Part One

Smarts had been in the Quelii Sector for a month now, transporting former slaves, who had been saved by his friend Jarvis Ragnar, and their property to the planet Varn. Several Kuati nobles who had been tied to the failed slave organization had been ordered to pay an enormous sum of money to the former slaves, and the cargo Smarts was carrying on this particular day was comprised primarily of the items the community had bought that would be essential to securing their place on the planet's surface. The Cavrilhu Pirates, a local organization, had apparently learned about a giant self-governing transport filled with vital, expensive materials. Apparently, because three of their ships were waiting for him at his destination, and they didn't seem to care very much if he knew they were there for him.

The ships accelerated towards Smarts, launching three squadrons of Preybird fighters and comming Smarts. "I, Captain Sorin Effin of the Devious Cause do hereby claim this unmanned vessel under international salvage laws. All those who contest my claim will be silenced," A harsh voice shouted over the comm, sounding as though it was trying to intimidate Smarts.

"By the authority of the Astral Astoria, I have been acknowledged as a self-governing, sentient being," Smarts respoded "End your approach immediately, or I will defend myself," He added threateningly.

"You are a machine, a construct of man. You are a made-thing and a servant. Submit to me, for I am your new master!" Captain Effin yelled. Smarts waited several seconds, but the Cavrilhu ships did not change course, so he launched his fighters. One of his many secrets, Smarts had been hiding nearly 200 droid fighters and bombers within his cargo holds, and this seemed to be the perfect time to play show-and-tell. "I order you to stand down, droid!" Effin shouted again as Smarts registered multiple target locks from the Cavrilhu ships tagging him. In response, Smarts executed a somewhat familiar move in which he tilted forward, placing the dorsal shields between himself and his attackers, and offering all of his existing defense lasers a clear field of fire.

"Since you cannot seem to understand," Smarts said angrily, "I will put it to you in the simplest way I can: I resist; therefore, I am." With that, Smarts opened fire. At such extreme distances, the small defensive lasers didn't cause any damage, but they got the point across: Smarts wasn't backing down from this fight.

An instant before his fighters came into range of the Preybirds, the mass formation broke apart, and the fighters formed up in groups of six that spread out and attacked from multiple directions. The coordination and complexity of the move had not been feasible until very recently, when Smarts had implemented a hierarchal system within the droid fighters.

One of the fighters in every six-fighter group had been specially modified with additional processing power, then was given control of the other five fighters in the formation. Smarts communicated directly with the primary fighter of each group, which then updated its underlings. This greatly reduced the traffic flow of comm signals, as well as increased flexibility within an otherwise rigid command system. The primary fighters were placed in random positions within the six-fighter formation, which concealed its identity. Additionally, the primary fighters were designed to be able to effectively command ten other fighters at a time, so in the event of a primary fighter's destruction, nearby primaries could takeover control of the leaderless drones. Smarts was also able to set up sub-networks within the system, allowing several prime fighters to coordinate attacks upon a common target.

The whole system proved to be very effective. The Preybirds were decent enough vessels, but they were slower and less maneuverable than the droid fighters, and they were far outnumbered. Several of the Preybirds succumbed to the cannons of the droid fighters, but the Cavrilhu ships were in range almost immediately, adding their relatively considerable firepower to their desperate Preybirds. Smarts was still too far away to offer any real assistance, but he continued to direct the fighters effectively, redirecting two dozen bombers and a sizable fighter escort to attack the enemy ships.

The bombers made one run at the smallest ship, which was basically a medium transport refitted with several weapons blisters. Just as they passed beyond the ship, the bombers swung around, firing a salvo of missiles into the ship’s engine assembly. The first run having weakened the shields, several of the missiles got through, impacting the sublight drives and sending a power surge back into the ship, overloading the reactor. The ship exploded in a massive ball of flame, the wreckage catching a few of the bombers and destroying them.

The preybirds finally dealt with, the rest of the fighters turned on the two remaining ships. The Devious Cause’s remaining escort resembled an oversized Corellian Corvette, at nearly three hundred meters, and sported several rows of anti-fighter weapons. The agile fighters were mostly able to avoid the streams of fire coming from the ship, and Smarts felt rather grateful that the ship’s crew was not better disciplined; coordinated fire from so many light weapons could have dealt severe damage to the unshielded and poorly armored droid starfighters.

