Star Toons: Stories Across the Stars

by Turbo the Brony

Lost in the Desert

The Finalizer, docking bay…

Stormtroopers marched as they took the prisoners to the holding cells, while one group brought Princess Allura and Rarity towards the Sith Lords.

“Unhand me at once, you horrible fiends!” Rarity demanded, as she was muzzled by one of the Stormtroopers, while Allura was cuffed by another.

Soon the two ladies were brought to Darth Zarkon and Darth Deranger, though they were also accompanied by Shadow as well.

“Princess,” said Coran, who was still in custody with the Stormtroopers, and was with the Sith Lords as well, letting out a small sigh of relief, “thank goodness you and Miss Rarity are alright.”

“It’s okay, Coran,” Allura said with a small bit of comfort, before boldly turning to the Sith Lords and she growled, “Darth Zarkon. Only you and your allies could be this bold. The Imperial Senate of the Dark Order will not stay still for this. And when they find out about you attacking a diploma-”

“Ugh, there you go again, with the ‘diplomatic’ mumbo-jumbo!” Dagur groaned with anger, interrupting Allura, “So boring!”

“Don’t expect to be surprised, Your Highness.” Darth Zarkon spoke, “You weren’t on any mercy missions this time. Our comrade, Shadow, has learned you have gained vital intel of the Dark Order and the Jedi. We want to know what happened to the data you gained on Jakku.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Allura lied, still holding her ground, “I am a member of the Dark Order’s imperial senate on a diplomatic mission to Altea…”

“You are a part of the Resistance and a traitor!” Darth Zarkon angrily said, before ordering the Stormtroopers, “Take them away!”

The Stormtroopers obliged and took the two Alteans and Rarity to their holding cells.

“So much for that,” Catra spoke as she then joined them, “but I’ve got a bit of a scoop about our Trooper Traitor.”

She then brought out a intelpad, as it showed service records of the many Stormtroopers of the Dark Order, some were recruited into boot camps during campaigns, while others were abducted as infants and were made into soldiers.

The screen currently showed the image of the Stormtrooper they were talking about… Lars, or in this case…

“LRS-0504 reported to my division,” Catra explained, “was evaluated and sent to reconditioning.”

“So, weren’t there any, you know, prior signs of non-conformity or whatever?” Dagur asked.

Catra looked to Dagur and explained, “This was his first mission.”

“Well, at least we shot him and the pilot down, right?” Dagur asked.

“We still have to regain the data, whatever the Princess has done with them,” Shadow stated, until Gene appeared and spoke up.

“My Lords,” he said, “we checked around the entire ship from top to bottom, no signs of the Imperial data or the holocron that we’re seeking. However an escape pod was jettisoned out during the fighting, no doubt to the planet below, but no lifeforms were aboard.”

The Sith Lords and Catra looked to each other, until Shadow spoke, “She must have slipped them into the escape pod.”

Catra smirked, “Good, I’ll let Ryker go down and investigate. Hope he enjoys the sand and sun.”

As she began to leave, Shadow stopped her, “No.”

Catra stopped, confused, and turned to the hedgehog, “No?”

“Indeed,” Shadow said as he turned to Catra, “Stormtrooper LRS-0504 was basically part of your division, especially when you sent him with the others to Jakku, therefore, he is your responsibility.”

Catra couldn’t believe what she heard, “Are you saying it’s MY fault?!”

“In a way… yes.” Darth Zarkon replied.

“Ooh… someone’s in trouble.” Dagur said with a cocky grin.

“Hey, my troops are completely skilled for many outcome situations!” Catra snarled.

“Though they seem to have been skilled on commiting high treason.” Dagur snarkly said.

“You shall journey to the planet and search for the data and that holocron.” Zarkon ordered.

“But that would take days! Weeks! Maybe even months or years!” Catra exclaimed.

“You won’t be doing this alone.” Zarkon said, “You shall be assisted by Captain Scorpia.”

As if on cue, someone approached the group, causing Catra to turn and see who it was.

There, in front of her, stood a tall young woman, who, due to her namesake, had many of the physiological features of scorpions, such as a large stinger and pinchers instead of hands. She had white hair and wore it with an undercut, and while not shown on the front, on the back had the emblem crest of the Dark Order.

She stood there in front of Catra, looking very tough and imposing… until she happily squealed, “Kitty!”

“What the-?” Catra could muster, before she was picked up by Scorpia.

