//------------------------------// // Bracca and Revelations // Story: Star Wars Episode V, Phantoms Of The Past // by FourShadow //------------------------------// The Krayt's Head flew through hyperspace moving at a brisk speed to Bracca. By now, everyone had settled in for the trip, taking some time to relax. G-G rolled down the hallway, passing by some other droids who were off to check in to other sections of the ship. Taking the lift, he went down to the lower level, meeting some of the others who were sitting in the lounge. "Okay, so this yard we're going to, it has every ship from the Republic?" Gallus asked, wanting to get clarification. "Every type of ship, walker, cannon, everything made for the Republic and the Storm Empire," Ocellus confirmed, bringing up a small holoprojector. She clicked on the button, letting a few images display of the various crafts documented from both sides. It was still hard to believe they were all housed here to rust. "I tore a lot of these things back in the day." "How do you even know so much about these ships anyway?" Smolder asked. "After I went on the run, I had to get some work, so I signed up to work for the Scrapper Guild. I got to explore all kinds of ships and machines while I worked there. Well, until the Empire disbanded them," Ocellus replied, her wings fluttering a bit. "You do realize we won't be able to take back everything though, right?" Smolder raised a brow. "Yeah, I mean the thought of being armed with all of those machines sounds nice, but this ship can't bring any of them back home. Unless we have a bigger boat, I don't see a way of carrying anything else back," Gallus sadly replied. "Still doesn't hurt to look. If the Empire doesn't come back there, it means we can make as many trips as possible and take what we want," Sandbar countered with hope. "Bwoop boop," All six heads turned to G-G, who was shaking a bit as he tried to look up at the group from the ground. "Oh, hey buddy, you doing okay?" Sandbar asked. "Bwoop," G-G shrugged. "Brtt brt beep bop." "Yona understands striped astro droid," Yona nodded. "Astro droid no worry, you're safe!" "... okay, how are any of you understanding that?" Smolder asked. "He's just giving you random beeps and sounds." "Brrt bap!" G-G followed that with a raspberry sound. "Great, you insulted him," Gallus deadpanned. "It's not a matter of what he says, it's how he says it," Ocellus explained. "And sometimes, you don't always need to know, you can just feel it. You don't need the Force or magic for that." -- Several rooms over were Derpy and the clones, hanging out in the dining room. Some of the crew members hadn't gotten lunch, so the group were taking turns preparing it. At the same time, some of the fellow crew members who tagged along had gotten intrigued with the legends of the war. Most of the crew consisted of young adults, ranging from early twenties to early thirties, but none of them had ever participated in the war. The stories of the clone troopers battles carried from word of mouth, to curious ears wanting to hear a tale. This crew of folks was no different, and despite only four crew members here who were going to eat with Derpy and her boys, they were still eager to talk to them. A chance to talk to legendary war veterans wasn't something you could do every day. Among the crew were a human woman shrouded in a Kijimi coat with a full head covering, metal hat, and goggles. An Equestrian woman with her shoulders baring a cutie mark of a colorful crystal. Another Equestrian with his armored chest plates baring a cutie mark of two drama masks in the shape of horses. Last of them was a Nikto man, wearing a pilot's uniform. "... So we come down, the ship is in flames, we still had the senator safe, and guess who came down to crash the party?" Vargas talked, continuing the story from earlier. "The Storm King himself. Apparently he didn't like how his last shareholder meeting went, and wanted to well... 'cut corners' in a sense." "Well, what did you do?" The Kijimi woman asked, named Bitra. "The only thing we could do, we stood our ground, and fought him." The group was still kept in awe. "You actually squared off against the King? You four... fought against him?" The Equestrian man, Clever Musings, posed. "Mmmhmm," Bubbles nodded, folding his arms with a bit of a prideful smirk. "But don't forget, it wasn't just the four of us. We had a battalion with us to combat against him. He didn't bring a saber to kill us, but he was a tough case. Lost a lot of men to him and those clankers." "Heh. Well at least he's dead, right?" Clever asked. "Can't hurt anyone anymore." "Yeah... yeah," Bubbles said, wistfully with some remorse. Mainly over the thought of everything that happened after his termination. Clearing his throat to stop the awkwardness of the conversation, Vargas turned his head back to the kitchen door. "Hey, how's the food?" "Almost done!" Mix called. "Just need to stir it up a bit more and we should have it out." A few minutes passed, and so Mix came out of the kitchen with Derpy, holding a huge pot of cooked