The following is a fan-fiction story based on our adventures in the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire roleplaying game. You can
read Chapter I here or by, you know, scrolling down to the previous post.
I'm hoping to have the rest of the story written up soon. Writing the narrative version takes a lot longer than I expected!
Chapter II - Command and Control
Oskara, Lowhhrick and Pash wandered out of the cantina and into the heat of Mos Shuuta. They made their way down the gritty dirt and sandy streets towards Vorn's Junk Shop. As they walked, they passed a stable of dewbacks in an enclosure. The cold-blooded reptiles were clearly unconcerned by the baking heat of the twin suns of Tatooine.
The narrow alleyway they were walking down opened into a medium-sized, square plaza. Circling the outside of the plaza were a number of small pourstone buildings. Each must have been white originally, but were now discoloured to a pale orange by the constant desert winds over the years. Parts of the buildings had avoided at least some of the discolouration. The domed roofs, for instance, still reflected a slightly brighter white than the walls. Most of the buildings around the plaza had leather or hide awnings stretched out in front of their entrances to provide a skerrick more shade. Townsfolk were clustering around the few stalls that were scattered about the place. The plaza had exits on each of its four corners; one that they had come from, one that led towards the electrogate - the border and exit of the town itself into the rolling deserts of Tatooine - one wide thoroughfare that led towards Teemo the Hutt's Palace, and one that led deeper into Mos Shuuta.
"I can see the junk shop," Oskara said pointing down the street, "the scrapyard is a dead giveaway."
"Let's just hope he's still got that part, so we can get off this rock" Pash added.
Stepping inside the junk shop, Vorn looked up from a low counter covered with disassembled droids and machine parts. He was a hunched, old man, but still reasonably sprightly for someone well past his middle years. Vorn turned to a garbage-can shaped R5 unit by his side, and gave it a swift kick.
"You're supposed to tell me when I've got customers, you useless bucket of bolts!" he yelled angrily "Now get outside and finish stripping that speeder bike wreck." The R5 droid extended his lead wheel and trundled off with a surly string of beeps. It was probably something like '!@#$ you' in droid parlance.
"You just can't get good help these days," he said frustratedly, turning towards the entrance "welcome to my shop anyhow".
"As you can see," he continued, waving his arms toward the racks and shelves and enormous buckets full of scrap metal and parts "I have anything that you could want -". Vorn rubbed his thumb and forefingers together, "- for the right price, of course".
"We're looking for a hypermatter reactor ignitor," Pash said "you wouldn't have one by any chance?"
"Well, I did have one," Vorn replied, "but I've already promised it to Captain Trex of the Krayt Fang. He's paying top dollar for it too."
"Wouldn't you rather sell the part to us than to Trex?" Pash went on, "You know, because we're so likeable and he's a bad man."
"Fat chance," the old man replied curtly "if you want it so badly, why don't you try to convince me the only way that matters - with credits". Pash moved a little closer toward the shopkeeper and lowered his voice.
"How about you sell it to us at the same price that Trex is paying you, or I'll get my Wookiee friend here to pull your arms out of your sockets" Pash flashed a glance to Lowhhrick, who grunted approvingly.
"Alright, alright. No need to get nasty." Vorn walked over to one of the shelves and picked up the small, cylindrical part. "You drive a hard bargain, but you can have it for 500 credits."
"Have you got anything else? Any weapons or armour?"
"Nothing like that here," Vorn conceded "but I've got a few stimpacks and repair kits lying around".
"Perfect, we'll take those too."
Oskara, Lohhrick and Pash pooled their credits and handed over the price Vorn had asked for the items. Pash bundled the hypermatter reactor ignitor into his backpack, and shared the stimpacks and repair kits around. Leaving the shop, Pash said to the others in a soft voice to avoid any prying ears, "I used to fly cargos in and out of this place. When you land, Spaceport Control engages docking clamps on your ship so they can control the arrivals and departures centrally - and to prevent smugglers from getting away easily. We won't get far unless we can disable those docking clamps."
"What are we waiting for then?" Oskara chimed in, "Let's go get them un-clamped!"
"It's this way" said Pash, gesturing the others to follow him.
The Spaceport Control facility was a low, squat building which clung to the edge of the rocky cliff-face Mos Shuuta was built upon. Two security droids were posted at the entrance, standing at attention.
"You guys distract the droids," Oskara said "I'm going to see if there's another way in." Lohhrick gave a small grunt in agreement.
As Pash and Lohhrick approached the droids, Oskara slipped casually down the alley beside the facility. As she made her way down the street, she could hear the faint sounds of Pash starting up a conversation with the droids.
"So... er... how about that local sports team?"
Pash was definitely more attuned to charming ladies than to relating to droids.
At the end of the alley, Oskara found a small, orange, metal door that belonged to a small chamber that jutted out of the side of the Spaceport Control facility. Two thick, but rusted iron rods held the door closed, and a small keypad terminal was attached to the wall beside them.
"I've found a side entrance," Oskara whispered into her commlink "give me a minute to crack it"
Back with the droids, Pash was having a difficult time coming up with topics of shared interest.
"Umm... Did you hear about Alderaan? Crazy, right?" (Sidenote: In terms of timing, the destructive power of the Death Star had just been tested against Alderaan. Pash narrowly escaped his death by being arrested and transported offworld for grifting the streets of planet's capital city.)
Oskara plugged her datapad into the terminal and ran a quick codebreak program. Cracking a lock isn't difficult for a seasoned bounty hunter, the trick is being able to crack it without any security system detecting that the code had been cracked. Fortunately, Oskara knows such a trick. Moments later, the door slid open in front of her with a satisfying swish of air.
"I'm in" she whispered into her commlink.
