Star Wars: Fading mist (fan fiction)

- OVERRIS – PENFLICK CHALLENGE # 1

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...


For many centuries a shallow peace ruled across the galaxy led by the THE SOVEREIGN DOCTRINE. This was the age of confinement and insecurity where being closely nurtured is accustomed to.


Despite the reign of THE SENATE, their utopist ideal is far stretched from reality. Violence and greed interweaves all. Systems often linger in despair and starships are constantly upheld by patrolling law enforcements.


In the OUTER RIM a smuggling vessel is about to arrive to JA NU X., one of the few remaining free spaceports. It is on a secret mission to investigate the long lost artifact onboard…


Like clockwork so do stars do their never ending theatrical dance across the galaxy. Two separate concepts yet all connected in one particular way: being mostly predictable. Ruto Obath actually loved this concept (it was his personal quote) as little to no effort required from him to maintain what he learned about life – this really brought forth his questionable intellectual. Step by step he became a well-feared and wealthy trader and gained advantage over his competitors solely on relying on his accustomed ways of life. His main traits were to cherish money and power above all and to be ruthless with those who tried to cross his path. By being a Rylandronian – who are an interestingly weird, disgusting and yet mysterious species – and past experiences made him dauntingly paranoid and hard to deceive. On his last trip he managed to confiscate a highly valuable artifact (sort of a stasis chamber) which he was eager to find out more about. His knowledge was quite limited on the matter but he definitely knew that he found a weapon or being of some sort – perhaps a machine. These one of a kind artifacts where last reminisces of a long forgotten race. Originally they thought to be genetically modified and both chemically and electrically controlled (via external interfaces) beings. This almost made them all-rounder creations and in some cases: a one man army. However their rapidly declining numbers (as they were purposely haunted by previous generations) became so few that acquiring one started to reach extreme values – especially for the underground. Thus putting one’s hands on such property would both yield unimaginable possessions of credits and lethal consequences – for both ends. Ruto exactly knew about this but when he accidentally overheard an interesting chatter about potentially finding one, his lust for money started to cloud his judgment.

Ja Nu X. was the 7th planet in the Otorra system and one of the strangest places with its amber colored misty atmosphere, where constant thunderstorms, dust filled air and extreme cold temperatures ruled over the mostly dark graphite rocky surface. Wildlife was scares as not many creature or plant could withstand the chemically heavy air which then could kill anyone well under a minute. It had two moons orbiting around, which intensified the planet’s already bad weather and geological activity (earthquakes and landslides). Its far distance (from the inner rim) and rough atmosphere made it a perfect location for keeping unwanted visitors out of the way. The planet was in a forbidden territory where the galactic government could not easily reach. Disappearing starships and violent conflicts defined this sector mostly. However it was well known for traders and smugglers – who wanted to do their dirty business undisturbed – mainly to be able to do illegal business and not having to worry about paying hefty governmental taxes.

Omta was the one and only outpost on the planet. It was an ancient and yet fairly robust structure operating in midair. Its architecture resembled a theatre: had one massive half domed fully enclosed center (main hangar) – acting as the podium – and several smaller loosely connected domes next to it on different increasing elevations – as an auditorium would build up on a hill side. The whole complex was powered by massive energy turbines (under every section) which created a blue tinted hue underneath. It was not fully maintained and only the necessary parts were paid attention to – like preventing haul breeches. The decades and the rough climate had done its weathering job to an extent: at first glance the whole place would just collapse immediately.

The center of the attraction was the flea market where one could buy almost anything (from spare parts to rare items) and illicit goods. No one stayed longer as their business required to for the latter reason. To secure the base it also constantly (in a pre-calculated manner) changed its position in order to prevent any kind of unwanted ambush. The inside was somewhat heavily guarded by patrolling stun baton droids and listed everyone’s movement from entering the complex. These guards where a simple vague copy of a humanoid, had a semi gray appearance and featured a squashed rectangle head. They had the ability to move fast and freely and had thin yet durable skeletal structure (with an added extra plating on top to repel most basic physical and energy attacks) and wielded a dual forked stun baton (which continuously arced lightning from its tips) to keep the crowd in order. These droids also made a sport about teasing whomever they came across. The Circle (the dirtiest of few who controlled the place) did not care about this. Their main focus was to stay hidden whilst getting wealthy. They also operated a network of spies just in case they need that extra information or wanted to get rid of a particular person.

