Hi gang! Is this thing on? It’s been a while 😉 So yeah, I think it’s about time I plug where Kneelah’s look was born and that’s heroforge.com. I’ve created so many characters there and while it started out pretty damn good, they’ve added so much more customization and posing options there really is no limit! So no more having to Photoshop Kneelah’s nose to get that lovely aqualine shape, they’ve made it so you can adjust EVERYTHING so she now looks exactly how she always has in my head ^_^
I highly doubt HeroForge is ever going to get a Star Wars license, so I still of course have to mod those Mausers into DL-44s in Photoshop, but that’s easy peazy. Same goes for Twi’lek lekku, Nautolan head tentacles and that sort of thing. Same goes for Star Trek stuff. Nothing quite close enough to Andorian antennae to do the job and you have to be REALLY creative trying to make something look like a StarFleet uniform 😉
So for those who trudged through this blog, you may have noticed my little story petered out. Ep1 = The Plot Thickens! Ep13 = The Plot Thinnens! That being said, it’s a first draft and it’s got some meat on the bones for whatever I’m working on next. Writing for me has always been a challenge, at least when working on my own. I love creating as part of a group. Also, if looking back at all the MMORPGs I’ve played, I LOVE how things start. I am horrible at the ends. The endgame stuff sadly and often bores me to tears. The videogame ending I loved the most was Fallout 3. First time through, I was kind of grabbing whatever side quests I found along the way while slowly plugging away at the main quest, not realizing of course (WARNING: Spoiler for a 13yr old game!) that finishing the main quest, you sacrifice yourself to save the world. All those side quests you were gonna get around to? Too bad so sad! It was like SO REAL! So now of course, I pick through every grain of sand in those sandboxes. No stones unturned.
So yeah. I’ve got pretty much her whole background cooked up, I have the name of her mother’s Draenai/Thiefling species, ie: The Skraulox. Her father’s name is Darrben Bruntree and her mum is Oaddiba. I know her childhood, and I know why she fled to the stars.
So… here’s the thing. I love designing characters and ships. I’m just a bit rubbish at plots. I feel like I’m playing tennis by myself with no wall the bounce the ball off of. Next, I’m not Timothy Zahn nor Kevin J Anderson, so unless I find myself sitting beside a ranking Lucasfilm employee at a coffee shop and they just happen to look over at all the Kneelah and Pouncer stickers on my laptop with great curiousity, how do I get into the fold?
Friends have suggested going “Star Wars adjacent”, but I fear we need to wait for the stench of Zack Snyder having peed all over that part of the playground, draped in Warhammer 40K designs (except for the ships. Those were so boring they hurt my feelings. It was like they went to an AI image generator and just types “spaceship”). So yeah, that’s not an easy thing to do. While the part of the timeline I’m looking at (around Mandoverse time), the New Republic really doesn’t have the reach yet, and the Imperial remnant is off licking its wounds, so it leaves a lot of room for criminals and corporations (ie: white collar criminals) so there’s not a lot of specifically Star Wars stuff other than the alien species, the Banthas, the amazing droids and all that. So yeah. Not sure.
So I need a team. Or even just a writing partner. Some of my best writing IMHO was back in the 90s. I was part of a Star Trek email RPG. About 15 or so writers, between the ages of like 15 to 50. As you can imagine, the writing styles and ideas were kind of all over the map and I prided myself that I was somehow able to run the thread through all those needles. The main issue I have is having Kneelah and her crew be surprised by the machinations of the villains that I have written myself. For those of you who write by your onesies, I have NO clue how y’all do it. To me its witchcraft like crocheting and folding fitted sheets.
Heck, I even designed young 16yr old Kneelah as she looked when she fled to the stars and attempted to steal a gorgeous ship not knowing it was the property of a Nautolan pirate princess by the name of Black Betty.
The trick is to write something, ideally starting in media res as I like to do, inspired as I am by the great George Miller. Maybe a flashback here and there, but without giving too much away. Those who know me know I have a habit of telling people my entire life story. Sort of kills any mystery. So yeah, things to learn and figure out.
Hi gang! So, for those of you who’d been reading my story, alas I seem to have run out of steam as I refine some of the ideas about Kneelah and her adventures. Captain Novablade as we’ve come to know her was at her height between 5 and 0 BBY. she was involved on and off with the growing Rebel Alliance and even had been inspired by Sabine Wren’s Phoenix logo to wear it on her person. Recently I’ve had a chance to start playing her again in our weekly Star Wars RPG which the group decided to set around the time of The Mandalorian. Given the points we started off with, it wasn’t possible to build our seasoned captain, so I’ve had to reboot her as a young (like 21ish) wet behind the ears adventurer, looking to make her place in the galaxy. Sure she can shoot and fly like a pro, but she’s still got a lot to learn about the galaxy.
This gave me the opportunity to conjure up how she came to get her hands on her good ship Pouncer, a pre-Empire light freigther built by engineers from Corellia and Naboo. It was actually previously owned by a notorious, all black Nautolan pirate by the name of Black Betty. After stealing her second ship (not getting caught this time) she fled into space to start her life of adventure. After a variety of shenanigans, she wound up on Black Betty’s crew, with the tall, imposing and yet dangerously charming pirate taking a liking to the young scrapper and teaching her the ins and outs of spacefaring, smuggling and the odd foray into piracy. The thing about Black Betty is that she was extremely anti-authoritarian and anti-bourgeoisie and as such made it a habit of taking from the rich, and distributing to the poor and oppressed of the galaxy which inevitably brought her into alignment with the Rebellion against the growing oppression of the Empire.
Through Betty, Kneelah was introduced to all kinds of colourful characters in her teens, including Saw Guerrera. Sadly, Betty perished in battle in the closing days of the Empire, leaving the ship in the hands of the young woman who she had trained and developed a close, almost motherly relationship with. So in the game, that’s where we are. Will this affected the stories I write here? Maybe. I’m sort of torn between the (if I dare say so myself) awesome character of Black Betty I’ve cooked up, and my love for the pre BBY era. I shall have to work my noodle over this.
