Flying into Raxus Prime was not a pleasant experience, what with all the junk clogging up its orbit and floating around like the galaxy's worst chunky cloud. It was basically the worst possible example of a planet with Kessler syndrome, and it was only the tech level of the galaxy that even allowed ships to pass through the orbit full of debris at least semi-safely.
Not that there was very much pleasant about the planet that drew in many visitors.
I had visited dumping grounds like the Scraplands back on Ord Mantell and even a junk world with Bracca before, but while those places were bad they had nothing on this world. Raxus Prime was a truly all encompassing graveyard where quite literally everything was haphazardly dumped without a care in the world, unlike Bracca's at least somewhat organized chaos, piling up over literal millennia to cover up and poison what was, once upon a time, a beautiful world of lagoons and islands. Its previous stewardship under the Commerce Guild and Corporate Alliance most certainly didn't help things, and I had no doubt that all the trash that its more famous sister planet produced was most likely dumped here as well.
As we finally got through the almost solid film of space junk covering the world and got a closer look at the planet's surface as we flew over it… it was even worse than I first imagined.
The view from orbit was not pretty in the first place, the whole planetlooking diseased with its endless rusty browns broken up only occasionally by sickening yellowy-oranges and smog-filled clouds. It made me want to get a tetanus shot just looking at it for too long, even while wearing fully sealed armor, which I would most likely do anyway once I got back to Doc for a checkup.
Actually seeing the surface though… It looked like something out of some kind of feverish nightmare or dystopian novelpredicting a bleak future.
There was garbage, ancient and new, piled up so high and tightly it had become the landscape in of itself, all of it rusted down and breaking apart but still somehow stable enough to hold itself up unless someone touched it the wrong way. All of it was crisscrossed with actual and makeshift roads through the trash, with structures like bridges and such spanning over the literal lakes of toxic chemical run-off and rivers of used hyperdrive plasma even being made from the surrounding junk after being badly beaten and welded into place by the locals.
It was truly a place where nothing should be living, and yet people managed to eke out a living somehow.
Most of the local residents lived in a series of sealed environments near industrial facilities where they worked. Tunnels connected living areas with work bays, storage hangars, infrastructure units, and countless factories across the planet where they worked to break down garbage for its usable material to sell offworld as recycled metals, textiles, chemicals, starships, starship components, industrial machinery, raw materials, and whatever else they could squeeze out of whatever was piled up here for things the world couldn't provide, like fresh food and water. Of course, it went without saying that more garbage was left laying around than was recycled, and no effort was made to make said recycling an environmentally healthy process considering how fucked up the planet's environment already was.
These were the most organized and populated areas, but outside of those and living among the trash were large scavenger groups, jawa clans, and lots of junk droids.
Seriously, the number of droid communications and power signatures were too many to decipher or count, all left to rust and fend for themselves after being thrown away. It was almost like they were all trying to reach out for one another, searching for whatever comfort they could…
"This world… it is a corpse," Rowv commented as we flew around looking for a place that was clear enough to land, which was proving to be a challenge in of itself as we actively avoided the populated sealed environments. "And all that remains are maggots digging into its corpse."
"Poetic and fitting," I said as I flew the Y-Wing around, a trail of smoke coming from the damaged engine adding itself to the smog-ridden sky. "Gonna be hard to find a safe place to land, especially with all the unstable structures, toxic run-off, semi-active power generators, discarded military ordnance, and potentially violent scavengers and droids prowling around."
"Then we must make due with what we have," Rowv stated. "No doubt the Empire will be tracking our stolen vessel, so the longer we linger in this system the better their odds at tracking us down. We must jump somewhere safe as soon as possible before we are run down like injured prey."
She was right, especially since the Empire no doubt wanted to track down whoever blew up their base and got away with their uncooperative senator. As soon as they got their shit together they'd no doubt be searching the system once they figured out we didn't make the jump to hyperspace.
I needed to fix up the ship fast.
