Debts Paid Part 1
Ambush
Somewhere in the Corporate Sector
1ABY
The Talon glided across the deep void. The great expanse between the stars where no ship roamed, and no eyes watched. Its black painted durasteel plates rendered it a mere silhouette among the starry backdrop had there been anyone to see it hunting, and hunt it did. The crew of The Talon had laboriously secured multiple massive asteroids near the planet Lur just outside the Corporate Sector. Those asteroids had been carefully aligned in their ship's tractor beam, and dragged across the empty expanse for a full week before being placed in a peripheral hyperspace route at the Corporate Sector's edge.
It was here that The Talon hunted. The sleek corvette prowled along the hyperspace route waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting prey that dropped out from the asteroids' gravity shadow, and it was here that Savage waited.
It was his second shift in the boarding shuttle. Everyone in the crew took their turns so as to be ready at a moment's notice. Each shift waited for hours in the shuttle fully armed, and ready for action ... only to be replaced by the next shift when that action failed to materialize. The Talon had three shifts of boarders, but even going into the second day of the long wait the tension remained thick.
Savage leaned up against the bulkhead as he fiddled with his vibromachete. He had already checked the edge, and re-checked it, but doing so calmed him somehow. He had been with the crew for over two months now since being rescued from the Trandoshan slave ship, but he had yet to join them on a boarding action. This wasn't surprising really, and he didn't think any of his fellow crewmates resented him for it. The Talon had been at the tail end of a successful hunting run when he had joined her ranks, and the crew had gone into its inevitable rest period between sorties. Now that the ship had gone back among the stars he was ready to be properly blooded.
He stared up at the emergency lighting along the ceiling where it was mounted in a metal cage, and willed it to begin flashing red. The light would announce that a ship had appeared, and that the hunt could begin in earnest.
"...Savage..."
He heard someone mention his name, but he couldn't make out the rest of what the man said. He was still learning the language, and could only make out the most basic words and phrases so far. He looked over at the protocol droid chained to the wall nearby. Best he could tell the droid was some sort of mascot from when the crew had stolen this shuttle, and it was the droid who had taught Savage most of the Basic that he could speak.
"Emtree, what are they saying over there?" He asked the droid while gesturing with his vibromachete to a knot of crewmates opposite the small cabin from him.
The droid, MT3 as he was properly called, swiveled his head to regard the Devorian with its single lit photoreceptor. "They said they could get a good price for you off the Hydian Way, but you wouldn't be worth the taxes."
Savage frowned at the droid. He was used to such jokes by now, but the constant posturing among the crew annoyed him. "There's taxes on slaves here?" Savage asked in his native tongue, which thankfully the droid understood.
"Indeed, there are taxes on everything. That is why you lot are here after all. All incoming trade ships must pay the tariff at Beltooine upon entering Corporate space. Hence why you all have positioned yourself on Intra-Sector Spur, to happen upon those who wish to circumvent such necessities." Emtree attempted to gesture with his hands as he spoke which caused the chains that bound him to the bulkhead to clink together quite nearly in punctuation of his remarks.
One of the other pirates in the boarding shuttle growled their incomprehensible speech at the droid, and though Savage couldn't understand the words, he understood its intent. He heard his name mentioned again, and he glanced at the Weequay who was haranguing the protocol droid.
Yes, they called him Savage, and that meant they were afraid of him. Emtree had explained the nickname to him, that it was a slur. But, he didn't mind the name. He was proud of his people, and the world he came from. Even if they didn't participate in the galaxy at large. So he stared at the Weequay while he sharpened his vibromachete for the third time that day until the Weequay looked away.
Suddenly, the klaxon sounded and the emergency lighting began to slowly strobe its dreary red light about the cabin. The hunt was on.
It wasn't long before the deck plates vibrated in tune with the ship's guns as The Talon revealed her claws. Savage could hear weapons rattle against armor among his fellow borders. Voices spoke low in languages he couldn't understand under the faint red lighting of the shuttle. He drew his RSKF-44 heavy blaster pistol, and checked the charge again. Not for the first time he wondered if he'd be able to hit anything with the weapon. He'd had limited practice with it in the ship's hold as they'd drilled boarding tactics, but he still found himself uncomfortable with blasters in general. Sometimes he wondered if he was being hazed by being given such a big blaster.
