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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Saga ACROSS THE GALAXY | A Duros' Adventure - Chapter One now up!

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction- Before, Saga, and Beyond' started by Snokers, Dec 14, 2015.

  1. Snokers

    Snokers Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 2015
    ACROSS THE GALAXY

    A Duros' Adventure


    Timeline: 16BBY

    OC's

    I hope you enjoy!

    ConCrit is most welcome!


    Prologue


    The last trace of daylight in an empty Jakku sky filled Rexxus Sarlo with relief as he knelt down and waved four greyish-blue fingers through the sand that had turned cold an hour ago. Nightfall meant the end of a day’s work at the mining facility he had only been employed with for a little over a standard year but he’d already grown tired of it. Sick, in fact.


    ‘We won’t be calling this lonely rock ‘home’ for long. I will not allow it.’

    Rexxus had this thought multiple times each day since the day he and his son had moved out here in the hope of finding work on a planet with less Imperial presence around. He had always put on a happy smile and brave face for his son though, no matter how unsure and bleak his mind-set about the future was. His species had haled from a planet that, thousands of years ago, few held out any hope for, and yet, The Duros had become renowned for their pioneering space travel and even became trail blazers in developing some of the most important advancements in technology in galactic history.

    Each day, he left his son under the surprisingly capable and watchful eye of a droid he had paid far under asking price for from a fellow Duros back on his home world some years ago. The droid wasn’t perfect and it had obviously seen better days but he had grown rather fond of it none the less.

    Rexxus pulled a comlink from his pocket, he had to brush away some sand before raising it to his mouth. “R6, tell Kade I’m on my way.”
    A series of beeps came in reply through the comlink as he lowered it back into his pocket. As he turned to walk homeward he thought of his sons face lighting up when he would walk through the door in just a short while. He approached his land speeder with a slight smile cracking across his face, he mounted it and as the speeder accelerated, he began to whistle.

    ***
    Rexxus brought his speed down to a steady forward hover as home came into view, dusk had given way to the night now, the walkways between each house in his tiny community dimly lit by bulbs protruding from the endless sand. His Sullustan friend and owner of the local Cantina, one of the few connections he’d made on this desolate planet had referred to these houses as concrete igloos and that’s exactly what they were. They were small and often unbearably hot during the day but they held up through even the greatest of sandstorms and were a shelter against the hostility and freezing temperatures of the desert night.

    Bringing the speeder to a halt, he dismounted and pushed a button, opening the door to his shelter.

    He was immediately greeted with a tight hug around both of his legs, sending him swaying slightly off balance before quickly catching it again and rubbing his son’s tiny, hairless head. He crouched down to Kade’s level and spoke the words “I am home, young one.” to him in Durese. The boy had been taught both Durese and Galactic basic, but, when given the choice, had always used the original language of his native system. His son’s high pitched, soft voice was a comfort to him and reminded him of why he was working so hard every day in the unrelenting heat, to give him the life he deserved in this Galaxy riddled with war and oppression. Kade’s red eyes clenched tight and then opened again as he stared deeply into his father’s.

    After settling the boy, he sat in a chair as R6 beeped and glided along the floor, the droids dome head swivelling around looking for jobs to be done and repairs to be made on various household items. Rexxus watched his son run around with a toy star ship in each tiny grey hand, making swooshing sounds and jumping up and down with his three year old energy that seemed to be never ending. Meanwhile, his own legs felt tired and limp, his eyes did too. He allowed himself to rest for just a moment, the sounds of little Kade and R5 began to become faded and distant, more and more with each passing moment.

