"Ow, ow, ow, ow ow! Alright, jeez! I think that's tight enough!" I complained as after stripping most of my valuables off me beyond my clothes at blasterpoint, one of Carste's guys, I wanted to say some guy named Dave, or at least something close to that, proceeded to tightly tie my hands together. Oh, and they also tied my feet together at a certain length so I couldn't run away, even if I was dumb enough to try and run away in an open field with a bunch of blasters to my back, and attaching my hand restraints to that too so I could lift them up very high. This kept me at least somewhat mobile, but still limited in what I could do physically.
It was now official, I was not nearly as good of a judge of character as I thought I was. Or… my instincts were right about Lul, making my success rate so far 50/50, so that was something at least.
"Sorry, but we don't want you getting any smart ideas until we get what we want," Carste explained to me as I was sat down on the ground while the rest of his guys secured the rest of of my stuff, mainly by putting restraining boltson my crew… which I ironically recognized as ones I sold to the local droid dealer a week ago. I should have known supporting that aspect of droid oppression would bite me in the ass, but the money was too good! From here on out, I was purely anti-restraining bolt unless the droid in question was actively trying to kill me.
"Is that really necessary? They are programmed to not be able to harm organics, and you could just turn them off if you want to," I pointed out, earning a chuckle from Carste.
"Wow, you really are a weird one, carrying about a bunch of tin cans' 'feelings' and all that."
"Yeah, well, they were better company then you are currently being, what with robbing and holding me captive and everything," I dryly pointed out, which earned another chuckle from the older man who I once thought was chill.
"Fair enough, fair enough. I would be quite pissed off too if I were in your position, but I promise you that we don't mean any real harm."
"The blasters and restraints usually say otherwise," I said while gesturing toward my hogtied self.
"If you had sold off any binders we would have used those instead, but we had to improvise," Carste shrugged. "You've been here, what, less than a month? And already most of the town is talking about the 'guy who knows a guy' who can get nearly anything you want for cheap and fast. I'm guessing you've made out pretty good for yourself, what with that skiff and everything you have now, but I have to imagine that your supplier is doing even better. I also figure you've already heard about the Imperials sniffing around trying to collar him, and likely you too–if they can find ya–so you are likely looking to get off-world as soon as you can, am I right?"
"What's it to you?" I asked curiously, noting how despite not having all the facts the conclusion he put together was not that far off from the truth.
"Like I said when we drew on you, we want to use you to get to your supplier, rob him blind, and then either leave him for the Imps or dead, depending on how hard he makes the whole thing for us, while we get off this dirt ball and actually make something of ourselves in this galaxy," Carste explained. "We are sick of digging up garbage to sell back to the Empire for barely enough to eat, especially since word is that they are gonna be cutting the amount per pound soon. We deserve to live it up, and that is what we plan to do. And you are gonna help."
"Or else, I'm assuming is the end of that sentence," I said a little nervously, especially as I watched as Carste took out my stun baton and turned it on, making it hum and crackle with electricity a little.
"It's nothing personal, heck, I even like you Nick, but as I learned back on Corellia, you need to get your hands dirty a little to get what you want."
"Sounds like a sucky place to live," I couldn't help but comment.
"Oh, it is, trust me, but Dantooine isn't much of an upgrade in my mind," Carste explained. "Just on the other end of sucking."
That seemed a little unfair, since while not the most exciting place, Dantooine wasn't that bad, but then again I didn't really have a frame of reference for other planets so… why was I trying to understand the point of view of the guy who tied me up and was threatening me? Stupid empathy! I don't need you right now!
"So what exactly do you need from me right now that ideally doesn't get me killed, hurt, and eventually let go?" I asked.
"Simple, we need you to contact your supplier and make a meetup so we can jump him. Simple as that," Carste shrugged. "And once we get what we want, we'll let you go. Heck, we'll even let you keep most of your stuff so you can go back to wasting your life away salvaging like we did, we owe you that much. Maybe you'll eventually earn enough to get a chartered flight out of here and bust your back doing some other menial labor elsewhere in the galaxy, up to you. Oh, but I'll be keeping your blaster, it's a really nice piece."