That being said, why this post? Well, here’s the thing. My curated Pinterest board often has me stumbling onto artists who’s works I really like. Sadly, when I reach out to them about commissions, almost all no longer do commissions, their time and energy swallowed up by whatever proper illustration work they’re now doing. So I post this blog with the images and design elements that came together to make up the look of our good captain.
While her look and style original gelled on heroforge.com, some elements such as her colour scheme only came together when I painted the printed miniatures, and details such as her horizontally slit pupils like a goat just were not possible to paint on teensy miniatures (hence why I am cooking up a 12″ doll!).
So in short, she’s human in overall appearance with tanned (think South American) skin, gazelle like horns and warm brown eyes with horizontal slit pupils. Not that you can know this from the art, but in the vein of characters such as Cassian Andor and the Martel Sisters, she speaks with a “Space Spanish” accent, often swearing or using terms of endearment from her mother (actually father?) tongue. Her father was human, while her mother, with horns, tail, cloven hooves and all is of a species I haven’t yet fleshed out or even named, but in my headcanon are descendants of a very Draenei (see World of Warcraft) type species who disappeared from the Star Wars galaxy in their trans dimensional crystal powered generation ship thousands of years ago.
So here’s hoping there are still artists on this planet who still do commissions and might be interested in giving Captain Kneelah Novablade a go 😉
And yes, either through boredom or just because I roll that way, I did indeed have a more (period?) pirate Kneelah printed ^_^
Tank wiped the sweat from his brow just as the next shift showed up. The group consisted of an Utai, two Aqualish, a young human woman and surprisingly a Wookiee. Despite his short stature, the Utai was clearly in charge. Kneelah approached him to give him the skinny on what they’d done. Tank finished filling in the work forms Kneelah had shown him on the data pad which Tank then handed to Kneelah who certified it with her thumb print before handing it over to the Utai as the rest of his crew laid down their tool boxes, pulling the tools they would need and securing them to their tool belts.
The young human woman was watching Tank with a smirk in her eye until he noticed and blushed. Save for a top knot of black hair, her head was shorn. Tank couldn’t help but notice that her tough appearance only added to her decently comely appearance and you could tell she knew it. She nodded to Tank with a wink so he nodded back. The Aqualish ignored them entirely, focused on their work. Kneelah was now conversing with the Wookiee in his native tongue. Tank thought Kneelah sounded funny growling and vocalizing in Shyriiwook, but the Wookiee seemed to understand and appreciate the effort. When she was done, she fist bumped him and gestured to Styx and Tank as she headed for the hatch.
“Now that makes me happy…” Kneelah said as they clambered down the steps of the excavator.
“What does?” Styx asked.
“Free Wookiee! He’s working to raise credits to free his family. I asked him if he worried about the Imperial presence here, but he says his whole company watch out for him to keep him safe. The Imps can’t be too happy about that!”
“It’s sick what the Empire and others have done to his people… Makes my blood boil!” Styx exclaimed.
“Me too!” Kneelah replied, “me too…”
“So what’s the plan?” Tank cut in.
“The plan is we go to the strategic office and I talk to them about some strange readings I saw on BX-180T’s scanners, see if we can go check it out.” Kneelah replied as they walked their way to the office.
“Actual strange readings?” Tank asked.
“Yup, the scans show what appear to be a system of caves. I’ve got the coordinates to the nearest opening.” said Kneelah, looking back over at Tank with a wink.
“Captain, look, I know you specifically picked this spot to work at… Are you saying what I think you’re saying? And if you are… why would they let an excav tech crew check it out?”
“Because Mister Tyko, Chief Desulu here isn’t just a spanner head, but a geologist too. And I’ve schooled enough in the subject to convince them that investigating this could save the operation a lot of time and coin.”
“I sure as Hell hope so!” Styx exclaimed with a chuckle. By this point they had reached the command hut.
“Just wait out here and let me work my magic”, Kneelah said with a wide grin, before spinning on her heel and heading into the hut. Styx rolled her eyes and planted her butt on the back of a hover cart. Tank just stood there, not too sure what to do with himself.
“So…” Tank started after a time had passed, “How well do you know the captain?” he asked.
Styx gave him a big smirk, which Tank was learning to read despite their breather masks, “Well I know she’s got a birthmark high up her inner thigh…”
“What? Wait.. no.. I.. that doesn’t mean anything!” Tank stammered and blushed deeply.
“I know kid, I’m just messing with you. I’ve known her since we were sixteen standard cycles. She’s put her neck on the line for me more times than I can count, and vice versa. We go way back.” Styx explained.
“And another thing,” she continued, “she might be able to singe the wings off a grid fly from across the room with those hand cannons, she’s useless up close. She might have a thick skull with those horns, but she’s got a glass jaw. I keep telling her to keep her guard up, but I’ve still had to carry her unconscious ass over my shoulder out of many a bar fight” Styx laughed. “It’s a good thing she fights dirty, like I taught her.”
“So.. how do you both wind up in so many fights?” Tank asked.
Styx laughed and shook her head then sighed, “Let’s just say… Kneelah is a little… anti-authoritarian, especially when there’s bullies involved. I once saw her pull some fool out of his speeder and headbutt him unconscious for knocking some lady over with his ride without a care. She’s a bit more careful about blending in these days, thank the Force.”
“Yeesh…” Tank said thoughfully, “I’m glad she’s on our side…”
“Of course she is Tank, you’re a good kid. Once she’s adopted you, and it looks she has has, tu estas familia. She’s big on justice and protecting and taking care of good people.” Styx said. Tank smiled at this and nodded, feeling somewhat reassured. Moments later, Kneelah stepped out of the office, clearly grinning widely with a twinkle in her eye and tossing a set of keys to Styx. Styx looked around, saw a hover truck and headed towards it. Kneelah pulled a box from the nearby shelves and handed it to Tank. “Ever do any spelunking Tyko?” She asked him.
“Whu…?” Tank replied, taking the box and looking confused.
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing dirty. I thought it was too when I first heard the term. The word used to make me giggle until I first did it. It’s not dirty at all. Just dangerous and scary,” she finished and grinned even wider before clambering into the truck that Styx had started.
