Thanks for the chapter, need a threadmark for it.
Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage
- Thread starter MetaBettaOmega
- Start date
-
- Tags
- elder scrolls skyrim star wars
Iridium Flare
Cyborg Commando
- Location
- AC-130 Gunship circling overhead
I've always been a massive proponent of this, the only difficulty would be if they decide to shoot something they're not supposed to but that could be as easy to fix as requiring user input to activate them.
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sadge about the fate of the Vulture Droids, they're a favorite of mine, but I guess they don't have the time to let them gain that learned viciousness that Veteran Vultures were so renowned for towards the end of the war.
Chapter 41
With our first proper mercenary mission completed, we left Itander behind a few hours after Rabben stopped by to say goodbye. Once in space, Miru deployed the raindrop fighters out of the hangar bay, directing them up and under the ship, where the mag-lock and cargo clamps locked them against the hull. When they attached, a muffled thud reverberated through the ship.
"Oookay, the raindrops are properly attached," Miru said with a smile. "We are good to go!"
"Great," Julus said, having joined Miru and I down in the hangar bay for the occasion. "Where are we going?"
"For now? The middle of nowhere so we can have a group meeting," I responded, Miru, Julus, and Racer all following as I made my way up to the bridge. "We have some options to discuss."
It took a few minutes to get everyone together, Calima the last one to arrive since she was plotting a course to a random spot in nearby space. We made a quick two-minute jump to the edge of the Itander system before the Tholothian left the bridge and sat down at the large lounge table.
"Alright. So our first mercenary mission was a rather resounding success," I said with a smile, everyone cheering and patting each others backs. "Everyone performed great, we got some decent gear out of it, made much more money than I expected, and managed to make Solinda fucking rich. If all things go well for Rabben, we have a pretty loyal place to retreat to, should we need to."
"What was our final… Payment?" Calima asked. "I saw the money in my account, but I am curious what we made in total."
"I was getting to that," I assured her before pulling out my data pad. "We got the full fifteen thousand for stopping the raider and returning most of what they stole that wasn't food. Another twelve for the leftover gear we sold to them, and then another eight for hanging around until their new security forces arrived. Rabben was also kind enough to give us three thousand credits as a bonus for helping them figure out what was going on in the first place. Which reminds me.…"
I opened up the business account again, taking the three thousand dollar bonus and spreading it out evenly between everyone before confirming the transfer. Not long after I did, the crew's comms started to go off.
"That's your account, I split the bonus between everyone," I explained, Julus letting out a cheer in response. "That brings us up to fifty-four thousand credits in total, not a bad chunk of credits."
"So what's next?" Julus asked, repeating his earlier question.
"Well, we have a few options," I said, leaning back in my chair. "Miru getting the tri-fighters up and running and then modifying them into the raindrops has massively increased our capabilities."
"It wasn't that hard, Racer helped with the code, and all I did for the conversion was remove some stuff and move other stuff around," She insisted, a hint of a blush on her cheeks. "The only tough part was the charging ports on their mounting."
"Wait, they don't run on fuel?"
"They do, but they can also last about ten minutes without it," She assured me. "By default, they use the fuel first, but I switched it so we don't have to worry about filling them up as often."
"Right… Well, Miru also wants to add a shield generator to the raindrops, which we would have to purchase," I said. "After seeing how the tri-fighters trivialized driving off the raiders, I think the raindrops are a solid investment. Plus, we can sell the vulture droids to make up part of the cost."
"Won't be able to sell those," Nal responded. "Not legally. CIS droids are illegal to own, remember?"
"... And if we didn't care about it being legal?" I asked.
"I could probably figure it out," Tatnia said. "But it will take a few days, and we will have to go to the right planet. But there are no guarantees anyone will be interested. It's kind of a specialty item…. That said, just selling them to a scrap yard will probably get us four, maybe five thousand?"
"Well… shit. Alright, let's scrap them then. They are taking up space, and I'm hoping to fill it soon."
"With what?" Miru asked.
"To start with? A transport ship of some kind," I answered. "Landing this every time we go to a planet is a waste of money. An armed transport will give us more options, more flexibility, and more firepower."
"Well, we can pick up something like that on any world with enough interplanetary traffic," Tatnia said. "Like I said before, it might be a no-name box with guns, engines, and shields, but you don't need much more than that."
We talked a bit more before settling on a vague plan. We needed to refuel, buy a transport and some shield generators, all while hopefully scrapping the two intact vulture droids to make up for some of what we spend. After that, we would head out, looking for more mercenary work.
"Is it worth the hassle to join the bounty hunters guild?" I asked. "You said we weren't likely to get any good bounties if we didn't."
"They have lots of rules," Nal responded. "If you break them, they will come after you. Some of them are… restrictive. Especially if you have morals."
"Yeah, I don't want that," I said, shaking my head.
"Well. Uh. I'm already a low-level member," Julus volunteered, the rest of the crew looking over at him. "Well, technically, I'm not at the moment. But if I paid my dues and the fines for not paying them for so long…."
"... Seriously? You didn't think to bring that up earlier?" I asked, looking at him incredulously. "Like when we were discussing bounties and how we couldn't access any good ones?"
"I wasn't there for that," He said. "Not saying I shouldn't have mentioned it sooner, Boss. But I was helping Miru fix the Arrow when you were going over potential jobs."
I let out a long, defeated sigh before shaking my head and rubbing my face.
"Anyone else has something similar?" I asked when I had recovered enough. "Nobody is secretly royalty from the Hapes Consortium or part of the Chiss Ascendancy? No?"
"What's the Chiss Ascendency?" Miru asked Nal quietly, who shrugged but looked equally curious.
"Why are you a member?" I asked, ignoring Miru and Nal.
"If money was ever tight, or if Zandev and I had our eye on a big purchase, we would run a few bounties," He explained, a nostalgic smile on his face. "Just local stuff, nothing too exciting, mostly just dragging people who skipped bail back to a jail cell. Being a member cuts the taxes you pay on money from official bounties to a third, so it's worth it."
"Alright, well, that's an option for the future," I said. "Assuming you could be our go-between, handing in bounties. For now, let's figure out what planet we are stopping at to offload the vultures and find a transport."
Racer projected a stellar map, and we discussed the best place to try and offload the vultures, fuel the Chariot and let Miru do her shopping. Eventually, we settled on the relatively nearby world of Daalang, a middling populated world just outside of Hutt Space. Calima set a course, everyone settling in for a four fourteen hour trip. When I spotted Miru immediately heading back to her workshop, I called out to get her attention.
"Miru, take it easy, please," I requested, the young Twi'lek turning to face me. "You've been working hard for the last few days getting the raindrops finished."
"Working on stuff is how I relax, though," She pointed out, seemingly worried I would ban her from her workshop or something.
"Okay, but take it easy, yeah?" I asked. "Non-stop work and stress is bad for you, and it wears you down, which has a tendency to catch up with you at the worst times. So just take it easy, okay?"
"Alright. I'll work on some programming and watch some stuff on the Holonet," She agreed. "What are you doing?"
"Practicing my clairvoyance and-"
"Your… what?" Calima asked, still sitting at the table.
"My… oh, right. We haven't gone over that with you yet.…" I said, rubbing my forehead. "So-
"He's a space wizard!" Miru shouted, cutting off Nal and Tatnia, probably from saying the same thing.
"He's… a what?"
"A space wizard!"
"... Come with me, Calima, I can show you down in the cargo bay," I said with a long sigh. "Would have been nice to ease you into it, but no helping it now."
Still looking confused, Calima stood up slowly, following down to the cargo bay.
-------------------------------
By now, I was an old hand at explaining how my magic worked, what it was, and what kind of stuff I could do. So far, everyone accepted the explanation that it was something from my homeworld, or at least one of those strange mysteries you sometimes hear about when traveling around the galaxy. After a fifteen-minute show for Calima, she went back upstairs, looking a little shell-shocked but not enough to consider leaving us or anything that drastic.
Over the next four hours, I worked on my clairvoyance more, stretching it out as much as I could. About two hours in, I finally achieved one of the first levels of clairvoyance mastery, or at least expertise, the ability to locate objects similar to one you had already identified. Its range was small, I could barely locate a second bolt on the other side of the ship while holding an almost exact copy in my hand, but that was already useful. Or rather, I'm sure it would be, especially as the range had already expanded past the length of the ship by the end of the third hour. This was just the first step in mastering the clairvoyance spell with the next stage, the one I was really looking to learn, finding objects I had seen in detailed images, sketches, or magical reproductions. Once I could do that, I would probably stop spending so much time with the locating spell, as I really didn't care about the even further higher levels of mastery.
When we finally landed on Daalang, I negotiated with the owner of the landing pad to supply us with fuel, which he promised would arrive by the end of the day. We didn't technically need a refill, at least according to Calima, but I would prefer to keep the reactors topped off. Miru and Nal managed to find a scrap yard that would buy the two intact vultures for five thousand credits each, not bad considering how little I originally "paid" for them. At the prompting of Miru, we also negotiated with the yard owner for two used shield generator units in exchange. He eagerly agreed, and after trading a few pictures back and forth, Miru agreed the ones we settled on were good quality. In the end, a hauler came by about four hours after we agreed to the deal, dropping off two higher-end starfighter shield generators and taking the vultures, as well as two thousand extra credits.
"These are perfect Boss, they should fit nicely in the raindrops," Miru said as the labor bots, directed by Racer, carried the units onto the cargo lift. "I'm gonna add in some of the spare vulture power cells as well to help keep the shields running without affecting the speed or how long it can run without using fuel."
"That's not gonna slow it down?" I asked as she stepped onto the cargo lift with the droids and parts.
