantly watch our backs for people we hadn't accounted for in an unfamiliar layout. As it was, it took effort just to keep these three from noticing us.
None of us were juggernauts of Force potential like a Skywalker, so the fewer people we had to affect, the better, as it meant we would conserve more energy for later when we really needed it. Because of that, we didn't keep up the Mind Trick constantly as that would be too draining, only long enough for the pirates to stop looking for us or whenever they were in eyesight. Once they were sure the ship was secure, they had all settled down in the cockpit.
The Sullustan was still jittery, looking around nervously every now and again as he worked the controls. I wasn't sure if it was because he suspected something or if he was just naturally nervous. Because of that, I kept a careful eye on him in particular. There were a few times where he twitched and looked in the general direction of one of us before turning back and muttering something under his breath. The other two mostly ignored him, rolling their eyes at how jumpy he was.
Apparently, this was a common occurrence for them.
Chee, Guun, and I didn't speak to each other the entire time, as the sounds would carry in the ship and making unnecessary noise would strain the effects of the Mind Trick. Even the weakest mind would eventually figure out something was wrong if there were too many contradictions. Somehow, Guun kept that damn bird of his quiet and hidden too.
The reason the Mind Trick worked so well was that it encouraged thoughts the target would already have. With the ship appearing to be dead in space, we planted the kernel of an idea that it was abandoned. Even though they searched the ship on the possibility of there being a crew, that single thought remained. Because of that, we were able to latch on to that and blow it up to be the dominant thought and alter their conscious perceptions to match it by inducing a minor audio-visual hallucination.
It was a use of the Mind Trick that bordered dangerously on the edge of the more sinister Dominate Mind. But because we weren't directly affecting their thinking, just exaggerating an idea they formed on their own, we weren't crossing that line. Nor would we, if I had any say in the matter.
They still had the suspicion that something strange was going on due to the presence of the escape pod and the recently used bed. But after they checked for smuggler's compartments and they still couldn't find us, their minds created their own explanations.
But they never once suspected the presence of Jedi. To the galaxy at large, the Jedi were all cooped up on Ossus, ignoring the wars raging around them. There wouldn't be any here.
If these pirates had even an inkling of an idea about the existence of Jedi Shadows, they would have soiled their pants when they found a seemingly-abandoned ship in their trap. Thankfully, they didn't and all the effort we put into this ruse wasn't wasted.
Still, just because they didn't predict SUDDENLYJEDI didn't mean they were stupid, especially with the little operation they had set up to catch ships, so we played it safe and interfered with the three in the cockpit as little as possible.
As it was, I was starting to suspect the Sullustan had actually noticed us moving around despite the Mind Trick. As I recalled, their species had extraordinarily good hearing due to evolving underground. Fortunately, it seemed he'd managed to convince himself that it was just normal noise from the ship. Kind of like how a house creaked and groaned in the middle of the night as it settled.
Despite that, we made the trip with no incident. From our observations through the viewport, we were continuing down the hyperlane towards Sy Myrth, likely towards their base or to a rendezvous point. After a few hours, we dropped out of hyperspace.
There hadn't been any worlds between Sy Myrth and Komnor on our charts after the routine navicomputer update, meaning it wasn't in BOSS's registries. I filed that fascinating little tidbit of information away for later use. It was a small system, with only two planets orbiting a single sun. The larger of the two was an absolutely massive gas giant, around which a dozen moons and an asteroid belt circled in a chaotic pattern.
Most of the moons were dull and lifeless, but one of them sported greens and blues visible from orbit, indicating that it was capable of supporting life. The smaller planet was green too, but the convoy of ships passed it without stopping.
When we got closer to the moon, the pirate leader activated his comm, "Ravager, pause a minute so we can detach for landing."
Our approach paused and several clunks echoed through the ship as the mag-locks were disengaged, freeing the Iron Harvest to fly on its own. The vessel we had been attached to passed over top of us, revealing it to be about frigate size, if on the smaller end at around two hundred meters. The other two ships in the convoy were around the same size, but obviously of different make.
Our ship rumbled as the engines engaged, beginning the descent into the moon's atmosphere. As we flew lower and lower, I got a good look at the landscape as we sped over it. Like Ossus, it was lush and green, with trees and foliage covering much of the solid ground. However, it was much more craggy than the Jedi world, broken up by mountains and sharp crags in the ground.
Soon, it became apparent that we were heading for a particular canyon. As the nose of the ship dipped down, I could see large gun barrels poking out of the walls, each with a good range of fire. A glance up told me that some of what I had mistaken for boulders were actually more gun turrets, disguised as part of the landscape.
A crude hangar had been built into the canyon wall, large enough to accommodate ships much larger than our small freighter. There, sitting on a landing pad, was a ship that matched the description of the Sweet Muse. Having seen all I needed to, I quietly retreated back to the cargo hold where Chee and Guun were hiding.
When the Iron Harvest set down, we quietly slipped off the ship through a maintenance hatch. While the three pirates set about shutting down the freighter, we used the opportunity to blend in with the crowd of technicians and pirates. Thanks to our outfits, we didn't really stand out all that much and Guun slouched to make himself seem a bit shorter.
Truth be told, I wasn't sure we really needed to do more than not wear our Jedi robes. The dozens of people milling about the hangar weren't all that attentive, though most of their attention was on the returning ships. The majority of the pirates were aliens of various species, though the most common ones I saw were Nikto and Vodran. Even our ages didn't warrant more than a passing glance as I saw a few teenagers moving cargo around.
Nobody stopped us and we were able to find a secluded spot where we felt safe enough to talk.
"So, what'd you see when we were coming in?" Chee asked. There wasn't a hint of her usual insubordination in her tone. Even she recognized how badly this could go if something went wrong.
"I didn't get an exact count, but there's a lot of artillery in the walls of the canyon and on top. Couldn't tell if they were blasters or slugs." I replied, "If we try to fly out when they're still active, they'll tear us apart before we get far."
These pirates were well-armed and the base was well-organized, even if the personnel themselves could use work on security. However, a set up like this would never last against a dedicated military response. Those same guns would barely scratch the paint on a Republic cruiser. If anything, it was geared towards fighting the light attack craft the pirates themselves used.
"We'll have to either disable them or get authorization to get out of here," She hummed, "Or cause a big enough distraction that they'll be too busy to shoot at us."
"We'll see," I answered vaguely before moving on. We'd come up with a more concrete plan when we had an idea of what was going on here, "Good news is, the Muse is out in the hangar. Unfortunately, I have no idea where the shipment is or if it's even still here."
"If we can get to a central terminal or find a cargo manifest, I should be able to find out," Guun offered. Despite appearances, the massive Twi'lek was the second best in our pack of Padawans when it came to computers, second only to Talas.
"Alright, your turns," I nodded towards them, "You guys see anything on our little walk?"
"A lot of guns," Chee replied, "Carried, propped up against the walls. You name it, they probably have it. I think I saw a blaster cannon or two."
I let out a low whistle. Blaster technology at this point in time was…primitive at best and hadn't advanced much since the time of Xim the Despot, with Beam Tubes being considered the pinnacle of the technology. Man-portable blaster weaponry wasn't common, mostly due to how inefficient, cumbersome, and expensive they were. Rather than personal combat, the most common use for them was as siege weaponry.
"I saw some kind of insignia on one of the crates," Guun reported, his eyebrows furrowing, "I didn't recognize it though."
"Yeah, I noticed it too," Chee interrupted, "Belongs to one of the Hutt clans…Besadii, I think. Could be wrong."
"Well, that's a big clue as to which side they work for," I commented, mentally filing her knowledge of Hutt clan insignias away for later.
Nevertheless, it was possible they were an independent group. However, it was unlikely. Setting up shop in contested territory was a dangerous, or more accurately suicidal, move…unless you had backing from one of the major powers fighting over said territory.
While the Hutts seemed to be the most likely patron, it was still possible those supplies had been stolen, just like ours had. Pirates made a killing over the centuries working for one side or the other during the "cold war" years, though the Republic dressed it up by calling them privateers. At least the Hutts called them what they were, even if most of them were slavers too.
"First thing's first, though," I stated, "We should find the crew of the Sweet Muse. If anything, they'll have more information."
"If they haven't been shipped off to Hutt Space yet," Chee remarked dourly.
Unfortunately, she had a point. If that was the case, there was little we could do. Still…
"Let's confirm that before making assumptions," I shot back, though that same doubt was present in my own mind as well, "For now, we should try to find out where they keep prisoners and move on from there."
The Devaronian gave a grudging nod as a reply. Beside her, Guun was a little more invested. For all that the Twi'lek had been reluctant earlier to go along with this admittedly reckless endeavor, he was resolute in seeing it done now.
Leaving our hiding spot, we started making our way through the tunnels carved into the rock, trying to draw as little attention as possible. I glanced through an open doorway as we passed by.
Guun nearly bowled me over as I suddenly stopped and backtracked.
In the room we had nearly passed, a pair of Bimm were singing and dancing on a makeshift stage in front of a crowd of at least a hundred pirates, all roaring with laughter and clapping.
Chee blinked uncomprehendingly at the sight, her mouth opening and closing a few times before she finally spoke, "Is that them?"
Discretely taking out my datapad, I pulled up the pictures Carador had given us and compared them.
"…Yep," I replied, not quite believing what I was seeing either.
"Well, good news is that they're still alive," Guun muttered in a similar state of shock, "Now we have to figure out how to get them alone."
Chapter 7
- Location
- North Carolina
Chapter 7
11,202 BBY
As it turned out, it wasn't that hard. All we had to do was wait for them to be escorted back to their cell when their performance was over a few hours later and follow them.
And by cell, I meant "cell." It was basically just a locked room with only one guard outside. Presumably, the Bimm's "harmless" reputation had worked to their advantage.
The human gave us each a once over as we approached but didn't seem perturbed about our ages or species. As it was, he seemed to barely be staying on his feet. That made things even easier.
"Hey, buddy," I greeted with a smile and just the slightest touch of the Force to nudge him towards being a bit friendlier and more willing to talk, "You look like you're about to drop."
It didn't take much effort to slip into his exhausted mind and he soon had a friendly smile of his own on his face. When he spoke, it was with an unfamiliar accent, "Yeah, been watching the wall for most of the day. Guard duty's boring enough, but the midgets don't try anything. 'Bout as exciting as watching paint dry."
"I'll bet." I agreed, nodding sympathetically, "I mean, why even bother? Bimm don't cause trouble."
Hah.
"Yeah, but gotta guard 'em all the same," He half-grumbled, half-slurred, "If something happened, captain'll have the head of whoever's on shift."
"I think the captain'll have your head anyways if you fall asleep on your feet," I pointed out, making sure to avoid guessing the "captain's" gender while weaving a bit of the Force to encourage his exhaustion.
It took a moment for his tired mind to muddle through it before he grimaced when he realized I was right.
"Uhh…" He groaned and thumped his head against the wall to try to keep himself awake, "Don't remind me."
I gave his shoulder a friendly pat, "Look, I don't want anyone losing their heads." I gestured to myself, Guun, and Chee, "We could take over guard duty so you can get some shut eye. We don't have much to do and it'll be three sets of fresh eyes instead of one tired pair."
"I don't know…" the guard replied hesitantly, chewing on his lip as he thought it over.
I waited for him to make his decision, refraining from influencing him any further. He didn't really need it at this point as his eyelids were drooping more and more every second. At the rate he was going, he'd be asleep before he made his decision.
"Alright, fine," He finally agreed, "But if anything happens, you're getting the blame."
"Of course," I nodded, "Now get going, or you'll be asleep before you can get to your bunk."
The guard grumbled something under his breath before handing me the keys and walking off. And it was an actual key ring with collection of metal keys that clinked together when I moved them.
When he was safely out of earshot, Guun took up position next to the door and muttered, "I can't believe that worked. Did you…"convince" him at all? I couldn't tell."
"A little bit at the beginning," I shrugged as I poked through the key ring to try and figure out which was for the door, "But acting like you belong does wonders for convincing people you actually do, so they'll believe what you say."
"Remind me to never play Sabacc with you," Chee requested, her tone suggesting she was only half-joking. Her eyes were focused up as she scanned the ceiling.
"You know our Master disapproves of that," I chided her.
The Devaronian girl snorted, a smirk on her face, "The Jedi Code is a little light when it comes to gambling."
"We are supposed to avoid over-indulgence of vices," I replied.
"Stones and glass houses. You lush."
"That was a one-time thing and you know it." I shot back. She was going to hold that over my head for a while.