The room she entered was a small conference room. It possessed a small table with four high-backed chairs, a dark polished wood sideboard and a low, long grey cabinet. At the other side of the room was the door that led towards the facility's main control room. Moving stealthily, Oskara flattened herself against the wall beside the control room door.
"What do you see?" Pash asked over the commlink.
"I see what you see human," The security droid responded condescendingly, "they don't give us state-of-the-art ocular receptors for nothing".
Oskara spoke softly into the commlink.
"It's a large open chamber. Two more security droids on the inside near the hallways that lead toward the front entrance. There's also a woman here who looks to be in charge."
The woman stood in front of a large holographic display of the local aerospace with her hands behind her back. Attached to her ear was a small blue and silver commlink headset.
"Imperial shuttle Lambda-11238, this is Overseer Brynn of Spaceport Control. You are cleared for landing. Welcome to Mos Shuuta." Half a dozen technicians of different species scurried around her, moving between different consoles and terminals .
"If you do not have business at Spaceport Control, then move along human" one of the security droids said, as he pointed the pair down the street.
"Ahh, I'm sick of these droids anyway, come on Lowhhrick" Pash said. Feigning to turn away, he quickly spun back, blaster drawn and fried one security droid at point-blank range. Lowhhrick roared, picking up the other droid and separating its smooth metallic head from its body.
The sounds of blaster fire from outside whipped Spaceport Control into a frenzy. One of the technicians sounded the alarm, and the two droids guarding the main control room turned and ran towards the main entrance. Pash and Lowhhrick had taken cover behind the pourstone entryway pillars. The droids had them pinned under suppressive fire, but Pash and Lohhrick were serving up a volley of blaster fire in return. A droid landed a piercing shot to Lowhhrick's shoulder, causing the wookiee to howl and cry out in pain. Now he was really angry.
Overseer Brynn drew a small blaster from a holster on her boot. Seeing a window of opportunity, Oskara dashed out from the conference room. Running with deadly silence and grace, she slid towards Brynn feet first, taking her legs out from under her. Whipping out a set of binders, Oskara cuffed Brynn's hands behind her back. The technicians scattered, making for the street.
"Now, if you wouldn't mind deactivating those droids?" Oskara said curtly.
"Why should I, bounty hunter?" Brynn spat the words through clenched teeth. Oskara produced her blaster pistol and pointed it towards her.
"Because I don't want to have to use this." There was a short pause before Brynn spoke defeatedly.
"Push that button there and bring the terminal to me," Brynn nodded toward the console "it's voice-imprinted". Oskara held the terminal up to her.
"Security. Droid management." Brynn said flatly "Manual override. Remote shutdown. Confirm - shut them down".
The droids stopped firing suddenly on Pash and Lowhhrick.
"Haha, she did it!" Pash exclaimed to the wookiee. Still in a foul temper and clutching his shoulder, Lowhhrick walked inside. The hair had been deeply seared and singed by the blaster shot. As he moved past the droids, a sudden impulse took him. He swung a giant haymaker at the motionless droid, knocking its head clean off.
"Yeah! Stupid droids! They can't hurt us, right Lowy?" Pash exclaimed. He took Lowhhrick's lead, jumped up and attempted to kick over the still droid he was walking past. Wookie strength and human strength differs greatly. Rather than knocking the droid over, Pash's kick had only succeeded in pushing himself away from the droid in mid-air and landing on the ground in a heap. Getting back on his feet, Pash looked around - nobody had seen, Lowhhrick had already made his way down the corridor to the main control room.
"We need you to disengage the docking clamps of Landing Bay Aurek" Oskara demanded.
"The Krayt Fang?" Brynn stared at them all in shock "Why? The ship is a hunk of junk -"
"Hunk of junk or not, it's our ticket off this rock" Pash interrupted.
Brynn spoke into the terminal once more,
"Departures. Docking Bay Aurek. Disengage docking bay clamps. There," she said "You're free to go."
"But you're not," Oskara said slowly "I'm sorry. Lowhhrick?"
Lowhhrick approached the captive, crouched down to her level, licked her cheek and then summarily broke her neck. Let's just say that Lowhhrick's years of fighting to the death - everyone else's - as a gladiator, coupled with losing his family to Trandoshan hunters, had made the wookiee a prime candidate for post-traumatic stress disorder.
"You didn't need to do that!" Pash interjected.
"What would you have me do? Let her go free?" Oskara glared at Pash "So she could re-arm the docking clamps on the Krayt Fang after we leave? Or re-activate the security droids, and send more of them after us? Or give our plan away to Teemo? Not a chance. I'm not taking any risks. I mean to be free of that disgusting Hutt, and get back home to protect my sister, whatever the cost."
"Let's just... let's just have a look around and see if there's anything we can scrounge from around here" Pash responded uneasily. Oskara was right, but it was still difficult to stomach. Oskara retrieved her cuffs from the body, and tossed Brynn's nearby blaster to Pash.
"Here, two might be better than one."
Searching the nearby office and side rooms, they found a few stimpacks, another set of binders,
and a small, broken pit repair droid.
"This might come in handy," Oskara said as she put the compact, disc-shaped robot into her backpack "if I can find time to fix it up."
"We'll have to cover our tracks." Oskara said to the other two as they were preparing to leave. "If we destroy the consoles and terminals here, no-one will be able to find out where we went." The smuggler and the wookiee nodded in agreement.
"Ready?" she said "Now remember, the trick is to walk slowly and not look at the explosion".
With sparks flying behind them, the crew sauntered casually down the steps at the entrance of the facility. You can imagine it in slow-motion, with Oskara carrying her heavy blaster rifle hefted over her shoulder and Pash putting on a pair of sunglasses, if you like.