Tank looked deflated. “Oh.. is that all…” he said, dumping the box into the back of the truck and climbing in after it. Kneelah flicked her finger forward and Styx stepped on the accelerator. While Tank had noticed what appeared to be forests in the distance from the upper decks of BX-180T, he couldn’t help but notice that the surrounding area was nothing but dirt and rock. This mystery was solved as they crested the next hill. The next valley was filled with impossibly high mounds of felled trees which had all been pulled out to make way for the strip miners. They were currently being cut down to size by droids, ready to be shipped and sold off world. The scope of this operation staggered them all with each discovery. It was hard not to let a feeling of dread seep into one’s bones.
After a while, they reached a more hilly area, and following the readings on Kneelah’s pad, they eventually came to the mouth of a cave.
Styx brought the truck to a halt and Kneelah hopped out, move to the back of the truck and opened the box. Inside was an array of climbing equipment, harnesses and four hard hats with attached lamps. While the helmets were quite large with adjustable straps to fit even Styx’s head, there was no way to fit the helmets over Kneelah’s large horns. She tossed hers back in the box, reaching deeper into it to find several hand torches. She clipped one to her harness.
“You all ready for this?” Kneelah asked, gesturing towards the mouth of the cave, from which billowed steam.
“No. But if this leads where I think it leads, the trip’ll be worth it,” Styx replied.
Tank was glad for their masks. He followed the two in…
Tank fiddled with and stared at the corporate ID on the lanyard around his neck as he and Styx followed Kneelah through the crowded station.
“Shouldn’t we know a thing or two about excavating equipment?” he asked the others.
“What makes you think I don’t?” Kneelah replied with a chuckle.
“I.. I dunno.. you just don’t seem the type?” Tank continued.
“Heh..” Kneelah smiled wide, but Tank could not see this behind her. “I was a student, young Tank. A student of archeology. You don’t think I’ve had to sabotage my fair share of excavators threatening our dig sites?”
Tank’s eyes went wide.
“Corporations and war machines don’t give a damn about history or culture if it stands in their way. We couldn’t stop them forever but when we were lucky, we could slow them down enough. Sometimes,” Kneelah continued as she signalled for a lift, “but not always, we managed to find what we sought by the skin of our teeth. Don’t worry Tank, I know those damn machines like the backs of my hands. Just follow my lead.”
Styx, who had remained silent during the exchange was just grinning broadly as she pulled the door of the freight elevator shut behind them. Surprisingly, they had the lift to themselves. Kneelah pressed one of the buttons.
“The only thing I don’t like,” Styx said her grin turning into a wry smirk, “is not having our weapons. If things get hairy, we’ll have to improvise…”
“I have the utmost faith in you both,” Kneelah smiled and flashed them a wink.
“Captain Desulu?” asked a loud abednedo over the din of crews gathering and loading themselves into empty ore haulers. Kneelah waved to him and she, Styx and Tank approached.
“That’s me,” Kneelah responded, jamming her gloved hands in the oversize pockets of her overalls and flexing her back.
“I’m impressed” said the abednedo, looking over her file. The tag on his own overalls bore the name ‘Book’. “You’re rated on better than we’ve got down there. It’s older equipment, but it’s tough and it’ll get the job done. We can make good use of you and… Lin, and Tyko?” he nodded to both of them, checking them off his list. “For all intents and purposes, we want as close to zero downtime as we can get. Something sounds or even looks like it’s breaking, you fix it before it does. This job pays well but that pay will be well earned. Get onboard and strap yourselves in.” The trio clambered aboard and strapped themselves in the free seats they could find. With a groan and a roar, the engines burst into life and the hauler rose up and made its way beyond the shield. The big planet below was messy greys and browns for all the dust in the atmosphere.
Tank was so lost in thought, watching Kneelah put on her respirator mask, to put on his own until Styx jabbed him in the side with her elbow. With a start, Tank slipped his mask on as the hauler settled down on the planet with a jarring clunk. The doors slid open causing a whirl of dust and smoke to enter the cabin. The large Abednedo stepped out first and bumped fists with an equally large Ithorian who oversaw the unloading of supplies and tools. Tank swallowed as he took in how tough or scrappy everyone looked. This was not a job for the delicate. Kneelah gestured for him and Styx to follow her to one of the transport trucks. Its repulsorlifts caused the surfaces of the puddles below it to vibrate.
At first, Kneelah was surprised to see how little Imperial presence there appeared to be, but on closer inspection they were there. Imperial officers, overseeing the civilian workers, a few stormtroopers here and there, and in the distance, through the smoke and pollution, she could vaguely see the lumbering forms of AT-AT’s. The transport they were on was open-sided with outward facing benches and bars for the passengers to hold on to, which Kneelah did as the truck took off with a lurch.
Huge excavating machines slowly clawed their way across the land, vomiting the toils of their labour onto the conveyors of equally large sifting and processing machines trundling along behind them. With all the noise, energy and pollution, the place felt like a war zone, the very air vibrated with the energy of it all, it got into your bones. The physical discomfort was matched with the gnawing horror of what the Empire was doing with all of this. Eventually the truck arrived at its destination and they and the rest of the crew dismounted, all eyes looking up at the excavator they had been tasked with overseeing. According to their work orders, this was BX-180T. Ancient and simple, it didn’t dream or think. It was designed and programmed to dig, and that’s what it did.
Kneelah nodded to Styx and Tank and they entered the excavator and made their way up to the control room. Kneelah flashed her badge at the two Gorn sitting at the piloting positions. BX-180T was doing all the driving. These guys were just here to react if anything went wrong. Kneelah moved towards the main console and cycled through the various menus. Everything looked good. Kneelah next brought up the map, showing the excavator’s programmed course. Zooming out she took note of several remaining topographical features that correlated with what she’d read about the lost tomb. Smiling behind her mask, she nodded quietly. After cycling through a few more screens, she turned off the display and nodded to her companions before heading out through one of the doors.
She led them down to one of the computer processor rooms. After taking some readings, she began pulling the dust filter panels and replacing them from the pack she’d brought with her. The work was tricky and sweaty, especially for Styx, given the tight confines. This is one job where Tank’s smaller form made things much easier. After getting that done and making sure all fasteners and connectors we nice and tight, Styx looked over at Kneelah. Kneelah noticed Styx when she paused to wipe the sweat from her brow with the kerchief she had loosely tied aroud her neck.
“We good?” Styx asked.
