Astera:
Phee Genoa was... interesting, to say the least. She certainly had a knack for storytelling, that much was clear. Bolo and Ketch were hanging onto her every word as she spun a tale of her adventures against the legendary Octomorph. A favourite of hers apparently, as it was one she told often. And one that never seemed to stay consistent.
"I had no choice but to fend off the Octomorph," she declared now, her gaze intense as the two patrons of Cid's parlour clutched each other in tense apprehension. "Barehanded."
"This story changes every time she tells it," Tech remarked, observing the way Bolo and Ketch gasped in fear. Last time I'd heard it, she'd had a sword with her. The time before that, a giant rifle. Hell, that story changed even when she retold it to Bolo and Ketch, yet the two drank it up every time, either oblivious to or ignoring the alterations.
After vanquishing the creature, I swam to the coral cave," Phee continued, hands gesticulating wildly to accentuate her words. "And do you know what I found?"
"What'd you find?" Ketch burst out when she refused to elaborate further. "Spit it out!"
"What? What was there?" Bolo demanded next to him.
"Only the Grand Pearl of Novak!"
"Those two will believe anything," Hunter said quietly, his back firmly to her and focusing on the screen before him. I snorted into my drink, leaning back on the bar with both elbows propped up on the surface. You could tell them the sky was green and made of Loth cats and they'd still believe you.
The sound of the door opening preceded Wrecker's chuckle, both him and Omega returning from the scavenge for a compressor Tech had asked they go on. Clearly they'd come back with more: Omega carried a random assortment of metal pieces and Wrecker had some big rusted part hefted over one shoulder. "Mission accomplished! One compressor, as requested."
"Ah, nicely done, Wrecker." Tech easily caught the compressor thrown at him, Wrecker dumping the large hunk of metal at both of their feet with Omega's smaller pieces following on top. He spared them a quick glance, immediately deeming all of them useless. "This assortment, however, could have been left at the junkyard."
I scooped up my cup and hopped off the bar, curious to see what else they had brought back. I wasn't the only one - Phee abandoned Bolo and Ketch, nearly begging for another story, and wandered over next to Tech, peering at the pieces of metal with a keener eye.
"Easy, quick draw. Let the expert take a look." She picked up a thick metal ring, squinting at it hard as she turned it over in her hands.
"That is a manifold regulator." Tech raised both eyebrows, looking entirely unimpressed with the so-called pirate. I thought I could even detect a faint note of exasperation in his voice. "And a broken one at that."
I shifted aside a few pieces and picked up a circular object close to the bottom of the pile. It looked like no machine component I'd ever seen before, smooth and made of burnished gold with strange bumps and indents that almost looked like a purposeful design.
"Thanks, Clone Obvious," Phee drawled with an eye roll, throwing the manifold regulator back on the pile before glancing over to me, forehead furrowing as she stared at the circular piece of metal I held. "Hang on."
She plucked the strange object out of my hand, ignoring my indignant protest and turning it over to shift a hatch on the back to the side, revealing a set of etched symbols on an inner ring. "These look like... coordinate markings."
Omega gasped, her eyes brightening with a light that only appeared when her curiosity was piqued. "Coordinate markings?"
"Mel, take a look at this." Phee's ancient looking droid tottered unsteadily over to her, a burst of light shining through what appeared to be a disc of glass set into the centre of the object. It was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared and the droid burbled to Phee, who looked at the circle of metal in her hand with a new air.
"I was right. This is a compass. One from long before our time."
Omega crouched beside Phee to get a better look at the compass, Mel beeping out another message as she processed the information she'd received from the compass. "These coordinates are in the Kalder Trinary system."
Tech's datapad was out before she'd even finished speaking, searching for any record of this system she'd mentioned. Judging from the way his eyebrows drew together, readjusting his goggles like it was interfering with his vision, he hasn't found anything. "I have no record of that system."
"Because the best treasure isn't usually found on maps." If Omega had been interested before, she was outright excited now hearing Phee's words, her own voice climbing an octave as the reality of treasure became more and more real.
"There's treasure there?!"
"Without a doubt." The side of Phee's mouth quirked up as she looked at Omega. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hunter spin around in his chair, unable to maintain his disinterested attitude now that Omega was well and truly involved. "This compass is a rare find. You've got a good eye."
Omega beamed at the praise, brimming with excitement and hopping from foot to foot as she turned to Hunter. "Let's go check it out! You heard Phee."
