Star Wars: Darth Nyx (Book 1)

Ch25: Junkyard World - Bracca

Fennec Shand's POV:

I hadn't worked with Cad Bane more than once so I was a bit surprised when he reached out to me for a job to break a Kaminoan out of prison. Looking back, it is even more surprising that he chose me for such a high-profile mission and yet here we are, both working for the same employer on a mission to find usable starships. I remember wanting to be a secret agent when I was younger. Is this what such a life would feel like?

Cad Bane: What do you think about her?

Me: The Empress?

Cad Bane: Could you feel it?

Me: Yes...she's quite dangerous.

Cad Bane: It's been a long time since I've felt such a presence and still, I've never met someone who looked so helpless yet gave off such an intimidating aura.

Me: Haha. How do you think she'd respond to you calling her helpless?

Cad Bane: She'd probably laugh.

Me: HAHAHAHAHA...now that's hilarious. 

Bane doesn't smile. He doesn't even smirk. Instead, he merely continues focusing on piloting our ship towards the planet. There are seemingly hundreds of abandoned or decommissioned vessels orbiting the world awaiting scrapping. Many of them would prove quite useful to the average citizen but unfortunately, we're here to find only two types of ships.

Cad Bane: There-

I look in the direction he's pointing and much to my amazement, rows upon rows of Venators sit idly by in a cluster. There must be at least 24 of them, fully intact. A few ship lengths away sit another cluster with 8 Acclamators. Who'd have thought our mission would turn out to be this easy? We don't even need to go down to the planet at this rate!

Me: We just need to confirm that they are fully functional, yes?

Cad Bane: Use the scanner the scientist handed us. It should run a diagnostic of the ship as we pass.

Me: Pass?

He steers our vessel towards the cluster but the minute we near the first row we're contacted by the Scrapping Guild asking us to declare our intentions. The man introduces himself as Po before clarifying that he also wants us to ID ourselves at the local space station. I freeze, trying to think of something to say but Bane just talks as though he was expecting this.

Cad Bane: [We're looking for ships to buy. I've heard great things about the carrying capacity of these ships and wanted to take a closer look at their external structure.]

Po: [Those ships would come with quite a hefty price tag.]

Cad Bane: [My associate and I represent a large trade conglomerate. Price is of little concern. Are the ships fully functional?]

Po: [Ahh...wait a moment, please.]

There's some crackle from the radio as the man shuffles around with his receiver before reconnecting with us.

Po: [Good day. Yes, the ships before you are all still fully operational as they have only recently arrived having been decommissioned from the Imperial Navy. However, they have already had their airwings removed. ]

Cad Bane: [What of their defensive systems? We are only interested in a ship that can fend off pirates even when operating on its own.]

Po: [Ahh, well, the ship's weapon systems are all fully functional but will require significant manpower to fully utilise as most guns require a gunner.]