“We good.” Kneelah replied. Her grin was covered by her mask, but the glint in her eye was unmistakeable.
“Only nine more hours of this before next shift takes over!” Tank exclaimed with mock joy.
“A little work isn’t going to kill you Tank! Come on, let’s go check the hydraulics!”
“Hooray!” Tank laughed exasperatedly.
Styx clapped on on the shoulder, “Come on kid, just think of the end goal.”
Tank seemed to ponder for a moment then gave Styx a sober nod and a side glance before following Kneelah through the hatch.
“So why are we sto…” Styx started before stopping in her tracks, her eyes transfixed by the tactical display. “What the…” she continued, sitting in her seat as she took in the sheer amount of traffic surrounding Noma 316, her eyes scanning across the disturbing number of triangular shapes with tags starting with “ISD”. Kneelah looked like she was nursing a headache. She could practically hear the gears turning.
“How is this possible?” Styx asked, looking incredulous, “not one single person on Grissom mentioned ANYTHING about this!” Kneelah was rubbing her chin, doing her best to look composed despite her grim realizations.
“When you’ve got a good thing going, it only takes so many firing squads before people learn to keep their mouths shut…”
“Look,” Styx started, “I know you don’t like the Imps, but seriously? What the Hell?”
“First the magnetite crystals on QD4657, now they’ve taken over all mining on Noma 316 and they look like they’re stripping the planet to its bones to do it. The Empire is building something… something big. I can’t even wrap my mind around it. And the inhabitants of Grissom don’t mention a damn thing? People bitch.. it’s what they do. But they didn’t…” Kneelah mused.
“So… What now?” Styx asked.
Kneelah’s eyes darted to meet Styx’s and she met her gaze with a wry smile.
“Easy,” she said, “we let the Rebellion know when get back to our corner of the galaxy… After we get our treasure…”
Styx’s eyes went wide. “How the heck are we going to do that?? We can’t just fly in there!”
“Right you are,” Kneelah replied. “Give me a couple of hours and I’ll make our wildest dreams come true!” she sang getting to her feet and making her way to her comp. Styx still looked shocked. “Oh?” she asked , “which dreams were those?”
“We’re going to join the mining guild as civilian contractors, specialized in excavator maintenance!” Kneelah replied.
“Um…” Tank’s voice drifted out from his quarters, “I don’t think that’s one of my wildest dreams?”
“Quiet! After a bit of subterfuge, we’ll be treasure hunting. All the outbound haulers are strictly imperial military, but there’s a lot of clunky old birds flying down from the main fueling station. They’re having to use civilian miners to maintain the output they’re looking for. We’re going to join one of the crews.”
A few hours later, Violetta was closing in on the large refuelling station. A great many ships were making their way between the station and the planet and back, and for the large Imperial cargo ships, between the station, and wherever those minerals were ultimately going. The heavy Imperial presence was unsettling to say the least.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Styx asked, stepping into the cockpit. Kneelah glanced at Styx over her shoulder, amidst monitoring all of her instruments and the view out the cockpit.
“Eh… pretty sure mi amor!” Kneelah replied with a grin and a chuckle, earning a grimace from Styx.
“And what about your shiny antique ride?” Styx continued, taking her seat.
“Actually…” Kneelah started but paused to flip a few switches, “Not worried. CX46Bs were used extensively by the people of Naboo to shuttle miners and equipment to and from Naboo’s mining colonies before the CloneWars. These days civilian mining outfits have a habit of putting a portion of their extensive earnings to score rides like Violetta. It’s a badge of pride. I’m sure we won’t be the only one there.”
“Heh… Well I’m sure we’ll be the only ones with this much hidden armament!” Styx quipped.
Kneelah raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. “I sure as heck hope so… At any rate, you know she can wear a disguise better than most of us!”
Just then a voice broke over the comm.
“Bouncing… Bantha? This it Tetryl station, we’ve got you on approach. Stick to corridor D6 and set down on pad 48. Please stick to D6 as best you can, we’ve got a heck of a lot of traffic around here.”
“Yeah,” Kneelah said, thumbing the comm button, “I’d noticed. Quite the operation you’ve got going on here. Heard you’ve got room for some Excav experts down there?”
“That’s an affirmative,” replied the controller, “everything we can do to keep the wheel of the great Imperial machine well oiled and turning.” Kneelah could practically see the sneer on the controller’s face as he delivered that last bit.
“All hail the Empire!” Kneelah replied, rolling her eyes. “D6, pad 48. We’re locked in.”
“Good,” replied the controller, “fly safe.” The channel clicked shut.
“Bouncing Bantha?” Styx laughed as she stood up. “I’m starting to agree with Odee. You’re horrible at naming ships…” she said, stepping halfway through the hatch before pausing to lean back in. “But Violetta has a nice ring to it,” she said sweetly with a wink, “so you’re not completely hopeless,” she finished with a chuckle, continuing into the lounge.
With the ship powered down, Kneelah zipped up her nondescript coveralls. Her’s, as well as those of Styx and Tank had name patches and the TerraCron logo she’d whipped up over the past few hours. Their tags read “Desulu”, “Lin” and “Tyko” respectively. Looking very working class, with their big clunky boots, gloves and tool belts, they stepped down Violetta’s ramp.
Kneelah turned and gave Odee a salute and the little droid retracted the ramp and shut the doors closed with a clang.
As they made their way to the station’s massive central corridor on this level, it was clear that for all of the ships in the space surrounding the station, there were even more bodies milling through the station, taking care of business, and a great deal of Imperial officers and even more stormtroopers, making sure everyone was taking care of business. . There were no tourists here, only a ton of beings and droids looking to make some decent coin stripping a planet for the Empire. Kneelah and Styx walked side by side with Tank bringing up the rear.
After following a few signs, Kneelah brought them to the work office where they took their place at the back of the longish queue. While Kneelah was sure NDAs would be in full effect over this operation, well paying, legal jobs of this magnitude would have similar results to the firing squads on Grissom in terms of keeping people quiet. For all the people here, no one wanted their slice of the pie to be any smaller. Eventually, they made it to the head of the queue.
“Flora Desulu and co., please step up!” called the voice from the next available counter.