Yeah, I saw how much he liked it when he took it from me, looked it over with a look of appreciation, and then stuffed it in his belt loop. Asshole, that was my laser gun! I paid good money for it!
"Well, unfortunately I can't really contact him cau-AHHHHHHH!" I tried to explain, only to be rudely and painfully interrupted by Carste sticking me with the stun baton.
I had, out of a mix of curiosity and stupidity, tested the baton on myself at the lowest power setting when I first bought it, and even then it hurt like a real bitch. This was worse than that, but thankfully not by much. Still, I did fall to my side and groaned after Carste pulled it away a moment later.
"I like you, Nick, but I don't like being lied to. It gets us nowhere and makes me have to get creative ideas about how to get you to be honest," Carste said in that disturbing calm tone of his, which was starting to make me think he was at least a bit of a sociopath.
"I'm not lying, asshole!" I yelled at him in pain and anger. "If you had just let me finish, I would have explained that I don't contact him, but rather meet up with him at one of the underused warehouses by the spaceport every other day or night!"
"Oh… well, my mistake then," Carste said, looking a little embarrassed at jumping the gun at fucking cattle proding me. "So… does that mean he is coming tomorrow or so?"
"Yeah, early tomorrow morning," I groaned as the pain was finally going away a little, but I was very much not looking forward to getting shocked again if I could help it. "I'll tell you where and when, so can you let me go now?"
"Naw. See, I trust you Nick, you seem like the honest sort all things told, but in matters as sensitive as this it's best to be careful," Carste explained as two of his crew picked me up from the ground. "You'll be our guest for the evening, and come morning we'll stop by to meet with your supplier. If all is as you say, once we get what we want we'll happily let you go. But if it isn't… Well, I will let you fill in the blanks."
"Oh, goodie," was my dry response.
"Oh, don't be too down. Assuming all goes well most of us will be doing quite well, so greater good and all that," Carste laughed as he turned and started walking over to his speeder, with his guys escorting me over to it. "Ah heck, I'll even let you have some of our good rations tonight for all the trouble."
"Thanks, it's nice to have such accommodating kidnappers," I grumbled to myself, earning a laugh from the man.
I should have stuck to my guns and just been an anti-social jerk when I first met him. It would have made me avoid this whole mess.
---
After a 'lovely' night at Carste and his crew's camp parked out on the edge of town, after a few of them dropped off my salvage to add insult to injury, we left in the early morning to the local spaceport to meet my 'contact'.
Of course, there was no contact on account of being my own supplier via some crazy and likely Force-powered online store in my head, so I instead directed them all to a warehouse at the edge of the area that was rarely used and possibly even abandoned given how old and rundown it looked. I usually used the place as a convenient spot to buy stuff larger on SFO behind closed doors, but in this case it worked well enough as a fake meeting point as anything else.
Carste had us all park our combined speeders behind it, and quickly escorted me out and inside, searching around with his guys for my 'guy' with guns drawn before turning back to me after clearly seeing the place was mostly empty beyond the odd empty container and other debris on the floor.
"So, where is he?" Carste asked in a slightly annoyed tone of voice.
"I don't know, still in transit? It's a range of time, not an exact one," I shrugged at him. "Should be here relatively soon though."
"Well, I guess we just gotta be patient then," Carste said while he pulled up an empty crate to sit after pushing me into the middle of the warehouse, my stolen blaster in his hand and pointed at me. "Of course, if he isn't here in a little bit, I'm gonna start thinking you were lying to me."
"Oh, in that case, would you believe I just manifested everything out of thin air myself?" I asked in a sarcastic tone.
"Being smart with me isn't exactly gonna help your situation," Carste pointed out.
