I have to admit, Launchpad wasn't a bad teacher. It helped that he wasn't trying to explain all the science behind how starships worked to me, just telling me what was what, what the various gauges meant, what each button or lever did, that kind thing. Basically making sure I didn't accidentally kill myself because I didn't know what something was trying to tell me or didn't know what something did.
Just like how one didn't need to know how a combustion engine worked to drive a car, you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to drive a spaceship.
He, and especially myself, wouldn't be comfortable about me actually taking the wheel anytime soon, but like any good co-pilot I could at least help him out by calling out readings and things like that to him, even if he already knew due to being plugged into the ship. Meanwhile, he'd teach me basics and show me how things were done, and if he felt like I had something down, let me try it out with him on standby. I had never flown a plane before, but this felt like what pilot training back home would be like.
Either way, I had taken my first steps to truly learning how to fly my spaceship one day and I looked forward to it with great enthusiasm.
But yeah, the rest of the trip to Ord Mantell went on like this for the most part, barring breaks to eat, sleep, use the refresher, walk around the ship to stretch legs, and look over my datapad to read and watch stuff. It was a nice little reminder that while in media back home hyperspace travel went at the speed of plot, there were waiting periods between planets in general where all you could do was hang out on your ship. And so, between the flying lessons and such, it gave me time to think and try to plan things out a bit more. This was especially necessary since, after some self-reflection and hindsight, I was aware I made a lot of dumb and avoidable mistakes back on Dantooine that ended up with me literally in the middle of a life and death situation that I was barely able to squeak out of.
Ideally I hoped to earn the trust of and become a supplier for the Bad Batch while they worked for Cid, maybe even help out on a few of their missions that go pear-shaped down the line, but I would first need to integrate myself with the trandoshan woman first, which posed its own issues and challenges.
Cid was a career criminal who, at the end of the day, was out for herself. She cared most of all about her own hide and money before anything else, even if she occasionally showed moments of caring for others and even felt guilty when betraying the Bad Batch. This made her dangerous to work with and nearly impossible to trust, but it also made her predictable in a way. So long as the credits kept flowing and you didn't bring too much heat on her head, she was unlikely to stab you in the back.
And with my abilities paired up with her connections, there was the potential to make a lot of money.
Obviously I could never tell her about my abilities, but I can still sell myself to her as a good supplier and smuggler if I play my cards right. Meanwhile, Cid had connections to a lot of people that I hoped to gain access to in one way or another, and with her main source of income as an informant to the Jedi no longer an option she would be looking for new income streams like she had in using the Bad Batch as mercs to send out on various missions. And while she used me, I hoped to use her in turn by ideally selling my services to early rebel groups, desperate partisan groups who needed help, and in general people who were so hard up for supplies they would reach out to her or she could find them.
And who knows, maybe I make things turn out better than they did in canon and Cid never feels the need to betray the clone commandos and potentially me… but I should plan out a contingency just in case that still comes to pass, ideally running it by the Bad Batch once I had their ear.
Still though, I will have to prepare for the worst even as I was hoping for the best. And the first step for that was figuring out how to make sure Cid knew I was serious by grabbing her interest with a product she likely wouldn't be able to normally get her hands on and that would likely sell well. I will need to scroll through SFO to see if anything in my current price-range can accomplish that.
Of course, Cid was only half the equation since it was the Bad Batch who I really wanted to be associated with if possible since not only did I want to help them out, if they saw me as a friend they could rely on that meant they'd be willing to help me out in turn if I ever got into a jam I couldn't buy my way out of. I was under no illusions of my own fighting abilities after all, so having actual experienced soldiers willing to cover my back would be a massive weight off my shoulders. A little manipulative, maybe, but if I can legitimately help them out I think my conscience could live with it.
They might be standoffish at first, especially Hunter, since I was just a random civilian smuggler that supplied them stuff they needed at best, but assuming I got Omega to like me I think I should be golden.
Of course, no plan survives first contact, so I would most likely have to improvise as needed and do the best I could just to stay alive. This was SW after all, and the Force loved throwing people into the thick of things on the best of days. And that was all assuming I was in the version of SW where they even existed!
I'd cross that bridge when I came to it, but for now I had to figure out what a lizard lady would be interested in buying and reselling from me, then hopefully deciding I was worth keeping around.
How hard can that be?
---
We left hyperspace and reached Ord Mantell nearly exactly when Launchpad said we would, only being slightly behind schedule by a few minutes, entering the Bright Jewel system without issue and far away from any mass shadowproducing gravity wells.
And as we headed towards its second astrological object; the main inhabited planet in the system, I immediately noticed how it and the system as a whole had way more ship traffic than Dantooine did, based on the ship's sensors and my own eye balls as we headed towards the world in question, amazed at the large number of moons orbiting it. I watched as ships were coming and going, orbiting the world, and in general buzzing around like a bunch of bees or something, though it was obvious to see where the most activity was on the planet based on how many ships were going to and from a few spots. And given how Earth-like Ord Mantell looked, it almost made me imagine I was staring down at it from above, besides all the spaceships of course.
"Alright Launchpad, take us in for a landing," I said. "We're heading for Ord Mantell City."
"Affirmative, Nick," LP returned and I watched as he slowly brought us down towards the planet, passing through the atmosphere easily as he expertly avoided any other ships that could possibly get in the way.
Granted, while it had a lot more activity around it than Dantooine, Ord Mantell was likely still nothing compared to city planets in the galaxy that had aircraft constantly flooding the sky. While there were still a number of ships around these parts, there was still plenty of free space all around us as we made our way to the surface.
