Star Wars: The Lost

Chapter 8: Memories of the Lost

9 BBY
Galma Roads, Batuu

I yawned, my strained eyes just barely squinting open. I was still riding on my speeder, but I hadn't fallen asleep just yet.

Luckily, we had managed to escape the forest but we're but traversing the empty grass plains.

I was in this weird mixed trance of being both awake and asleep at the same time. I rubbed my gloved hand over my eyes for the 37th time this trip.

"Are we there yet?" I yawned at Lu, who was still flying bright.

"We're nearing the village, our speeders need refuelling. Your bike's getting awfully low on juice, isn't it?"

I glimpsed at the meter down in front, seeing that was my fuel was in fact getting low. I could barely even remember half of the ride, it was so. boring.

I rubbed as I could see flashing lights illuminating in the distance, we neared the upcoming village.

As we got closer, the evident sound of pumping music rocked my eardrums. We parked our speeders near a refuelling station right in the outskirts of the Galma village.

I drunkenly stumbled around on the dirt as I got off, having to physically strain myself just so I can walk normally. My eyes were sore, throbbing as I was still half asleep.

A couple of Pit Droids began to work on our bikes as we head into the lively village.

Galma, a popular village of Batuu where the mechanical lawless could gather, sports such as illegal pod races and Droid fights were common place here.

Lu strolled through in front of me as I tiredly trailed behind him. We passed by mechanics, roaming around with their Droids. Houses were made out of various scrap metal and recycled parts, some of the stone spires even had homes built into them.

We made our way into a cantina, which had rentable rooms. Walking inside in my current state of mind caused my head to start overloading, sleeping in a room made out of scrap? That doesn't sound too comfy.

"Room for two, please." Lu spoke to the Toydorian at the desk, flicking a few credits onto the counter.

The Toydorian inspected the credits, "Reki! More visitors!" He barked, and a small blue Twi'lek girl in rags waddled up, afraid.

Lu's expression twisted, his eyes narrowing to a squint.

"Daughter of yours..?" He asked, his voice grumbling quietly.

"Bah, hell no! Bought this kid for a cheap price, now I don't have to anything!" The Toydarian cackled, as the child's eyes sunk down to the dusty floors.

Oh, this is one of those planets, I see now...

Yeah, slavery was a pretty common nowadays. It was outlawed during the Republic-era, but with the Empire's shitty reign over half of the galaxy, it returned and became common-place, much like other terrible stuff. They're stormtroopers are often busy picking on and harassing innocent civilians to actually deal with the real criminals, that's corruption for you.

"Hahahaha..." Lu laughed alongside the Toydarian, but eerily enough, his laugh lacked any enthusiasm or even sounded real at all...

"Lu?" I stepped forward, reluctantly hovering my hand inches way from making contact with his shoulder. He continued with his fake laugh, hanging his head low.

My eyes trailed down to his hip as his arm slightly jerked, slightly closer to his Blaster pistol's holster.

There was an awkward halt between the Quarren and the Toydorian, as the laugh devolved into an odd stare between the two.