Now would be the test on the hacked chain codes Kneelah had prepared for them…
The positioning thrusters puffed as Styx eased Violetta back into the docking bay of the remains of a large hulk that had been destroyed ages ago, possibly due to collision with something large, like a Purrgil. The large spacefaring creatures could often spell disaster for ships existing or entering hyperspace as they swam through the void in search of food. The hulk had been picked clean of anything of value by scavengers and was nothing but a husk now, but one that provided a handy hiding spot for anyone looking to lay low. She set down and powered down everything but minimum life support and lighting and pulled herself our of the pilot’s chair and made her way back to the lounge.
Kneelah, still heavilly bruised, but looking a lot better than she had after 6 hours of rest and bacta spray, looked like she was trying to sit up. Styx smiled and shook her head and gently placed one hand on Kneelah’s forehead. “Oh no you don’t little one. We’re safe. You can rest.” Styx said softly to her.
Tank was busy checking Kneelah’s bandages and scanning her. “Hunh…” he muttered and nodded as he read the output. Kneelah looked at both and tilted her head. Doing so was a little stiff, but she was already feeling remarkably better. Tank, satisfied with his ministrations put away his tools and supplies for now. After having done so, he swivelled back around on the low stool he was sitting on.
“So…” he started, “what did you do to that droid?”
Kneelah grimaced as she attempted a chuckle, “To him? Nothing… but I did blast the bounty puck he was staring at, with my name and face on it… Might not have been the smartest thing to do, but I wanted as few people people as possible to see my mug floating over that puck. There was a Rodian too. I hit her a couple of times, I don’t know how much damage I did. If she made it, she’s gonna be looking to get some help.” Tank looked unpleased and pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“That… fills me with calm reassurance…” Tank said doubtfully, as though questioning his choice of ride. Kneelah darted her eyes to meet Styx’s who nodded and she pulled herself up into a seated position. Again, stiff, but not so much pain.
“How much do you know about Hutts?” she asked Tank.
“Same as most, they’re big, they’re crooked and they’ll do just about anything to win.” he answered.
“And most of the successful ones are rich and powerful because of it. How much do you know about ancient Hutts?” she asked. Tank just gave her a wide eyed shrug and shook his head.
“In the old days,” Kneelah continued, “the slimy bastards had themselves buried with their riches, locked away forever.”
“Ok…” Tank offered, waiting for more.
“What would you say if we told you that we had found the key to one of these tombs, specifically that of Dorgon Desadii Miore…” Kneelah finished. Tank looked mildly shocked.
“So…” he began, “we’re going after buried treasure??” Kneelah and Styx both smiled widely and nodded ferociously before breaking into laughter. Tank still looked shocked.
“You’ve done this sort of thing before then?” Tank asked.
Kneelah swung her legs down off the bench earning her a dirty look from Styx which she ignored. She grinned at Tank with a tilt of her head as she stood up. “This ain’t my first rodeo kid.” She stumbled a wee bit but kept her footing. “Now let’s have a look at this book you’ve found”, she said, taking hold of the satchel Tank had brought aboard and plunked it on her sabacc table, taking her regular seat.
She unlatched the satchel and pulled out a massive tome. Opening it, she flipped through the pages with a slow whistle. Wow…” she said. There were timelines, star charts, many cataloguing entries of local flora and fauna. If they were going to find references to their tomb anywhere, it would be in here. Styx and Tank joined her at the table. Kneelah flipped to the index at the back and drew her finger down the names there.
“So we’ve got Hutt bounties on us?” Tank asked.
“No,” Kneelah replied, “Just me. Primarily me anyway, I was the one who blew up Xenon the Hutt.”
One of Tank’s eyebrows shot up. “Blew up…?” he asked.
“Yeah, Hutt digestive systems can’t process armed thermal detonators. Who knew?” Kneelah said while Styx laughed for a moment then sobered.
“Although they may have a lock on me from when we visited the Hutt temple” Styx said. Kneelah sighed and looked sad.
“Oh come on!” Styx exclaimed, “you never would have gotten out of there alive if it wasn’t for me! Anyway, I knew what I was getting into. It’s worth it if we can score this.”
Kneelah sighed again and smiled at her friend. Tank still had a quizzical look on his face.
“So how to you fund these jobs anyway?” Tank asked.
“Like I said kiddo, this isn’t my first rodeo” Kneelah replied with a wink, looking back at the index with a start, then flipping the section indicated. “I think we’ve got it!” she exclaimed, “the biggest solid planet in the system is named Noma 316, it’s a mining planet, but it was originally an abandoned Hutt world by the name of Nal Gozza.”
“Why was it abandoned?” Styx asked, leaning over the book.
“Seems there was a lot of volcanic activity back in the days of Hutt control. When the big one, mount Gozza exploded, the intense heat turned all of the inhabitants of the main city to ash and the ensuing conditions and toxic gasses made the planet uninhabitable for a thousand years. Warning beacons were set up on all the local nav sats. Things had already been settling for some time and the atmosphere had been starting to clear when the new colonizers of this system came across it. The new colonizers have been terraforming it ever since due to the large mineral deposits found on the planet.” Kneelah read. “And yes, there is record of half buried Hutt structures still in existence.”
“Maybe we can find another temple that will pinpoint the way?” Styx asked.
“I hope so mi amor… I hope so” Kneelah replied and closed the book, getting up from the table.
As she slowly and gingerly made her way to the cockpit, OD-P3 nudged her. She turned around and crouched beside her little droid.
“I’m ok Odee, I promise. What do you think of our new doctor?” Kneelah asked gently. Odee replied in a series of chirps and beeps. “Yes,” Kneelah continued, “he’s growing on me too. I’m glad you and Styx are getting along too. She’s important to me”. Odee chirped in agreement. Kneelah gently tapped Odee’s head and got back to her feet.
“Already Styx! Let’s see where you’ve hidden us!” she called back as she stepped into the cockpit. The bruises on her shoulder and neck were already starting to fade.
As the flames of reentry abated, they were greeted with a dazzling blue sky and sparkling ocean waters. After descending to a low enough altitude, Kneelah depressurized the hull, and she and Styx pulled the side windows open. They could smell the salt in the air. Gazing down to the water, they were surprised to see that almost all of the sleek vessels, large and small were under sail power. The larger fishing vessels circled as they collected their nets and the fishy bounties therein. As they passed by small islands, the stone and wooden structures looked well built but quaint.
