บท 107: Hyperspace, Rifts and Everything In-Between (Rifts/SW SI) by Deus_Ex_Transhuman
Words: 30k+
Links: https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/13902
Unexpected travel arrangements
Disclaimer: I own jackshit.
AN: Ok, as usual, I had an idea and it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it out and I'm now stuck with the potential plotline of an entire story stuck in my head. Still, I've got this put together thus far and I'm hoping it makes for a good read. I'm also hoping to keep things relatively simple since game mechanics don't translate one-to-one into 'reality'. There's going to be a fair bit of background explained as the story progresses, so it should be possible for anyone to read this without any background knowledge of Rifts or the various Palladium Books-verses. SW-lore is another thing entirely, since it's a much larger mess to try and untangle.
Still, if anyone has any questions, I'm more than willing t try and answer them as best I can. At least, so long as it doesn't spoil the story for everyone.
Anyway, enjoy!
"MOTHERFU-?!" BOOM!
That was about as far as I got, the curse spilling from my lips even as I was all but thrown out of the Rift I had just jumped through, and being launched at the wall across from it. Instinctively, my eyes flew shut as I tried to bring my arms around, if only to act as some kind of shield as I shot through the air and impacted the concrete-esque wall at high speed. A part of me expected some amount of pain, some level of discomfort from the sudden deceleration, but I sighed in relief as I felt nothing like that, and once more mentally thanked whatever benevolent Gods that might have existed for the armor I was wearing. It had cost a pretty penny, mostly in the form of materials and the training I'd needed to build it, but it was well worth the price and failed prototypes. Especially since it had saved my life more times than I'd care to count.
With that knowledge, I felt a certain amount of relief at knowing that I was still alive, even if I couldn't see a damned thing with my helmet embedded in a concrete wall. Of course, that thought barely crossed my mind when I heard something crack as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. A moment later, I discovered the reason why.
Crack!
"SHIT… !" Thump!
The concrete cracked, unable to support its newest limpet and I found myself in freefall for an instant before landing on my back in a mound of semi-burst rubbish bags, filled with things that only the Gods themselves could identify. Looking up, I found myself looking at a smog-filled sky as spotlights lanced upwards and distant vehicles sped through the air. Absently, I pulled something off my helmet and threw it back into the pile of rubbish as I pulled myself free from them, wiping myself down as I went even as I glanced back to the empty air I had just appeared from. Words flowed quietly down my tongue in an alien language before I felt my existence shift ever-so-slightly, to go along with the slight drain. Suddenly, my vision changed as the world gained an overlay of colour as my sight remained focused on the air in front of me, my body tense as the expectation built inside me for a second…
"The hell?" Only to disappear a second later as I found myself looking at nothing but empty air, having expected to see a Rift floating in mid-air. Instead, there was no trace of the portal that had bumped me in, what looked like, a very dirty back alley filled with copious amounts of shit. Brows furrowed, my head whipped up and down the alley as I looked for any other signs of the portal that had brought me to this new location, only to see nothing once more. More words flowed as my awareness expanded, reaching out beyond the constrictions of simple biology as I felt the world around me, only to be surprised once more. I couldn't feel a single Rift, Portal or dimensional opening anywhere within range of me, not even the slightest hint of even a suppressed or closed one. I felt bemusement fill me at that, even as I felt the power of some distant Ley Lines that snaked over the area.
"No Rifts, no Portals and not even a single trace of any active magic… Where the hell am I?" I muttered to myself as I gave the area another look over, not seeing anything threatening or out of place, but still on guard. A part of me still expected for a new Rift to snap open and for my hunters to come pouring through in an attempt to continue the chase until either I died or they died. Though, considering that I was being chased by at least ten different Deevil Retribution Squads, the chances were that I'd probably be dead long before they were, since Deevils, like Demons could only be killed permanently back in their home dimension. It was unfair, a pain in the ass, and I'd long since lost count of the number of times I'd run into a Deevil, Demon or some other semi-immortal pain in the ass that had come chasing after me, claiming it wanted revenge for one thing or another. Then again, at least they had just cause this time to explain just how pissed off they were, since I had just finished stealing from every single Deevil Lord in Hell, killing several dozen of their followers and releasing a fair number of prisoners that had then run rampant over their various hell-layers.
