Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage

The drive to the checkpoint, as well as the stop-and-start traffic before it, was nerve-wracking, tense, and aggravating. For a few a while we were even partially convinced we were going in the wrong direction, probably because we were stuck in the dark trying to guess where the driver was turning. Thankfully, a quick casting of clairvoyance, focused on the prison, showed that we were heading in the right direction when we finally stopped.

When we did eventually stop at the checkpoint, we could hear the officials in charge as they talked to the driver. It was muffled, but I could make out that they were concerned about the recent breakout.

"-workers and guards dead…. checking all… no leads… you for your cooperation...."

As they talked, we could hear another person walking around the hauler. I bit back a curse and gestured to Tatnia and Vaz, all of us shifting around as quietly as possible. I managed to slip up and over a cargo crate, hiding completely, while Tatnai pushed back out of view from the back. Unfortunately, Vaz was struggling, trying to find a place to disappear and failing. She crawled as far back into the central walk space as she could, looking for a place to slide into. Unfortunately, she reached the end without finding any. Before she could come back, the tarp at the far end ruffled and was lifted up, light pouring into the back, casting harsh shadows.

Vaz had just enough time to pull herself together and hide behind her dark cloak. The shadows cast into the hauler shifted and moved as whoever was checking the cargo looked around.

Somehow, she managed to stay in the shadows through sheer luck, her dark cloak blending and hiding her.

After what felt like ages, the checkpoint guard finally closed up the tarp, even went the extra mile and made sure it was secured. We collectively held our breaths as he walked around the side of the truck and shouted to his partner that the hauler was good to go. We started to move a minute later, pulling through the checkpoint and out into the harsh, unprotected expanse of the planet. We each pulled on our masks, the green, poisonous air already starting to seep under the truck's tarp. After a few minutes of driving past the checkpoint, the tension finally started to leave us.

"That… that was way too close," I whispered, crawling back to Tatnia so we could talk without shouting.

Tatnia nodded, slumping back against one of the crates, shifting to get a bit more comfortable. Vaz joined us, crawling back and sitting down, looking for a spot that had a bit more space for her longer legs. We had a few hours before we would arrive at the second domed city, so I volunteered to stay up, letting the other two get a bit more rest. Despite how loud it was riding in the back of the hauler, they both fell asleep pretty quickly, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Rather than drive up my own anxiety about whether this would work or not, I passed the time practicing clairvoyance, casting it over and over again on the Talos Chariot, the arrow pointing down through the planet, hopefully, off-world. It wasn't a lot of time to practice, but every bit helped.

The checkpoint to get into the next dome was surprisingly lax. After once again being stuck in stop-and-go traffic for ten minutes, the driver had a two-minute conversation as someone just walked around the outside of the vehicle, making no attempt to look inside. All three of us were shocked, but none of us were going to complain. My only guess was that they weren't worried about people making it this far.

We waited silently for an opportunity to jump out of the hauler, peeking out the back, lifting the tarp slightly to check if the coast was clear. After a few minutes, the hauler pulled down a less populated road and slowed down, letting us jump clear of the back. I botched the landing and rolled a bit, but Tatnia helped me up and we quickly made our way into a nearby alleyway.

"Well… that went well…" I said, frankly a little shocked that the plan had gone off without a hitch. "I guess we head to the next checkpoint?"

"No, first we need food, then we can head to the next checkpoint," Tatnia corrected, Vaz nodding along enthusiastically.

"How? We don't have money."

"Just leave that to me," Tatnia said with a smirk before taking the lead.

It didn't take long for us to find someplace to eat, Vaz quickly picked up the scent of a shop selling food that was nearby. Once inside, Tatnia pretended to be someone down on their luck, which wasn't much of a stretch. She asked if she could borrow a single credit chip and a computer, so she could access her account. She promised to spend a significant amount of money on food, assuring the older man behind the counter that all three of us were very hungry.

Five minutes later, a quick check of Tatnia's account attached to our crew, a transfer of funds, and a credit chip update later, and we were eating a feast of food. It tasted amazing, probably because we had spent the last few days eating nothing but crappy rations.

Once we had eaten our fill, we made our way across the city. This dome was smaller but much more densely populated than the one we had started in, which was suitable for blending in. Still, it was a big area to cover, and we spent most of the day walking across the city. Tatnia floated the idea of stealing a speeder, but we eventually decided that staying as under the radar as much as possible was our best bet.

By the time we made it to the general area of the correct checkpoint, it was getting dark, so we found an empty, relatively dry alleyway to sleep in. It was far from pleasant, but a quick check showed that our current dome was primarily residential and business, with no temporary sleeping locations to keep from leaving a trail.

When we woke up the following day, we repeated the same general tactic we had before, selecting a proper ambush point before targeting a suitable ride. This time, however, it almost failed miserably. When we attempted to stop the driver, using a similar method of blocking the road as we had before, he only slowed down a bit, using his truck like a ram to shove the dumpster out of his way. I had to run and jump, both Vaz and Tatnia reaching out to grab my arms and pull me into the smaller trailer.

In the second bubble, not including the one that held the prison, we managed to find a cheap hotel room, paid for with credits that Tatnia withdrew from her account. I made a note to pay her back when we got out of this hell hole.

We would have slept on the streets again, as none of us had any qualms about it in particular, but that bubble seemed to be the cleanest so far and had an actual active security presence. I didn't think we would get recognized now that we were so many domes away from the prison, but if we got busted for sleeping somewhere we shouldn't, that would probably change in a hurry.

