Broken Codes

Silver Menace

Zeffo: 19 BBY
Imperial Excavation Site
Lesia Mirri

    The tracking beacon let out a soft beep every few seconds now. The red dot was a few feet away from her current location. Lesia switched off the holodisk and tucked it into her belt. She quickly painted a confused expression across her face and continued on.

    She entered an old hangar of sorts. Crates and broken ship parts littered the ground. Thunderous booms from the excavation site filled the air. Les glanced around but saw no sign of the droid.

    A metal part clanged against the floor. Les skidded around in time to see a silver astromech barreling towards her. He had a shocker extended. Lesia dodged and raised her hands.

    "Wait! I don't mean to harm you!" She exclaimed. The droid paused, somewhat disconcerted. He gave a low rumble. "I'm a cargo pilot. My crew and I were bringing in provisions for the troops here. We were going back to the ship but I got lost." The lie slid off her tongue with ease. It was a skill that she wasn't sure she wanted to keep. "Can you help me get to a transport landing pad?"

    The droid, Azie, she reminded herself, put his shocker away and chirped. He rolled out of the hangar and she followed him. The grass outside was still wet and muddy. The rain hadn't dissipated, but it hadn't grown worse either.

    They hadn't gotten very far when Lesia's comm went off. Oni's voice came through before she'd accepted the transmission. "Have you found the droid yet?"

     Blast! Les thought. I forgot to change the comm settings. She switched the comm off, but it was too late.

    Azie gave a shrill whistle and charged at her once more. Les somersaulted through a puddle of mud. She grimaced and flicked it off. Azie rammed into her legs, knocking her backwards. "Kriff!" Les cried out. She grabbed one of the restraining bolts and slapped it onto his cylindrical body, before rolling out of reach.

    Azie was struggling to move. Les grabbed the second bolt and prepared to plant it. Just before she did, Azie zapped the other bolt with his shocker. It fell off and he attacked her with renewed fervor.

    Lesia hit the mud again, her satchel flying free. She yanked a blaster out of her holster. Azie jabbed his shocker into her leg. She convulsed and her blaster fell from her grip. Les flipped onto her stomach. Her gaze landed on the satchel, where her lightsaber lay.

    She began crawling through the squelching mud towards it. Azie attempted to come closer, but his treads had sunken a bit. Les heaved herself to her feet. She heard the mud suction behind her and knew Azie had worked himself free. Les extended her hand towards her satchel.

    Just reach out, she reminded herself. You can do it. The Force surrounded her and moved towards her satchel. She grasped at her lightsaber and pulled it free. It flew into her hand and she whirled towards Azie, igniting the cyan blade.

    The droid halted in his tracks and gave a soft coo. Les angled the blade as she had learned when she was just a youngling. "I don't want to hurt you, but we can take you in dismantled or in one piece."

    Azie whistled again and put his shocker away. He extended a pronged appendage and gestured in another direction. Lesia's eyes widened as she listened to him speak. She deactivated her blade and shoved it into her satchel once more.

    "All right. Lead the way." She waited for Azie to start rolling away, before pulling the holodisk out of her belt. She typed up a quick transmission to Nakoa, then carried on.

Zeffo: 19 BBY
Plains
Nakoa Sen

    Nakoa ran his nails along the metal of his vibroblade thoughtfully. He and Oni had sat in silence since Les had left. Oni had sent her a transmission, but it had gone unanswered. He wasn't sure what that meant.