We also have a special guest-star from GTA over this time around. See if you can spot him.
Second Skin 5 : Homies
Mission had been true to her word. A few minutes after she had left, a member of the Hidden Beks had approached them and led T3, Shaya and Carth into a slightly less seedy part of the labyrinth of corridors to the Hidden Bek's stronghold. The stronghold was surprisingly pleasant, all things considering. Most of the Hidden Beks were aliens, and it was easy to see why Mission would be interested in joining : a great deal of the members were Twi'leks.
Shaya looked around. Many swoop-bikes were raised up on the benches being repaired and Shaya felt her hands itch when she saw one particularly damaged bike which seemed to have been fired upon from close range.
They had been told that the leader Gadon was otherwise engaged and than his right hand, Zhaerdre would be coming to speak to them soon. Most of the mechanics were too busy to talk to the three friends, but there was one odd fellow that didn't seem to be doing anything. He was thin, had several odd tattoos on his dark skin and generally looked ridiculous. Shaya noticed Carth tense when he approached them.
"Yo, yo, yo," the man greeted. "What up, dog?"
Carth and Shaya exchanged a look. "Uh," Carth was the first to speak. "Hello?"
The strange man wasn't deterred. "Wassup, homies? New to the hood, dogs?"
"Homies?" Carth wondered.
"Beep?" said T3.
Shaya raised an eyebrow. "You mean... the hood of a swoopbike?"
"What you talkin' 'bout, foo!" the man said. "You ain't no hooriders, are you?"
Carth and Shaya exchanged another look.
"If you're asking if we ride swoopbikes," Carth said. "We don't."
"No, no, no, you'se a foo fa sho!" the man continued. "You dogs holla at me?"
Shaya looked really confused now, and Carth frantically looked for an escape while T3 prepared his shock-arm, just to be on the safe side.
"What, you think you playa's, huh?!" the man challenged.
Shaya blinked. "No," she said, "my name is 'Shaya', not 'Playa'."
"Ya dogs be triflin' me, yo," the man said. "I am HB Loc, and I'm pure gansta, dogs! I'm straight, ya know what I'm sayin'? I live the rough street-life, dogs, you know what I'm sayin'? I have a blasta in every pocket, yo!"
"So... you're straight?" Carth said, repeating the only thing in the sentence that he actually understood.
"Straight fo sho, dog!" HB Loc said. "I ain't no phony, muthafu..."
T3 drove forward and interrupted, clearly having had enough of this whole conversation. "Beep-boop-deet-drrreeeeeettttt," he said.
HB Loc's lip trembled for a moment. "Ye better not be dissin' my sex-drive, you little bitch!" he directed at T3.
"BOOP!" T3 challenged.
"Cuz you can ask all the bitches here," he flailed his arms, "and they be tellin' you fo sho that HB LOC's been pleasin' their ho-bitch asses."
A female twi'lek had just rounded around the corner and roughly twisted HB Loc's arm behind his back. "Yes," she hissed, revealing her powerful voice. "Women really do enjoy being called 'bitches' and 'hos'. Not to mention having to endure you lying about sleeping with them."
"Zhaerdre, my dog," he grimaced. Then, Zhaerdre slammed him into a wall.
"Gavin, Greepo," she told a human and a Rodian standing nearby. "Take this fool back to his quarters and see he doesn't get out for at least a day."
As the two dragged the nearly crying HB Loc away, Zhaerdre turned to Shaya and Carth, who were more than a little confused over what had just happened. Zhaerdre was a large twi'lek woman with light skin. Her lekku had blue rings and pronounced purple tips, distracting from the hard look on her face. She bore herself as a leader, someone not to be messed with. "Sorry about that fool," Zhaerdre said. "He'll be better when he'd had his medication."
T3 chirped loudly.
"Sorry," Zhaerdre told T3 sheepishly. "Didn't mean to ignore you."
Carth stepped forward. "The reason we are here..."
"You are no doubt looking for the crashed pods, no?" Zhaerdre said. "Mission did not tell us, but why else would you go down to that wasteland? Mission did tell us you are okay, though, so I see no reason not to help you."