"She says a lot of things." Hunter folded his arms, the light of the bar darkening the tattoo on the right side of his face even more and highlighting the scepticism written clearly across his features.
Phee ignored the borderline insult, holding up the compass with an indifferent shrug. "I can go alone and take the spoils for myself. Or we can go together, and split it fifty-fifty."
She handed the compass to Omega, slinging a casual hand around her shoulders as the younger girl bounced in place again. "Please, Hunter. What if there's really treasure there?"
"Yeah," Wrecker cut in with a wave of his hand. "We're not on a mission."
This looked like it was going to turn out a lot like the decision to go to Serenno, except this time we weren't heading to a Sith Lord's home planet. I had to admit, it did sound like it could be interesting. And it would be good for Omega to do something other than sitting in the bar or Cid's missions for once.
"It could be fun," I added, earning a conspiratorial smile from Omega.
I wasn't the only one who'd thought of the Serenno mission - Echo set his cup down with a little more force than necessary, several drops of liquid slopping over the edge.
"The last time we went after treasure, it didn't go as planned." The silent accusation was clear: it had been Phee to give Cid the info on Dooku's war chest after all.
"You weren't working with a professional then," Phee countered with an easy smile, her attention entirely focused on Hunter now. "What do you say?"
Hunter glanced at Echo, the cyborg clone only offering him a long-suffering expression and a shrug before taking another drink from his cup. Hunter closed his eyes and sighed in resignation, his usual tell that Omega had won again. And judging from the widening grin on her face, she knew it too. It looked like we were going to Kalder Trinary.
Much like the name suggested, Kalder Trinary was a triple star system, with only one known planet, according to Phee at least: Skara Nal. The planet was unremarkable, a large expanse of beige that looked like many others in the galaxy. But if Phee was right, it held something special.
"How many uncharted planets have you been to?" Omega asked, boots propped up on Phee's droid in a manner that suspiciously resembled Phee's own posture. Actually, now that I really looked, she had completely copied Phee, down to the exact way her hands were tucked behind her neck. It wouldn't be the first time though - I noticed she often mimicked Hunter, or even me sometimes when she thought we couldn't see her.
"Too many to count." Phee gestured grandly, swinging her feet off Mel and patting the top of the droid. Omega immediately adopted the new posture. "That's why I need Mel to keep track of all the legends I've chased down over the years."
Hunter spun his vibroblade over his knuckles again, trying too hard to pretend he wasn't paying attention to their conversation. I couldn't entirely blame him: I myself was leaning in the doorway opposite him, busying myself with rearming the darts in my vambraces while I kept a close eye on the two interacting. Omega's mimicry was certainly endearing, but I wasn't sure if Phee was the best person to model from. Though why I'd chosen to rest opposite him; the back room of the Marauder was big enough that I could have chosen a spot anywhere else in the room, yet I'd been drawn to the doorway Hunter watched from, neither of us saying anything as I'd taken up a post across from him, almost like we'd had a silent agreement.
"That's the life of a treasure hunter," Phee concluded, lounging back into her chair. The clink of blade against gauntlet abruptly stopped as Hunter snatched the knife out of the air mid twirl, the handle thunking heavily into his palm and fingers wrapping tight around it.
"Don't you mean pirate?" He raised one eyebrow, regarding Phee with the same scepticism he had back on Ord Mantell. A scepticism I'd once been subject to.
She was still unbothered by his lack of warmth, replying as easily as though they were conversing about the weather. "I prefer 'Liberator of Ancient Wonders.'"
I couldn't help but snort again, though this time I had no drink to hide it. Phee appeared not to notice, her attention returning to Omega next to her. "Wanna hear about the time I found the Blade of Zakata Par?"
"Yes, I do!" Hunter sighed at Omega's enthusiastic affirmation, sheathing the knife back onto his forearm and heading back for the cockpit, clearly giving up on trying to deter Omega from Phee. After a moment's hesitation, I followed after him, seeing the dense vegetation loom over the transparisteel windows.
Tech steered the ship towards narrow outcropping rife with tough-looking dead bush and stalagmites, the planet completely void of any sort of settlement. And the closer we got the more I could see that the trees we flew over weren't scant of leaves, they were completely dead. In fact, the whole planet looked scorched beyond any sort of life, its surface completely blanched of colour. If there had once been any sentient life or settlements, it had been destroyed in whatever cataclysmic event had devastated the surface.
Phee was off the ship almost before the landing gear had fully settled on the surface, Omega close behind her as they both approached the nearest bush, crouching down in sync to inspect the blackened branches that had likely once held life.