"Nope, on top of the rocket mounts and the dorsal wing, I also removed some of its paneling since it was just going to be covered by more paneling," She explained. "With all the changes done, it should be just about the same weight, maybe just a tad heavier."
I let the young mechanic go, she was clearly eager to get started prepping everything for the final modifications to the raindrops. She hadn't expected to get the shields this quickly, but she was thankful I was still prioritizing what she wanted.
It was hard not to after seeing what the tri-fighters had done on Itander.
By the time everything was loaded and offloaded, and our fuel was delivered, it was already starting to get late. I spent the downtime looking through the inventories of several ship brokers, trying to find the best fit for what we were looking for. I quickly found that Tatnia had been nearly a hundred percent correct, most of what I found in our price range and our required size were no name boxes with very little originality.
"How did you know there would be so many like this?" I asked him, tilting my data pad toward her.
"Because hundreds of planets and species make their own shuttles," She explained with a shrug. "There's no hyperdrive and no reason for showing off when your only goal is to go from planetside to a waiting ship."
"Right. Sounds like I should definitely bring one of you guys to tell me if it's junk or not…."
I eventually found two locations not far from us, each one having a couple of shuttles that would fit what we were looking for. Unfortunately, with how late it had gotten, I decided that going out to find it could wait until the following day.
When Tatnia and I finally did get up and head out early the following day, we ended up taking a taxi in the hope that we would find a shuttle that we liked and would fly it back to the landing pad. We arrived at the first shipyard but immediately realized that there was nothing we were interested in. The two shuttles that had caught my eye were much older than the images let on, having been sitting in the lot for years. There was significant corrosion in their engines caused by the high PH level storms that occasionally plagued the rainy season on Daalang. The salesperson tried to get us to buy a new model that had just come in, one that more or less matched what we needed but that he was asking way too much for. We left frustrated but hopeful that the next place would have what we were looking for.
When we arrived at the second location, we were immediately more hopeful about the quality of the vehicles, as the salesperson had to actually pull a tarp off them with the help of a hovering droid. We had just stepped into the back end of the second shuttle when my comm suddenly lit up.
"Boss! Come in!" Miru shouted frantically through the device. "C'mon, c'mon!"
"Miru? What is it?" I asked, as I pulled my comm out and brought it up to my mouth. "What-"
"Racer just detected a massive alert over the police frequency," She said, cutting me off. "The entire city quarters security force just got orders to head directly for you, with orders to capture two dangerous criminals matching your descriptions!"
"Oookay, the raindrops are properly attached," Miru said with a smile. "We are good to go!"
"Great," Julus said, having joined Miru and I down in the hangar bay for the occasion. "Where are we going?"
"For now? The middle of nowhere so we can have a group meeting," I responded, Miru, Julus, and Racer all following as I made my way up to the bridge. "We have some options to discuss."
It took a few minutes to get everyone together, Calima the last one to arrive since she was plotting a course to a random spot in nearby space. We made a quick two-minute jump to the edge of the Itander system before the Tholothian left the bridge and sat down at the large lounge table.
"Alright. So our first mercenary mission was a rather resounding success," I said with a smile, everyone cheering and patting each others backs. "Everyone performed great, we got some decent gear out of it, made much more money than I expected, and managed to make Solinda fucking rich. If all things go well for Rabben, we have a pretty loyal place to retreat to, should we need to."
"What was our final… Payment?" Calima asked. "I saw the money in my account, but I am curious what we made in total."
"I was getting to that," I assured her before pulling out my data pad. "We got the full fifteen thousand for stopping the raider and returning most of what they stole that wasn't food. Another twelve for the leftover gear we sold to them, and then another eight for hanging around until their new security forces arrived. Rabben was also kind enough to give us three thousand credits as a bonus for helping them figure out what was going on in the first place. Which reminds me.…"
I opened up the business account again, taking the three thousand dollar bonus and spreading it out evenly between everyone before confirming the transfer. Not long after I did, the crew's comms started to go off.
"That's your account, I split the bonus between everyone," I explained, Julus letting out a cheer in response. "That brings us up to fifty-four thousand credits in total, not a bad chunk of credits."
"So what's next?" Julus asked, repeating his earlier question.
"Well, we have a few options," I said, leaning back in my chair. "Miru getting the tri-fighters up and running and then modifying them into the raindrops has massively increased our capabilities."
"It wasn't that hard, Racer helped with the code, and all I did for the conversion was remove some stuff and move other stuff around," She insisted, a hint of a blush on her cheeks. "The only tough part was the charging ports on their mounting."
"Wait, they don't run on fuel?"
"They do, but they can also last about ten minutes without it," She assured me. "By default, they use the fuel first, but I switched it so we don't have to worry about filling them up as often."
"Right… Well, Miru also wants to add a shield generator to the raindrops, which we would have to purchase," I said. "After seeing how the tri-fighters trivialized driving off the raiders, I think the raindrops are a solid investment. Plus, we can sell the vulture droids to make up part of the cost."
"Won't be able to sell those," Nal responded. "Not legally. CIS droids are illegal to own, remember?"
"... And if we didn't care about it being legal?" I asked.
"I could probably figure it out," Tatnia said. "But it will take a few days, and we will have to go to the right planet. But there are no guarantees anyone will be interested. It's kind of a specialty item…. That said, just selling them to a scrap yard will probably get us four, maybe five thousand?"
"Well… shit. Alright, let's scrap them then. They are taking up space, and I'm hoping to fill it soon."
"With what?" Miru asked.
"To start with? A transport ship of some kind," I answered. "Landing this every time we go to a planet is a waste of money. An armed transport will give us more options, more flexibility, and more firepower."
"Well, we can pick up something like that on any world with enough interplanetary traffic," Tatnia said. "Like I said before, it might be a no-name box with guns, engines, and shields, but you don't need much more than that."
We talked a bit more before settling on a vague plan. We needed to refuel, buy a transport and some shield generators, all while hopefully scrapping the two intact vulture droids to make up for some of what we spend. After that, we would head out, looking for more mercenary work.
"Is it worth the hassle to join the bounty hunters guild?" I asked. "You said we weren't likely to get any good bounties if we didn't."
"They have lots of rules," Nal responded. "If you break them, they will come after you. Some of them are… restrictive. Especially if you have morals."
"Yeah, I don't want that," I said, shaking my head.
"Well. Uh. I'm already a low-level member," Julus volunteered, the rest of the crew looking over at him. "Well, technically, I'm not at the moment. But if I paid my dues and the fines for not paying them for so long…."
"... Seriously? You didn't think to bring that up earlier?" I asked, looking at him incredulously. "Like when we were discussing bounties and how we couldn't access any good ones?"
"I wasn't there for that," He said. "Not saying I shouldn't have mentioned it sooner, Boss. But I was helping Miru fix the Arrow when you were going over potential jobs."
I let out a long, defeated sigh before shaking my head and rubbing my face.
"Anyone else has something similar?" I asked when I had recovered enough. "Nobody is secretly royalty from the Hapes Consortium or part of the Chiss Ascendancy? No?"
"What's the Chiss Ascendency?" Miru asked Nal quietly, who shrugged but looked equally curious.
"Why are you a member?" I asked, ignoring Miru and Nal.
"If money was ever tight, or if Zandev and I had our eye on a big purchase, we would run a few bounties," He explained, a nostalgic smile on his face. "Just local stuff, nothing too exciting, mostly just dragging people who skipped bail back to a jail cell. Being a member cuts the taxes you pay on money from official bounties to a third, so it's worth it."
"Alright, well, that's an option for the future," I said. "Assuming you could be our go-between, handing in bounties. For now, let's figure out what planet we are stopping at to offload the vultures and find a transport."
Racer projected a stellar map, and we discussed the best place to try and offload the vultures, fuel the Chariot and let Miru do her shopping. Eventually, we settled on the relatively nearby world of Daalang, a middling populated world just outside of Hutt Space. Calima set a course, everyone settling in for a four fourteen hour trip. When I spotted Miru immediately heading back to her workshop, I called out to get her attention.
"Miru, take it easy, please," I requested, the young Twi'lek turning to face me. "You've been working hard for the last few days getting the raindrops finished."
"Working on stuff is how I relax, though," She pointed out, seemingly worried I would ban her from her workshop or something.
"Okay, but take it easy, yeah?" I asked. "Non-stop work and stress is bad for you, and it wears you down, which has a tendency to catch up with you at the worst times. So just take it easy, okay?"
"Alright. I'll work on some programming and watch some stuff on the Holonet," She agreed. "What are you doing?"
"Practicing my clairvoyance and-"
"Your… what?" Calima asked, still sitting at the table.
"My… oh, right. We haven't gone over that with you yet.…" I said, rubbing my forehead. "So-
"He's a space wizard!" Miru shouted, cutting off Nal and Tatnia, probably from saying the same thing.
"He's… a what?"
"A space wizard!"
"... Come with me, Calima, I can show you down in the cargo bay," I said with a long sigh. "Would have been nice to ease you into it, but no helping it now."
Still looking confused, Calima stood up slowly, following down to the cargo bay.
-------------------------------
By now, I was an old hand at explaining how my magic worked, what it was, and what kind of stuff I could do. So far, everyone accepted the explanation that it was something from my homeworld, or at least one of those strange mysteries you sometimes hear about when traveling around the galaxy. After a fifteen-minute show for Calima, she went back upstairs, looking a little shell-shocked but not enough to consider leaving us or anything that drastic.