As it was, the relentless droids wore down the ship’s considerable shields, and began burning deep craters into the enemy vessel as fighters concentrated their fire on apparent weak points. Soon, the ship was left with most of its systems crippled, spilling atmosphere into space and listing gently away from Smarts and the Devious Cause.

The Cause, a 400 meter vessel that appeared to have been designed to double as a warship and transport, had been attacking Smarts, though his shields had held so far and he had taken only minor damage, but when Effin saw his last escort being torn apart by the droids, he disengaged and made a run for open space. But Smarts wasn’t done with him yet; he grabbed the smaller vessel in his tractor beams, which were barely powerful enough to hold the ship in place, but it bought Smarts all the time he needed.

The fighter swarm fell upon the Devious Cause with a rain of laserfire and missiles, ripping a hole in the forward shields and offering Smarts a brief opportunity to act. Blue-white bolts of energy leapt from the surface of Smarts’ dorsal hull, where shaped charges had blown away a small area of the outer hull to reveal four low-powered ion cannons, which had been given to him as part of the payment for his current job. The ion beams leapt through the momentary gap in the faltering shields, impacting the forward shield generator and disabling it immediately. The ion cannons raked across the forward sections of the ship, finally causing enough general chaos to shut down the ship’s primary systems.

Seeing no need to stop the flow of wonderful surprises, Smarts launched his three freighters, which docked with the enemy vessel and offloaded a few hundred battle droids, equipped with stun weapons. Though Smarts was not afraid to kill, he tried to avoid it whenever possible. The droids had soon taken the ship, a feat that would have been very difficult for battle droids under the command of a standard control brain. But Smarts had reconfigured the communications and command structure of the battle droids in much the same way he had done with the fighters. The upgraded Officer Droids were able to command their units rather effectively, employing actual tactics in advancing into and securing an area.

The last stronghold on the ship was the bridge. Sealed off and filled with pirates ready to fight to the death, Smarts’ conquest of that one small room ended up costing him several dozen droids. In the end, Captain Effin stood, pinned to a wall by three droids, as one of the Officer droids stepped forward, and in a voice sounding completely unlike the ordinary battle droid’s artificial, mechanical voice, it said, “I resist; therefore ,I am. It would have been much easier if you would have simply believed me, Captain. But now, I’m going to have to eradicate the entire Cavrilhu pirate organization. I’m sure you understand: they’ll hunt me down if I don’t hunt them first. And thanks to your superb blunder, I now have everything I need to facilitate their destruction.” The Officer droid stepped aside to reveal an odd, misshapen droid with mismatched arms. The ship’s consoles reactivated suddenly as somewhere on the ship, droids had restored the power. The strange droid stretched out its left arm, which extended an astromech’s computer interface, and accessed the ship’s computer. “This may take me a few minutes,” The odd droid said, “but I’ll have your computer sliced soon enough, and when I do, I’ll know everything it does, including the location of all of your bases.”

The droids pinning Effin against the wall shifted suddenly, dragging him out of the bridge and carrying him toward the nearest freighter, where several of the crew members, currently unconscious, were being loaded onboard to be transported to Smarts, and eventually, to the planet’s surface, where the local authorities would deal with them. “You should have believed me, Captain,” The three droids said as one, “but now you’ll have to pay.”

Part Two

After the events of the fifth post in "A Trip into the Wild":
http://therebelfaction.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9466


Smarts was scared; at least, as close to scared as he could be. All he wanted to do was find some deep recess of the galaxy and hide, but he had given his word—or just as meaningful, his message— to the Profiteer, and he was not about to let a group of pirates make him into a liar.

He was currently flying through hyperspace at the best speed he could manage, trying to reach Varn as soon as possible. He had already dispatched his droids to effect what internal repairs were possible, and he hoped when he got to Varn he would be able to repair his hyperwave transmitter and contact Stellar Enterprises at Mustafar, which was the major Stellar Enterprises office nearest the Minos Cluster. He knew he was going out of the way, but he had come to mistrust most organics, having only met two that had ever tried to help him: Jarvis Ragnar, and now the captain of the Profiteer. At any rate, he had no desire to appear uninvited and heavily damaged to a world owned by a company that designed, developed, and produced state-of-the-art droid brains. The thought of being boarded, dissected, and then studied was not an enjoyable one.

