The Rise of Pulsar Company/Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE: BOXED IN

Nax was outside the house with Kyra, helping her practice her aiming. While it wasn’t even remotely close to the real thing, they didn’t exactly have a plethora of options. Right now, he was helping her hone her aiming reflexes and accuracy against moving targets, mostly by chucking rocks into the air and having Kyra try to shoot them down.

They… weren’t having all that much success, admittedly.

Kyra’s ’44 shot again, the red bolt just barely missing the rock this time. Nax sighed, “You’re getting close. Try again.” he said, before tossing another rock. This one had just barely cleared the two of them, before a red bolt just barely scraped the rock, and the gun gently vibrated in her hands, signaling that only five shots were left. “Again.” Nax said, before throwing another rock. The blaster discharged, but instead of flying past the rock, it disappeared, taking the rock with it. “Nice! That’s your…first one, I think.” he remarked, half serious, half snarky.

“Again!” Nax shouted, tossing another rock. The gun fired again, and the bolt hit the rock, sending this one flying into the sand.

“Now!” he suddenly shouted, giving a brief pause before he threw the rock, but Kyra shot it down nonetheless.

Nax threw two more rocks without warning; Kyra shot one down and scuffed the other, before the blaster violently shook in her hands and started venting heat, so she lowered the gun. Nax put his right hand on Kyra’s left shoulder. “We’re done for today. Four outta fifty’s not bad.” he snarked, before noticing Kyra’s lack of a response, so he pat her on the shoulder. “Don’t feel bad. I was worse when I started out.”

Kyra still didn’t respond. “You okay?” he asked, suddenly noticing her sullen demeanor.

She quickly sprung back to life, and half turned to face Nax. “I’m fine, really.” she said, giving him a reassuring smile. Nax shrugged and headed back inside, with Kyra following him a bit later. While that was mostly true, something had been on her mind lately.

Namely, who she was before all of this. Was she someone important, or just a nobody caught in the wrong place at the wrong time? Who was her family? Were they looking for her? Did she even have family, for that matter? Where would she even go when this was over? Naboo, maybe? A peaceful life in the Core did seem pretty appealing when they were done here.

Closing her eyes, Kyra started trying to remember something, anything about her past, an effort that yielded very little. Only vague shapes of people, maybe friends and family, maybe not. It actually started to hurt, so she stopped and opened her eyes to see Nax halfway in the doorway to the rest of the house, peering at her. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked, worried about her.

Kyra nodded, reassuring him. “Stop worrying about me, Nax,” she quietly laughed. “I’m fine.” she smiled. She just didn’t want to talk about it. Not right now, anyways.

Nax, seemingly accepting of her response, headed back down the stairs. “By the way, we’ll be going to Mos Eisley tomorrow!” he shouted up to her.

“Okay!” she shouted back, before pulling the power pack release lever and pulling it out of the top.

Nax drove the speeder past the Lucky Despot, with Kyra in the passenger seat, and Arfive laying comfortably in the bed. If droids could even feel comfortable, that was. He was going to blaze right past the crashed passenger liner, if it wasn’t for the fact that a Rodian, likely one of Valarian’s gangsters, flagged him down. Slowing down, Nax came to a stop, and the Rodian ran up to the speeder, frantically waving a datapad in his face, shouting something in Rodese.

“…What’s this?” Nax said, taking the datapad from the Rodian. It was obviously a missing person’s notice, with a female Rodian pictured, and a reward of five thousand credits for anything leading to her safe return.

The Rodian stopped babbling for a second, and cleared his throat. “M-my wife! They took my wife!” he panicked. Nax signaled for him to slow down and take his time, and that he didn’t understand. “My wife, she went shopping near Kerner Plaza a few days ago, and she never came back! Please, have you seen her?” the Rodian asked with a heavy lisp, rapidly tapping on the datapad with the picture of his wife.

Nax frowned, and both Kyra and Nax shook their heads no, while Arfive gave a sad series of beeps, indicating he hadn’t either. “Blast it all to…!” the Rodian shouted, frustrated, and he began to pace around the speeder, rapidly scratching at his snout, or… whatever it was that Rodians had for a mouth.

“You know, if you’re looking for an investigator, my partner and I are looking for work,” he said, not trying to hide the fact that he wanted money, before turning to Kyra. “…Isn’t that right?” he asked, and Kyra casually nodded, while Arfive beeped at the prospect of helping the guy out.

The Rodian stopped, turned, and stared at them both wide-eyed. “You’d… do that?” he asked, and Nax raised an eyebrow at him, as if he were stupid.

“If you’re hiring, yeah.”

The Rodian breathed a sigh of relief, and wiped some sweat from his forehead. “…Thank you. I’m paying this out of pocket, so you don’t need to worry about middle-men or anything like that.”

Nax solely focused on him. “Right, noted. Do you have any leads aside from Kerner Plaza?” Nax asked, and the Rodian shook his head, no. That was disappointing. “What’s your name, then?”