"Hey Emtree, what do you figure the odds of survival are?" Savage asked as he tested the weight of the baster in his hand.
"For you, or the law abiding citizens you are attacking?" MT3 asked in a disapproving tone. Savage gave the droid a sideways look, and re-holstered his blaster. "Oh, very well. I would give you five to one." The droid said after a moment or two under the withering glare.
"You think so little of me, Emtree? I'm shocked," Savage responded in a mock hurt tone.
The droid emitted a metallic whirring noise as it stirred against its chains which Savage assumed was equivalent to a harrumph. "Perhaps I'm hoping they will wipe out your boarding party, and free me from my chains."
Savage chuckled at the droid's protest. "Keep teaching me the language Emtree. Maybe I can convince my fellow crewmates to let you walk around and bother us all."
"Bloody pirates," the droid muttered to itself even as his words were drowned out by the sound of the shuttle's engines firing up.
There was a stir among the borders as they stood up, and grabbed ahold of the handrails overhead while they readied their weapons. The lieutenant in charge of them all started barking incomprehensible orders. Savage thought it was in the language called Basic, which was anything but. The lieutenant, a scarred Theelin, said something to Savage as he slapped his own forearm. Savage looked down, and checked that his personal shield he had strapped to his left arm was fully charged before nodding an affirmative.
"You know, if you die I'll have no one to talk to," the droid said suddenly from behind him where it was chained to the bulkhead. Savage could feel the ship lift off from the hangar deck and jettison forward into space. The energy in the crowded crew compartment became tense as the whine of the engines began to take on a higher pitch.
"What do you mean Emtree, I thought people yell at you to shut up all the time?" Savage asked sarcastically.
"Oh, you know what I mean, Queequeg. That doesn't count as conversation," the droid quipped back at him. The use of his real name convinced Savage the droid was being sincere. He didn't answer immediately as the shuttle shuddered, and seemed to drop suddenly. He noticed the red emergency lighting overhead had begun to flicker, and he wondered what it could mean.
"Don't worry Emtree, maybe I'll even find some oil on this ship we're attacking. Give those rusty joints of yours a bit of a tune-up eh?" Savage responded in what he hoped was a jovial tone. He gripped the handle of his blaster as he stared towards the back of the crew compartment where the airlock doors were.
"Thirty seconds!" The lieutenant yelled. Savage understood that part at least. They had made sure he understood their countdowns during drilling. Low muttering pervaded the crew compartment as his fellow pirates prepared themselves.
"Just try not to get yourself killed. Five to one odds aren't very promising you know," Emtree muttered from his place against the bulkhead.
Before Savage could respond there was a mighty clanging noise as the shuttle struck hard against the enemy ship. To Savage it sounded like some titan of myth had struck the hull with a hammer larger than the trees of his homeworld. Everyone lurched forward with the impact even as they held fast to their handholds.
The iris of the shuttle's airlock peeled back to reveal durasteel blast doors obscuring the other ship's airlock to keep them out. Two designated men rushed forward with plasma cutters to cut through the metal into the opposing ships. Sparks flew, and arcs flared, around the two crew men as they forced their way through.
"Don't worry Emtree, you've never seen me fight before. I'll get by just fine," Savage said with a confidence he didn't entirely feel. The truth was his stomach was tied up into knots. He wondered if he was cut out for this sort of thing after all, and he was forced to remind himself where his loyalties lay. The captain had rescued him from slavery off that Force-forsakened Trandoshan ship so he owed her his loyalty. If that meant he had to take an enemy ship by hand, then that's what he would do.
The airlock plate of the enemy ship fell away at last, and struck the deck of the ship with a mighty clang as the pirates surged over it into the other ship at last. Savage nodded a farewell to Emtree and went with them, his blaster in hand.
The boarding party rushed down an empty corridor of bare durasteel plate, and grated metal decking that clanked underfoot as they rushed down. Savage heard orders being given by the lieutenant, but he couldn't make them out. Instead he focused on the body language of those around him as he tried to follow their movements. Though he was surrounded by his crewmates, he felt very alone suddenly. He would have to watch his own back, he realized.