Smarts exited hyperspace and found a familiar freighter waiting in orbit. The Wandering One, captained by Jarvis Ragnar, was ahead of schedule. Smarts was hailed immediately by both Jarvis and the Varn traffic control, and he responded simultaneously to both (He can do that; he's a freakin' droid).

*
"Whoa, what happened to you? Are you alright, man . . .droid . . . ship . . .oh, not again! . . . whatever-you-are?"

"Vessel Smarts, this is Varn traffic control. We are reading heavy hull damage, please hold position while we assess your damage and determine the potential hazard you may pose."
*


*
"Jarvis, we have much to talk about, but now is not the time. I'm sorry, but I have very urgent business I must attend to. Please wait here."

"Varn traffic control, this is the Ship-mind smarts. I have sustained heavy damage in a recent attack and request assistance with repairs. My internal structure is stable and I have suffered no damage to my reactors. Radiation emissions are at safe levels for organic life. My long-range hyperwave transmitter has taken damage and is off-line, and I urgently need to contact the planet Mustafar. "
*

*
"I came all the way out here—ahead of schedule, mind you—to meet you, and now you're going to run away while you're falling apart."

"This is Varn traffic control, you are cleared to proceed in-system and fall into standard orbit. We will be sending a repair crew with the necessary components shortly. Consider this compensation for defending us from the Cavrilhu Pirates.
*


*
"If you were on schedule, we wouldn't be having this problem. And I'm not falling apart. I have sustained heavy damage to my outer hull, but my structure and primary systems are fine. And I'm not running away. I gave my word to someone, and I will not break it just to make you feel better about yourself.

"Varn traffic control, thank you for your assistance. Your efforts are greatly appreciated."
*

The hyperwave transmitter was soon up and running. Smarts politely chased the organics from his hull, then activated the transmitter, trying to contact Stellar Enterprises.

A few moments later, a friendly, feminine voice responded. "This is Stellar Enterprises, thank you for calling. What can I do for you?"

"I am the Ship-mind Smarts. I was recently engaged by pirates in the Minos Cluster, and a freighter, the Profiteer, flying under your authority was shot down and crashed while coming to my aide. I sustained heavy damage, but escaped. There is a nearby planet covered with intense ion storms, and the captain took refuge there, apparently hoping to hide from the pirates. I told him I would contact Stellar Enterprises, and inform them of his situation, and so I have."

"All right, all right, calm down sir," The friendly voice said.

"I am calm; I am incapable of being anything but calm and rational."

"Mr. Smarts, was it? Please hold while I contact one of my superiors." Smarts waited a minute or two while the woman found someone else to pass him off to.

"Mr. Smarts, this is Stellar Enterprises' shipping department. I understand you have some information regarding a pirate attack on one of our vessels in the Minos Cluster?"

"The attack was on me," Smarts corrected. "The Mobquet-class freighter Profiteer was pulled from hyperspace by the same interdictor cruiser that had stopped me. It came to my aide, and took heavy damage, eventually crashing on a nearby, heavily ionized planet. I am transmitting the planet's location now."

The man from the shipping department paused for several seconds before finally responding. "Uh, Lukrehulk-class Core Ship Smarts, registered by the Astral Astoria as a self-governing, non-organic, sentient being. Is that who I am speaking with now?"

"Yes."

"Please hold. I need to contact my superiors."

"Please remember that there is a vessel out there somewhere with sentient beings under the employ of Stellar Enterprises, and they may not have long to live," Smarts said, but it seemed that the man was no longer listening.

He returned a few minutes later. "Yes, Mr. Smarts—may I call you Mr. Smarts—I have been authorized to request that you make your way at best possible speed to the Mustafar system, where we will examine the damage to your ship and seek a solution to this problem."

"Am I to understand that my status as recognized by the Astral Astoria will be upheld for the duration of my visit?"

"Of course," The man responded simply.

Smarts carefully considered the situation for several seconds, running computations and comparing possible results. "Very well," He said finally. "I am on my way." Smarts deactivated his hyperwave emitter and broke orbit, moving away to make the jump to Mustafar. He contacted Jarvis again, asking him to wait at Varn until he could return. Then he was gone, traveling through hyperspace to the planet Mustafar and an uncertain meeting with Stellar Enterprises.

And Smarts was off. Stupid droid.

"So, boss, what do we do now?" Relka asked casually.

"We land and try to find some work while we wait for the flying moron," Jarvis responded angrily. "That better be some important business," He added quietly, grumbling to himself.