We made the rest of the journey with very few issues, all the way until the last leg of the last trip. We had just passed into the final dome, the one that contained the spaceport, and were waiting for an opportunity to jump off of the flatbed hauler we had stowed away on. We waited and waited, keeping an eye out all the way until they pulled into their destination with no luck. They parked their truck and climbed out, forcing us to climb out in the middle of an active industrial zone.

It took us fifteen minutes to sneak back out, by some miracle, making it past the walls unseen. I couldn't believe how lucky we were getting, and Tatnia was on the same page. Every time something seamlessly went our way, I got more and more nervous about how it would all go wrong. We were both anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop. Vaz, on the other hand, seemed perfectly at ease, accepting each lucky break as they came.

"Your thinking is flawed," She explained as we stopped to eat, the city quickly getting dark around us. "These are 'kih shukur', small breaks. Sometimes they go in your favor, and sometimes they go against you. They are not accumulative."

"I… guess that's true?" I said reluctantly. "Kinda hard to just let go of the instinct."

"There is always something," Tatnia said, shaking her head in disagreement. "Just because it missed you doesn't mean there wasn't something waiting to go wrong. Better to be tense, waiting for it to happen, then relax and get blindsided by it."

We continued to chat about the nature of luck, eventually transitioning to some of what Vaz had learned under her father. Besides broad strokes, Vaz was clearly reluctant to pass on anything concrete. Words of wisdom were one thing, but the teachings of Mando were obviously another. I wasn't about to push her into passing on anything against her will, especially not when learning through observation and osmosis would happen naturally over time once we got back with the rest of the crew.

The night was a bit on the cold side, but we weathered it with the knowledge that, with any luck, this would be our last day in this fucking mess of a world. The sooner we left this hellscape behind, the better.

The next morning we made our way through the domed city, eventually arriving at the outskirts of the spaceport. It was hard to make out any details from the ground, so we stealthily made our way to the top of a nearby building, climbing a ladder to the roof. We knelt behind the lip that ran around the roof's edge and watched the distant structure, trying to figure out our next move.

From what we could tell, the spaceport was comprised of three different areas. The most prominent and only part entirely inside the dome was the intake area. This was split into civilian processing and cargo transport. The former took place inside a large building not unlike an airport, while the cargo shipping took place in a yard with an access point built into the energy dome.

Along the back of that civilian processing building were four covered walkways that led through the dome and out onto the landing pad, where a large passenger transporter waited. A boarding ramp equivalent was attached to the covered walkway's exit and the passenger ship's entrance, creating a sealed system.

The second area was a large cargo delivery space. This was nearly double the size of the civilian landing pad, and was a constant flurry of activity. Large cargo vessels would land, drop off or pick up their goods, before taking off again. I suggested we sneak in on the trucks like we had been for the past few days, but Tatnia pointed out that the checkpoint for the cargo was likely where they were charging people taxes or cargo fees. Those transports would be inspected and weighed, and their contents carefully recorded.

The third spot, off to the side, seemed to be a private or civilian landing pad. How it was different from the one we were dropped off at, I didn't know. What I did know was that there were several ships there now, small freighters or transports, coming and going at a much slower pace than the cargo ships. Most of the ships in the private area were clearly civilian vessels, all in various states of quality.

"So, I think the processing center will probably have some decent security, which makes getting inside to use any holonet connection they might have very difficult," I said, watching another vessel take off. "My guess is that we would be better off just going for a ship and getting in contact with the Chariot later. Question is, how do we get to the ships?"

"Why do we not just go around?" Vaz suggested. "There is a checkpoint in that direction. We could get on another hauler and travel through the checkpoint before getting off. Then we make our way around the outer rim of the environmental dome to the starport."

"That would make it much easier to get access to one of the civilian vessels…" I admitted. "Would our masks last that long?"

"... No, we should probably find new ones," Tatnia responded, pulling out her mask and checking it with a bit of alarm. "We cut the last trip a little close. Dammit, we didn't even think of that."

"We would have made it," I assured her. "It would have sucked, but I could have healed all the damage as it came in. I would rather not have to do that, obviously, so let's find some new ones before we go for a walk."

"I would rather not test that theory," Vaz said, Tatnia snorting at her stoic delivery.

"Yeah, me either. Alright, we need to find or buy replacement masks," I said, nodding my head. "Anything else?"

When we couldn't think of anything, we climbed down off of the roof. It took a little bit for us to find a way to look up the directions, but we eventually arrived at a pawn shop of sorts, where Tatnia bought new masks for all three of us. Again I made a note to make sure she was compensated, as she had spent a good chunk of her personal money.

Not long after that, we made our way to the exterior checkpoint nearest the starport. We managed to hop aboard another hauler, this one mostly empty, and once again crossed through the shield dome and out into the harsh landscape. Once we were far enough from the actual checkpoint, I stuck my hand out of the tarp and conjured my familiar, making it appear under the hauler. It disappeared almost immediately, but before it did, it made a huge racket as it was essentially conjured already being run over.

The hauler slowed down drastically and pulled to the side of the road, the driver clearly having slammed the brakes aggressively. He got out and inspected the underside of his speeder for a few minutes before cursing and climbing back inside the cab, which was when we jumped out of the side facing the road, jumping over and hiding behind the barrier.

When the hauler pulled away, we turned and returned to the dome, walking at an angle to avoid the checkpoint.