"Oh sure. But then it'll become a thing you can "drop whenever you feel like it," no?" The fact that her smirk widened meant that my protest was in vain. She finished her scan of the ceiling soon after, "No cameras."
"That's a surprise," I commented, "These guys have some serious kit, but I guess it's all focused in more critical areas like the hangars."
"Or they didn't think it was necessary," Guun suggested, gesturing to the walls around us, "I mean, would they seriously consider that someone could infiltrate this place? Much less three people?"
I paused to think about that. He…kind of had a point. Not only was this planet uncharted in BOSS' databases, the base was hidden in a canyon on a planet filled with them. I'd bet that the base itself had sensor shielding to protect it from casual scans.
Even if someone did find it, they'd have to get past any ships in orbit, the anti-air defenses, the armored blast doors, and the perimeter guards. The only route that didn't get you shot or set off the alarms was slipping in the way we did, which required a level of subtlety that most of the parties involved lacked.
The Pius Dea, and the Republic by extension, very much favored an approach that could be best described as "burn the house down" or "kick in the front door." The mercenaries and slave soldiers that the Hutts typically employed were much the same.
To be fair, the Pius Dea had been more subtle before the reign of Contispex I, but they had quickly thrown it out the door once they gained control of the Chancellorship in favor of the sheer brute force provided by the expansive and very powerful Republic military. The best they did nowadays was hire pirates…sorry, privateers…to attack their enemies' supply lines during the "cold war" periods between crusades.
When taking that into account, this heavily-armed base's existence was downright sneaky by comparison so far as military doctrine went.
"Good point," I acknowledged as I fiddled with the keys, trying one after the other until the lock clicked, "Guun, mind keeping an eye out?"
The large Twi'Lek nodded once as he leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Thanks," I turned to Chee, "You're with me."
She rolled her eyes but fell in line. The Devaronian knew when she could get away with backtalk and this wasn't it.
I quickly pushed the door open and stepped inside. I'd been expecting to see a pair of gloomy Bimm in chains. What I found, was something else.
One of the cousins, who I recognized from the provided pictures as Trillis, was balanced precariously on a stack of chairs as he frantically shoved at a pair of feet sticking out of the overhead vents.
Like all Bimm, he was short, barely capping out at about four feet. However, the short tan fur that covered his body, the long muzzle, the quadradactyl hands, and the big floppy ears that poked out from under his hat showed that he was the otherkind of Bimm.
Differentiating between the two kinds of Bimm was a bit confusing in casual conversation. They were usually just referred to as a single species for simplicity's sake.
Presumably, the one up in the vents was Bannon. Judging from the five toes on his bare feet and lack of visible fur, he appeared to be one of the Near-Human Bimm.
He also appeared to be stuck.
"That's it." Trillis grunted as he shoved, the tower of chairs beneath him wobbling ominously, "When we get out of here, you're going on a diet."
"Aww come on, Trillis!" Bannon whined from the vent, "It's not like you're much better!"
Trillis, as it happened, was thin as a rail.
"Yeah, but I'm not the one who has to fit through a vent."
"That's because you can't pick a lock worth a damn."
It didn't appear they had actually noticed that we'd entered. I glanced at the door we had just passed through, noticing that it only had a keyhole on the outside.
As she stepped in behind me, Chee grinned, showing more than a few sharp teeth, "Can we keep them? I'll take care of them and everything."
"Chee, no." I rapped a knuckle against her forehead.
The younger girl pouted, "You never let me do anything fun."
I decided to refrain from commenting on what she considered "fun." As it was, the sound of our voices had startled the cousins. Trillis whipped around to face us, leaving Bannon's legs dangling as he momentarily forgot the precariousness of his position.
The collapse of the "tower" happened in slow motion…because I used telekinesis to catch everything before it could hit the ground and make a racket while Chee handled Trillis.
"Trillis? Trillis?! What's going on?" Bannon called from the vent, his legs kicking at empty air.
Trillis was a bit too stunned to reply as he was blinking and trying to rationalize how he was floating in mid-air. As such, as soon as I set the chairs down, I reached up with the Force to dislodge Bannon from the vents. It took a little bit of effort, but he soon came loose with a quiet pop and was quickly brought down to the floor to join his cousin.
Now that I could see his face, Bannon looked near identical to his grandfather, only younger and clean-shaven. The only other differences were blue eyes to Carador's brown and his hair was shorter. Like Trillis implied, he had something of a gut.
"Trillas and Bannon? Your grandfather sent us."
Both of the Bimm stared at us in complete silence for a long few seconds. Then, their heads slowly turned to look at each other.
Bannon's mouth curved up into a grin, "Jedi. Called it."
Trillis' shoulders sagged, "I thought the Republic was an even bet."
I looked between the two of them incomprehensibly and I think I made a noise that was something along the lines of a questioning "huh?"
"Oh, we were betting on who would find this place first," Bannon replied as he stood up and brushed off his clothes, "Loser pays for drinks when we get out of here. And I intend to drink until I lose a week."
"Not like there was anything else to do aside from perform from the pirates," Trillis added, a little bit of bitterness in his tone, "Only so many times you can sing ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall before you get sick of it."
"We've tried sneaking out a few times, but there were some places we couldn't get passed without being spotted," The other cousin shrugged, "Being the only two Bimm in the base, we'd get recognized too easily. And probably shot."
"And we like not being shot." Trillas chipped in.
"But…!" Bannon held up a finger and stopped talking for a moment to dart over to a small bundle of blankets in the corner of the room.
I took the chance to crack my neck to alleviate the whiplash from looking back and forth between them.
The Bimm held up his prize triumphantly, which turned out to be a datapad.
"Trillas managed to snag one of their datapads last time and download some unsecured info from a security terminal. We haven't been able to do much with it, but it might be more helpful for you."
"Thanks," I took the datapad and started leafing through it, quickly finding he was right.
For one thing, there was a map, which would make getting around easier. The other were some general announcements for non-officers.
As I poked through it, I continued speaking, "We saw the Muse out in the hangar when we slipped in. Do you know where the rest of your crew is?"
Bannon looked to his cousin, who nodded, "Yeah, they're still here. They're in the main holding cells. Should be about three levels down, but it was too heavily guarded for me to get close." He paused, "Aside from them, there's a lot of people down there. I couldn't get an exact count, but I'd guess anywhere between several dozen to almost a hundred. They all looked like they'd been here for a while. Hard to say how long though."
"Any idea who these pirates are working for?" Chee asked.
"Hutts," Bannon answered, "Definitely the Hutts. The Captain hasn't exactly been quiet about that, so we've heard about it from the other pirates."
"Got anything on this Captain?"
"Not much. Just that he's an Anomid and apparently a real nasty piece of work. Most of the pirates are too scared of him to even say his name." He shrugged, "Only seen him a few times, but he pops in to listen to us perform now and then. Doesn't say a word. Just shows up, and then leaves."
"Hmm…" I hummed, "I guess we'll just have to keep an eye out for him." I glanced at Chee, "Could you switch out with Guun? I need to talk to him."
"Got a plan?" She asked.
"Beginnings of one. Just need to iron out a few details."
"About time somebody did. I was starting to think we were flying Corellian-style here." The Devaronian girl huffed, "Alright, I'll go play guard, but don't take too long."
"Don't worry, Chee, you'll get your chance to misbehave."
"I'll hold you to that, boss." Turning on her heel, she pulled the door open and step out into the quiet hall.
Less than a second later, Guun ducked inside, "You needed something?"
"Yeah, but before that…" I looked at Trillas, "How good are you with computers?"
"I can…sometimes…get to systems I'm not supposed to." He answered evasively, not quite looking me in the eyes.
I smiled, "Good…good…now, here's what we're going to do…"
11,202 BBY
As it turned out, it wasn't that hard. All we had to do was wait for them to be escorted back to their cell when their performance was over a few hours later and follow them.
And by cell, I meant "cell." It was basically just a locked room with only one guard outside. Presumably, the Bimm's "harmless" reputation had worked to their advantage.
The human gave us each a once over as we approached but didn't seem perturbed about our ages or species. As it was, he seemed to barely be staying on his feet. That made things even easier.
"Hey, buddy," I greeted with a smile and just the slightest touch of the Force to nudge him towards being a bit friendlier and more willing to talk, "You look like you're about to drop."
It didn't take much effort to slip into his exhausted mind and he soon had a friendly smile of his own on his face. When he spoke, it was with an unfamiliar accent, "Yeah, been watching the wall for most of the day. Guard duty's boring enough, but the midgets don't try anything. 'Bout as exciting as watching paint dry."
"I'll bet." I agreed, nodding sympathetically, "I mean, why even bother? Bimm don't cause trouble."
Hah.
"Yeah, but gotta guard 'em all the same," He half-grumbled, half-slurred, "If something happened, captain'll have the head of whoever's on shift."
"I think the captain'll have your head anyways if you fall asleep on your feet," I pointed out, making sure to avoid guessing the "captain's" gender while weaving a bit of the Force to encourage his exhaustion.
It took a moment for his tired mind to muddle through it before he grimaced when he realized I was right.
"Uhh…" He groaned and thumped his head against the wall to try to keep himself awake, "Don't remind me."
I gave his shoulder a friendly pat, "Look, I don't want anyone losing their heads." I gestured to myself, Guun, and Chee, "We could take over guard duty so you can get some shut eye. We don't have much to do and it'll be three sets of fresh eyes instead of one tired pair."
"I don't know…" the guard replied hesitantly, chewing on his lip as he thought it over.
I waited for him to make his decision, refraining from influencing him any further. He didn't really need it at this point as his eyelids were drooping more and more every second. At the rate he was going, he'd be asleep before he made his decision.
"Alright, fine," He finally agreed, "But if anything happens, you're getting the blame."
"Of course," I nodded, "Now get going, or you'll be asleep before you can get to your bunk."
The guard grumbled something under his breath before handing me the keys and walking off. And it was an actual key ring with collection of metal keys that clinked together when I moved them.
When he was safely out of earshot, Guun took up position next to the door and muttered, "I can't believe that worked. Did you…"convince" him at all? I couldn't tell."
"A little bit at the beginning," I shrugged as I poked through the key ring to try and figure out which was for the door, "But acting like you belong does wonders for convincing people you actually do, so they'll believe what you say."
"Remind me to never play Sabacc with you," Chee requested, her tone suggesting she was only half-joking. Her eyes were focused up as she scanned the ceiling.
"You know our Master disapproves of that," I chided her.
The Devaronian girl snorted, a smirk on her face, "The Jedi Code is a little light when it comes to gambling."
"We are supposed to avoid over-indulgence of vices," I replied.
"Stones and glass houses. You lush."
"That was a one-time thing and you know it." I shot back. She was going to hold that over my head for a while.
"Oh sure. But then it'll become a thing you can "drop whenever you feel like it," no?" The fact that her smirk widened meant that my protest was in vain. She finished her scan of the ceiling soon after, "No cameras."
"That's a surprise," I commented, "These guys have some serious kit, but I guess it's all focused in more critical areas like the hangars."
"Or they didn't think it was necessary," Guun suggested, gesturing to the walls around us, "I mean, would they seriously consider that someone could infiltrate this place? Much less three people?"
I paused to think about that. He…kind of had a point. Not only was this planet uncharted in BOSS' databases, the base was hidden in a canyon on a planet filled with them. I'd bet that the base itself had sensor shielding to protect it from casual scans.
Even if someone did find it, they'd have to get past any ships in orbit, the anti-air defenses, the armored blast doors, and the perimeter guards. The only route that didn't get you shot or set off the alarms was slipping in the way we did, which required a level of subtlety that most of the parties involved lacked.
The Pius Dea, and the Republic by extension, very much favored an approach that could be best described as "burn the house down" or "kick in the front door." The mercenaries and slave soldiers that the Hutts typically employed were much the same.
To be fair, the Pius Dea had been more subtle before the reign of Contispex I, but they had quickly thrown it out the door once they gained control of the Chancellorship in favor of the sheer brute force provided by the expansive and very powerful Republic military. The best they did nowadays was hire pirates…sorry, privateers…to attack their enemies' supply lines during the "cold war" periods between crusades.
When taking that into account, this heavily-armed base's existence was downright sneaky by comparison so far as military doctrine went.
"Good point," I acknowledged as I fiddled with the keys, trying one after the other until the lock clicked, "Guun, mind keeping an eye out?"
The large Twi'Lek nodded once as he leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Thanks," I turned to Chee, "You're with me."
She rolled her eyes but fell in line. The Devaronian knew when she could get away with backtalk and this wasn't it.
I quickly pushed the door open and stepped inside. I'd been expecting to see a pair of gloomy Bimm in chains. What I found, was something else.
