Chapter 2

 

          David sat crouched behind a stack of crates.  How did we get into this mess?  After their arrival on Derra IV, a little over two standard months ago, they found jobs as mechanics in a repair shop.  Their boss, Chipper, had just lost a few mechanics in recent weeks prior to their arrival, and had had tons of work backed up.  The next six weeks they worked their butts off doing double overtime helping him catch up with all his work orders.  The pay was alright, pretty good to live on, but not enough to get them a ship or out of their current situation.  Their big break came when Gerard had asked Chipper about an old derelict Corellian YT-1300 freighter sitting in the rear hanger of the repair shop.  Chipper said it was an old hunk of junk that was just taking up room in his shop.  He made a deal with them, if they stayed a few more weeks until all the backed up work orders were done and he got some new help, they could have it.  Two weeks later, when they were just finishing up the backorders, Chipper found new help.  He let them keep the ship in the hanger while they got the parts they needed and fixed it up.  After almost four days of straight work on it, they had gotten it into flyable condition.  They named it the Junkheap Flyer, and a junk heap it certainly was.  But it was theirs, and it could get them to where they wanted to go.  They thanked Chipper for his generosity and left the next day.  They went looking for a job hauling freight, which landed them here on Wastroli.

Their freight was loaded, but a bounty hunter and his gang had caught up with them and now had the path to their ship blocked off with them pinned behind a stack of crates.  Some rich family members of the senator they were accused of murdering had place a small bounty on their heads since Corsec had failed to catch them so far.  "That bounty on our heads must be getting bigger.  How are we going to get out of this?"  Gerard asked David.

"I'm working' on it.  Does your blaster have a full charge?"

"Yeah.  But the two of us against him and his thug friends does not sound like very good odds to me."  Gerard said.

"Have I taught you nothing?  Never pay attention to the odds, we are Corellian.  On three, you pop a couple of shots off at them to grab their attention and I will make a dash to the left and draw their fire, then you hit their flank and pick them off."

"Alright, but be careful."

"Hey, its me," David said with a cocky smirk.

"Exactly my point."

"Three!"  David said and Gerard poked his head over the crates and triggered off a few shots at the bounty hunter.  All missed and the hunter and his thugs immediately turned their attention to Gerard and opened fire.  At the same time David made a sprint to the left out from the cover of the crates.  As he ran he fired shots randomly in the direction of the thugs.  He could see all the thugs now.  The Bounty Hunter was a humanoid clad in partial green and black stormtrooper armor and a strange helmet that David had never seen the likes of before.  The thugs consisted of a Trandoshan, Skrilling, Abyssin, Klatooinian, and Weequay scattered around him.  One of his shots clipped the Abyssin in the shoulder, but he did not go down and it seemed to David to just make him really angry.  Their attention now turned to David as they fired madly at him.

"Sithspawn!" David shouted as he sprinted for the next stack of crates, still fifteen meters away.

 

As David ran, Gerard rolled to the right out from the cover of the crates.  He then opened fire and got up and charged the thugs.  His first shot took the Klatooinian square in the chest.  The next two hit the Skrilling in the arm and thigh knocking him to the ground.  He got off two more shots hitting the Weequay in the leg and the Trandoshan in the side.  Then he was right upon them and he dove and tackled the Abyssin, taking him down to the ferrocrete.

 

Diving for the crates, David heard Gerard's shots as he flanked their attackers.  He quickly rolled to his feet and poked his head out the other end of the crates.  He saw Gerard dive for the Abyssin and take him to the ground.  At the same time the bounty hunter was shifting his aim towards Gerard, David opened fire on the bounty hunter.  One shot reflected off his armor, the next few sent him ducking for cover.  David charged and continued firing, keeping the bounty hunter pinned.  “You okay?” he asked as he reached Gerard who was getting up off the ground.

“Yeah,” Gerard replied as he punched the Abyssin in the face, knocking him out.  “Thanks for the save.”

“No problem.  We got him on the run now.” David kicked the Weequay in the face as he tied to grab the blaster rifle he dropped.  He picked it up and aimed for the hunter who was now hiding behind a stack of crates near the stack they had been hiding behind thirty seconds earlier.  Before he could fire though the bounty hunter launched a concussion grenade at them.

“Oh poodoo!” Gerard yelled as he dove for cover.

David dove as the grenade hit the ground just short of them and exploded sending them flying.  He hit the ferrocrete floor hard knocking the wind out of him.

Gerard, who had not been thrown so hard helped him up.  “Lets get out of here Cuz.”  He fired at the bounty hunter who was now carefully approaching their position.

The two of them were able to make it to the ramp before the bounty hunter got them.  David followed Gerard up the ramp and hit the switch to raise the ramp.

"Lets get out of here fast!" he shouted as he followed Gerard to the cockpit.

"No argument here."

They reached the cockpit to find Gadget and Rhine had already started the preflight sequence and they were ready to go.  They could hear blaster fire outside, but the ship’s armor was too strong for handheld blasters.  David hopped into the pilot’s seat and hit the repulsor coils.  The ship lifted to the air and Gerard kicked in the sub-light engines.  Two minutes later they were breaking out of the atmosphere and heading for open space.