"True, but I-" My words were cut off as suddenly the front doors to the warehouse starting to open, making Carste start to smile and stand with his blaster drawn alongside his friends, only for that smile to quickly drop as what came inside wasn't a smuggler he was hoping to ambush, but at least two squads of clone troopers who had their rifles drawn and pointed at each of them as an Imperial officer walked in behind them with a smug grin on his face.
"Good morning, smuggler scum! For multiple crimes against the Empire, I place you all under arrest and hereby order you to throw down your weapons immediately and surrender. Failure to do so will be viewed as a hostile act and we will open fire," he ordered them as the stunned salvagers while I did my best to suppress a smirk.
After all, I had planned all of this.
---
Last Night
Carste and his crew, after having a pre-victory drink, were quick to fall asleep while they left me sitting and tied up in my own skiff alongside my deactivated and bolted droids, thinking I wouldn't be able to escape given my current state.
They were right, but for the wrong reasons.
Thank goodness these guys weren't professional kidnappers and thus didn't tie my hands behind my back, or else this would be a lot more difficult or even impossible. While the way they tied me up kept me limited by what I physically could do, my hands were still free in front of me and therefore meant I could still access SFO. And with it, I had many options about how to deal with Carste and his crew.
I was very tempted to just buy and summon up a batch of battle droids to deal with them… but I had to keep my account amount in mind since after all this I would need to get off this planet fast, and I much rather have the money on hand to buy my preferred ship in mind rather than settle for a cheaper and worse one just cause of the actions of a bunch of assholes. Pragmatic, no, but dammit if I wasn't feeling really petty right now. Besides, every credit mattered when it came to surviving, so I shouldn't spend needlessly when other options existed.
And right now, I had a one that would help get me out of this situation and potentially keep me hidden after the fact.
With my idea in mind, I bought a replacement commlink and quickly used it to call up Lul, making me glad I made an effort to recall his comm channel number. I positioned myself to cover up the sound as much as possible and make it look like I was sleeping with my back to the salvagers as I waited for the duros to pick up, which should be the case since he was a bar owner and late nights were normal for him. Thankfully I was right, cause after a couple moments waiting for him to pick up the line, he answered.
"This is Lul, who's talking?" He asked idly, likely doing something else at the bar when he picked up the call judging by the background noise.
"Hey Lul, it's Nick. I'm in a bit of a situation at the moment," I whispered into the commlink. "Carste and his crew are holding me hostage and are planning to use me to rob my 'guy' in the morning, and I need your help."
"Nick? Frak, seriously?!" the duros cursed as I heard him walking away from the bar as the background noise died out. "Should have known that those people were slime, I had a feeling, and I should have listened to my guy since it got me out of more than a few jams before, like-"
"Tell me later!" I hissed quietly into the commlink. "You know I don't have a guy, so I got nothing to give them, but I plan to send them to an empty warehouse in the morning. In the meantime, I need you to send in a tip to the local Imperial garrison about a bunch of smugglers taking a hostage and their plan to meet up with a supplier. Can you do that for me?"
"That's your plan? What are you hoping to do?"
"Start a gunfight and run away in the chaos," was my simple reply.
---
"I repeat, put your weapons down now or else we will open fire!" The officer demanded again as both sides held their weapons towards each other, the tension so thick in the air you could cut it with a knife as everyone was trying to figure out what to do next.
Unfortunately for them, I took that choice away from them as I quickly reached into my pockets, primed the two devices within, and dropped them on the ground. In the split second it took for both parties to take note of my actions, said devices exploded into large clouds of smoke that quickly filled the confines of the warehouse and blinded everyone present.
Smoke grenades, 100 credits each but well worth it as I quickly hit the floor as shouts and blind blaster fire erupted from both sides as I kept low to avoid getting hit. I reached for my boot and pulled out the small switch-vibroblade I also bought last night, using it to quickly cut my bonds. After that, I then pulled out my third purchase from the other night, a set of aural amplifiers that I quickly put on my ears and turned on. I had only tested the devices a little bit last night, but while the smoke was slightly limiting their effectiveness I was still able to give be a good idea of who was where despite being blind myself as I quickly army crawled my way to the back exit while Carste's crew and the Imperials worked out their differences.