One of the cousins, who I recognized from the provided pictures as Trillis, was balanced precariously on a stack of chairs as he frantically shoved at a pair of feet sticking out of the overhead vents.
Like all Bimm, he was short, barely capping out at about four feet. However, the short tan fur that covered his body, the long muzzle, the quadradactyl hands, and the big floppy ears that poked out from under his hat showed that he was the otherkind of Bimm.
Differentiating between the two kinds of Bimm was a bit confusing in casual conversation. They were usually just referred to as a single species for simplicity's sake.
Presumably, the one up in the vents was Bannon. Judging from the five toes on his bare feet and lack of visible fur, he appeared to be one of the Near-Human Bimm.
He also appeared to be stuck.
"That's it." Trillis grunted as he shoved, the tower of chairs beneath him wobbling ominously, "When we get out of here, you're going on a diet."
"Aww come on, Trillis!" Bannon whined from the vent, "It's not like you're much better!"
Trillis, as it happened, was thin as a rail.
"Yeah, but I'm not the one who has to fit through a vent."
"That's because you can't pick a lock worth a damn."
It didn't appear they had actually noticed that we'd entered. I glanced at the door we had just passed through, noticing that it only had a keyhole on the outside.
As she stepped in behind me, Chee grinned, showing more than a few sharp teeth, "Can we keep them? I'll take care of them and everything."
"Chee, no." I rapped a knuckle against her forehead.
The younger girl pouted, "You never let me do anything fun."
I decided to refrain from commenting on what she considered "fun." As it was, the sound of our voices had startled the cousins. Trillis whipped around to face us, leaving Bannon's legs dangling as he momentarily forgot the precariousness of his position.
The collapse of the "tower" happened in slow motion…because I used telekinesis to catch everything before it could hit the ground and make a racket while Chee handled Trillis.
"Trillis? Trillis?! What's going on?" Bannon called from the vent, his legs kicking at empty air.
Trillis was a bit too stunned to reply as he was blinking and trying to rationalize how he was floating in mid-air. As such, as soon as I set the chairs down, I reached up with the Force to dislodge Bannon from the vents. It took a little bit of effort, but he soon came loose with a quiet pop and was quickly brought down to the floor to join his cousin.
Now that I could see his face, Bannon looked near identical to his grandfather, only younger and clean-shaven. The only other differences were blue eyes to Carador's brown and his hair was shorter. Like Trillis implied, he had something of a gut.
"Trillas and Bannon? Your grandfather sent us."
Both of the Bimm stared at us in complete silence for a long few seconds. Then, their heads slowly turned to look at each other.
Bannon's mouth curved up into a grin, "Jedi. Called it."
Trillis' shoulders sagged, "I thought the Republic was an even bet."
I looked between the two of them incomprehensibly and I think I made a noise that was something along the lines of a questioning "huh?"
"Oh, we were betting on who would find this place first," Bannon replied as he stood up and brushed off his clothes, "Loser pays for drinks when we get out of here. And I intend to drink until I lose a week."
"Not like there was anything else to do aside from perform from the pirates," Trillis added, a little bit of bitterness in his tone, "Only so many times you can sing ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall before you get sick of it."
"We've tried sneaking out a few times, but there were some places we couldn't get passed without being spotted," The other cousin shrugged, "Being the only two Bimm in the base, we'd get recognized too easily. And probably shot."
"And we like not being shot." Trillas chipped in.
"But…!" Bannon held up a finger and stopped talking for a moment to dart over to a small bundle of blankets in the corner of the room.
I took the chance to crack my neck to alleviate the whiplash from looking back and forth between them.
The Bimm held up his prize triumphantly, which turned out to be a datapad.
"Trillas managed to snag one of their datapads last time and download some unsecured info from a security terminal. We haven't been able to do much with it, but it might be more helpful for you."
"Thanks," I took the datapad and started leafing through it, quickly finding he was right.
For one thing, there was a map, which would make getting around easier. The other were some general announcements for non-officers.
As I poked through it, I continued speaking, "We saw the Muse out in the hangar when we slipped in. Do you know where the rest of your crew is?"
Bannon looked to his cousin, who nodded, "Yeah, they're still here. They're in the main holding cells. Should be about three levels down, but it was too heavily guarded for me to get close." He paused, "Aside from them, there's a lot of people down there. I couldn't get an exact count, but I'd guess anywhere between several dozen to almost a hundred. They all looked like they'd been here for a while. Hard to say how long though."
"Any idea who these pirates are working for?" Chee asked.
"Hutts," Bannon answered, "Definitely the Hutts. The Captain hasn't exactly been quiet about that, so we've heard about it from the other pirates."
"Got anything on this Captain?"
"Not much. Just that he's an Anomid and apparently a real nasty piece of work. Most of the pirates are too scared of him to even say his name." He shrugged, "Only seen him a few times, but he pops in to listen to us perform now and then. Doesn't say a word. Just shows up, and then leaves."
"Hmm…" I hummed, "I guess we'll just have to keep an eye out for him." I glanced at Chee, "Could you switch out with Guun? I need to talk to him."
"Got a plan?" She asked.
"Beginnings of one. Just need to iron out a few details."
"About time somebody did. I was starting to think we were flying Corellian-style here." The Devaronian girl huffed, "Alright, I'll go play guard, but don't take too long."
"Don't worry, Chee, you'll get your chance to misbehave."
"I'll hold you to that, boss." Turning on her heel, she pulled the door open and step out into the quiet hall.
Less than a second later, Guun ducked inside, "You needed something?"
"Yeah, but before that…" I looked at Trillas, "How good are you with computers?"
"I can…sometimes…get to systems I'm not supposed to." He answered evasively, not quite looking me in the eyes.
I smiled, "Good…good…now, here's what we're going to do…"
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- Location
- Christchurch, NZ
I'm always somewhat amused by the prevalence of slicing ability in Star Wars. Imagine what the world would look like if you personally knew like three people who could hack into banks or whatever!
How many of us in real life are high stakes agents of orders of space wizards who are fighting against evil? If that's your profession, you cultivate skills useful in that profession and make friends with people that have similar or related skills.
- Location
- North Carolina
Guun is already a decent slicer (though Talas is better). Lucius was mostly interested in getting more hands on the job if possible and Trillas had been mentioned as knowing his way around computers only a few minutes before.
- Location
- Christchurch, NZ
Jedi slicers are fairly rare, and i don't have a problem with all of them being at least ok at it. The bit where I'm amused is where nobody is surprised by a random trader being able to slice, this story or otherwise!
To be clear, this isn't a complaint, it's pretty canon-typical and not generally a problem story-wise, but it just makes me imagine how terrible the security review procedures must be, and how much spam everyone on the Holonet must get (maybe that's why nobody uses email in Star Wars?)
- Location
- North Carolina
I suppose it just kind of goes part and parcel with the high tech of the setting. Everyone needs at least basic competency in particular skills to get by in real life, which broadens or changes as the tech base and education level increases. Hell, the average person today would probably have been considered a polymath about 200 years ago simply because even the basic education we get now is more diverse and comprehensive than was available back then.
- Location
- Midwest
It's just a conceit of the series. There will always be some manner of rogue at some point.
Chapter 8
- Location
- North Carolina
Chapter 8
11,202 BBY
I hummed a nameless tune under my breath as I walked down the corridor, looking for all the world like I belonged. Most of the pirates that passed by didn't do more than glance at me, though a Nikto had given me a second look and scrunched up his face as though he was trying to remember where he'd seen me before, though he shrugged and gave up soon after.
When no one was looking, I allowed myself to smile a little.
From what the Bimm cousins had told us, there were easily close to several thousand personnel in this base. Despite the comparatively high numbers, it actually worked in our favor at the moment.
It's theorized that while the average humanoid could remember somewhere around ten thousand faces over the course of a lifetime, they could only consciously recall somewhere around half that, though not to the point of remembering details such as names or where they had seen them before. Combined with the concept of Dunbar's number, that meant that most of the inhabitants of the base wouldn't immediately recognize every single pirate they came across until they thought to go check records, which would be highly unlikely.
These pirates were organized…but not that organized. I doubted that they kept track of more than basic numbers.
Ahead of me, a freight elevator opened up, disgorging a handful of workers operating a heavy grav sled. I barely paused before moving down further the corridor in the direction of one of the other hangars.
From my little walking tour, it was pretty obvious that this base wasn't some slapdash operation. It was far too extensive and fortified for that. Multiple levels dug into the bedrock with heavy industrial equipment, heavy emplacements guarding the outside, well-stocked armories with high-end weaponry…This place was ready for a siege.
It wasn't something that could be set up quickly, likely making it a base that was established during the last Crusade as a headquarters or outpost for pirates that were harassing the Republic lines. But now that the Twenty-Second Crusade was over, the Republic had control of the hyperspace route and supplied it with regular patrols, meaning most of the pirates' resources were tied up here.
Not only were they unable to go out in large numbers without being detected by a Republic battlegroup, they couldn't be reinforced or resupplied by the Hutts. The only thing that protected them was that their base was not on a planet charted by the BOSS, but it was also slowly killing them.
Keeping to the edges of the room, I scanned the ships docked here. As this hangar was much more massive than the one we had landed in, it could accommodate larger ships. In particular, I had my eye on the four eight-hundred-meter Hutt heavy cruisers that were currently grounded. There were only a few technicians milling about outside, but I was sure there were more on the ships themselves. Every now and again, forklifts would move large crates inside of the ships before coming back for more.
The pirates were mostly grounded…but it looked like they were planning a break-out soon. They had to. They were hemorrhaging resources the longer they stayed and raiding small merchant ships wasn't enough to keep them fed and stocked on supplies for this many men. Anomids weren't known for being dumb, so the Captain had likely already seen that the circumstances were perfect for a brewing mutiny.
That meant we needed to move before they did or we'd lose our chance.
As though it had sensed my thoughts, my comm buzzed. Rather than pull out the holocommunicator and give away that I was doing something I shouldn't, I placed an earbud into my left ear.
"Yeah?"
"Security room's ours, Lucius," Guun reported quietly, likely to keep his voice from carrying outside the security room.
"Did you have any problems?" I asked, keeping my voice just as low as I vacated the hangar in favor of a nearby supply closet.
"No, just had to deal with three guards. They're tied up and taking a long nap. They didn't have a chance to log out," He replied. I could hear the light clicking of keys as he used the interface, "Sending you full access codes…now."
"You Jedi are kind of scary…" I heard Trillas murmur in the background just as my datapad pinged softly, letting me know the data transfer had happened, "The good scary, but still scary."
"Only when we need to be," The big Twi'Lek assured him before turning his attention back to me, "Unfortunately, we've hit a snag. The anti-air cannons aren't computer controlled."
"Damn," I muttered, "But…it's nothing we can't overcome. If we disable the base reactor before we go, we should be in the clear."
It didn't really matter what kind of guns they were, mass driver or laser cannon. If the power was cut, they couldn't fire. And we couldn't just shut it off. We had to really break it so they couldn't just turn it back on again.
"I've managed to get control of their supply manifests. I haven't found our missing cargo yet, but I'll keep looking," Guun promised, "In the meantime…" He paused, followed by a more typing, "Alright, we've got full control. Internal cameras and automated defenses are ours. You guys just have to deal with the pirates now."
Alright, phase one of my plan was finished. It wasn't a very complicated plan, but that was just fine with me. The less moving parts it had, the less things that could fail.
I was about to speak again, but I heard footsteps outside the door. I unconsciously sucked in a breath as I heard voices, though they passed quickly. After they had passed beyond my senses, I continued.
"Any word from Chee?"
"Not ye-Wait," I couldn't see his face, but I could imagine he had just blinked in surprise as a beep sounded off across the link, "That's her now. Hang on, I'll patch her in."
For a moment, all I heard was static as the connection widened to include the Devaronian girl, "Alright, I'm pretty much done on my end."
"What did you find?" I think I could guess, but I just wanted confirmation from her.
"Oh, you're on here too, boss?" Chee remarked, "Well, I found a lotta guns. Heavy and small arms mostly, but I found a bunch of blasters and explosives too. Most of it's packed up in crates, so not a lot left on the shelves. Guess they're moving it all."
"Yeah, I just watched some techs loading a bunch of cargo into a couple cruisers. I think they're gonna bug out soon." I hummed, "When you say explosives, are we talking just grenades? Or is there demolition gear there too?"
If nothing else, there might have been some mining explosives left over from when they carved this place out. If we could set up a remote detonated explosive pack at the reactor, we could blow it right before we needed to leave.
