Saga - ST Windfall- A look at the minor figures in the Underworld of the GFFA

Title: Windfall

Author: Katarn's Beard

Timeframe: 26ABY

Characters: Rill Ontara (OC), Vak Hobben (OC)

Genre:Adventure

Keywords: Underworld, crime

Summary: No Force powers, no impending Galactic doom. Just a pair of not-very-professional thieves biting off a bit more than they can chew.

Notes: Second fic I've actually actually posted, I plan on making it an ongoing series.

WINDFALL​

"So we're grave robbing..." Rill said as she arched her eyebrow and crossed her arms.​

​

"I prefer to call it amateur archaeology." Vak was sitting in the pilot's chair, preparing the ship to exit Hyperspace.

"It still doesn't feel right," Rill sat in the co-pilot seat."There's a difference between looting and thievery."​

"Says the one who has no problem taking artifacts from museums." Vak ran his hand through his dark brown hair. "Besides, if the Tunroll archives are accurate, there's a Jedi buried there."

Rill sighed as the ship shuddered and groaned as the blue tunnel of hyperspace faded away and the streaks turned into stars."So? There's no guarantee the lightsaber is still there. It's highly unlikely something that valuable was left in a grave."​

"Either it is, and we never have to work again, or it's not and we had a pleasant trip."

"I wouldn't call visiting a deserted planet pleasant. Why did the colonists and miners leave?"​

"Bullor fungus was accidentally introduced, turns out Tunroll's climate is perfect for it. Bullor produces massive amounts of Carbon Monoxide. Plus, the ore deposits were smaller and of a much lower quality than they expected. Just wasn't worth staying."

"So full environment suits and decontamination?"​

"Yeah."

"They'd better have left behind some good stuff when they left."​

The ship landed in what looked to be the abandoned city's main square. The buildings surrounding it looked like any other mining colony. They looked like boxes that had been placed by a very neat giant. A mottled yellow-gray fungus covered the ground where vegetation would normally be, and seemed to be trying it's best to swallow up some of the smaller buildings, giving the city a diseased look. A slight breeze carried small clouds of dust and spores. The planet's red sun was mostly obscured by light grey clouds.

"I don't like this." Rill peered through the cockpit windows.​

"It won't be long. The graves are only a couple hundred meters away. But we should check the buildings anyways."

A light on the console turned red, and a line of text showed up.

"1741 ppm of CO. Lethal in 2 hours or less. But other than that, looks fine. Typical atmospheric pressure, Gravity at 1.13G, and a temp of 23C. Only contaminants in the atmosphere are fungal spores."​

"If it wasn't for the spores just respirators would be fine. But the shells are much easier to decon."

Rill and Vak went to their respective cabins and put on the suits. The suits were cobbled together from old Imperial armor. Boots and helmets from Scout Troopers, chest plates, gauntlets, and belts from Stormtrooper armor, lastly the back plates and survival packs from Snowtrooper armor.

Vak clipped the rebreather unit on his helmet. This is it, he thought, what could be the end of his career of thievery, and thus the end of mingling with the Galaxy's scum and villainy. Retiring at 25 seemed like a spice induced dream before.

Rill tucked her braided light brown hair into the neck gaiter of the suit and put on the helmet. The HUD showed that it was sealed. It'd better be here, she thought, she was tiring of following her old friend around stealing and selling things. At first it was exciting, but it got old.

Vak tapped on her cabin door, and she heard him speak over the helmet comlink. "Ready?"

She opened the door and stepped out. "Yes."​

Vak had a fusion cutter on his belt, and his blaster in a holster on his left hip, grip forward. Rill also had a blaster, also a DH-17 in the standard drop-leg holster on her right thigh.

"G-M34 is waiting in the airlock, with the digging tools." Vak turned and walked down the narrow corridor.

 

Well, this is a certainly a good start.

Not sure why a single lightsabre would set up someone for life though.

You have added "suit gaiter" to my vocabulary, for which I am grateful.

 

Thanks If you have any criticism I'm open to it.