I yelped a bit when a body dropped in front of me, the smell of burnt flesh hitting my nose, but I quickly ignored and moved around it as I tactically retreated like the world's bravest roach.
Thankfully, I quickly made my way to the back door thanks to the amplifiers and remembering the short trip through it earlier, quickly getting up and running out while coughing a bit from the smoke. Still though, my plan worked and now I was-!
"Hold it! Hands up!" a voice shouted, and I did just that out of fear as my vision returned to me and two clone troopers ran up to me with their weapons drawn.
"Don't shoot! I didn't do anything!" I pleaded as I tried not to look down the barrel of the guns pointed at me and kicked myself for not thinking the clones would obviously surround the building before breaching the doors. These were the best trained soldiers in the galaxy, for Pete's sake!
"Turn around and don't-" The first trooper started to say before he was interrupted by his brother grabbing his gun barrel.
"Wait! I know this guy," the clone said. "I saw him more than a few times dropping off our brothers' remains at the Reclamation Center, the one Digit and Thick talked about. And the tip mentioned that the smugglers had a hostage, remember?"
"Yeah! That is totally me! Honest!" I said with my hands still up, making clear the cut rope still wrapped around my wrists.
"Yeah? Well, you were lucky to get away unharmed then," the first trooper said as he lowered his gun slightly before taking note of the blaster fire coming from inside the warehouse and smoke pouring out of it. "Sounds like things got ugly in there. Get out of here so you don't get caught in the crossfire. Move it!"
"Yes sir!" I quickly said and did just that as the clones went to cover the door I escaped from.
I quickly ran over to my skiff, climbed aboard, started it up, and proceeded to get the heck out of dodge. I quickly sped away from the warehouse, looking back briefly to take note of the double-seated speeder bikes and what looked like a speeder transport parked out from as smoke kept pouring out of the building, illuminated and echoed by the flashes and sounds of blue and red blaster shots. And thankfully, no one was speeding after me.
I had escaped with not a scratch on me, which I was honestly shocked was the case.
"Holy shit, I can't believe that worked… almost totally to plan," I said to myself as I turned forward and sped away from the spaceport and out of town for likely the last time for a long while, if not forever. "Thank goodness I made friends with the local clones or else I might be in an Imperial cell right now, or possibly worse! Anyway, its time to get the fuck off this planet."
I quickly pulled out my commlink and called up Lul again, the duros quickly picking up.
"Nick?! That you? You alright?" Lul asked in a slightly panicked tone of voice.
"Still alive and in one piece! My plan fucking worked!" I couldn't help but say in an excited and relieved tone. "Never thought I'd say this to a friend, but thanks for calling the fuzz on me!"
"Thank the Force your crazy idea worked and I didn't get you killed. Where are you now?"
"On my way to you," I assured him. "You took my speeder bike to the drop-off point for our clients, yeah? I will be needing that when I leave afterwards since I would rather not lose anymore stuff before I leave."
"Yeah, I did, but are you sure you can complete the job after all that? I wouldn't blame you if you just wanted to get off-world now before anything gets tracked back to you,"Lul pointed out. "I'll take the heat with our clients, so you should-"
"No can do!" I interrupted him. "I need the money to get off-world in the first place, and besides, I don't want my last act on Dantooine to be abandoning a friend. You hear me? I'll be there."
"Hehehe, you're one crazy human, Nick, you know that?" Lul laughed over the line. "Alright, I'll see you soon. Be careful though, you're not off-world yet."
"Don't I know it," I grimaced as I tried not to remember the sound and smell of a dead body dropping on the ground in front of me.
I needed space to distract me from the trauma.
---
It didn't take too long to reach the drop-off location, just a few hours away from town, during which I was quick to remove and throw away the bolts on my crew, much to their joy at that and my return, and I made sure to buy and summon the harvester droid well down the road from the location. It must have raised more than a few eyebrows to watch the massive droid come down the road with me leading it in my skiff, with many questions about how I got it here in a timely manner, but I wasn't gonna spoil anything and they knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Still, I was happy to hand over the huge droid to the small group of mostly human farmers after they looked it over and were very happy with what they saw, handing me the other half of my payment before shaking my hand and speeding off with the droid in toe, leaving just me and Lul behind to chat.
