Star Wars - Underworld Legacy

Episode 5: Backup Plan

The first thing Mia, Shanta and Dar’Shok did after their return was to make an appointment with Reelo Baruk to deliver the Godo flame jewels and buy out Kira from slavery. The Rodian crime lord was very happy and told Kira that she could go free. The manager didn’t get the notion since she believed herself firmly chained, until Reelo demonstrated that she had actually been free the whole time and could have easily dropped the chain and walked away at any time. Again he hinted at Trance who had been held in chains the very same way.

During the meeting it was also revealed that Dar’Shok had been working for Reelo the whole time and that he had secretly guarded Shanta as ordered. Reelo then casually offered Kira who could barely hold herself back her old job, and she shot Dar’Shok a loathful glance before she walked out in her slave bikini outfit with her head held up high.

Two days later it was Shanta’s 15^th birthday, and her first one as a free girl. Kira who still bore signs of her enslavement and Ranja Killian had planned a surprise party for Shanta, and so even Mia wasn’t allowed to say anything during the day, until she finally proposed a visit to the Moonshine Lounge where the surprise was great and worked well as Kira along with some of her employees and Ranja together with her crews had been waiting for her.

Dar’Shok also went there, unsure what he had to expect from Kira. But during the day he had picked up a 14-year old Quarren girl who had been searching the moon’s cantinas for signs of Trance Killian or Mia De’Ore, as she seemed to have some issues to resolve with them. It was a big surprise when the Quarren then pulled out a hold-out blaster and threatened the party guests because she wanted to know who of the others were Trance and Mia. The girl introduced herself as Liira Titon, Vimdarr’s biological daughter, showed them the short holo where Trance had shot Vimdarr and claimed that she wanted revenge for his death. Shanta courageously stepped forward and talked to the young Quarren until she finally lowered the gun. Meanwhile Mia had contacted Seashell and requested transmission of the complete holo of the whole fight. She showed it to the girl who then dropped the gun and started crying. Shanta urged Mia to come closer and handed Liira to her stepsister for comforting. After everyone had calmed down again the party continued, and Shanta insisted that Liira and Dar’Shok were invited and should celebrate with them.

The next day Randrack Dalarn and his girlfriend Lia May visited Nar Shaddaa. While they gave Shanta a birthday present in form of a shopping trip to get her some new clothes and stuff, Shanta herself took Liira along and bought her some new stuff. She also gave her old laptop to the poor Quarren girl as she had just received a new one as her aunt’s birthday present.

Liira was overwhelmed by so much friendliness and kindness as she had only known sadness since her father’s disappearance. Her mother was very ill and they didn’t even have enough money for something decent to eat, let alone a treatment. All she possessed was a datachip her father had sent back to his family shortly before his death, but it was encrypted and needed a counterpart to be decoded.

But a scan from her DNA unlocked the second file on Mia’s chip. It was another message from dying Vimdarr to his wife Chirrina and his daughter Liira in which he explained that they had another family member, Mia, who he had so much wanted to free from the clutches of the hutts to make up for his earlier mistakes. His last wish was that they would all be a family and he promised a pleasant surprise if they would unite Liira’s chip with another one he had hidden on the “Jangada”.

So the stepsisters searched the shuttle and indeed found the third chip that finally revealed that years ago Vimdarr had acquired a safe house on a lonely island on the remote water world of Rathalay. The chip contained coordinates, landing instructions and an indefinite landing permit on the planet and the island. Vimdarr also had left hints that he had brought the missing spice there to keep as a safety since he had already figured out Grittor’s betrayal.

After Ranja and her Ships had left Nar Shaddaa, Lia went on another cargo run and Reelo had sent Dar’Shok on some secret mission, so Mia and Liira took Shanta and Randrack onboard and wanted to fly to Rathalay to find the house and maybe the spice that could finance the treatment of Liira’s mother.

But when they finally approached the island a formation of starfighters took off and a battery of air defense cannons started firing at them. Despite some fancy maneuvers the “Deep Hopper” was hit by an ion-blast at the exact time they jumped into hyperspace. That overcharged the hyperdrive motivator and sent them blasting through hyperspace at a speed way beyond anything a ship of this size could have acquired naturally. When they could finally disable the hyperdrive they dropped out way outside the galactic plane at a distance that would have taken them several centuries to get back with their backup-hyperdrive. What made it worse was that the overload had also melted several hyperdrive coils to slack and without anything to replace them it wouldn’t even be possible to activate the backup drive. They were stranded in the middle of nowhere.

