Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage

We drove for a while, crossing the gap between the prison mine and the rest of the city built under the energy dome's protection. Eventually, we made our way into an industrial district surrounding the mine in a crescent moon shape. Space was clearly a premium under the dome, but the gap still took around a minute to cross. I idly wondered if that was a safety precaution to catch escapees who tried to book it on land or an attempt to prevent collapses or other mine issues from affecting the infrastructure. Once we crossed the gap and faded into the buildings along the edge, all three of us sagged in relief.

"Alright, what's our next step?" I asked. "My instinct is to find an off-world communication station and contact the rest of the team. I want to know if they were caught up in anything or if they made it off that planet cleanly."

"I realize now that this might be a bit late to ask this, but why were you sent to the mines?" Vaz asked.

"We escaped being made slaves on Nar Shaddaa," I explained, leaning back in my seat. "Since it was their fault we were there, we decided to "borrow" some resources from the slavers. In the process, we fucked over Jabba the Hutt, not that we knew it at the time. He put a bounty on our heads, and somebody collected."

"What about you?" Tatnia asked, looking at Vaz through her mirror as she drove. "How did you end up there?"

"My father ran afoul of a crime boss before he retired. He thought he paid his debts and laid the grudge to rest, but the crime boss disagreed."

"The Black Sun?" I asked, doing my best to hide my nervousness at the idea of being on such an infamous and widespread organization's radar.

"No, just a planetary crime lord." She assured me, shaking her head. "I doubt he has the connections to even learn that I have escaped."

"Right. Sorry, I needed to ask. If it had been, we would have to be much more careful," I apologized. "Maybe even find a way to fake your death or something. So what happened?"

"I understand," She said with a nod before continuing. "This crime lord put a bounty on my father, but I managed to escape. I was in the process of seeking revenge when I was caught. Instead of killing me, I was sold for a small shipment of spice."

"Are you going to go off on revenge again?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"No, I will not." She assured me, looking out the window. "I have wasted enough of my life on him, I will not lose more time. Besides, crime lords have notoriously short lifespans, he may already be dead."

"Comes with the territory, I guess," I agreed before sighing and taking a long breath. "Right, we still need to figure out what we are doing. We should get in contact with the others to at least tell them what's going on and make sure they are okay. Depending on the situation, we may just wait for them to pick us up… or we might try and find our own ride off this planet."

"No stealing shipments of spice," Tatnia said, looking at me sternly. "Yes, we could make a ton of money, but it would not be worth it. You were nervous about getting Black Sun's attention, that's how you get people like them to take an interest in someone."

"Alright, I didn't want to do that anyway. But that's going to reduce the pool for potential ships by a lot," I pointed out. "Especially because if we are worried about messing with the spice, then the ships delivering materials to treat the mediari would also be off limits."

"... Damn, you're right," Tatnia agreed, chewing her lips.

"For now, let's focus on step one, finding an off-world capable comms unit," I suggested, getting two nods in agreement.

The way that communication systems worked in Star Wars was one of the reasons I was so glad I negotiated for a general knowledge package before the entities dropped me off in my cell oh so long ago. In both canon lines, the handheld comms units sometimes acted like walkie-talkies, other times, they acted like cell phones, and while Legends did talk about things like the Holonet using buoys to connect planets together for the equivalent of the internet, none of what I was exposed to talked deeply about what the Holonet was, save an internet equivalent. That wasn't surprising, as most of these books were written in the early 2000s when the internet was just becoming something exciting and potentially useful, not the ever-present behemoth that touched every corner of our daily lives like it was by the time I died.

In this universe, almost every planet had a local form of internet, even if it was just an extensive network connecting information together rather than a source of entertainment or convenience. The majority of planetary communications ran through or alongside those systems, and the vast majority of handheld comms units could use those systems to connect to people also on the planet.

The Holonet, on the other hand, was an interplanetary internet, essentially a premium service. You needed to pay for access and frequently had to pay more for individual subscriptions to each "website" for full access. You could also pay to have access to a planet's local internet equivalent with their Holonet uplink, which was how people could see stuff the Empire would rather censor, as a local planetary server hosted it, and you, as the viewer, were just streaming data, rather than an entire file.

Shockingly enough, that was only the top layer of knowledge, the kind of information most people already knew. I knew that most interplanetary banking services played by different rules, for example, with the Holonet letting them through so anyone could access them. There were also many subsystems, optional services, off-brand equivalents, and sharing methods that I vaguely knew existed but weren't included in my download since the details weren't common knowledge.

All of this came down to one thing. We needed to find a comms system that had Holonet capabilities, as most comms units could access local internet, but not Holonet. It was a strange distinction for me, someone who was used to being able to access almost any information with just a cell phone, but my local knowledge just accepted it as a fact of life.

Technically a Hyperwave unit would also be able to communicate with the Chariot, but since those were only found on ships, so that was off the table unless we grabbed one.

"So, what's our best bet?" I asked, watching as another industrial complex passed by on the left.

The smokestacks were huge, reaching out the top of the dome and pouring out green smoke. Dozens of workers climbed the scaffolding, walked around platforms, and went about their work. I couldn't see any that were wearing collars.

"Honestly, our best bet to find a Holonet link and a ship is the same place, the spaceport," Tatnia explained. "A Holonet connection is required to have a starport function. Otherwise, Holonet connection is basically random, beyond maybe excluding poor people."

"I assume you mean like a civilian port rather than one the refineries are using to ship stuff in and out?"

"Well, they both would, but again, not worth the trouble."

"Yeah, but hijacking a ship from a spaceport… seems like a big step. I mean, this is technically an Imperial world, right?"

