Star Wars | Lawless - A tale of rebellion

Chapter One

There were no viewports in the holding chamber of the Imperial transport but Ryo Kurtzs knew they had broken through the planet's atmosphere when he felt a light tremor reverberate through the ship.

They were here. Dathomir.

There were fourteen prisoners in the dimly lit area including Ryo, him being one of two humans, the rest were a mixture of species ranging from a grouchy looking Duros who had fallen asleep shortly after they left Coruscant to a jittery Weequay who's continuously moving feet and wild eyes gave off the impression that he was an addict of some kind. They were all being carted off to the Imperial Prison on Dathomir, most for murder cases of varying degrees, others for high treason against the Galactic Empire. Everyone was piled onto two benches that sat opposite one another, seven on one side and seven on the other, all with their left hands chained to a table that separated the two groups, two Stormtroopers at either side sporting E-11 blaster rifles.

Ryo had been operating as an arms dealer turned bounty hunter on the capital world for the past five of his twenty eight years, specializing in taking out targets within the ranks of the Empire, hired by people who had some sort of grudge against the powers that be. He was earning good money but with each job came great risk, hunting down Imperial officials wasn't like shooting Grantaloupe in the forests of Kashyyyk, people would notice when they went missing – granted the Emperor himself might view the loss of a single fleet admiral as more of an annoyance than a tragedy but the only mercenaries deemed 'lawful' in the eyes of Empire were the ones working to aid in the Empires own agenda.

Ryo waited until he felt the ship touch ground before risking another scan around him of the less than favorable characters he'd likely be spending the next ten to fifty years of his life with. He didn't want to make enemies before he'd even got his bearings on this new planet so a quick glance was all he took. Almost every prisoner was wearing an impressive poker face (save for the trembling druggy and the hot headed old Duros). A bazaar thought entered Ryo's mind as the commanding Stormtrooper began to push buttons on a keypad secured to the wall, the thought was that he hadn't taken a moment to savor the last time he saw a female, after all, he wasn't likely to come across one for a long, long time, if at all.

The trooper who had gone over to the keypad flipped a switch after punching in some codes and the chains connecting each prisoner to the durasteel center table were all simultaneously released. Before anyone had time to even rub their aching wrists that had been bound for what seemed like days, all four Stormtroopers had their rifles raised and trained on the two groups. The commander spoke up, his voice coming cerebral and monotone from his helmet.

"Alright, listen up. Here's how this is going to work, you will all form an orderly line in front of the exit ramp. When the platform opens, you don't move a muscle until I say so. When I do say so, you raise your hands behind your heads and TK-839 will cuff you. After that... it's on with the tour." The last five words were accompanied by a menacing sneer.

There was silence among the convicts and the trooper did not ask for any confirmation that his instructions had been understood. Everyone stood up, Ryo watched the old Duros let out a crackly groan as he rose from the bench with his hand behind him pressed against the small of his back and noted the Weequay's legs shaking as he rose from his seat, struggling with the slightly lower gravity. The young human stifled a smirk.

Ryo was third in line to be cuffed, TK-839 promptly secured his hands and pulled them behind his back, as he did this Ryo felt a mixture of unease and humiliation when the Stormtrooper nudged his back with the end of his blaster, almost causing him to trip over his own feet. "Move along, move along."

The door opened and white smoke rose from either side of the ramp as the two groups that had now become one walked down it with four blasters still trained firmly on them. It was daybreak on Dathomir, the sun rising in the east lighting up the deep orange-red sky. They had landed on a long path that lead to a building Ryo had no doubt in his mind was the entrance to the Imperial prison. The colossal structure had the look of an old castle fused with a modern insane asylum. The windows were plenty and they looked like tiny slits that even the most slender of beings would find impossible to use as an escape if the place should burn to the ground. The facility was made up on three separate buildings and a yard that could just be seen by the group toward the back of the buildings finished with high, jagged, no doubt electrified fences.