I'd like to say Mos Espa reminds me of someplace I've been before but it doesn't. Not with the massive beasts of burden that range from looking like a wholly mammoth and a goat combined to things that are T-rex like alongside those Chinese cartbike things used in China to ferry people around like a Taxi.
The only people out right now given how high the suns are in the sky seem to be farmers, slaves and general laborers.
The sexy alien babes are in shadowy alcoves and buildings, performing their crafts from what I can tell.
When people see the White Skulls painted on my speederbikes they move the other way.
Except for a couple of kids, one in particular a sandy blonde haired kid, who I honestly can't tell if it is a boy or girl, but is somewhere between the ages of seven and ten.
Staring at me, I feel a very light pull from somewhere inside of me that pushes me towards this kid, causing me to steer my speeder over to him or her.
"You're not a white skull, how did you get some of their speeders?" The kid asks me and it's androgynous voice doesn't help me differentiate whether it's a boy or a girl.
"I'm not, they attacked me and I killed them…are there any more white skulls around that would take issue with me?" At my question the kid bobs its head up and down and makes a sound that tells me yes there are more of them.
Opening the pouch on my belt I take out seven of the round Hutt currency three of them are copper looking metal, three of them are silver looking and one of them looks to be gold.
"Lead me to them and this handful of money is yours." I offer a handful of coins to the kid, whose eyes grow wide.
An uncertain expression crosses the kid's face, before the kid nods, takes the money out of my hand and climbs onto the back of my speeder.
"The White Skulls operate out of the old abandoned Spaceport. I'll give you directions there but I also want one of your Speeders." The kid says to me and I can't help but laugh.
"Sure thing kid, you know how many of them there are, or what kinda weapons they have?"
"Not really, most of them rode out of the city this morning and you killed them already. But I know their boss and his lieutenant have one of those Lancer pursuit craft made by Mandalamotors and a couple Sienar-Chall Utilipede Transports. They were modified for boarding ships the Lancer incapacitates. They're always bragging about it in the Cantina."
"Thanks for the intel, kid."
"You're welcome and my name isn't kid. It's Anakin…but you can call me Ana. What's your name?"
'Holy shit, the future Youngling-Slayer 9,000 is sitting on the back of my bike!'
"It's nice to meet you Ana…You can call me Starkiller, everyone else does."
"That's weird…" Anakin mutters softly.
"It is…but it's my name."
"Sorry, it's nice to meet you too…Starkiller." After that Anakin gives me directions to the old abandoned Spaceport located on the other side of Mos Espa.
Stopping just within sight of the abandoned Spaceport, I motion for Ana to get off the back.
"Droids give the small human Anakin one of the slaved speederbikes." I command at the word slaved Anakin flinches.
"You okay, ki-Ana?"
"Yea-yeah, I just don't like the word slave." Anakin murmurs angrily, nodding my head slightly.
"Are you a slave, Anakin?"
"I'm not a slave, I'm a girl, a person…just like you Starkiller!" Anakin starts out nearly yelling at me but her voice grows very soft by the end of her little speech.
"Easy kiddo, I meant no harm…" At my gentle response Anakin who has gotten off the back of my bike looks down and digs her right foot into the sand.
Ana continues to look down at the ground while her body language conveys awkwardness.
Feeling my big brotherly instincts kick in I begin petting her head, Ana looks up at me with a shy uncertain blush on her face but leans into my touch.
"I want you to wait for me here Ana, one of my droids will stay behind to protect you. Once I'm done with the remnants of the White Skulls. We'll go have a chat with the person who thinks they own you." Anakin doesn't look quite like she believes me but a sparkle of something enters her stormy blue eyes.
"My owner is Watto, a Toydarian scrap dealer…he owns my mom too." Anakin murmurs and looks back to the sand shyly.
"Well we can't leave your mom behind can we?" At my soft question Ana throws herself at me hugging me.
"You're really going to try and set me and my mom free aren't you?" Ana murmurs against my chest plate.
"I'm going to try…" I don't make a definite promise or at least I try not to, but I may have already misled this poor girl.
'I'm gonna do all I can to prevent a future where this kid becomes Darth Vader, Dark Lady of the Sith, from ever coming to fruition.'
~- — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -~
Unknown to "Starkiller", ripples develop in the force caused by his heartfelt vow.
From the dark void at the edge of the known galaxy a portal opens within real space and something foreign to this galaxy flies through the portal.
Which awakens an ancient darkness that was locked away in a prison whose location was lost to time Immemorable.
What looks to be a woman sleeping on a stone dais, begins to stir then her eyes snap open revealing deep dark voids where eyes should be.
This thing that at first looks like a woman smiles in the darkness of her prison, revealing a maw full of sharp needle like-teeth that is far far too big to sit on something her size and would be more in place on an Eldritch horror than a woman.
