No, Press on

“So how should we approach this?” you ask as you look at a holo-projection of the pirate base on the holotable in the CIC.

“There’s canyons we can use to avoid detection” Sata replied, moving the holo image to show some conveniently located canyons. “We can drop into this one here,” she says, pointing to a canyon several kilometers from the base. “And switch to this one here,” she adds, pointing to another one.

“They won’t see us coming” you say as you eye the base. “What kind of defenses are we looking at?” you ask.

“Didn’t see much, only a single squadron of fighters and some of them looked like they had been taken apart” Tanna replied as she pulled up a holo image she had taken of the base. “They don’t even know we’re in orbit yet” she added

“I was originally going to stealth my way in, but it looks like we can catch them with their pants down” you say, zooming in on some of the towers they had around the perimeter. If you had to make an analogy to what the base looked like, it was a small airbase next to a rock formation. “We come out of the canyons here” you say pointing to the area in question. “And we can just get a target lock and blow their towers with missiles, maybe hit the enemy fighters on the tarmac” you finish.

“What’s tarmac?” Tanna asked with a frown. You look at here for a second wondering if it was really that much of a foreign thing to her.

“I think he means the landing strip” Sata answered for you, pointing to the runway.

“Oh” Tanna replied.

“Well, we’ve got this sorted” you say to the two girls “Get yourselves ready for a fight, there’s probably a few dozen goons down there and we might need to finish the job with blasters” you instruct before turning around and heading down to the armoury. You had taken the time earlier to make a bandolier for the P90s magazines so you could carry plenty of spare ammo into battle. Strapping it to your chest felt a little weird, but now you had six extra clips to burn through. As you are preparing yourself, a soft ‘wub wub wub’ was heard and a flying droid entered the armoury. You looked at it in confusion, about to pull out your blaster when Sata appeared behind the droid.

“Do you like him?” Sata asked, reaching up on her tippy toes and plucking the disk shaped droid out of the air so that she could hug it. The droid in question was large enough that Sata couldn’t quite wrap her arms around it completely. “He’s been cleaning up the mess you made in the cargo bay” Sata gushed. Somehow you got the impression that the droid didn’t want to be where it was, it’s one solitary eye looking at you as if begging for help.

“Cool” you say with a snort of amusement before ducking up stairs.

The Eos shook as you descended into the atmosphere of the planet. That this planet even had an atmosphere surprised you, as there was basically nothing on this world that you’d detected. You punched a command into your console and the Eos took a sharp dip, her inertial dampeners straining with the G-forces. The shaking stopped as you leveled out near the planet's surface and began your journey through the canyons to reach your target.

It didn’t take long to make it through the canyons and out the other side, giving Tanna the opening she needed. The sound of a 1960’s targeting computer filled the cockpit as the Twi’lek zeroed in on the targets. After a minute, Tanna flicked the cover of a switch and then flicked the switch. The Eos shook slightly as four missiles blasted out from the wing mounted missile tubes and raced ahead to the base that was just now coming into view. You smirked at the explosions as your missiles found their marks, hitting all of the pirate’s towers in one go.

You gun it towards the base and get a glimpse of some of the pirates making their way to Cloakshape fighters parked on the runway. Without prompting, Sata fires the turbolasers at the runway, leaving massive craters as you zoom passed. You overshoot and begin making an upwards climb. You take the Eos into an Immleman turn and, while upside down, you see one of the pirate’s Cloakshape fighters taking off.

“Looks like meat's back on the menu,” you say as you twist the Eos around and take her into a turn to put you on the tail of the Cloakshape. The guy you are hunting attempts to twist out of the way before you could get a shot off and you grin, realising the guy probably has some dogfighting experience. Unfortunately for him, the Eos’ cannons gimbal and red streaks flash from the nose of your ship. Amazingly, the Cloakshape pilot managed to evade at the last second, pulling into a sharp climb and performing an Immleman turn of his own, allowing him to zoom right past the Eos.

As you twist the Eos around, you notice the ground crew attempting to drag several of the Cloakshapes into a hangar that had been cut into the rock formation, while others were rushing into what looked like store houses. You thought you saw one man angrily shaking his fist at you until you saw a flash of red and realised he was shooting at you with a blaster. You peel off the pursuit of the enemy Cloakshape for a second and veer towards the hangar.

