Star Wars - Black Bounty

Chapter 5

                  

The bike came to a halt just next to a fallen tree. Reylan and Vulross dismounted, and sat next to each other on the trunk.

"Where are we?" Reylan asked, who wasn't really paying attention to where they were going.

"Far enough. The Order-Soldiers will never expand their search this far. But if you want an accurate answer, we are about a mile away from where all this disturbance is coming from" Vulross said.

"And we have stopped because...?"

"Have you not noticed your hunger? You crashed almost an entire day ago" he said, pulling out some yellowish meat. Reylan immediately felt his stomach growl. He took a piece of the meat, and took a bite. It was tough and chewy, but of course it was better than nothing.

"What animal is this from?" he asked, in between large chews.

"A Zuakruht" Vulross replied. "Hunted it last night"

"And a Zuakruht is...?" Reylan asked.

"Remember that big scaly bastard who tried to kill us both?" Vulross said. Reylan's stopped chewing. Vulross looked at him, slightly smiling. "I risked my life to get that meat..." he muttered. Reylan quickly started chewing again.

"It's delicious!" Reylan smiled sarcastically. Vulross grinned back.

"Nah... Even I have to admit, Zuakruhts taste like-"

"Dwang?" Reylan interrupted.

"Exactly" Vulross smiled. "I've got some water to wash it down" he passed a leather pouch of water to Reylan, who drank the entire thing. "That was supposed to last us both you know" he said.

"Sorry" Reylan croaked, as the water wasn't all the way down yet.

"It's fine. I once got stranded in this forest with no food or water. I hunted to survive. Took me three weeks to find Bandadoodri. I found a house and I've never left this area since, if I could help it" Vulross explained.

"That's very impressive. How long ago was this?" Reylan asked.

"I was 7 years old at the time" he replied. Reylan didn't know how to respond. He thought it would be best just to keep quiet. Several moments passed, before Vulross asked if he was ready to leave, and Reylan said yes. The two mounted the speeder once again, and the bike sped through the trees. It didn't take long for them to arrive at the source of the disturbance. There were large pieces of metal scattered around, and a few of them were smoking. Reylan dismounted, and approached the wreckage. He kneeled down next to one of the larger pieces, and began scraping mud away from its surface. A serial number was visible, and Reylan recognized it straight away.

"This is wreckage from my ship!" he called out to Vulross, who was also examining the pieces of metal. Vulross didn't respond. He was trying to lift one of them, and he gestured to Reylan to help him. He jogged over, and joined Vulross. It took quite some time, but they managed to dislodge it from the ground. Reylan saw a glint of gold in the dirt. Then some farmiliar bleeps.

"Vulross I think..." Reylan began. "Just dig whatever that gold thing is out of the ground!" The two clawed at the dirt with their hands, until Reylan managed to get a good grasp on the object.

"Is that an astromech droid?" Vulross asked.

"R2-R0!" Reylan exclaimed in excitement, as he managed to pull him out of the ground.

"Hello there Reylan. Survived the crash I see?" R0 asked.

"Of course. And you?" he replied.

"Well I'm guessing you found my disturbances? I've been damaged rather badly and a weak signal was all I could send out. And who is this...?" R0 asked, his dome turning towards Vulross.

"Vulross Vorn. So you're Reylan's droid?" he asked.

"Well I wouldn't say he owns me...  It's more like I'm his assistant" R0 said.

"And how do you speak?"

"Excuse me?" R0 asked.

"I mean... astromech droids don't normally speak. Well, don't normally speak Basic I mean" Vulross explained.

"I came across an old protocol droid quite a while back. I disassembled him, and I managed to program his vocal capabilities into R0, which is how he speaks" Reylan said.

"It's a shame. That protocol droid was a nice guy" R0 muttered.

"He was useless, unlike you. How badly damaged are you?" Reylan asked.

"It's not so bad. My rocket boosters are filled with dirt, my scanners are fried, and my paintwork is ruined!"

"We need to get you repaired, you're no use to me without your scanners." Reylan said

" Is that all I am to you? A scanner. After all we've been through!'  R0 cried

" No. You're an annoying scanner that talks too much! Now lets get out of this deserted place, Vulross lead us to the closest place where we can find cheap spare parts, and I mean cheap, I missed that bounty so I'm running really low on credits at the moment!"

"I know a place, but...what about the order soldiers? They wont forget what you did."  Vulross exclaimed.

"If I want to get off this planet, and find my targets I need R0 in perfect working condition we've been through a lot and I've modified him in a certain way and he needs to stay that way if I'm to get any bounties, Its worth the risk." 

"Follow me." Vulross said confidently.