The anxiety was strong in him still, and he felt fit to burst waiting for the first contact. Maybe they'll have surrendered by now and this is simply standard procedure. He thought to himself, but a quick glance around at the un-holstered weapons, and grim faces, convinced him otherwise. He once again wished he spoke the language of these men so he could fully understand what was going on.
The first knot of men rounded a corner where the man leading the charge was instantly ripped apart by blaster fire even as those directly behind him lit their shields, and crouched to return fire down the hallway. The report from the blasters filled the hallway with noise as the narrow metal confines seemed to amplify them into a cacophony. There was more shouting, but Savage didn't have to understand it to know what was expected of him.
He followed the men next to him as he rounded the corner himself into the maelstrom of blaster bolts, and suddenly he was in the thick of it. He lit his personal shield on his forearm to cover the man kneeling in front of him as well as himself to make a bi-layered shield wall as he had been taught. A blaster bolt splashed across his shield directly in front of his face, causing him to flinch back involuntarily. The fact that he flinched angered him, and he leveled his blaster between his shield and the man's shield next to him as he began returning fire. The blaster kicked like a bantha, and twin bolts seared down the hallway towards his enemy.
He caught his first glimpse of the repelling party then, armored figures in black fatigues crouching behind what looked to be supply crates, and he wondered at how organized they were. He had thought they were attacking merchant ships, after all. He saw his blaster bolts impacting on the supply crates and, realizing he was still firing, marveled that his anxiety was slowly turning to rage as the fight progressed.
"Forward!" The lieutenant yelled from behind them. Savage knew what that meant as well. He knew that their shields could only take so much damage before shorting out, so they had to cover distances quickly before that happened. He stepped forward in the practiced half step along with the rest of the shield wall as they fired steadily into the defenders.
They began to break. Savage saw a few of the men get up and run back from the supply crates around a bend in the corridor. One took a blaster bolt on the spine that spun him wildly to the side before he impacted the bulkhead, and slid to the grated floor. The pirates saw their quarry retreating and rushed forward, their shield wall splitting apart. Savage heard the lieutenant yelling something, but he couldn't make out the complicated speech, and so reverted to watching his fellow pirates' movements to keep up accordingly.
He leapt over a supply crate as they rushed the defenders' abandoned position. Others ahead of him rounded the corner, and as no enemy fire came they continued on while whooping their hunting cries. Savage rounded the corner himself, and saw the defenders diving behind another set of crates at the far end. Already blaster bolts were hammering at them to dissuade them from the notion, but the shots were wild as the pirates ran towards them.
There was more shouting from the lieutenant behind them, and Savage noticed there was another hallway off to his right. Suddenly he understood the danger that was no doubt being shouted at him and his fellow boarders by their leader. Too late, the lead pirate was struck by a full tackle as an alien in black rocketed into him from the side corridor and smashed the man into the durasteel wall. The pirate next to him, a decent fellow Savage recalled, twisted to shoot at the unexpected threat, but took a vibroblade to the eye as another alien smashed into him.
Suddenly it was a brawl. Crates stacked to the left side of the corridor crashed down to reveal a concealed doorway that swished open as defenders poured through. Caught in the pincer movement between the defenders coming out of the concealed doorway to their left and the open corridor to their right, the boarding party nearly faltered.
A Sullustan rounded the corner of the hallway with a blaster rifle leveled at Savage's face. He rammed his personal shield up underneath the barrel as the Sullustan pulled the trigger, and the blaster bolt seared the ceiling. Savage wasted no time bringing his own blaster to bear, and reduced the Sullustan's face to scattered bits of charcoal. He found himself surrounded even as a heavy stock of a blaster rifle collided with his hand, and knocked his blaster pistol onto the grated deck.
A small part of him noted that he no longer had any anxiety. Instead his vision focused into an almost liquid clarity as he beheld his attacker swinging the stock of his rifle back towards his face after having disarmed him. Thankfully, Savage had encountered this sensation before in the tribal warfare of his home world. This was fight time, and he was well accustomed to it.