“Sata, if you please” you say and turbolaser bolts streak from the Eos and slam into and around the hangar. Seeing something explode, you turn the Eos back and look for the Cloakshape. “Where is the guy” you ask Tanna.

“Looks like he’s going orbital, I think he’s running” Tanna replies and you take a look at her readout. She was correct, the one Cloakshape that gave you any challenge is actually booking it. You groan in disappointment.

Taking the Eos on a lengthy manoeuvre, you bring your ship around to perform another strafing run, this time on the storehouse you saw earlier. Sata didn’t hesitate, opening fire with the turbolasers, their bolts slamming into the building. It didn’t take long for the building to detonate in a colourful amalgamation of greens, reds and yellows.

“Looks like they were keeping their Tibanna gas in there” Sata commented at the very pretty geiser that was rapidly dissipating. With a snort of amusement, you bring the ship to a hovering halt and gently strafe it over to the hanger. You line the nose up with the hanger entrance and Sata gets busy on the laser cannons. The first few shots slam into the hanger door but then the ship shakes.

“Shields at thirty percent!” Tanna cried and you snap your head at her. Thinking quickly, you punch the throttle and a loud, resounding boom shakes the cockpit as you go hypersonic. You bring the Eos back around and slow the ship down, flying several hundred meters above the base.

“Find me what did that” you say with mild alarm. The ship did, after all, tank multiple hits from a Dreadnought’s turbolasers without this much damage.

“Got it” Tanna called out “Ion cannon, some idiot mounted it on a swivel” she added.

“Arm missiles, make ‘im gone” you say as you glare at the offending speck.

“Uhh what kind of missiles do you want?” Tanna asks, looking at you with what appears to be either fear or arousal, you aren’t bothered to figure out which right at this second.

“Loudest bang we’ve got” you reply and several soft ‘clunks’ are heard as the missile tubes are reloaded.

“Sending” Tanna said and four missiles raced from the tubes before slamming into the ground with massive explosions and digging four very large craters into what used to be a rather brave man on a swivel gun. “Looks like all the goons have fled into the bunker” Tanna reported and you sighed.

“How’re the shields looking?” you ask as you observe the burning base.

“Recharging, give it a minute and we’ll be back in action” Tanna replied.

“Right, I’m going to make a cup of caf,” you say as you get up “Anyone want one?” you ask and get an affirmation from both of the other girls.

You return with the caffeinated beverages and relax in your chair as you sip at it. It wasn’t the same as coffee but it was still pretty good.

“Ready to go Captain” Tanna reported before finishing her cup off. Sata, hurriedly picked up her own cup and threw back what was left in it as you punched commands into your console and the Eos lazily began to drift down towards the hanger.

“Let’s hope they have no more surprises for us” you say with a slight growl. Losing most of your shields had surprised you, up until now you’d mostly been invincible. “Ready on the guns Sata” you order, though you knew it wasn’t necessary, it was literally her one job in the cockpit. Just as you appeared before the hanger, you are greeted by the sight of a Cloakshape that the crew had dragged into place. You had a single second to recognise this before three blue streaks of light raced out towards you. With a growl that’d make a dire wolf back down, you punch the throttle and boom over the top of the base at hypersonic speed. You throw the Eos into a steep climb before throwing it into a backflip, you get a good look at the missiles as they scatter into the barren landscape after losing their target.

“That was close” Tanna sighed in relief. You could see out of the corner of your eyes that both girls were throwing looks at you since you are still growling lightly.

“I want the missile tubes loaded” You say in a low, gravelly voice.

“Uhh, HE again?” Tanna asks

“Everything” you growl as the ship descends. You appear before the hanger once more. “Sata, the guns all of them” You growl “Tanna, missiles empty the fucking magazine” you growl, your voice picking up in volume “FIRE EVERYTHING” You howl. The girls snap out of their funk and slam their hands into whatever button they needed to in order to fire everything. The Eos shuddered and shook, seemingly in rage as lasers, turbolasers and missiles spewed forth into the hanger of the pirate base, the smoke cloud building to such a degree that you could no longer see the explosions from the missile hits.