“Wow!” exclaimed Tank, staring out the side window. “I feel like I’m watching a historical reenactment!”
“Look ahead,” Kneelah countered, just as Tank looked up to see a massive star port, perched above the ocean on tall, thick metal pylons. While large freighters were landing and taking off from the platforms up top, a fishing town had been built around the structure’s pylons, with warehouses, piers and no doubt a large market and a decent watering hole or two. Kneelah circled the platform while working out landing arrangements with the tower. As they had approached the planet, they’d been able to access their communications satellites to discover that this world was named Grissom. Kneelah setlled Violetta down on one of the platforms.
As they stepped out onto the platform, Tank yawned and stretched. “Fresh sea air! I haven’t breathed this stuff since I was little!” he exclaimed. Kneelah and and Styx exchanged glances and chuckled silently. If nothing else, the kid was cute. Hopefully he’d pull his weight when things heated up. Kneelah blew a kiss to Odee who chirped and closed up the rear doors.
“Alright gang, you know what we’re looking for. Libraries, tourist stations, cantinas, whatever. We’ll meet back here in a hour.” Kneelah said, opening the cargo elevator door and ushering them inside. When they got down to the bottom, Kneelah reached into her backpack and pulled out a small holdout blaster and handed it to Tank.
“Ever use one of these?” Kneelah asked him.
“I try not to…” Tank replied with an unpleased look.
“Well hopefully you won’t have to. I think the local library is the safest bet for you.” She offered. Tank smiled at this and nodded.
“Ok kids! See you soon!” Kneelah exclaimed and waved over her shoulder at them as she walked away.
“Yes mom!” Styx laughed. “Be careful kid,” she said to Tank, raising two fingers to her head and giving him a dismissive salute. They parted ways.
The first thing that Kneelah discovered was that the locals didn’t speak any language Kneelah was familar with, which had surprised her. Luckily she’d been able to locate an interpreter droid who was more than willing to help. Furthermore, most locals hadn’t been offworld. They knew enough of the stars and worlds in their solar system to navigate by.
She also learned the reason for their reliance on “primitive” technology. Initially, the colonizers were rather careless in how they plundered the planet’s resources and the industrialization had wrecked havoc on the water and the air. The planet’s native population had taken offence to the colonizer’s apparent laziness in relying on pollutant technology and the Arrokwae vowed to hunt down and kill every colonizer if they did not seek to find balance with the planet’s ecosystem.
Laws were put in place to limit the frequency of fishing, and to seek more environmentally friendly transport for everything save for the space traffic servicing the station. In time, the balance was found and even the limited fishing still produced more than enough to keep the economy going. It all sounded too good to be true, but Kneelah couldn’t figure out how it might be so. Perhaps it was the extremely harsh punishments for breaking those laws. In the long run, peace and playing by the rules had somehow worked for these people.
Then again, the rules only applied to fishing and the environment. For the rest, people were people and passions could and would lead people astray. Kneelah was just thinking this as she passed a terraced drinking establishment on which an armed female rodian and a massive binary load lifting droid hunched over a small table on which sat something that made Kneelah’s blood run cold.
It was a bounty puck with a holo of her slowly rotating over it. Kneelah didn’t even think, she quickdrew one of her blasters and vaporized the puck, but it was too late, the pair had already studied it and it didn’t take much brains to figure out who would blast a bounty puck.
The Rodian pulled her own blasters and fired back, hitting way too close. Kneelah felt the heat of the bolts fly past her. The translator was blasted to pieces. Kneelah fired back, getting the Rodian in the right shoulder and left side. That should slow her down if not take her out Kneelah thought to herself just as the droid stomped to its feet, smashing the wooden table in the process and began charging towards her. Kneelah rapid fired but the bolts did nothing. The droid was crashing through carts and stalls like they weren’t there. Kneelah swallowed hard and took off in the other direction.
She dodged, darted around and scrambled over everything in the path, all the while the she could hear the sounds of a run away conveyex smashing its way towards her. She spun around and slid to a halt, firing back to dislodge a couple of awnings which fell on the droid as she quickly sped down a side alley. The sound of continued smashing dissuaded her from looking back. She saw an open warehouse door and darted inside, scrabbling up the loaded pallets, climbing up into the overhead catwalks. She ducked down and took a moment to catch her breath. She noticed a large metal crate suspended by the overhead gantry crane, just inside the doors. By her calculations she was reasonably close to the cargo elevator to the platforms above, but that wouldn’t do much good if she got herself trapped and killed in here.
The droid had slowed but she could hear its heavy foot falls outside. She could see it ouside, looking around, but Kneelah had unknowingly headed down a dead end and this warehouse was the only one with an open door. While most binary load lifters were very simple droids that had a habit of sometimes going berserk if they weren’t regularly memory wiped, this one was different. It hadn’t been wiped in a long time and had developed skills to focus its destructive tendencies. This thing was a hunter… a killer. Kneelah could tell. The few workers who had heard the sounds of Kneelah’s movements had come to investigate but when they saw the droid they tried as best they could do distance themselves nonchalantly. The droid was scanning all of them. It walked in as it did so and was just deciding to look up to the catwalks as Kneelah fired both blasters at the hook holding the crate up. It gave way and the apparently very heavy crate crashed down onto the large droid.
Kneelah wasted no time racing over the skylight and slipping through it. She ran a distance from the opening and stopped to get her bearings. Just then a clattering smash was heard as the droid erupted mostly through the skylight opening. “Oh Poodoo!” Kneelah exclaimed and turned to run but she slipped on the angled roof. She caught herself to leap forward but it was too late. The blow to her shoulder was like being hit by a truck. Pain flared through her like an explosion. She barely managed to roll out of the way as its other fist smashed a crater into the plasteel roof. She tried to dart away again but it grabbed her by the boot and picked her up then smashed her into one of the roof mounted cooling ducts. Her vision had gone red, everything was throbbing with pain.
