Sunset Shimmer's Saga: Call of the Force

by Kenobiiii

Chapter 10: Wookiee Distress 1

The Gauntlet
Traveling Through Hyperspace,

As the Gauntlet traveled through the vortex of hyperspace, Sunset couldn’t have marveled more at the blue swirling tunnel of stars she was traveling in. While this wasn’t her first time traveling through hyperspace, the feeling of crossing countless star systems, maybe perhaps the galaxy itself in speed faster than light itself fascinated her. The beauty of it was immeasurable. The feeling of it only pales slightly by comparison to her first hyperspace travel from her home world, after which she had what the others called as hyperspace sickness- a sickness one would get when traveling faster than the speed of light for the first time, but it was worth it. Her stomach had now grown accustomed to hyperspeed travel. Being a curious person, Sunset had wondered about the true nature of hyperspace.What is the blue vortex they’re when they’re past light speed ? How does one achieve hyperspace travel ? She had directed these questions to the others but alas, even Zeko, an experienced pilot could not give the answers she was looking for. For them, hyperspace travel is nothing more than a commodity to travel between worlds. Kara had told her that the hyperspace itself remains a mystery to many, even the Jedi themselves. So the secrets of hyperspace remain a mystery for now.

Her thoughts were interrupted by R5’s binary beepings. The droid, which was plugged into the ship’s central computer near the co-pilot seat where Kara sat, seemed to be informing the rest of their current trajectory, or so Sunset interpreted it to be. Her grasp of the Binary language is still a working progress and rusty at best. Fortunately for her, her interpretation of the beepings was affirmed by Zeko. “ We should be approaching Kashyyyk soon if we stick to the current course.” He intoned as two of his four hands were on the steering while the other two were busy pulling levers on the upper control dashboard. With their mission target approaching, Sunset wondered how these Wookiees, the group they’ve been tasked to save, looked like. “So what do these Wookiees look like in the first place ?” She asked the others. Karl, who was seated right next to her, turned his head over to her, “ Well, they’re a tall and hairy species. Kinda looks like a walking carpet.” He described them. “How tall are we talking about ?” Sunset further asked. “ About 3 meters in height, give or take.” Kara, who joined in on the conversation, gave a rough estimation. Sunset’s jaw had slightly dropped upon hearing this. “3 meters tall ?! That’s insane.” She exclaimed.

“Yea, they're a strong tall fuzzy race alright.” Zeko continued, “Piece of advice kid, never piss off a Wookiee.” Sunset had never thought of angering a wookiee in the first place, but thanks to Zeko, she wondered what would happen if she did. “ What do you mean ?” She asked. “When angered, Wookiees are known to rip off a person's limbs with their bare hands.” Karl said. Sunset gasped in horror. Ripping a guy's arms off just for pissing them off ? These Wookiees must have unimaginable strength to rip a person’s arms off, perhaps even more compared to what Applejack’s geode power provided her. Still, that’s barbaric to say the least. “But that’s cruel and not to mention violent,” Sunset exclaimed. Karl however, seemed unfazed by this. “ Tell that to them. Wookiees are a prideful race and they have a pretty bad temper.” He sarcastically remarked. “ If that’s the case why are we even helping them in the first place ? Surely if they’re that prideful, they don’t need our help ?” Sunset muttered incredulously.. “Because that’s what we do. We help people who can’t help themselves.” Kara reasoned as she continued, “Keeping aside their bad temper, the arm ripping part and their appearance, Wookiees are known to be a very helpful race and their unwithering loyalty to anyone or anything they commit to. Back in the war, they were fiercely loyal to the Republic and many of them fought side by side with us. You can always trust a Wookiee to have your back at all times.”