food. The aroma of the sauce, the cheeses, and the salt and pepper were blending to create a mouth-watering sensation that tickled everyone's noses. "I bring an Equestrian delicacy, all the way from Ponypei... Spaghetti with meatballs," Mix introduced, showing them the inside of the huge pot. Bowls were passed around, and the two of them passed food to everyone who was going to eat with them. One by one, they took a seat to enjoy their meal, all equally sharing sounds of delight from the food. "This is... amazing," the Nikto officer grinned. "You cooked this?" "You have to make more, this is wonderful." "You're a good cook!" "I took a few cooking classes whenever I could," Mix added, sitting down as he got to enjoy the delicious food with the others. "All we could ever afford was the rations for daily nutrients, but I longed for a real meal. Something with smell, something with a variety of textures, you know, real food." "I hear that," came from the Equestrian woman, Prisma who enjoyed more of her meal. "Seriously if you cook again, let me know, because I needed this." "We've had rations for the past few days, camping out on Mimban for a rescue assignment," Clever added. "So having this? It's wonderful, thank you, Mix." The clone couldn't help but feel a little pride. He hadn't cooked for many people, aside from his brothers and sister, but sharing his talent with strangers? And said strangers liking what he had to offer? It made him feel a certain sense of pride. Derpy could sense it to, just from the cute smile on her face as she patted his shoulder, affectionately. Bracca. A junkyard of in-hospitality. One of the most famous sites in the early years of the Empire, completely abandoned. Most of the ships left behind were either intact or in complete disarray. Scrapper Guild subway cars no longer functioned, left to rust on the hover rails. And most of the satellite towers that were used to communicate with nearby worlds were left to fall apart like everything else. The last tower was dangling precariously off the post, until a light or two started to blink. Several lights blinked as the dish spun around, picking up a signal for the first time in over a decade. Several consoles and equipment that had been left started to activate on their own, running on an autonomous cycle of defense, with no need for a living figure or droid to operate the machines. On the console screens, multiple red flashes, including a grid displaying a ship type was presented on screen to an empty viewer, still marked red. The markings identified a faded Republic emblem on the side, making the system still blink on and off. On the ground, several large machines started to wince and spin, the servos no longer locking up the mechanisms as they turned into position, raising the cannons up high into the sky, locking onto the perfect angle for trajectory... Pulling out of hyperspace, the Krayt's Head started to make its way towards Bracca's atmosphere. Shrouded in darkness, the planet certainly did not look inviting for anyone looking to travel. Luckily for the crew, there wasn't going to be any Imperials out here, no one to bother them while they worked. Unfortunately that short span of relief was quickly cut when they made their way further through the clouds. The cannons on the ground locked on target, primed to find any ship that didn't fit any Imperial or Scrapper Guild profile. And the Krayt's Head? It did not fit the bill. Several turrets spun around, detecting the ship entering the upper atmosphere and primed for attack. A heavy charge from all of them, and multiple blasts shot up at the sky, striking the thrusters on the back of the consular ship. "We've been hit!" The pilot, Cassie shouted as she tried to keep a steady grip. "Everyone, grab onto something, NOW!" More turbo lasers fired upon the ship as they flew down, with another one hitting the defense capabilities on the ship, and more of the thrusters, the last one striking the primary engines. Everyone hung onto whatever they could, but they were hurling towards the surface way too fast for their liking. The ship burst through the atmosphere until it finally slammed into the barren land, sending rocks and dirt flying right over the transport ship as they dug further and further into the ground. The crew was getting tossed around, slamming into the floors, the walls, against the doors, no one was strapped in safely, which only made the crash-land even more painful until it finally came to an end. The ship stopped bumping around, and it finally stopped before the sound of people screaming and crashing right through the glass windows. Silverstream’s head was the first to pop up, shaking her head rapidly to get any dizziness away, or at least making sure she was still on straight. “Is anyone dead?” Silverstream winced as she climbed back up on her hooves. Gallus pulled himself up, groaning as he stretched, trying to get back on his paws. Smolder and Ocellus's wings fluttered as they stood back up, trying to help the rest of the people inside the room. Sandbar was helped up by