Over the next four hours, I worked on my clairvoyance more, stretching it out as much as I could. About two hours in, I finally achieved one of the first levels of clairvoyance mastery, or at least expertise, the ability to locate objects similar to one you had already identified. Its range was small, I could barely locate a second bolt on the other side of the ship while holding an almost exact copy in my hand, but that was already useful. Or rather, I'm sure it would be, especially as the range had already expanded past the length of the ship by the end of the third hour. This was just the first step in mastering the clairvoyance spell with the next stage, the one I was really looking to learn, finding objects I had seen in detailed images, sketches, or magical reproductions. Once I could do that, I would probably stop spending so much time with the locating spell, as I really didn't care about the even further higher levels of mastery.
When we finally landed on Daalang, I negotiated with the owner of the landing pad to supply us with fuel, which he promised would arrive by the end of the day. We didn't technically need a refill, at least according to Calima, but I would prefer to keep the reactors topped off. Miru and Nal managed to find a scrap yard that would buy the two intact vultures for five thousand credits each, not bad considering how little I originally "paid" for them. At the prompting of Miru, we also negotiated with the yard owner for two used shield generator units in exchange. He eagerly agreed, and after trading a few pictures back and forth, Miru agreed the ones we settled on were good quality. In the end, a hauler came by about four hours after we agreed to the deal, dropping off two higher-end starfighter shield generators and taking the vultures, as well as two thousand extra credits.
"These are perfect Boss, they should fit nicely in the raindrops," Miru said as the labor bots, directed by Racer, carried the units onto the cargo lift. "I'm gonna add in some of the spare vulture power cells as well to help keep the shields running without affecting the speed or how long it can run without using fuel."
"That's not gonna slow it down?" I asked as she stepped onto the cargo lift with the droids and parts.
"Nope, on top of the rocket mounts and the dorsal wing, I also removed some of its paneling since it was just going to be covered by more paneling," She explained. "With all the changes done, it should be just about the same weight, maybe just a tad heavier."
I let the young mechanic go, she was clearly eager to get started prepping everything for the final modifications to the raindrops. She hadn't expected to get the shields this quickly, but she was thankful I was still prioritizing what she wanted.
It was hard not to after seeing what the tri-fighters had done on Itander.
By the time everything was loaded and offloaded, and our fuel was delivered, it was already starting to get late. I spent the downtime looking through the inventories of several ship brokers, trying to find the best fit for what we were looking for. I quickly found that Tatnia had been nearly a hundred percent correct, most of what I found in our price range and our required size were no name boxes with very little originality.
"How did you know there would be so many like this?" I asked him, tilting my data pad toward her.
"Because hundreds of planets and species make their own shuttles," She explained with a shrug. "There's no hyperdrive and no reason for showing off when your only goal is to go from planetside to a waiting ship."
"Right. Sounds like I should definitely bring one of you guys to tell me if it's junk or not…."
I eventually found two locations not far from us, each one having a couple of shuttles that would fit what we were looking for. Unfortunately, with how late it had gotten, I decided that going out to find it could wait until the following day.
When Tatnia and I finally did get up and head out early the following day, we ended up taking a taxi in the hope that we would find a shuttle that we liked and would fly it back to the landing pad. We arrived at the first shipyard but immediately realized that there was nothing we were interested in. The two shuttles that had caught my eye were much older than the images let on, having been sitting in the lot for years. There was significant corrosion in their engines caused by the high PH level storms that occasionally plagued the rainy season on Daalang. The salesperson tried to get us to buy a new model that had just come in, one that more or less matched what we needed but that he was asking way too much for. We left frustrated but hopeful that the next place would have what we were looking for.
When we arrived at the second location, we were immediately more hopeful about the quality of the vehicles, as the salesperson had to actually pull a tarp off them with the help of a hovering droid. We had just stepped into the back end of the second shuttle when my comm suddenly lit up.
"Boss! Come in!" Miru shouted frantically through the device. "C'mon, c'mon!"
"Miru? What is it?" I asked, as I pulled my comm out and brought it up to my mouth. "What-"
"Racer just detected a massive alert over the police frequency," She said, cutting me off. "The entire city quarters security force just got orders to head directly for you, with orders to capture two dangerous criminals matching your descriptions!"
Edge of Hutt Space huh, well shit.
Oh right this is set in a weird universe where Hutt space has laws.
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Of course it does. The laws are "whatever the local Hutt decides at any given moment."
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
It's easier to say "laws" than it is to keep saying "offers you can't refuse".
- Location
- Iowa, United States
- Pronouns
- Him, His, He
There he goes, spouting rare, obscure, and/or extremely valuable information again. At some point he needs to sit down and talk with everyone to see what's common and whats not lol.
Next thing we know, he'll start talking about Byss, Tython, or even the lost Katana fleet in Halm lol.
Hutts, angry corpos, or force bullshittery drawing inquisitor?
Anyways, it sounds like it's time to "borrow" s shuttle.
Chapter 42
Hello everyone! Just a reminder that on August 2nd and 4th, I will be taking a break. Normal posts will continue on August 7th.
Also, I have a Patreon! There are various benefits to becoming a supporter, including early access to chapters, my original content, and voting on story beats and things like interludes. If you are interested in those or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop on by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
"What?" I asked, looking around with a confused expression. "Are you sure they are coming for us?"
"Yes! They have rough images of you two and your descriptions!" Miru said, nearly shouting now. "You need to get out of there!"
Tatnia, who had leaned in to listen when I had started looking around, now looked back at me with wide eyes. She turned to the sale's person, who was waiting close by.
"Are these shuttles fueled?" She asked, pulling out her blaster and repeating her question louder. "Are these shuttles fueled?"
"N-n-no!" They managed to stutter out. "Th-th-they don't even have power cores! It's to stop them from being stolen!"
"God dammit, we need to move!" She said, grabbing my arm and getting me going, both of us running out of the planetside shipyard.
The shipbroker shouted after us, cursing when we all but kicked out his front door and ran into the streets.
"What about you guys? Any trouble near you?" I asked, quickly matching Tatnia's speed, jogging behind her as she picked a direction and quickly set off.
"We are fine, there's no movement near us," She explained. "Racer is keeping an eye on it, but so far, not a single eye is looking our way."
"That's good, that might mean they haven't connected us to the ship," I said, looking around, expecting cops to pop out from behind every corner and speeder parked around us. "How long do we have?"
"A minute maybe, probably less," She responded. "You really need to get out of there!"
Tatnia, hearing our time limit, gave a quick look over her shoulder and brazenly stepped into the open area in front of the shipyard, a land speeder whining to a stop, its repulsors straining to slow down the vehicle and keep from hitting her.
The speeder, a simple engine in the back, seating area in front design that was common for land speeders, came to a stop just inches from touching her. Without pausing, she pulled her blaster pistol out and aimed it at the person driving, the Gran driver raising his hands up and talking harshly in a language I didn't understand. Tatnia, on the other hand, spoke right back to him, albeit only a few words, as she climbed into the speeder, the driver shifting over to let Tatnia drive while I sat in the back.
"Miru, I'm hanging up so I can focus on what's going on here," I said. "Stay on the ship, Racer can keep track of what's going on. We don't want them connecting us to the ship if we can help it!"
"Alright, Boss… Good luck," The younger Twi'lek responded, sounding anxious and scared.
As Tatnia gunned the speeder forward, the Gran screamed and shouted until Tatnia shot him in the chest, the familiar stunning blast making him slump down in the passenger seat.
"What are we doing, boss?" Tatnia asked, looking over her shoulder at me as she drove at slightly dangerous speeds considering how small the road where we were driving was.
"The fact that nobody is going after the ship means they haven't linked it to us," I pointed out. "Otherwise, they would have gone after that first. I have no idea why they are coming after us now, but the second we make a beeline toward the Chariot, we lose that advantage."
"So… we go to ground?" She suggested, and I nodded in agreement. "We-"
A blaster bolt slapped into the back of the speeder, scoring the plating and making a worrying sound as it whizzed away. I turned back to fire at whoever was shooting at us, only to see someone who very was clearly not a police officer with a blaster rifle pointed at us. I pulled my pistol and took a few snapshots at them, knowing I had no chance of hitting them but hoping to make them duck.
I managed to take a chunk of ferrocrete from the corner of their cover, causing them to sink down behind it. Tatnia took advantage of their distraction to gun it, the speeder picking up more speed as we escaped.
"What in the hell was that? Not even gonna try and ask us to surrender?" Tatnia asked angrily, our speed increasing again. "They are going straight to killing?"
"That wasn't a security officer," I answered, shouting over the wind from the open seat speeder. "Maybe a bounty hunter? Wasn't wearing a uniform, at least."
"Really? Fuck, that means it's probably the Hutts!" Tatnia responded. "We need to get off this planet!"
We continued to move as fast as we could, only slowing for a moment to dump our passenger on the sidewalk. Tatnia had hoped having them on board would give us some cover, but now it was too dangerous. For a few minutes, there was no sign of any more people coming after us, though we could hear the police back the way we came. Speeders flew through the air, scanning the streets, but for a while, we managed to escape notice.
Then another bounty hunter, or whoever was chasing us, tried to disable our ride again, the blaster fire immediately attracting the attention of the police. They zoned in on us in seconds, several speeders dropping in behind us.
"Fuck, we need to move!" I said, turning back and firing my pistol at the chasing police, trying my best to disable their speeders without actually killing anyone.
Tatnia didn't respond, only gripped the steering system harder, the land speeder accelerating again, pulling out from the police, who by now were stacked up a half dozen deep, all with sirens and loudspeakers, shouting at us to stop. In desperation, I charged up a shot, my pistol heating up as I dumped in the remainder of the energy cell into the capacitor, taking aim before firing. My pistol kicked back, and a thick, snarling bolt of red, almost orange energy fired from the muzzle and slapped into the lead security speeder, just below the cockpit. Smoke poured from the hole, and the nose of the speeder dipped, colliding with the ground with enough force to carve a furrow as it dragged along.
