Fiction Update

The night sky looked down upon the world of Kiast, only pilots and stars seeing the beauty of it. It was calm, above the acid clouds, a modest space yacht hovering over them without a care in the world. If one listened long enough, the still silence that embraced everything that night was briefly interrupted by the scratching of a quill on parchment. Inside the yacht, in the center of the vessel, was a conference chamber that seated twelve very nervous guests. The room was nothing special, white walls and black floor devoid of any decoration. At the head of their table, hand rapidly scribbling something down, was The Lady.

She put her quill down and looked around the room, examining each of the faces of her guests. Each was a captain of a ship, some even two or three. Each had made a name for themselves, and each were known for using their brawn more than their brain. They were the kind born to follow, deemed the Lady, born to work for the scraps given to them by a better pedigree.

“Welcome.” she said, leaning back in her chair.

The group was surprisingly polite, she noted, considering their reputation for bloodthirsty pirates and thieves. Perhaps her reputation had spread faster than she anticipated, or perhaps it was the six assassin droids that each held two holdout blasters trained on each of their heads. Either way, respect should be earned, not given.

“I’m sure you’re all wondering why you are here.” she said, pressing a button on her chair and revealing a holographic projection of Kiast, “You are the Pirates of Kiast, yet you spend as much time squabbling amongst each other as you do taking the loot and pillaging. Do you know why this is? Lack of leadership. Of vision. Why steal credits, droids, ships, when we could steal the hearts and minds of the people of Kiast. We could take their freedoms away from them, and make them do it willingly.” she said, “All we need is fear.”

The group looked at each other, and then they looked at the assassin droids, and in unison asked her to continue.

“You will sign over your ships and crews to me. I will use them to achieve the stated goal of taking Kiast away from those that currently rule it, and then we can begin the real work of forging my empire on the remains of the Vatali. For the requisition of your ships and the loyalty of you and your crew, I am ready to offer each of you ten percent of any plunder we as a group collect. Do not get me wrong, gentleman, I do not wish to control you all of the time. Continue to pillage and loot, do as you wish, but you will come when called and you will follow the orders given to you. Agreed?”

“What if we don’t agree?” asked one of the guests, a Rodian with green skin and flight jacket from the Imperial Navy. Underneath the Galactic Empire sigil was the word “Sucks” underneath. The Lady decided he was her least favorite. “Your assassin droids are gonna kill us, right?”

The Lady placed her hand on her chest in shock, her face full of disgust and surprise. “Dear heavens, no! If you disagree, you’ll be free to leave and carry on your merry way going on with business as usual, never going anywhere and being forgotten from the pages of history.”

“Well I don’t agree.” said the Rodian, getting up and begin to leave.

“I should mention two things...One. There is no way off this yacht once you get on it other than to land and the amount of crew members on board this thing is impressive, just in case you were gonna commandeer it and fight your way to the controls. Two. The air in my yacht is laced with a highly toxic poison that, when inhaled through the nostrils, can kill a Hutt with correct dosage in under five minutes of inhalation. While I’m immune to it due to excessive exposure, and my crew are all equipped with devices to nullify the effects, you all have not been. I have an antidote for each of you, and will gladly give it to you once you sign my contract.”

Upon hearing that, each of the guests quickly scribbled their names on the contracts and demanded the antidote. She produced twelve vials from a small satchel that was lying on the floor, and sprawled them across the table. The guests quickly took them, ingested them, and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh, and because all of us are, well, scummy people who betray one another almost as much as the Sith, I have a small insurance policy that the antidote provides. The nanites that enter the bloodstream and nullify the poison also have a self destruct option programmed into them and they do not leave the bloodstream on their own. So, basically, if you betray me, I have them cluster around your vital organs and let the program do the rest. Do we understand each other?”

The group nodded, fearful of what it was their lives just became. She approached one and reached out for a handshake. When the other captain’s hand reached out for that gesture of camaraderie, she pulled her hand back and assassin droids clamped down on the arm. Another grabbed his hand and made sure it could not move. He resisted, but the strength of the droids was impressive.

“Calm down, friend. If you struggle, they’ll break bone and feel no regret.” said The Lady, “Everyone will go through what you are going through, worry not. Everyone in my crew goes through this.”

She activated her Scepter, a lightsaber stolen from the last Force User she had killed, and the violet blade bore a perfect circle through the man’s palm. From behind The Lady came a medical droid that began saying calming words to the victim, telling him everything was going to be alright. Instructed to lay down, the victim did so through the screams and expletives he was throwing at his tormentor. The medical droid cleaned and took care of the wound, and then pulled a small, black, object that he placed in the wound. To hold it, the droid placed black cybernetics around the wound which ensured that it would not fall out or move.
One by one, these “black spots” as The Lady referred to them, was given to the Captain’s and she then informed them that each of their crews would have to meet with her and go through that ordeal as well.

After the last Captain stopped screaming, The Lady walked over to her chair and reached into her satchel. She grabbed the folders and dispersed them to three of the Captain’s. The other’s she instructed to go to the lounge and enjoy what the bartending droid made for them as they would be preparing for landing.

“You three have been selected to be called into action now. Look at your folders, they contain a target and what to do once there. These are your attack orders. Any questions?”

The Captains flipped through the documents, their faces growing pale as they studied each of the pieces of information contained within their orders and nodded their heads. The Lady smiled as she pressed her comm to the pilot.

“I think it’s high time people pay attention to those poor orphans I keep hearing about the Vatali having, I believe we have three volunteers here that wish to pay them a visit.”

Thats all

That’s the Fiction Update everyone!

Enjoy! Competitions to follow where you will write what happens next!