“Also don’t let their appearance fool you Sunset.” Zeko warned, “ They’re as sophisticated and intelligent as one can be.” Sunset however, wasn’t paying attention to what Zeko was saying. She instead dwelled in her thoughts about Rainbow Dash, how she, like the wookiees, was always loyal and trusting. She could always count on Rainbow to have their backs at all times, no matter what. The more she thought about it, the more a guilty feeling developed inside of her. She felt guilty for leaving her friends behind, she missed them, and it always brought her down whenever she thought of them, what they’re doing at this very moment and how they would feltl about her actions. Perhaps feeling betrayed ? Yet again, her thoughts were interrupted. “ We’re coming out of hyperspace now,” Kara said as she referred to the ship’s navi computer. Zeko affirms her by using one of his four hands to press a couple of buttons, which orderly disengaged the hyperdrive.

The Mid Rim
Mytaranor Sector
Kashyyyk

The Gauntlet comes out of hyperspace to the lush tropical planet of Kashyyyk, the native homeworld of the Wookiees. From space, this world wasn’t much different from Ajan Kloss, Sunset thought. They had the same climate, terrain and lushness based on its appearance from space. Kashyyyk only differed in terms of size, being slightly bigger than Ajan Kloss and how spread out the continents were. Perhaps the most glaring difference of all, was the amount of massive starships, which seemed to be suited for military purposes on the planet’s orbit. They were enormous, suited for a large crew, and were numbered in at least 4 based on what her eyes could count. Sunset almost instantly recognised them. “ Are those Imperial Star Destroyers that you told me about ?” She gasped. Zeko, who was piloting the ship, turned to her, “ In the flesh, kid.” He said. From what she has been told by the rest, Star destroyers, numbering in at least in the tens of thousands were true showcases of the Empire’s military strength, hovering above occupied worlds to instill a sense of fear amongst its subjects, fear for those who dared disobey Imperial Rule. While she was told by them about star destroyers, she never expected it to be as massive when seeing one with her own eyes.

“ They’re much larger than I expected them to be, and somewhat intimidating.” She said with an awe in her face. “ That’s their job Sunset. To be intimidating.” Zeko intoned with his usual sarcasm. This was the first time she had come face to face with a destroyer. In their previous missions, they mostly dealt with Cargo ships and at most, Light Cruisers. “ Why are there so many of them on orbit ?”She wondered out loud. “It’s an orbital blockade. The Imperials are cutting the Wookiees off from the rest of the galaxy.” Kara pointed out to her padawan. “ Only way you could get in is if you’re some high ranking Moff or a slave trader.” Karl further added. In doing so, Sunset was presented with another question. They weren’t exactly in the Empire’s good books and as far as she knew, they weren’t slavers either. They were walking into their destruction, Sunset thought and shriveled at the mere horror of thinking about it. “ Uhh, I have a question here.” She voiced out, “ How exactly are we gonna get past the blockade if we don’t fall into either of the categories Karl mentioned.” She had expected them to at least show some concern to her question but all of them, including Kara didn’t seem too bothered by her question. In fact, they seemed quite unfazed by it. It was as if they already had a solution all along. “ Don’t worry Kid,” Zeko said in a confident manner, “ The Gauntlet can scramble our signatures.”

“ What’s that supposed to mean ?” Sunset was confused by what Zeko had meant “ The Gauntlet can mask the ship’s signal from Imperial scanners. That way, we can just fly past them without them even knowing of our presence.” Kara clarified to her. Sunset admitted she was impressed by this. The technological wonders of the galaxy never ceased to impress her. R5, who had successfully scrambled the ship’s signatures, beeped the all-clear signal at Zeko who responded to him. “ And we are officially now invisible to the Imperial scanners.” He declared. As they flew past the massive destroyers, Sunset grew fascinated on how a simple scrambling can mask small ships like theirs from the large sophisticated star destroyers. “ Can’t they see us from their command decks ?” Sunset asked, pointing out to the command decks of the destroyers. “ Not really. We’re small enough to avoid visual detection.” Karl said. Sunset couldn’t argue with that. They soon flew past the blockade and headed towards the planet’s atmosphere.