Yona, who then went over to where poor G-G was. The poor R4 unit was thrown around like the others, now stuck with his legs in the air, lodged in a door. "Sorry astro droid," Yona apologized, lifting him back up. G-G shook a bit, rotating his dome around to try and bring himself back to reality before spinning around, chirping as if nothing was wrong. "We better check on the bridge, you three make sure everyone else is still okay," Sandbar ordered. The doors had to be pried open as they made it to the bridge, and what they saw wasn't pretty. The consoles seemed smoked, and the pilot was laying limp in the chair. Walking over to her, they felt her wrist, and leaned into her heart, hearing it still beat. "I'm fine," the pilot, Cassie quietly replied. "Just... need a minute before I can stand up," her bruised face with some blood running down the side of her face said otherwise. And looking forward, they saw a new problem. The windshield was completely shattered from the crash, anyone could have been tossed out and hurt badly. "We're stuck for a while," Smolder snorted. Sandbar frowned. Yona," he spoke into the coms. "Are Derpy and the clones okay?" "Clones are fine! But Derpy is dizzy!" Yona replied. "Oh, wait no, I think Derpy throw up! ... Oh, never mind! Clever threw up, Derpy is fine! I'll get a mop!" "Engineers?" Sandbar then switched over to another channel. "Gears, how are the engines?" "Bad news. The hyperdrive's been totaled. There are still plenty of pieces we can use to make a new one, or refurbish a different one, but the one here is kaput. We won't be going back home for a while." “Ugh… great,” Gallus groaned. “Don’t feel bad, Gallus. Yakyakiees say, ‘when Yaks are stuck, we find another way!’” Yona said with some pride. Yona pressed the button to open the doors, and suddenly the doors just fell right open and onto the ground. No sliding, no unfolding, just flat out fell on the ground. “Oh no,” Yona worried, her ears flopping down. “Don’t worry, the ship was already broken when we got here,” Smolder deadpanned, stepping out. She turned around to look at how far the ship had crashed, seeing a giant line that had dug into the rocks right up about where they were. “Wow. We made quite a landing.” “I've had worse crashes than that," Gallus shrugged. "Honestly, I've grown numb to crashing vessels. It's became a regular Monday for us," Mix shrugged off. One by one, the crew members got out of the ship to gather for a meeting. Their injuries were very minor, ranging from a few drops of blood to minor bruises. Nothing fatal, thankfully. Especially for the droids who were a part of the crew. "Head count?" Sandbar asked. Yona checked the datapad in her cloven hands. "Hmm." Multiple times she had to look up at the people who were gathered, just to make sure they were there, occasionally muttering to herself. "Cala... Cassie..." And some more incoherent mumbling as she checked. "Bitra, Prisma, Clever, Sandra... I think that's all of them." The twenty members excluding the clones, G-G, and Team Six stood at ease, awaiting further instruction. "Okay everyone," Sandbar instructed. "Landing was rough, but the important thing is we're here, and we're safe. The ships engine's totaled, which means we're going to be here for a few days," he paused, letting everyone groan softly. "The important thing is we aren't stranded. If we put our heads together, we should be able to come up with a way to get off this planet. We still have fuel, electricity, plenty of food and water, we can rough it out a few days here." “Hey guys, check this out!” Smolder hollered. The team rushed over to where Smolder was standing, and froze when they saw they were close to the edge of a cliff. They looked at what Smolder was seeing, and stood in awe. An entire canyon as far as the eye could see, littered with relics of the fallen Republic and the Storm Empire. Venator-class cruisers rusting, rows of gunships, AT-TEs, AV-7 cannons, stun tanks, turbo tanks, this graveyard had every type of vehicle that had ever been used during the Clone Wars. There was even a sight of some starfighters that were left to sit on a ledge together; Headhunters, Torrent starfighters, Interceptors, ARC-170s, even the Y-Wing bombers. Even ships from the Storm Army were left to sit and rust; gunships, Tri-fighters, Vulture droids, some Lucrehulks, frigates, there was a ton. Gallus whistled. “So this is where everything from the old war comes to rest." “This is why I wanted to come here,” Ocellus pointed out. “There’s so much we can use here for the Rebel Alliance.” “Shouldn’t all these ships be stripped and reduced to parts by now?” Sandbar asked. "That's the thing. Once the Empire had enough power to start, they got some help from nearby ship-breaking yards that paid at a more 'reasonable' price. So they just kinda... dissembled the Scrapper Guild," Ocellus hesitated to say. "So they're all dead? No one is out here?" Bubbles asked. "Except for those planetary defenses that totaled our ship, yes," Ocellus chirped with her wings buzzing. "Greaaaaat..." Smolder groaned. “Yes, and