“Just so you know, I’m a hugger!” Scorpia said, as she instantly gave the catgirl a tight hug, causing Catra to struggle to get out of.

Once she was free she looked to the Sith Lords and asked, “Is this some kind of joke!?”

“Scorpia will see that you are kept in line.” Shadow said, as Scorpia looked to Catra and grinned goofily, as the hedgehog said to the catgirl, “Consider this your order… and punishment.”

Catra grumbled as the Sith Lords left, leaving her with Scorpia, as the latter said, “We are gonna be best friends! Super Pal Duo!”

As the grumbling Catra and naive Scorpia headed off to get ready to depart, a Stormtrooper slowly approached Gene.

“Sir,” the trooper said to Gene, “shouldn’t we have told them more than one escape pod was launched out during the battle?”

“Eh, it probably doesn’t matter,” replied Gene, “besides, I haven’t seen Chore-Squad anywhere around the ship, so they must have gone back to where they belong to do their usual labor work.”

Gene instantly left, leaving the Stormtrooper behind, as he then said to himself, “Perhaps…”

---

Tatooine, somewhere in the desert…

The planet Tatooine was a planet with miles and miles of sand wherever you’d look, nothing but sand, rock and sun if I might add too.

If one were to land on the planet’s surface, they would have a long journey to reach civilization.

And of course, three somethings landed onto the planet’s surface following the battle against the Finalizer as those that landed will take different paths… though in time they will come together.

We start as the escape pod crash landed somewhere in one part of the desert planet, as two droids managed to exit and wander away from the pod.

“I just don’t know how we got into this?” Wheatley said, as he and BB-7 walked across the sandy ground, “To be fair, BB-7, I could have gone to work on manufacturing, would have been nice too, if the previous worker didn’t give it the duplicate of himself.”

The two droids soon stopped and looked around the desert lands.

“Well, on the bright side, we can enjoy the scenery of this planet if we like,” he said as the protocol droid got a good look around, “Right now, let’s see… we have… sand… and some rock… more sand there… more sand… Oh! I see another rock there!”

BB-7 beeped up to Wheatley.

“Yeah, not so much to see around here,” Wheatley agreed sadly, “wish I brought a book with me. Maybe a camera for photos…”

BB-7 looked around as well, before turning to his right.

“Hey, where are you going?” Wheatley asked.

BB-7 replied with some beeps as Wheatley heard what his counterpart said, “A settlement in that direction? It looks quite rocky there.”

BB-7 beeps again.

“Are you… are you sure you don’t want to go this way?” Wheatley asked, gesturing to the left, “It’s quite lovely, easy too.”

BB-7 bleeped.

“What mission? What are you talking about?”

More beeping.

“Aw… confidential… I hate those… confidentiality is the worst part when talking to someone, it’s like-it’s like trying to figure out what you're getting for a surprise and they can’t tell you, hush, hush…”

BB-7 blooped.

“You… don’t want me to come with you?” Wheatley asked.

BB-7 blooped in reply, though it sounded a little sad.

“Oh, well… sure… I guess… look, maybe we can see each other again on the other side.” Wheatley said, as BB-7 sadly moved on, “Perhaps I can carry on and find a settlement on the left and you go the right… Okay! Good plan, I go left and you go right, and we’ll hopefully find someone then.”

Wheatley instantly went the opposite direction as he called out, “Go team! See you in a bit, or maybe an hour… hopefully… if you’re not scrapped…”

Soon both droids went in the opposite directions, though Wheatley went off, seemingly having feelings of uncertainty and a small bit of confidence, BB-7 sadly rolled along, not sure about going solo as he did want Wheatley to come along.

But still he rolled on, as the two droids went down seperate paths, wondering if they’ll bump into each other again soon.

Although, nearby their pod, another pod had crashed landed a little not, just two dunes away.

The 2nd pod’s door was pushed open, and Benson’s squad stepped out.

“Ugh, where are we?” Rigby asked as he stepped out of the pod.

“Tatooine.” Candance replied.

“Oooh-hoo-hoo!” Pops giggled, “What a lovely spot, I wish I brought my bucket and spade with me.”

“No time, Pops.” said Benson, once everyone was out of the pod, “We have to find those droids and capture them after SOMEONE let them get away.”

The group looked to Rigby, who grew a little annoyed and nervous as he asked, “Dude, why’re you all staring at me?”

“Because none of us accidentally used their blaster to alert our presence and allowed them to escape in the pod, Rigby!” Mordecai exclaimed.

