Sunday 19 July 2020

Last of the Sith, episode 3: The Eye of the Womp Rat

Metal detected.
Metal detected inside a womp rat!  A womp rat!  Was there nothing those force-forsaken creatures would not eat?  Retrieving a small metal object from inside one had not been a pleasant experience.  All the same, the ring she held in her hand was worth something.  Maybe not the ten thousand credits that Dax's sister had claimed, but she reckoned she could probably sell it for half that.  After letting the buyer negotiate her down, of course.

Things were getting exciting in town, with huge crowds arriving for the upcoming pod race.  Mnessas had a great idea, and a prolonged game of charades and dirt sketches later, they'd come up with a plan.  Unofficial pit fights were always a big hit, with off-worlders wanting to show off their skill, and nobody expected a jawa like Mnessas.

This kind of thing was certainly raising her profile, and the trouble with a raised profile is things tended to get caught on it.  Like a small group of local thugs, who for some reason had chosen her as their leader.  Much to her surprise they proved to not be completely incompetant, and despite a tendency to commit crimes if not otherwise directed, she had to admit she didn't completely hate having her own gang.  If she ever needed to retrieve something from inside a womp rat again...

Odd things were happening in town though.  While the flow of information between intra-planetary sources was unaffected, nothing was getting in or out via the hyperspace satellites.  It wasn't long before word reached her that the hyperspace lane itself was closed.  For the moment, Listehol was effectively cut off from the rest of the galaxy.  And then Mnessas and Z1 Track-u-bot (freshly back from some firmware updates) brought news of a very unusual bounty.

A Jedi master was in town.  Word on the street was that Master Reshi had turned a Sith lord to the light side by winning his heart, and once eaten someone for disrespecting her.  Gin suspected that the latter must be an exaggeration.  Ewoks were quite small, after all.  It would take her a while to eat a whole person.

The bounty was for a quarter of a million credits, and was apparently being offered on Master Reshi by the Jedi Council.  Dax smelled a womp rat, and looked into it, returning with disturbing news; not only was the bounty faked, but capital ships had appeared in the area before the hyperspace lane closed.

Trouble was coming, and the Baron needed to hear about it.  There were trade deals going on for the ownership of Listehol, which was normal enough, but trade deals didn't involve capital ships.  Gin accompanied Dax to one of the local haunts where the Baron's men could be found, before rejoining Mnessas and Track-u-bot looking for Master Reshi.  How lucky that she taken the time earlier to follow the jedi and find out which part of town she was staying in.

Conversation with Master Reshi was going well until Gin heard a familiar voice - one of her gang.  Of course, Mnessas and Track-u-bot weren't the only bounty hunters to have seen that bounty, and who wouldn't want a piece of a quarter million credits?  She gave the others a quick pep talk, and prepared to not get involved in the fight.

Preparation that went straight out of the window when one of them shot Dax in the eye.  She was surprised to find herself stepping straight outside to return the favour.  Apparently all the target practice she'd been doing had paid off, as the blaster fire went straight through the bounty hunter's eye.

Master Reshi was safe for the moment, without having to reveal too much of what she was capable of.  All the same, Gin wasn't about to relax.  Something about this situation stank even worse than a womp rat.

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