"Gimme a sec…" I heard some rustling on her end as she opened up a crate, "Oh." She paused, "Oh yeah. Lotta detonite. Like an "I'm now kind of scared to handle this crate" amount of detonite."
"Isn't detonite supposed to be really stable?"
"Yeah, for the first ten years. After that, you're playing Corellian Roulette." Chee shot back. She actually sounded a little freaked out, "I don't know how old this stuff is and the Hutts didn't exactly print an expiration date on it. For all we know, this is second-hand gear the slugs had stashed away for a century or two."
"Can you work with it?" I asked.
"Depends on what you need blown up."
"We need to knock out the reactor before we leave," I explained quickly.
Chee chuckled nervously, "Then you definitely don't want detonite. Electrical discharges or leaking radiation can set it off prematurely, even if the stuff's fresh. I know Jedi aren't supposed to get hung up on attachments, but I'm kind of attached to staying in one piece," There was some more shuffling around and she dug into another crate, "Uhh…Alright, looks like there some mining caps in here too. Not as much bang, but it's harder to set off accidentally. Should be enough to trash the reactor though."
Once again, I had to wonder what kind of childhood resulted in someone being a qualified demolitionist before they hit puberty.
"That'll work," I nodded to myself, "Alright, grab however much you need for the job along with as many crates of weapons and ammo as you can before locking down the armory. After that, meet me at freight elevator…" I paused to consult my map, "two-Cresh."
With luck, she'll just look like one of the many other teenagers being used for menial tasks. If not…well, I almost felt sorry for what she'd do to them.
"Been doing that anyways," Chee replied with a grunt, likely hauling crates onto a grav sled, "See you in a few."
As her connection cut, Trillis piped up, "Hey, Jedi, err…Lucius was it?"
"That's right. Is something wrong?" I inquired. Force, I hoped not. The plan had barely started.
"Not really, just wanted to tell you that Bannon just contacted me and said he was headed your way. Said something about not wanting to sit around twiddling his thumbs all day," The Bimm informed me. There was something else that he didn't say but was implied in his tone.
"I'll keep an eye on him," I promised.
After being cooped up in chains for a few days, I wouldn't deny either Bimm the chance to feel like they were being useful in their own rescue. Besides, he might be able to help.
I exited the storage closet and made my way back to the freight elevator to wait for Chee and Bannon to get there. I wasn't there long before the first arrived.
If I wasn't able to enhance my senses with the Force, I would never have heard him coming. Bannon's bare feet padded softly on the stone floor almost soundlessly as the short, pudgy humanoid kept to the shadows, only darting out into the light when absolutely necessary.
He nodded wordlessly to me when he noticed that I'd spotted him, a serious expression on his face that didn't quite suit him, before hunkering down behind some crates to hide from casual passersby. If the Bimm was still tired from his performance for the pirates earlier, he didn't show it.
Soon, I could hear the hum of a grav sled and the footsteps of someone that wasn't trying to hide.
"So what's the plan, boss?" Chee asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Though her usual swagger was back, I could tell she was still a bit shaken.
"First, tell me what's what," I nodded at the six crates piled on the grav sled.
She pointed to the bottom two crates, "Those are rifles. All the same kind and around fifty per crate." Her hand raised to the next two, "Rifle ammo. Four hundred magazines in each box." Then the last two, "One is pistols, the other is pistol ammo. Didn't bother counting how many pistols, but there's four hundred magazines."
"Alright, that should be plenty. I'll take this down with me to the detention level," I informed her, "While Bannon and I are freeing and arming the prisoners, I need you to head to the reactor room and do what you do best. Otherwise, we're not getting out of here in one piece."
The Devaronian hesitated only for a moment before grunting, "Yeah, got it." She forced a smirk on her face, "Shouldn't take me long. Who knows, I might be able to help you with your prison break."
"We'll see," I smiled as we headed into the freight elevator.
It was a short trip down as we were only going down three floors.
As Chee gave us a sarcastic salute and the elevator doors shut behind us, I turned to Bannon, "Did Trillis say how many guards are down here?"
The Bimm shook his head, "He said he saw six, but he couldn't get closer."
I nodded and tapped my earpiece, "Guun? How many guards am I looking at down here?"
"I see fifteen on cameras. There might be more in some side rooms, but that should be most of them."
"Thanks." I switched the comm back off, "Well, guess we should get started."
===============================
It was actually easier than I expected. Most of the guards were more distracted with keeping themselves entertained than keeping watch over their prisoners or staying alert for intruders. One by one, we either ambushed them and knocked them out or Mind Tricked them to sleep.
When the last one was secured, we focused our attention on the holding cells.
After examining the contents, I looked at my companion, "Didn't your cousin say there were a few dozen people in here?"
Bannon was silent for a moment before quietly admitting, "…Trillis always did suck at speed counting."
The real number of prisoners was actually several hundred.
"Well, judging from what I just saw, I've got a sneaking suspicious that you're not with our jailors."
My head followed the voice, eventually landing on a tall, broad-shouldered man leaning bodily against the bars. His brown hair was long and ragged, his pale face covered in uneven stubble, and he was in desperate need of a shower. The tattered remains of a red-and-gold uniform hung from his well-muscled frame.
Many of the other prisoner wore similar clothes in varying states of disarray. Notably, a large majority of them were human or Near-Human.
"You would be correct," I answered cautiously.
"Great!" The man beamed, exposing teeth that had gone yellow from lack of care, "The name's Captain Havim bel Iblis, Republic Navy. I don't suppose you'd be kind enough to let us out?"
11,202 BBY
I hummed a nameless tune under my breath as I walked down the corridor, looking for all the world like I belonged. Most of the pirates that passed by didn't do more than glance at me, though a Nikto had given me a second look and scrunched up his face as though he was trying to remember where he'd seen me before, though he shrugged and gave up soon after.
When no one was looking, I allowed myself to smile a little.
From what the Bimm cousins had told us, there were easily close to several thousand personnel in this base. Despite the comparatively high numbers, it actually worked in our favor at the moment.
It's theorized that while the average humanoid could remember somewhere around ten thousand faces over the course of a lifetime, they could only consciously recall somewhere around half that, though not to the point of remembering details such as names or where they had seen them before. Combined with the concept of Dunbar's number, that meant that most of the inhabitants of the base wouldn't immediately recognize every single pirate they came across until they thought to go check records, which would be highly unlikely.
These pirates were organized…but not that organized. I doubted that they kept track of more than basic numbers.
Ahead of me, a freight elevator opened up, disgorging a handful of workers operating a heavy grav sled. I barely paused before moving down further the corridor in the direction of one of the other hangars.
From my little walking tour, it was pretty obvious that this base wasn't some slapdash operation. It was far too extensive and fortified for that. Multiple levels dug into the bedrock with heavy industrial equipment, heavy emplacements guarding the outside, well-stocked armories with high-end weaponry…This place was ready for a siege.
It wasn't something that could be set up quickly, likely making it a base that was established during the last Crusade as a headquarters or outpost for pirates that were harassing the Republic lines. But now that the Twenty-Second Crusade was over, the Republic had control of the hyperspace route and supplied it with regular patrols, meaning most of the pirates' resources were tied up here.
Not only were they unable to go out in large numbers without being detected by a Republic battlegroup, they couldn't be reinforced or resupplied by the Hutts. The only thing that protected them was that their base was not on a planet charted by the BOSS, but it was also slowly killing them.
Keeping to the edges of the room, I scanned the ships docked here. As this hangar was much more massive than the one we had landed in, it could accommodate larger ships. In particular, I had my eye on the four eight-hundred-meter Hutt heavy cruisers that were currently grounded. There were only a few technicians milling about outside, but I was sure there were more on the ships themselves. Every now and again, forklifts would move large crates inside of the ships before coming back for more.
The pirates were mostly grounded…but it looked like they were planning a break-out soon. They had to. They were hemorrhaging resources the longer they stayed and raiding small merchant ships wasn't enough to keep them fed and stocked on supplies for this many men. Anomids weren't known for being dumb, so the Captain had likely already seen that the circumstances were perfect for a brewing mutiny.
That meant we needed to move before they did or we'd lose our chance.
As though it had sensed my thoughts, my comm buzzed. Rather than pull out the holocommunicator and give away that I was doing something I shouldn't, I placed an earbud into my left ear.
"Yeah?"
"Security room's ours, Lucius," Guun reported quietly, likely to keep his voice from carrying outside the security room.
"Did you have any problems?" I asked, keeping my voice just as low as I vacated the hangar in favor of a nearby supply closet.
"No, just had to deal with three guards. They're tied up and taking a long nap. They didn't have a chance to log out," He replied. I could hear the light clicking of keys as he used the interface, "Sending you full access codes…now."
"You Jedi are kind of scary…" I heard Trillas murmur in the background just as my datapad pinged softly, letting me know the data transfer had happened, "The good scary, but still scary."
"Only when we need to be," The big Twi'Lek assured him before turning his attention back to me, "Unfortunately, we've hit a snag. The anti-air cannons aren't computer controlled."
"Damn," I muttered, "But…it's nothing we can't overcome. If we disable the base reactor before we go, we should be in the clear."
It didn't really matter what kind of guns they were, mass driver or laser cannon. If the power was cut, they couldn't fire. And we couldn't just shut it off. We had to really break it so they couldn't just turn it back on again.
"I've managed to get control of their supply manifests. I haven't found our missing cargo yet, but I'll keep looking," Guun promised, "In the meantime…" He paused, followed by a more typing, "Alright, we've got full control. Internal cameras and automated defenses are ours. You guys just have to deal with the pirates now."
Alright, phase one of my plan was finished. It wasn't a very complicated plan, but that was just fine with me. The less moving parts it had, the less things that could fail.
I was about to speak again, but I heard footsteps outside the door. I unconsciously sucked in a breath as I heard voices, though they passed quickly. After they had passed beyond my senses, I continued.
"Any word from Chee?"
"Not ye-Wait," I couldn't see his face, but I could imagine he had just blinked in surprise as a beep sounded off across the link, "That's her now. Hang on, I'll patch her in."
For a moment, all I heard was static as the connection widened to include the Devaronian girl, "Alright, I'm pretty much done on my end."
"What did you find?" I think I could guess, but I just wanted confirmation from her.
"Oh, you're on here too, boss?" Chee remarked, "Well, I found a lotta guns. Heavy and small arms mostly, but I found a bunch of blasters and explosives too. Most of it's packed up in crates, so not a lot left on the shelves. Guess they're moving it all."
"Yeah, I just watched some techs loading a bunch of cargo into a couple cruisers. I think they're gonna bug out soon." I hummed, "When you say explosives, are we talking just grenades? Or is there demolition gear there too?"
If nothing else, there might have been some mining explosives left over from when they carved this place out. If we could set up a remote detonated explosive pack at the reactor, we could blow it right before we needed to leave.
"Gimme a sec…" I heard some rustling on her end as she opened up a crate, "Oh." She paused, "Oh yeah. Lotta detonite. Like an "I'm now kind of scared to handle this crate" amount of detonite."
"Isn't detonite supposed to be really stable?"
"Yeah, for the first ten years. After that, you're playing Corellian Roulette." Chee shot back. She actually sounded a little freaked out, "I don't know how old this stuff is and the Hutts didn't exactly print an expiration date on it. For all we know, this is second-hand gear the slugs had stashed away for a century or two."
"Can you work with it?" I asked.
"Depends on what you need blown up."
"We need to knock out the reactor before we leave," I explained quickly.
Chee chuckled nervously, "Then you definitely don't want detonite. Electrical discharges or leaking radiation can set it off prematurely, even if the stuff's fresh. I know Jedi aren't supposed to get hung up on attachments, but I'm kind of attached to staying in one piece," There was some more shuffling around and she dug into another crate, "Uhh…Alright, looks like there some mining caps in here too. Not as much bang, but it's harder to set off accidentally. Should be enough to trash the reactor though."
Once again, I had to wonder what kind of childhood resulted in someone being a qualified demolitionist before they hit puberty.
"That'll work," I nodded to myself, "Alright, grab however much you need for the job along with as many crates of weapons and ammo as you can before locking down the armory. After that, meet me at freight elevator…" I paused to consult my map, "two-Cresh."
With luck, she'll just look like one of the many other teenagers being used for menial tasks. If not…well, I almost felt sorry for what she'd do to them.
"Been doing that anyways," Chee replied with a grunt, likely hauling crates onto a grav sled, "See you in a few."
As her connection cut, Trillis piped up, "Hey, Jedi, err…Lucius was it?"
"That's right. Is something wrong?" I inquired. Force, I hoped not. The plan had barely started.