most of them were stripped to be turned into Star Destroyers,” Ocellus nodded. “But I know somewhere out there, there’s ships that still function that can be brought back.” "Even if we do, we won't be able to bring any back in ours, it's too small," Bubbles pointed. "But maybe..." he looked up. One of the Venators was resting on an old docking station, mounted to keep it held up like an artifact on display. Just like the others, it looked damage as all get out; pieces of metal armor were gone, some holes were prominent, and there was one thruster on the back of the ship that was gone. But despite how worn out and damaged it looked, it was still in one piece as opposed to the rest of the Venators in the yard. "I have an idea..." "Do tell," Ocellus asked, curiously. "If that hyperdrive still has functional parts, we can use those and fix one that's possibly still here. That Venator right there," he pointed across the valley. "If the Scrapper Guild stripped it, we can put some parts back in it. There's plenty of parts in this scrapyard we can use to fix it, and there's bound to be some fuel still left lying around, we can siphon it from every ship we find to give that one power." Ocellus's wings started to flutter at the thought. "And give us a ship to get home, and have a fighting chance against the Star Destroyers!" "I don't know, that's an awful big job," Gallus was unsure. "I'm not sure we can stay here that long to get it done." "We've got enough people to fix yours. That number is just enough that we can get some of this equipment running and restore that ship," Mix said with a grin, putting his hands on his hips. The rest of Team Six looked to Ocellus. "Well Ocellus? It's your mission, you're in charge. What do you want to do?" Silverstream asked. The Changeling didn't need any more convincing as she turned to face her allies like a born leader. "We're going to restore that Venator. Grab the rest of the staff, if they're still okay. Search the junkyard, find as much parts as you can and start a pile. We're bringing a cruiser home!" Back on Yavin IV, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie had been helping Dexter Jettster in the kitchen, along with a handful of other chefs from Equestria to help speed up the process of cooking for lunchtime. Many people came to order; staff and citizens alike. It was hard work, but honest work nonetheless, something that made Rainbow feel a little pride as she kept going. Eventually her time to take her mandated break came and she moved in line to grab food like everyone else. After grabbing her tray, she parked herself in a seat with a few empty seats in front and next to her. The rest of her friends weren't ready to eat yet, they still had a few minutes left for their shift. On her tray, she had a fresh stack of pancakes, milk, and some bacon; only the finest breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals an Equestrian or human could create. She looked around, seeing everyone just chatting idly, eating their lunch, minding their own business. Not even two minutes passed, and already she was regretting picking this time to get her late lunch. Her former clone commander was getting food as well. It’d only be a matter of time before he’d find her. But to her surprise, the commander wasn’t moving to her table. Instead, he was walking around, looking for a table to sit at. Rainbow felt relieved. But as he kept walking around, Rainbow had a second glance. She saw some nasty looks from the other rebels at some of the tables. Most of them were full, but the ones that had plenty of spaces available to offer more, the people sitting there were looking at her former commander with some nasty looks. And judging by the small frown on his face, it was clear he wasn’t welcome among some of these people. She didn’t know what to say, but she couldn’t stop herself from what she was doing next. She raised a hand up, getting the commander’s attention. Seeing her, the commander was a bit surprised. His old general was calling to him? But last time he checked, she wanted nothing to do with him, especially after how she and the Jedi all reacted to just them showing up. But he knew he had no choice, no one else wanted to sit with him. If she was offering a seat, he might as well take it. No where else to go, and his food was getting cold. Hurricane sat down across from her, but didn’t say anything to her. Just silently nodding to her as if to say ‘thank you’. He didn’t know what to say to her, what even was there to say? He couldn’t just start with ‘hey, sorry I tried to kill you at the end of the war that long ago’. Not wanting to be any quieter, Hurricane cleared his throat. “… Hey,” he said, rather meekly. Rainbow was quiet in her response. “Hey.” “… I-I can leave if—” “—Don’t. There’s no chance we can avoid each other for that long, and we’re going to be working together more often, so we might as well get used to being near each other again,” Rainbow deadpanned. She sighed for a moment before sitting up straight. “How about we just try to clear the air, see about