She was having trouble focusing on the droid who was raising both fists to smash her into eternity. Over the ringing in her ears, she heard a noise like a blaster shot as a tiny bolt pinged off the monster’s head. It paused and looked in the direction of the shot just as a flurry of heavy blaster bolts took it from the other side. Kneelah watched it stagger through closing eyes. Blazing red holes were forming in its body and actuators in its neck and arms blazed hot and failed under the onslaught. Kneelah was vaguely aware of the loud crash of it falling beside her.
Some time later, she began to come to.
“Captain? You still in there?” Tank asked as he sprayed her shoulder with bacta. Her nose tickled, the after effects of a nasal spray to wake her up and collect her thoughts. She tried to move but the pain was still too much. The fallen droid was being picked over by several local security officers, one of whom was inspecting a heavy blaster rifle. Suddenly a shadow fell over her as Styx knelt over her.
“Hey pretty lady, you come here often?” Styx asked with a smile, brushing Kneelah’s hair away from her face. Kneelah tried to laugh but coughed.
“Never this time of year…” she croaked. She looked over at the officer with the heavy repeating blaster and gestured feebly with her chin. “Did he…?”
“No,” Styx replied with a grin, “I yelled ‘rogue lifter!’ at him as I yoinked his rifle away. He was so stunned I was halfway up the ladder to the roof before he could call out to his buddies. They managed to get a few shots in on the droid, but that was mostly me and the kid.”
“That droid did a number on you Captain, broken shoulder, three broken ribs, one sprained ankle. The spray will help but I can do more on the ship.” Tank explained. “We’ll need to wait a few minutes for the bacta to at least knit your bones enough to move you.”
“That’s ok… I’m not in a rush. Did you find anything?” Kneelah asked. Tank smiled and nodded but said no more, especially in the presence of the security agents. The kid was learning fast. Kneelah smiled back.
One of the officers walked over and addressed them in his language. Styx gave him a lost expression and shrugged. He switched to heavily accented basic. “You kids going to be ok?” he asked. He looked like he wanted to say more, but there was no denying that Styx’s speed and initiative had saved the day. Styx smiled and nodded at him. Kneelah knew that without the bounty puck, nor the Rodian who would have disappeared if she was smart, there was no way of knowing this was anything more than your standard cross-wired load lifter. Most such droids were carefully controlled by their masters with restraining bolts. It would take a while to trace this one’s history.
With the help of some bandages and the bacta spray, Styx was able lift up Kneelah without further damaging her. The officer made sure they could get down and on their way after Styx had repeatedly motioned and said “No medics!” and explained that Kneelah had severe social anxiety and couldn’t handle strangers. While the two younger officers nodded while clearly not having a clue what she’d said, the older officer gave her a momentarily incredulous look and a sigh then nodded. The officers would have to stay here. There were reports to fill out.
Back on the ship, Tank and Styx had propped up Kneelah in her bunk so Tank could work his magic. Styx and Odee were outside doing an exhaustive scan for tracking beacons. As far as they could tell, there were none. If the Rodian survived, she’d be wanting to rethink her plans after almost getting killed by her mark.
“So?” Kneelah asked, looking quite happy. The drugs were clearly doing their thing.
“Oh right!” Tank exclaimed excitedly. He reached into his pack out pulled out a thick, printed tome. Kneelah’s eyebrows shot up.
“This is a history of the colonization, not just of this planet, but of this system! It’s so old it’s in written form! I was blown away!” Tank explained. Kneelah tried to sit up but thought better of it.
“Holy heck kid, you did good!” Kneelah said slowly, still fairly stoned. “I’m glad you decided to hitch a ride with us…”
“Me too captain. I still don’t know what this is all about, but I’ve got a good feeling about this,” Tank said, helping her with the straw for the hydration pack. The IV was helping with that, but he could tell she was parched. Styx and Odee made their way back inside. Styx approached and put her hand on her forehead. It was nice and cool.
“You do good work Tank, I’m grateful for you,” she said and clapped his should with her other right hand. “Ok kids, time to go!”
“Yes mommy!” Kneelah and Tank replied in unison. Styx laughed and made her way to the cockpit, followed by Odee. Soon the familiar sound and thrum of the engines spooled up. Kneelah closed her eyes and relaxed even more.
“So.. how come you didn’t give me a harder time?” Tank asked nervously, leaning against the bulkhead as Kneelah took readings from the fuel tanks.
“Because I’ve been where you are now kid. I was lucky enough to to be welcomed by trusting spacers. That’s how I got my wings, so I’m paying it forward. To you,” replied Kneelah, focused on the instruments. “And besides, Odee doesn’t sleep, and she doesn’t trust you… yet.” she grinnned. “So I’m not worried.”
“You’re going to slingshot around that black hole, aren’t you?” Tank asked.
“Got it in one kid,” she said, finishing with the scan, seemingly satisfied and turning to face him with a smile. “Eyer is used for that. Legend has it, the black hole and this facility were named after the explorer who found it. Black holes have gravity, even in hyperspace, so if you’re careful, you can use them as a shortcut.” Kneelah explained, heading to the ship’s lounge. Tank followed. In there, Styx was stretched out on one of the benches, reading from a data pad.
“Ok gang,” Kneelah announced, “get ready for take off.”
“Do I get to know where we’re going?” Tank asked. Kneelah looked back at him and tilted her head with a smirk.
“Nope. Not yet…” she replied and spun on her heel and headed into the cockpit.
“You’ve got a nice place to live,” Styx interjected, “as long as you pull your weight and keep me and the captain patched up. You’ll barely notice that we being hunted.” she finished nonchalantly and followed Kneelah into the cockpit.
“Oh… That’s good,” pondered Tank for a moment, “wait… WHAT??” and chased after them. He skidded to a halt resting his hands on both their seats as Violetta lifted off.
Kneelah and Styx looked back at him. “Hutt clans,” they replied in stereo as Kneelah slipped her headset on as a call came in.
“Captain Novablade,” Rassk hissed, “pleasure running into you my dear!”
“Yes Rassk, was great seeing you too. We’ll have to do that again. And if you find us another good score, please let me know.” Kneelah replied.
“Eat the rich!” Rassk exclaimed.
“And feed the poor! Hell ya!” Kneelah chimed.
“Tell that little droid of yours that I think ‘Pouncer’ is a better name for your ship too. I’ve been teasing Pip ever since this morning” Rassk laughed.