As they descended past the planet’s atmosphere, Sunset was given a view of the ground beneath her as they flew. Similar to Ajan Kloss, the surface was covered with tall trees. From up above, the trees appeared to be huge, much larger than the ones on Ajan Kloss, with mountain ranges shaped like half broken cones in the horizon. They weren’t the type that Sunset was familiar with, being mostly covered with trees with small gaps of mountain rocks exposed. They definitely weren’t similar to the ones on Utthar, which had tall and covered snow caps. Perhaps the only similarity between the two worlds was that the mountains on Kashyyyk were mostly shrouded by clouds. As they continued to fly past the mountain ranges, Sunset noticed plumes of thick black smoke being released from numerous large man made structures on the surface through the funnels leading out from it, polluting the atmosphere with toxins and pollutants. These structures were scattered, with their surroundings being cleared of trees and replaced with black mold and other industrial wastes being disposed of into the surrounding environment. Sunset assumed these structures to be some sort of industrial factories with no interest in preserving the lushness surrounding them.[1]

“ What are those structures ? Some sort of Industrial factory ?” Sunset pointed out to them. “Imperial Mining Refineries. The Empire’s devouring Kashyyyk’s natural resources to build their war machine.” Karl said, slightly agitated at the sad state of things. “ The Wookiees have been enslaved to work in their Refineries, or displaced from their ancestral homes by them.” Kara further added. Sunset didn’t have to ask to know that Kara was disturbed by this, and to a certain extent, Karl too. They were not happy at what the Empire was doing to this world. In fact, why should they be ? The Imperials were practically polluting the lush world with their industrial waste. They were slowly killing the planet and It greatly disturbed her too. “ What they’re doing here,,,” She tried to find the proper words to describe how she felt. There wasn’t a simple word to describe how she exactly felt, it ranged with emotions, from anger, to unhappiness and being extremely disturbed. She finally settled for horrible. It was the simplest and straightforward term to describe the Empire’s actions. “Tell that to the Imperials kid. This is how the Empire repays the Wookiees for their loyalty.” Zeko said with his usual sarcastic voice, “ By sucking their world dry.” Before Sunset could comment further, R5 informed the rest of the crew through his beeping that they were approaching their target. “ We’re approaching the Slave Camp.” Kara said after she confirmed R5’s calculations by checking their trajectory to the Camp’s coordinates.

Indeed, they were close to the camp. As Sunset looked ahead, there it was. A large military concentration camp which also acted as a refinery of some sort. The base was massive, with a large amount of land dedicated to the camp itself. Sunset saw the camp mostly filled with tall furry beings who Sunset identified them to be the Wookiees which Karl accurately described them to be. They were arranged in a straight line, with their heads down and their feet and their fur covered with mud. They were forcefully directed towards a landing platform at the other end of the camp, where a Zeta Class Heavy Cargo Shuttle stood. That must be the ship that’s taking them off world, she thought to herself. One didn’t have to be a Jedi to know the suffering and agony that the Wookiees were feeling. Hundreds of them were stuffed into narrow lanes, only separated from each other by an electric fence taller than already intimidating height. Describing the camp’s conditions as harsh was an understatement. The Wookiees were made to breathe heavy polluted air filled with toxins from the nearby refinery and the lanes filled with filth and black mold. They were being overseen by stormtroopers, ridiculously loyal Imperial ground soldiers with their blasters pointed right at them. While the helmets shielded their facial expressions, Sunset could tell that they were indifferent to the suffering and plight of the Wookiee prisoners. It was as if it brought them pleasure to see the Wookiees suffer.