"Not really, just wanted to tell you that Bannon just contacted me and said he was headed your way. Said something about not wanting to sit around twiddling his thumbs all day," The Bimm informed me. There was something else that he didn't say but was implied in his tone.
"I'll keep an eye on him," I promised.
After being cooped up in chains for a few days, I wouldn't deny either Bimm the chance to feel like they were being useful in their own rescue. Besides, he might be able to help.
I exited the storage closet and made my way back to the freight elevator to wait for Chee and Bannon to get there. I wasn't there long before the first arrived.
If I wasn't able to enhance my senses with the Force, I would never have heard him coming. Bannon's bare feet padded softly on the stone floor almost soundlessly as the short, pudgy humanoid kept to the shadows, only darting out into the light when absolutely necessary.
He nodded wordlessly to me when he noticed that I'd spotted him, a serious expression on his face that didn't quite suit him, before hunkering down behind some crates to hide from casual passersby. If the Bimm was still tired from his performance for the pirates earlier, he didn't show it.
Soon, I could hear the hum of a grav sled and the footsteps of someone that wasn't trying to hide.
"So what's the plan, boss?" Chee asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Though her usual swagger was back, I could tell she was still a bit shaken.
"First, tell me what's what," I nodded at the six crates piled on the grav sled.
She pointed to the bottom two crates, "Those are rifles. All the same kind and around fifty per crate." Her hand raised to the next two, "Rifle ammo. Four hundred magazines in each box." Then the last two, "One is pistols, the other is pistol ammo. Didn't bother counting how many pistols, but there's four hundred magazines."
"Alright, that should be plenty. I'll take this down with me to the detention level," I informed her, "While Bannon and I are freeing and arming the prisoners, I need you to head to the reactor room and do what you do best. Otherwise, we're not getting out of here in one piece."
The Devaronian hesitated only for a moment before grunting, "Yeah, got it." She forced a smirk on her face, "Shouldn't take me long. Who knows, I might be able to help you with your prison break."
"We'll see," I smiled as we headed into the freight elevator.
It was a short trip down as we were only going down three floors.
As Chee gave us a sarcastic salute and the elevator doors shut behind us, I turned to Bannon, "Did Trillis say how many guards are down here?"
The Bimm shook his head, "He said he saw six, but he couldn't get closer."
I nodded and tapped my earpiece, "Guun? How many guards am I looking at down here?"
"I see fifteen on cameras. There might be more in some side rooms, but that should be most of them."
"Thanks." I switched the comm back off, "Well, guess we should get started."
===============================
It was actually easier than I expected. Most of the guards were more distracted with keeping themselves entertained than keeping watch over their prisoners or staying alert for intruders. One by one, we either ambushed them and knocked them out or Mind Tricked them to sleep.
When the last one was secured, we focused our attention on the holding cells.
After examining the contents, I looked at my companion, "Didn't your cousin say there were a few dozen people in here?"
Bannon was silent for a moment before quietly admitting, "…Trillis always did suck at speed counting."
The real number of prisoners was actually several hundred.
"Well, judging from what I just saw, I've got a sneaking suspicious that you're not with our jailors."
My head followed the voice, eventually landing on a tall, broad-shouldered man leaning bodily against the bars. His brown hair was long and ragged, his pale face covered in uneven stubble, and he was in desperate need of a shower. The tattered remains of a red-and-gold uniform hung from his well-muscled frame.
Many of the other prisoner wore similar clothes in varying states of disarray. Notably, a large majority of them were human or Near-Human.
"You would be correct," I answered cautiously.
"Great!" The man beamed, exposing teeth that had gone yellow from lack of care, "The name's Captain Havim bel Iblis, Republic Navy. I don't suppose you'd be kind enough to let us out?"
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- Location
- LEO
Lol. I want to see the facial gymnastics.
Being a Jedi sucks. You get these damn situations where doing the right thing and helping (relatively) innocent people is just going to make your life sooooo fucking difficult.
Warlord01
Who said anything about plan?!
- Location
- Terra - Europa - Land of milk and honey.
- Pronouns
- He, him
Hmm... just a coincidence surely. Absolutely no relation to Garm bel Iblis.
Otherwise great as usual.
Devildog Satan's family goes waaaaaay back.
Over 10,000 years if I'm not mistaken.
Chapter 9
- Location
- North Carolina
Chapter 9
11,202 BBY
Well, this complicated things, to put it lightly. Dozens of pairs of eyes turned to look at us as their owners stood up, life and hope flowing back into them. It was to the point I could actually see it, as opposed to simply sensing it.
"Possibly," I answered vaguely, not entirely sure about it now that I knew who they were, "But first…"
Bannon cut me off by shouting into the crowd, "Talon, Vikki, Mikki! You guys in there?!"
I could see something big and white stand up in the back of the cell, though it was still too dark to make out clearly what it was, and I heard some kind of strange warble in response to Bannon's call. Beside it, two pairs of blue striped white "horns" poked up into the air as their owners started pushing through the crowd to get to the front.
As they stepped into the light, the large mound of white fur turned out to be a Talz, who loomed over my head by about a foot. The tall alien's appearance surprised me mostly because I didn't think there were any of their species off their homeworld.
Its larger pair of bulbous black eyes were open, giving me a glance before they focused on the diminutive man next to me. It, and I only used that pronoun because I had no idea how to tell gender, warbled something in greeting and its face crinkled up in what I could only guess was an expression of happiness.
Beside it, a pair of Togruta stood pressed against the bars with matching wide grins on their faces. A male and a female, they looked nearly identical aside from…well, obvious gender differences. They had the same face shape, the same orange skin with white facial markings and blue striped white montrals, similar thin builds, and similar heights. They were even dressed nearly the same.
"About time, Captain." The male Togruta ribbed good-naturedly, "We were starting to think you'd forgotten us."
Huh. Guess that established which of the cousins was in charge, though I suspected it was something closer to a co-captainship.
The tension that had been building in Bannon's shoulders earlier started to ease now that he could see his crew as a smile of his own spread, "Well, you know how things are, Mikki. The boys upstairs were a demanding audience. Trillis and I only just now got away."
If the male was Mikki, that would likely make the female Vikki and the Talz Talon.
Curiously, most of the Republic soldiers barely gave the aliens a glance other than to get out of the way, though I guess they'd be much more concerned with the possibility of getting out than indulging in casual racism.
Havim watched without saying a word, though his face said more than enough as his smile faded a bit.
The Bimm shook his head, "Anyways, lets get you guys out of there. We need to get moving before the pirates figure out something's wrong." He glanced up at me, "You have the codes for the door, right?"
All of the eyes within sight and some I couldn't see shifted to stare at me as he said that.
"Yeah," I said, pulling out my datapad and subtly gulping down my uncertainty, "Give me a second."
In the end, it wasn't even a choice. I entered the codes and the cell doors swung open. While Bannon's crew rushed out, the other prisoners didn't move at first, looking around as though they expected pirates to pop out of the walls.
Captain Havim walked out first, exuding confidence with each step. The tall Corellian stopped in front of me and looked square into my eyes, "I suppose you have a plan?"
"I did, but I might need to change a few things," I said far more calmly than I was actually feeling, "In the meantime, can I interest you and your men in some guns?"
I pointed in the general direction of the grav sled, now visible to the good captain.
The savage, tooth-baring grin that he flashed would have sent a rancor running, soon mirrored by the soldiers now gathering behind him that had heard my words, "I thought you'd never ask."
Turning back to his soldiers, Havim bellowed and thrust a fist into the air, "Boys and girls, we've all been so good this year that all our birthdays came early! Form up into squads and lock 'n load!"
The cheer that rippled through the crowd and cries of "thank the Goddess" sent a shiver down my spine.
Chee was going to be pissed.
==================================================
Chee was indeed pissed when she came back up the lift and found out just who the prisoners worked for. However, she kept her mouth shut and contented herself alternating between glaring at the soldiers and glaring at me. So long as she didn't start anything, I was content to leave it be until we got out of here.
All around us, soldiers were gearing up with whatever they could get. We only had enough rifles for around a third of them, so the rest had to make do with sidearms or whatever they could scavenge. A few speedy souls had managed to secure the weapons of the tied-up guards before anyone else could, while others broke off pipes and table legs to use as clubs.
The officers organized everything with a practiced hand, ensuring that each squad had at least one person with a rifle between them and enough ammo for everyone.
"How did you all get here?" I asked, if only to fill the time while everyone was loading up.
"Probably not much different than your alien friends did. Got captured by these slugsuckers and locked in cages," Havim answered as he looked down the sights of his pistol. Most of the officers had chosen to arm themselves with only pistols and let better shots have first dibs on the rifles, "Our ship, the Star of Corellia, was shot down over Galidraan after a general retreat had been ordered. After the crash, that Anomid bastard and his crew plucked up the survivors."
"Do you know how long you've all been here?" The fighting in the Twenty-Second Crusade had been pretty chaotic, with lines of battle changing every few days as pushes were made and either succeeded or were forced back. Galidraan had been fought over multiple times.
"Hard to say," He grimaced, "Down here where we can't see the sun, the days just kind of blurred together. I think I counted two standard months before losing track. Why, do you know?"
If he and his crew had been part of the active fighting…
It was my turn to grimace in sympathy, "I'm sorry to say it, but you've been stuck here for longer than you thought. The Twenty-Second Crusade ended about a year ago, give or take a month."
He stopped, finally taking his eyes off his gun, "That long, huh?" At my nod, he started muttering under his breath in what I assumed was some Corellian dialect that I didn't recognize, "Damn, no wonder no one came looking. They'd have thought we were dead or worse."
"Why did they keep so many of you for so long? To sell?"
Havim nodded, "Got it in one. Apparently, Republic soldiers go for a lot of credits on Nar Shaddaa. The "good" captain wanted to cash in on his prize."
It was probably why the pirates had stayed so long. The Captain didn't want to surrender his bounty and the pirates were too afraid to disobey him, even with the supplies dwindling. Well, that and the promise of a boatload of credits from rich Hutts could make people do stupid things.
"So what are you doing here then? You're a little young to be traveling the hyperlanes on your own."
The question snapped me out of my thoughts before I could go too far, "I came looking for them," I poked a thumb at Bannon, who was chatting away with his crew, "And the cargo they were carrying. Also, I'm not alone."
"Yeah?" He quirked an eyebrow up, "How many others did you bring with you? Five? Seven?"
"…Two." I admitted quietly.
"Two?"
I nodded, "Two." I pointed at Chee, "She's one of them."
Havim glanced at her, noted her age, and then stared at me in silence.
Feeling a bit defensive, I elaborated, "We let our ship get caught, hid ourselves in a compartment, then snuck off into the base when no one was looking. So far, we've locked down the armories, sabotaged the security systems, rigged the base reactor to blow, and…freed and armed all the prisoners on site."
The captain blinked very slowly, "Are you Corellian?"
"I'm pretty sure I'm not." I replied dryly.
I had the extensive genealogical records to prove that I wasn't. I hadn't read the thing since it was almost the same size as Tresk, but I had it.
A normal Alsakani would have been insulted at being compared to a Corellian and probably would have immediately challenged the accuser to an honor duel. Luckily, I wasn't a normal Alsakani, so I wasn't inclined to do that.
I almost wish I was kidding. Honor culture was big on Alsakan and they could hold a grudge like no one else. Part of the reason they got into a pissing match with Coruscant every few millennia was simply because they didn't get made capital of the Republic fifteen thousand years ago.
"Damn." Havim sighed, disappointment heavy in that one word.
I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to interpret that response.
"Anyways," I abruptly switched subjects, looking around at the men, "Are your soldiers ready?"
Instead of answering me, he bellowed, "EVERYBODY LOADED UP?!"
The roar they let out in reply was deafening.
"Good. Officers, get over here." A couple dozen people, all human with a thirty-sixty ratio of female to male, split off from the mass of bodies. Havim looked to me, "Alright kid. You've seen more of the base than we have and got this far. What else do you have for us?"
…I was filled with the sudden doubt that this was what Master Vishan had in mind when she said my leadership skills were going to be tested.
Shaking that thought away, I opened up the map on my datapad and handed it to the captain, "From what we saw on the way in, there are a few thousand pirates on site. Too many for us to fight with what we've got."
Havim studied the map, "There's a lot of small hallways." He made a tsk sound with his mouth, "But that's not going to help. It'll restrict us just as much as them and they've got more bodies and ammo to throw at the problem. Staying and fighting isn't viable." He glanced up, "What do they have for ships?"