“P-Phaz Rurmiid.” he stumbled. Nax’s blood ran cold, but he tried not to show any changes in his facial expression. “If it helps, my wife is Blii Rurmiid.”

This… would take some maneuvering. “Alright, Phaz, who do you think took your wife?” he inquired. Nax already had a sinking feeling as to what his answer would be.

Phaz ran his hand over his scalp. “I… I don’t know. The Empire, maybe? My step-brother, Vark, went missing a few days ago,”

Nax’s hopes that this was just a really big coincidence were crushed in an instant.

“…and he was into some really shady stuff, so maybe they took her as well?”

“If that were the case, wouldn’t you have been taken, too?”

Phaz started nervously looking around into the crowd, probably scanning for Imperial agents. “Maybe, but…” he stumbled, before throwing his arms up in the air. “Blast it all!” he yelled, frustrated, turning around to face the Despot, and then mumbled something under his breath.

Nax tapped him on the back. “If that’s all, we’ll be on our way. We’ll find your wife, one way or another.”

Phaz glanced back at them, and motioned with his head for them to go. They barely heard him yell. “Thanks!” over the roar of the turbines.

Nax was stonefaced, and Kyra was just staring at him the whole way to Kerner Plaza. “…Wasn’t Vark the Rodian we…” she asked hesitantly, and Nax immediately cut her off.

“Yes.”

“…Did you know that he…?”

“No.”

Kyra briefly stayed silent, opting to look out at the crowds on the street, rather than talk about the situation, at least for the moment. “…Are we still going to help him…?”

“Obviously.” Nax replied, keeping an iron grip on the steering wheel. “I had no idea he had family. If anything, I’m probably the reason his wife disappeared, but I’m not just going to let that sit.” Nax rested his left arm over the side of the speeder.

Kyra briefly looked over at Nax, studying his body language. “What makes you think you’re the reason she’s gone?”

He half shrugged in response. “I don’t have any solid proof, but the bounty on Vark said he might have connections to terrorists. Something tells me that Blii might’ve joined up with them to get revenge on the Empire after we took Vark.”

“…and if she was kidnapped?”

“Then we try and rescue her.”

“What if she was murdered?”

“Deliver the bad news, and the proof, if we need to.”

The turbines began to wind down, and the speeder came to a halt near an alleyway. Both Kyra and Nax got out of the speeder. Kyra vaulted over the hood of the speeder to Nax’s side, and helped him lift Arfive out, gently setting him on the ground, and the astromech beeped happily.

Taking the lead, Nax led the other two into the alley, and it was about as well kept as a back-alley in Mos Eisley could be. There was trash all over the place, sandstone walls had either fallen in or were in the process of falling in, and Nax could swear there was moisture in the air.

Keeping their hands close to their weapons, the trio carefully worked their way through the alley, minding themselves to not step, or in Arfive’s case, roll over any garbage that happened to be in their way. Kyra and Nax both scanned the alley for any signs of a struggle, while Arfive turned his light on, shining it on anything in the shadows. They worked their way down a set of stairs, into a trench, and up another set of stairs, coming out to a small courtyard, with even more junk haphazardly piled up in the corners than in the alleyway.

“A dead end?” Kyra said, confused. Why would anybody plan to build an alley that lead to a dead end?

Actually, did Mos Eisley even have city planning?

She just looked around at the junk piles. There might’ve been something useful underneath all of it, but they weren’t here for whatever might be under there. Kyra lifted a jagged piece of metal up, exposing a small opening. She was quickly hit by a noxious, disgusting smell, and she started hacking and coughing, so she put her hand over her mask where her mouth was, trying to block it out.

Arfive quickly rolled over to her and shined his light into the opening, revealing a dirty, damaged Stormtrooper helmet. Arfive adjusted his light, and it revealed that it wasn’t just the helmet, it was an entire suit, and there wasn’t just one, there were several of them. She then noticed that the filth on them wasn’t from the junk pile; it was dried blood.

Suddenly feeling uneasy, she took a step back, glancing over at Nax, who was currently looking at some blaster marks on a wall. “I, uh… found something…” Kyra stumbled. Turning to her, Nax walked over, stopping about three fourths of the way to cover his face.

Crouching down and looking into the opening, Nax felt the same sickly uneasiness that Kyra had. “Oh.” was all he could muster himself to say. “What a wonderful sight.” he remarked, trying to lighten up the situation, at least a bit.

A dead Stormtrooper sitting to the right of the opening suddenly fell over, exposing the back of his helmet, with something shiny sticking out the back, near the bottom of the helmet. Crouching down even further, Nax carefully put his hand into the hole, trying ever so carefully to not touch any of the decomposing material. Out of the corner of his eye, Nax could see Kyra staring at him, her jaw practically on the floor. Feeling his hand touch the Stormtrooper’s helmet, he carefully traced his fingers around until he found the thing that had been sticking out. Grabbing hold of it with two fingers, Nax yanked it from its socket, and pulled it from the opening.

It was a rectangular holodisk, likely containing the final helmet recording of the deceased trooper, and probably their best lead right now. The casing looked basically intact, barring a bit of grime on the edge that faced the exterior.