Still, if I'd finally managed to lose them, then I wasn't going to look a gift-horse in the mouth.
With that thought in mind, I turned on my heel and started walking down the alley, dusting myself off as I went towards the distant sounds of footsteps, voices and street traffic ahead of me. I made a mental note to find somewhere to clean the armor properly, but getting rid of the majority of dirt worked well enough for me. The more liquid or paste-like substances would either need hard work or magic to get out, but I was loathed to do that right now, especially when a sudden arrival of Deevils was still a very real possibility. If they did show up later, I wanted to be able to either fight them of long enough, or run far enough, to be able to escape to a new dimension, and I couldn't do that if I used what little energy I had managed to save for something like that.
… The only saving grace, was that my armor was air-tight and didn't let smells travel through it…
Hidden by the shadows and leaning against a wall, I couldn't help but stare in a mixture of disbelief, amazement and shock as I looked at the street beyond the alley I was currently hiding in.
Everywhere I looked, I saw beings of a dozen kinds walking through the busy streets as voices shouted to be heard over the din of movement. Hovering land vehicles of an equally vast assortment buzzed through the streets as well, just as flying versions shot through the air above my head in an emulation of a road outlined by floating beacons. Shop lights, random stalls and neon signs filled the street for as far as I could see, promoting their various wares and offering discounts, deals and just about every single kind of marketing tactic one could name. I saw weapons being put on sale next to food stuffs, decent-quality body armor pieces being sold next to garages filled with second-hand hovercraft as snake-oil salesmen tried to offer convince people they were getting a better deal than they really were.
Honestly, the entire situation reminded me a bit of the lower levels of Phase World, where the Prometheans didn't bother patrolling as I watched heavily armored gang members of one kind or another wondering through the crowds. Not to mention, I had yet to see a single individual that didn't have some kind of weapon on them, either a gun of some kind strapped to a thigh or waist, or a knife carefully tucked away into a pocket. It was a situation that I had seen a dozen times before, and something that really shouldn't have surprised me, but it did.
Namely, it surprised me because I was looking at a dozen types of beings that I recognized from my old life. I recognized them from my life before I'd been pulled through a surprise Rift and dumped onto the world of Rifts Earth with only the clothes on my back, whatever I'd had in my pockets, and the few 'gifts' I'd gained from the passage through the Rift itself. Even now, fifty-three years later, I still remembered a fair amount of my old life thanks to a mixture of techniques, mental exercises, and self-discipline. However, with the exception of the Rifts Megaverse knowledge I had, I had thought that I'd be lucky to ever see anything related to those old books and films ever again.
And yet, here I was, watching as Twi'leks wondered down the streets, passing by Weequay enforcers and the Human thief they were currently 'investigating'. Over there, I saw a group of Zabrak wondering into a bar as a Rodian was bodily thrown out by a Trandoshan and a Mandalorian in full armor, only to land head first into a pile of rubbish that burst all over him upon landing. I saw Droids waddling through busy streets, either following beyond their owners or going about their business without anything more than the occasional beep at someone that knocked into them. Seeing it all brought back a child-like wonder I had long since thought I'd lost after having survived my first five years on the Rifts Earth, fighting for both my own survival and the skills I'd needed if I had wanted to survive for longer. It was all so impossible, but I savored it all the more for it as I felt a moment of inspiration hit me, alongside a joyous hilarity as I fled back into the depths of the alleyways. Laughter bubbled up from my throat until I couldn't contain it, spilling out as I collapsed to the ground, leaning back against a wall and filling the air with the sound of my joy at what I'd discovered.
