Chapter 96: Survival of the Fittest
I don't own star wars.
"Okay… a little harder than I thought…" I grumbled exhausted, dropping the parts I had managed to collect from the other ships as Killa watched me. "…My dad, my uncle, my moms, all of my aunts…" I kicked a piece of burned-out scrap into the wall, "And nobody teaches me anything mechanical…" I sighed, sitting down next to her. "You're right, we're going to die out here…"
She continued to stare at me, "…If we last long enough to get my strength back we could sneak back into the city to find a com to call your ship…"
"We have no food, no water, and one shot." I said, holding up the tri-barrel blaster. "One shot isn't really great for hunting unless you're really good at it." I noted with a sigh. "…The only place that has water is that giant lake on the other side of the town… and I assume that it's salty?"
She shrugged, "I don't know. I'm not a native, I only came here a few times…" she began limping around the ship, trying to pace in thought. "…Our best option is to wait it out." She watched me for a moment, "…And you are a hunter are you not? You've hunted on Kashyyyk?"
"Yeah. With a bowcaster, or more than one shot. This just puts a lot of pressure on me." I held up the blaster again, "And I don't know what would, and would not be good to eat around here. Plus, we'd have to make a fire to cook it…" I sighed angrily to myself. "…I'm going to have to go back myself and try to scrounge for supplies…"
"That…" she watched me for a moment, "I have no confidence in your ability to do that." She said flatly.
"Well thank you Killa." I replied sardonically, as she sighed and shook her head. "…But it's either that or essentially starve until we're found or…" she held up a hand, staring at the partially open door of the ship we were currently using as shelter. We stopped talking as we heard chatter… sounded like Duros. We sat on the opposite edges of the ramp as they wandered close to the ship, lights flashing as they looked around.
"They wouldn't come here… it's too close to the city they'd keep going…" someone said, "We should've brought Tagler."
"Fuck Tagler, I'm not giving him a cut. A four way split is already too much in my book." Check that one. We held our breath as the lights flashed up the ramp, Killa drew the vibro knife from her boot, holding it ready as I held up the tri-blaster."
"Look there's nothing here but old ships." Another said, "We should head back and search with the daylight. We're asking for trouble coming out here in the dark. If the wild beasts don't get us the jungle witch will.
A couple of the duros laughed. "You believe that? There's no witch… its just some old wives tale that big Varli man told us in the bar. I looked at Killa who shrugged, she apparently never heard of a 'witch' either.
"Fine. Even so. I'm not staying out here as Nexu bait… the trained ones kill you too slowly for my liking, I'd hate to see a wild one."
"Go then you coward!" shouted a Duros, "Come on we'll check another one…" we released a collective sigh as Killa looked at me, nodding slowly…
"…Great… now we got them to worry about." I whispered and I sighed, "…Candi wants me alive. I could surrender and say you left me behind."
"There is a 20% chance she'll enslave you and probably kill you." Killa said firmly, "…And I promised I'd get you home. And if there's one good trait Blackjaw taught me it's the meaning of a promise."
I let my head rest on the cool metal of the ship. "…Alright." I said closing my eyes, "…Out of the two of us I'd expect you to have more of survival training." Then came the screaming…
We looked at each other as we tried to pull the door even further shut. The Duros apparently found something in the dark, and it wasn't us. Killa eyed the cot rather hopefully. "…One of us should stay on watch in case something out there decides to get eager."
I gestured to the cot, "After you…" she looked at me and I shrugged, "Out of the two of us you need the rest. Go on." She nodded slowly, and carefully crawled to the cot, I looked away. She was only wearing a tight under suit and… well she had a very nice butt. But in these circumstances, I figured it wouldn't be right to look. She lied down carefully, hissing as her ribs pained her, I heard a scream run by followed by a low growl… then blaster fire, and the screaming stopped. But so, did the growling so… maybe he lucked out and ran back.
I let Killa sleep, trying to occupy my mind with anything as I stayed on watch… but I wasn't used to such things, my eyelids getting heavy… it felt like hours, but it was probably minutes into the watch as I drifted off to sleep. Dreaming of my ship and its occupants.
I awoke to an alert Killa, stomping the ramp open as the light of day flickered through the window of the ship. "Morning…" she said flatly.
I rubbed my eyes, annoyed with myself for falling asleep but she shook off my apology. "It's fine." She said, "…Now we're both rested, but we'll have to do better if we are to survive… speaking of." She took the blaster, "… Let's go see if the beasts of the jungle left gifts."