"I still have no idea how you did it, but I know better than to ask those kinds of questions, especially after what you just went through," Lul told me before pointing towards the case. "I left my cut in there for you, so you got the full 80k with you."
"What? You didn't have to-"
"I didn't, but I figured you earned it after what happened recently and would need it more than me out there," Luk interrupted my words with a smile. "So don't argue with an old duros, Nick, you'll never win."
"Well… in that case, at least keep my skiff," I said while pointing to the vehicle in question as my droids climbed off it and over to me. "I won't be able to take it with me anyhow."
"Heh, thanks kid. I'm sure I can find some use for it, like getting back to town for one," Lul smiled before an odd look crossed his face. "Still, I don't suppose you could humor an old man and tell me just how you plan to leave the planet? With no chain code and the Imperials likely on high alert, I doubt you can head back to the spaceport. You got someone who is picking you up?"
I debated telling him a lie… but in the end, for as short of a time as I knew him, Lul had done good by me, and when I was in a tight spot was able to help me despite the potential risk to himself. Therefore, I think he deserved at least one more unbelievable story to add to his collection.
"Just watch and be amazed," I said ominously as I pulled up SFO, likely confusing Lul a great deal as to him I was just moving my hand around in the air, before his eyes widened as I deposited all the credits he just gave me into my account and vanished before his eyes. I just held up a finger when he opened his mouth, focusing on SFO until I found what I was looking for and pressed the buy button.
Interesting note, whenever I bought something I needed the right amount of free space to actually manifest it, no summoning a tank in a small box, so being out in an open field really helped as I summoned my brand new starship!
Before Lul's very eyes, one moment there was nothing but tall grass and open space, and the next there was a brand new Kazellis-class light freighter standing before him. The rare 50k credit light freighter was shaped like a circular flying wing–not dissimilar to the future symbol of the Rebellion–and colored an industrial gray, but was beautiful despite it since it was in perfect condition, like it was fresh out of the shipyard, and most importantly, she was mine.
Lul just stood there with his jaw dropped as he stared at the impossible sight before him, giving me time to make my second necessary purchase. Namely, a RXpilot droid for 9k new, which the duros didn't even take note of as I turned him on.
The cylindrical three-armed droid powered up, his body and head extending upwards as his photoreceptors lit up and his visor retracted. His focus turned to me and he was quick to introduce himself.
"Greetings! And thank you for your purchase of an RX-series pilot droid, made in conjunction by Industrial Automaton and Reubens Robotic Systems, the best source of droid models in the galaxy! My designation is-"
"You can skip giving me your serial number, cause your name is now Launchpad, the best pilot name I can possibly think of," I interrupted the newly named droid with a smile.
After all, this was the Star Wars universe, so crashing was likely to happen at some point in time for me. And if that happened, I wanted my pilot droid named after the best crasher that I knew about.
"Oh, ah, okay! New designation received! Hello, I'm Launchpad, your top of the line RX-series pilot droid! How may I serve you today?" He asked in a chipper tone.
"Can you fly that?" I asked while pointing to the Kazellis, making the droid turn its head to look the ship over, before turning back to me.
"I sure can! It's a newer model, but its design is very standard and also pre-loaded into my memory circuits," Launchpad confirmed with a mechanical nod.
"Then let's get going! We've got a galaxy to see!" I said with a smile before pointing forward. "Head inside and get situated in the cockpit, I'll meet you there when we are ready to go."
"Will do, Captain!" Launchpad said as he saluted me with one arm and activated his repulsorlift unit in the base of his body, quickly floating over to and up the ship's open entry ramp.
"That goes for the rest of you too! Time to load up!" I told the rest of my robotic crew, who chirped and buzzed and gonked affirmative noises as they got moving. "And don't forget my bike!"
