Well this was just dandy.
Here I was on a planet I had never heard about, in a ship that wasn't totally functional after running away with a fight with the Empire and crashing, with my guard down enough to be easily boarded, and now currently being held up by the throat by a very intimidating tigerman alien who's species I had no idea about after breaking a law I had apparently broken without realizing it. Truly, today was just going so well for me.
I swear, the Force was having a laugh right now at my expense.
I hung by my throat from the single hand of a true warrior, densely woven muscle fibers visibly shifted under thick–striped fur, and fierce eyes roved across my face like a predator inspecting its next meal–memorizing every aspect of me even with my helmet on. Seriously, it was one thing to see tigers back home, but even in humanoid form the tigerman before me lacked none of the predatory instinct he gave off while at the same time being built like a linebacker with digitigrade legs and–if I was feeling it right–retractable claws in their hands, that so far he hadn't felt the need to bring out.
Likely 'cause I wasn't worth the effort in his mind.
Still, I needed to speak quickly before the tigerman thought I was stalling for time trying to figure out what to say rather than just trying to catch my breath due to the fact that his grip was making breathing harder than usual.
That lack of oxygen was not helping in coming up with any potentially clever lie, so in absence of that I had nothing but the truth to give and just pray that they would accept it.
"W-we crashed!" I choked out quickly, acutely aware of the blade still near my throat. "We were trying to make repairs to leave, or at least move some place better, when you showed up!"
That made the tigerman, a TogorianI supposed, turn towards his fellow, a silent conversation happening between them, before I was suddenly released, making me stumble a bit to catch myself as I got my breathing back under control and rubbed my sore neck.
"It is lawful to crash land, but only once," the tigerman stated, his earlier anger not mostly just annoyance as he sheathed his sword and his comrade lowered his rifle.
"Seriously?" I asked in shock, not expecting that to work nearly as well as I thought.
"Yes," he stated. "You and your ship will be brought to Caross for the females to deal with as they see fit. Be warned, however, that should you ever crash on our world again, that you will wish that you died during it rather than survive."
"Uh, why?" Launchpad asked curiously, despite the very clear implications of the statement.
"You will be strung up on stakes and left for the liphons to devour," the panther-like partner of the warrior that had held me by my throat stated, his dark black fur and narrowed green eyes most certainly making him look like the big cat in question, before growling at Launchpad. "But for you, metal man, you will simply be destroyed and your pieces sent to the females to use however they find most pleasing."
"Oh…" Launchpad said with fear. "Well, yeah, we don't want that."
No shit.
"You will remain confined to your ship until a tug arrives to transport you all," the tigerman growled. "Any attempt to leave the ship or with it without an escort will be viewed as an attempt at escaping and you will be hunted down and fed to our mosgoths. Is that clear?"
Not like I had much of a choice given my circumstances…
"Yes, very clear," I nodded.
At those words the two togorians said nothing more and simply exited my ship, with me following a bit behind until they left.
This showed me the very unfortunate sight of Thing 2's deactivated body standing near the entry ramp, his head having been cut from his body, most likely from the tigerman's sword. Said tigerman, who didn't bother to give me his name, didn't even acknowledge or apologize for his actions as he and his comrade left my ship. Dicks.
"Jeez, Boss, you didn't tell me this would be a hostile work environment," Lee stated as he and most of the other droids who were doing repair work stuck their heads out from where they were hiding behind the power core.
"It normally isn't…" I muttered as I picked up Thing 2's head and expected the damage done.
Nick had to give that tigerman credit, he struck Thing 2 right at his neck joint and thus the weakest part of his armor, slicing clean through all the connection points and disabling the droid with the least amount of damage. Not likely because that was what he was aiming for, but just cause it was the fastest way to take him down as he most likely attempted to stop them. Either way, it showed how dangerous these togorians were in general, and that wasn't even accounting how strong their dragons must be.
Goodness knows those things look like they could easily body starfighters and even most light freighters with ease, and I was in no hurry to test that hypothesis.
"So, what now?" Launchpad asked, having followed me out of the cockpit.
I sighed.
"Stay the course for now, keep doing repairs and such, but now we are being 'escorted' to what I assume is a major settlement and passed along to the authorities there to deal with," I explained to my crew. "I'll handle that when we get there, but for now just keep on trying to get the ship as functional as possible in the meantime. I will see about getting Thing 2 repaired while that is happening. Lee, can you take his body over to the machine shop?"