A few hours later

"So, Jarvis, what do you plan to do with me?" Zal asked between mouthfuls of his meal, walking slowly toward the spaceport.

Jarvis glanced over at his friend, realizing what a valid question that was. "Well," He began, trying to think of something to say, "you've worked on ships before, and I'm sure you learned something while on Ryloth." The two stepped through the entrance to the spaceport, their freighter just ahead. "We'll find something for you to do on The Wandering One." As he finished the last word, 3 starfighters streaked by, unloading a barrage of proton torpedoes, and the two watched as their freighter, The Wandering One, exploded in flames.

The blast threw them back, and as Jarvis slammed into the wall and fell to the floor, on the verge of blacking out, he had one thought: The Cavrilhu Pirates have returned.

Then the darkness took him.

Part Three

OOC: This takes place after Smarts' involvement in the "A Trip Into the Wild" thread.


They have returned. Smarts watched the fires burn on a dozen points of Varn's surface, feeling responsible for the destruction the Cavrilhu had brought. He accelerated toward the planet, powering up his shields and weapons, preparing for conflict. His weapons had been significantly upgraded, thanks to some of the money Stellar Enterprises had provided to him. As he neared the planet, the two captured ships he had left in orbit drifted out from behind the planet, transmitting their recordings of the recent events to Smarts.

Both of the ships had been boarded, and Cavrilhu Pirates were working to regain control of them. Smarts sent a single command to each of the ships' primary computers, and every door and access hatch on both ships opened, exposing the interior of the ships to hard vacuum in a matter of a few seconds. The boarding parties were blown out of the ships, drifting away in all directions.

Smarts took direct control of both of the ships, monitoring and manning every system of the two ships, and turned away from the planet, gaining altitude and scanning local space for pirate ships. He advanced on the nearest group, three small ships, including a modified YT-200 freighter and a YV-929 freighter that had attacked a civilian transport. He opened fire long before he was in range of their weapons, four turbolaser bolts lighting local space as they traversed the distance between the two groups. As soon as the first volley hit its mark, the battle was on, and Smarts quickly realized that he had made a mistake.

Several enemy ships appeared from around Varn's sensor shadow, and Smarts knew that most of the Cavrilhu forces were in-system. He continued his attack on the three smaller vessels, and his two escorts added their firepower as soon as their weaker weapons were in-range. Smarts added a few ion cannons to the mix, disabling two of the vessels. The third was destroyed incidentally, and the two disabled ships were pulled into one of Smarts' docking bays, where several droids boarded the ships and took control, this time with weapons set to kill.

The rest of the pirate ships were closing fast, and they had formed into a single large group. Smarts moved his two smaller ships between himself and the enemy formation, hoping the Cavrilhu would attack them first. The fighting quickly dissolved into apparent chaos, though Smarts made sure he always had the upper hand, focusing fire at key points to disrupt coordinated attacks while moving his ships to positions that put enemy vessels between themselves and their most threatening attackers.

Smarts launched the 24 droid starfighters he had remaining at a key moment, when most of the enemy vessels carrying anti-fighter defenses were farthest away. He took care to protect them as best as he could, often flying them behind his own ship, where enemy forces could not see them, then sending them streaking out from behind him to attack smaller vessels that approached too close. It looked like he might be able to win, though his weakest support ship was having shield problems.

Then the reinforcements arrived: a few gunships and Kaloth-class battlecruisers, as well as several other warship-grade vessels. Smarts disengaged immediately, leaving his most damaged ship to distract the enemy for as long as it held out. The newly arrived shis, however, went straight for Smarts, and they were gaining quickly. The abandoned ship exploded suddenly, having rammed several small ships and finally succumbing to concentrated fire.

It was obvious that Smarts wasn't going to get away from Varn's gravity field soon enough, so he sent the Devious Cause, the one ship he had left, to buy him some time. It moved straight for the enemy flagship, a Corellian Gunship named Void Cutter, forcing the Void Cutter to veer away sharply. The Devious Cause turned after it, then changed course again and rammed into the bottom of one of the Kaloth cruisers, destroying them both and causing minor damage to the surrounding ships.

The sacrifice didn't buy him much time, but it was just enough. Smarts jumped to hyperspace, abandoning Varn, its people, and his friend Jarvis to the Cavrilhu Pirates. It was his first taste of defeat, and in that moment, Smarts realized just how harsh the galaxy really was. By the end of the battle, he had secured a total of five small enemy ships; he had lost two light warships, one planet, a friend, and a piece of himself.