I pointed at the larger hangar, "There are four heavy cruisers in here," I shifted my finger to the other hangar, "and a bunch of light and medium freighters here. There were a few frigates around when we came in, but I think they're up in orbit now." I tapped the image of the hangar again, "Our ships are in this one, but none of the ships in that hangar are big enough to hold all your soldiers."
"Bigger ships it is, then," He concluded, eyes now tracing a path from our current position to the larger hangar and judging the obstacles they'd face along the way. His gaze paused, but it moved on before I could see what he'd been looking at, "Was one of the cruisers named the Deceiver?"
Just as I opened my mouth to reply, the screen of the datapad blinked away from the map to show Gunn's face. Havim nearly dropped it in surprise.
The big Rutian Twi'Lek waved, "Sorry about intruding, but I was listening in through the security cameras and this is easier than relaying it through Lucan's comm. To answer your question captain: yes." The feed momentarily blinked to the large hangar, "Deceiver is the cruiser on the far left."
After showing that, it shifted back to Gunn. While the Corellian was distracted, I glanced at the younger Padawan, who met my gaze and smirked. He knew what he was doing.
Lucan wasn't the most creative name, but it at least it didn't sound Alsakani.
"Good," Havim gave a smirk of his own, misinterpreting the reason for Gunn's expression, and looked to me, "He one of yours?"
I nodded in confirmation, "My third."
The human grunted, not bothering to ask for Gunn's name. I suppose it's good enough that he was choosing to barely acknowledge Gunn rather than going out of his way to be a racist dick. If Havim was a racist dick, he could at least put it aside when he needed to.
"Also Lucan, I traced our missing shipment through the pirate's system. Guess where it ended up."
"On the Deceiver?" I answered, despite knowing it was practically a rhetorical question.
"Yep," Gunn confirmed, "It's part of the loot hoard he's been having loaded onto his personal ship for the last few days. The ship parts are good quality, so he probably thinks they'll sell for a decent price back in Hutt Space."
"He's not wrong," Havim admitted a little grudgingly, "Functional parts are worth their weight in aurodium for ragtag crews like this, more if they're fresh off an assembly line. Volker would make a fortune selling them if he doesn't use them himself."
I mentally filed "Volker" away as the name of the Anomid captain.
"Think you have enough men to fly it?" I asked, "We're not going to have time to scurry around to find another ship or unload our parts once the fighting starts."
He rubbed his chin in thought as he did some mental calculations, "We should have just enough to fill out a skeleton crew to get us off the ground, but we won't have any gunners. It's doable, though. And I know from personal experience just how tough its shields and armor are. It should be able to tank anything they throw at us on the way out long enough to break orbit and jump. But first, I need to pay Volker a visit before we leave."
"Getting out is a bit more important than getting revenge."
"Revenge is just a side benefit," Havim stated calmly, though the muscles tensing across his body were telling a different story, "The paranoid bastard will have the launch codes on his person to keep his crew from just running off with the loot and leaving him high and dry."
"Oh." And now I felt a little dumb for not thinking of that. I guess I was a bit too busy thinking about other things.
"Yeah. Now if you're ready, let's get moving."
With that, he got up and stalked away, his officers following in his wake to spread orders.
As I approached Chee, her glare shifted to me, "Working with 'Pubs, huh?"
"For now," I muttered, "I don't plan to stick around long after we get out. But we do need their help to get past the ships in orbit and get our cargo back."
The Devaronian girl held her glare for a few seconds before her shoulders finally slumped petulantly, "Fine. But I'm not helping them."
In that moment, I was reminded that she was still only fourteen.
"Not expecting you to. I'll go with them, make sure they get off the ground," I assured her, "I've got something else in mind for you to do."
"Yeah? What's that?"
I nodded to Bannon and his crew, "I need you to get them back to their ship. Keep them safe. After that, secure the Harvest. We're not leaving it here."
Even if the navicomputer was locked down, the encryption could be cracked eventually and our route tracked. Letting people know it was a Jedi vessel was a capital B Bad idea.
When she didn't say anything, I continued, "I'm going to have Gunn do the same thing." I paused, "If things go wrong with the soldiers, I want you guys to get the hell out at first opportunity. Forget the cargo, forget me…just run."
The initial look on Chee's face was unidentifiable until it shifted to horror, "You're not seriously thinking…"
"Just a contingency," I tried to sound reassuring, but I wasn't sure how well I was doing on that front, "I'm hoping it doesn't happen, but that's the whole point."
I wasn't getting any particularly bad feelings about anything yet through the Force, but that could change quickly. I lightly pushed her towards Bannon's group before leaving to join the Republic soldiers, sliding my own gun out of its holster.
As I clicked the hammer of the revolver into place, a subtle, near-invisible corona of yellow formed around the barrel and grip.
11,202 BBY
Well, this complicated things, to put it lightly. Dozens of pairs of eyes turned to look at us as their owners stood up, life and hope flowing back into them. It was to the point I could actually see it, as opposed to simply sensing it.
"Possibly," I answered vaguely, not entirely sure about it now that I knew who they were, "But first…"
Bannon cut me off by shouting into the crowd, "Talon, Vikki, Mikki! You guys in there?!"
I could see something big and white stand up in the back of the cell, though it was still too dark to make out clearly what it was, and I heard some kind of strange warble in response to Bannon's call. Beside it, two pairs of blue striped white "horns" poked up into the air as their owners started pushing through the crowd to get to the front.
As they stepped into the light, the large mound of white fur turned out to be a Talz, who loomed over my head by about a foot. The tall alien's appearance surprised me mostly because I didn't think there were any of their species off their homeworld.
Its larger pair of bulbous black eyes were open, giving me a glance before they focused on the diminutive man next to me. It, and I only used that pronoun because I had no idea how to tell gender, warbled something in greeting and its face crinkled up in what I could only guess was an expression of happiness.
Beside it, a pair of Togruta stood pressed against the bars with matching wide grins on their faces. A male and a female, they looked nearly identical aside from…well, obvious gender differences. They had the same face shape, the same orange skin with white facial markings and blue striped white montrals, similar thin builds, and similar heights. They were even dressed nearly the same.
"About time, Captain." The male Togruta ribbed good-naturedly, "We were starting to think you'd forgotten us."
Huh. Guess that established which of the cousins was in charge, though I suspected it was something closer to a co-captainship.
The tension that had been building in Bannon's shoulders earlier started to ease now that he could see his crew as a smile of his own spread, "Well, you know how things are, Mikki. The boys upstairs were a demanding audience. Trillis and I only just now got away."
If the male was Mikki, that would likely make the female Vikki and the Talz Talon.
Curiously, most of the Republic soldiers barely gave the aliens a glance other than to get out of the way, though I guess they'd be much more concerned with the possibility of getting out than indulging in casual racism.
Havim watched without saying a word, though his face said more than enough as his smile faded a bit.
The Bimm shook his head, "Anyways, lets get you guys out of there. We need to get moving before the pirates figure out something's wrong." He glanced up at me, "You have the codes for the door, right?"
All of the eyes within sight and some I couldn't see shifted to stare at me as he said that.
"Yeah," I said, pulling out my datapad and subtly gulping down my uncertainty, "Give me a second."
In the end, it wasn't even a choice. I entered the codes and the cell doors swung open. While Bannon's crew rushed out, the other prisoners didn't move at first, looking around as though they expected pirates to pop out of the walls.
Captain Havim walked out first, exuding confidence with each step. The tall Corellian stopped in front of me and looked square into my eyes, "I suppose you have a plan?"
"I did, but I might need to change a few things," I said far more calmly than I was actually feeling, "In the meantime, can I interest you and your men in some guns?"
I pointed in the general direction of the grav sled, now visible to the good captain.
The savage, tooth-baring grin that he flashed would have sent a rancor running, soon mirrored by the soldiers now gathering behind him that had heard my words, "I thought you'd never ask."
Turning back to his soldiers, Havim bellowed and thrust a fist into the air, "Boys and girls, we've all been so good this year that all our birthdays came early! Form up into squads and lock 'n load!"
The cheer that rippled through the crowd and cries of "thank the Goddess" sent a shiver down my spine.
Chee was going to be pissed.
==================================================
Chee was indeed pissed when she came back up the lift and found out just who the prisoners worked for. However, she kept her mouth shut and contented herself alternating between glaring at the soldiers and glaring at me. So long as she didn't start anything, I was content to leave it be until we got out of here.
All around us, soldiers were gearing up with whatever they could get. We only had enough rifles for around a third of them, so the rest had to make do with sidearms or whatever they could scavenge. A few speedy souls had managed to secure the weapons of the tied-up guards before anyone else could, while others broke off pipes and table legs to use as clubs.
The officers organized everything with a practiced hand, ensuring that each squad had at least one person with a rifle between them and enough ammo for everyone.
"How did you all get here?" I asked, if only to fill the time while everyone was loading up.
"Probably not much different than your alien friends did. Got captured by these slugsuckers and locked in cages," Havim answered as he looked down the sights of his pistol. Most of the officers had chosen to arm themselves with only pistols and let better shots have first dibs on the rifles, "Our ship, the Star of Corellia, was shot down over Galidraan after a general retreat had been ordered. After the crash, that Anomid bastard and his crew plucked up the survivors."
"Do you know how long you've all been here?" The fighting in the Twenty-Second Crusade had been pretty chaotic, with lines of battle changing every few days as pushes were made and either succeeded or were forced back. Galidraan had been fought over multiple times.
"Hard to say," He grimaced, "Down here where we can't see the sun, the days just kind of blurred together. I think I counted two standard months before losing track. Why, do you know?"
If he and his crew had been part of the active fighting…
It was my turn to grimace in sympathy, "I'm sorry to say it, but you've been stuck here for longer than you thought. The Twenty-Second Crusade ended about a year ago, give or take a month."
He stopped, finally taking his eyes off his gun, "That long, huh?" At my nod, he started muttering under his breath in what I assumed was some Corellian dialect that I didn't recognize, "Damn, no wonder no one came looking. They'd have thought we were dead or worse."
"Why did they keep so many of you for so long? To sell?"
Havim nodded, "Got it in one. Apparently, Republic soldiers go for a lot of credits on Nar Shaddaa. The "good" captain wanted to cash in on his prize."
It was probably why the pirates had stayed so long. The Captain didn't want to surrender his bounty and the pirates were too afraid to disobey him, even with the supplies dwindling. Well, that and the promise of a boatload of credits from rich Hutts could make people do stupid things.
"So what are you doing here then? You're a little young to be traveling the hyperlanes on your own."
The question snapped me out of my thoughts before I could go too far, "I came looking for them," I poked a thumb at Bannon, who was chatting away with his crew, "And the cargo they were carrying. Also, I'm not alone."
"Yeah?" He quirked an eyebrow up, "How many others did you bring with you? Five? Seven?"
"…Two." I admitted quietly.
"Two?"
I nodded, "Two." I pointed at Chee, "She's one of them."
Havim glanced at her, noted her age, and then stared at me in silence.
Feeling a bit defensive, I elaborated, "We let our ship get caught, hid ourselves in a compartment, then snuck off into the base when no one was looking. So far, we've locked down the armories, sabotaged the security systems, rigged the base reactor to blow, and…freed and armed all the prisoners on site."
The captain blinked very slowly, "Are you Corellian?"
"I'm pretty sure I'm not." I replied dryly.
I had the extensive genealogical records to prove that I wasn't. I hadn't read the thing since it was almost the same size as Tresk, but I had it.
A normal Alsakani would have been insulted at being compared to a Corellian and probably would have immediately challenged the accuser to an honor duel. Luckily, I wasn't a normal Alsakani, so I wasn't inclined to do that.
I almost wish I was kidding. Honor culture was big on Alsakan and they could hold a grudge like no one else. Part of the reason they got into a pissing match with Coruscant every few millennia was simply because they didn't get made capital of the Republic fifteen thousand years ago.
"Damn." Havim sighed, disappointment heavy in that one word.
I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to interpret that response.
"Anyways," I abruptly switched subjects, looking around at the men, "Are your soldiers ready?"
Instead of answering me, he bellowed, "EVERYBODY LOADED UP?!"
The roar they let out in reply was deafening.
"Good. Officers, get over here." A couple dozen people, all human with a thirty-sixty ratio of female to male, split off from the mass of bodies. Havim looked to me, "Alright kid. You've seen more of the base than we have and got this far. What else do you have for us?"
…I was filled with the sudden doubt that this was what Master Vishan had in mind when she said my leadership skills were going to be tested.
Shaking that thought away, I opened up the map on my datapad and handed it to the captain, "From what we saw on the way in, there are a few thousand pirates on site. Too many for us to fight with what we've got."