"Balance Breaker, Chaos Walker, The One from that place…you have finally come...soon my Husband and Children will learn what I was protecting them from." This woman begins to cackle as a mass of tentacles explode from her back destroying the dais she had been laying on.
~- — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -~
Anakin pulls back and starts self consciously wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes.
Not drawing attention to her very emotional moment I look away and use the squad command menu to one of my Phase 3 Dark Troopers from the squad but assign it to protect Anakin rather than dismissing my squad.
"Stay here Ana, I'll be back soon…actually if I don't come back in ten minutes take your Speederbike and my droid…and get home to your mom." At my command Anakin nods her head in acceptance and steps back away from my bike.
As I and my remaining four phase 3 Dark Troopers continue on to the abandoned Spaceport I look over my shoulder to see Ana. Start looking over the droid intently.
Pushing my speeder to its maximum speed I drive right over the edge of the ring that marks the spaceport's structure.
My bike plummets rapidly and hits the hard ground with a much lighter than it should be thunking sound.
The dark troopers bikes land barely a second later. Looking around I see maybe ten people lazing around in a few shaded areas drinking and smoking.
Blasters haphazardly spread all over the place, there's a pen with a few naked women of various species with nothing but bulky collars around their necks.
In another area there's powered down general labor and some Dum Series Pit droids.
Highlighting the White Skulls that I can see I immediately select the attack option.
What follows is a one sided slaughter of slovenly drunk and high alien gang bangers trying to sloppily lunge for their weapons only to get cut down for their efforts.
"Search the building, and the ships." I command out loud and walk over to the pen.
All the women in the pen except one human girl who looks a bit like Megan Fox at her peak cower and climb over each other to get as far away from me as possible.
"Do any of you know if there are more of the people who did this to you or did my people get all the ones here?"
"The leader Darius is in his ship, the round one with guns on it." The human girl who looks like Megan Fox says to me, making me dip my chin in acknowledgement.
~- — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -~
Darius, a large fat Zabrak who has a tiny Twi'Lek girl pinned underneath him on his bunk grunts as he fills her.
The girl has a dead-eyed look to her, she doesn't even react when Darius pushes her off of his bunk onto the cold hard floor of his ship.
"You broke too soon, you schutta!" The fat Zabrak curses and stomps his right foot down on the Twi'Lek girls head.
"You know…I always kinda hated how PG they made the Star Wars stuff. I mean sure they show the genocide, war crimes, the sanitized slavery. But they don't really show how fucked this universe actually is."
"Who the Kriff are you?!" Darius shouts and turns to the door of his quarters to see a Mandalorian holding a cylindrical weapon in one of his hands.
"Just someone you never would have run into if your mini-me hadn't tried to rip me off." The Mandalorian says and suddenly electricity sparks around his free hand, then dozens of tendrils of lightning arched from his hands and pierced Darius the Fat Zabrak and leader of the White Skulls.
His screams echoing within the Lancer Pursuit Craft's Captain Quarters, a charred piece of bbq Zabrak hits the floor like a gong announcing the ending of the small gang of pirates permanently.
~- — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -~
Stepping forward, squatting down, I gently pick up the pink skinned Twi'Lek girl who is covered in bruises and welts, with dozens of bleeding cuts dotting her body.
She doesn't react at all to me, and if I couldn't see the very shallow rising and falling of her chest I'd think she was already dead.
"It's over now, little one." I try to make my voice as soothing as possible, and carry her out of the ship and to the pen where the other women are.
I don't bother with subtly, I use force pull to rip open the gate causing shocked screams from all but the Megan Fox look-alike.
She steps forward and takes the girl from my arms. "Oh Letra…" The Megan Fox look-alike murmurs. "Momma?" The Twi'Lek girl asks softly.
"It's okay honey you're home, you're safe." The Megan Fox look-alike coos a small smile appears on the Twi'Lek girls face before she falls limp in the look-alikes arms.
Reaching out I check the girl's pulse only to find that she doesn't have one. "She's gone." My voice comes out very soft and the look-alike slowly lowers herself down to her knees and lays the Twi'Lek girl's body on the ground.
"So what are you going to do with us?" The look-alike looks up at me with an unreasonable expression.
"Well, I figure all of you could probably use a doctor after that...I just don't know." Surprise flashes across the look-alike's face.
"You mean you aren't going to keep us as your slaves?"
"Nah, figure the lot of you have suffered enough...and I shouldn't inflict my own special brand of idiocy on you lot anymore than I have to." I offer with a subdued tone but the look-alike smirks up at me.
"You know... I'm a pretty good pilot."
"Huh, you probably wouldn't know it but I've just gotten myself a couple of ships...and am in need of a pilot, who could fly these ladies home...if they have one." At my words the women who were cowering on the back of the pen slowly come forwards, one in particular a green Twi'Lek who seems to be close in age to the recently deceased one crawls to the side of the dead girl and grabs her hand and begins speaking a prayer in a language I don't understand.