I didn't know a lot about Ord Mantell beyond some research I had done over the HoloNet, which I imagine I would be doing often, but the name marked it as an Ordnance/Regional Depot or Ord, a world originally settled as a military outpost to protect colonists thousands of years ago, military centers during the Pius Dea Era, headquarters for regiments of the Clone Army during the not so long ago days of Galactic Republic, and centers of power for the upcoming Imperial Era. Granted, I have no idea how long it would take for the latter to really sink in, but it would be best to be on my toes since in time the Empire will have a big presence on the world.
We passed over the planet, taking in the various terrain, until our destination came into sight.
Ord Mantell City, while not very creatively named, was pretty neat to look at with its large central structure and smaller buildings, if only by scale, stretching out around it in a circle like a big flower in the middle of a wide open area surrounded by large mountains. I idly noticed more than a few wrecked buildings and even large scorch marks all over the city, likely due to the Battle of Ord Mantell that happened relatively recently when the CIS bombarded the city. Still, for a city that apparently got blasted a great deal they had cleaned up fast. I could see a lot of traffic going through its streets below as the Sleipnir passed over it and made its way over to a landing bay that had free space available to dock in, as directed by an automatic advertisement transmission.
I watched as Launchpad maneuvered the ship over a large circular recess in a large building, gently bringing the ship down.
"Please engage the landing gear, Nick," Launchpad directed me.
"Roger," I said as I pushed the button in question, listening as the ship's landing gear unfolded itself.
"We are now set to land," Launchpad said as he did just that, the ship barely jostling as it did so. "Great work with the landing gear, by the way. We'll make a pilot out of you in no time."
"Thanks, LP, but it literally was only pushing a single button," I pointed out with a smile as I got out of my seat.
"Baby steps are still steps," LP returned, which caused me to chuckle.
"Fair enough," I admitted. "Look after the ship for me while I'm gone, direct the pits if needed. I'll contact you if anything comes up, but I should be back some time later."
"Affirmative, Nick, and safe travels," LP waved me off as I walked out of the cockpit and opened up my locker, taking out and putting on my newly bought backpack, my rugged armorweave coat, a fully enclosed helmet, and carrying case for the product I hoped to show Cid. I also made sure my newly purchased DC-15 hand blaster was tucked into my holster too, just to be safe.
I had purchased the helmet for extra protection, its many in-built features like its air-filters, communicator, and such, to hide my face and expressions in general, and just cause it looked cool as heck. I made sure this one had a decent range of vision too, so I didn't suffer any Stormtrooper-related issues. It wasn't too fancy looking, with a basic visor and relatively plain face, but it worked and that was all that mattered.
After I was all geared up I walked into the rec area and said hi to the rest of my crew.
"Take care of the ship while I'm gone and do what you like to pass the time, I'll be back later," I told them, my voice having a slightly deeper pitch to it due to the helmet, earning various sounds of acceptance.
After that, I made my way to the cargo hold, moved my speeder over the cargo elevator, and activated it. Soon it was all the way down and I moved my speeder off of it, idly taking notice of a few other pit droids that didn't belong to me hooking up a fuel hose to my ship. I let them do their job and headed over to where the docking bay attendant was set up in a booth, putting my speeder off to the side and walking up to them.
The attendant was a female zabrakwith green hair reading what looked like some kinda fashion site on her datapad as I walked up, not evening looking at me when she spoke.
"Rate is 5 credits per hour, 50 a day, not counting refueling costs. You can pay that separately here whenever you want, and any extra services are posted on the board to the right of the booth," she said in a bored sounding tone.
Just a regular person doing a regular job in the end, even in Star Wars.
"Good to know, thanks," I said simply as I took out 50 credits for the day and stuck it on her counter, her hand grabbing them and depositing them in her register without her even looking. "Can I ask you a question?"
"I'm already in a committed relationship with a member of the female gender, so not interested for many reasons," she replied in the same bored tone and lack of eye contact.
"Wha-no, that wasn't what I was gonna-do you get asked that a lot?" I couldn't help but ask in confusion before shaking my head. "Not important. What I wanted to ask was if you knew where Cid's Parlor was."
That finally earned me some eye contact and a confused look on her place.
"That dump? Sure, I know where it is, but there are dozens of better places to spend your time around here that will at least pretend not to rip you off."
"Probably, but it's where I need to go," I shrugged.
"Eh, your credits you're wasting," she shrugged in return and clicked a few buttons on her datapad, which pinged on mine. "There, not too far away, but try not to lose all your money right away cause we don't accept promises of future payment. The second you are overdue we call in a tow to take your ship to the impound lot or the scrapheap."
"Thanks for the warning, but I promise you will get your pay," I said with a smile behind my helmet as I nodded my thanks and headed over to my bike.
It was time to meet the lady of the hour, and hopefully her very skilled employees.
---
As the attendant said, it didn't take long to reach Cid's Parlor.
The place was located inside a dirty and garbage-filled alley off of a not much clearer street, with many beings of various species walking and driving along. There was discarded metal, street art all over, and other stuff that made this place pretty run down looking. A simple glowing sign that said 'Cid's' and a pair of dice hung above an entryway down a set of stairs and to an automatic door, as was the norm in this galaxy apparently.
So it was with a deep breath I took my first steps into potentially Hell, which was fitting since Cid's place was below street level.
--
AN: Chapter originally longer, but cut it up when it started being a little long. Anyway, this is officially the third planet Nick has ever stepped foot on, and its certainly much more developed than Dantooine, for good or ill.