Republic Reigns: Star Wars Fanfiction.

chapter 7: robo-pirate

I streaked through the pitch blackness of space in a sleek Republic Belbullab-22 starfighter, gifted politely by the treacherous Trandoshan fleet boss from his personal collection. Due to my lackluster piloting skills, I had requested an astromech droid with a blank memory chip, the annoying little beeps it made sufficed at least as confirmation it heard me as we dashed through the emptiness of the dark expanse. I felt myself glaring toward it through the paneled interior. "....You better not crash into anything." I let my normally hidden thoughts slip out to my new companion.

We were homing in on the tracking beacon of this Jedi Zinn's ship placed after De'busk's 'Final warning' to her. Apparently, Her crusade against corruption had found her an enemy in the slimy reptile...Today, her meddling would end permanently, I would see to that personally.--A simple favor for our continued ventures. I looked at a clock near my sleek new ship's dashboard....3 hours away from sweet old Cognus--I had better do this right or all this extra fun I'd been having would only end up with me singed to ebony bone.

The dome-shaped head of the droid beeped as I entered a rough patch trail of asteroid belts. "Damnit! Why would you spit me out here?!" My vodered voice came through loud enough to echo off the glass. A small green radar blip indicated Zinn's aging craft ahead weaving between the massive drifting rocks. "Must have had to drop out of hyperdrive to get through...perfect." The dark silver little bot only made a strange whirring noise in reaction.

"Let's see what you can do..." I said switching the safety off on the starfighter's tri-canon, unleashing a barrage of crimson laser fire at Zinn's rear shields as I quickly closed in. Her intercepter spiraled leftward before it returned fire, emerald bolts glancing off my spherical cockpit viewport as the alarms screeched at incoming projectiles. "Fucking droid! Keep it steady!" The only response it had was a loud screech before more warning lights came to life.

The bulky ship barrel rolled to strafe her flank, as she suddenly quickly veered toward a looming iron-gray asteroid the size of a mountain. Zinn was leading me deeper into the field's cluttered heart, most likely assuming she could outpace me with the much more agile ship. At the last instant, Zinn pulled up, skimming the unyielding rocky surface of the large heavenly body.

I smiled darkly under my mask realizing I had nothing to fear with this new little pilot bot handling the chase. I watched as my controls worked on their own to follow at breakneck speeds, I hadn't been in a spaceship since Cognus adopted me--the freedom of near open space was something I yearned for in quiet times...the screams of the ship's alarms quickly placed me back in the moment as we barely skid through two colliding boulders twice the size of my bulky ship.

My red-patched robo-pirate's piloting skills were tested to their limits navigating the treacherous maze of stone, each new obstacle emerging only seconds before near impact. Zinn led us through corkscrewing canyons sliced into nickel-iron, the Force granted me brief snatches of foresight saving my craft where we would have met oblivion--Only minor adjustments in truth, I found myself wildly caught off guard by the atromech's ace piloting abilities.

Fed up with Zinn's games though, I targeted the cluster of sensor arrays on her engines and fired a condemning barrage of laser volleys just as she banked left toward another set of tightly packed asteroids. Zinn spiraled as the arrays erupted in blue flame but somehow kept her battered craft flying until it collided in the center of a rubble field between towering asteroids. She had nowhere left to flee, I touched down nearby and popped the cockpit of my ship. "WEEEEEEIIIIOOOO." Ignoring the horrid noise of the little gray bot was not easy.

Gorgeous black cape flowing rearwards in the absence of gravity's anchor, I propelled myself through space towards her wreck. Zinn was already outside hurridly welding hull patches with sparking torch when I landed softly mere paces away, the same shoto golden lightsaber thrumming ominously. Zinn's goggled eyes went broad at my visage creeping closer toward her wreck. I drank in her sudden fear that rippled in the force.