He ducked underneath the blow, and felt his arm snake up and over his opponent's shoulder even as his mind recognized the opening. He ripped the man down to the deck with a violent pull and twist. Though armored, the human defender didn't have a helmet, and Savage felt, more than heard, the sickly crack as the alien's skull met the riveted beam to the side of the deck grate.
He wasted no time as he drew his vibromachete with his free hand, and hacked downward at the exposed neck of a defender who wasn't even looking at him, but instead was about to deal a killing blow to a fallen pirate. The defender crumpled to the deck, and Savage saw the briefest glimpse of his wide eyed fellow crewman as the man scrambled back to his feet. A blaster bolt flashed on Savage's personal shield saving him from certain death. It was luck, rather than skill as he would later recall, and he laid into the hapless defender who had dared fire on him. He found that their armor had wide gaps in it, and made for easy prey to a vibromachete wielded by a blood-maddened Devaronian.
There was a blood curdling yell, and it took Savage a moment or two to realize it was his own voice yelling. He took a heavy blow to the head as he exploited the weak points of the man's armor who had shot at him, and suddenly his whole world was white. He didn't let it end him, however, and he forced one eye open to see that a human defender had caught him with an elbow. The human was even now coming in with a heavy right hand to finish the job.
Savage flailed his sword arm up, and managed to deflect the blow even as he fell back. He felt the hilt of his vibromachete catch in the human's cuff as he did so. Without thinking he pulled into his opponent, and angled his head down. The human, caught off balance by the sudden sleeve grab, was helpless to avoid Savage's horns which brutalized the man's face. Savage wasted no time chopping down at the now blinded man with his vibromachete to silence his pitiful mewling.
He looked past the man, and realized the defenders were running again. Though, this time without order. This time, he could sense panic. He took a deep breath as he looked around himself. It dawned on him that he had survived the ambush, and he deactivated the personal shield on his arm. He knelt down and looked more closely at one of the human defenders as he retrieved his blaster. The man was in a black uniform, and appeared to be well outfitted with a shoulder patch depicting a bird of some kind he hadn't seen before. The wounded of his crewmen were being taken back to the ship, while the enemy wounded were quickly dispatched.
He felt hands clap on his shoulders as his fellow boarders rushed past him towards the fleeing enemy. There were many words uttered that he didn't understand, but he heard his name, and he knew the tone. Pride swelled in him, and he followed his fellow pirates over the now abandoned defense positions as they attempted to find the ship's bridge.
His booted feet clanking down the passageways, Savage followed his crewmates while wondering what the overall situation was. They cleared the rooms as they went, and at one point they came across what looked to be a mechanic shop of some sort. His crewmates quickly continued on, but Savage lingered, and grabbed a can of what he hoped was the correct oil for Emtree before rushing out to catch up to the boarding party.
It wasn't long before he heard an explosion followed by blaster fire up ahead. He caught up just as the lieutenant began positioning men into a shield wall at a junction to a larger corridor that he hoped led to the bridge. Blaster bolts streaked down the corridor just past the corner of the junction wall the boarding party was sheltered against. Savage watched as men slowly began overlapping their personal shields in an effort to expand their cover outwards into the exposed hallway.
Gloved hands grabbed his shoulder, and Savage grudgingly allowed the lieutenant to shove him out towards where the shield wall was extending. He reactivated his personal shield, and kneeled down next to a pirate perhaps two meters out from the protection of the branching hallway he had been shoved from. Blaster bolts began splashing across his shield, spiking his adrenaline even as another crewmate took up position to his right where he overlapped his shield against Savage's.
He got a good look at the enemy position as he sighted his heavy blaster pistol. A pair of deck doors fifteen meters down stood blown inwards. The defenders were at the door's edges laying down blasterfire into the hallway, but as the pirates' shield wall slowly stretched across, adding more blasters to the mix, the defenders began firing less often.
Savage fired whenever he saw a face or a blaster barrel peer out, but he couldn't tell if he hit anything. He kept an eye on his forearm shield generator's power reading as it grew perilously low. Suddenly his crewmate next to him began speaking urgently to him, but remembering that Savage barely knew the language, started gesturing backwards instead.