They did, and I learned that the bones of Duros are tinged slightly blue. There was very little left of them, a few broken blasters and a couple of packs, torn open and essentially picked clean.
"Damn." She said, but lifted what looked like a flask, she sniffed and flinched. "Beer." She scowled, "Not exactly the best, but it will have to do." She then picked up a blaster and sighed. "…Better than nothing."
"Any coms? Food? A spare charge for your blaster?" I asked toeing what I think was a femur and stepping away.
"Everything else is destroyed or worthless to us." She replied, holding out a belt to me. "Need a belt?" she asked sarcastically. Holding up a belt with a blaster holster.
I sighed in defeat. "No." she dropped it, and got to her feet, hissing as she clutched her side in pain. "Ribs still hurt?" I asked concerned.
"Blackjaw leaves marks inside and out…" she spat bitterly, but I'm not sure if she was angry with me. She lifted the blaster and growled angrily as her face contorted in pain. Her arm dropped, and she held it out to me, "You'll be a better shot with this than I right now." I took the blaster, and then lifted the belt she offered me earlier to use the holster.
"Okay… do we go back? Stay put?... go deeper?" I said, staring ahead into the jungle.
"…The likely hood of finding a working ship increases the further we go in, as does the danger." She took a deep breath, flinching at the pain, "…But staying put would be safe, and going back would give us more but dangerous options…"
"…So… what would you suggest?"
"…The warrior in me demands that I go further in and face my death with pride." She said, standing a little straighter.
"Stop." I said annoyed, rubbing my eyes as she stared at me surprised, "Just stop with the death wish please." I took a deep breath, "…But I agree with you. We'll go further in… there must be a smaller water source further in or the beasts won't be able to survive out here."
"…You're smarter than I gave you credit for." She said as I helped her along.
"Yeah well… my Uncle the wookiee warrior and all that. He taught me a few survival tricks… granted they'd probably work better on Kashyyyk." Then I looked at her, "…What do you mean I'm smarter than you gave me credit for?"
"…I'll admit my opinion of you was biased considering Blackjaw's stories of your father…" she added, flinching every now and again.
"Do I want to know?" I asked, going further into the jungle.
"…They were not very flattering." She said and with a surprisingly small, but very pretty smile.
I sighed, "…You know, my dad's a pretty good guy." She frowned softly as I continued, "He taught me to shoot, stand up for myself, right from wrong, all the proper dad things. I mean yeah, he slept around with a collection of beautiful ladies, but he loved all of them. Married two of them… up until recently I had a really nice life."
"…A lot better than mine I'd imagine…" she said sourly, but I didn't press. It did not seem like she had a happy childhood and I didn't want to open any fresh scars. Emotional or otherwise.
"…Just… keep your eyes open for anything hungry. Other than me." She chuckled, and we moved further on. I don't know how far we wandered into the jungle, but I was starting to think it was weird that there was essentially nothing trying to eat us.
When I pointed this out to Killa she became more alert, even annoyed. She stopped walking along with me to look around. "…You're right. Those Duros last night were attacked and we've yet to see any sort of creature…"
"In a forest of predators, silence means the king is nearby…" I said, and suddenly I sighed. It was something Caradoc said once after a lean day of hunting.
"What does that mean?" she asked, eyes narrowing in thought.
"…Something bad." I said, pulling out the blaster and looking around. "But that was Kashyyyk and this is not… maybe I'm wrong… or there could be something awful waiting to…"
…Then I heard a blaster prime…
"Shit." We said together.
"Why hello there!" said a cheerful raspy voice as a woman appeared, she was dressed in furs and bones and had a manic look on her face. She was a Rattataki with a few years on her… and she looked kind of familiar. "A pretty boy and girl have come to visit. Did they bring me any gifts?" she grinned, her teeth had looked like they'd seen better days. Much like the rest of her.
"…Maybe?" I said, and Killa glared at me.
She chuckled and gestured for me to drop my blaster, and with a sigh I did. "Good boy." She grinned again and approached, looking me up and down and leveling her heavy blaster carbine on me, "Let me see what you brought for Varli…"
…Varli?
"Like the Varlis?" I asked in surprise before I could stop myself. She eyed me for a moment, then glowered at me dangerously. Immediately I felt I made a mistake, but as she continued to hand pat my body and she found the flask of beer she suddenly grinned broadly.