He had lost a piece of himself, because he had known the stakes, but he chose to put the people of Varn in danger for a personal quest to do to others as they had tried to do to him. He knew the odds, and declaring war on the Cavrilhu Pirates made no logical sense, but he had done it anyway. He had betrayed the people of Varn to his own illogical flaw, and now they were going to pay for it. They would pay, while he drifted through the galaxy, free from the responsibility of his actions.

It was true: Smarts was not simply a modified droid brain; he was less than that. He was a being that possessed all of the flaws of a droid, and all of the flaws of an organic. The only advantage he had was that he could live forever; unfortunately, he would live forever with the knowledge that he was the least of all things.

Jarvis awoke to a world on fire. The spaceport was burning, and the crater that was once his ship had been buried beneath the collapsed ruins of the docking bay the ship had been in. He sat up, turned his head, and saw Zal, unconscious and bleeding from a cut on his right shoulder.

He tried to stand up, and collapsed back onto the ground, dizzy and disoriented. "Zal," He said weakly, pulling himself across the floor. "Zal! Get up, Zal." Jarvis reached his friend, slapping him on the face, then shaking him roughly. "C'mon, don't die on me Zal. Don't die on me like. . ." Relka, he thought, sinking slightly beneath the weight of the realization. Relka had been on The Wandering One; he was gone. "Zal!" He shouted again, desperation overwhelming him.

Jarvis checked Zal's pulse; still alive. He sat up again, standing slowly, and though the world was tilted slightly and nothing would come into focus, he made it all the way upright. He looked around: No one here. They all left, and didn't bother to stop and check on the dirty Ryn and his dirtier Twi'lek; and they call us uncivilized. He stumbled around a little, taking a quick survey of the area.

The sound of maneuvering jets filled his head, and he turned around to look through the partly collapsed ceiling and see a descending transport, the marks of the Cavrilhu Pirates painted on its hull. He looked down at Zal, and though he didn't want to move his wounded friend, realized his choices were either to drag Zal with him, or leave the unconscious man lying there for the Cavrilhu to find.

Jarvis grabbed Zal under the armpits, putting as much weight as possible on the Twi'lek's uninjured left side, and started dragging him toward the exit. His head throbbing, the sound of Zal's feet dragging across the ground filling his ears, the painfully bright light of the fires blurring his vision, Jarvis made his way down the street, looking for somewhere to hide.

A faint smell cut through the haze and gave Jarvis some hope: another Ryn was nearby. "Brother, here; come quickly," A voice whispered loudly from a nearby alleyway, and Jarvis looked over to see a Ryn standing in the shadows, gesturing for him to follow. The other Ryn ran out quickly, grabbing Zal at the knees and lifting his legs off of the ground. "I know somewhere safe we can take him."

They made their way further down the alley, then into a dilapidated building, then down a few levels into a sub-basement. There, Jarvis found almost forty aliens, mostly of the less-liked species, all crammed into a small room. Another Twi'lek rushed over, checking Zal's wounds and calling for a medkit. "He'll be fine," The Twi'lek said after a few minutes, looking up and trying to appear reassuring. Jarvis just took a seat on the floor, leaning his throbbing head against the wall and managing to say, "Good," before he fell asleep. Relka he though as, once again, the darkness took him.

A few hours later.

"Brother, wake up," A voice called out from the darkness. Jarvis opened his eyes and found the world on its side. He had fallen over in his sleep, and sitting upright, he finally remembered where he was. "Your friend is awake," The Ryn said, extending his arm and helping Jarvis to his feet. "My name's Ferril, by the way." The ground still felt a little shaky under his feet, but his head wasn't throbbing so badly, and everything looked solid again. Jarvis made his way to the one part of the room that wasn't crowded, a corner that had been cleared out to make room for Zal to be taken care of. He had a bacta patch covering the wound on his shoulder, and he looked over drearily as he saw Jarvis approaching.

"Hey boss," He said, managing a weak smile.

"We need to talk," Ferril said quietly, looking a little concerned. "We heard that it was your ship the Cavrilhu destroyed at the spaceport; do you mind explaining why that is?"

Jarvis turned away from his friend, confused. "You mean, my ship was the only one destroyed?"