Havim studied the map, "There's a lot of small hallways." He made a tsk sound with his mouth, "But that's not going to help. It'll restrict us just as much as them and they've got more bodies and ammo to throw at the problem. Staying and fighting isn't viable." He glanced up, "What do they have for ships?"
I pointed at the larger hangar, "There are four heavy cruisers in here," I shifted my finger to the other hangar, "and a bunch of light and medium freighters here. There were a few frigates around when we came in, but I think they're up in orbit now." I tapped the image of the hangar again, "Our ships are in this one, but none of the ships in that hangar are big enough to hold all your soldiers."
"Bigger ships it is, then," He concluded, eyes now tracing a path from our current position to the larger hangar and judging the obstacles they'd face along the way. His gaze paused, but it moved on before I could see what he'd been looking at, "Was one of the cruisers named the Deceiver?"
Just as I opened my mouth to reply, the screen of the datapad blinked away from the map to show Gunn's face. Havim nearly dropped it in surprise.
The big Rutian Twi'Lek waved, "Sorry about intruding, but I was listening in through the security cameras and this is easier than relaying it through Lucan's comm. To answer your question captain: yes." The feed momentarily blinked to the large hangar, "Deceiver is the cruiser on the far left."
After showing that, it shifted back to Gunn. While the Corellian was distracted, I glanced at the younger Padawan, who met my gaze and smirked. He knew what he was doing.
Lucan wasn't the most creative name, but it at least it didn't sound Alsakani.
"Good," Havim gave a smirk of his own, misinterpreting the reason for Gunn's expression, and looked to me, "He one of yours?"
I nodded in confirmation, "My third."
The human grunted, not bothering to ask for Gunn's name. I suppose it's good enough that he was choosing to barely acknowledge Gunn rather than going out of his way to be a racist dick. If Havim was a racist dick, he could at least put it aside when he needed to.
"Also Lucan, I traced our missing shipment through the pirate's system. Guess where it ended up."
"On the Deceiver?" I answered, despite knowing it was practically a rhetorical question.
"Yep," Gunn confirmed, "It's part of the loot hoard he's been having loaded onto his personal ship for the last few days. The ship parts are good quality, so he probably thinks they'll sell for a decent price back in Hutt Space."
"He's not wrong," Havim admitted a little grudgingly, "Functional parts are worth their weight in aurodium for ragtag crews like this, more if they're fresh off an assembly line. Volker would make a fortune selling them if he doesn't use them himself."
I mentally filed "Volker" away as the name of the Anomid captain.
"Think you have enough men to fly it?" I asked, "We're not going to have time to scurry around to find another ship or unload our parts once the fighting starts."
He rubbed his chin in thought as he did some mental calculations, "We should have just enough to fill out a skeleton crew to get us off the ground, but we won't have any gunners. It's doable, though. And I know from personal experience just how tough its shields and armor are. It should be able to tank anything they throw at us on the way out long enough to break orbit and jump. But first, I need to pay Volker a visit before we leave."
"Getting out is a bit more important than getting revenge."
"Revenge is just a side benefit," Havim stated calmly, though the muscles tensing across his body were telling a different story, "The paranoid bastard will have the launch codes on his person to keep his crew from just running off with the loot and leaving him high and dry."
"Oh." And now I felt a little dumb for not thinking of that. I guess I was a bit too busy thinking about other things.
"Yeah. Now if you're ready, let's get moving."
With that, he got up and stalked away, his officers following in his wake to spread orders.
As I approached Chee, her glare shifted to me, "Working with 'Pubs, huh?"
"For now," I muttered, "I don't plan to stick around long after we get out. But we do need their help to get past the ships in orbit and get our cargo back."
The Devaronian girl held her glare for a few seconds before her shoulders finally slumped petulantly, "Fine. But I'm not helping them."
In that moment, I was reminded that she was still only fourteen.
"Not expecting you to. I'll go with them, make sure they get off the ground," I assured her, "I've got something else in mind for you to do."
"Yeah? What's that?"
I nodded to Bannon and his crew, "I need you to get them back to their ship. Keep them safe. After that, secure the Harvest. We're not leaving it here."
Even if the navicomputer was locked down, the encryption could be cracked eventually and our route tracked. Letting people know it was a Jedi vessel was a capital B Bad idea.
When she didn't say anything, I continued, "I'm going to have Gunn do the same thing." I paused, "If things go wrong with the soldiers, I want you guys to get the hell out at first opportunity. Forget the cargo, forget me…just run."
The initial look on Chee's face was unidentifiable until it shifted to horror, "You're not seriously thinking…"
"Just a contingency," I tried to sound reassuring, but I wasn't sure how well I was doing on that front, "I'm hoping it doesn't happen, but that's the whole point."
I wasn't getting any particularly bad feelings about anything yet through the Force, but that could change quickly. I lightly pushed her towards Bannon's group before leaving to join the Republic soldiers, sliding my own gun out of its holster.
As I clicked the hammer of the revolver into place, a subtle, near-invisible corona of yellow formed around the barrel and grip.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
Lightsaber...ish Bayonet?
- Location
- Alaska
Oh Lucius you sneaky bastard, did you Force-imbue your goddamn revolver? First of all, that's badass as hell. Second of all, the rest of the Jedi probably hate you for it. Whether it's out of orthodoxy or jealousy is anyone's guess, IMO.
Can't wait to see what happens next!
Can't wait to see what happens next!
Prince Charon
Just zis guy, you know?
Are revolvers that popular on Corellia (I can see that they exist, since the SI has one), or is it a different game?
Also, are these slugthrower revolvers, or some unusual variety of blaster (given all the weird stuff in Legents, a revolver-blaster is not implausible)?
- Location
- North Carolina
Not to my knowledge, I just figured Corellia would have been the place the Star Wars version of Russian Roulette would have cropped up. Either that or Nar Shaddaa, but Nar Shaddaa Roulette isn't as catchy.
And it's a slugthrower revolver.
White Lantern
A really overpowered Mary Sue self insert
- Location
- Sector 2184
Is his bullets lightsabers?
Chapter 10
- Location
- North Carolina
Chapter 10
11,202 BBY
Two squads of ragged soldiers crammed into the freight elevator, with me slipping in. There weren't any stairs to use, so the twenty-eight men were to secure the tunnels around the turbolift so they could ferry up the rest without them getting shot at.
While I would be helping out with that, my actual job was to pass along directions to the squads as they came out and make sure they moved down the right tunnels. With the small tunnels, we couldn't all cram down just one and things weren't exactly labeled.
Instead, the squads would pair off to take different routes to the hangar, some with other objectives. For instance, one group would sack the nearest medbay for kolto packs and other medical gear, while several others would raid the armories for more weapons using the access codes we'd stolen. Yet more would be tasked with grabbing comms to help coordinate the break-out.
As the platform rumbled beneath our feet and started to rise, I clicked my comm on, "Gunn, we're about to go loud. Might want to consider getting out of there and back to the ship."
"Got it," He replied, "Need anything before I lock up and head out?"
"Any chance of blocking off the pirates from our route?" I asked hopefully.
"I might be able to lock some doors in their faces, but most of those are probably going to have manual overrides. It'll buy some time, though," The other Padawan informed me, "Another thing I can do is turn the auto-turrets against them. That should help clear out the hangars and keep them away from your escape ship, but that'll still leave the pirates in the tunnels, if not drive more towards you guys."
"That'll work. Do that and head out." I directed. In small spaces, large numbers were more of a hinderance than a boon.
"Right," Gunn grunted, "Trillis managed to nab a grenade while you guys were arming up to frag the computers. So if you hear a boom in the next few minutes, that was probably us."
"One last thing. Do you have eyes on Captain Volker? We still need those codes."
"Uh…" There was a pause as he flipped through cameras, "Got him. He's in his quarters two levels up, but he probably won't be there for long when the fighting starts."
"It's a general location that we can work with. Thanks."
With that, I clicked the comm off and started pushing my way to the front of the crowd, my offhand securing my earplugs into place. They were high-tech things that allowed normal hearing but dampened sudden loud sounds. Basically, they were the same things that went into a standard soldier's helmet, but without the bulky headgear.
We were almost to our floor and I could sense a few presences on the other side of the heavy doors. Holding my revolver with both hands, I quietly channeled the Force into my forearms and strengthening the muscles as I waited.
Though I doubted they could feel it the way I could, the solders on the front line mirrored my action, their faces grim but steady. They knew that they'd be the first in the line of fire when those doors opened. Despite that, they'd been the first to walk onto the elevator.
Say what you would about the Republic as it was now, but their soldiers had always been disciplined.
When the elevator stopped and the doors parted, we were met by a pair of human men, a tattooed Zabrak woman, and a Gamorrean whose gender I wasn't entirely certain of, all of whom were blinking dumbly in shock at the collection of armed former prisoners occupying the lift. Despite that, their hands reached for their weapons.
It only took a split-second to judge which would be the hardier target.
My revolver roared once, punching a fist-sized hole through the Gamorrean's sternum before exiting out its back in a red spray that used to be its heart and continuing until it burrowed into a distant wall. The large porcine alien was thrown off its feet, the shock from the massive impact killing it before the body hit the ground with a wet, meaty thump and the axe it had grabbed from its back clattered out of its nerveless grip.
That sound was the spark that started it all. More gunshots cracked and soon, the other three pirates joined their associate on the floor with bullet holes of their own.
"Go, go, go!" The two officers barked, driving their soldiers out of the elevator. They hardly needed the pushing, but they yelled anyways, "Set up positions!"
Men and women scrambled to follow orders, taking up defensive positions at each of the tunnel entrances that branched off from ours. After we had all streamed out, one of the officers paused long enough to hit the button and send the elevator back down for the next load.
That done, he glanced down at the Gamorrean's corpse and whistled appreciatively at the hole before glancing at my revolver with an envious expression, "Who makes those things and where can I get one?"
I shrugged helplessly before telling the complete truth, "One-off custom job, I'm afraid. Expensive as hell too."
As lightsabers were still fairly new for the Jedi, it was still traditional for Padawans to forge Force-Imbued Blades…and the materials weren't exactly cheap.
In theory, it was a process that was very similar to that of building a lightsaber, just much more physically intensive. An initiate would be presented with several ingots to choose from, based on which they held the most affinity for. From there, they would channel the Force into it as they shaped it into a blade. After that, an energy crystal would be fused into the metal, accomplished by submerging oneself in the Force. No prior blacksmithing experience was required as most of the process was done while in a trance and the Force guiding your hand, though it could take several tries as the blades could shatter in the process.
Mine had just…turned out differently. The Master Artisan I'd been working with had been intrigued, but her associates had not been as enthused.
It had taken six attempts before I managed it, but the result was a monster of a gun that channeled the Force like a Force-Imbued Blade. Not only could it block lightsabers if needed, it also made the already powerful .460 Magnum rounds it fired hit harder by enveloping the bullets in a telekinetic cocoon as they left the barrel, increasing the range, velocity, and impact proportional to how much power I put into it. I could and have shot people through durasteel walls with it.
The only real downsides were the increased recoil and the need to carry ammo. The former was partially negated by the gun itself by absorbing a third of the recoil to increase the power behind the next shot and any left over could be compensated for by strengthening my arms with the Force.
I couldn't fire it quickly, but I could use it without my wrists snapping like twigs.
"Damn shame, that," The officer shook his head sadly before moving to take up a position of his own.
As the elevator started coming back up, I pulled out my datapad and pulled up the map. Meanwhile, two soldiers were already stripping any useful gear from the dead pirates and pulling the corpses out of the way so no one tripped over them.
Over the next half hour, soldiers filed out of the elevator by the dozens, their officers only pausing long enough to get their marching orders before directing their troops down this tunnel or that. Gunfire echoed throughout the complex and I could feel lives disappear from my senses.
It wasn't the first time I'd been near a battle like this, but that didn't make it any more comfortable to experience.
Captain Havim had come up with the second group. Without a word, he had requisitioned a datapad from one of the dead pirates and got to work doing the same thing I was to get things moving faster. Chee and the crew of the Sweet Muse came up soon after, giving us only a passing glance before they darted down a side tunnel to avoid as much of the fighting as they could.
When the last squad had been assigned and sent out, the Corellian soldier barked out to the soldiers guarding the turbolift, "You lot, with me. We're going after Volker." He glanced at me, "You too."
I nodded. After all, we still needed the launch codes, or else we weren't going anywhere, "Last update I got was that he was in his quarters two levels up, but that was half an hour ago. Doubt he's still there, what with the fighting."