Simply put, if the Rift that had brought me here had sealed itself shut to such a degree that it no longer existed, then that meant that there was little, if any, chance of the Deevils ever finding me. Even assuming that they might find this dimension the old fashioned way, there was a very large chance that they'd miss me altogether, since an entire universe was a big place, and there wasn't even a single guarantee that they'd appear in the same Galaxy, never mind the same Galactic Superclusters. Admittedly, it also meant that I'd never be able to see a lot of the people I had come to consider to be friends and comrades again, but a large majority of them had died in battle, trying to make the world a better place by slaying uncountable numbers of evil-things that had crawled through the Rifts. The rest, those that survived and had known what I was planning to do in Dyval, had wished me luck and said their final goodbyes, thinking it a suicide mission of the highest order.
Not that I would deny that, since I had gone in knowing that little fact, fully expecting to die on top of a mountain of Deevil corpses after buying enough time for others to escape. Maybe that was why so many of them had been so understanding? Because they could see that I was, to some degree, seeking a worthy death? A meaningful death? Looking back, I could see the looks of resignation and the expressions that said they had wanted to argue with me, but had bitten their own tongues after the first few arguments had failed to sway me. I remembered words of honor and final goodbyes, wishing me well in the afterlife and hoping that I found what I was looking for…
"… Well… I guess I'll have to keep on going… And you guys will have to wait for me just a bit longer, okay?" I spoke aloud to myself as a hand reached into a hidden compartment and pulled out a locket on a silver chain. Silver and gold filigree danced across its surface as what little light in the alley danced across it, causing the small diamonds, star sapphires and black onyxes to shine in the dim light as my thumb pressed on a hidden latch. Light danced in the air, instantly resolving into a holographic projection as I felt tears pull behind my eyes at the sight before me, of the memories that it brought back that as I stared at the frozen image of me, surrounded by my family; by my wife, my daughter and my two sons.
Looking at the image, I offered a silent prayer for them, hoping that they were in a better place and that I'd see them again when my end came for me, as I felt a tear roll down my face. The temptation was there, always there, to just end things by my own hand so that I could see them again, but just as quickly as it came, it left. Suicide was not an option, never an option, and I knew I'd never be able to face them again if I chose to fall on my own sword, and dishonoring the sacrifices of so many others that I'd fought beside in the doing. Death would eventually take me, but it would either take me on the battlefield with defiance on my lips and weapon in hand, or at the end of my days.
Closing the locket, I put it back in its compartment as a hand pressed against the wall of the alley, supporting me as I stood back up with my resolve reaffirmed and renewed. Already, plans and ideas started forming in my mind as I felt my body moving automatically as old habits and techniques came to the foreground of my being, turning me into a ghost in a sea of people that never even noticed my existence. My heart beat in my chest as a child-like anticipation bubbled up within me, reminding me of my younger days as I disappeared into the vast urban jungle that surrounded me, on a search to discover more about the old-yet-new world I now found myself in.
A smile tugged at my lips at the thought, as I began the first steps of a new adventure…
Sitting in a booth at the back of a cantina by the main spaceport, I sipped away at the drink in my hand as I quietly listened to the gossip that other dinners were whispering to one another from tables away. I picked out names, dates and events as I listened to them talk amongst themselves, topics ranging from the difficulty of the last job they did, to the rising tension between various groups as the Hyperlanes got more dangerous. I listened as some groups mentioned the increase in certain taxes and the stink being raised by those on the Outer Rim as a result. I heard someone talking about the sanctions and embargos directed to specific groups primarily based out in the Outer Rim of the Galaxy and how shit was flowing downhill, as usual as other taxes on certain goods went up to make up the difference. I heard Naboo being mentioned, getting more context as older dinners elaborated to a younger one why the shitshow affected them, along with the positive and negative consequences that came with it.
And that was just on the larger scale of things, 'local' gossip was a lot more common, offering a much more complete picture of things as recent events were discussed and dissected a dozen times by people scattered across the cantina. Three different tables had already mentioned recent gang skirmishes between gangs that were vassals of separate Hutt clans, and I'd honestly lost count of the number of different scams, rackets, deals and offers that were being passed around. Hell, I'd even managed to overhear directions to a local black market that sold everything from Blasters to starships, and came with the advice of offering a generous 'I was never here' tip, to ensure the 'manager' of the place didn't sell you out to anyone looking for an easy mark.