"Then I guess we can't be too picky," I grimaced as I started looking for any kind of landing spot that might hold their ship without completely giving way, which almost seemed impossible given the terrain.
Everything about the surface of this planet screamed safety hazards, even in the SWverse where they didn't believe in putting up guardrails anywhere.
Eventually I found an open spot that didn't look like it would collapse immediately if we landed on it, though there was a shudder through the hull and the rusty mountain groaned dangerously once we touched down, making me very nervous–I doubted we could remain parked on it for any length of time. Thanks to my armor, however, I could float and thus not worry about accidentally stepping the wrong way and causing the whole thing to collapse.
"Keep me covered with the turret and keep an eye out while I work at this thing," I told Rowv as I opened up the cockpit, once more glad my suit was sealed from the toxic environment around me, and brought out a small toolkit that was kept inside of it. "You never know if a scavenger or junk droid group might try their luck, to say nothing about possible Imperials."
"I will remain vigilant," Rowv nodded as I floated over to the still burning engine, quickly dousing it with the toolkit's small fire extinguisher and reducing it to just smoking. "How long will it take to repair the damage enough to jump to lightspeed?"
"I'll tell you when I get a look at the damage," I told her as I opened up a panel and waved the smoke away to get a better look at things. "Okay, bad but fixable so far, just have to check things out to make sure I don't miss anything that could cause us to explode if I don't catch it. I will try to get it done as fast as possible."
Of course, when dealing with starship engine repairs while on the run from the Empire, fast as possible usually wasn't fast enough.
"Ah shit," I commented as, after nearly an hour of taking out various engine pieces, fixing them up as best I could, checking over systems, and other work like that, I found a real problem.
"What is it?" Rowv asked curiously.
"The reactant injector is totally burned out," I explained as I pulled the ruined part out and looked it over. "Without it the engine we have left won't be able to produce enough thrust to get us to lightspeed and engage the hyperdrive, and I can't fix it. We need a replacement."
"Hmmm, I suppose then that there is an upside to landing upon a junk planet then," Rowv stated as she looked around us. "Surely there must be a decent replacement somewhere among all this refuse."
"My thoughts exactly," I nodded as I floated upwards. "I'm gonna look around and hopefully find something that can at least last for a jump or two. Stand guard in the meantime."
"I shall, and be careful out there," Rowv told me, to which I could only nod before floating off in a random direction.
Honestly, I just needed to be out of sight so I could use SFO to buy a used part and I can just say I found it. I just needed to give myself a little time to make it believable… and think about things a little bit.
Namely, about what I just did on Raxus in blowing that base to hell and killing who knows how many people.
It was easy to logic it away with the fact they were the enemy and that given the chance they would have happily killed us… but it was also hard to ignore how most if not all of them were mind-controlled child soldiers–thirteen to fourteen years old at most–who were only doing what they were doing cause they were trained and conditioned to do it since birth, knowing nothing else, and the one controlling them was the real evil person, not them. And I had killed them in a horrible way, not like there was a 'good' way to kill someone, and then used what were basically terror weapons against the survivors and those trying to help them, all for a tactical advantage. It arguably wasn't even required since I knew for a fact the Bad Batch canonically recused and got away with the senator, with much fewer casualties, but I couldn't rely on that being the case again since my very existence was already changing things and there was no telling how else things might change or were different than what I recalled since goodness knows there was more than just one version of the Star Wars universe. Therefore, it only made sense to act to stack the deck in our favor as much as possible using the abilities I had.
I was no Jedi, I wasn't obligated to preserve life wherever I could… but I still wanted to kill as little as possible if I could avoid it. I grew up being taught and believing that killing is always a horrible act, even if it was necessary for one reason or another, so I would much rather find ways outside of doing it if possible.
Naive, most likely, but I would rather live like that than become someone who viewed killing as normal or worse, started to enjoy it.