It was several minutes before the girls took their fingers off their fire buttons, the catalyst being the depletion of every missile you had.

“Umm, we got ‘em Captain?” Tanna asked timidly while trying to make herself small.

“Good” You say quietly as you punched a command into the Eos. A soft clunk went through the ship as the landing gear touched solid ground. “Sata, stay here, anything that isn’t us and is moving? Shoot it” you command. “Turbolasers are prefered” you add as you get up and grab your P90, storming towards the door. Tanna, likely not wanting to evoke your ire, was hot on your heels.

You were just getting to the boarding ramp when Tanna finally spoke up.

“Dereck? You are fucking me tonight” she stated, walking side be side with you.

“Reminds me of the club” you say in response “Though it was a couple hours before we got to the fucking” you add with a smirk, shouldering your P90 as you decend the boarding ramp and begin making your way to the hanger bay.

The hanger was a blasted hellscape, craters and debris everywhere. If there is anything left of anyone that had been here, it was part of the smoke. Your entry was completely unopposed and soon you are walking through empty hallways.

Coming up on a corner, you preemptively stick your arm out and catch Tanna before she could walk past the corner like she normally does.

“I’ve really gotta learn to stop doing that” Tanna muttered with a light chuckle and you peer around the corner. There, in as neat a line they could master, were about seven or eight guys with blasters, all facing where you would come from. With a sigh you flick the selector switch on your gun and switch it into fully automatic mode.

“Cover your ears” you say as you use your god power to negate the coming sound. Ducking around the corner, you aim for the farthest corner of the line, squeeze the trigger, hold it down, and then sweep the gun across the line. Not a single one of the pirates fired a shot as you mowed them down. You pull the empty magazine out of your gun and replace it with a fresh one before switching the gun back to semi-automatic fire.

“What the kriff was that?” Tanna asked, her eyes wide as she stared at your smoking gun.

“P90, fully automatic Personal Defence Weapon” you state “With a rate of fire of nine hundred rounds per minute and a bullet velocity of seven hundred and fifteen meters per second” you rattle off. Tanna blinks a few times in response. “Let’s move on shall we?” you say before turning the corner and holding your weapon at the ready.

Coming around another corner, you come face to face with six heavily armed goons, each wearing some kind of plasticy looking armour. They blink. You blink and then quietly slink back around the corner. You kneel and level your weapon just as the mercs come around the corner, tapping the trigger twice and downing the first merc. It seemed their armour did nothing to stop a round from a P90, but that was expected they weren’t expecting slug throwers after all. The second merc came around the corner and got a double tap for his trouble as well, crumpling over the body of the first. The third merc took a double tap to the chest and a blaster bolt to the face as Tanna decided she wanted something to do. The last three mercs wisely decided that running around the corner in single file was a horrible idea and stayed where they were. You advanced and leaned around the corner just enough to get a bead on one of the goons. He was dead before his comrades could return fire and you are back behind cover before the blaster bolts hit the wall. The last two mercs charge you and you back pedal to give yourself a little space, before double tapping both mercs as they came around the corner.

With that done you decided to check what the mercs were guarding and noticed some kind of prison cell. Peering through the eye slit, you saw a Wookiee who was sitting on a bench, doing nothing.

“There’s a Wookiee in there” you say in surprise.

“A Wookiee?” Tanna asked in surprised. “The kriff is a Wookiee doing here?” she asked. You take another look at the Wookiee who is still just sitting there.

“Honestly? Not much” you say with a straight face. Tanna blinks at you for a few moments before shaking her head with a smile.

“Let’s get him out of there” she said, walking up to the door and examining it. With no key or console in sight, she did the next best thing, pulled out her blaster and began melting her way through the hinges. After a minute the door was loose and she kicked it down. The Wookiee was on his feet and growling in typical Wookiee fashion. Since it would be pretty suspicious if you knew how to speak Wookiee, you decided to keep yourself ignorant for the moment.

“So uhh, you understand him?” you ask, not really expecting her to.

“We’re here to rescue you” Tanna said to the Wookiee who growled something back at her. “Yeah, we have a gunship and kinda vapourised them in the hanger” Tanna replied. It appeared that the girl did indeed know how to speak Wookiee. The fuzball growled something else out. “Yeah, picked it up from a friend who spent a few years on Kashyyk” Tanna replied. It was starting to annoy you that you only heard one half of the conversation.