Unfortunately for the speeder occupants, momentum is a cold bitch, and the back end of the speeder flipped up and over, the speeder smashing into the ground. If that wasn't bad enough, instead of the slow, gradual decrease of speed I was hoping for, slamming into the ground stopped it almost on the spot. This meant that three of the following speeders smashed into it, piling up in the road and sealing it up as they failed to dodge the wreck.
"Fuck... there goes any hope of negotiating," I said, changing my pistol's energy cell quickly. "Tatnia we-"
I didn't get to finish my sentence as I turned to see something big being pushed into the road, blocking our path. Tatnia swerved as best she could, trying to dodge around it, but it wasn't enough. We slammed into the side of what I think was some sort of dumpster, the impact throwing us around inside the speeder, our inertial dampeners barely holding us inside the vehicle. The speeder itself crushed the dumpster, spinning around a quarter turn before the power cells failed and the repulsors all cut out simultaneously. The speeder dropped to the ground and continued on, bleeding momentum as it skidded along the ground, throwing up sparks. When we finally came to a stop, slamming into the corner of another building, the inertial dampeners were fully off, so both of us were thrown free of the vehicle.
I groaned, looking up at the sky for a long moment, having come to rest on my back. I immediately charged and cast a double-handed fast heal on myself, the healing energy coursing through my body, healing bruises, scrapes, and tears instantly. The second double casting cleared up the concussion, and I climbed to my feet, heading directly to Tatnia, who was slowly standing as well.
"Hey, come on, we need to keep moving," I said, helping her stand and emptying my mana into healing hands as I did.
She groaned and nodded, limping and leaning heavily on me as we made a beeline for a nearby alleyway. I kept healing her when my mana was full, the bruised and battered woman slowly standing up straighter. A walk turned into a jog when we heard people shouting behind us, talking about how we had cut into the alley. Soon that jog turned into a run, my healing hand's spell doing its job.
"Fuck I hope this isn't a dead end," I cursed under my breath, desperately running away from the chasing bounty hunters.
I was half tempted to turn around and fight, but any action would attract the attention of the security forces again. We needed to keep moving and hide, or I would have to kill a lot more people to escape.
After about thirty seconds of running deeper into the alleyway, the voices were getting closer and closer. I had just about resigned myself to a fight when a door opened, and an older, white-haired, hunched-over woman stepped out.
"Over here, quickly!" She said, motioning for us to rush inside the doorway.
I made a snap decision, turning at the last second and running into the room, skidding to a stop in the dark interior. I could hear Tatnia run in after me, and the old woman close the door after her. I turned to the woman, only to watch her cringe and step back, barely visible in the low light.
"I'm sorry! They made me!" she said, cowering back.
I turned back to see two armed men step out of a dark archway that I had assumed led further into the older woman's home. Both of them had their weapons drawn and aimed at Tatnia and me.
Before I could even say anything or start to charge a spell, the blue light of two stun blasts screamed across the room, slamming into us, the dark and shadowed interior disappearing into pure black.
------------------
I could feel the low hum of a hyperdrive, the floor transferring the familiar vibrations to me. I could also feel a deep ache from most of my muscles, as well as a full-brain headache.
"Note to self… being stunned sucks… almost as much as getting shot," I groaned out, slowly putting together what had happened.
As consciousness returned to me, I slowly got a better sense of my surroundings. I was face down on a metal floor, my face pressed against the cold, probably not very clean surface. While my hands were stuck in a familiar pair of cuffs, I could feel something heavy on my neck. With a groan, I rolled over, my shoulder bumping into someone.
"Tatnia?" I asked, looking over at one of my first teammates. "Are you awake yet?"
"Yeah." She responded, clearly dealing with her own pain. "Boss, what's around my neck?"
I looked over at her, studying the tight, metallic collar she had around her neck. There wasn't much to it save a few greebles and red light that slowly blinked. I let out a long sigh.
"It's a collar. My paranoia says a slave collar of some type." I said, laying back on the floor. "Same as mine?"
I could hear her shift before she let out a grunt of confirmation.
We were silent for a few minutes before I rolled over onto my stomach again, using my body as cover to cast a fast heal spell on myself. Feeling much better, the aches and pains gone, I offered my hand to Tatnia, who, after a second, took it, letting me help her stand. When she was up, I stepped closer, like I was giving her an armless hug, hiding a five-second bout of healing hands to help with her aches.
"Thanks," She said simply. "I don't like how familiar this is."
"Yeah… me either,"
A quick session of taking stock found that we were in pretty good condition, though both of us had been stripped down to our basic clothes. I groaned when I realized they had taken all my stuff and that I would likely never see any of it again.
"Dammit, I really liked that one, too," I said, sitting down on the small bench that ran along the back wall.
"What, your blaster?"
"No, my jacket," I said, shaking my head. "I was just starting to lay the foundations for my look."
Tatnia let out a long-suffering sigh while I couldn't help but smirk. Before I could continue my joke, the only door in the solid metal cell opened with the sound of a firing and sealing piston. A worn, scared, beat-up human man stepped in, leaning on the door jam.
"Aww, you're awake already. Wanted to kick you up myself," He said with a cruel smirk. "I'm surprised you're moving around."
"Sorry to disappoint you," I responded. "Would you mind telling me what's going on?"
"What's going on?" He asked, shaking his head with a laugh. "You pissed off Jabba the Hutt, that's what's going on!"
"Wait… Jabba?" I asked, suddenly confused. "How did we piss off Jabba? We were worried about pissing off the Hutts of Nar Shaddaa, not the sandworm."
"You… you don't even know…You attacked his smuggling operation three times, and you have no idea it was his?" He asked, his eyes going wide. "I would suggest you take that to your grave, I can't imagine him learning that he lost so much on chance would go over very well."
It took me a moment to figure out what the human was talking about, but eventually, it clicked. If you counted our original break out, we attacked the slave smuggling operation three times.
"Jabba was the one running that slave smuggling operation?" I asked, genuinely surprised. "Why?"
"He was until your attacks caught the attention of the Enforcers. You cost Jabba an entire operation!" He said, stopping to laugh again, leaning heavily on the cell door frame. "You're lucky his obsession with Solo gets more insane every day, or he would have taken a more personal interest in you."
"So we are on our way to Tatooine then?" I asked. "I sunburn easily, so I would prefer someplace less sunny if you don't mind."
"Well, that's good then, because you two are headed to Magravia. Jabba wants you to waste away in the spice mines," He explained with a shrug, seemingly frustrated that we weren't panicking or groveling. "I would have just killed you, but he is big on ironic punishments. Attack a slave operation, get made into slaves."
When neither of us reacted to his declaration, he sneered, clearly wanting to get a rise out of us and frustrated we weren't reacting how he wanted. Suddenly, Tatnia stood, ready to charge the human, when he moved his hand. Immediately she crumpled to the ground, barely making it a few feet from the bench. The human laughed, pulling his hand from his pocket to reveal that he was holding some sort of device, probably a control unit for our collars.
"Ooo, almost! Anyway, I just came to gloat and thank you for the big stack of credits I'm going to get in my account when I drop you off."
"Wai-"
Before I could say anything, he tapped something on his control unit, and like a light switch, consciousness left me.
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"What?" I asked, looking around with a confused expression. "Are you sure they are coming for us?"
"Yes! They have rough images of you two and your descriptions!" Miru said, nearly shouting now. "You need to get out of there!"
Tatnia, who had leaned in to listen when I had started looking around, now looked back at me with wide eyes. She turned to the sale's person, who was waiting close by.
"Are these shuttles fueled?" She asked, pulling out her blaster and repeating her question louder. "Are these shuttles fueled?"
"N-n-no!" They managed to stutter out. "Th-th-they don't even have power cores! It's to stop them from being stolen!"
"God dammit, we need to move!" She said, grabbing my arm and getting me going, both of us running out of the planetside shipyard.
The shipbroker shouted after us, cursing when we all but kicked out his front door and ran into the streets.
"What about you guys? Any trouble near you?" I asked, quickly matching Tatnia's speed, jogging behind her as she picked a direction and quickly set off.
"We are fine, there's no movement near us," She explained. "Racer is keeping an eye on it, but so far, not a single eye is looking our way."
"That's good, that might mean they haven't connected us to the ship," I said, looking around, expecting cops to pop out from behind every corner and speeder parked around us. "How long do we have?"
"A minute maybe, probably less," She responded. "You really need to get out of there!"
Tatnia, hearing our time limit, gave a quick look over her shoulder and brazenly stepped into the open area in front of the shipyard, a land speeder whining to a stop, its repulsors straining to slow down the vehicle and keep from hitting her.
The speeder, a simple engine in the back, seating area in front design that was common for land speeders, came to a stop just inches from touching her. Without pausing, she pulled her blaster pistol out and aimed it at the person driving, the Gran driver raising his hands up and talking harshly in a language I didn't understand. Tatnia, on the other hand, spoke right back to him, albeit only a few words, as she climbed into the speeder, the driver shifting over to let Tatnia drive while I sat in the back.
"Miru, I'm hanging up so I can focus on what's going on here," I said. "Stay on the ship, Racer can keep track of what's going on. We don't want them connecting us to the ship if we can help it!"
"Alright, Boss… Good luck," The younger Twi'lek responded, sounding anxious and scared.
As Tatnia gunned the speeder forward, the Gran screamed and shouted until Tatnia shot him in the chest, the familiar stunning blast making him slump down in the passenger seat.
"What are we doing, boss?" Tatnia asked, looking over her shoulder at me as she drove at slightly dangerous speeds considering how small the road where we were driving was.