If there were any doubts by Sunset on how cruel the Empire is, those doubts would have been cleared now after seeing the atrocities being committed towards the Wookiees. Sunset Shimmer has heard of slavery in the past but it was another thing to witness it occurring with her own two eyes. A combination of both anger and distress surged through her. She finally understood why Kara and the others had been acting as vigilantes. What the Empire was doing here was just unspeakable and no amount of diplomacy could justify or stop this. “Now you see why we fight the Empire, Sunset.” Kara said, “ It’s because of practices like this.” She couldn’t argue with that. “ Looks like they’re preparing to transport the Wookiees off-world.” Zeko pointed out to the Imperial shuttle on the platform. “ Where are they being taken to ?” Sunset further asked. “Probably to work in the Spice Mines of Kessel or some other forsaken Imperial construction site.” Karl speculated. Sunset could only imagine the horrid place they were being sent to. She also noticed the Wookiees were outfitted with some kind of white collar. “What is that white collar they’re wearing ?” She pointed out, a part of her hoping not to get an answer to that. “ Shock collars. Sends a couple of thousand kilowatts through their bodies, bringing great pain. The Empire uses them to keep the Wookiees in line.” Karl answered her, much to her feared guess.

“That’s just cruel.” Sunset exclaimed incredulously. Just then, she spotted a humanoid being with red smooth scaly skin with thin arms that stretched long and ended with three claw-like fingers. It had a pointed skull, with its eyes set back and its jaw was filled with pointed teeth. They were also barefooted with similar claw-like feet. It looked like some sort of mutated lizard, Sunset thought, a slimy disgusting looking one that is. It stood on top of a platform that was raised slightly higher from where the Wookiees were. He pulled out from his belt what appeared to be some cylindrical object that Sunset first thought to be a lightsaber. She was proven wrong when the thing activated it, unleashing an electric whip which it uses to subdue the Wookiee slaves, striking them at their backs. The Wookiees moan in pain, something while Sunset could not hear due to her being inside the Gauntlet, she could feel the pain coming from them. “What is that creature over there ?” She pointed to the reptilian creature. Karl turned his head over to the creature that Sunset pointed to and recognised it. “ Trandoshan Guild members.”[2] He replied to her, “ Nasty lizards alright.” “You can say that again,” Sunset concurred with him about his description of the ulgy reptilians lizard-like beings. “ We’ll need to destroy that shuttle before they start loading them.” Zeko directed attention to the Imperial Shuttle at the platform. They were preparing to start loading the Wookiee prisoners on board. Karl turned his seat over to the ship’s weapons control systems. “I’ll charge up the proton cannons.” R5 then beeped over to Kara that the Gauntlet had been detected and was on the receiving end of an incoming transmission. “ We’re being hailed.” Kara said before putting through the transmission.

Coming from the transmitters of the ship’s communications radio, was a voice, that while it sounded that it came from a male, it also sounded as if it came from a lizard, with all the hissing noises. “ Hissssss, This is a restricted fly zone. Identifyyy yourselves.” The voice hissed. Kara pressed a button before speaking through. She quickly came up with an excuse, “Uhh, we’re bounty hunters with orders to deliver some Wookiee renegades we had captured to this camp.” “ This is highly unusual. You’re not in the manifest,” the voice said, indifferent to Kara’s statement. “ That’s strange, we have orders from the very top to deliver them here in which we’ll get our bounty paid off,” Kara continued, hoping to persuade him. “ Unlikelyyy, What’s your operating number ??” The voice on the other side said, unconvinced of Kara’s claim. Frustrated that the Trandoshan didn’t buy their story, Zeko uses his second pair of hands to end the transmission. “Heck of a conversation that was.” Sunset scoffed. “ That conversation wasn’t going anywhere to begin with, kid. It’s more of a distraction instead.” Zeko said before bringing his attention over to Karl instead. “ Are the proton cannons fully charged ?” Karl gave a look through the monitors of the weapons system before answering him. “Up and ready to fire.”