Kneeling down to Arfive, Nax held the holodisk in front of the droid. “Arfive, you can read this, right?” he asked, and the droid quickly spun his head around, chirping in confirmation.

“What’re you waiting for?” Kyra asked, waiting for Nax to put the holodisk into Arfive.

“Not doing it here.” he replied, looking up at the rooftops. “I feel like we’re being watched…”

Slipping the holodisk into his duster, Nax led the them both back out to the speeder.

Nax rapped on Thel’s door to the tune of the first ten notes of Mad About Me, and waited for a response.

Thel knocked back with the next five, and the door opened. Kyra, Arfive, and Nax quickly moved through, and Thel shut the door behind them. “Nice of you to show up.” Thel said, a tad annoyed.

Nax smirked at his friend, and then noticed Lexi at the ammo loading bench, cleaning off a droid. “Didn’t I ask you to keep her under watch?” Nax asked, before taking a closer look at the droid she was working on. “And isn’t that the utility droid your dad got cheated on?”

Thel vaulted over the couch and took a seat, kicking back. “One,” he raised his index finger, “she IS under watch, and two,” he raised his middle finger, joining it with the index, “yes, it is. She knows what it’s actually worth, so I’m letting her have a go at fixing it so I can sell it off and make some money.”

“Uh-huh.” Nax replied, thoroughly unimpressed. Lexi, while not an immediate concern, was still untrustworthy, and it really didn’t help Nax’s consciousness that she was running around, basically untied.

Lexi finally noticed the trio’s presence, and turned around. “Kyra!” she shouted, dropping whatever she was doing to run over and hug her. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“I… won’t be.. for much… longer..” Kyra choked out, and, realizing her mistake, Lexi let go of her bear hug, letting Kyra breathe again. She started taking rapid, deep breaths, coughing the whole time, before managing to get it under control. “It’s good to… hah… see you too, Lexi.”

Nax leaned over the couch, next to Thel. “We’re not gonna be here for too long, just needed a safe place to go over something we found.” he said, slipping the holodisk out, and Thel quickly scanned it, before looking up at Nax. “By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about Vark’s family, would you?”

Thel looked at him, his expression blank, before he snapped back to reality. “Just that he had a sister, why?”

Sighing, Nax slipped the holodisk into his sleeve. “Thought as much. She’s missing, her husband has me out looking for her.”

“Didn’t know you cared enough to help a target’s family out, Nax.”

“Weld it, Thel. I’m a bounty hunter, not a hitman. It’s my job to fix accidental collateral, and if I’m not the reason she’s gone, well, a job’s still a job.” Nax said, before reaching behind him to tap Arfive. “C’mon, Arfive, let’s see what’s on this…” Nax didn’t feel Arfive behind him, so he turned around to see the empty space where Arfive had been sitting just seconds ago. “…disk.”

Frantically looking around for where Arfive could have possibly ran off to, he noticed Arfive sitting next to the reloading bench, staring motionless at the deactivated utility droid. “Arfive!” Nax shouted, although the astromech didn’t respond. Standing up and walking over to him, he knocked on top of Arfive’s head. “Hello? Arfive? You there?”

Still no response.

Nax waved his hand in front of the droid’s sensors, but he continued to stare at the utility droid, almost if he were in a trance. Something about the droid had his complete, undivided attention. Nax wrapped both hands around the droid and tried to pick him up to take him into another room, and he suddenly came to life, wobbling and babbling in Droidspeak, not unlike how a child or a stubborn pet would behave. Arfive quickly freed himself from Nax’s grip, crashing to the floor and turning around, aggressively beeping at him, all tools out and ready to strike., while keeping close to the disabled droid.

Trying to reassert his control of the situation, Nax tried to grab Arfive and force him into the room…

…only to be shocked by Arfive’s prod. Nax jolted back, and Arfive decided to let the prod discharge more electricity around his feet, forcing him into a sort of dance to avoid the shocks, at least until Nax put enough distance between himself and Arfive. Kyra and Lexi were both laughing at the sight of Nax being messed with by an astromech half his height, while Thel was looking at the situation from over his shoulder, bemused.

“Hah! I think he’s a bit protective of your droid, Thel!” Lexi said, trying, and failing, to control her laughter. She ended up kneeling over and holding her stomach, in a vain attempt to keep it down. Arfive turned his head to look at Lexi, and gave several beeps of confirmation. “Oh? You want to help fix it?”

Arfive gave another confirming beep.

“..Maybe. That depends on what your owner thinks.” she said, and, finally managing to control her laughter, Lexi looked up at Nax. “How’saboutit?”

Nax carefully eyed Arfive up, who took notice and put some of his tools up in a sort of defensive pose. “He’s not mine. He’s hers.” Nax pointed to Kyra.

Lexi looked over at Kyra, who was still laughing, albeit quietly “..Well, Kyra? Whaddya think?”