It was still rather basic and barebones on the larger picture, but it was better than nothing as it gave me a general overview of the current situation as I enjoyed the first drink I'd had since having to conduct a 'fighting retreat' through multiple Rifts, Teleportations and Portals from the Deevils. At best guess, that had been somewhere in the region of three weeks ago, and the only reason I was still alive was thanks to the Sustain spells I'd installed in the Techno-Wizardry armor that I'd been wearing for that entire duration. Technically, I was still wearing it, but most of its functions weren't available now that it was in its storage form as the Shark's tooth made from some Obsidian-black metal that currently hung from a steel chain around my neck, hidden by the Conjured clothes I was wearing for the time being. Still, at the very least, it let me speak and understand the vast array of languages that were being spoken by the equally vast number of beings that sat around the cantina, nursing their own drinks and meals.
Over the sound of talking, music filled the air as a band of Bith musicians kept playing the same meandering tune that seemed to be a common staple of cantinas across the Star Wars universe. Then again, there was probably a reason for that, since it also helped cover the sound of private discussions from those wanting to listen in on them.
Downing the last of my drink, I sighed to myself in contentment as I put the glass down on the table, the alcohol hit like a brick wrapped in gold with a hint of lemon, but it was good stuff all the same. Probably a bit on the strong side for more Humans, given the way that it had gone down, but I'd long since stopped worrying about alcohol poisoning after my first attempt at getting hammered when I'd been originally been dropped off on Rifts Earth. And if drinking over eight litres of Moonshine at three different bars couldn't kill me, or even get me slightly buzzed, then I was doubtful about any other kind of drink I might encounter. Well, unless it was something completely alien and exotic, but the times I'd been able to get my hands on something like that were few and far between.
Without even looking, a hand went into my pocket and started counting out Wupiupi coins for another drink as I absently listened to another Spacer talking about a weapons sale taking place at a market close to the spaceport. I made a mental note of that, since weapons were always useful, along with a few of the locations that had already been mentioned as I started cross-referencing what I'd been hearing with the growing shopping list I'd been building in the back of my mind since I'd arrived. Truthfully, I didn't actually need all that much beyond a ship and the supplies I'd need to run it, but I was a bit of a pack rat at heart. More often than not, I'd get something just on the off-chance that it might be useful, even if it only proved so by letting me understand how it worked by taking it apart and studying it. It was a habit that had nearly driven a few of my friends up the wall when we'd been fighting together, but they changed their tune pretty quickly when I pulled out the right tool for the job.
… Me being smug about it probably hadn't helped, but they'd shut up about it after the third time it happened and we'd all agreed to drop the entire matter after that.
Of course, that was all besides the point.
The actual point was that I was in a new universe with an unknown amount of new things to learn and I wanted to dive right into things. Not straight away, since I wasn't stupid and was well aware of some of the dangers that lurked around this particular universe. Not to mention the fact that there was only so much that a single man could do, even with all the best gear in the Galaxy, especially since many of the problems that I knew were coming either only came in 'Horde' sized mobs, were beings powerful enough to use planets as pinballs, or were somewhere in the middle. Trying to survive those kinds of things was… Doable, but I wanted to do more than just surviving, especially after spending several weeks being chased by Deevils that were hoping to give me several 'worse than death' treatments before dragging me back to Dyval in chains.
I wanted to do more than survive, I wanted to thrive!
"Slow and steady… Slow and steady…" I repeated to myself with a sigh before my excitement could get the better of me, as I considered what I'd need in order for this to become something more than just another 'hare-brained scheme', as others would have called it. At a very minimum, in order to be able to thrive in the way I envisioned, that meant I'd need resources, a support base, and people to crew it all. I'd also need to fund it, either through my own pocket or through having investors supplying some amount of the funding, even if that meant giving said investors some manner of control over how their funds were used. I was more likely to fund it out of my own pocket, even if that meant taking a slower pace than I'd have wanted to, especially with the Naboo Crisis having just happened. Still, I need to do some research on the best sources of potential funds, since the only ones that came to mind for high-risk high-reward payments were Bounty Hunting, Pirate Hunting, transporting high-value cargos, or various forms of investing.