Sadly though, I knew the only way this galaxy would know some semblance of peace is if a lot of horrible and evil people were killed, and between me and them were a lot of people who likely didn't deserve death. And in this period of time, the clones certainly counted until I had the chance to limit their interaction and use by the Empire, ironically helped by said Empire phasing them out over the next few years, if not sooner. That was why I wanted to help Rex and the Clone Underground as it came about, and make sure it succeeded and survived for much longer than it did in canon.
However, until the inhibitor chips started breaking down I knew most clones were compelled to follow their orders and I couldn't save all of them, especially the ones that were shooting at me.
I could feel guilty, sad, and hate myself all I wanted for my actions, but at the same time I had to accept them. I would most likely become an awful person, if I wasn't already given who I regularly sold weapons to, in order to fight the Empire until I was strong enough to do more good than bad. I would make up for my actions wherever I could, attempting to save more lives than I took… and try not to let the faces and voices of those I did kill haunt my mind.
I had the unpleasant feeling that once I actually laid down my head at some point I would not be having pleasant dreams at all.
Still, I couldn't focus on that right now while we were still technically in enemy territory, so I got back to work trying to 'find' that replacement part, trying to take my mind off of it all.
I idly floated about the wrecks and pile of junk that looked like they were starships in another life, looking around but not really putting much work into finding a replacement part considering my access to SFO. Still though… It made one wonder the lives these ships lived before being brought here, the people they carried, the places they had been, the things they had experienced, and what finally brought them here to this undeserving end.
Not unlike the lives of those clones I took, when you thought about it…
I shook off the thought for now, but I was sure it would come back to haunt me later, and tried to think about something else that was important and that I could actually positively effect if I made the right choices.
There was a Jedi Master hiding out on this planet, or at least he was in another version of Star Wars, and based on what research I could do over the Holonet there was certainly overlap between Canon and Legends taking place, and even a few things I didn't recognize. Therefore, if he did exist and was current here, did I attempt to reach out to him?
As things stood, he was in hiding from the Empire after escaping Order 66, and while not the typical Jedi hiding spot, Raxus certainly wasn't a world most would think to search or successfully find a Jedi working hard not to be found. I also knew that, after spending over a decade on this junk-covered rock, he would become quite mad, building a replica of the Jedi Temple and filling it with junk statues of dead Jedi he would regularly talk to and puppet around with the Force. And he would protect it all with junk droids powered and controlled by the Force as well, most likely using the little-used mechu-deru ability that allowed Force users to manipulate technology to a crazy degree.
All of his actions stemmed from his survivor's guilt and feeling like he had failed the Jedi Order when he escaped the fall of the Temple and survived when so few others didn't, not helped by his self-imposed isolation and more than likely dipping into Dark Side a bit to cope. However, as it stands, it was earlier enough since the start of Order 66 it was quite possible he was relatively sane still.
If that was the case, I had a moral obligation to at least try and help him not fall into Dark Side induced madness and leave him to just rot among the rest of the garbage. It wouldn't be easy, but I felt like I had to try since having an honest to goodness Jedi Master out there instead of hiding out here would be a net good for the galaxy, I believe. Heck, I'd even invite him to join my crew since the man was a master technician and could likely keep my ship and droids in better condition than I ever could myself.
There were risks, naturally, since traveling with any Jedi meant having a much closer connection to the Force in general, for good and ill, and would be putting a huge target on all our backs by the Empire as they would try to hunt him down. Of course, after today, I felt like that was inevitable, even if said actions may not be directly linked to myself due to precautions taken, that was likely not going to be the case forever the more we fought the Empire.
And if you were fighting the Empire, it would be more useful to have a Jedi on your side than without one.
I was already here, more than likely due to the Force nudging things around, and doing nothing meant horrible things happening, so as I promised to myself back on Dantooine and reminded myself now, I had to try and do something right to make their galaxy just a little bit better.
Of course, then the question became just how did I track down a single being on a messy junk planet with no convenient junk temple to go to? One that was actively trying to hide themselves and in self-imposed exile for what they viewed was a failure to the Order they loved, even if their personality and teachings never allowed them to fully show it? It would be next to impossible to hunt him down… unless I had a means to get him to come to me?