“I’d tell her, but as usual she’s already listening” Kneelah replied. Odee let out a series of purrs and beeps.
“Stay safe little one, and take care of your master for me. You too Styx, was great seeing you. Rassk out.”
Violetta headed out, perpendicularly to black hole. Tank was silent for a bit, looking behind him to find a chair to park himself in.
“Was that… Captain Rassk… the pirate?” he asked nervously.
Kneelah and Odee were furiously making minute adjustments to the hyperspace trajectory as data from the navicomputer came across their screens. “Maybe…” she said without turning back.
“You keep some interesting company Captain…” Tank said.
Kneelah chuckled to herself. “I think you’ll find I can get along with just about anyone with a heart and a sense of humour kid. Although bullies and oppressors better beware.” Styx made eye contact with Tank and nodded.
“Are we ready?” Kneelah asked, her hand resting on the hyperdrive levers. Styx gestured forward with her finger. “Punch it!” she exclaimed as Kneelah shoved the levers forward and the stars raced around them and were replaced with the blue swirls of hyperspace.
Some planets don’t even have a name. QD4657 was the tag it had on the star charts, and as far as most knew its greatest import was as something to avoid when making hyperspace jumps. In physical space it was a dead ball of dust dunes and salt flats. While almost all native life had died off centuries ago when the planet had been knocked out of its orbit and now orbited much closer to its star, straight rutted tracks across some of the flats indicated that some in system lunatics had attempted landspeed records there decades ago. It had been deserted since.
Which made it all the more surprising when they saw massive AT-AT’s in the distance. They had been assembled into parts of massive mining equipment. The Empire was strip mining here, but for what? Kneelah kept their distance and set down on a rocky plateau some distance away.
“What the heck was that all about?” Styx asked, clambering out of the dorsal hatch after Kneelah who was standing on top of the hull, scanning the distance with her macro binoculars. “Salt?” she continued.
“No,” Kneelah answered, still staring through the nocs, “salt they could get or produce just about anywhere. Besides, I can’t imagine what they’d need that much for anyway. There has to be something else in the ground.”
“Do you really need to know?” Styx asked, “or put more bluntly, can we really afford to risk any Imperial interest?”
Kneelah sighed deeply, silently fighting her innate curiosity. “I guess not… That’s going to drive me crazy though…”
“That’s not a long drive,” Styx smiled widely at her friend. Kneelah smiled back and tossed her the nocs. “According to calculations, we’ve got a few more hours before the sun goes down so you can get to work, so relax for now,” Styx said.
They set up deck chairs on top of the fuselage and hunkered down, soaking in the last rays of the setting sun. As the sky darkened and the stars began to appear, Kneelah rapped on the hull with her knuckles and moments later, Odee rocketed out of the hatch, landed and rolled over beside Kneelah.
“Come on old girl, let’s see how close we’ve gotten,” Kneelah asked Odee, who projected the star chart taken from the temple. She rotated, scaled and shifted the image, which just about matched the stars in the sky behind the hologram.
“Way to go baby!” Kneelah exclaimed and high-fived the little droid who turned off the projection. Styx folded and scooped up the chairs.
“We need to find more detailed star charts,” Kneelah said once their were inside, pulling up the main navicomputer display. “Everything in this sector is just codes, I don’t have names for anything yet.”
Styx reached forward and manipulated the display, zooming in on the next planet out. “This one is mostly aquatic, but there’s signs of industry and pollution in their atmosphere from the looks of it. Possibly a fishing planet.” Styx offered.
“Hmm…” Kneelah pondered, “at any rate they’ll have names for the local stellar bodies, enough to help us start making enquiries. Discreetly of course. At any rate, that’s our lead,” she said and collapsed the nav display.
Just then, OD-P3 began to chirp and beep excitedly. Kneelah scrabbled forward to peer out of one of the side windows. Outside, two Imperial biker scouts were pulling to a halt and dismounting. Kneelah scowled. “Open up Odee,” Kneelah said and pulled out one of her ID cards. She walked towards the back of the ship as the clam shell doors clanked open. “Stay quiet,” she said to Styx and Tank as she passed them in the lounge. As the ramp touched the rock, Kneelah stepped out.
The taller one pulled the pistol from his ankle holster but staid back while the shorter, seemingly female officer moved forward but left her own pistol in its holster.
“Can I ask what your doing here citizen?” she asked.
“Hi there!” Kneelah called, all traces of her normal accent carefully hidden, “I’m Doctor Iona Frel of the astrogation society. I’m here for the yearly scans to make sure the star charts are still accurate enough to navigate by. QD4657’s orbit decay seems to have slowed down a bit, so it won’t be plunging into QV8829 any time soon, so you’ll have more than enough time to keep at your.. mining is it?” she presented her card which the officer scanned and handed back.
“That’s affirmative,” she said. There was no way to deny it.
“For the good and glory of the Empire!” Kneelah barked.
“For the good and glory of the Empire,” both troopers responded in unison. “Carry on the good work Doctor, and stay out of trouble.”
“Oh, I abhor trouble Officer, I won’t be straying from my cautious ways! Take care!” Kneelah yelled after them as they mounted their bikes and started up.
“Hija de demonios,” Kneelah muttered as she closed the rear doors. Odee made a series of impish warbles and beeps.
“Haha! I knew it! Magnite crystals!” Kneelah exclaimed.
“What the heck are Magnite crystals?” Tank asked.
“They’re used in the strongest military grade tractor beams,” Styx offered.
“Madre de dioses,” Kneelah thought to herself, “why do they need so much? They could outfit a thousand star destroyers with a site like this…”
“Or something bigger and worse…” Styx finished. Kneelah and Styx exchanged worried glances.
“Well I’m not going to get much sleep tonight,” Kneelah said to herself as she turned towards the cockpit. “See kid?” She called out to Tank over her shoulder, “That’s why we steer the heck clear of the Empire! It’s not good for anyone’s health!” she finished, disappearing into the cockpit.
Within moments, Violetta’s engines thrummed to life…
OK, So I know there’s no easy way to find the chapter you’re looking for, so I’m creating this page with a link to every chapter and I’ll link to this index in every chapter too 🙂
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