    ***
    A sudden rush of pain in his right temple penetrated the sleep he’d half-wilfully slid into like a spear through his flesh. Now on the floor and struggling to lift his head, he had no idea how long he had been unconscious for or what was going on around him. Just above the ringing noise inside his skull, blaster shots could be heard coming from outside. Multiple shots, every few seconds. He hauled himself up onto his knees as his vision began to clear. The first thought that emerged through the haze was Kade. Where was his son? He jumped up onto his feet, stumbling through a minefield of broken furniture and shards of glass that had engulfed the floor. Panic began to set in when he saw R6 in the corner of the room, half hidden under a fort of concrete that had collapsed from the ceiling above. The little droid seemed to be cowering and didn’t utter a sound. Rexxus strode past him in a state of shock and panic, a trail of blood making its way down the left side of his face. He walked into each of the four rooms the tiny building had to offer, looking in every possible nook Kade’s slender frame could have crawled into. Despair now seemed to become a physical, fast growing thing at the front of his brain and he began to feel nauseous.

    As he turned back in the direction of the main living quarters of his now unrecognizable, ransacked house, Rexxus saw the unmistakable silhouettes of Imperial Storm Troopers moving past a sheet covering the window outside. He turned to R5 and uttered a single word in Durese. A DL-44 heavy blaster pistol shot up from an opening in the droids head and became airborne. The Duros caught it with ease.

    Mayhem could still be heard in full force on the other side of the wall as Rexxus Sarlo headed towards the front door with a heavy blaster at his side and an unrelenting fury burning in his scarlet eyes.
     
    NightWatcher91 and Ewok Poet like this.
  2. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Aaargh, the story that starts with a cliffhanger! And a pretty scary one at it. Not that Jakku ever sounded like a safe place for a single parent with a child to be with, but this hints that something had been going there long before we even knew. And there are so many possibilities, so as to why a bunch of Stormtroopers would knock the father unconscious and kidnap an innocent child.

    One thing I love about these three different scenes is how non-linear they are and how each has a completely different ring to it. They look like three early moments from a very depressing film, but in a good way.
     
  3. Snokers

    Snokers Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 2015
    CHAPTER 1



    Beads of sweat had formed all over the Duros head, stinging his eyes so that he could only keep them open halfway. Outside was chaos. The moon could hardly be seen in the sky for plumes of smoke rising into the air. To his left he could see a human woman about twenty meters away wrestling with a huge masculine frame in black and white armor, a young boy caught between them. His fears had been realized, The First Order was here. Rexxus forced his tired body to move and began running toward the woman, ducking and darting to avoid blaster bolts that seemed to be shooting across the sand from all directions. He was stopped dead in his tracks as he witnessed the storm trooper break the woman’s hold on him, pull out his weapon and fire into her chest at point blank range. The woman stood there for a moment, a thin trail of smoke rising up past her shoulders from her searing wound before her limp body fell to the ground. The child she had been attempting to save – presumably her son – let out a muffled cry as he stared at the corpse on the sand, both hands cupped over his mouth in shock. The trooper bent down to the boy’s level and Rex saw him pull something from his utility belt and inject the child in the back of his neck which rendered him unconscious within seconds, he then proceeded to lift him and sling him over his shoulder as if he were saving him from a burning building. But, of course he wasn’t. The First Order were well known to take young children from their families, especially those from planets in the western reaches, easier to convince the poor to turn a blind eye to their ruthless, unlawful tactics.

    Everything going on around him seemed to be doing so in slow motion, time became something only experienced in other galaxies for a moment. Disorientation and fear rapidly evolved into pure rage like he had never felt before as he raised his DL-44 and fired without hesitation directly at what looked like a storm trooper in a higher command than the other fifty or so scattered around the once peaceful home of his small community, this one sported an orange colored sand filter on one shoulder. The commander went down without a sound, his white helmet now distorted by a black gash. Four other troops snapped their gaze around to their downed superior and then over to Rexxus. They all trained their blasters in his direction in unison and fired.