Carth nodded. Things were going better than he had hoped. "Any help you could give..."
"I'll do you this favor," Zhaerdre said. "And in return, you'll one day do a little favor for me."
Shaya looked slightly nervous. "That... sounds ominous."
"Take this keycard," Zhaerdre said. "And go to the elevator in sub-section 21-J of this building. It's unguarded and goes right to down to the surface of the planet. Just... be careful. Some rather powerful people are looking for the pods too, so be on your guard."
---
The elevator banked and screeched as it went down, letting the occupants know that this thing was hardly ever used.
"We should be careful," Carth said. "The Undercity is where all the poorest and most desperate people gather."
At that moment, the elevator stopped and gave way to a darkened expanse beyond. Shaya felt her boots crunch onto the soil beneath her feet. It was a odd feeling to be sure. After 2 years in space with only shore leave on space stations and crispy clean cities, she had forgotten what it was like to walk over a sandy pathway.
She looked up, and saw daylight. But it was more than 3 miles above her, a thin slit that barely cut through the dank, polluted air. It was hard to believe that any of the pods would have made it to the surface intact, but apparently they had.
"So," Shaya said. "I don't see anybody..."
As if on cue, a group of marauders jumped from their cover and ran up to the three friends, surrounding them swiftly before they could draw their weapons. Several ancient blasters as well as some spears were pointed at their throats.
Carth sighed. "You just had to open your mouth, didn't you?"
One of the marauders stepped forward. "We are taking you to our queen."
---
Carth, Shaya and a seriously pissed off T3 were being led towards a walled shanty-town just a few hundred meters away from the elevator. While starships soared above the city, men, women and children down here were eking out a meagre living in the squalid semi-darkness below.
They finally arrived to an alcove in the foundation of one of the large skyscrapers, covered by a cloth. In front of the cloth stood a throne made out of wicker. All the inhabitants of the shanty-town gathered to the throne.
"All hail our queen!" the same man who led their capture spoke.
The cloth parted, and out strutted a blonde smiling women wearing a pink robe. Behind her rolled an aged astromech droid... painted pink.
Shaya and Carth felt their jaws drop to the ground. "MARISU?!" they shouted at the same time.
"Oh, hi, guys," she chuckled. "Guess what? I just got a new job!"
"My queen," the man said. "We bring to you these captives."
"OOOH, captives, how exciting!" Marisu bubbled. "Where are they?"
"Uh, right here, my queen," the man said.
At that moment, T3 drove forward towards the pink T1. An odd sputtering, followed by steady bleeping came from T3's vocabulator.
Carth turned to Shaya. "What did T3 say to T1?"
Shaya colored a little. "Well, it roughly translates to 'What the **** happened to you?!', Carth."
"Well, guys," Marisu said. "When I crashed here, T1 and I ran around for a bit and..."
"Wait!" Carth said. "What about Bastila?!"
Marisu blinked. "Who's Bastila? Anyway, we talking about me."
"The pod, where is it? Did you take the black box?" Carth broke in.
Shaya broke in. "Carth. I've known Marisu longer than you have. You're lucky she can remember her own name."
"But she worked on the bridge!" Carth protested.
"As a navigator," Shaya said. "A trained Ewok could have done her job."
"Enough of this!" Carth protested. "Where is the black box?"
Marisu's response was predictable. "You've got a black what now?"
Carth groaned. "Could you at least tell me where I can find the pod?"
"Sure!" Marisu smiled and started to point all over the place. "It was over there... Or it could have been over there... Or over there... Hm, that spot there looks familiar... No, no, it was over there... Or was it?"
"Let me shoot her," Carth muttered, but Shaya pushed in front of him.
"Oh, hi Shaya, I didn't see you there," she giggled.
"How the hell did you become queen?" Shaya said.
"Funny story, actually," Marisu said. "I'll have Ryo tell it."