Having finally managed to compose herself, Kyra glanced over at Arfive, snickering. She nodded, and then pointed at Arfive, then to Nax. Arfive spun his head around quickly, rolled into the center of the living room, and opened his holodisk port. Nax walked up to Arfive, sat down, and put the holodisk into the slot. Arfive turned around, and the video on the holodisk began to play.

TK-4028 sat in the window of one of the buildings in the courtyard, looking out into the courtyard. The apartment he was sitting in was long abandoned, no tenants, no witnesses; perfect for a sting op like this. The innie they were after had shown up not too long ago, average height, but no details; he was cloaked.

Guy was just standing there, staring out into the trench. Creeped him out.

Trying to take his edge off, he thought of home. Just a few more months in this hellhole, and he’d be out of here; back home on Corellia, with his wife, Kaya, and his son he had never seen before. He thought of her long, platinum blonde hair, her bright green eyes, and her pretty face. It was enough to make him fall in love all over again, and more than enough to make him feel homesick. He hated Tatooine with a burning passion. The desert was awful for someone who was so used to living in the rural countryside of Corellia, he actually wished he was put somewhere in the Core, or even the Mid-Rim.

4028’s thoughts were interrupted by his helmet commlink going off. ''“This is Hunter One-One Actual, plainclothes spotted someone heading into the alley and is bugging out.”'' his commanding officer said. ''“All callsigns, check in.”''

4028 pressed down on his commlink. “Hunter One-Three, reading.”

“Hunter One-Six.”

“Hunter One-Two, sir.”

''“Copy, Hunter One-Four here, ready to spring the trap.”''

''“Hunter One-Five, reporting.”''

''“Hunter Two-One Actual, we’re in position.”''

“Hunter Two-Two, on station and ready to shoot some innies.”

4028 picked up his E-11 and pulled the power pack, replacing it with a fresh one. He hadn’t shot with that pack, but it never hurt to top up on ammo. Keeping one hand on his blaster, and the other on the wall, he watched the cloaked figure with great intent. According to intelligence, this guy was apparently a massive innie leader, a big shot that operated mostly around Mos Eisley and the Mesra, though he’d apparently been spotted as far out as Anchorhead.

The plan was to bring him in, interrogate him, find out where he was based, and bring his accomplices in, if he had any.

A female Rodian appeared, coming up from the trench. The leader beckoned her over, and she obeyed. The two of them began to converse in Rodese, rendering translation nigh impossible without after action review.

“Ready…” One-One Actual said over the comms, leaving himself open to continue. Triple checking his blaster, 4028 prepared to breach. ''“Go! Go! Go!”'' he shouted, and 4028 ran out into the courtyard, alongside the rest of Hunter One. Six stormtroopers, plus a sniper team, all had their weapons trained on the two figures. The Rodian, obviously, jumped, but the cloaked figure remained still.

“Down! Down on the ground!”

“Get down! You’re under arrest!”

“DOWN!”

All of their commands seemed to overlap in 4028’s mind, meshing together to form incoherent word salad. Over the commotion, 4028 noticed the figure turning to the Rodian, and he raised his weapon, joining the mess. “Get down, innie!” he yelled.

There was a brief pause in the yelling and shouting, and 4028 swore he heard the cloaked guy say something along the lines of “…I’ll take care of this…”, so 4028 got closer, practically sticking the E-11 in the guy’s face. “Are you deaf, or what?! I said get down!”

The cloaked figured glanced over at 4028, his hood hiding his face, not unlike that of a Jawa, and appeared to kneel down…

…before throwing his cloak off, and running around at completely inhuman speeds. First to go was One-One Actual, the guy ran up to him and shot him in the chest, piercing his heart with a blaster bolt. The team still hadn’t fully reacted, and the guy ran up to One-Two and One-Four, kicking One-Four in the chest and sending him into One-Two, their plastoid armor clattering on impact, before he shot a blaster bolt into their heads, getting a collateral.

By now, everyone that was still alive had caught on. One-Five and One-Six opened fire, although the guy tricked One-Six into shooting One-Five by using him as a human shield, and then kicked him into One-Six, before running up to shoot him, only to have a missed sniper shot do it for him.

Running for cover, 4028 heard the two snipers shooting, and the guy returning fire, only to have the firefight end quickly. Poking his head out, he saw the afterimages of the guy running after him in a zig-zag pattern. Thinking fast, 4028 threw his E-11 down, and launched a right hook, feeling it quickly impact what felt like a brick wall.

The guy had walked right into his punch, and was stumbling back. Taking advantage of the situation, 4028 charged, locking the innie into a headlock, and repeatedly kneeing him in the face. “Die! You! Insurrectionist! Scum!” he shouted. His rage felt hotter than being in the center of the twin suns right now; his entire squad; his friends, all wiped out. Pulling his arms back and gripping the man’s head, he prepared to snap his neck.

However, he suddenly found he lacked the strength. Looking down at his chest, 4028 saw a smoking hole, right where his sternum was. Looking up, he saw the Rodian, holding a still smoking blaster. Feeling his strength and stamina leave his body through the hole, 4028 fell backwards, releasing the man from his grip and landing on his back with a meaty thud, leaving him staring at the sky.