“Well, in any case, we still have the rest of the base to clear out, you’re welcome to join us” you say to the Wookiee who growled what was probably an affirmative. He could have also been singing a lullaby, you have no idea how grunts and growls can be a fully functioning language. The Wookiee picked up a blaster rifle from one of the dead mercs and filed in behind you as you made your way deeper into the base.

Now with the Wookiee in tow, you arrived at what appeared to be some sort of vault. The most noticeable feature about this vault however was the Mandalorian standing directly in front of the open Vault door. You could hear someone clinking and clattering inside the vault but other than that, your attention was drawn on the armoured figure before you. You always wanted to fight a Mandalorian so you take a confident step forward.

“I’ve got this” You say as Tanna attempted to move up with you.

“But he’s a Mandalorian Supercommando” she replied, looking between the two of you. The Wookiee growled something and Tanna got a pained look as she backed off. Tanna and the Wookiee walked past you and into the vault. The Mandalorian turned his head to watch them but otherwise didn’t move. Inside the vault, a blaster was fired and then a clatter but that was it.

“Just you and me bub” you say as you click your P90 onto full auto. The Mandalorian wasted no time in pulling out his blasters, a pair of rectangles with pistol grips, and began firing yellow bolts in your direction. A quick dash had you duck inside the firing arc of the Mandalorian who was **** to stop and re-aim, giving you enough time to raise your gun and fire a burst into the armoured soldier. The Mandalorian staggered back a step, but was otherwise fine, so you put another burst into him and then another until your gun clicked empty. Before you could pull out a fresh clip though, the Mandalorian punched some buttons on his wrist and his jetpack ignited, blasting him into you, picking you up and slamming you into the wall behind you. Just as the Mandalorian as moving his pistol up to finish you off, you decided to use some of your god power and increase your strength, punching the Mandalorian in the chest. The Mandalorian staggered back a few steps, a portion of his chest armour heavily dented. You take the opportunity and slam your fist into the Mandalorian’s face, denting his helmet. The Mandalorian crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut and you took a deep breath.

“A-are you a Jedi or something?” Tanna asked, staring at you with wide eyes. You realise she had seen the entire fight and kicked yourself for using your god power so noticeably.

“Or something” you mutter as you stride forward to see what Tanna and the Wookiee had found in the vault. Inside were stacks of various goods such as crystals and even what looked like some kind of precious metal.

“Aurodium Ingots, Nova crystals, a couple crates that look like they might have spice in them” Tanna listed off while the Wookiee was inspecting the crystals.

“Does our contract say anything about returning lost cargo?” You ask, getting a funny idea.

“Umm no, we weren’t even supposed to hit the base . . . just deal with the pirates in the system” Tanna replied as her eyes widened in realisation.

“Awesome” you say. “Hey Wookiee” you call out and the carpet in question growled something in response.

“He says his name is Chovkkotekka” Tanna translated, attempting to wrap her mouth around the word.

“Nice to meet ya Cho” you say to the Wookiee “In anycase, pick what you want from the loot, we’ll take what we want and leave the rest to rot” you say tiredly, it has been a long day. Cho growled something in response.

“He says he just wants the Nova crystals, his people use them as currency” Tanna translated, though you suspect she added the exposition in for your benefit but you nod anyway.

“We’ve got the cargo space, let’s start getting everything loaded” You say before, making to move forward before a thought stops you. Something about how the Mandalorian was holding himself. You turned around and walked out of the vault, staring at the fallen Mandalorian. On a hunch, you walk over and take the helmet off of the Mandalorian, revealing a mop of blonde hair and a regal, if somewhat battered, face. The Mandalorian was a woman. “Looks like we’ve got another piece of loot” you mutter.

“You’re taking her with us?” Tanna asked incredulously.

“Hey, every time I raid something, I pick up a hot chick” you say and Tanna chuckles in response.

“It is becoming a habit isn’t it?” she mutters to herself before shaking her head.

“Best get her back to the Eos and secure her” You say as you hoist the fallen blond over your shoulder. Tanna snorted again as she walked back into the vault to help Cho catalogue his loot.