“Hey, I said I was sorry, man!” Rigby annoyingly stated.

“Well, at least we know that the droids would have landed here.” Benson said, ignoring Rigby’s statement.

“So where to now?” High-Five Ghost asked.

“We don’t want to be out here for a long time,” Benson explained, “so we better hurry and even find a nearby settlement, the droids may have probably gone there.”

“Lead the way, sir!” Candance said.

“One problem, sir.” Baljeet pointed out.

“What’s that?” Benson asked.

“Socks, socks, socks, socks, so-socks, socks, so-socks!” Baljeet said in an… oddly familiar tune.

“Oh, Baljeet is right,” Pops said, “comfort is quite important to one’s feet.”

Benson groaned a little, before explaining, “Look, if we find and capture those droids, we can be promoted off labour detail!”

“Now that, I’m with.” Rigby agreed.

“Alright, let’s move out!” Benson said, as his group journeyed in a different direction of their own.

---

Meanwhile, in another part of the desert planet…

Lars groaned as he regained consciousness, as he looked to figure out where he was, before noticing a bright light in his sight. Shielding his eyes, he realized that it was one of the twin suns of Tatooine, then as he tried to get up, he noticed that he was still strapped in his seat from the Tie Fighter.

Taking off the belt and out of the seat, Lars looked around to check his surroundings, he saw his seat, which seemed to have got a parachute released out, no doubt it was activated upon during the crash landing, but then Lars realized that someone was missing.

“Keith?” Lars called out, as he looked around to find him, “Keith!!”

As he looked, he then spotted a bit of smoke nearby, realizing it might be from the Tie Fighter, Lars rushed over as fast as he can.

A bit of exhaustion running later, Lars finally arrived at the wrecked Tie, he looked around the wreckage, trying to see if Keith was still in there.

“Keith, where are you?!” Lars called out, “Are you ok?!”

After searching high and low, Lars finally spotted something next to the wreck.

On the ground, lay what looked like a brownish red jacket, and on the left top showed in a white box an equally white star, with seven small black lines underneath it, showing that the star was going upwards.

Keith’s jacket.

Picking up the jacket, Lars looked around one last time, hoping to find his friend he helped escape, but there was no sign…

With no other choice or anywhere left to go, Lars decided to journey on foot to find civilization, taking the jacket along with him.

As he walked, he looked back a little to see the Tie Fighter wreckage, knowing that it would do no good now, he journeyed on, as the Tie Fighter slowly faded from sight.

‘No turning back now…’ he thought, as he continued on his way, as well as starting to take off parts of his Stormtrooper armor.

---

Meanwhile, again, in another, another part of the desert planet…

On the very far off parts of Tatooine, a lone X-Wing starfighter crashed and landed ways away.

It was smoking from the back with major bits of damage, and it look like no one could have survived.

Luckily, someone did.

Inside the cockpit of the X-Wing, Astrid was knocked out when her ship crashed, but soon, she began to move a little, and she finally gained consciousness following her crash landing.

Astrid felt a little groggy, but soon, she came to her senses as she undid her belt and tried to open the cockpit window, which looked a little damaged and broken.

Once she got it open, she looked around her surroundings, as she noticed that she had landed in a desert of sorts.

She jumped out of the cockpit for a moment, and then turned to her astromech droid, but her face showed a mixture of shock and sadness as she looked to the droid.

“R5!” she said, as she saw that her droid that accompanied her for her X-Wing was damaged beyond repair, smoke came from the head, and circuits were fried and sparking out electricity.

She placed her hand on her starfighter and looked up to her damaged droid, “I’m so sorry, R5…”

After having a moment to remember her droid, Astrid went back to the cockpit and began to try and make contact.

“Coran, this is Stormfly calling!” she said, “I’ve crashed landed on some desert land and my ship and droid are damaged following our crash land. We need help, does anyone copy?”

The communicator just staticed for a moment, then she tried again, “This is Stormfly contacting the Princess of Altea. Princess Allura, it’s Astrid. Can you hear me?”

There was still no reply, as Astrid soon began to worry if something happened, then remembered that she crash landed thanks to the Dark Order, and now her allies must have got caught, along with the Princess.

She got out of the cockpit again, then looked up to the skies and thought aloud, “I hope Princess Allura is ok…”

She then grew a little peeved as she said to herself, “I swear, if I ever see any of those Dark Order jerks who shot me down, and if they even hurt my friends, I’ll…”

She growled as she kicked away a small bit of debrier from the ship in frustration.