I got that idea from an episode of TCW, it's mentioned that lightsabers are worth a fortune, and I assumed they had become even more rare by the end of the Galactic Civil War. People IRL pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for guns with historical significance. It makes sense to me that a collector in the GFFA would pay a few million for a legendary weapon.

Part 2 will be up tomorrow.

 

For any actual "constructive criticism" (not necessary yet), you would have to sign up to the "Authors open to Concrit" thread on our Resources page.

 

Part 2

They walked along the deserted street, Rill couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. She shrugged it off as probably just the creepy atmospehere getting to her head. The red sky and grey fungus everywhere sent chills down her spine.​

"This should be the main HQ," Vak walked up to a door, and pressed the button. It opened slowly, groaning and creaking as it slid horizontally.​

"That's odd, would've thought the backup power cell would've been dry after a few decades."

"I guess not" Vak turned on the light clamped to his helmet and walked in. Rill followed him. The second door opened too.

"Are we sure it's abandoned?"

"Yeah, but the final evacuation was kinda hasty. Only one ship was sent so only the personell could go. Left everything behind that they couldn't fit in their pockets."

"So they left droids behind."

"Yeah, that'll be interesting if we find some still operating."

Rill entered an office, "take a look at this, a vault"

"Locked." Vak got to work with the fusion cutter, and the door eventually came off, inside were a few high denomination credit chips.

"Score!"

"This trip wasn't a waste then," he put them in a pouch on his belt.

They searched the rest of the building, but didn't find anything interesting. They stepped back out into the open air to a bizarre sight. Dozens of droids, some intact, and others with parts that had been replaced with parts from other droids.

"What the..."

"They keep begging to be rescued." G-M34 droned.

"Eh alright then," Rill said, shocked.

"We can't take them..." Vak said.

His words worked the crowd of droids into a frenzy. A green protocol droid in the front began waving around a beat up old blaster, saying things that were clearly explitives in a variety of languages.

"Whoa whao, alright we'll take you." Rill held her hands in front of her, "Just wait here."

The rusty old droids erupted in celebration. Vak, Rill, and G-M34 walked away towards the graveyard.

"Didn't expect that,"

"Well you should have." Rill huffed, "You're the one who did the research, you should have figured that they left the droids."

"Didn't think they would still be operational. They should've ran out of spare powercells and generator fuel years ago." Vak was perplexed. Mining colonies were well stocked, but not enough to keep that many droids active.

"Maybe they had more stockpiled than a usual mining settlement."

"Maybe."

The three entered the graveyard. Rill looked around, thinking about how sad it was all the beings buried here were long forgotten.

"Plot H-3, sould have Jedi Knight Dellun Mab buried here."

"What's left of him after the shuttle crash at least," Rill then directed G-M34 to begin digging, down until the droid hit a simple white duraplast casket, with a crude rendition of the Republic crest painted on in maroon. Her heart rate spiked.

"That's promising," Good thing I'm using a rebreather, Vak thought, remembering other exhumations where he didnt. Airtight caskets kept things a little too fresh.

The lid was pried off. The body was draped in Jedi robes, and was identifiable as a Duros, with skin that had become pale and chalky, and empty eye sockets. There, on the corpse's chest was a cylindrical object. It was about 25cm long, silver, with 5 thick black strips of grip material wrapped horizontally on it. The pommel was a simple cube, and the emmiter on the other end was a dish shape.

Rill gasped when she saw it. Vak had G-M34 hand the object to him. He pressed a small red button, and the yellow blade hummed to life.

"It's beautiful." He was in awe. Here in his hand was the legendary Jedi weapon, considered a myth by some. He had seen models in museums he and Rill robbed, but here was a real one. Not just that, a functioning one. One of a few left in the whole Galaxy.

"I can't believe it," Rill stared at the yellow plasma blade."The solution to all our worries… we'll never have to work again."

"If we can sell it, word gets out we have it and we'll have bandits all over us." He handed it to Rill, and she clipped it on her belt.

 

Nice to see that they got a positive resolution, and nice touch with all the droids awaiting rescue.

I'm sure some advantage could be made with them.