"The fact that nobody is going after the ship means they haven't linked it to us," I pointed out. "Otherwise, they would have gone after that first. I have no idea why they are coming after us now, but the second we make a beeline toward the Chariot, we lose that advantage."
"So… we go to ground?" She suggested, and I nodded in agreement. "We-"
A blaster bolt slapped into the back of the speeder, scoring the plating and making a worrying sound as it whizzed away. I turned back to fire at whoever was shooting at us, only to see someone who very was clearly not a police officer with a blaster rifle pointed at us. I pulled my pistol and took a few snapshots at them, knowing I had no chance of hitting them but hoping to make them duck.
I managed to take a chunk of ferrocrete from the corner of their cover, causing them to sink down behind it. Tatnia took advantage of their distraction to gun it, the speeder picking up more speed as we escaped.
"What in the hell was that? Not even gonna try and ask us to surrender?" Tatnia asked angrily, our speed increasing again. "They are going straight to killing?"
"That wasn't a security officer," I answered, shouting over the wind from the open seat speeder. "Maybe a bounty hunter? Wasn't wearing a uniform, at least."
"Really? Fuck, that means it's probably the Hutts!" Tatnia responded. "We need to get off this planet!"
We continued to move as fast as we could, only slowing for a moment to dump our passenger on the sidewalk. Tatnia had hoped having them on board would give us some cover, but now it was too dangerous. For a few minutes, there was no sign of any more people coming after us, though we could hear the police back the way we came. Speeders flew through the air, scanning the streets, but for a while, we managed to escape notice.
Then another bounty hunter, or whoever was chasing us, tried to disable our ride again, the blaster fire immediately attracting the attention of the police. They zoned in on us in seconds, several speeders dropping in behind us.
"Fuck, we need to move!" I said, turning back and firing my pistol at the chasing police, trying my best to disable their speeders without actually killing anyone.
Tatnia didn't respond, only gripped the steering system harder, the land speeder accelerating again, pulling out from the police, who by now were stacked up a half dozen deep, all with sirens and loudspeakers, shouting at us to stop. In desperation, I charged up a shot, my pistol heating up as I dumped in the remainder of the energy cell into the capacitor, taking aim before firing. My pistol kicked back, and a thick, snarling bolt of red, almost orange energy fired from the muzzle and slapped into the lead security speeder, just below the cockpit. Smoke poured from the hole, and the nose of the speeder dipped, colliding with the ground with enough force to carve a furrow as it dragged along.
Unfortunately for the speeder occupants, momentum is a cold bitch, and the back end of the speeder flipped up and over, the speeder smashing into the ground. If that wasn't bad enough, instead of the slow, gradual decrease of speed I was hoping for, slamming into the ground stopped it almost on the spot. This meant that three of the following speeders smashed into it, piling up in the road and sealing it up as they failed to dodge the wreck.
"Fuck... there goes any hope of negotiating," I said, changing my pistol's energy cell quickly. "Tatnia we-"
I didn't get to finish my sentence as I turned to see something big being pushed into the road, blocking our path. Tatnia swerved as best she could, trying to dodge around it, but it wasn't enough. We slammed into the side of what I think was some sort of dumpster, the impact throwing us around inside the speeder, our inertial dampeners barely holding us inside the vehicle. The speeder itself crushed the dumpster, spinning around a quarter turn before the power cells failed and the repulsors all cut out simultaneously. The speeder dropped to the ground and continued on, bleeding momentum as it skidded along the ground, throwing up sparks. When we finally came to a stop, slamming into the corner of another building, the inertial dampeners were fully off, so both of us were thrown free of the vehicle.
I groaned, looking up at the sky for a long moment, having come to rest on my back. I immediately charged and cast a double-handed fast heal on myself, the healing energy coursing through my body, healing bruises, scrapes, and tears instantly. The second double casting cleared up the concussion, and I climbed to my feet, heading directly to Tatnia, who was slowly standing as well.
"Hey, come on, we need to keep moving," I said, helping her stand and emptying my mana into healing hands as I did.
She groaned and nodded, limping and leaning heavily on me as we made a beeline for a nearby alleyway. I kept healing her when my mana was full, the bruised and battered woman slowly standing up straighter. A walk turned into a jog when we heard people shouting behind us, talking about how we had cut into the alley. Soon that jog turned into a run, my healing hand's spell doing its job.
"Fuck I hope this isn't a dead end," I cursed under my breath, desperately running away from the chasing bounty hunters.
I was half tempted to turn around and fight, but any action would attract the attention of the security forces again. We needed to keep moving and hide, or I would have to kill a lot more people to escape.
After about thirty seconds of running deeper into the alleyway, the voices were getting closer and closer. I had just about resigned myself to a fight when a door opened, and an older, white-haired, hunched-over woman stepped out.
"Over here, quickly!" She said, motioning for us to rush inside the doorway.
I made a snap decision, turning at the last second and running into the room, skidding to a stop in the dark interior. I could hear Tatnia run in after me, and the old woman close the door after her. I turned to the woman, only to watch her cringe and step back, barely visible in the low light.
"I'm sorry! They made me!" she said, cowering back.
I turned back to see two armed men step out of a dark archway that I had assumed led further into the older woman's home. Both of them had their weapons drawn and aimed at Tatnia and me.
Before I could even say anything or start to charge a spell, the blue light of two stun blasts screamed across the room, slamming into us, the dark and shadowed interior disappearing into pure black.
------------------
I could feel the low hum of a hyperdrive, the floor transferring the familiar vibrations to me. I could also feel a deep ache from most of my muscles, as well as a full-brain headache.
"Note to self… being stunned sucks… almost as much as getting shot," I groaned out, slowly putting together what had happened.
As consciousness returned to me, I slowly got a better sense of my surroundings. I was face down on a metal floor, my face pressed against the cold, probably not very clean surface. While my hands were stuck in a familiar pair of cuffs, I could feel something heavy on my neck. With a groan, I rolled over, my shoulder bumping into someone.
"Tatnia?" I asked, looking over at one of my first teammates. "Are you awake yet?"
"Yeah." She responded, clearly dealing with her own pain. "Boss, what's around my neck?"
I looked over at her, studying the tight, metallic collar she had around her neck. There wasn't much to it save a few greebles and red light that slowly blinked. I let out a long sigh.
"It's a collar. My paranoia says a slave collar of some type." I said, laying back on the floor. "Same as mine?"
I could hear her shift before she let out a grunt of confirmation.
We were silent for a few minutes before I rolled over onto my stomach again, using my body as cover to cast a fast heal spell on myself. Feeling much better, the aches and pains gone, I offered my hand to Tatnia, who, after a second, took it, letting me help her stand. When she was up, I stepped closer, like I was giving her an armless hug, hiding a five-second bout of healing hands to help with her aches.
"Thanks," She said simply. "I don't like how familiar this is."
"Yeah… me either,"
A quick session of taking stock found that we were in pretty good condition, though both of us had been stripped down to our basic clothes. I groaned when I realized they had taken all my stuff and that I would likely never see any of it again.
"Dammit, I really liked that one, too," I said, sitting down on the small bench that ran along the back wall.
"What, your blaster?"
"No, my jacket," I said, shaking my head. "I was just starting to lay the foundations for my look."
Tatnia let out a long-suffering sigh while I couldn't help but smirk. Before I could continue my joke, the only door in the solid metal cell opened with the sound of a firing and sealing piston. A worn, scared, beat-up human man stepped in, leaning on the door jam.
"Aww, you're awake already. Wanted to kick you up myself," He said with a cruel smirk. "I'm surprised you're moving around."
"Sorry to disappoint you," I responded. "Would you mind telling me what's going on?"
"What's going on?" He asked, shaking his head with a laugh. "You pissed off Jabba the Hutt, that's what's going on!"
"Wait… Jabba?" I asked, suddenly confused. "How did we piss off Jabba? We were worried about pissing off the Hutts of Nar Shaddaa, not the sandworm."
"You… you don't even know…You attacked his smuggling operation three times, and you have no idea it was his?" He asked, his eyes going wide. "I would suggest you take that to your grave, I can't imagine him learning that he lost so much on chance would go over very well."
It took me a moment to figure out what the human was talking about, but eventually, it clicked. If you counted our original break out, we attacked the slave smuggling operation three times.
"Jabba was the one running that slave smuggling operation?" I asked, genuinely surprised. "Why?"
"He was until your attacks caught the attention of the Enforcers. You cost Jabba an entire operation!" He said, stopping to laugh again, leaning heavily on the cell door frame. "You're lucky his obsession with Solo gets more insane every day, or he would have taken a more personal interest in you."
"So we are on our way to Tatooine then?" I asked. "I sunburn easily, so I would prefer someplace less sunny if you don't mind."
"Well, that's good then, because you two are headed to Magravia. Jabba wants you to waste away in the spice mines," He explained with a shrug, seemingly frustrated that we weren't panicking or groveling. "I would have just killed you, but he is big on ironic punishments. Attack a slave operation, get made into slaves."
When neither of us reacted to his declaration, he sneered, clearly wanting to get a rise out of us and frustrated we weren't reacting how he wanted. Suddenly, Tatnia stood, ready to charge the human, when he moved his hand. Immediately she crumpled to the ground, barely making it a few feet from the bench. The human laughed, pulling his hand from his pocket to reveal that he was holding some sort of device, probably a control unit for our collars.
"Ooo, almost! Anyway, I just came to gloat and thank you for the big stack of credits I'm going to get in my account when I drop you off."
"Wai-"
Before I could say anything, he tapped something on his control unit, and like a light switch, consciousness left me.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Looks like the crew is going to get to auction off a whole 'nother ship.