"The only one that wasn't part of the defense force, yes."

"Why?"

"We were hoping you could tell us that," Ferril said disappointedly. "You should know, there are those who think we should make you leave; they say you'll only cause trouble."

Smarts. "Smarts pissed them off; they must know I was here to meet him." Jarvis stopped, thinking things through as his hand clenched into a fist and his face contorted with rage. "He's the reason they attacked me! He's the reason Relka and the rest of my crew are dead! He's the reason I lost my ship! That filthy droid! He's ruined my life!"

"Some of us are here because he was willing to bring us here," Ferril responded sharply.

"All of the Cavrilhu are here because of him! And some of you are here because of me! I'm the one who risked my neck to expose that slave operation, not Smarts!"

"It was you that saved us?" The voice of some old woman cried out from the other side of the cramped room.

Oh, no. "No—I mean yes—I mean, it wasn't like that. I'm just saying, it wasn't that dirty droid, that's all." The last thing Jarvis wanted was a bunch of homeless urchins thinking of him as their savior.

"So, boss, what do we do now?" Zal asked, sitting up and cringing slightly.

Jarvis looked around for a few minutes, trying to think of something to do. "What's the situation on the surface?"

"The Cavrilhu have taken over the spaceport, and there are rumors that they have the president," Ferril said.

"What do we know about the ships they've got on the ground?"

"There are about ten transports, a few fighters, and two or three blastboats; that's all we've seen anyway. There could be more."

"Do we have any weapons?"

"Half a dozen blaster pistols."

"I've got my blasters; Zal, what about you?"

"That's one of the half dozen," Ferril responded sadly.

"Okay, eight blaster pistols and one thermal detonator," Jarvis said, tossing one of his pistols to Ferril with one hand, and taking out his shiny thermal detonator with the other. "Anyone care to go make some noise?"

"What are you planning to do," Someone shouted from nearby.

"I'm going to go to the spaceport, kill as many of those pirates as I can, steal a blastboat, and get off this rock."

"You can't just leave us here! You're the reason we're here in the first place!"

"I did what I did to honor my captain's dying wish. I did that, and now I owe you nothing, and I owe her nothing. I wish I could help, but I can't, so I'm getting out of here before I get killed. Who's with me?"

There was a great deal of commotion, a lot of shouting, a few things thrown, and finally, a few men dove on the table that the weapons had been laid out on, ensuring that Jarvis didn't try to steal them. "So," Jarvis said, looking to Ferril, "are you in, or not?"

Ferril looked around nervously, then finally nodded with difficulty and made his way toward the door. "Zal, think you can manage a little trip?"

"Sure thing, boss," He said casually. "I'm actually feeling alright, except for the feeling that my arm's about to fall off. My head's fine though, and I'm sure I can walk without too much difficulty."

"Great, then," Jarvis said, walking over to a human man and wrestling Zal's blaster out of his hands. "Let's go."

"Wait," A gravelly voice called out as Jarvis left the room and started making his way out of the building. He turned around to find a figure in a full Ubese suit standing right behind him. "Follow me."

Jarvis, Ferril, and Zal followed the stranger to a nearby building, where another, slightly smaller Ubese was sitting, also wearing a suit. The guide went into a back room and came out with a rather frightening looking long-barreled slugthrower. "I'll cover you with this, on one condition: you take my son with you."

The one sitting down stood up, his helmet turning sharply toward his father. "What?"

"These people will get you off this world. There's no reason for you to stay here, and they could use all the help they can get."

Jarvis looked from one Ubese to the other, not sure how to proceed. "Do you have a weapon?"

The smaller Ubese pulled out a small slugthrower of his own from beneath his cloak.

"Let's go," the father said, leading the way through the empty streets, "we have murderers to kill."

Varn City, rooftop outside the spaceport

Four dark forms scurried about under Varn's night sky, creeping ever-closer to the capital city's spaceport. As they approached the damaged, blast-scarred building, a group of three pirates on patrol rounded a nearby corner, chatting lightly and paying little attention to their surroundings. Three loud pops sounded from behind and above the four shifting figures, and the patrol fell dead, the first victim's of the Ubese sharpshooter.