Of course, that was without bringing Magic and the like into the equation. Conjuring could let me create ingots of rare and valuable metals to sell easily enough, making them permanent in exchange for decreasing my total energy reserves. There were also various spells that would let me find, mine and refine valuable metals reasonably easily, though, I'd probably be looking at Asteroid mining for the majority of it. Aside from that, repair old junk with a few spells and returning it to fully functionality was another possibility that might be worth exploring, especially since there might be some real treasure hidden in the countless megatonnes of rubbish that was thrown away every day on nearly every planet. Again, I'd need to investigate to see about what other options might be present, since those were just the ones I could think of off the top of my head. They'd serve as a good starting point, but I wanted to ensure I could have a steady flow of income to support the construction of a power base, especially since I wanted to make sure it could see me well into the future.
With that in mind, I shifted out of my seat and headed for the bar, Wupiupi in hand as I went to grab bottle of Kri'gee from the bartender to drink at a later date. It was bitter stuff, but potent and I liked the taste of it more than I did Ne'tra gal after I tried it. A few minutes later, I walked out of the cantina with a bottle of gut-rot in the inside of my jacket and a few coins lighter before slipping into the crowd, heading for one of the black markets that someone had mentioned earlier.
It was time to get started.
Turns out that finding a ship on Nar Shaddaa was rather easy.
Finding one that was in semi-decent condition and/or wasn't trapped, on the other hand… That was rather more difficult. Virtually every black marketeer I'd visited over the course of three days had ships for sale, but all of them were in less than stellar condition, with several of them being rigged to fail or run out of fuel after a timer ran out. More than once, I'd run into salesmen that had tried to sell me a ship, while also planning to sell me out to pirates by providing them with one of several tracker frequencies. The ships that weren't rigged in such a manner were few and far between, and were very expensive because of it. Admittedly, the people selling them did offer an investment plan to pay back the full price of the ship, but that would indebted me to the Hutts, which was something to be avoided at all costs.
However, on the fourth day, I had finally hit paydirt. A second-hand YT-1210 light freighter that had seen a bit of wear and tear, but was in good condition all things considered. A quick once over had shown that, while it did need some work to iron out the rough edges, all of the main systems still worked to a pretty good standard, even if a few of the sublight engines needed some work done. The saleswoman, a purple-skinned Twi'lek wearing a semi-sweat-drenched vest top, and overall with the top half tied around her waist, and a heavy tool belt, had even been kind enough to only charge one-hundred-and-eighty thousand credits for the ship as an opening bid, something that was actually fairly cheap for the area, since every other ship I'd run across was being sold for double or triple the retail price. A bit of haggling later, and I'd managed to lower the price fifteen thousand credits in exchange for a full fuel tank, some spare parts, a pair of old Zephyr-G Swoops and a free warning that I'd probably need to register the ship as mine once I got the chance.
We'd both walked away from the deal happy, with her being none-the-wiser that I'd been… Helping things along with a few Psionic tricks I'd picked up over the years. Then again, I doubted she would have cared all that much, since she got more credits to line her pocket and I got a starship out of the deal.
Which is how I found myself in a semi-empty cargo hold with piles of equipment lying around me, along with a half dozen partially disassembled Droids that were lined up against one wall. Several devices were in various stages of disassembly as a datapad floated next to me as it scrolled down at a near-blistering pace as I used a few Psionic techniques to help digest the highly technical texts in record time. It was one of several that I'd collected over the course of my stay on Nar Shaddaa, filled with technical information from various Holonet sites that I'd accessed and downloaded. The one I was currently reading covered subjects like Astrogation, Astrocartography, Hyperspace mechanics, and several other related fields that covered a large range of phenomena that seemed to only be possible thanks to Hyperspace. Already, I'd lost count of the number of situational exceptions that referenced other fields of science due to countless millennia of various civilizations using Hyperspace to move across the Galaxy.