The only point of orientation was a red nebula near their position, but it wasn’t on any of the star charts. When they approached the nebula, however, they suddenly received a spaceport-beacon from “Omze’s Incredible Travelling Spaceport”, a cruiser that had been refit to act as a mobile shadow port. Since Mia was a Protector of the Galaxy and non-human they had no trouble getting a landing permit. Liira and Mia also had no problems getting onboard the cruiser, but Shanta and Randrack were human and received extra attention and scrutiny from the security service. It became quite obvious that on this moving spaceport humans were shunned, while any type of alien was broadly accepted.

Unfortunately the repair docks didn’t have any hyperdrive coils in stock, but a Duro pilot who was also staying at the station offered Mia and her crew some spare coils if she agreed to go on a mission for him. He explained that his job was to take his freighter, which was heavily damaged at the moment, to this red nebula out there and fill a probe vessel up with particles from the nebula. Without much of a choice Mia accepted and received the probe device, but Randrack was not interested in diving through the nebula in his spacesuit, so they filled him up with the strongest drink the bar had to offer: “Wookiee-Death-Kill”. Then he was strapped to the aft freight ramp so he could use the device to collect particles while the ship plowed through the red nebula.

This worked pretty well, but this nebula also seemed to contain an indigenous life form, just like the force leviathan that Mia and Trance had encountered more than a year ago. The Twi’lek was locked in a timeless telepathic conversation with this entity where it probably meant to find out what the intruders wanted to use the particles for. At a certain point this being seemed satisfied because it allowed them to take the particles (which now flowed freely into the device) and told them to not come back. They had barely landed in a docking bay of the travelling spaceport when it powered up its hyperdrive and jumped away.

The Duro was quite satisfied as they handed the probe filled to the brink with particles over to him and he presented the crates with the spare coils to them. Mia was too trusty and let him go, just before the girls had opened the crates and found that there was just a bit of junk, but no coils. Next the security service demanded a large sum as their landing and transportation fee which the Duro had claimed was already paid as part of their deal. So, Mia requested an audience with Omze, the owner of the travelling spaceport and warned him about deception and a possible escape-plan of the Duro. Omze was thankful and promised to have his people look again for spare parts that could be used to repair the “Deep Hopper”.

Meanwhile they lured the Duro to the cantina and interrogated him. He admitted that his customer, some Professor Keron, probably worked for a Sith-Lord who would kill him if he didn’t deliver the probe. He also freely gave them the 3.000 Credits he had received as an advance payment and made it very clear that all he had left was his life which was forfeit as well since he had talked, so it was useless to threaten him with death. The group decided that his punishment should be to drink a “Wookiee-Death-Kill” as well. After he was finished he lost consciousness and was brought back to his quarters to sober up.

The suitcase containing the probe device was nowhere to be found, though, and when the cruiser exited hyperspace for course corrections an escape pod was jettisoned and picked up by a waiting lambda shuttle. Then the spaceport jumped again and by the time they arrived at the next destination the “Deep Hopper” had been totally repaired. When they took off, a Corellian Corvette named “Pride of Brentaal” and a four TIE-Hunter escort pursued them shortly, but the “Deep Hopper” could escape into hyperspace and return to Nar Shaddaa where Lia had been worrying and was about to launch a search and rescue mission.

Episode 6: Dead Man's Chest

Meanwhile Dar’Shok had been quite busy trying to rescue Reelo’s exposed spy from Chiz’tor’s dungeon, but ultimately he could only salvage his datachip. Instead he managed to rescue a Zabrak agent who was dressed up as a biker and flee with her through the swamps of Nal Hutta.

After Mia and her crew had come back they were once again summoned to Reelo Baruk who had again teamed up with the hutt cartel against another common threat. The traitorous Grittor had revealed during torture that a secret pact was to be sealed between the Bloodtalon-Pirates and Clan Ru’killian to get the pirates equipped with better ships and weapons so they could wreak even more havoc upon the huttese transport routes. Since Vimdarr Titon’s failed spice shipment five years ago Clan Ru’killian held a grudge against Chiz’tor and the hutt cartel which was mutual, and so it was in the trade house’s own interest to hassle the hutts.