The Semsel use to be a recycling ship roughly the size of a large stadium: back in the days its main duty was to clean up any kind of debris from space by collecting, sorting and distributing the found pieces. The ship’s appearance was a mix between a shoetree (the tip had an inward cut from the side) which neatly sat on a flat box. The protective upper body masked 2/3rds of the greenish ship leaving the rest exposed and its exhausts resembled flattened ellipses on their side. Inside it was divided into two main parts: the receiver (where the parts are brought into and disassembled) and the sorter and delivery (which could hold dozens of shipping containers at once). With four main collectors and several dispatch drones, this spaceship was able to easily tear through space at a decent rate at its prime time. However now it belonged to a new owner and was repurposed (and fortified) to serve as a smuggling and storage vessel.

Ruto was supposed to be tall but came out as wide as. His almost square yellow bulk teeth, tar black long tongue, pale pink dry mouth (with traces of facial hair all over), wide lump nose and almost bold head immediately drew the viewer’s attention. He usually kept a long unsatisfied expression with his filthy eyelashes and constant squinting (only on rare occasions would he show his segmented brown eyes). His skin was ash like with a hint of gruesome large ulcers everywhere which he constantly scratched with his thick brownish nails. His most favored companion Nel (a crossbreed between a Skorlag snail and a Bungorian worm) mostly fed off from these bits and bobs – who usually sat in his leap, as it could barely move by its own. Ruto also had massive meaty wrinkles on the back of his head which completely covered the supposed to be neck area. Having chunky limbs made him slow and difficult to move, yet the more powerful he was when it came to use brute force. Having only a simple brown leather vest with a blank roughly patched up trousers made him look like a farmer from a dusty planet. In most cases only his talented speech could outshine his disturbing appearance: he had a smoking deep yet sly voice which easily mesmerized the weak minded.

The starship had a separate maintenance and specialized crew. The first one mostly consisted of droids whom were in a horrible shape (as they had traces of violence) except the always operational pilot droid (who had the highest intelligence). The second one had a special menacing dark assassin droid (which was mechanically perfectly foldable in every direction and was programmed in martial arts), a female wookiee named Anim (who had a mechanical brass colored left arm and wielded a personalized crossbow blaster), Atu and Arb the two silent rodians (twins of both) as specialists, Miron an old duros male refugee as a jack of all trades and Droln the mysterious boushh bounty hunter (who rarely spoke a word). They were not bounded by their past but solely by their fair share of credits.



***


After they arrived at Ja Nu X, Ruto gave the order to land the starship. At first the pilot droid hesitated and stated its safety and security protocols – as landing on this planet was no easy task and often resulted in major casualties – but as it got a deep growling roar from its master it continued on with the procedure. While descending the Semsel rattled and was bombarded with floating debris. The flight itself was frightening but impressive from the outside. Many minutes and uncomfortable turbulence later the main dock and its entrance finally vaguely appeared ahead – which gate made the ship look like a paper fly. After finding a suitable spot the bulky landing gears got attached to the platform with a loud rusty noise and the pilot droid stated a successful landing. Ruto then called for Mina and Droln and ordered them to his liking:

- So the wokiee will go – he immediately started to chew on a small insect while Mina grumbled – and prepare the artifact with those two-head idiots, while you long face – he pointed at Droln – will deliver my message to the circle. Now go! – and Ruto gave an ignorant hand gesture to be left alone quickly.

After a short agreeing silence they all went on their business. Mina took the long way around to the cargo bay. As she became quite the tempered – not solely how Ruto handled her but the fact that she still carried a burden of her past – she started to glance at her left mechanical arm. Then she carefully slipped her fingers on it and burst out in pure anger. She started to smash everything unknowingly. Droln however easily diminished his feelings and quickly gathered his gear as a preparation for leaving the ship.