On one hand, part of me was excited to learn more about these exceptions and how they interacted with the rest of the known laws of physics. However, on the other hand, another part of me was almost frothing at the mouth as I saw repeated references to things like natural meta-materials, stupidly abundant super-materials that were being taken for granted, and the less said about things like Tibanna gas, the better. How something shat out of a massive gasbag had such energy density, I'd never know…
Suddenly, I paused as I felt the ship shudder, a feeling of vertigo coming over me for an instant before disappearing just as quickly as I stood up from my spot on the floor. A thought caused the datapad to slowly drop to the floor as the Manipulate Object spell was ended as I marched through the ship until I reached the cockpit. A series of whistles came from the right side of the room, catching my attention for a second as I saw the grey-with-red-highlights Astromech Droid, one of several I'd bought on Nar Shaddaa.
"Yeah, you did good, little guy." I stated, rubbing a hand against the slightly dirty dome of the R2-series Astromech that was currently working as the equivalent of an auto-pilot for my new ship. In response, the little Droid let loose a whirlwind of whistles and beeps, acting like an eager child and reminding me of my own children for a moment. I felt my heart ache at that thought, only comforted by the knowledge that it was quick, that those Deevil and Demon bastards didn't get the chance to do much before I ended them. It was a cold comfort, but it helped to deal with the lose, especially as I looked into the maelstrom of energy that formed Hyperspace.
"Damn…" The word slipped out of my mouth without thought, but it was true all the same. It was an breath-taking sight, one that I honestly wondered how people could get used to, even if you saw it every day of your life. Even so, intellectually, I knew I'd probably join the ranks of people that viewed it as such, but I'd take the time to enjoy the little things for as long as I could, especially since doing so wasn't mutually exclusive with the rest of my goals.
"How long until we reach our destination?" I asked the Droid, never taking my eyes off of the vortex before me as it beeped it's answer back to me in a string of Binary. " Three days, huh? Alright then, keep an eye on things and give me a head's up a minute before we're due to leave Hyperspace or something happens. In the meantime, I'll be back in the cargo bay."
Staring into the Hyperspace vortex for a bit longer, I turned and left the cockpit of my new ship a moment later, the sounds of a happy Droid trailing behind me as I made my way back to the Cargo bay I had turned into a make-shift workshop. At the very least, it gave me plenty of time to study and learn more about the inner workings of yet another universe I'd once thought of as nothing more than a work of fiction. Not to mention, it would also give me a chance to look through some of the other Dimensional Pockets that I'd made in my armor and try to organize them. By the end of my 'stay' in Dyval, I was just shoving random crap into whatever Pocket had the most space available before moving on, sometimes during the middle of an on-going battle. Most of the stuff was probably just a large assortment of crap that the various Deevil Lords kept around as decoration, but I might've also grabbed a few gems along the way. I mean, I remembered grabbing more than a few impressive looking books, among other things, so there was that.
Plus, if it gave me a chase to finally sort out the massive amount of crap I'd already stuffed into my various Dimensional Pockets on previous adventures, all the better. Honestly, sometimes I was just as curious to know what I had in them as the others had been at times, even if I still remained smug about always having a good array of tools on hand…
The sound of an alarm filled the air for three beats, only to cease a moment later as I looked up from the datapad I'd been reading through at my usual Psionically-enhanced pace before ending the spell holding it in mid-air. As it lowered itself to the ground, my hands moved automatically, picking up parts that had been left floating in mid-air and reassembling them into a fully functional DL-44 Heavy Blaster pistol in a blur of practiced motion. A moment later, the weapon was whole again as I looked it over before snapping it up and pulling the trigger. A blue bolt of Plasma leapt out of the barrel of the weapon, crossing the cargo bay and hitting a block of Durasteel I'd Conjured to act as a target, already marred with numerous pits, holes and scorch marks from previous hits.