"What's this?" she unscrewed it skillfully in one hand and sniffed, before laughing and downing the contents in one gulp. "Ah… that hit the spot." Then she glared at me again, "…Met my clones did you?" she said with cold contempt in her voice. "Bunch of ungrateful bitches. You teach them everything you know and then they try to kill you. I'd be more pissed off if I wasn't so damn proud"
"…The ones I know don't look like you." I said sourly.
Her eyebrow rose slightly and she smirked, "Oh… you mean the 'grandkids'… I was talking about the originals. Ichi, Zwei, and Trei. Nevermind. Was one flask of beer really all you had?" she grumbled annoyed, eyeing Killa was an annoyed disdain. "And this pretty thing doesn't have anything either… Now do I want to kill and eat you? Or let the wildlife do it?"
"You're saying that you're the original Varli?" Killa said suddenly, drawing her attention, "That's not possible, she was dropped into the Maw."
"Oh. No that was my first clone, Varli-Zero." She said with a dismissive wave, "I saw their murderous intent a mile away, so I did a bait and switch. Anyway…" she kicked the blaster into the undergrowth and yawned, "Good luck!"
"Seriously!?" I shouted as she walked away. "Just… rob us and leave!?"
"You're cute kid, but it's survival of the fittest out here. And I'm the queen of the jungle…" she said with a mocking laugh, vanishing into the jungle.
"…I really hate this planet." I said trying to find the blaster.
"She's mad." Killa said watching the spot where she vanished, "…There's no way she's the original Varli."
"I… really don't understand or care." I said, growling as I couldn't find the damn blaster. Kicking a nearby tree in anger as I turned back to her, "We're screwed! Just when I think we luck out we find some kind of… jungle witch!?"
"At least she didn't shoot us." She said acceptingly, trying to help me find the blaster.
"Yet. The word you're looking for is 'yet'" I said, "Well… it was obviously a stupid decision to go deeper. We should've gone back."
Killa was quiet, but she at least found the blaster, slapping it into my chest. Before turning and limping back the way we came. I watched her go for a moment, then ran up to catch her. "…Sorry." I said, and she looked at me, shaking her head.
"It's fine… this is a stressful situation where the odds are highly against us." She sighed, and flinched again, "God damn ribs…" she hissed, and once again I helped her along. Trying to put as much distance as us and the 'witch' in case she decided she wanted to shoot and eat us… I wasn't going to risk it: Rattataki, especially hermit Rattataki are weird."
We wasted most of the day, and the best that happened was we returned to the broken ship… the daylight was dimming, and now another decision had to be made. "…We could camp here again or try to sneak back into the town…"
She shook her head and opened her mouth… but a low hissing growl emerged and I knew we were in trouble. Pulling the blaster I turned towards the sound to see a massive, bloody-lipped Nexu, its huge maw opening and revealing sharp rotten teeth with pits of unidentified flesh struck between them.
It released a horrific shriek and charged. I shoved Killa away firing at its skin to draw its attention away from her. It flinched at the hot blaster fire but kept coming.
'…wait until you won't miss'
Caradoc's words echoed in my head. And I held my breath, reaching for my sword with my other hand I fired the blaster, it pierced the creature's eyes and it emitted a horrific cry of pain as he scrambled around the field, I snapped out my sword as it turned to me in rage-filled fury. I kept blasting again as it came at me, I rolled as it dove at me. It however recovered faster than I could pinning me to the ground its gaping maw opening wide to chomp down…
Suddenly a heavy blaster bolt slammed into its side and it flew away, going still. One of the ships had been turned on, its main gun primed and smoking as Killa exited the ship. She looked at me for a minute, "…Good work." She said with some sincerity. She eyed my shoulder, the Nexu's claws had created a few bleeding scratches. "…You alright?" she asked eyeing the blood flow.
"Fine enou-" I paused and sighed as three other Nexu crawled from the jungle, snarling and spitting hungrily. "…Oh no…" I grumbled, handing her the tri-barrel blaster and aiming with her as we slowly began back up towards the ship she had exited…
Then just as they charged, came the miracle. Heavy blaster fire peppered the ground and the trees parted as the Lost Dream smashed through the trees, killing and driving off the nexu as it landed. I stared in utter amazement at the sight of my ship and I immediately hugged Killa, who went rigged at my embrace.