He didn’t even have the strength to get back up.

…Was this how it ended? Was he really destined to die here, alone, on this hellhole of a planet?

4028’s mind raced back to Kaya and their son. The son he would never see. The son that would never know his father. His wife, who, one day, expecting her husband to return home, would hear a knock on the door, and, excited, would bring their son to the door to greet him, only to be greeted by Imperial officers delivering the bad news. He could almost hear the officer’s words echoing in his head. “Miss Kaya, we come bearing bad news about your husband, TK-4028…”

No. To hell with identification numbers. He was Telan Jahar, not TK-4028. He knew that was what the officer would refer to him as instead of his name, but to hell with it.

Taking his last breaths, he reached his hand out to the sky, hoping to feel… something. Anything. Maybe Corellia’s lush, beautiful fields again. Maybe the feeling of holding Kaya’s hand as they ran through them together. Maybe even his son. Mentally begging anything out there to grant him this last wish, something out there did grant it to him.

He was given a vision, either from an entity out there, or from his own dying, delirious mind. It was of Kaya, rocking their son to sleep, before setting him in the crib they had bought, and stroking his head gently, singing him a lullaby. Her beautiful voice was enough to bring him to tears, and the vision ended.

“…I’m sorry, Kaya...” was the last thing Telan Jahar said, under his dying breath, before expiring, homesick, injured, and afraid for his family.

The helmet rolled to the side, giving the recorder a clear view of the man’s face. “Help me move these bodies.” he said, glancing at the Rodian. “Welcome to the insurgency, Blii.”

“Pause it.” Nax ordered, and the recording stopped dead center on the man’s face. He had a black scar that stuck out against his fair skin, about four centimeters in diameter, running along his right cheek and up his nose, stopping at the bridge. It looked like the skin had been replaced with carbon fiber to patch up the bleeding, but it looked… wrong. Unnatural, even.

There was a much more natural looking scar covering his right eye vertically, with his right eye looking glazed over and white, with the iris being a faded green. His left eye didn’t look like the right, leading Nax to believe it was an injury, or cataracts. His black mullet and handlebar moustache made him actually look kinda comedic, and he would be, if he hadn’t just wiped out an entire squadron of Stormtroopers, let alone with the inhuman amount of speed he displayed. The Rodian in the footage was obviously Blii, and now he had significant reason to believe she hadn’t been kidnapped, but rather, joined an insurgent cell, probably to get revenge for Vark.

Nax just had even more reason to believe this was all his fault. Tapping on Arfive’s head with his fingers, he thought about how to proceed. He didn’t recognize the guy, but as if his unsaid prayers had been answered, Thel suddenly appeared in the corner of his vision.

“Why d’you have a video of one of my customers?”

“Who?”

Thel pointed at the only person in frame. “Bataan Keldo.”

“That’s his name?”

Thel slowly turned to look at his friend, realizing his mistake. “…You’re gonna kill him, aren’t you?”

“…No?” Nax replied, and that answer didn’t fill Thel with confidence.

“Bet.”

“Bet what? I don’t even know if he’s got a bounty on him, so I don’t really care.”

“…Then why did you ask?”

Arfive rewinded the footage to show Blii, whom Nax pointed out. “Because I’m looking for her, laserbrain.”

Before they could try and bicker any further, there was a knock at the door. Thel turned to look at the door, hoisted himself up over the couch, and opened the door.

Except nobody was there.

Confused, he looked around, poking his head outside, before looking down and noticing some kind of durasteel plate left on the doorstep. Carefully picking it up, he shook it and tapped on it, banging it against the exterior walls, making an unholy racket the whole time. Before long, the noise of Thel messing with the plate died down, and he came back inside.

“For you.” Thel said, throwing it underhanded at Nax, who fortunately had the reflexes to catch it before getting hit in the face.

Putting his hand on the bottom of the plate, Nax flipped it around, revealing some engraved Aurebesh script on it, faintly illuminated against the glow of the hologram of Hunter One-Three’s helmet recording.

It only said “We know.” with a poorly engraved image of an Imperial flag in tatters and on fire below it. Flipping the plate around, a number was revealed: five.

“Creepy.” Nax commented. The number seemed a bit random, so he moved the hand holding the plate around, trying to think of what it could mean. Five Stormtroopers killed? Five days?

Light reflected off of the plate, and that’s when Nax noticed the symbols for Besh and Dorn. BD Five? That sounded more like a shotgun or some sort of luxury landspeeder than a codephrase. Still, what did BD Five mean?

Nax then noticed an etching near the BD of a starfighter, and then it clicked. BD was reversed from DB. DB Five.

Docking Bay Five. That would explain the starfighter. It was a stretch, too, a big one, but they didn’t really have any better leads.