Also, MC. SERIOUSLY needs to start studying Enchantment, and start having his whole crew wear underwear of elemental resistance. Getting Blaster'd into unconsciousness or being unable to Spark away collars/shackles is bad math.
I mean, properly enchanted armor for resistances, and some leather bracers of Archery for the improved aim (as that maps to the damage boost by striking more vital points), would be pretty versatile in how much of an impact they'd have in the setting. (Leather because the culture wouldn't see them as valuable gear rather than a style choice.)
Dude needs to up his whole crew's game, is what I'm saying.
Side note: Can Droids get enchantment bonuses? If so, those "teardrop" droids should be hella more dangerous than anyone has any right to expect.
Would be pretty ironic if they not only stole this bounty hunter's ship but also used the navigational data in it to raid Jabba's spice mines to free some slaves and sell off the mining equipment to that ice world they just left fat with cash and happy with them...
Aaaand now I'm imagining his crew getting an X-Com -like reputation: "If you hire them, they will take everything the enemy leaves behind that isn't bolted down. If you hunt them, they will break out the bolt cutters."
Also, MC. SERIOUSLY needs to start studying Enchantment, and start having his whole crew wear underwear of elemental resistance. Getting Blaster'd into unconsciousness or being unable to Spark away collars/shackles is bad math.
I mean, properly enchanted armor for resistances, and some leather bracers of Archery for the improved aim (as that maps to the damage boost by striking more vital points), would be pretty versatile in how much of an impact they'd have in the setting. (Leather because the culture wouldn't see them as valuable gear rather than a style choice.)
Dude needs to up his whole crew's game, is what I'm saying.
Side note: Can Droids get enchantment bonuses? If so, those "teardrop" droids should be hella more dangerous than anyone has any right to expect.
Would be pretty ironic if they not only stole this bounty hunter's ship but also used the navigational data in it to raid Jabba's spice mines to free some slaves and sell off the mining equipment to that ice world they just left fat with cash and happy with them...
Aaaand now I'm imagining his crew getting an X-Com -like reputation: "If you hire them, they will take everything the enemy leaves behind that isn't bolted down. If you hunt them, they will break out the bolt cutters."
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- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, this is Unfortunate(TM).
Guess we only temporarily missed the Slave Arc. Kinda funny that they pissed off Jabba on accident. That'll be a funny story to share with Han if Deacon ever meets him.
Let's see where this goes.
Guess we only temporarily missed the Slave Arc. Kinda funny that they pissed off Jabba on accident. That'll be a funny story to share with Han if Deacon ever meets him.
Let's see where this goes.
- Location
- Earth
Fade to black. MC died. Anytime someone gets "knocked out", "passed out", "gets caught by someone trying to kill them just seconds before", I take it as that, the MC died. Stories over. I might continue reading, rationalizing the "death" because I enjoy the story, but it's such a stupid trope.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
And a very silly one to have forgotten. He could easily get ~25% bonuses to elemental resistance, physical damage resistance, and accuracy for even just himself, at novice levels. That alone would be a pretty significant gain; getting to proper apprentice level would boost that to about 40%, and at that level you're talking needing two stunner hits to be taken down instead of one, even without taking any defensive spellwork into account.
(Speaking of, bro needs to double down on his oakflesh cast. Getting that down for himself and casting on allies would be another fairly big deal.)
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- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Don't you need Soul Gems to enchant shit? Is Enchanting even something Deacon can learn how to do?
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
If it was exclusively Skyrim magic, yes. Soul Gems were introduced in that game but previous ones used different methods of enchantment. That being said, the fact that his version of magic doesn't rely at all on dealing with daedra or immaterial beings, the odds are that he would not have the same restriction for Soul Gems, as the lore on their existence in Skyrim is that they are essentially a product of the Ideal Masters, as seen by the Soul Cairn and soul fissures.
Of course, even if we go with the idea that Soul Gems are a necessity, the fact still remains that the odds are good that he could use the underlying theory involved to cast a spell that would imbue Soul Gem nature on a synthetic aura quartz, allowing him to use laboratory grown gems to fulfill the function of being Soul Gems. He'd still need to fill these gems, mind you, but he could make the actual gems this way.
And that's assuming he doesn't just use pre-Skyrim enchantment. Such as ESO's runestone based enchantment system. Which he could do, because his Grimoire is expressly not limited to Skyrim's knowledge-base on the use and functions of magicka.
And, further still, remember that he's breaking the game mechanics in a number of ways such as not following the Perk system as well, learning techniques rather than dumping a limited bank of skill points into school-specific benefits.
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Yeah, this trope should really die. Writers keep turning to this to make something interesting happen in the story, and immediately starts forcing unlikely events leading to an abduction. How powerful the characters are does not factor into their decision at all. If the writer wants an abduction, somehow their powers or their mind malfunctions, and somehow a random old woman would be coerced in some random back alley that the mc is just randomly bassing by, and randomly he forgets any defensive measures like wards or oakflesh or summons, randomly.
Chapter 43
When I next woke up, it was to the unfortunate sensation of someone kicking me in the side. The deep, full-body ache that I felt from being initially stunned in that old woman's house wasn't present, which I idly noted in the back of my mind probably meant that what our jailer used to knock us out again had been something different.
"Looks like I timed it better this time," The familiar, cruel voice of the taunting human said from above me. "Get up, we are here."
As I started to stand, our jailor kicked my hand out from under me, knocking me to the ground again, stepping away quickly with a chuckle. When I finally looked up enough to even think about retaliating, he was already by the door, the control unit in his hand. I bit back a curse, realizing I had just missed a solid opportunity to attack him silently.
"It's time for you to go and time for me to get paid," He said. "And before you start complaining, if I have to knock you out and drag you myself, I will, but you're going to be really sore by the time I'm done."
I gave Tatnia a look, and together we followed the bounty hunter off of his ship, the bounty hunter staying about three or four meters away at all times. As we were led out, we passed by four other bounty hunters, each of them watching us closely and thumbing their own collar control units.
As we stepped down onto the landing pad, we both immediately recoiled at the stench of the planet. It was acrid, the air sharp enough to burn my nose. I resisted the urge to cough because it would only make it worse, but my lungs still burned.
Seeing our reaction, the human bounty hunter laughed, already pulling on a breathing mask. I cursed under my breath, lifting up my shirt to breathe through and mentally chanting that whatever damage the air was doing to our lungs, I could reverse with a healing spell.
As we stood on the landing pad, suffering and waiting, I got a good look at the surroundings. In the distance, I could see massive smoke stacks by the hundreds, pumping out green-brown fumes into the air. Whatever was making that green smoke was making a lot of it because the color hung in the air, tainting it. There was no wildlife that I could see. The grey-scale colored ground was rocky, sandy, and dry. This planet was dead, and we were about to be stranded there.
I turned my head to look behind us, spotting the four other bounty hunters, weapons drawn and ready to stop us if we tried anything. I mentally cursed as our chances to escape before we got stuck here continued to shrink.
As the pain in my lungs started to become unbearable, a speeder pulled up to the landing pad. It was boxy with a rough, heavily salvaged and repaired look and had a clearly after-market box built in the backspace, enough for four or five people. A red-faced humanoid, whose species I didn't recognize, stepped out, already wearing a mask.
"Why aren't they wearing masks?!" He demanded, looking at the bounty hunter harshly. "They are useless if they can't karking breathe! You two, get into the back of the speeder, now!"
Tatnia followed me as I climbed into the speeder, desperate to get out of the hazardous environment. The door sealed shut behind us with a hiss, and I quickly cast fast heal on myself, the burning in my lungs vanishing after the second cast. I cast healing hands on Tatnia, her breathing evening out as I did. She nodded in appreciation, and we both examined the interior of the speeder. The box we were in was clearly designed to hold people who didn't want to be transported, like slaves or prisoners, and was separated from the front by a metal barrier and a small metal grate.
While the barrier between us and the driver was well built, there was hardly any reinforcement built into the exterior walls, which I could only assume was because only an idiot would try and bust out into the surface of a planet that was so clearly deadly. Because of that, we could see the driver yelling at the bounty hunter, who clearly didn't care. He held out the control unit, prompting the driver to pull out his own more intricate-looking model and press them together. After a moment, the driver put away his control unit, pulled out a com, and spent a minute talking to someone before turning away and walking back to the speeder without another word.
He climbed in and slammed the door shut behind him, taking off his mask and putting it down on the seat next to him. Any hope that his earlier anger was out of some kind of empathy for our health was immediately smashed to bits as he finally spoke.
"Alright, listen up! I'm only going to give this explanation once. I'm the foreman in charge of mine 'D,' branch 'U,' where you two will be working from now on. You two are worth nothing but the spice you bring up. If you bring up spice, you eat. If you don't, I kill you and throw you out of the dome myself. Understood?"
"It seems simple enough," I responded. "My name-"
"I don't give a karking firebird shit who you are. Your designation is D-U-4353, and your friend's is D-U-2953," He responded, not even looking back at us. "Whoever you were before this is dead. Welcome to your afterlife."
He refused to say anything after that, ignoring any attempts by myself or Tatnia to engage him. I briefly considered trying to cast calm on him to make him more pliable, but the spell's effects didn't last nearly long enough for me to be useful, and even if it did, I had no idea what we would do next. As horrible as it was, we needed more information.
With negotiation turning out to be a bust, we settled in, watching the barren gray landscape move by. We had only been traveling for a few minutes when we stopped at a small building, a checkpoint. A quick look up, and I could see that it was stuck in the wall of a massive bubble.
"A shield of some kind?" I asked, nudging Tatnia and pointing up. "Probably to keep breathable air in."
"You're smarter than you look." Our driver said. "The air inside is breathable. The air outside isn't. Remember that if those smarts tell you that you could try and escape."