starting anew.” "Sure," Hurricane just said, rather plainly. “… How you’ve been?” “Um… okay, actually. Doing okay,” Rainbow answered. “How uh… how was your retirement?” “It was nice while it lasted,” Hurricane admitted. “But it was a nice change from eating the same flavorless rations, risking life and death, and moving under constant fire.” Rainbow had a little chuckle at that remark. “Yeah. No argument here.” Clearing his throat, Hurricane’s eyes glanced at her arm. “Um… I didn’t cause that… did I?” “Oh this?” Rainbow flexed her artificial limb. “No, that wasn’t you. That would be Twilight who did that,” she said, hissing at the memory. “I’m sorry to hear that,” Hurricane apologized. “Don’t be. You didn’t betray everything we stood for. Not by choice, at least,” Rainbow said, realizing how badly she phrased that. Some more silence fell upon the two former allies as they tried to find something, anything to talk about while they sat and ate. But the more silence passed, the more it became obvious there wasn’t any dancing around their past. And without thinking, Rainbow just dropped the attempts at being friendly, diving straight at the throat with her next question. “Okay, I want to ask you right here and now, because this has been bugging me for the past sixteen years, and I am going to be more upset if I don’t know. Order 66. Did you or did you not do it by choice, was it the inhibitor?” Hurricane set down his fork. He knew he would have to answer something like this someday; and it would have been better to just face the music now instead of avoiding it together. They would have to work together at some point, and it was better to answer and open up about their past issues now then on the battlefield. “Do you want the truth?” “Yes, I do,” Rainbow said, now starting to wonder if she made the right choice in asking. Hurricane sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to bring himself together. “The inhibitor chip never controlled me.” For Rainbow Dash, it felt like all time had just stopped. Was she hearing this right now? She couldn’t, that was a lie. All the inhibitors controlled everyone, that was their purpose. No one had a choice in Order 66, he had to have been saying it out of guilt. “You don’t have to lie—” “—I’m not lying,” Hurricane reaffirmed. “I only learned about the inhibitor chip when I ran into Derpy and the Baker’s trio. I was never controlled when Order 66 came. I made the choice to turn.” Rainbow felt like she was going to get sick to her stomach. All these years she kept trying to find a way to move past the trauma of the day of the Purge. The thoughts of her former clone commander turning on her no longer made her upset, but it did nothing for her mentally from that day on. But when she learned of the inhibitor chips, she thought there was some relief. Knowing that her commander was forced, knowing he never wanted to turn. But after hearing what he had to say? She wasn’t sure if she should even stay and let him continue to talk. She wanted to get up and leave the table right here and now. But she didn’t. “I know in your eyes I just became a monster. But it wasn’t easy for me either. All I remember was the day the order came, I felt like I was going to die on that bridge. When the Kaminoans grew us in jars, we were indoctrinated to follow all your orders without question. If we did even one thing out of line, we would be court-martialed, or executed. We had no chances in life, and I knew if I went one way or another, I wouldn’t be able to escape. I didn’t want to target you, but all I could think about in that moment was my brothers. If we didn’t follow our orders, then all of us would be executed for treason against the Republic. It didn’t matter if it was right or wrong… there were forces higher than you, me, all of us. It was either do, or die.” Hurricane couldn’t stop one small tear coming down his face, his words sounding like he was physically hurting as he was telling her everything. “… I loved my brothers. They were all I had. And if they had to suffer because I refused to follow orders… then I couldn’t live with myself. I told them to aim several inches away from you; I intentionally gave them false coordinates to fire at you, so you had a chance to live and escape. I knew you’d find a way to escape us; and we could live without being executed for treason.” Hurricane’s hands were now shaking as he too, thought back to the time from long ago. He carefully grabbed his cup, taking a trembling drink as he tried to keep himself together. “I didn't know what else I could have done. But then when Derpy and the clones came and found us… they gave me a chance to be free. So I took that chance. I don’t expect you to forgive me, and I don’t think you’d ever want to see me again. But you wanted the truth; and I wanted to tell you after so long.” Not giving Rainbow a chance to reply or respond, he pulled himself out of the booth and back on his feet. He didn’t look back at her, only looking down at the ground and sighing with pain. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash.”