Rancor's Tale
The pilot stumbled into the dark, murky Lounge. He was about 6
feet tall, with black hair and green eyes. Despite his fresh cheerful
face, he seemed to be covering another side of him only vaguely
visible through the haze in his eyes. He was still wearing his flight
suit, and a small R2 unit was beeping merrily beside him.
The Lounge was much larger than he was used to on ships, with
several sabacc tables and a tank full of exotic (most likely Calamari)
fish. The place was almost as deserted as he expected it to be with
the shift he'd been given, but glancing along the dark room he was
surprised when he noticed Chris "Electro" Schock sitting at the
bar. Rancor hopped over to his side and grinned at his new Commanding
Officer.
Electro smiled and said, "So how'd you find your first run? The
A-Wing O.K?"
"Yeah it was fine," Rancor said in a carefree voice. "Been
very well tuned by the last owner, and it has a nice roar to it.
Dazzler wants have a go at the circuitry to see what he can get
out of it." The small droid beeped in acknowledgment. Rancor smiled
and continued. "Can't wait to fry Imps with it."
Electro sighed at his eager pilot and said, "Well, I wouldn't
be too eager about combat. It sure isn't pretty."
With this, Rancor flipped out his old blaster, and said with a
smile, "I could take out those pieces-of-junk TIEs with this thing."
"Yeah, but it's all TIE Advanced now, not so easy. Where did
you get that blaster anyway? Looks old."
Memories resurfaced and tugged at Rancor from a different life
as mercenary and a bounty hunter after he'd left the Rebellion for
the first time, and most importantly, before he'd met Dazzler's
previous owner who had set his life back on track. Electro noticed
a faint flash of pain flush over the pilots face and was about to
change the subject when Rancor began.
He handed over the blaster to Electro. The blaster was old, but
looked as good as new. With its twin barrels, it was just the same
as any other blaster, only with a bit more majesty. A Blastech 800
from the Clone Wars. If you only use one barrel, it has the power
equivalent of a stun blast, and with both barrels activated, it
has the power of a standard kill blast shot without the loud noise.
Very good for covert. Then, taking back the gun, Rancor began his
tale.
"Several years ago when I was doing a erm job for a local
Hutt in the Corellian sector, I met a contact who must have had
very good connections. He seemed to know a lot on my past. I used
him to dig up anything he could about my parents. Despite the rough
image I portrayed to survive, the whole point of doing all the jobs
was to find out things about my family, and their links to the Clone
Wars. One day he called me, saying he had something very interesting
to offer."
"I carefully walked into the man's' old shack with my standard
Imp blaster drawn. Despite fairly trusting the old guy, when the
Empire has a death warrant on you for treason, you can never rest.
I looked round the murky gray room, finding it covered in dust."
"There were several shelves filled with various things that
no one in their right mind could possibly find useful. There were
3 small windows, but only for people to look outwards, not in, and
as far as could be seen there was no means of power in the place.
At the back of the room , there was what looked to be basically
a wooden block, but served the purpose of a counter for deals to
be struck. "
"Walking over to the counter, I saw the man walking through
a pile of rags, which must lead to another room. He was around sixty,
with graying hair, and overweight. His face was sagging, and he
had a vicious looking scar from his left ear, leading to his nose.
Leaning against the counter, I asked what he wanted me for, but
he just dismissed me, and slammed a hand-sized metal box on the
counter, instructing me to open it."
"Flicking open the box, I found three medals. I studied each
in turn. The first had a picture of a man walking on top of a scorpion,
and on the other side, a picture of a famous General who commanded
the non-Jedi units in the Clone Wars. The strap was red, but with
blue and white stripes in the middle. "
"The second had a different man on the back, who was said
to have been the tactical genius during the war. On the other side,
there were two men defending an acorn tree. On the strap were green,
orange and black stripes."
"The final one was a star, blank on the back, but on the front,
the inscription: 'The Corellia and Alderaan Star'. It again had
red, white and blue stripes, but this time all even, with blue at
the sides, then white with red in the middle. "
"The man grinned when he saw my astonished face, and I asked
him if they were my fathers'. He nodded, and said that there were
more. He told me that the contact from whom he had obtained the
medals had possessed a blaster with a personal inscription, but
a mercenary had "persuaded" him to hand it over. "
"He then continued, saying the mercenary's his name was Ilsa
Ghant: a not-all-together tough guy who ran out of luck, and had
to take up the trade of the hunt, basing himself on a small back
water planet called Tatooine. I thanked him, and gladly paid the
old man all the money I had obtained over the previous three months.
"
" So then I paid Mr. Ghant a visit."
"The entire rock was just one big pile of sand that was no
use to anyone, either Rebel or Imperial, but surprisingly, there
was a huge Imperial presence in the area. "
"The stagnant cantina seemed to beckon the dregs of the galaxy.