Savage glanced behind to see a tripod mounted gun being assembled just behind them which he recalled being referred to as an "eeeweb". The lieutenant began shouting them back, and Savage inched back with the rest of the shield wall before peeling off to the side to open a gap for the mounted blaster cannon.
The gun crew opened fire, and the boarding party let off a volley alongside them. Blaster bolts filled the hallway to crash into the enemy position. Savage watched as the edges of the blasted doors began glowing red from the onslaught. Suddenly a ceasefire was called, another of the commands in basic Savage had learned, and a silence descended on them. The lieutenant called something out, and after a few moments blasters began being thrown out from between the doors. The clattering of blasters against the grate brought a cheer from pirates who happily rushed forward. The defenders had given up.
Savage went forward with the rest to assist in corralling the defenders, now captives, against the wall of the hallway as they were forced out of the bridge. He glanced past the blasted doorway to see a bewildering display of instruments around a handful of control booths. He could make nothing of it, but he knew this was victory.
A portly alien hovering on wings with a long snout was suddenly shoved out into the hallway where the surviving crew and defenders were being lined up. The lieutenant was shouting at the alien, who must have been the enemy captain, even as he called over his comlink back to The Talon.
A human pirate to the side of Savage saw his confusion before stating "Toydarian," and pointing at the alien. Savage wondered why every alien species had such strange names, but made a mental note of the strange creature regardless.
Savage heard his captain's voice come over the commlink, and watched as the Toydarian began pleading and gesturing. The lieutenant, however, was having none of it, and calmly leveled his blaster. A single shot rang out in the confines of the hallway.
Orders were given again, but the only words he made out were, "escape pods" as they began moving the captives away from the bridge. He assumed they were letting the surviving crew live, their debt paid with their captain's death. Savage approved, he had no stomach for executing prisoners, loyalty owed to his captain or not. It wasn't long before the defeated crew were shoved into escape pods to be blasted out into the hyperspace lane amid the asteroids. The same asteroids that had condemned them to the pirate attack would now act to pull out other merchant ships to save them from an ignoble end in their escape pods.
There was celebrating that night after they entered hyperspace. A skeleton crew had been placed aboard the captured ship, and the cargo analyzed. Judging by his crewmates' attitudes, the cargo had been good. As the pirates got drunk Savage was able to slip away to the boarding shuttle in the hangar.
"Emtree, I brought you something," Savage said as he climbed into the crew compartment.
"Oh, joy the spoils of criminal activities," the droid sarcastically responded in Savage's native tongue. Despite his tone, Emtree's single remaining photoreceptor seemed to widen with surprise as Savage produced what he hoped was the correct oil can. "My word, you retrieved something of worth after all."
Savage applied the oil as Emtree directed, attempting to get the oil spout at the odd angles required.
"Was it rough, boarding the enemy ship?" Emtree asked as Savage labored away.
Savage thought for a moment. Now that the adrenaline had died down, and he was able to replay things in his mind, there were some things that were fuzzy and others that were crystal clear. He felt lucky to be alive if nothing else. "It was bad for a moment there," he said at last.
Soon the droid appeared to be stretching his metallic joints. As best he could given the chains at least. "Feeling better?" He asked the droid as he sat down against the shuttle's bulkhead.
"Why, I can't even remember the last time these rusty joints were oiled. Thank you," Emtree said in a rare non-sarcastic tone. "Now only if you could do something about these chains."
Savage chuckled before reminding the droid. "Didn't you tell me the captain herself ordered you chained up? Something about reciting the Imperial penal code to her?"
"Well yes, but I don't see why she took such offense to it."
Savage chuckled again."Just keep teaching me basic Emtree. Maybe I'll eventually be fluent enough at it to argue your case to the captain."
Emtree looked over at the Devaronian whose face was had the beginnings of what looked to be a large black eye. Already there was swelling where the man had been struck. The savage before him looked sinister as the low red lighting of the shuttle cast shadows from his horns, but the eyes shown mischievous. Emtree couldn't tell if the savage was joking with him or not.