The man who had captured them spoke up. "We had found our queen with her droid as she had fallen from the sky, but our patrol was met with a cadre of Sith Troopers. Those devils have no regard for lives and their red clad leader wanted to kill up. Immediately, our brave queen stepped forward and demanded that they leave. The evil commander laughed and raised his blaster, only to be suddenly impaled by a vibroblade falling from the skies above! And then, as the confused troopers raised their weapons to mow us down, a huge fighter craft crashes right on top of them! Well, we could do nothing but crown her our queen after she showed these divine powers."
Carth turned to Shaya. Shaya avoided his eyes. "Uh... the Force did it?" she tried, while T3 seemed to let out an innocent whistle and equally avoided Carth's gaze.
Looking for an escape, Shaya turned to Ryo. "Uh, you don't seriously believe that she's some kind of divine being, do you?"
"Of course not," Ryo whispered. "We're not simpletons... but she seems to be expecting this from us and, well, good luck seems to be on her side, and we're hoping it'll rub off on us."
"Yeah!" Marisu jumped in. "Oh, and, uh, these people have this little prophecy, see? There's a datapad lying in those icky sewers over there between the mutants and the pig-people. Haven't gotten around to getting it yet, so if you would do it, that would be soooo cool! Now, I've got queening to do. Bbbyyyyeeeeee!"
Marisu twirled around and disappeared into the alcove, leaving her flabbergasted friends behind.
"How about that," Carth said.
"DRREEEEEEEPPPPP!" sounded from T3.
"I completely agree," Shaya added.
---
About two hours later, Carth and Shaya were walking through the badlands beyond the shanty-town, pounding the sand. Shaya was holding a small bleeping device and peered at it intently. T3 was trailing behind them, scanning the distance for potential threats. In between scanning, he bleeped what sounded like a merry tune.
"Hey, there's Mission's swoop-bike," Shaya said and pointed at the duel-seater swoop-bike parked at what looked like a sewer entrance. "I think she went down there."
"Good," Carth said. "Let her find that datapad. We're looking for pods."
"Lucky how Marisu took the locator beacon, ey?" Shaya winked at Carth. "With some work, I was bravely able to modify it to detect the other locator beacons on the pods. Aren't I clever?"
"You already told me this story ten times already," Carth sighed. "But it is clever. Where is the pod?"
"Bit to the north," Shaya said while she looked around and especially studies dark corners. Even though she pretended to be cool about it, there were some very strange sounds coming from the distance. Right now, she really missed her giant wrench... and had to settle for distracting small-talk.
"So, why are we here?" Shaya asked.
Carth blinked. "Have you even been paying attention as of late?"
"Not the pod... why did we get shot down? What were we doing here?" Shaya asked.
Carth held his blaster in hand and aimed at what turned out to be a harmless shadow. "Actually, we were on our way to Dantooine on a mission for the Jedi Council. Bastila came onboard with several other Jedi to be taken back to a secret Jedi Enclave. There was also something in the mission report about needing a skilled repair-team as well, so we were asked to leave a team behind on Dantooine. They didn't say what they needed repaired, though, but you how those Jedi tend to be secretive about their business."
"How'd we end up on Taris, then? It's a bit out of the way," Shaya asked.
"Mission from the Republic that came in while we were enroute," Carth said. "We were the only ship near the Taris blockade. They wanted us to jump in, do some quick scans, jump out before we were spotted and transmit what we picked up on the sensors. Unfortunately, we jumped right on top of a Sith patrol. Chance of 1 in a 100000."
"So we finally beat the odds," Shaya sighed. "The Endar Spire was well over 150 years old. It shook like a rattle when it came out of hyperspace. It's surprising she held on as look as she did in the battle."
"I was thinking about that," Carth said, while he and Shaya stepped over a sandy hillock while T3 drove around it. "The Endar Spire had been a border cutter for years, she wasn't fitted to be a warship. And, when Bastila requested to be brought to Dantooine, the Endar Spire was on the other side of the galaxy. There were dozens more ships docked in port that were much better armed and equipped, and yet she specifically asked for the Endar Spire. I wonder why... What's behind all this, I wonder."