"Not bad…" I muttered to myself as I put the DL-44 on a nearby worktop, next to several other, similar, Blasters in various stages of disassembly, all in an effort to expand my understanding of the local techbase to a reasonable degree. Admittedly, it helped that a large amount of information I'd learned while I was in the Rifts Megaverse was still valid to some degree, even if the numerous exceptions to some laws of physicals I was familiar with was slowing things down. Still, I was learning and improving pretty quickly with the help of several Droids acting as teachers for various subjects, along with the copious amounts of tricks and techniques I was using to speed up the learning process. Even with those advantages, however, I'd still need to spend some time reinforcing the learning with a bit of practical work. The Blaster being one example of that.
Walking out of the primary cargo bay, I grabbed a ration bar from a nearby shelf as I left the chamber, absently peeling it open and taking a bite. It was bland, utterly tasteless and felt like I was chewing cardboard, but very filling and rated for Humans, Near-Humans and dozens of races of Non-Humans. And, after having spent weeks being chased by Deevils and using Sustain spells to keep myself alive without food, even something as unappetizing as this was practically ambrosia. Certainly, it gave me a new appreciation for some of the little things in life, such as being able to spend some time sleeping in a comfortable bed or eating just about any kind of food.
Quickly, the ration bar disappeared down my gullet as I moved through the ship, heading for the cockpit as a thought brought another datapad into my hand from a table I'd left just outside of the main hold. This one wasn't filled with tomes of academic knowledge, but information about my destination, notes about what I could remember being present on the planet, and a few other ideas that might be worth pursuing in the future, once I had more resources to invest in them.
"We almost there, R2?" I asked as I stepped into the cockpit, my head down as I skimmed over the information in the datapad one more time, ensuring that I had it all committed to memory, so as to ensure that I wasn't caught off by some native wildlife that I might have missed in my initial read through. In response, a series of whistles and beeping filled the air as the little R2-series Droid, R2-G6, hopped from side to side as it reported the status of the ship. Looking up, I smiled at the little Astromech and patted it on the dome, taking a seat at the controls as I mentally continued the countdown that it had given me as I watched the Hyperspace vortex. Seconds ticked by one by one as I felt the ship around me shudder as energy pooled and was released, something shifting as the maelstrom of energy disappeared into a star-sprinkled canvas of black as soon as the countdown reached zero.
Looking at the cockpit canopy, the first thing that immediately caught my attention was my chosen destination, having appeared directly in front of my new ship and dominating the view even as the sensors of my little ship sang with each new object it detected in the surrounding space. A glance down allowed me to read a few of the labels that marked each object, ranging from random hunks of rock, to beacons that bracketed the entire planet, outlining various approaches for the various facilities on-planet. Absently, I counted how many there were that my ship could detect per corporation, even from just outside the Gravity well of the planet in question. Almost immediately, I felt my eyebrow rise involuntarily as I saw a clear pattern quickly emerge, seeing one name that seemed to dominate the void surrounding the planet nearly a hundred to one. Not unexpected, given what I knew, but still surprising to see just how extensive their interests in the planet were. Still, they weren't limited access to the planet, so their presence wasn't going to affect my own business here.
"… Put the ship in a stable, geo-stationary orbit, but ready to move." I stated as I rose from the pilot's seat, turning to leave and head back to the primary cargo bay. "I've got preparations to make, but I'll be back soon with some landing coordinates."
An acknowledging whistle followed me as I headed back to my ad-hoc workshop as ideas spun around in my mind, considering and then throwing away options as I tried to figure out the best method to complete my self-appointed tasks. Technology wouldn't have been an option, since any technology that could be used to find what I was looking for wasn't something didn't have the required range to cover the entire planet and pin-point it. Psionic abilities were designed to search for this kind of objective, even if they'd help me with several others that I wanted to deal with before I left the planet. Finally, that left Magic, which had several spells that could be used to find what I sought. Range was the main limiting factor with most of the spells, however, but those could be offset through a number of methods. Not to mention, if you were willing to lose some amount of precision, I'd found that you could massively expand the range of some spells for the equivalent amount of power.