"Oh, of course not, not like I don't have better things to do than act like a loader droid," Lee grumbled as he turned to the triplets. "You three, help me out here. What you lack in smarts your designers made up for in strength."
I watched as all four of them lifted up and transported Thing 2's body deeper into the ship while I turned towards Launchpad.
"Head back to the cockpit and let me know when the togorians' tug shows up, alright?" I asked. "No idea when it will get here, but it shouldn't be too long."
"Will do, Nick!" saluted before backing up towards the cockpit. "And hopefully none of those huge birds out there decide the Sleipnirlooks like a nice place to roost in. I'm not sure she could take it after what she has been through already… or worse, decide to use her as a place to dispose of their waste."
With that lovely image in my head I headed off to the machine room, passing by my droids as they left to continue their work fixing the ship before they were so rudely interrupted.
Thing 2's body was stood up by a hoist connected to the ceiling, keeping it standing up while I brought his head to the workbench and started to take out all the sliced apart connecting pieces. I should be able to, once I got both pieces of each from both his head and neck, reconnect them with a little work and assuming nothing was overly damaged, which seemed not to be the case so far with such a clean slice. Just a matter of replacing the cabling, wielding back on the connectors, double-checking the connection, fixing the fasteners, and Thing 2 should be as good as new!
Heck, maybe by the time we actually get to this 'Caross' place Thing 2 will already be back on his feet.
A few hours passed in relative peace, beyond the togorians guarding the outside of my ship with their dragons, allowing the crew and I to keep working on our respective tasks without another interruption.
It wasn't enough time to get all our work done, but it was getting there.
Still, eventually the tug arrived, a utility one from the looks of it, which, while smaller than our ship, used its powerful tractor beam emitters to pick us up and then fly us away. While I was watching this, I noticed how the togorians followed us on top of their dragons, keeping pace with the tug despite its relatively swift speed. They followed us all the way to our destination, which took roughly an hour or so to reach, and stood out very much compared to the relatively sparse landscape we flew over.
Caross was a modest city, all things told, but it was still quite large despite the seeming undeveloped nature of this whole planet so far and surrounded by a large wall, with a number of mid-sized buildings and even a few larger ones within it, if not skyscrapers or anything like that. The design was all very natural looking, blending into the surrounding environment with an almost organic like look to them with their soft edges and curved nature, liberal addition of various plants and greenery everywhere, and nearly everything was covered in solar panels. Seriously, almost every surface seemed to be covered in black glass that was specifically designed to catch every moment of the sun during the day cycle of the planet, and, for all I knew, the panels could generate charge from moonlight too.
The tug didn't set us down in the city itself, but rather in a landing field that had any tall grass it might have once had cleared away outside the city walls, where I could spot at least a dozen or so different ships already parked there; most of them light freighters like my own. I could see a number of various species and crews milling about them, either moving stuff on or off their ships, but all of them had the look of either a pirate or a smuggler, showing that this planet was not exactly a prime trading spot for most.
I felt it as the tug set the Sleipnir down in an empty space–hearing the grinding of tortured metal coming from the landing gear as the ship's weight was once more pressing on it, and thus I made my way to the entry ramp before turning to my crew.
"Alright, I'm gonna go handle the locals, so everyone just keep doing what you were doing unless I call and tell you otherwise," I stated, before turning to a freshly repaired Thing 2, his head now once more firmly on his body. "Thing 2, guard the ship… but try not to give the locals a reason to try and cut your head off again, alright?"
"I assure you, Sir, that should combat with the locals be required that I have already devised dozens of new strategies to use against them!" Thing 2 said with more than a little hurt pride at his earlier defeat. "Merely give me the order, I shall strike down dozens of their number before my eventual destruction."
"Denied," I said with crossed arms. "Just stay here and guard the ship, got it?"
"Yes Sir…" Thing 2 seemed to slump in disappointment at the inability to make up for his earlier disabling.
"So what do you think they are gonna do to you? Fine you for not parking in the right spot?" Launchpad asked. "I should have been more mindful about where about where I was going and checked to make sure it was in crashing free space."