"Don't ask me. They never told me anything other than 'Shaya, fix this', 'Shaya, fix that', 'Shaya, you're standing in the way, move now!' or 'Shaya, leave that wrench alone.'."
The device started beeping repeatedly and Shaya ran forward in excitement. The pod would be just around the corner. She skipped around a large crag of metal debris only to find... a bunch of thugs armed to the teeth, now pointing blasters at her. Shaya dropped the device and meekly raised her hands as Carth and T3 joined her.
They had walked to a small gate which was guarded. The pod lay in the distance, they were so close they could see it, but now with the weapons aimed at them, it might as well had been lying a thousand miles away.
"Stand down, apes," sounded a gruff voice coming from a muscular man. He wore a red combat-vest over a black, sleeveless shirt and metal boots. He was tall, and his hair was short and grey. The man also seemed to be looking right through them, and in his hands, he was carrying the biggest combat repeater-rifle Shaya had ever seen. It must have been very, very heavy, but the man seemed to wave it around as easily as a feather. "What are you doing down here?" he asked. "This isn't exactly a safe place."
"We need to get to that pod," Carth stated bluntly.
Immediately, the weapon was raised and aimed at Carth's throat. "I wouldn't," spoke the man.
"If you are a mercenary," Carth offered. "Perhaps we could offer you something to look the other way?"
"CARTH!" Shaya hissed. "The only money we have is mine, and it stays with the original owner!"
The man seemed amused. "Spending money that's not even yours? That's not very nice. Besides, I doubt you could afford my prices. The pod and everything in it was claimed by Davik, though it seems others have beaten us to the punch. Davik won't be pleased, but we managed to get a nice bit of salvage. And, no, you can't have any."
Shaya was transfixed by the weapon, however, not even paying attention to what was said around her. "You know," she told the man, "the weapon'd be more accurate if you reset that actuator next to the laserscope and adjust it about 4 millimeters."
The man fell silent, looked at his weapon and back at Shaya. He slowly nodded. "You're right..."
Carth shot Shaya a dirty look. Shaya, in turn, shrugged.
It was then that Carth noticed the tattoo on the man's arm. "You're a Mandalorian," he stated bluntly.
"And you both are with the Republic," the man allowed a grin to tug on the corners of his lip. "Don't bother denying it. First of all, you're looking for the pod, which had Republic markings on them, so they obviously came from a Republic ship. Secondly, the only ones stupid enough to look for them down here are us, and the dregs who live down here. You're too clean to be one of them, and you're obviously not one of us. Thirdly, and this is the most obvious reason, you have a top of the line Astromech following you around, and everyone who can afford one of those, doesn't need to scavange a pod. So, in conclusion, the only reason you'd be looking for these pods is because you were on the ship they came from... Looking for something? Or perhaps someone?"
"Ba..." Shaya started to say, but Carth shushed her quickly. Then, Carth shot a dirty look at T3.
"Deet," said T3.
"I thought so," the man grinned. "Anyway, you're free to look around. We've stripped the pod now anyway, though Davik won't get anything of value from it." He then addressed his men and barked at them to get their asses moving to get that salvage back to the elevator.
Just as the men moved out, Shaya turned towards the impressive leader. "Who are you, anyway?"
"Sometimes," he replied. "Some people are in need of crushing. I do the crushing for a reasonable price. Oh, and thank you for the tip. I'll look into it."
That said, the men moved out.
---
"We're sunk," Carth said and kicked at a pebble. "No more leads, the pod was completely stripped and out locator doesn't pick up any other pods."
"So, what now, Carth?" Shaya asked, while T3 drove next to her and scanned the area.
"Maybe we'll get lucky. I don't know anything else to do."
All of a sudden, T3 bleeped out a warning and drove straight ahead. There, around the corner, they found Mission Vao. The young Twi'lek has a nasty bruise in her face and one of her lekku had a deep and painful looking gash. Unlike her right one, her damaged left lekku hung limply across her back. Mission smiled weakly when she noticed who was running up to her, and then collapsed from exhaustion.
Next Tnt!