After an intense discussion they agreed that their former competitor Toro had the best chances to infiltrate the Bloodtalon-Pirates and crush them from within because he had some connections to them. The big problem was that neither Reelo nor Chiz’tor knew the location of the pirate’s hideout. Mia, Liira and Shanta put their heads together and then offered the crime lords a deal: They knew exactly where the hideout was, but they demanded that nothing there would be pulverized because it was their property.

Reelo and Chiz’tor agreed to these terms and each sent one agent to ensure the success of this mission. Reelo sent Dar’Shok who received a small sender that he was supposed to use once they arrived at the hideout and a second time when they needed assistance. Chiz’tor brought in Warawa, a ships gunner with experience in boarding spaceships and other piracy skills. She, too, was given a sender with basically the same instructions as Dar’Shok. Besides Mia, Liira and Shanta Randrack was still on Nar Shaddaa and so he was asked to come along as well. A short distance away from their target they parked the “Deep Hopper” on a neutral space station and met with Toro and Leila. The crew came aboard the “Azure Dream” and discussed the roles they would take up. It was decided that Toro would play the captain, Mia his first mate and Randrack the pilot. Dar’Shok would pose as the cook, Warawa as main gunner and Leila as information procurement specialist. Liira and Shanta who both had dressed up like pirates from their favorite holonovel series were introduced as cabin girls.

This way they actually managed to get a landing permit without being blown to pieces. During the first round of introductions directly after stepping off the ramp Captain Sothom Jerg punched his “old friend” Toro for the eye he had lost at their last meeting. The pirate leader Therion Bloodtalon wore a pressurized suit and a helmet with a polarized faceplate, since he was said to have been gravely wounded in a skirmish against his arch-nemesis, the hutt-cartel, years ago, and ever since needed constant life support. He invited Toro, Mia and Dar’Shok to a leadership meeting with him and his Captains Deen Harken and Sothom Jerg where they would set the rules for a cooperation.

In the meantime the rest was allowed to explore the vicinity. It was a beautiful mansion on a lonely island, but enhanced with shields, air defense cannons and a large landing field that accommodated eight Z-95 Headhunters while the freighters had dedicated landing pads. Shanta wore her mother’s weapons belt with the two modified DH-17 blaster pistols for the first time and found herself in the pirate’s center of attention. They wanted to find out if a girl could really handle such large, custom guns and challenged her to a shootout: They put an apple on Liira’s head which Shanta should blast away. Randrack tried to intervene, but the pirates insisted that they wanted proof of the girls’ cool and skills. Liira agreed and expressed her full trust in Shanta who then used the force to draw the pistol while casually turning – and looking the other way – to fire a seemingly random shot that bulls-eyed the target. Deeply impressed the pirates cheered.

Among the pirates was a 16-year old human boy named Jack Raven who was treated as their cabin boy. At first he wasn’t very enthusiastic about showing the newcomers around, but when he saw Shanta he was in head over heels. The girl was also attracted to the wild, but handsome Jack and so they spent the rest of the day together, after the newcomers had been assigned their quarters. Dar’Shok had kept to the plan and activated his sender, while Warawa had totally forgotten about that and instead had also taken interest in a handsome pirate. Liira and Mia, as well as Randrack, wandered about the house to search for the entrance to the hidden room Vimdarr had mentioned in his message.

In the evening there was a big party event to celebrate the upcoming alliance with Clan Ru’killian, and everyone was invited. Central eye-catcher was a roughly 30-year old woman of harsh beauty who was lolling around on a diwan. She was introduced as Rae van Ker, Therion Bloodtalon’s right hand, had shoulder-length black hair and a scar on her right cheek from a past fight. Her most striking feature, however, were her purple eyes, a quite exotic look for a human.

After Toro had paid her a courtesy visit she beckoned Mia to join her. The Twi’lek not only felt that the woman was force sensitive, but she also noticed the taint of the dark side on her. She was even more surprised when Rae revealed to her that they had met as children in Chiz’tor’s palace, where both had been held as slaves. Shortly before Mia had been bought out by Vimdarr the hutt had punished the older sister of Rae who had refused his sexual advances. When her sister had been shred to pieces in the bestiary pit Rae’s force powers had manifested and the 10-year old girl had choked several guards to death before she had been overpowered and stunned.