Rattletraps guns continued to pepper the jungle, utterly destroying the trees as they tried to kill the locked on Nexu. Until finally they went silent and the ramp opened.
"Bro!" Rattletrap shouted, charging down the ramp and jump-tackling me from behind as he hugged me. "You're alive!" he then stared at Killa's face and blinked, "…And you found another babe!"
Killa glared at him as Nike and Caradoc exited the ship. Nike glared at Killa for a moment then quickly checked my shoulder, "…shit. Get on the ship and let me look at you." She said coolly, glaring at Killa angrily and dragging me away with Rattletrap still attached. Caradoc sniffed at Killa, dragging her onto the ship too… And soon enough we were leaving Juggalo II behind. Can't say I wasn't glad to see it go as we hyper-drived away.
"How did you guys find me?" I asked as Nike Kolto patched the nexu slashes on my shoulder. Rattletrap waved around the display-com.
"This thing suddenly went wild! Told us you were on Juggalo, and your ship key had a tracker. As soon as we were in range? Bammo! Found you!" he chattered happily as he dropped the display com next to me and stood proudly. "You're welcome."
Caradoc shoved Killa into a nearby seat glaring at her silently as Nike continued to patch me… then I blinked. "…Who's driving the ship?"
"X-E!" Rattletrap replied proudly, "She's got a knack for it… after I downloaded the basics."
"Who?" I asked confused as Nike gently caressed the kolto patches on my shoulder.
"Traps' new droid friend." Nike noted softly, looking into my eyes, "You alright?"
"Yeah, it's just a scratch. Check Killa she's got a few bruised ribs."
"That is the least of her problems." Caradoc sniffed.
"Caradoc." I said firmly. He sniffed again and lifted Killa to the table as Nike checked her carefully.
"…Two… three bruised ribs." Killa suddenly shrieked as she prodded again, "…And one broken one. You're probably going to need a Kolto bath… but I can deaden the pain." Nike was speaking professionally but sounded bitter. Looking at Killa's face again and again as she checked her over. "…We're going to tattooine." She glared at me suddenly, then Rattletrap and Caradoc. "Everyone out, I'm going to apply the patches and I need to get to her skin."
"Aw…" Rattletrap mumbled disappointedly as Caradoc lifted him up and walked out with him. I however stared at Nike for a moment.
"Play nice please?" I asked, walking out without hearing her answer.
I just left the door when I forgot the display-com, heading back to wait and get it….
"…Are we going to have a problem?" came Killa's voice, followed by a painful hiss.
"You kidnap my captain again. Then yes. We're going to have a problem. Just because you bat those pretty emerald eyes at him and he forgives you doesn't mean this ship will."
"I see. You are jealous… I suppose I would be too if I found my man in the arms of another woman." She hissed angrily again, "S-stop." She snarled.
"I found my captain in the arms of a woman who kidnaped him. I refuse to have him suffer Balmorra syndrome. No matter how PRETTY she is…" she growled with a bitter spat.
"…He saved my life. Quite a few times in the last couple of days…" Killa replied, "…If anyone were suffering from Balmorra syndrome it would more than likely be m- OW!"
"Nike!" I shouted angrily and my cathar friend gasped, I still stayed outside the room. Giving Killa privacy, but now that I made my presence known… I imagine she'll behave.
"…I'm done anyway." She spat, stomping out the door but staring angrily at me. "…I'm glad you're okay." She said, kissing my cheek gently and heading towards the kitchen.
"Are you decent?" I asked after a moment.
"Yes." Killa replied, exiting the room and rubbing her ribs gently. "…And I imagine I got off easy."
"You can take a bunk." I said, gesturing to the crew quarters, "Get some rest while we fly…"
She stared at me for a moment, then nodded her thanks. "…Thank you Roland." She said gratefully, walking with more control than recently as she headed to the crew's quarters. I headed towards my own room, dropping not so subtly onto the bed and closing my eyes…
End of Chapter
hope you're all keeping track of the Varlis. Varli(prime) Varli-Zero (dead), Varli-Ichi, Varli-Zwei, Varli-Trei, Varli-Dausut, Varli-Seis, Varli-Epta. And of course Papa-Chetrye. There won't be a test, but just in case you get confused.
Also, Dausut, Seis and Epta are technically siblings as they came from the genetically the same woman. (And poor father) But Seis is the oldest and Zwei's daughter, Dausut is Ichi's and Epta is Trei's.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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