After letting out her frustrations, Astrid let out a small sigh, then looked around the desert.

“There has to be a settlement around here somewhere.” she said, then looked back at her damaged X-Wing.

“Not much to do with this baby now,” she said with a sad sigh, then looked back to the desert, “better start looking forward now…”

Astrid went back into the cockpit to get some stuff, as most X-Wings have space for a good amount of supplies, though following getting hit by the Dark Order and crashing on the planet, Astrid’s supplies may have slimmed due to losing a few.

Once she got enough of what she got left, such as a bit of food and water, her blaster rifles and several blankets, Astrid put on her backpack and was ready to go.

Taking a good, deep breath, Astrid walked forward, as she did, she thought about what to do when and/or if she finds a nearby settlement, such as get help, find more supplies and find a new ship to help her get back to the others if they managed to get away in time.

Despite the heat and possible dangers, Astrid was ready for what may come next…

---

Wheatley had been walking for possibly several hours.

It had been sometime since he and BB-7 went their separate ways for now, but Wheatley missed his friend for quite a while, as he wandered across each dune in the desert.

He finally stopped at a nearby skeleton remains of a krayt dragon as he looked back.

“Oh, BB-7, that little blighter… it seems just not fair…” he thought aloud to himself, “it could be his fault for not telling me this secret mission of his…”

He looked back to the route he was on, “Maybe I shouldn’t have gone this way… though I doubt he’ll do better…”

Suddenly, he spotted something far off in the distance, it looked like some sort of object, and it looked like it was flashing or something.

“Wait… is that…” he said, as he looked closely, then grew excited as he exclaimed, “a transport! I’m saved!”

Wheatley then waved his arms about to get the transport’s attention as he cried, “Over here! Help! Hey! Oy, oy! Please, help!”

---

Back with BB-7, he continued rolling down the path he was taking, while it was a little rocky, he managed to reach a canyon pathway.

BB-7 felt a little lonely, and everywhere he went, he could simply see nothing but rocks wherever he went.

However, as he continued, he couldn’t but feel like… he was being watched.

His rolling slowed down a little as he felt that, then he looked up… and thought he spotted a figure quickly hiding behind one of the rocks.

He even heard odd, gibberish voices too.

BB-7 rolled carefully as he heard a bit more gibberish voices, and several pebbles falling off big rocks.

BB-7 finally started to roll a little faster and made a quick turn around another rock… only to be in front of an odd looking creature, not taller than a human, wearing a cloaked robe, and wide orange eyes as they looked down to the droid.

The creature let out a gibberish yelp, and BB-7 made a U-turn… only to be cornered by another one of the robed creatures, as it fired a blaster on him, which instantly stunned the BB-unit in its place, before falling over.

The creatures that BB-7 encounter were known as the Jawas, meter-tall humanoid creatures, who are known for being passionate and scavenging for robots, droids and scraps to sell to local residents.

The blaster they also use was an ion blaster, which stuns a droid, similar to paralyzing to organics.

The two Jawas approached the stunned BB-7, then called out to the rest of their kind, as a few more Jawas came over.

Finding that they’ve found another droid to sell, the Jawas picked up BB-7 and headed off home to their transport, a sandcrawler, which is used as means of transportation, scavenging and protection from threats and sandstorms.

Arriving at the sandcrawler, the Jawas placed BB-7 down to where a transport tube was lowered above the droid, then placed a small disk, a restraining bolt, on the side of BB-7’s face, before the tube sucked the little droid up.

---

BB-7 fell inside with a crash, as inside were many types of robotic parts, spaceship parts, scrap metal and droids of many shapes and sizes.

The BB-unit finally woke up, as it looked around his surroundings, it slowly rolled around, looking at what he could see.

BB-7 saw many types of droids, some were offline and others were still active, until a familiar voice called out, “BB-7?”

BB-7 turned, and bleeped in surprise as there was Wheatley, as he too was collected by the Jawas.

“BB-7! It is you!” Wheatley said happily, as the two reunited while the sandcrawler began to move.

The Jawas, in their control room, set their coordinates as they once again headed off throughout the night.

Despite the predicament they were in, Wheatley and BB-7 were happy to be back together again!

Author's Note:

And here we go, the outcome on what has happened with our space battle last chapter!

Next time, we see what’s been happening with Hiccup and his buddies, as they must face a group of Sith on their tail… and perhaps new allies?

Until next time, True Believers.

Excelsior!