"If that is all they do, I will happily pay it… assuming it's reasonable," I admitted. "In that case I would unhappily pay it since I don't think we have many options besides that right now."
"Good thing that is your problem then," Lee stated. "I've got work to get on with, kindly get off the ship and leave me to it… Boss.."
"Yes, well, best hope I do well or else you might get resold or melted down," I pointed out as I shouldered my backpack. "Stay safe everyone, and I promise to be back as soon as I can."
With that I exited the ship and went out onto the landing field proper, earning a few looks from the other crews as they saw me.
"Crashed, did ya?" Asked one nearby blue-faced nikto who, judging by his oil stained clothes and toolbelt, was some kind of mechanic who was currently working on the ship parked next to mine. I took notice of him staring at the various damaged spots from the V-Wings' blasters.
"How could you tell?" I asked sarcastically given the state my ship was in.
"Heh, figured, the locals don't ever bring in ships unless they either crashed or tried to sneak around on their planet. And seeing how you are still alive, the former was the most obvious answer," he explained as he looked over my ship. "Looks like you were in a real scrap before you showed up here too. Pirates or Imperials?"
"Imperials," I stated evenly, making note of my guides circling around overhead and flying next to a few other dragonriders.
Were they having a conversation about me or something? Didn't seem like in a super hurry to move me along at least.
"Yeah… they have been a real pain in the ass ever since the war ended," the nikto sighed. "I miss the days of the Galactic Republic when they were too busy elsewhere, and even when they weren't they were either lazy or easy to bribe. Now honest hard-working folk like us have to ply the little used hyperspace lanes and planets to make a decent living without worrying about ridiculous tariffs or being blasted to pieces."
"I just don't think they deserve a single credit," I pointed out.
"Ha! That they don't!" he laughed before he looked to the side. "Assuming you live through what's to come, I wouldn't mind having a drink with ya later. Some quick advice, the togorians value honesty to a fault, and can sniff out lies like nothing else."
Before I could ask what he meant by that, I was nearly knocked off my feet as my escorts' space dragons landed nearby with buffeting winds before they hopped down from their tall mounts and onto the ground below with all the grace of a… well, a cat.
"We shall escort you to the city gates, after which the females will handle you," the tigerman stated as he and his partner stood at either side of my sides, boxing me in. "You will not go anywhere without permission until your judgement has been passed, or you will be slain."
"Noted," I nodded nervously, as I followed my guides to the city gates, trying not to flinch in fear as we passed their dragons and they loudly hissed at me.
It didn't take long to reach the city gates, which were guarded by female togarian guards, who wore heavy looking armor and spears.
But these weren't your typical anime catgirls, but rather they were just hairy and fierce-looking as their male counterparts, with the only differences being having slightly softer features, noticeable breasts underneath their armor, and only being a little smaller than the males.
I also idly noticed that the togorians' looks ran the gauntlet of big cats from back home, with various fur coloring, patterns, and hairstyles that could make them look like any number of the large predators I was more familiar with, but in a humanoid form. It made me curious if there were any that looked like saber-toothed cats or something among them… on second thought, that sounded terrifying, so nevermind.
The togorian tigerman warrior pushed me forward with a bit more strength than was needed, nearly making me trip.
"This offworlder claims his ship crashed on our world, and thus by law we remand him to your custody to decide his fate," the warrior stated.
"We accept this charge, and thank you for your continued duty in defending our world, hunters," the female that looked kind of like a cheetah stated, being a bit shorter but having a much more lean strength look to her overall. "May you wander well."
"And may you roost high," the warrior returned as he and his comrade put their right fists over their hearts and bowed a bit before walking off.
"So, what happens n-?" I tried to ask, only to be interrupted with a spear lightly pointed my way.
"Offworlder, you will not speak until such a time that you are allowed to during your meeting with the Margravine, mate of the Margrave," she simply stated. "Your case will be presented to her and you will defend yourself, with the result relying on her interpretations of the facts as they are presented to her. Know that if your claim of crashing is false, or that it has been the second time of such an event, your punishment will be fierce. It is recommended that you spend the time it takes for us to escort you to the palace to accumulate all information that you can to present to the Margravine so that a verdict is found swiftly. Now, let us depart."
Oh boy, my first trial…
Here I am hoping that it is also my last one, and not because I won't be around anymore to attend another one.