Nax glanced behind him to check where Kyra was. She was happily chatting away with Lexi, leaning up against Thel’s kitchen cabinets, while Lexi half focused on talking to Kyra, and half focused on cleaning the utility droid up, with its internal components safely removed and placed far away. The left side of the droid actually looked mostly clear of rust and damage, it’s a wonder why Thel didn’t do it before.

Deciding that Nax was done watching the hologram, Arfive shut it off and rolled over to Kyra and Lexi, beeping incessantly. The two looked over at him, gave him a pat on the head, and lifted him up onto a stool wide enough to fit an astromech, one conveniently high enough to both see the utility droid’s internals, but also to work on them.

Kyra looked back into the living room, catching a glimpse of Nax looking at her. He signaled to her that it was time to go, so she waved goodbye to Lexi, and the two of them walked out together.

“Where’re we going now?” Kyra asked, half-skipping to keep pace with Nax, seemingly more chipper and upbeat after having chatted Lexi up.

Twirling the landspeeder keys around his finger, Nax glanced at her. “Docking bay twelve.” he said, flashing her the piece of durasteel with the markings engraved on it. The two of them jumped in, with Nax casually throwing the plate onto the floor.

“Why there?”

The turbines kicked on, and both of them felt their organs fall into their bodies as the speeder kicked off the ground.

“’Cause some laserbrain who thinks he’s being clever wants to meet us there, I guess.” Nax said, kicking the plate up into his lap with his free foot.

“You sure do like calling people stupid, when you’re the one who could be walking into an ambush.” she smirked behind her mask. Nax raised a finger, as if to quip back at her, but lowered it. Kyra’s grin only intensified.

Parking the landspeeder at the back entrance to the docking bay, Nax left it on idle in case they needed to make a quick escape. Both of them got out, minding their step so as to not make too much noise, although it’s not like they would be heard over the turbines. The two of them went down the stairs into the backroom, which was apparently a kitchen, the door opening for them automatically. Weapons raised, they crept through the back, checking their corners and minding where they were walking.

Past the conservator, but before the arch that led to the dining room, a cloaked figure came in through what must have been the hallway. “Glad to see you laserbrains…” he cut himself off when he noticed Kyra and Nax, who now had their weapons pointed at him. It was the same cloak from the recording, and his voice was similar to the owner of the cloak.

“Show hands!” Nax ordered, sticking the shotgun closer to put emphasis on his orders, and Kyra did the same.

Carefully looking around, the cloaked man slowly raised his hands. “Alright, alright, I hear you. We don’t need to escalate this…”

Nax produced the plate, and tossed it at the man’s feet. “We were told to come here. Start talking, fast.”

The man studied the plate, before looking up at the two of them. “Ah, I see. You two were the ones poking around our little ‘accident.’” he said, literally using airquotes to get his point across. “I come with you carrying an offer.”

“Better be a good one.”

The man’s hands started to lower, but a quick reinforcement of discipline and who was in control of the situation stopped that. “Yes, well…” he looked around. “You two look like you can handle yourselves. My… organization has need of people like you.”

Nax gave an exaggerated eyeroll. “You mean your insurgency.”

The man looked surprised. “…I see the Lothcat’s out of the bag, then.”

Nax blinked a few times. “…Did you seriously think you were pulling some shit?” he asked incredulously. “I mean, really?” Nax pressed, and the man was taken aback.

”I-“ he stumbled, but Nax interrupted him.

“Not only did you forget to destroy any evidence linking you to wiping those Stormtroopers out, you 'tracked us down, and left a “cryptic” message at my doorstep, leading me right to you'.” he said, infuriated at the leader’s stupidity. Getting closer, Nax started to poke his finger into the guy’s chest, pushing him around. “I don’t know who you are or what your plan is for getting me in with you people, but I can tell, clear as day, that your “plan” for bringing me here is so full of holes and poor planning that if I were an Imperial spy, or even better, a snitch, you would’ve been up to your ass in Imperial plastoid ten seconds ago.” he shouted, progressively getting louder as he went on. When Nax finished, he heard Kyra quietly laughing to herself, and when she quieted down, he also heard two men laughing, the sounds coming from the corners in front of them, before it quickly ended. In both corners, there was some sort of rack, or a hanger, or something propping up large blankets, wide and high enough to conceal a single person each. Kyra and Nax pointed their weapons at the corners, spotting quick movement that almost immediately stopped.

“Out.” Nax simply commanded, keeping one eye on the leader, and the other on the corner, with Kyra doing the same. “I said out!” he shouted, this time more forceful. Slowly, two humans rose from underneath the blankets, blasters raised in the air. “Drop the blasters!” Nax commanded, and both of them threw their blasters on the ground, at Kyra’s and Nax’s feet, both of them being A280 blasters, except they were both chopped down to pistol form; a strange choice, considering the A280’s purpose as a longblaster.

The insurgent leader waved his hand close to Nax’s face. “You will forget about this and come with me to join our fight against the Empire.” he said in a suggestive tone, as if trying to implant the thought in Nax’s mind.

“No.” Nax simply replied, and the man tried again, repeating his exact words. Nax shoved the shotgun in his face and pumped it. “Did I stutter?” he threatened, just as the plastoid shell clattered against the ground.