Given that I wanted to search an entire planet, I'd probably lose a lot of precision in order to narrow down the search area even a small bit, which would require multiple castings. It would be tiring, but it was still better than the alternatives I could think of, especially since I doubted I was lucky enough to just stumble across my goals…
Stepping down the ramp of my ship, I looked over the volcanic terrain of the planet around me as rivers of lava flowed over the basalt landscape, shimmering with an ever-present heat-haze that rose into the air above. Distant volcanoes thundered away as fresh materials bubbled up from within the planet and poured it out, onto the surface. Volcanic ash and smog filled the air, making it difficult to breathe without some kind of Rebreather of some kind. Honestly, the entire sight made me think I had just stepped onto someone's vision of a volcanic hell-world, a thought that was only made more apparent as volcanic bombs showered some distant plateau in high-temperature, exploding rocks.
It honestly made me thankful once more for the numerous Techno-Wizardry enchantments and enhancements I'd worked into my armor. Some being adding out of a sense of paranoia, while others were added as a direct result of previous experiences that might have killed me if I hadn't been just lucky enough to survive.
The fact that it made me look somewhat like an all grey-black version of Metal Gear's Grey Fox in its default colouration was just an added bonus.
From behind me, I heard the whine of engines powering back up as the boarding ramp to my ship closed behind me. A moment later, and the ship was gone as it took to the air under G4's control, heading for orbit once more with instructions to come back when I gave the required signals. Given the fact that the entire planet was in a constant state of tectonic eruption, I felt it a good idea not to test how stable with something as heavy as a starship on top of it. At least, not over an extended period of time, and especially not since I was about to ruin what little stability was probably present in the current iteration of the landscape as I channeled power once more. The words for a Locate spell were whispered aloud inside my own helmet as I focused on what I was looking for, energy pooled and then disappeared in an instant as a sudden sense of direction filled me, along with the knowledge of where to look for what I had come for.
Looking down, I could easily visualize what I was looking for, buried deep under the basalt layers of lava-formed stone, having been trapped in those layers for thousands of years. It would have stayed like that for a few more decades, if I remembered right, but I had no intention of leaving it like that as the words for another spell came to my lips and power flowed with them. Suddenly, the ground under me surged up as a Humanoid creature formed from the ash-covered ground, softening into a figure of flowing mud as two pits filled with an inner life formed the only features of an utterly blank face. It was so big that I had to look up at it, towering over me by at least half a metre for a second before I nodded to the Little Mud Mound before me.
"There is a vessel of iron and steel buried under this molten landscape, within this valley-region. I summoned you, and others to follow, here to a safe, stable tunnel from the surface to this vessel for me that won't be breached by lava or magma. Once done, I shall release you back to the Elemental Plane. Is that acceptable?" The Fragment of an Earth Elemental offered no response beyond a simple nod before I watched the creature turn and begin. A hand was raised and pointed to the ground as I watched basalt slowly flow in on itself, forming a slowly sinking hole as the Fragment seemed to slowly sink into the ground, disappearing from all forms of detection as it merged back into its element to continue its work. With that done, I immediately started the process again as the same words came to my lips with the intent of summoning more of the Elemental Fragments to help speed up the process. Even then, it would still take a fair amount of work and effort to find what I was looking for, but I'd already spent the last twelve hours trying to narrow down the potential search area to something smaller than an entire planet. A few more hours wasn't too much longer to wait, all things considered.
Besides, at least this way, I knew I'd get some helpers to do most of the heavy lifting. Admittedly, I could have tried to summon a Greater Earth Elemental to speed up the process, but there was no guarantee that the summoning would have worked, along with just how tiring the entire summoning could be for someone.
And, as far as I could tell, being tired on Mustafar was about as synonymous with 'dead' and 'stupid' as you could get…
AN: And there you have it, the latest story to come from the madhouse known as my brain after getting a random idea. Hope you lot enjoyed it and feel free to ask questions if you need something clarified. As always, feel free to five suggestions, feedback and comments as the story progresses. Cheers.
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