As I browsed SFO to see if my idea was possible, idly floating among the trash piles, I soon made a purchase.
I had the means now, but the question is how to go about it? How did I explain things to Rowv? How would I convince the Jedi to come with us? Just how-?
"Nick! We've got a problem!" Rowv suddenly interrupted my thoughts as her voice came over my comms device. "We've got company…"
"Salvagers? Droids?" I asked in concern as I floated back to the ship, only to be startled as a Nu shuttle flew overhead in the direction of the ship… followed by several other ones with V-Wing support.
Oh shit!
"The Empire," Rowv corrected as I suddenly got low among some junk and hid myself as best I could, engaging my stealth field, as the shuttles circled around where I parked the ship and soon started landing, or at least getting low enough to drop off troopers, as the fighters patrolled the skies above. "I detected them with the ships' scanners and assumed they were merely on patrol at first, unless it showed them heading in this direction."
"Get out of there then!" I whisper-yelled into my helmet's comm device.
"I have already done so," Rowv assured me in a quiet voice, making me sigh in relief. "I am currently hidden among the nearby refuge, further hidden under the stealth field you gave me, though I admit I am uncomfortably close to the troopers, it is proving difficult to quietly move away in this terrain without potentially giving away my position."
"Just focus on staying hidden," I told her as I panicked a bit. "Shit, how did they find us so fast? I thought we at least had more time before-Fuck! I never checked to see if the starfighter we stole had an anti-theft homing beacon or something like that! They must have tracked us down that way, since it is the only thing that makes sense."
"We were in a hurry, and it is impossible to account for all conditions and situations on the battlefield," Rowv assured me. "The important thing now is to figure out what we must do next and how to go about seeing it done."
"Right… right, we need a new exit plan if they already have the ship," I muttered to myself as I tried to think up some ideas, but sadly most of them relied on using SFO and coming up with some lie that Rowv might find believable.
I'd rather not do so, but given the situation I might be forced to come clean with her, or at least give her some version of the truth that she'd believe. I'd have preferred at least going on a few more jobs with her before doing that to get her measure about whether or not she could be trusted, but I rather get us out of this alive more than anything else.
"Hmm, they are investigating the ship and are using some form of scanning device…" Rowv noted. "I do not like how it seems to be pointing more and more in my direction."
"Wait, what? How can they see through the cloak? Unless…" I thought out loud before a horrible realization came to mind. "Not good, they must have life-form scanners, and they can see through stealth fields if you don't have a jammer or other means of throwing them off."
"Then I must leave the area before I am detected…" Rowv stated before she paused. "Another has just stepped off one of the shuttles, and they are not like the other troopers."
"Huh? What do they look like?" I asked curiously, knowing that beyond the standard trooper that there were tons of specialized clone variants who did various kinds of jobs, or maybe it was an Imperial officer who was on the ground directly overseeing everything. That last one would be a surprise, however, since I doubted most would even like the idea of stepping onto a junk world.
"They are wearing all black, are helmeted, and have a cape hanging from their shoulders…" Rowv described, with each word filling my heart with dread as there were no good things in this universe that dress that way. "They walk like a predator… and my instincts scream that they are dangerous. They carry a circular weapon upon their side that I do not recognize."
The dread in my heart lessened a little bit at the fact it was not the worst possible case scenario, but it most certainly was not good either.
An Inquisitor had come to hunt us down.
The hell was a freaking Inquisitor doing here?! We had attacked the Raxus base only a few hours ago at most!
The only reason I could possibly come up with that made any sense of why they were here was that they had already been on Raxus for some other reason; maybe hunting down a hidden Jedi, hunting down any CIS holdouts on the planet, maybe retrieving a Force artifact, it didn't matter now! What mattered was that they were freaking here, and they were hunting us!
Unlike the Bad Batch, I had deliberately made a lot of noise on the planet while they got in and out as fast as possible, fleeing the system in their ship while we were stuck here in a bugged starfighter. It made sense to go after the easier to track down target, not that I was happy about the fact.