The man sighed, defeated, and both of his lackeys smirked at each other, making it quick so that their boss wouldn’t notice. “...So, if you’re not here to join us, then what are you here for?”

“We’re finally getting somewhere!” Kyra said, exasperated that it took them this long to even start talking about what they were here for. “We’re here for Blii Rurmiid.” she said, not flinching from his gaze as he looked at her.

“I… suppose that could be arranged. Just one question, though,” he hesitated. “..What do you want her for?”

Cautiously lowering his weapon, Nax eyeballed the leader. “Her husband’s worried about her.” he said simply. Not revealing any details was crucial for this.

“…I see.” he said simply, and although Nax was still on edge, Kyra seemed to have relaxed a bit. “Follow me. I’ll take you to her.” he said, motioning for his lackeys to follow him, not picking up their weapons. Nax pointed his shotgun at their backs while Kyra grabbed their A280s and threw them inside of her duster.

Nax and Kyra had been following the innies on their landspeeder for some time now, probably an hour had passed. The sights kind of stopped being interesting ten minutes in to the drive.

Kyra sat up in her seat, turning her attention away from the innie speeder and to Nax. “We’ve been at this for over an hour!” she shouted over the screaming turbines. “Let’s just head back to Mos Eisley and take a different job!”

Refusing to take his eyes off the speeder, Nax pressed on. “A job’s a job, Kyra! I’m not pulling out last minute!” he shouted back.

“What if it’s a trap?”

They turned a corner into a canyon, the walls uncomfortably close to the speeder. Not close like a podrace, but close enough to put Nax on edge. “If it’s a trap, we’ll think of a way to get back at them!”

Rolling her eyes, Kyra’s attention switched to the canyon walls. Everything about it screamed “ambush” to her; she just wasn’t sure if it would be from the innies, or something else. Her suspicions were quickly correct, as there was the sound of a slugthrower firing once, and the innie speeder started sputtering out, crashing into the ground. Nax barely had time to stop the speeder, let alone prevent a crash.

They both jumped out at the same time, weapons at the ready, right as another shot landed near Kyra’s feet, causing her to scramble back behind the speeder, on Nax’s side. The innies had recovered remarkably fast, and were already out of the speeder, with a hidden compartment having been opened, where the innie leader was tossing blaster carbines to his men. “Sandpeople! Watch for scope glint!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, as the men regrouped close together, out of cover, slowly backing away from the speeder, constantly performing 360 scans of the walls.

Kyra poked her head out from behind cover, caught a glimpse of a Tusken aiming directly at her, and narrowly ducked back in to cover, causing the Tusken to miss the shot. Sparks shot out next to her head as a slug penetrated the mini guard rails Nax had put on the speeder, but didn’t fully go through, giving Kyra a taste of what being this close to death was like. She felt her blood run cold, and her eyes went wide, but she had no time to dwell on those feelings. Quickly looking over at Nax, she sort of just stared at him, dumbfounded at what to do, having been so close to death. He was frantically unloading the shotgun, rapidly racking the pump to empty the tube, getting multiple shells stuck on the ejection port. Finally having cleared it, he pushed in a green colored shell into the tube, racked it, and began putting more in. “What do we do?!” Kyra shouted, suddenly scared now that she had been reminded of her own mortality.

“Shoot back!” Nax shouted, standing up, weapon raised towards the walls. He didn’t even get a shot off before two clouds of dust kicked up behind his back from shots hitting the wall. Immediately getting back into cover, Nax looked shellshocked. “To hell with that.” he said, suddenly less gung-ho than before, right as a slug bounced off the speeder near his head, harmlessly hitting the wall, causing him to flinch.

The two of them sat there, pinned, not saying a word. Nax held a closed fist out, and the Tuskens apparently changed targets from them, to the innies, and started firing shots at them. Poking her head under the speeder, and through the ripples of the repulsorlift, she saw the innies backing away into whatever could be considered cover, away from the Tusken snipers. A cloud of sand kicked up behind one of the insurrectionists, and he dropped dead, blood splattering from his skull. The leader and the other lackey picked up the pace, and a second shot rang out, too fast for a bolt action, and killed the other innie. The leader dropped all pretense of caution, and made a dead run for the wall. Another shot rang out, and a half a second later, another, each one missing him narrowly, as the leader bobbed and weaved. Each shot was within a half a second of the other.

While this was happening, Nax had been counting the shots and the time between them. One, two, one, two.

Two snipers.

Picking the shotgun back up, he half stood, half leaned on the speeder, Kyra anxiously looking at him the whole time. She cautiously did the same as Nax took aim. “There’s two snipers, see ‘em?” he said, using the muzzle of the weapon as a pointer. Squinting, Kyra did end up spotting them, both Tuskens, both using cycler rifles, both cracking away at the innie, and both of them distracted. She glanced at Nax and nodded. “We don’t have the range to take them out, but those carbines do.” Nax swallowed. “We need to make a run for it and grab them - fast.”