Now Mia understood the smoldering hate Rae carried against the hutts and why she exclusively raided their transport routes, but at the same time the events from her own past started haunting her again. Mechanically she agreed when Rae tried to persuade her that they had to unite against the threat of the hutts and wipe them from the face of the galaxy. As soon as she could Mia sought distraction in a drinking contest that she lost due to her lack of focus and so she slumped to the floor unconscious.

Toro and Leila had excused themselves and retreated to their room, just like Warawa and her conquest. Shanta and Jack had gone to the island’s beach and Dar’Shok was playing a game of Sabacc against some pirates and pretended to not notice their cheating. Randrack raised his glass in salute to Therion Bloodtalon who sat lonely on a gallery above the main room since he was said to be unable to enjoy physical pleasures anymore. Then Rae tried to seduce the smuggler so he would be her sex toy for the night, but Randrack was already in a happy relationship and denied her advances. This awakened Rae’s fury and she pushed him into the pool using the force and kept him underwater until he became unconscious. Dar’Shok saw this, but before he could react he felt a hypospray being pressed to his back and a narcotic was injected into his bloodstream. Liira was also stunned and then the love couples were taken out one by one.

The next morning there was a rude awakening and all newcomers came to as they had been bound, dragged to the mansion’s atrium and forced to kneel in front of the central water pool. Therion Bloodtalon wanted to humiliate and demoralize them even further, so he had his pirates bring Liira and Shanta before him and proposed a game which of the two girls could longer stay underwater – totally aware of the fact that Liira as a Quarren could breathe underwater indefinitely. Jack went straight at Therion screaming that he’d save his Shanta, but was knocked down with a single backhand strike by the pirate leader. The boy was then chained to one of the stone blocks of the floor so he could watch his girlfriend die. Mia tried to convince Therion that for a deal with Ru’killian it wouldn’t be very wise to hurt Shanta, but the pirate leader was beyond reasoning.

In a desperate attempt to save the girls Randrack jumped up, knocked down his captor and rand halfway around the water pool with hands still bound behind his back. On his way he tackled three pirates who fell into the pool, but in the end Therion used the force with rage and slammed Randrack back into the wall, so the smuggler broke two ribs and was held by two pirates. He then had to watch helplessly as Therion explained the game to the girls: Whoever would resurface first would be shot. Then they were flung into the pool that turned out to be deeper than it appeared from the outside. Afterwards, Therion gave the order to shoot the second girl as well if she resurfaced.

At this time the communications officer reported that the Ru’killian delegation had arrived. Shortly after that Calvin Robert Ru’killian, director of Outer Rim Business Opportunities of Clan Ru’killian, stormed into the hall with his 10 bodyguards in tow and demanded to see “the girl”. Therion pointed at Mia, Leila and Warawa and offered any one of them to choose from. The clan representative was furious and demanded that Shanta Ru’killian be returned to his care unharmed as an obligatory condition for their deal.

So, Therion ordered one of his pirates to jump into the pool that was planted with water lilies and retrieve the two girls that had been underwater for a good five minutes now. The pirate obeyed, but had to report that there was no sign of both of the girls in the pool. In a fit of rage Therion shot his subordinate, which prompted Director Calvin to call off the deal. Therion became totally mad and pushed Calvin Robert Ru’killian to the nearest wall as well, which made his bodyguards open fire on the pirates.

In the ensuing chaos the members of Toro’s crew felt someone with wet fingers open their binders. At the same time Mia noticed that her lightsaber and some other weapons were hovering over the pool to their side. Shanta had been controlling her breathing with the force so she could also submerge indefinitely. The girls had then dived to the end of the pool where small tunnels led to the smaller pools on the side walls. Liira had taken the right tunnel to unbind their friends while Shanta had turned left and started redistributing the confiscated weapons back to their owners via telekinesis.

In the meantime the crews were called to their ships as the corvette “Pride of Brentaal” and her TIE-Hunters battled the modified Ghtroc-Baroness freighter “Huttcrusher” and its Z-95 Headhunter fighter support.