We passed through the checkpoint, crossing a blue mag field to enter. The air here was much cleaner, lacking the green tinge that was poisoning the atmosphere. From there, we only had to wait a minute, the driver pulling up to a massive ferrocrete facility. A garage door along one side opened up, and the self-proclaimed foreman drove us inside. Seconds after we crossed the threshold, both Tatnia's collar and my own let out a beep. When the driver stopped, having parked in the corner of the garage, he turned to look at us for the first time since we first saw him.
"You heard that beep? That is your collars entering the control field of this facility. You leave that field, and you die. You attack me, you die. You attack your fellow workers, and you die. You attempt to sabotage equipment, and you die. The only thing that does not end with your death is mining for mediari, the component of spice we are after. Understood?"
"Understood," I responded.
I knew this game, even if the addition of "you die" was new.
"Good. Now get out."
We turned to the speeder door and saw that an armed and armored Aquilish guard was standing outside the speeder, waiting for us. He already looked annoyed. I stepped out first, and before Tatnia could climb out of the speeder, I got a stomach full of fist for my efforts. The large tusked and hairy guard let out a low, wet rumble that I could only guess was laughter. Tatnia climbed out quickly, starting to step menacingly toward the guard, but I stood quickly and stopped her.
"That's just what he wants," I said.
The guard led us through the building, undoing our wrist restraints and passing us off to dark green-skinned Rodian as we entered the interior open space of the large ferrocrete structure. There, in a massive courtyard, was the mine, a huge hole in the ground, lined with a single metal walkway leading downwards into the poorly lit hole. In the center enormous crane system, built into the ferrocrete structure around the courtyard, slowly lowered a large platform into the hole.
We stopped there for a moment, the guard pulling open a cabinet and passing both of us heavily used filtration masks. They covered our entire faces, and while they were ancient, patched up, and a mismatch of different color parts, they seemed functional. We both quickly put them on, and before we could do anything, the guard shoved me forward after a few seconds. I didn't understand his words, but it wasn't difficult to understand his actions.
The descent into the massive mine was disconcerting. The sky was slowly swallowed up by the slowly shrinking mouth of the mine shaft. It was hard to tell just how deep we went, the carved walls and metal walkway so nondescript that you quickly lost track of any identifying features.
The only real features were the offshoot shafts, marked by a place for the crane platform to connect to and a flat space for people to load crago onto the platform. The first three were empty and devoid of activity, while the fourth one and down had a few people working and two guards standing by. On the fifth offshoot, dozens of people worked to push sealed crates onto the same platform that had passed us going down. I also spotted five more guards, all armed and armored.
At the seventh offshoot, this one marked with a large usk symbol, the Rodian guard stopped, said a few words to a male Twi'lek guard, and immediately headed back upstairs. The Twi'lek turned and shouted at one of the workers, an older human man covered in dirt and scars. He walked toward us and listened to the guard for a few seconds before turning to face us.
"You speak Basic?" He asked.
"Yes, we both do."
"Good. Cisoc wants me to lead you to the end of the tunnel," He said simply, nodding back into the offshoot. "Let's go."
"What's your name?" I asked as he led us into the tunnel, the already low light level dropping even more.
"What's yours?" He asked back, looking over his shoulder.
"Deacon."
"And your friend?"
I turned to look at Tatnia and shrugged, getting an eye roll in response.
"Tatnia."
"Right. You can call me Fareff." He responded, though really clearly not caring.
"Why did Cisoc ask you to lead us down here?" I asked.
"Because he is lazy," He responded. "And as a reward for good behavior. I get a break from lifting, and he doesn't have to walk all the way down here."
Fareff continued to lead us down into the offshoot mine, which had started to dip downward as well. Along the walls of the tunnel, I could see evidence of miners chasing deposits of what I assume was spice, some spots marked with light drilling, others gouged several feet in. After about five minutes, we could hear the sounds of equipment and working ahead. It was also getting dustier, the air getting harder to see through. I tugged at my mask to make sure it was secure.
When we finally reached the end of the mine, Fareff stopped, giving Tatnia and I the chance to look around. The mine was at least ten meters tall and fifteen wide, the same as the poorly lit tunnel leading to it. It was clear they had been mining in this spot for some time, having carved out a wide tunnel with three vague walls, each lined with multiple platforms, scaffolding set up to let the miners dig and carve out the solidified spice, or at least this particular type of spices main component from the walls. The whole room was lined with lights to the point that it was almost too bright.
I could see the foreman nearby, the man who had picked us up, standing near one of the portable light towers that lit everything up. He had a small work area set up, including a stool he was sitting on, watching the three or four dozen miners as they worked. A few feet away was some sort of hover platform with simple controls and a small seat, no doubt what he had used to get her so much faster than us. Fareff headed straight for him, leading us to where he was keeping watch, two guards standing with him. The fact that we were about to be handed off to the same person who had brought us in finally broke my resistance.
"Hey, do you have a twin? Because I swear-"
My mouth was starting to sass before I even realized it, my frustration making my control slip. The foreman must have seen it coming, though, because he reached out to a table at his workspace and tapped something. I didn't even have time to do anything before Tatnia dropped to her knees, her mouth open in a silent scream, her body convulsing. It continued for a full three seconds before the red-skinned humanoid stopped, pulling his finger off the button.
"I've worked in this mine for thirty years, prisoner," He said, spitting something onto the floor between us. "I've seen it all, I know your type. I know you're the type to get over pain quickly. You're not a special prisoner. Get over yourself, or your friend here is going to pay for it."
I wordlessly helped Tatnia to her feet, her legs shaking slightly as she stood. She grabbed my arm tightly and squeezed, shaking her head when I looked at her. The foreman's hand moved over to the table again, finger hovering over the button.
"And now you say 'Yes, Sir,'" He said, staring me down.
"...Yes, sir," I responded, clenching my fist as he smirked.
"Good. Smarter than you look," He responded, moving his hand away from the table.
I could feel Tatnia slowly unclenching.
The foreman spent five minutes explaining how the process worked, leading us to the closest worker, a male Tartuga, who was dressed in a bright orange prison uniform. He was using a large, handheld device to break up the stone, the machine firing waves of some sort of pressure or compressive force. After a moment, cracks and fissures slowly started to form in the rock wherever he focused the grinder. He then gently put down the large piece of equipment, grabbed a hammer and a small pick, and started breaking apart the stone. Occasionally he pulled out a chunk of dark maroon material, which he carefully stored in a satchel on his left hip.
"Use the resonance grinder to soften the stone, then use your tools to break it up further," The foreman explained. "Do not overuse the resonance grinder, it will reduce the mediari stone, the spice component, to powder. Do not aim the grinder at anyone, you'll be forced to clean up the mess, and then I will kill you. You share the resonance grinder with whoever else is on your platform."
Before I could ask any questions, a pair of tools and a satchel were placed in my hands, and a second set handed to Tatnia. Without another word, the foreman turned and walked away, leaving us on our own. Tatnia and I shared a look, silent for a few moments.
"You best get to work," Our platform buddy said, not looking away from his spot. "Your quota might be smaller today, but if you don't hit it, they won't feed you."
I let out a curse and put my tools down, bending over to pick up the resonance grinder, hefting the large machine, and looking at Tatnia. I wasn't exactly happy about it, but for now, it was time to get to work.
"Looks like I timed it better this time," The familiar, cruel voice of the taunting human said from above me. "Get up, we are here."
As I started to stand, our jailor kicked my hand out from under me, knocking me to the ground again, stepping away quickly with a chuckle. When I finally looked up enough to even think about retaliating, he was already by the door, the control unit in his hand. I bit back a curse, realizing I had just missed a solid opportunity to attack him silently.
"It's time for you to go and time for me to get paid," He said. "And before you start complaining, if I have to knock you out and drag you myself, I will, but you're going to be really sore by the time I'm done."
I gave Tatnia a look, and together we followed the bounty hunter off of his ship, the bounty hunter staying about three or four meters away at all times. As we were led out, we passed by four other bounty hunters, each of them watching us closely and thumbing their own collar control units.
As we stepped down onto the landing pad, we both immediately recoiled at the stench of the planet. It was acrid, the air sharp enough to burn my nose. I resisted the urge to cough because it would only make it worse, but my lungs still burned.
Seeing our reaction, the human bounty hunter laughed, already pulling on a breathing mask. I cursed under my breath, lifting up my shirt to breathe through and mentally chanting that whatever damage the air was doing to our lungs, I could reverse with a healing spell.
As we stood on the landing pad, suffering and waiting, I got a good look at the surroundings. In the distance, I could see massive smoke stacks by the hundreds, pumping out green-brown fumes into the air. Whatever was making that green smoke was making a lot of it because the color hung in the air, tainting it. There was no wildlife that I could see. The grey-scale colored ground was rocky, sandy, and dry. This planet was dead, and we were about to be stranded there.
I turned my head to look behind us, spotting the four other bounty hunters, weapons drawn and ready to stop us if we tried anything. I mentally cursed as our chances to escape before we got stuck here continued to shrink.
As the pain in my lungs started to become unbearable, a speeder pulled up to the landing pad. It was boxy with a rough, heavily salvaged and repaired look and had a clearly after-market box built in the backspace, enough for four or five people. A red-faced humanoid, whose species I didn't recognize, stepped out, already wearing a mask.
"Why aren't they wearing masks?!" He demanded, looking at the bounty hunter harshly. "They are useless if they can't karking breathe! You two, get into the back of the speeder, now!"