Kyra’s eyes widened. “Are you out of your mind?!”she said in a hushed voice, trying not to attract the Tusken’s attention.

“I don’t see you coming up with any better plans, Kyra.” Nax responded, still eyeing the snipers.

Mentally cursing herself, Kyra got ready to run.

“Three...”

“Two…”

“One!”

The two of them ran over to the bodies in a dead sprint, nabbed the two carbines, both E-11s, and ran back to the speeder, miraculously having not been shot by the sniping Tuskens. Not bothering with zeroing the scope – or the sights, Nax raised the carbine to his cheek, took in a deep breath, and pulled the trigger. The carbine kicked into his face as the red bolt shot out, the Tusken screamed – and fell to its death down the canyon, while the other ran off, having lost its partner. Nax and Kyra both fired some stray shots, and after a brief period, lowered their weapons, still on edge.

Finally choosing to look away from the canyon wall, the pair observed the innie leader checking the bodies, probably cursing to himself for losing his men. He brushed his hand over their bloodied faces, shook some of the blood off, picked them up, and walked up to Nax and Kyra, setting the bodies in the speeder. “Sorry about your men.” Nax apologized.

He glanced back at the crashed speeder, and then at Nax. “Yes… I’m sure you are. Now you see why we need people with your skills – we’re losing too many of our own, both against the Empire, and the natives.” he exhaled in disappointment. “Our base isn’t too far from here.”

The trio walked inside the “base” through the front wall, which was really just a rinky-dink run-down moisture farm situated in a box canyon, albeit a big moisture farm. Some big shards of rock covered most of the base from the air, and what wasn’t covered by that was hidden with desert camouflage netting – obviously old and outdated, but good enough for the insurgents. Some people were milling around, giving awkward stares at them. There were five outdoor buildings, and probably more hidden inside the walls of the canyon.

“Excuse me, I must take care of something.” the leader apologized. “I’ll have Blii brought to you in that building over there.” he pointed to a building directly in front of them – a standard Tatooine sandstone home with only two rooms, rounded dome and all – before walking away into a bigger building marked with “MEDICAL” over the door, carrying the two bodies.

Kyra and Nax shrugged at each other and headed inside, taking a seat near the center of the room at a small dining table. The room itself was actually fairly bare, and the silence was deafening, so much so that Kyra’s humming and tapping actually made Nax jump a little when she started doing it, especially from the echo. However, he eventually settled into it, and managed to pick out a group singing in a building to their left.

“Oh, what would we do with a drunken Stormie, what would we do with a drunken Stormie, what would we do with a drunken Stormie, early in the mornin’?” a chorus of five people, three men and two women, cheerfully sang.

“Hey, ho, up he rises!

Hey, ho, up he rises!

Hey, ho, up he rises!

Early in the mornin’!” they continued.

“Break his gear with a faulty laser!

Break his gear with a faulty laser!

Break his gear with a faulty laser!

Early in the mornin!”

Nax quickly caught on to the tune and started humming along, but he couldn’t do that for long, as a female Rodian with dark green skin entered the room and took a seat. “I’m aware that you two are looking for me.” she said simply, immediately identifying herself as Blii.

“Yes-“ Nax started, before Blii cut him off.

“Why?”

“Your husband was worried that you were kidnapped. Wanted us to bring you back.”

Blii’s face fell into her hands. “Of course he would be. Serves me right for leaving him without telling.”

“…Why did you do that?”

Blii suddenly snapped. “Because my brother was taken! The Empire stole him from me, and I wanted blood!” she shouted, suddenly pounding the table, her face contorting into anger, before it relaxed. “I… I’m sorry. It’s a hard subject for me to talk about.”

Nax showed no change in facial expression, while Kyra was anxious to just get out of there. “I’m sorry for your brother.” Kyra said, avoiding admitting her complicity in Vark’s fate.

“Thank you, but as for Phaz – I’m not going anywhere. This is my home – my family now. I’m not just going to abandon them to go back to that life.” Blii simply explained, with a kind of apathetic, detached tone of voice when it came to the subject of returning home.

“But he’s your husband?”

“Thanks for confirming that you have a brain.” Blii snarked, before sighing. “I’m not abandoning the fight for something I believe in – something I want revenge for, just because my husband wants me back. Now, if that’s all, I’ll be going back to my post.”

Nax and Kyra looked at each other, shrugged, and Blii walked out, trading places with the still masked leader. “Unsuccessful in persuading Blii, I presume?” The two of them nodded. “Of course, she’s very… stubborn, I suppose. An admirable trait, but it makes her hard to control.” he said, putting a strange emphasis on the word control.

“I guess?” Nax half shrugged, before facing the leader fully. “I suppose we can settle on just confirming she’s alive. We’ll be on our way, now.”

The two of them heard a blaster suddenly charge, and under the table, the leader had two Bryar pistols pointed at their stomachs. “I’m afraid that won’t be happening.” he said slyly, giving them a slight smirk with what little light got under his hood.

Blast.