Since they were now free Mia and Warawa jumped across the pool to confront Therion with lightsaber and force pike, while Dar’Shok retreated to use his sender for the second time, calling for reinforcements. Toro and Leila fought off their captors and Randrack who was a few meters away took care of his last guard and then stepped forward to engage in a duel with Deen Harken, who had already lost one eye to him. The air seemed to stand still as both combatants drew their pistols – and Randrack shot the pirate’s other eye, thereby killing him, while he missed the smuggler.

Warawa took some hits from Rodian lieutenant Le’chin, but he was finished by Dar’Shok with his shock-whip after he got back. Therion parried Mia’s lightsaber with his fencing blade which was made from the lightsaber-resistant metal Phrik. He laughed mockingly as he explained that the chains holding young Jack Raven were also made from the same material, so they would have to cut his wrist instead of the chain if they were to free him.

Mia went in full risk, screwed herself into the movement of Therion’s attack so his saber cut through her clothes, but she had also outmaneuvered him and could strike down upon his helmet with her lightsaber, not only splitting it open, but also leaving a deep cut on his left cheek. Black hair flowed from the helmet and a purple eye was visible because Therion was actually no other than Rae van Ker who now took down the useless helmet and crushed it on the floor. All the pirates looked at her face and Sothom Jerg spoke what all others were thinking: “What? All this time we’ve been following a mad, little girl into battle?”

These were his final words as Rae unleashed a purple force lightning upon her former captain that grilled him under violent cries of pain. She then used the force to jump to the entrance door, wished everyone a timely death and activated her battle droid that had been kept in a crate suspended above the door. It unfolded its four legs and expanded a blaster-minigun while its mistress escaped outside to the last remaining Z-95 fighter so she could leave the planet.

Inside the atrium the battledroid began to mow down everything in the room with his minigun. Pirates and Ru’killian bodyguards fell to the staccato of blaster bolts. Warawa tried desperately to leverage the stone block where Jack’s shackles were attached to out of the floor, but there was no time. At the last moment Shanta jumped in front of them and screamed while she used the force to absorb the deadly shots and remained unharmed – a trait that her mother had demonstrated on several occasions. Mia also took advantage of this human shield while Dar’Shok pushed Leila, Toro and Liira out of the hallway door and jumped right after them. Randrack stood there without cover and could not dodge the shots due to his injuries. But instead he remained calm and cool and fired a single aimed shot directly into the rotating drum of the minigun-blaster. The shot welded the barrel shut and so the droid blew up its primary weapon system – one shot before he would have hit Randrack.

But the killing machine wasn’t defeated yet and started activating his secondary weapon systems like missiles and so on when Mia used the force to slam it through the front door and send it tumbling down the stairs where it finally broke down. After taking a short breath the remaining pirates of which five were still alive, as well as the one remaining bodyguard of Ru’killian were captured and tied up. Calvin Robert Ru’killian had suffered a few minor injuries, but fortunately he had been pushed right into the battle droid’s blind spot and so he had survived. Shanta demanded that he was not to be harmed and that he belonged to her. She then healed a few of the injured by laying on her hand and letting the force flow. The key to Jack’s shackles was found on one of the dead officers and so the boy was freed as well.

Meanwhile there was great fireworks in the sky. In addition to the battling forces of Ru’killian and the Bloodtalon-Pirates the dreadnaught “Shiny Profit”, commandeered by Chiz’tor’s majordomo Logor Kull, had arrived. While his ugly-starfighters took care of the remaining Z-95 of the pirates and the TIE-Hunters of Ru’killian the superior cannons of the dreadnaught tore apart the freighter “Huttcrusher” and the corvette “Pride of Brentaal” which both plunged into the ocean as burning wrecks.

Afterwards Logor Kull and the huttese ground forces landed to take the captive pirates into custody and thoroughly search the whole dwelling for any stolen goods that belonged to the hutt cartel. They found a few shipments in one of the basement storage compartments and took all of it to their ship. Kull expressed the gratitude and congratulations of his master towards Mia and the others, and as promised he left them with everything still on this island. That included the second pirate ship a heavily armed Corellian YT-2400 freighter named “Crimson Fury” that had been modified to not only fire proton-torpedoes, but also ion-torpedoes to disable ships for boarding. Randrack almost spilled the beans as he wanted to make a remark about a possible secret room in the library. Mia was compelled to use the force on him to make him forget what he was about to say in front of the majordomo.