Tatnia followed me as I climbed into the speeder, desperate to get out of the hazardous environment. The door sealed shut behind us with a hiss, and I quickly cast fast heal on myself, the burning in my lungs vanishing after the second cast. I cast healing hands on Tatnia, her breathing evening out as I did. She nodded in appreciation, and we both examined the interior of the speeder. The box we were in was clearly designed to hold people who didn't want to be transported, like slaves or prisoners, and was separated from the front by a metal barrier and a small metal grate.
While the barrier between us and the driver was well built, there was hardly any reinforcement built into the exterior walls, which I could only assume was because only an idiot would try and bust out into the surface of a planet that was so clearly deadly. Because of that, we could see the driver yelling at the bounty hunter, who clearly didn't care. He held out the control unit, prompting the driver to pull out his own more intricate-looking model and press them together. After a moment, the driver put away his control unit, pulled out a com, and spent a minute talking to someone before turning away and walking back to the speeder without another word.
He climbed in and slammed the door shut behind him, taking off his mask and putting it down on the seat next to him. Any hope that his earlier anger was out of some kind of empathy for our health was immediately smashed to bits as he finally spoke.
"Alright, listen up! I'm only going to give this explanation once. I'm the foreman in charge of mine 'D,' branch 'U,' where you two will be working from now on. You two are worth nothing but the spice you bring up. If you bring up spice, you eat. If you don't, I kill you and throw you out of the dome myself. Understood?"
"It seems simple enough," I responded. "My name-"
"I don't give a karking firebird shit who you are. Your designation is D-U-4353, and your friend's is D-U-2953," He responded, not even looking back at us. "Whoever you were before this is dead. Welcome to your afterlife."
He refused to say anything after that, ignoring any attempts by myself or Tatnia to engage him. I briefly considered trying to cast calm on him to make him more pliable, but the spell's effects didn't last nearly long enough for me to be useful, and even if it did, I had no idea what we would do next. As horrible as it was, we needed more information.
With negotiation turning out to be a bust, we settled in, watching the barren gray landscape move by. We had only been traveling for a few minutes when we stopped at a small building, a checkpoint. A quick look up, and I could see that it was stuck in the wall of a massive bubble.
"A shield of some kind?" I asked, nudging Tatnia and pointing up. "Probably to keep breathable air in."
"You're smarter than you look." Our driver said. "The air inside is breathable. The air outside isn't. Remember that if those smarts tell you that you could try and escape."
We passed through the checkpoint, crossing a blue mag field to enter. The air here was much cleaner, lacking the green tinge that was poisoning the atmosphere. From there, we only had to wait a minute, the driver pulling up to a massive ferrocrete facility. A garage door along one side opened up, and the self-proclaimed foreman drove us inside. Seconds after we crossed the threshold, both Tatnia's collar and my own let out a beep. When the driver stopped, having parked in the corner of the garage, he turned to look at us for the first time since we first saw him.
"You heard that beep? That is your collars entering the control field of this facility. You leave that field, and you die. You attack me, you die. You attack your fellow workers, and you die. You attempt to sabotage equipment, and you die. The only thing that does not end with your death is mining for mediari, the component of spice we are after. Understood?"
"Understood," I responded.
I knew this game, even if the addition of "you die" was new.
"Good. Now get out."
We turned to the speeder door and saw that an armed and armored Aquilish guard was standing outside the speeder, waiting for us. He already looked annoyed. I stepped out first, and before Tatnia could climb out of the speeder, I got a stomach full of fist for my efforts. The large tusked and hairy guard let out a low, wet rumble that I could only guess was laughter. Tatnia climbed out quickly, starting to step menacingly toward the guard, but I stood quickly and stopped her.
"That's just what he wants," I said.
The guard led us through the building, undoing our wrist restraints and passing us off to dark green-skinned Rodian as we entered the interior open space of the large ferrocrete structure. There, in a massive courtyard, was the mine, a huge hole in the ground, lined with a single metal walkway leading downwards into the poorly lit hole. In the center enormous crane system, built into the ferrocrete structure around the courtyard, slowly lowered a large platform into the hole.
We stopped there for a moment, the guard pulling open a cabinet and passing both of us heavily used filtration masks. They covered our entire faces, and while they were ancient, patched up, and a mismatch of different color parts, they seemed functional. We both quickly put them on, and before we could do anything, the guard shoved me forward after a few seconds. I didn't understand his words, but it wasn't difficult to understand his actions.
The descent into the massive mine was disconcerting. The sky was slowly swallowed up by the slowly shrinking mouth of the mine shaft. It was hard to tell just how deep we went, the carved walls and metal walkway so nondescript that you quickly lost track of any identifying features.
The only real features were the offshoot shafts, marked by a place for the crane platform to connect to and a flat space for people to load crago onto the platform. The first three were empty and devoid of activity, while the fourth one and down had a few people working and two guards standing by. On the fifth offshoot, dozens of people worked to push sealed crates onto the same platform that had passed us going down. I also spotted five more guards, all armed and armored.
At the seventh offshoot, this one marked with a large usk symbol, the Rodian guard stopped, said a few words to a male Twi'lek guard, and immediately headed back upstairs. The Twi'lek turned and shouted at one of the workers, an older human man covered in dirt and scars. He walked toward us and listened to the guard for a few seconds before turning to face us.
"You speak Basic?" He asked.
"Yes, we both do."
"Good. Cisoc wants me to lead you to the end of the tunnel," He said simply, nodding back into the offshoot. "Let's go."
"What's your name?" I asked as he led us into the tunnel, the already low light level dropping even more.
"What's yours?" He asked back, looking over his shoulder.
"Deacon."
"And your friend?"
I turned to look at Tatnia and shrugged, getting an eye roll in response.
"Tatnia."
"Right. You can call me Fareff." He responded, though really clearly not caring.
"Why did Cisoc ask you to lead us down here?" I asked.
"Because he is lazy," He responded. "And as a reward for good behavior. I get a break from lifting, and he doesn't have to walk all the way down here."
Fareff continued to lead us down into the offshoot mine, which had started to dip downward as well. Along the walls of the tunnel, I could see evidence of miners chasing deposits of what I assume was spice, some spots marked with light drilling, others gouged several feet in. After about five minutes, we could hear the sounds of equipment and working ahead. It was also getting dustier, the air getting harder to see through. I tugged at my mask to make sure it was secure.
When we finally reached the end of the mine, Fareff stopped, giving Tatnia and I the chance to look around. The mine was at least ten meters tall and fifteen wide, the same as the poorly lit tunnel leading to it. It was clear they had been mining in this spot for some time, having carved out a wide tunnel with three vague walls, each lined with multiple platforms, scaffolding set up to let the miners dig and carve out the solidified spice, or at least this particular type of spices main component from the walls. The whole room was lined with lights to the point that it was almost too bright.
I could see the foreman nearby, the man who had picked us up, standing near one of the portable light towers that lit everything up. He had a small work area set up, including a stool he was sitting on, watching the three or four dozen miners as they worked. A few feet away was some sort of hover platform with simple controls and a small seat, no doubt what he had used to get her so much faster than us. Fareff headed straight for him, leading us to where he was keeping watch, two guards standing with him. The fact that we were about to be handed off to the same person who had brought us in finally broke my resistance.
"Hey, do you have a twin? Because I swear-"
My mouth was starting to sass before I even realized it, my frustration making my control slip. The foreman must have seen it coming, though, because he reached out to a table at his workspace and tapped something. I didn't even have time to do anything before Tatnia dropped to her knees, her mouth open in a silent scream, her body convulsing. It continued for a full three seconds before the red-skinned humanoid stopped, pulling his finger off the button.
"I've worked in this mine for thirty years, prisoner," He said, spitting something onto the floor between us. "I've seen it all, I know your type. I know you're the type to get over pain quickly. You're not a special prisoner. Get over yourself, or your friend here is going to pay for it."
I wordlessly helped Tatnia to her feet, her legs shaking slightly as she stood. She grabbed my arm tightly and squeezed, shaking her head when I looked at her. The foreman's hand moved over to the table again, finger hovering over the button.
"And now you say 'Yes, Sir,'" He said, staring me down.
"...Yes, sir," I responded, clenching my fist as he smirked.
"Good. Smarter than you look," He responded, moving his hand away from the table.
I could feel Tatnia slowly unclenching.
The foreman spent five minutes explaining how the process worked, leading us to the closest worker, a male Tartuga, who was dressed in a bright orange prison uniform. He was using a large, handheld device to break up the stone, the machine firing waves of some sort of pressure or compressive force. After a moment, cracks and fissures slowly started to form in the rock wherever he focused the grinder. He then gently put down the large piece of equipment, grabbed a hammer and a small pick, and started breaking apart the stone. Occasionally he pulled out a chunk of dark maroon material, which he carefully stored in a satchel on his left hip.
"Use the resonance grinder to soften the stone, then use your tools to break it up further," The foreman explained. "Do not overuse the resonance grinder, it will reduce the mediari stone, the spice component, to powder. Do not aim the grinder at anyone, you'll be forced to clean up the mess, and then I will kill you. You share the resonance grinder with whoever else is on your platform."
Before I could ask any questions, a pair of tools and a satchel were placed in my hands, and a second set handed to Tatnia. Without another word, the foreman turned and walked away, leaving us on our own. Tatnia and I shared a look, silent for a few moments.
"You best get to work," Our platform buddy said, not looking away from his spot. "Your quota might be smaller today, but if you don't hit it, they won't feed you."
I let out a curse and put my tools down, bending over to pick up the resonance grinder, hefting the large machine, and looking at Tatnia. I wasn't exactly happy about it, but for now, it was time to get to work.
- Location
- My happy place
Yeah, this feels very dumb in a forced way. Almost railroaded plot, is it the Force itself fucking with them? Because it doesn't make for any of this to happen like that except for "that's the plot" making it go that way.