"Yes, and we are lucky it is. If we were sent to a spice mine in Hutt space, we would likely have been implanted with a slave chip, not wearing a prison collar," Vaz explained. "Slave implants are illegal in Imperial space."

"Besides, we have plans to eventually join the Rebellion, remember?" Tatnia pointed out. "If we don't end up from this, we will eventually work with them."

"Right, you're right. Okay, civilian spaceport it is. Maybe we can find something that Nevue can buy off of us." I responded before wincing and looking back at Vaz. "You don't have an issue with the Rebellion, do you?"

"No, I do not," She replied. "I have felt the effects of Imperial human elitism and find it distasteful. As long as my needs are met, and I find honor in our job, I have no issues with working with the Rebellion."

"Good, okay. The new first step, find out where the nearest spaceport is…."

That turned out to be easily done, as the speeder we were in had a robust computer system built into the console, letting me look up the information and get directions. As I worked, Tatnia found an empty alleyway to park, pulling down and out of sight. After a few minutes of scanning for info, we ran into the first problem.

"Okay, we need a way to get out of this dome and into another," I explained. "The nearest civilian spaceport is a handful of domes away."

"If we wish to remain unseen, the checkpoints are unlikely to be viable," Vaz pointed out.

"Unless… we sneak into a transport," I suggested with a thoughtful frown. "There has to be cargo going between the bubbles, right? Well, we can hop in one, ride it to the next bubble, then repeat the process to the next one. Here, take a look."

I pulled up a simplified but well-labeled map on the small screen embedded in the dashboard. Vaz leaned forward to get a better view as I pointed at the first dome.

"We are here, and we need to get here," I explained, dragging my finger across the screen to our destination. "That's three bubbles, not including this one. The roadways don't split between any of them, which means any transport we hop on going through the right checkpoint will arrive at the right bubble, assuming they don't have to divert. We might have to get rough if they do, but we might have to get rough with any plan we make."

"It's not a bad idea…" Tatnia admitted. "We would need to get some masks, there is no way the back of a hauler is sealed enough to keep the acidic air out."

"On a planet like this, every building we step into is going to have some," I assured her. "All we have to do is stick our heads into a few buildings, look into a few cars, and we will find some."

"Alright, it's our best bet to get there without being spotted," She agreed, looking at Vaz. "What do you think?"

"I agree," She responded with a nod. "This seems like the best way to travel and stay hidden."

"Alright, then we need to get our hands on some more masks, then make our way over to the right checkpoint and look for a ride."

"We need to find some clothes for Vaz, too," Tatnia added, prompting me to look back at the Shistavanen.

She looked down at her clothes, pulling at the orange prison jumpsuit. Tatnia and I were still wearing the same clothes we had arrived in, washed and cleaned at the same time as we had been during the rinse after each shift.

"I want new clothes as well," I said. "And to burn these. The rinses may have been cleaning them, but I doubt it was as good as a sonic shower."

Vaz chuckled at my joke, weak as it was, which I appreciated. After a few more minutes of planning, we got to work, Titania and I leaving Vaz with the speeder before heading off to find what we needed for our plan. She wasn't thrilled about staying behind, but between her jumpsuit and the rarity of her species, she would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

My first assumption turned out to be correct, as we only had to check a few places before we found the first thing we needed, filtration masks. We poked our heads into the back entrance of a warehouse, then what looked like a storage shed, before finally stumbling into a guard's shack along the outskirts of a work yard. We must have gotten lucky and happened on it during break or something because the small structure was empty but had a cabinet with several masks. There was even one that would fit Vaz, which considering how different her face was structured than most humanoids, was lucky.

Finding Vaz some clothes turned out to be even more difficult, but eventually, we found something, settling on a large shirt she could pull over her jumpsuit, as well as a cloak. It wasn't the best solution, but instead of screaming "escaped convict," she screamed "bad news," which I thought was a solid step in the right direction. We gave up finding clothes for ourselves because, as much as I hated the idea, we would survive for now.

Once everything was gathered, we returned to the speeder to find Vaz struggling to stay awake in the back seat, which considering we had been up for around twenty hours, wasn't surprising. We ended up taking turns getting some rest, one of us keeping watch while the rest of us recuperated a bit.

The following day Tatnia drove us out of the alleyway and across the dome, stopping a few blocks away from the checkpoint through the environmental shield. She parked the speeder deep into an alleyway, as out of sight as possible, before Tatnia and I moved closer to the road to look for anyone heading to the checkpoint.

About an hour later, we spotted what we were looking for. A large speeder, hauling a trailer full of cargo, covered in a thick tarp already loose in the back. As it pulled around the corner, I conjured a flame atronach as far down the street as I could, right next to a stack of crates and boxes. With a mental command, I ordered it to knock over the pile, the construct immediately moving.

The boxes tumbled and rolled, some of them making it to the road. The speeder hauler slammed on the brakes, the hauler swerving and slowing down, stopping right before hitting the largest container. I dismissed my atronach as I waved Vaz over, the three of us sprinting towards the back of the cargo trailer while the driver climbed out of the speeder, shouting and cursing, kicking at one of the crates. One after the other, we climbed into the back, sliding into the gaps between the cargo. I climbed in last, making sure to pull the tarp back into place, folding and shoving it back into position. We quietly waited, listening to the driver curse and shout, though I had no idea what they were saying.

After a few minutes, we could hear the empty crates being pushed and dragged, shoved clear of the road before the driver climbed back into the hauler, still muttering under their breath. A few seconds later and we were on the move.