The great wide open space, the plethora of starships, interestingly colorful bits and bobs, the all kinds of electrical junk, small and large machinery parts, the voice of a massive crowd, the twisted mixture of odors from sweet, sour and other horrid smells created a surprisingly overwhelming mixture. Being fairly young and inexperienced made his first visit to this place even better. He just stood next to the ship in shock for a few seconds. A passing by servant droid bumped into him (and yelled something very rude) and made his senses came back to life. He oath to find the nearest vendor and persuasively tried to ask for advice. An old geonosian pointed him to the middle – where a radio tower of some sort stood, covered with textile shades – after a long and agonizing stare down (who also sold nasty and nauseating looking treats and smelled horrendously bad). When he finally reached the central structure it became obvious: the tower turned out to be a giant droid – a Dominion’s Prime droid to be exact. Its head resembled a mushroom and was filled with all kinds of neatly organized small lights across the lower side (in a thick row at the bottom) and had its entire lower body consist of countless communicational cables. Some of those were either plugged into a wall of sockets (around the machine) or were about to be switched. As Droln watched the monstrous operator a guard droid sneaked up to him and confronted him on a tensioned voice:

- State your purpose visitor! – right after it slowly started to position its stun baton to Droln’s head.
- Now now, hey there! – he panicked for a second then pointed his blaster to the droids face and continued in a different tone – Where can I find someone useful? Or are you in charge? – and let out a vague laughter to regain his confidence.
- State your purpose! – the droid paid no attention to him and just wanted to tease his next prey. The droid also charged up its weapon thus its companions gathered from nearby and created a small crowd around Droln when suddenly an ordering shout came from nowhere to help him out:

- Enough! Let me deal with him! Go back to your business! It’s an order! - said the voice.
A tall yet thin looking female insectoid appeared after she pushed some creatures to the side to have a better vision on the subject. Its skin was yellow with interesting and almost mathematical patterns, witch all pointed to her praying mantis shaped head. But there was no time to waste as after a couple of rushed steps she was already there. The droids where hard to manage but eventually agreed to leave. The person then continued:
- Greetings! My name is Forlna! I am terribly sorry for your inconvenience! Is there anything I may assist you in? – came the warm welcoming after the cold greeting.
- I need to hand this message over to the circle, Ortu sent me. – Droln recognized that she was indeed one of the agents – by the vendor’s description and as she managed to clear the way – and handed over her the holographic message.
- I see. – she nodded knowingly – Please wait here, I will be back as soon as possible! – and as suddenly as she appeared Forlna vanished into the crowd.

Meanwhile – back at the Semsel – a couple of maintenance droids started to clean the starships hull (from pesky little energy-leecher bugs), while Mina was preparing the cargo alone – to calm herself down she refused the help from the twins. While she was fiddling with the artifact a single jawu (cousins of the jawa from Tatooine) managed to climb back up in one of the service shafts. They usually do these sorts of “scavenging” while no one is paying close attention. Soon enough the effort had quickly paid itself: the ship had many valuable objects ready to snitch. While the small being quietly moved around it suddenly spotted a wokiee fighting with an old carriage (to transport the artifact). As it sneaked closer to have a better view it prepared a small wired teaser to bring down the furry beast. When the jawu fired, it managed to hit Mina’s back. She felt a slight pain and tried to reach her back. Luckily the gun was useless and she could easily pull out the pins from her body. Then the wokiee screamed out in laughter and quickly went after the small creature. However the jawu called for reinforcements and a somewhat childish play began to form. They all tried to chase, to hunt down Mina with nets, to hit her with a blunt tool, to wrestle with her legs and to strike fear into her soul by yelling and gesticulating. They put up a good show but hardly achieved any success.

Back at the main hub, Droln started to venture around until Forlna’s return. He found a particularly interesting mechanics shop with a purple-ish gelatin which changed its structure rapidly by heat and light omitting from under its container. As he was casually browsing another boushh came up to him and tapped him on the shoulders:
- You!? I know you! You’re supposed to be my dead brother! – he yelled.
- Wh… what? I… I don’t know… what are you talking about!? – Droln got pale white underneath the helmet and knew he was about to get into big trouble. Before he could act his accuser grabbed his arm and continued:

- Don’t try to convince me that you have no idea what I’m talking about! – then the stranger pointed to his helmet: – Look! Do you recognize these symbols? They are miraculously similar to yours! – after a short pause, he grinded his teeth and continued: – You won’t get away from me this time! Boys, let’s teach this fellow scum a lesson he’ll never forget! – he shouted over his back. Shortly several of his friends leaped out from nowhere. Droln felt helpless as he got cornered really fast. He tried to reach his balster when suddenly a large explosion echoed through the hangar: something blew up somewhere not far from them.