Before Sunset could even comprehend what had just happened, the Imperial Zeta class shuttle was up in flames with its parts scattered everywhere and the Camp siren’s was up with full volume and the camp was basically in chaos following the explosion of the shuttle. Zeko, without any hesitation had fired the proton torpedoes towards the shuttle, blasting into oblivion, sending shockwaves that threw the nearby troopers and Trandoshan slavers away with the blast itself engulfing the stormtroopers that were standing beside it. Now, the whole base and perhaps the entire Imperial Garrison on this planet were aware of their presence here. This wasn’t the stealth or lowkey missions they had done in the past, this time they’re breaking in the front door. “ The Wookiees won’t be going anywhere now,” Zeko said, in a way which one could say he was giving himself a pat on the back. His small hurrah however, had to come to a quick end as the stormtroopers were quickly recovering from the blast and getting back on their feet. They had to act fast if they were to keep up their momentum. “ Zeko, bring us down over there.” Kara pointed out to a platform which was raised above from where the Wookiees were being held.

Zeko brought down the Gauntlet to the place where Kara had pointed it out to. She turned her head over to her apprentice who was seated behind, “This is our stop,Sunset.” She said as she too got off her seat and headed to the back. Sunset merely followed her down, leaving Zeko and R5 back at the cockpit to man the ship.
“ We’ll stick here and provide air support.” Sunset could hear Zeko calling out to them. Karl was waiting over at the ship’s boarding ramp with a bunch of blasters. “Here you’ll need this.” He tossed a simple blaster over to Sunset who caught it. While Sunset had been trained to use a blaster thanks to Karl and Zeko, she still had not yet mastered the use of it. She also preferred not to use one if given the chance. She firmly gripped the blaster, not wanting to drop or misfire the delicate weapon that could cause much damage in a confined space. Just then, the Gauntlet’s boarding ramps extend downwards, revealing the chaotic base outside, with an ash of smoke rising from the site where the shuttle previously stood with a loud deafening siren. Sunset took a deep breath, “Here goes nothing.” She says to herself as the three of them dashed out of the ship and onto the platform. The Camp was in complete chaos ! Bright red streaks of laser fire were being thrown in all directions, but mostly directed towards them. The stormtroopers, those who were still standing, which was a good number, were firing at them. They immediately took cover behind the railings and returned fire to the stormtroopers. Sunset managed to shoot one right in the chest. She didn’t know if the white armour the trooper wore protected him from her shot but what mattered was that he was down, so she assumed it didn’t.

Back in the Gauntlet, Zeko remotely pulled up the boarding ramps before pulling the ship up. Their job was to provide air assistance to Kara and the others below. He had targeted the anti-air cannons and the Refinery’s power cells when was about to press the fire at them before R5 interjected and pointed out that there were several objects approaching their location in air. The Ardennian took a look on through the ship’s scanners only for it to confirm the droid’s warning. “Carabast !!” He cursed out loud, “We’re gonna have to go for plan B.” Back on the ground, the rest were in the midst of fending off the Imperials when Kara heard a repeatedly beeping noise coming from her fight pocket. She pulled out her comm link, which was beeping in a bright red light. It meant that it was receiving an incoming transmission. “What is it, Zeko ?” She spoke through it. “Change of plan,” Zeko’s voice could be heard coming from the comm link. “I have TIE fighters coming after me. I’m gonna have to shake em off.” “ I don’t see any fighters.” Sunset reckoned. Just then, Sunset and the others spotted the Tie fighters numbering in a squadron of four approaching the Gauntlet from the South. Zeko turned the ship around and flied off, but not before firing a couple torpedoes towards the anti air cannons, sending them into a blast of oblivion and causing more damage and chaos in the base. The blast also took out a small portion of the power cells, but not enough to severely cripple the electrical systems of the Camp.