There were a number of tables, many of which were empty. The best
source of information in any cantina is the barkeep, so I slumped
onto a stool by the counter, and introduced myself to a greasy bartender
who said his name was Wuher. After a half hour of as warm conversation
as you could get with this guy, I told him I was looking for Ghant."
"Wuher asked if I was out to harm him, to which I replied,
"That it depends on his cooperation." Smiling, he told me to break
Ghants' arms, then said he was in docking bay 94. With that, I got
up and left, passing some young farmer and an old man on their way
in."
"Walking along the series of docking bays, after a quick pit
stop for a bite to eat, I saw Bay 94. Entering, I noticed a heavily
modified YT-1300. A human male and a Wookie left the ship, and as
the man started saying something about 'Jabba had just seen him,
and that he'd been given more time', the Wookie flashed a crossbow,
just to make sure I didn't do anything funny. "
"Wondering what he was saying, I asked if he was Ghant. The
man showed a mixture of both annoyance and relief, but then said
that Ghant left last night, but because of the Star Destroyer barricade,
he'd only been able to obtain clearance a half hour ago. So he should
still be in orbit."
"I didn't hear him finish his sentence, as I was already running
out to my ship which was docked not too far away, while telling
the on-board droid to "Warm her up," using my commlink."
"I rushed up the ramp into my small-but-adequate heavily adapted
Alderaan family saloon (dual torpedo launchers, ion cannons and
quad lasers are extra to the noted price). Flinging myself into
the cockpit, I was relieved to see that the droid had done its job,
and we were ready to fly."
"I quickly throttled up, and flicked through the HUD to find
the right ship through the many that were in orbit. There were many
names, but Wuher had told me Ghant's was called the Mantis IV. There
were very few TIES in the area, much to my relief, mainly smuggler's
ships orbiting. Outrider, Slashed, Sunburst, etc. I found the Mantis,
and felt the adrenaline surge through, as it wasn't too far away:
only 5.3 clicks."
"I throttled up towards the ship, switching all power to engines,
thinking: "I can power my ions from leftover shield power." As I
hurtled along, I was just leaving the atmosphere when one of the
STDs asked me for my clearance. I felt a tang of fear, but thanked
the Force when they suddenly lost interest and concentrated their
forces on another Corellian ship, possibly the one I'd seen earlier."
"The Mantis was now almost in range, so I transferred shields
to lasers, and flicked my comms to a channel my system said he was
using, and told him to go to zero throttle, and prepare to be bordered.
He asked me what the hell I wanted, and I replied, saying that it
was only a small blaster he had obtained, and I did not wish to
hurt him."
"He now began to slow down and I prepared to dock, when several
blasts of fire came from his turrets, taking away what little shielding
I had, and also damaging my sensors. I moaned at having to fire
blind, but at 1.20 clicks, it shouldn't be a problem. Firing away
with my ions, he went evasive, flipping over in a tight loop but
I quickly went to 1/3 throttle and was straight on his tail. He
then suddenly opened fire with a rear cannon and I cursed myself
for not expecting it."
"Instincts took over, and I strafed hard left and right, thankful
for the little amount my shields had gained that just kept me alive.
He was getting slower now, and his shields were down to 12%. Just
a few more shots. Ghant flew low beneath me, but my top gun turned
on its plate with him targeted by the ship, and blasted his system
down to 40%, stopping his fire and almost crippling his maneuverability.
With 2 more shots he was disabled."
"I flew up next to him, and as I was wondering why the Empire wasn't
showing an interest, I noticed they had entered hyperspace chasing
the Corellian craft. I carefully lowered my craft onto his airlock
and felt a satisfying clunk as I finished docking."
"I went over to my docking door, flicked it open, and began working
on the other ships' lock. Using a decoder that had cost me several
hundred credits, I soon had it open. The entire ship was black from
the loss of power as a result of my ions. I moved using stealth
as my weapon, room after room until I reached the cockpit. I entered
low to avoid him snapping off immediate shots at me."
"The room was empty, which meant he was hiding: probably scared
out of his life. I was about to begin a thorough search when I heard
the low click of a blaster safety coming from down the corridor.
I threw myself out of the way, but dropped a small metal device
the size of a coin. I activated it, then hologram of myself popped
up from the device." "I pushed myself beneath the main controls
of the ship. The stout man hopped into the room and shot a blast
at the hologram, which I immediately countered with a shot to the
chest. The last thing the man did before succumbing to the stun
shot was to give a look of complete surprise, showing that if he
hadn't expected that old trick. He obviously hadn't had much of
a success in his line of work. I picked up the blaster from his
hand, checking if there was an inscription. I found it well hidden
in the chamber where you put the blaster cells."
"The inscription said it was a present from a Jedi to my father,
for saving his life. With that, I left clutching the blaster firmly.
It had returned to the family to which it belonged."