"I'm not picking up any signs of civilization whatsoever." Tech held his steadily beeping datapad high in the air, as if trying to connect to any kind of signal on the planet. "Which makes sense, considering this land appears to have been razed and left uninhabitable."
The question was what could have burned an entire planet this way. I readjusted my grip on my helmet, eyes closing as my senses expanded to feel for the Force on this planet. There should have been a network thrumming with life, there always was, even on the deadest looking planets. But here, I could feel only a few dim dots that I couldn't quite figure out. A husk of its former life Force, the imprints of what had once been. This planet was nothing more than a bleak rock now, housing only the barest hint of life.
"Who'd wanna hide treasure here?" Any answer to Echo's question was promptly discouraged by a sharp whine filling the air, high pitched and interspersed with strange sounding beeps, almost like a song. I snapped back to my body at the unexpected noise, mind wrenched free of the desolate skeleton of the planet. I'd felt something just then, a humming, but it wasn't living. Almost... mechanical, if I could put a word to it. It had been far away, closer inland, and almost like it had responded to the high pitched singing.
"What was that?" Wrecker's head whipped around, trying to find the source of the sound. Echo's hand went to the place on his belt he'd stored the compass for safekeeping, holding up the whistling contraption with a perplexed expression.
"The compass just... activated."
He pointed it in a few different directions before turning and beginning to walk a few paces, the compass outstretched before him as if to guide him. The humming faded and he changed course, repeating the same process until he had brought the strange noises back. "It's telling us to go south."
"Let's go!" Omega snatched the compass from Echo's hand in her excitement, taking off south before any of us could object.
"Now she's got the right attitude." Phee grinned after Omega, waving a hand in her direction before running after her and leaving us behind. "Wait up, kid!"
Three pairs of eyes sought Hunter, waiting for the small nod of assent that promptly came, and the five of us moved off as well, helmets settling into place and trailing behind Omega and Phee at a much slower pace than either of them.
The compass's strange tune stopped in front of a huge mountain, looming over us and completely impassable. The small passageway cutting through the range was also boxed in, leaving us with only one way out. The way we came.
"It's a dead end," Omega huffed in disappointment, lowering the now quiet compass. "Maybe we go around the mountain?"
"Or it's telling us to go inside it." Phee glanced back over her shoulder at me. "Hey, you. You're a Jedi, aren't you? Come take a look at this for me."
I was a Jedi, gifted with special abilities by the Force, and this is what it was being used for. Finding secret caves in a mountain. It was my turn to huff out a breath, muttering something unheard but complying anyway, laying a hand flat against the mountainside while my senses pierced the rock, feeling the doorway behind the rock, the drafts billowing in the vacant space beyond it. Something was definitely in there. "It's hollow."
"Are you sure you're a Jedi? Cause I could have told you that." Phee arched a flippant eyebrow and unsheathed the cutlass at her side, wedging the blade into a crevice I hadn't noticed before and prying it away from the face of the mountain. A large section cracked away with a loud groan, revealing a dark space and something glinting behind it. She began to reach inside automatically, only to think better of it and pull back.
"Big guy, help me move this." I rolled my eyes at her pointed look at me - I could have moved it with the Force, but apparently she wasn't inclined to believe Cid anymore. It was just as well: it was one less person to worry about turning me in to the Empire.
Wrecker ambled forward obediently and heaved the first slab of stone aside with a grunt, the chunk sliding away easily. The second slab dislodged the pieces above it; Wrecker and Phee leaped back before the falling boulders could crush them, breaking apart with a tremendous crack that resounded off the mountains around us to reveal an arched doorway, made of the same burnished gold as the compass that had brought us here.
"Look," Omega breathed, clutching the compass to her chest. "It's a secret entrance."
"Ohhh, it is a secret entrance," Wrecker echoed in gruff wonder, following Hunter as Phee lit the lantern she carried with her and plunged into the pitch black depths of the mountain with the rest of us in tow.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose suddenly just before I entered the mountain, goosebumps prickling over my skin as a shiver ran down my spine. My head snapped up instantly, searching for the watching presence I was sure the Force was warning me about.
"Something wrong?" Tech paused just inside the tunnel, watching me scan the mountains again, muscles tense and hands resting on my holsters. But there was nothing, just the distant howl of the wind and the stirring of dead branches around us.
"No, it's nothing." I shrugged it off reluctantly and started forward again, unable to shake the prickling feeling that something was out there. Something that wasn't friendly.