Sprocket A Star Wars Story

Chapter 2: Go Huttball Go!

The stormy skies above Vespaara rumbled, the thunder rolling like a distant drumbeat. Flickers of lightning split the heavens, casting fleeting, ghostly shadows across the massive arena. The air was thick with the scent of ozone and the distant tang of wet metal. The crowd's murmur buzzed like static all around, their anticipation palpable.

The Mudhorn team prepared for the match in their Hunter suite. Sprocket opened a metal box to show off his weapon: a command chair with all of his equipment and bots.

The Hunters appeared quite impressed with Sprocket. Rieve, on the other hand, appeared to remain quite worried about something—perhaps about how Aran Tal was going to react about yesterday. Sprocket figured she had a good reason for being worried. It was Aran Tal, after all. And that meant he was going to burn everything he possibly could with his flamethrowers.

Sprocket's fingers fidgeted on the edge of his control pad, the weight of the team's expectations suddenly heavy on his shoulders. His heart began to pound in his chest—but he couldn't let them see his nervousness or his doubt. No, he had to show them he belonged, no matter what it cost.

Aran Tal bounded around the corner, locking eyes with Rieve. "I'm not holding anything back after what you did yesterday!" he yelled.

Rieve, who had a bandage on her nose from their feud, looked unamused. "Good luck, you're gonna need it!" she shouted back.

Slingshot, who was standing next to Aran Tal, gave the opposing team a wink.

However, Zaina, who was now standing beside Sprocket, whispered some encouragement to him. "Good luck, just try your best," she told him with a smile.

Sprocket gave a small nod to her as the Gundarks began to walk away.

He thought about his first competition at his private school for the gifted Mon Calamari that his parents had sent him to. He remembered how he stayed up all night to finish his project, and he felt a surge of determination flow through him. This was no different. He was going to prove himself, one way or the other.

He was nervous and excited all at the same time, something he wasn't sure he had experienced before—at least not quite like this. Sprocket wanted to impress the judges, but most of all, he wanted to impress the recruiter with his Arena designs. He felt like everything had led up to this very moment; everything had been leading to this moment. Here we go, he thought as the lights started blaring down on the Mudhorns.

"Hunters! Welcome to the Arena!" the announcer shouted, sending chills through Sprocket's entire body.

Across from them, the Gundarks sat in their suite, awaiting to be released. Sprocket could feel his nerves building up as the clock ticked down to the starting time. The doors slowly opened, allowing for each team to set up their goal point as the time neared for the battle to begin.

Aran Tal flew his way onto the battleground, his jetpack spewing colorful flames. Dizzy burst out of the spawn area not far behind him, quickly catching up to his teammate. Zaina readied the bombs on her belt while Diago found a convenient spot for sniping.

Meanwhile, Sprocket put his helmet on and set up his drones. He noticed Rieve eyeing the drones, but she quickly turned her attention back to Tal. Grozz, as per usual, gave out his warrior roar as he held his robot arms as his weapon. J-3DI spun his head around with excitement.

"Ready... Set... GO!" the lady droid announcer yelled.

Sprocket sprung to life as he heard those words, hurrying towards the middle where the Huttball would be. The ball arrived in the middle, as anticipated, and Sprocket reached it momentarily, attempting to grab it. Before he could react, Zaina jumped in quickly and grabbed the ball, leaping over Sprocket's head without breaking a sweat.

Sprocket sent out his tracking bot, which confused Zaina by following her around. She sees Grozz standing at the goal though, awaiting her arrival and ready to intercept the ball. Zaina quickly dodged to the side as Grozz swiped at her, and she threw the ball high up in the air. Grozz attempted to catch the ball, but J-3DI caught the ball instead.

J-3DI ran away with the ball. "The Force is with me," he mumbled.

Sprocket ran after his friend, glancing over to see that Aran Tal was busy trying to shoot flames at Rieve with his flamethrowers. Rieve was seemingly focused on fighting Tal until she took notice of Diago shooting at J-3DI as he tried to carry the ball. Rieve pushed Aran away and dashed over to help J-3DI, using her force jump to try and reach Diago.

Sprocket followed J-3DI with the Huttball while Zaina desperately tried to get the ball back. He looked over his shoulder and saw Grozz throwing a rock at Zaina to knock her out for a short time.