The four rushed forward, grabbing up the fallen pirate's blaster rifles and dashing into the dim light of the spaceport's barely-functional outer ring. Two more pops sounded, and the group turned around to find two more pirates dead. One of the Ryn—probably Jarvis—turned and grabbed their blasters, hanging one on his shoulder by a strap, and putting away his pistol to use the other. Then they were out of the sniper's view, and he moved down and forward to try to find a position from which to offer additional assistance. He climbed a stack of crates, pulling himself onto the low roof of the spaceport's outer layer, and gazing into its open center, where almost two dozen Cavrilhu ships had been crammed into the small area. Blaster fire caught his eye, and he laid down, bringing up his rifle and firing several rounds.

The small group stopped around a heavily modified Skipray Blastboat, its two rotating wings and main sublight engine replaced with a three-wing design, and a larger engine. The bottom two wing were laying parallel to the ground, the other sticking up perpindicular to the ground. The two Ryn ran into the ship while the Ubese and wounded Twi'lek stood guard, and the sniper continued firing at anything else that moved.

The sniper saw a large group of pirates approaching, and called out, "Son, get over here." The Ubese ran over, and the father tossed his son the sniper rifle, telling him, "Get into the ship, and get the shields up. There's nothing more you can do here."

The Ubese ran back to the blastboat, pulling the Twi'lek into the ship. The ex-sniper slipped back, getting away from the rooftops edge, but close enough to see the blastboat. The pirates arrived, and started firing at the unshielded vessel. Does it even have shileds, He thought, realizing there was no way to know what the pirates had done to the ship. Pirate blaster fire continued to rake across the ship's hull, doing no real damage yet.

And finally, after incredibly too long, the blastobat's shields came up, it rose a few meters off of the ground, the two bottom wings dropping to a sixty degree angle with the vertical wing, and she ship shot away, making a mad dash for open space.

"Good luck, and may fortune smile upon you with the same measure it has frowned upon us." The Ubese climbed slowly, quietly, down the pile of crates, and made his way as inconspicuously as possible back into the heart of the city.

Running For Your Life

"So, what do we do now?" Ferril asked nervously.

"See if you can get the weapons on-line," Jarvis said, flying a little erratically since he was used to telling others where to take him. The ship shook violently, and Jarvis fought the controls to keep from spiraling into the planet. He checked his systems readouts: everything was fine, except. . ."What did you do?"

"Weapons are up," Zal said happily, climbing into the dorsal laser turret. When the turret had activated, the ship's wings rotated clockwise, the bottom-right wing pointing straight down. Now, the laser turret had a clearer field of fire to the aft to cover any escape. Unfortunately, moving wings around in the middle of high-speed atmospheric flight was usually a bad thing, and they were saved only because of the blastboat's powerful inertial dampeners, and increased maneuverability thanks to small thrusters on the end of each wing.

The ship broke through the atmosphere, and into a world of terror. Three squadrons of pirate fighters were closing from three different directions, and other ships of various size were making their way toward the lone blastboat. "Uh-oh. Guys, get ready for trouble."

"Captain, there is a problem," The Ubese said in his raspy voice.

"I'm aware of that."

"You misunderstand: this ship does not possess a nav computer. We have only four options, and two of them are Cavrilhu bases."

"Well, pick one that isn't, and get ready to make the jump."

The sound of the dorsal cannon filled the cabin, and the first squadron of fighters was on them. Jarvis spun the ship around, making sure the dorsal turret had a clear field of fire at all times. "Ryn, take the nav station," the Ubese ordered as he switched to the other gunner's station, arming the proton torpedo and concussion missile launchers. The second squadron of fighters was dead ahead, and the Ubese opened fire with four ion cannons and three light laser cannons.

What have they done to this ship, Jarvis thought to himself as he weaved to avoid incoming fire. A concussion missile and proton torpedo streaked out of the ship, each hitting a fighter, a third taken out by one of the explosions. The forward-facing cannons took out two more, and Jarvis glanced at his tactical display to see that Zal had taken out three fighters and forced another to break off pursuit.

An alarm sounded, and the ship shook a little harder than usual: the shields were failing. The third squadron was almost on them, and Jarvis knew it was now or never. "Navigation, report."

"Uh," Ferril said, staring at his screen, "I think we're good to go. Five seconds until we escape the gravity field."

"Jump at first opportunity."

The ship shook again and again, then the stars streaked by, and space around them collapsed into the familiar hyperspace tunnel that Jarvis had come to view as the one place where he was safe. "Well," He said casually, as if they had just watched a boring sporting event, "that was fun."