As Zeko flew off, the Tie fighters pursued him, firing bright streaks of laser fire towards the ship. Now left alone on the Camp with no air support and heavily outnumbered by Imperials and Mining guild members alike, the team had no choice but to improvise. “What’s the plan now ?” Sunset asked while firing back at the stormtroopers that were coming from the left. “Yea, we’re a bit outnumbered here.” Karl concurred with her. The troopers were closing in on them, together with Guild members. “We stick with the original plan. Free the Wookiees.” Kara said. “And how is it that we do that now ?” Karl questioned. She thought about what Karl had said. Their initial plan was to have Zeko overwhelm them with heavy air support, destroying the camp while the ground team lead by her took out the smaller targets and free the slaves. With Zeko now preoccupied with the Tie’s and the entire base onto them, they have the burden of doing everything themselves. She poked her head out amidst the blaster fire coming from all directions to establish a plan. “Over there.” She pointed to a Control Room located at the other side of the room, “ That Control room manages their shock collars and the Gates. We’ll need to destroy it.” “That way the Wookiees will be able to join the fight.” Sunset concurred with her master, “Good plan. When do we move ?” She asked. Kara looked around for a moment. There were more troopers heading towards their location. They would be vastly outnumbered soon. It was now or never. “ Now!” She shouted to the others.

Kara jumped out of cover and charged forwards towards the Control Room. Karl and Sunset follow her charge while at the same time providing fire to the stormtroopers. While she certainly wasn’t enjoying this, Sunset was beginning to get the hang of it. Each of her shots were more precise than the other with some shots being a headshot. As they pushed further, the more troopers they had on their tail. They did their best to fend them off and push on to the base. Beside the continuous noise of blaster fire, Sunset could hear growling noises coming from below her feet. She assumed them to belong to the Wookiees, who must be watching the battle happening above them with relief, relief that someone is here to rescue them or maybe because they weren’t being targeted for once. They were soon close to the Control Room, being only a couple of feet away from it. They were successfully pushing forwards against the troopers, who despite their vast numbers were heavily disorganized and were on the defensive. Just then, a Scout Trooper, bearing camouflaged armor suited for tropical climates threw a grenade in their direction. The grenade landed between Kara and Sunset dividing them both. Before they could react, the grenade exploded. The explosion causes the platform railing that they were standing on to break and collapse, taking them down with it. Kara manages to head to the other side, just before the platform broke in half, however Sunset and Karl weren’t lucky enough to head to the other side on time.

The last thing Sunset could remember before everything went dark was that she and Karl were running from a collapsing railing. She found herself lying flat on a dark muddy floor, with her head aching probably from falling flat on the ground. She could hear a pinging noise coming from both her ears. Sunset managed to pull herself up, her legs still wobbly, and disoriented. She deduced that she must have fallen from the damaged platform , which was hanging above them. She found Karl, who was lying beside her unconscious. Sunset searched her vest pockets to find her commlink to contact Kara. She wasn’t sure whether the commlink was still in her pocket or had fallen off. However, she soon sensed she was not alone. She turned her back to find a dozen Wookiees standing behind her. They looked much taller when standing face to face with them. They gave out a pungent stench, coming from their fur which was covered with the dark filthy mud. Their tall furry appearance reminded Sunset of the sasquatch, colloquially known as Bigfoot, a famous folklore mythical beast in her home world. The Wookiees, however, didn't take too kindly to their new guests. They collectively growled menacingly at the intruders.

Sunset Shimmer didn’t need to use the Force to know that the very beings that she was supposed to rescue were treating her as hostile. Sunset couldn’t blame them. From their perspective, she could be a pirate, taking them from one hell to another. “ Don’t worry.” She said to them in a claiming demeanor, hoping to placate their rage and bring down tensions. “I’m here to break you guys out.” The Wookiees, as if they could sense the sincerity in her, lowered their hostilities. They each exchanged looks at each other before one of them, as if chosen to speak on their behalf, came forward and purred, in a throaty but high-toned guttural manner. It was as if the Wookiee was trying to communicate with Sunset. To her, it sounded like a series of growls and purrs that made no sense. “ What does that mean ? Say something.” She said in an irritated manner. Her question was greeted by a sarcastic chuckle that came from Karl, who was pulling himself up. “That’s how they communicate, genius. Wookiees can’t talk like we do. They’re physically unable to do so.” He sarcastically remarked. “Great, just great.” Sunset scoffed incredulously.