Huey quickly did 180 to do just that, guiding the bike over to where the cargo elevator under the ship was so it could be loaded onboard.
With all that taken care of, I finally turned back to Lul, who at some point seemed to collect himself and just stare at me in pure confusion, looking between me and ship several times before finally finding his words… or word in this case.
"How?" he asked in a weak tone.
"Force magic maybe?" I winked at him in response as I laughed at the incredulous look on his face, which finally seemed to knock him out of his trance and shake his head in disbelief.
"Well… I was hoping to see more wonders in this universe even after I retired… I just didn't think I'd be seeing stuff like this 'cause of you," he finally replied, regaining a bit of his normal swagger.
"I will take that as a compliment," I said as I took the duros by his hand in a firm grip. "Thanks for everything, and I promise this isn't goodbye forever, so look forward to when we meet again, alright?"
"Hehehe, just don't come back too early or else that would ruin the effect of the reunion. I would know."
"Of course! Take care and see ya later, Lul!" I said as I ran up to and into my ship, stopping a moment on the entry ramp before turning back to say one last thing. "And remember, even if you tell someone about this, they will never believe you!"
Lul had an odd look cross his face before he realized I was right, and then he started shaking his fist at me with a smile as I closed the entry ramp.
"Damn you!"
I just laughed as the ramp closed and I walked into the ship proper, taking a brief look at its insides before I moved over to the accessway and moved through it into the cockpit where Launchpad was waiting, his three arms already moving over the various controls. He turned his head towards me as I walked in and sat down in the co-pilot's chair, fittingly making me the Goose to his Duck.
"All systems are green, Captain, and all fellow droid crew members are aboard and accounted for! Are we ready to take off?" Launchpad asked.
"Make it so, Mr. McQuack," I said with a smile as the droid turned back to the controls and powered up the engines.
"Engaging liftoff!" Launchpad informed me, the ship humming underfoot as the engines spooled up.
It really surprised me how quickly the ship rose up off the ground and then proceeded to fly into the sky, I was used to the relatively slow takeoffs of rockets back in my original universe, so I barely had time to process waving at Lul through the cockpit window before he became a tiny ant and the landscape grew more and more until we were pointed directly upwards and moving out of atmosphere at great speed that I barely felt.
And very soon, all I could see was stars.
I watched in awed silence as Launchpad repositioned the ship so that we were staring down at Dantooine, the whole planet before my eyes that left me in a complete state of wonder as it truly hit me that I was in outer space… with only a relatively thin hull of metal separating me from a whole universe and everything it contained, things I could reach out and interact with with a flick of the switch. Was this what astronauts back home felt whenever they went into space? Because it was humbling to experience.
To be so small in a universe so large…
"We have successfully exited Dantooine's gravity well and are free to enter hyperspace," Launchpad informed me as he turned his head in my direction. "Do you have a destination in mind, Captain?"
"Just… just give me a second…" I told him as I continued to just take in the sight before me, take in a deep breath, and then turned to him. "Okay, I'm ready. You know how to get to Ord Mantell? Got some people there I hope to meet, and a real shady lizard lady who I might go into business with."
"Sure do! Imputing coordinates now. Should only take a day or two to reach," Launchpad reported as he interacted with the controls and input the coordinates. "Ready to engage the hyperdrive at your command, Captain."
At that, I said the only three words that I could possibly say at that moment.
"Punch it, LP," I said with a huge grin on my face.
Launchpad pulled down the lever for the hyperdrive, and I watched once more transfixed as the stars stretched before us and we sped through a rapidly formed blue tunnel as we jumped across the galaxy through an alternate dimension.
And all I could think of the whole time?
"This is so fucking wizard!"
---
AN: And that concludes Nick's 'Prologue Arc', as it were, and now people know he plans to get involved with the Bad Batch, since its the most clear metaknowledge he has about this time period and wants to help them out if possible. That and having a bunch of badass commandos as friends is rarely a bad thing.