"Agreed," Havim grunted. He closed his eyes as he thought about where the pirate captain might have gone, "Assuming he didn't head straight for his ship, he's probably trying to reign in some of the chaos your Twi'lek friend caused and round up enough troops to push us back."
"Think we should head for the hangar? Secure the ship before he can?"
"You're on the right track, but he's got a head start on us. He'll probably already be there." The Corellian soon grinned, "However…he'll be sitting there for a while. If he's starting that ship cold, it'll take at least an hour until it's ready for lift off."
"He'd also be delayed by the auto-turrets," I pointed out, "Gunn has them targeting the pirates."
Havim only grinned wider as he started walking, "Then he's probably already ordered Deceiver to start up, so he won't have to wait. All we'll need to do is get the launch codes from him."
==============================================================
The large hallway we were standing in was a straight shot to the hangar, likely for the convenience of hauling equipment from the freight elevator to the ships. Havim and I were at the head of the group as we stormed down it, pausing only to check our corners.
At our approach, the large blast doors slid open to reveal a scene of carnage. Bodies littered the deck, torn to pieces by the heavy chaingun fire. Crates and moving equipment were rent with bullet holes and splattered with blood of various colors.
Sparks flew from the ceiling, jumping from loose cables futilely trying to supply power to emplacements that were no longer there. The guns themselves had been crushed and torn from their moorings, left as near-unrecognizable hunks of metal strewn across the floor.
Despite that, the hangar was far from silent. A chill went down my spine as we entered.
"…the others are locked down! Purge the computers and ensure there is nothing to salvage!" A metallic voice boomed from a vocalizer mask, sending a handful of technicians scrambling to follow the orders.
Its owner stood among a crowd of pirates, numbering nearly twice our own. He stood only a few inches taller than the majority of them, but his men reacted as though he were the size of Master Vishan. A black cape hanging off his shoulders obscured most of his form but couldn't entirely hide either the powerful build or the body armor beneath.
"VOLKER!" Havim shouted, bringing his pistol up and firing a round at the pirate captain.
And suddenly, I knew just why these pirates, all hardened slavers, were so deathly afraid of this man.
Volker raised a violet six-fingered hand almost lazily, stopping the bullet in mid-air nearly a foot away from the back of his head. He turned around slowly, his pupil-less opalescent eyes glancing at the bullet for a moment before his attention shifted fully to us. A flick of two fingers sent the little bit of metal careening off harmlessly into the room.
"Ah," The Anomid's voice took on a cold tone as he spoke, which was something of an accomplishment given that his voice was artificial to begin with, "Ever since you landed, I had wondered when you would make your move."
He wasn't looking at Havim when he said that. When Volker reached down to his belt, he retrieved a very familiar looking hilt. A press of a button ignited its yellow blade.
Entirely unconcerned with the number of guns pointing at him, the Dark Jedi continued, "While you have caused more chaos than I had anticipated, it does not matter. I have lost nothing I cannot replace. All I need do now is dispose of you before leaving."
The chill in the room began to coalesce into freezing cold.
"Kill them."
11,202 BBY
Two squads of ragged soldiers crammed into the freight elevator, with me slipping in. There weren't any stairs to use, so the twenty-eight men were to secure the tunnels around the turbolift so they could ferry up the rest without them getting shot at.
While I would be helping out with that, my actual job was to pass along directions to the squads as they came out and make sure they moved down the right tunnels. With the small tunnels, we couldn't all cram down just one and things weren't exactly labeled.
Instead, the squads would pair off to take different routes to the hangar, some with other objectives. For instance, one group would sack the nearest medbay for kolto packs and other medical gear, while several others would raid the armories for more weapons using the access codes we'd stolen. Yet more would be tasked with grabbing comms to help coordinate the break-out.
As the platform rumbled beneath our feet and started to rise, I clicked my comm on, "Gunn, we're about to go loud. Might want to consider getting out of there and back to the ship."
"Got it," He replied, "Need anything before I lock up and head out?"
"Any chance of blocking off the pirates from our route?" I asked hopefully.
"I might be able to lock some doors in their faces, but most of those are probably going to have manual overrides. It'll buy some time, though," The other Padawan informed me, "Another thing I can do is turn the auto-turrets against them. That should help clear out the hangars and keep them away from your escape ship, but that'll still leave the pirates in the tunnels, if not drive more towards you guys."
"That'll work. Do that and head out." I directed. In small spaces, large numbers were more of a hinderance than a boon.
"Right," Gunn grunted, "Trillis managed to nab a grenade while you guys were arming up to frag the computers. So if you hear a boom in the next few minutes, that was probably us."
"One last thing. Do you have eyes on Captain Volker? We still need those codes."
"Uh…" There was a pause as he flipped through cameras, "Got him. He's in his quarters two levels up, but he probably won't be there for long when the fighting starts."
"It's a general location that we can work with. Thanks."
With that, I clicked the comm off and started pushing my way to the front of the crowd, my offhand securing my earplugs into place. They were high-tech things that allowed normal hearing but dampened sudden loud sounds. Basically, they were the same things that went into a standard soldier's helmet, but without the bulky headgear.
We were almost to our floor and I could sense a few presences on the other side of the heavy doors. Holding my revolver with both hands, I quietly channeled the Force into my forearms and strengthening the muscles as I waited.
Though I doubted they could feel it the way I could, the solders on the front line mirrored my action, their faces grim but steady. They knew that they'd be the first in the line of fire when those doors opened. Despite that, they'd been the first to walk onto the elevator.
Say what you would about the Republic as it was now, but their soldiers had always been disciplined.
When the elevator stopped and the doors parted, we were met by a pair of human men, a tattooed Zabrak woman, and a Gamorrean whose gender I wasn't entirely certain of, all of whom were blinking dumbly in shock at the collection of armed former prisoners occupying the lift. Despite that, their hands reached for their weapons.
It only took a split-second to judge which would be the hardier target.
My revolver roared once, punching a fist-sized hole through the Gamorrean's sternum before exiting out its back in a red spray that used to be its heart and continuing until it burrowed into a distant wall. The large porcine alien was thrown off its feet, the shock from the massive impact killing it before the body hit the ground with a wet, meaty thump and the axe it had grabbed from its back clattered out of its nerveless grip.
That sound was the spark that started it all. More gunshots cracked and soon, the other three pirates joined their associate on the floor with bullet holes of their own.
"Go, go, go!" The two officers barked, driving their soldiers out of the elevator. They hardly needed the pushing, but they yelled anyways, "Set up positions!"
Men and women scrambled to follow orders, taking up defensive positions at each of the tunnel entrances that branched off from ours. After we had all streamed out, one of the officers paused long enough to hit the button and send the elevator back down for the next load.
That done, he glanced down at the Gamorrean's corpse and whistled appreciatively at the hole before glancing at my revolver with an envious expression, "Who makes those things and where can I get one?"
I shrugged helplessly before telling the complete truth, "One-off custom job, I'm afraid. Expensive as hell too."
As lightsabers were still fairly new for the Jedi, it was still traditional for Padawans to forge Force-Imbued Blades…and the materials weren't exactly cheap.
In theory, it was a process that was very similar to that of building a lightsaber, just much more physically intensive. An initiate would be presented with several ingots to choose from, based on which they held the most affinity for. From there, they would channel the Force into it as they shaped it into a blade. After that, an energy crystal would be fused into the metal, accomplished by submerging oneself in the Force. No prior blacksmithing experience was required as most of the process was done while in a trance and the Force guiding your hand, though it could take several tries as the blades could shatter in the process.
Mine had just…turned out differently. The Master Artisan I'd been working with had been intrigued, but her associates had not been as enthused.
It had taken six attempts before I managed it, but the result was a monster of a gun that channeled the Force like a Force-Imbued Blade. Not only could it block lightsabers if needed, it also made the already powerful .460 Magnum rounds it fired hit harder by enveloping the bullets in a telekinetic cocoon as they left the barrel, increasing the range, velocity, and impact proportional to how much power I put into it. I could and have shot people through durasteel walls with it.
The only real downsides were the increased recoil and the need to carry ammo. The former was partially negated by the gun itself by absorbing a third of the recoil to increase the power behind the next shot and any left over could be compensated for by strengthening my arms with the Force.
I couldn't fire it quickly, but I could use it without my wrists snapping like twigs.
"Damn shame, that," The officer shook his head sadly before moving to take up a position of his own.
As the elevator started coming back up, I pulled out my datapad and pulled up the map. Meanwhile, two soldiers were already stripping any useful gear from the dead pirates and pulling the corpses out of the way so no one tripped over them.
Over the next half hour, soldiers filed out of the elevator by the dozens, their officers only pausing long enough to get their marching orders before directing their troops down this tunnel or that. Gunfire echoed throughout the complex and I could feel lives disappear from my senses.
It wasn't the first time I'd been near a battle like this, but that didn't make it any more comfortable to experience.
Captain Havim had come up with the second group. Without a word, he had requisitioned a datapad from one of the dead pirates and got to work doing the same thing I was to get things moving faster. Chee and the crew of the Sweet Muse came up soon after, giving us only a passing glance before they darted down a side tunnel to avoid as much of the fighting as they could.
When the last squad had been assigned and sent out, the Corellian soldier barked out to the soldiers guarding the turbolift, "You lot, with me. We're going after Volker." He glanced at me, "You too."
I nodded. After all, we still needed the launch codes, or else we weren't going anywhere, "Last update I got was that he was in his quarters two levels up, but that was half an hour ago. Doubt he's still there, what with the fighting."
"Agreed," Havim grunted. He closed his eyes as he thought about where the pirate captain might have gone, "Assuming he didn't head straight for his ship, he's probably trying to reign in some of the chaos your Twi'lek friend caused and round up enough troops to push us back."
"Think we should head for the hangar? Secure the ship before he can?"
"You're on the right track, but he's got a head start on us. He'll probably already be there." The Corellian soon grinned, "However…he'll be sitting there for a while. If he's starting that ship cold, it'll take at least an hour until it's ready for lift off."
"He'd also be delayed by the auto-turrets," I pointed out, "Gunn has them targeting the pirates."
Havim only grinned wider as he started walking, "Then he's probably already ordered Deceiver to start up, so he won't have to wait. All we'll need to do is get the launch codes from him."
==============================================================
The large hallway we were standing in was a straight shot to the hangar, likely for the convenience of hauling equipment from the freight elevator to the ships. Havim and I were at the head of the group as we stormed down it, pausing only to check our corners.
At our approach, the large blast doors slid open to reveal a scene of carnage. Bodies littered the deck, torn to pieces by the heavy chaingun fire. Crates and moving equipment were rent with bullet holes and splattered with blood of various colors.
Sparks flew from the ceiling, jumping from loose cables futilely trying to supply power to emplacements that were no longer there. The guns themselves had been crushed and torn from their moorings, left as near-unrecognizable hunks of metal strewn across the floor.
Despite that, the hangar was far from silent. A chill went down my spine as we entered.
"…the others are locked down! Purge the computers and ensure there is nothing to salvage!" A metallic voice boomed from a vocalizer mask, sending a handful of technicians scrambling to follow the orders.
Its owner stood among a crowd of pirates, numbering nearly twice our own. He stood only a few inches taller than the majority of them, but his men reacted as though he were the size of Master Vishan. A black cape hanging off his shoulders obscured most of his form but couldn't entirely hide either the powerful build or the body armor beneath.
"VOLKER!" Havim shouted, bringing his pistol up and firing a round at the pirate captain.
And suddenly, I knew just why these pirates, all hardened slavers, were so deathly afraid of this man.
Volker raised a violet six-fingered hand almost lazily, stopping the bullet in mid-air nearly a foot away from the back of his head. He turned around slowly, his pupil-less opalescent eyes glancing at the bullet for a moment before his attention shifted fully to us. A flick of two fingers sent the little bit of metal careening off harmlessly into the room.
"Ah," The Anomid's voice took on a cold tone as he spoke, which was something of an accomplishment given that his voice was artificial to begin with, "Ever since you landed, I had wondered when you would make your move."
He wasn't looking at Havim when he said that. When Volker reached down to his belt, he retrieved a very familiar looking hilt. A press of a button ignited its yellow blade.
Entirely unconcerned with the number of guns pointing at him, the Dark Jedi continued, "While you have caused more chaos than I had anticipated, it does not matter. I have lost nothing I cannot replace. All I need do now is dispose of you before leaving."
The chill in the room began to coalesce into freezing cold.
"Kill them."
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White Lantern
A really overpowered Mary Sue self insert
- Location
- Sector 2184
Not really all he needs to do is just don't use any force power the revolver could be explained away as tech
- Location
- Christchurch, NZ
And now I'm curious about the title of this story....