Just Then, came a red beeping noise from the ground. Sunset looked down and found her comm link on the ground. It must have fallen off from her vest. She picked it up and answered it. “Kara, are you okay ?” “I’m okay. I’ve managed to escape the platform. How about you guys ?” Came Kara’s voice from the comm link. Sunset looked around her surroundings to get a better picture on what to tell her master. “ Karl and I have fallen below to the Wookiee holding cells. We’re fine.” She spoke through the comm link to Kara. “ What’s the plan now ?” She further asked. There was a brief silence from the comm link, before Kara spoke, “ Bring the Wookiees over to the Main Gates. I’ll have them open from the Control Room,”. “Copy that.” Sunset intoned before she placed the comm link back inside her vest and turned to Karl. “ Kara wants us to bring the Wookiees to the Main Cell Gates.” She said to him, who appeared indifferent to the plan. Probably because there wasn’t a better one to counter it. The Wookiees however purred in a manner that Sunset assumed to be either that they were in agreement to the plan or expressing skepticism to it. It didn’t matter to her what they thought. It was already vexing enough that she couldn’t understand their language which seemed like random growls and purrs, she definitely didn’t need to have a debate with them at this time. “We’ll talk this through later. For Now, we need to move fast !” She snapped at them. The Wookiees nodded at each other, seemingly agreeing with her. Just then, a trooper from above trained his blaster towards the Wookiees but Karl manages to shoot him down. Sunset and Karl then lead the way forward, with the Wookiees right behind them.

Meanwhile, Kara pushed through stormtroopers in an effort to reach the Control Room to open the Main Gates. In that short moment that she was knocked out from the blast, the stormtroopers had the opportunity to regroup. While using the Force would be easier to defeat the troopers, it was important that she conceal her powers, especially in a place as open as this. Besides, her skills with a blaster were equally proficient compared to when wielding the Force. Eventually, she made her way to the Control Room. Just then, as she entered the room, as if by instinct, she quickly ducked as a red streak of laser fire shoots past her, missing her by mere inches. She looks up to find the source of the blaster fire, only to find a blaster pointed right at her face. Wielding it was a green scaled Trandoshan cladded with a yellow coloured space wear with a whitepad at the center. It differentiated him from the rest, for he was a bounty hunter, a hunter Kara knew too well for he had been on their tails for some time, with hefty bounties from Crime Syndicates. “ Bossk,” [3] She muttered out loud.

Author's Note:

Looks like the Gauntlet crew's mission to freeing the Wookiee slaves has hit a road bump in the form of a dangerous Bounty Hunter. This Chapter and the following one is kinda independent from the overall story but is crucial as it seeks to establish Sunset Shimmer's new role and her place in the larger Galaxy, and will shape the way how she views the Empire as a whole. This chapter is also a showcase of the rebel activities that the Gauntlet crew often partakes in, similar to how other rebel cells operate in this part of the timeline. Now, onto the easter eggs,
[1] The photo of Kashyyyk with Star Destroyers orbiting it together with the description of the surface filled with mould releasing is based on Jedi Fallen Order.
[2] Members of the Mining Guild, who happens to be Trandoshans, the Wookiee's most hated enemy. Trandoshans and Wookiees historically have bad blood with each other.
[3] An appearance of the infamous bounty hunter Bossk (https://www.starwars.com/databank/bossk) Initially in my draft, I wrote a completely new Noghri bounty hunter to face off with Kara. But I soon decided on using a familiar name instead and who else would be better suited for the scene if not Bossk, a Trandoshan bounty hunter with a disdain for Wookiees.
Well that's all for the easter eggs/references. There aren't many in this chapter given its stand alone nature. Check out the next part to see what happens.