    After firing off a few rogue shots until he could take cover behind the speeder he had parked outside his shelter just hours before - when everything was normal, when his son’s safety didn’t need to be questioned - he realized he was not going to prevail against four soldiers of The First Order so he reached an arm into the cockpit of the speeder, keeping the rest of his body out of firing range, felt around on the control panel and, relying on his memory, navigated a bloodied thumb to the activation button, pressed down on it and pulled back the thruster, the vehicle came to life and began to drag him across the ground at an underwhelming pace. As he desperately gripped around for purchase, the blaster bolts from his new enemies riddled one side of the speeder. Rexxus was sure it wouldn’t hold out much longer and he’d either meet his end or be captured by the things that had murdered that woman and taken her now orphaned son, possibly taken his own son. As the storm troopers edged towards him, still firing relentlessly as they marched forward, he remembered the Melitto Dealer he’d purchased the speeder from telling him about the booster engines located on the vehicles underside. ‘That faceless fraudster has just saved my life.’ he thought as he remembered the amount of credits he’d handed over in order to have something to get him to work and back every day. He slammed the button with a clenched fist and the speeder shot across the desert, trailing him behind like a ragdoll until he managed to clamber into the cockpit as a last red blaster bolt zoomed past, skimming the cloth on his backpack.

    ***

    Rexxus Sarlo’s land speeder succumbed to its wounds and died just before it reached Pilgrims Road. The Duros unmounted and took a moment to fall to his knees in the sand with his head in his hands, now bloodied with marks on the knuckles from when he’d punched the booster button.

    ***

    The hideout he selected was a small cantina at the edge of Pilgrims Road. He was met with a wall of smoke as he entered the windowless building, the smoke plume and the sound of that mellow background music every one of these establishments he’d set foot in seemed to have. The many species huddled around the bar had no idea that they were now technically harbouring a fugitive since The First Orders intentions were probably to leave that place having stolen every child and destroyed everyone else. Rexxus manoeuvred himself between a cluster of Ithorian’s who paid him no mind, didn’t even make an attempt to create a pathway for him to walk through. When he got to the bar, there were two humans engaged in conversation and a Twi’lek to the left of them sitting by herself, her pale orange fingers clutching a glass of blue liquid. She had an agitated look on her face which Rexxus quickly concluded was probably first date nerves or a bad day at the office. No bar tender came to offer him a drink. To be fair, it didn’t have the air of a ‘service with a smile’ kind of place. He tugged at the cloth on one of the humans shoulder, the man turned wearing an irritated expression on his face and looked the rude Duros from toe to head.

    Can I help you?

    Rexxus reminded himself to speak in basic and replied.

    I’m looking for a transport out of the system. I thought by your spacer garb you might be able to help me out. I have credits.

    The man looked at him absently, shook his head and turned around to continue his conversation. Rexxus sarcastically muttered something in Durese.

    Onio.

    Prompting no reaction from the human which was slightly disappointing but Rexxus had higher priorities at this moment in time than getting into a cantina brawl.

    However, the unassuming Twi’lek across the bar had taken note of his backchat and sniggered, looking over to him then quickly back down to her drink. Rexxus offered a smile in return. The young female got up from her seat and began to make her way around the bar. Rexxus watched her approach, orange head-tails falling around a beautiful, slender face. She wore clothing similar to that of the unfriendly human only hers was a white grey with a brown holster strapped to her thigh which was no doubt concealing some sort of blaster weapon. She pulled up a chair beside him, putting one elbow on the bar and cradling her chin in her hand.

    I’m Klia

    Rexxus Sarlo.” he replied, thinking this whole situation was a little strange.


    Rexxus Sarlo… I’m going to call you Rex. Now, I happen to be the captain and lone crew member of the Exodus V. Let’s discuss credits.
     
    Ewok Poet likes this.
  4. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    This is heartbreaking. From the initial shock of the boy likely having been kidnapped by The First Order to the blood on Rexxus hands and then totally ripping you apart with the realisation that he will have to pay credits to embark on search for his son. :(

    BTW, the idea of The First Order having existed before the era the Sequel Trilogy is set in intrigues me. :)