"Rhine, have you got a course to Malastare plotted yet?" Gerard asked the small droid.

The droid beeped an affirmative and the course popped up on the cockpit monitor.

"Forty-five seconds untill we can make the jump to light speed." David said.

"It should be interesting to see what is waiting for us at our destination." Gerard said.

"I can't wait," David said, unenthusiastically as the countdown hit zero and he pulled back the lever that sent them into hyperspace.

 

Once safe in hyperspace the two headed back to the galley to relax.  “So what are we hauling anyway?” Gerard asked.

“Don’t know.  I didn’t ask.  I just counted the boxes and all I know is we get paid on delivery.”

“You didn’t ask?  This stuff could be worth more than we’re getting paid!”

“Well obviously, but if we steal it how are we going to get another job?”

“Well let’s check it out.”

“Alright, it can’t hurt to look I guess.”

David followed Gerard to the cargo bay in the rear of the ship.  “Hope they don’t get pissed we are looking through their stuff.”

“Relax, they won’t find out.”  Gerard grabbed the cargo manifold.  Says here its food supplies.  He opened one of the boxes to reveal freeze dried nerfburgers.  “Tasty.”

“Not really my first choice for a meal.  See nothing interesting.  Lets go.”

“Wait,” Gerard said digging down into the box.

“What the heck are you doing?”

“This box has a hollow bottom.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Look,” he said pulling open the false bottom, “black market bacta packs.  This stuff is worth a fortune.”

“Wow, but what are we going to do with that much bacta?  We don’t have any connections to be able to sell it anyway.”

“That’s true, but let this be a lesson to you, always check your cargo.”

“Sure thing, now lets put this stuff away, I’m getting hungry.”

 

They arrived at Malastare and made their delivery without further trouble.  Upon delivery, the men who received their cargo paid them handsomely for it.  Not wanting to push their luck too far, they quickly left the system in hopes of losing anyone who was tailing them.  They failed to notice the lone green X-Wing tracking them when they made the jump out of the system.

 

"So what do you think we should do now?" Gerard asked David as he lounged back in the cockpit of the Junkheap Flyer.

"I'm thinking' its time for a vacation.  Lay low for a while on some backwater tropical world, and maybe all this will blow over, and Kirney will clear our name.  Rasi is supposed to be beautiful, and I hear there are lots of babes," he answered with a big grin.

"But we don’t have any credits!  I was thinking' more along the lines of heading' out to Corporate sector to make some credits, and as a plus the authorities won’t follow us there."

"After all we've been through the last few days you want to go run the border?  Are you nuts?"

"Hey, we can make a lot of credits smuggling goods into and out of the Corporate Sector."

"True, but I think I’ve had enough ‘fun’ for a while.  I was thinking its time to take it easy.  At least for a little bit."

"Well if you don't want to go, I can drop you off and then meet up with you when I return."

"If you return.  And I can't let you go alone.  The Corporate Sector is a rough place."

"I won't, I'll find someone to go with me.  Seriously, if you want a vacation, then go.  We can split the profits we just made and that should get us both by until we can earn some more."

"All right, but you take what we just made, I’ve got a stash from back home, and if things get desperate I can sell off that bottle of 200 year old Corellian Whiskey I’ve got.  A bottle like that will sell for a nice price.  You're old enough to take care of yourself now I guess, so I can’t stop you.  When you get back, contact Kirney and we'll meet up again."

"Alright, sounds like a plan.  Rhine, get ready to calculate a new course, to the Rasi system." Gerard said to the small red and white R9 as he pushed the hyperdrive control lever back to real space."

The little droid beeped an affirmative.

"Alright, course laid out for the Rasi system."  Gerard said and they jumped back to hyperspace.

 

Gerard set the Junkheap Flyer down at their designated docking bay on the spaceport of Rasi.  The planet was sparsely populated outside of the tourist areas, and there was only one major spaceport facility on the main continent.  The weather was bright and sunny, with a pretty high humidity.

"Wow, I could get used to this!  You sure you don't want to stay here a bit?"  David asked as he descended the boarding ramp.

"Nah, too hot."

"Suit yourself.  But you know with the hot weather comes all those hot women,"  David said, motioning to the crowded streets.

"Is that all you think about these days?  Ever since you and…" Gerard started to say but was cut off by a painful glare from David.  "uh, never mind.  Sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up."

"It's alright, I've got to get used to the fact that she’s gone.  Leaving Corellia might even be good in that sense."  David said and then strolled out into the morning sun.

"So you just heading' right out?"  he asked Gerard, looking back.

"Well, I figured I'd head for Sullust and make some contacts for some cargo, and maybe find a copilot."

"Sounds like a plan.  You sure about this?"  David asked.

"Yeah, I'll be alright, don't worry.  What about you?  Who's gonna look after your scrawny ass?"  Gerard replied.

"I'm sure one of these women wouldn't mind,"  David said with a grin.  "Good luck."  David said and gave Gerard a big hug.  "Be careful."

"You too."  Gerard replied.

"Here?  I don’t' think there's much danger to worry about here."

"Hey, you never know."

"Come on Gadget.  Lets go find us a place to stay."  With that Gerard watched his cousin disappear into the spaceport terminal.