After the hutt’s henchmen had left the crew relaxed a bit, everyone in their own way. Shanta and Jack retreated to a lonely stretch of sandy beach on the southern end of the island to make love. Dar’Shok was sneaking around and noticed this, and due to his hot temper he dug his claws into several palm trees on his way back to the mansion, carving Jack’s name into at least one of them. Leila and Toro had fun in their quarter, Randrack recovered from his injuries and Warawa enjoyed sunbathing at the swimming pool on the terrace.

Mia and Liira went looking for the hidden legacy of their father and indeed discovered the hidden entrance to a turbolift in the library. It led down 50 meters underground into the cliffs and featured a large underwater lounge with a curved viewport that granted a fantastic view of the riff directly north of the island. In an attached storage room they found an almost full pallet of spice worth more than 70.000 credits, as well as the deed of ownership for the island and mansion that was written to Vimdarr Titon, Chirrina Titon, Liira Titon and Mia Titon.

The next day, Warawa and Randrack wanted to get back to Nar Shaddaa as quickly as possible. Toro and Leila offered that they could come with them on the “Azure Dream” and Warawa gladly accepted. Randrack changed his mind and they took the newly acquired “Crimson Fury” to the space station where they had left the “Deep Hopper”. The prisoners from Clan Ru’killian were also brought along and Shanta was able to strike a deal with her clan for a safe return of both in exchange for the clan leaving her alone forever. The negotiators agreed, the exchange was made and Shanta was now officially expelled from her clan. From that point on she was no longer Shanta Ru’killian, but Shanta Killian, just like her mother and aunt. Satisfied the crew returned to Nar Shaddaa.

On arrival Warawa was reprimanded by her employer Chiz’tor for having forgotten to properly use her sender and so he had been dependent on Reelo’s aid to bring his ships to Rathalay in time. On the other hand Reelo was full of praise for his heroes and Chiz’tor who was present via holo also congratulated them as “Protectors of the Hutt Cartel”. Both crime lords asked if their heroes had any wish they could fulfill, but all declined politely. Instead, the real party took place in the evening at Kira’s “Moonshine Lounge” where their victory against the pirates, Shanta’s freedom and the rehabilitation of Toro and Leila who enjoyed total freedom of movement around Nar Shaddaa were properly celebrated.

Epilogue: Family Business

But the following days held more challenges. It all began with Mia accidentally damaging the holocron where the essences of Master Tryan and Master Chi resided during an intense meditation so that the masters could no longer be contacted. Shanta then had a vision of her mother saying goodbye for good, which deeply stressed her. Jack, having been stirred up by the generally heated atmosphere, told Mia how he had lost his parents two years ago during a cowardly attack of the hutt cartel on their colony ship and that he had been saved by Rae van Ker – and then she had happily tried to sacrifice him during the fight.

Meanwhile, Leila had extracted information from the sliced computer systems of the Bloodtalon-Pirates which proved that it had really been the pirates who had boarded the wrong ship and killed everyone on board – except for Jack. Mia cold bloodedly told Jack, and his whole world came crashing down. For this the Twi’lek was called heartless by Shanta, and so she stopped talking to the girl for several days.

In order to help Jack get a grip at life again, Shanta made a deal with her aunt Ranja: The businesswoman would give Jack an apprenticeship within her company, if Shanta and Jack ended their relationship. With a heavy heart Shanta agreed.

At the same time Liira received a message from her home planet Dac that her mother’s condition had worsened and she was going to die soon. The Quarren urged Mia to fly to Dac before it was too late, and considering the rest of the chaotic circumstances Mia readily agreed – without talking to Shanta and getting their stuff sorted out. Even Comet the cat somehow managed to sneak aboard the “Jangada Espaciais” before the two step-sisters departed, and so Shanta was left completely alone.

Mia and Liira indeed arrived on Dac at the last minute to visit the dying Chirrina and reunite this part of the family. Mia then used the force to stabilize the Quarren and give her enough strength so that a treatment was possible again. To finance this Mia set up a monetary funds and helped Liira find a new apartment where she could live with the cat until her mother had fully recovered, what was supposed to happen within half a year.

Then the Twi’lek returned to Nar Shaddaa to find out what other challenges fate had in stock for her.