"Rowv, you need to run. Now," I said very seriously. "That person is most likely an Inquisitor, basically an evil Jedi who has none of the good parts about them and all of the bad. If those lifeform scanners don't track you down, they certainly will, and they are just as dangerous as a Jedi, if not more so. You need to move."
"Hmmm, I have heard tales of these ones, these Dar'jetii," Rowv said in a tone that sounded almost excited. "It would be a legendary experience to cross blades with one."
"Rowv! Don't!" I hissed in a combination of concern and frustration at the idea of this battle maniac actively seeking out a fight. "This isn't a fight we can win right now!"
"Fear not, my desire for glorious combat will not override my sense," Rowv assured me. "If this 'Inquisitor' was alone I would likely face them, but I doubt the honorless troopers would allow our duel to go on uninterrupted. I will get my chance another time."
I breathed a sigh of relief at those words.
"Okay, good," I stated. "Just get out of the area and we will find another way off the planet."
"Understood, I am making my way from-Ragh!" Rowv's words were cut off by a growl of surprise and a scarily familiar hum and crackling sound suddenly came over the line, followed by grunts of exertion and movement. "Forgive me, Nick, but I fear I have been discovered… and that combat is now the only option."
My blood ran cold at those words as Rowv kept speaking, but not to me.
"If you sought my head, Inquistor, you should have aimed your blade better when you threw it!" she roared as I heard her blades unsheathe and activate, transforming them into their whip forms once more. "A mistake I do not plan to make!"
I had no idea what was being said to Rowv right at that moment, all I could do was huddle in the junk as I started to hyper-ventilate.
"If you believe that I will tell you anything, Dar'jetii, you are as stupid as you are unskilled," Rowv taunted the Inquisitor. "On my honor, I would rather be subjected to death a thousand times before being declared a traitor! Especially by one such as yourself, for whom honor is a foreign concept. So do not waste any more time with words! Let us cross blades, and the victor be decided through a true test of skills and resolve! For the Ancestors!"
After that all I could hear was the clash of a lightsaber against Rowv's own magnetically suspended blades, followed by the occasional blaster fire as no doubt the troopers attempted to support the Inquisitor. Rowv was grunting and laughing, occasionally throwing out a barbed word or insult, not giving up for a second… all while I was hiding away like a coward.
I mean, what could I reasonably do right now? That was a freaking Inquistitor! A Dark Side Force user who could likely deal with most of what I could pull out right now unless I really took them off-guard!
I had enough money to at least try something, about 60k… but I was afraid if I did I could be killed, or worse.
I had more than one nightmare about the Empire, or more specially the Emperor, finding out out about my abilities, capturing me, torturing me, breaking my mind and will till then was nothing left, brainwashing me, and then turning me into basically an evil factory for their bidding to do all kinds of horrible things to the galaxy and the people in it. I obviously didn't want that and would do nearly anything to prevent it from happening… but would I abandon someone whom I was starting to call a friend to protect myself? Run away while someone who actively was working to protect me against a horrible foe?
I felt like I could, I was never someone who many would call brave, merely doing things in a way to limit the direct through to myself as much as I could, but I didn't want to. Because the second I did, I likely knew I would never stop running and could never expect myself to have anyone's back if they really needed it, nor receive the same in turn.
But what could I reasonably do to help Rowv without endangering her too? What reasonable ways I could actually fight a Force user weren't super precise weapons, and there was also the matter of the surrounding troopers and their air support to deal with. Even with the SFO, I was just one guy with limited options.
We needed help… and, despite everything, I think this person, more than anyone, would want to help.
I pulled out the device I bought with SFO and quickly activated it.
"This is Nick Claus sending out a Nine Thirteen Emergency to any Jedi in range! Repeat, a code Nine Thirteen Emergency," I spoke urgently into the Jedi beacon transceiver in my hand. "We are under attack by the Empire and a Dark Side user in their employ! My friend is holding them off and I plan to help them, but I don't think we can do it alone. Please, if anyone is out there… we need help."