After each session of Star Wars: Edge of Empire, I write out my group's adventure as a story.
Star Wars: Bury Us On Tatooine
It is a period of unrest. The Deathstar has been destroyed, and the balance of power has shifted. In the Outer Rim, gangsters have begun calling in their debts and reforging alliances.
Garik Xix, captain of the smuggling ship The Queen Amidala's Revenge, has been captured by Wookie mercenaries and frozen in Carbonite until the debt is paid.
Desperate to save their captain, Ashadrakka and Malix Dravv, flew to Tatooine to collect credits owed to them from Sulla the Hutt. It was a trap, and now they're on the run...
1: Never Stop Running
Malix and Ashadakka ran. It wasn't the first time, and it undoubtedly wouldn't be the last. The two of them had spent their lives running from death. It's what smugglers did best.
Today, death was a Hutt named Sulla. He owed their captain money, a lot of money, too much money. When Ashadrakka and Malix came to collect, things got a little salty, blasters were fired, and once again they found themselves sprinting down a dark hallway - running for their lives.
By the time Ashadrakka had turned into Sulla's grand hallway, her lungs were burning, her leks were oversensitive, pulsing from the exertion, but she kept running. Don't stop running, never stop running. Her legs were lead, but she could see doors at the end of the hall - something to reach; a milestone. Just get to the door and you can breathe.
"Where the hell are we goin'?" shouted Malix, as he slid around the corner behind her.
"Doors," she said between breaths. "Get to the doors."
Malix grimaced as he squeezed a cramp in his side. "Is that the way out?"
Ashadrakka shook her head.
"Run through it," hissed Malix. "Don't stop."
The doors were wooden and elaborately carved, they swung outward. Ashadrakka barreled through them. There was a crash as the doors smacked into the wall. Her and Malix skidded to a stop, blasters drawn and at the ready, both panting.
They stole a moment to catch their breath and consider the situation. They were in a cantina. Dimly lit and empty.
There was a Devonian bartender who looked up from scrubbing a mug, then lost interest, and quickly disregarded them, as though people running for their lives nothing new here. Opposite the bartender was a pale blue Twi'lek dancer spinning and bobbing on stage for a non-existent crowd. Behind the girl was a door, huge and heavy, probably durasteel.
"Over there-" she said, but Malix was staring at her, grin wider than ever.
"What is it?" she said. "Am I bleeding?"
"No," -Malix took a bold step forward- "just beautiful" -and he kissed her.
Damned if he wasn't a romantic bastard, but he needed to work on his timing. For malix, lust and danger went hand in hand. He always looking for a bad time to share a good moment. And right now was as bad a time as he could have hoped for; Sulla's Gamorrean guards were stomping down the hall behind them.
As their lips parted, they bolted for the door behind the Twi'lek.
The Twi-lek dancer sprung gracefully across the stage, suddenly landing right in Ashadrakka's path. "Outta the way," she yelled, but the dancer just turned and froze - hands up and eyes wide - like she'd been dipped in carbonite. Ashadrakka knocked her spinning and the girl tumbled off the stage, then crawled into the corner.
Ashadrakka rattled the handle, "It's locked."
Malix drew his blaster. "Stand back." He aimed and fired. There was a bolt of red energy and the door smoked. Barely a scratch. "You've got to be kidding me. What the hell's this thing made of?"
The first Gamorrean stumbled into the room, snorting and wheezing and coughing. Drool dripped from his huge green snout onto his one remaining tooth. His chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath. Ashadrakka drew her blaster, pointed it right at the One-Tusk.
The thug waved his vibroaxe in the air and shouted in Gamorrese - a pattern of disgusting growls and grunts.
Another Gamorrean stumbled in behind One-Tusk. This one was a shorter with a huge scar down this piggish face and a milky white eye. He dropped the head of his vibroaxe to the ground, rested his forearm on the handle. He fought to catch his breath while remaining intimidating. A battle quickly he lost.
Captain Xix always said, "the best way to escape a Gamorrean was to outrun it." And it was damn good advice. These particular thugs were in no shape for a fight. They were barely in shape to breathe.
"You stay right there, lizard-pigs, or I'll turn you to dust," Ashadrakka trained her blaster on Scar. "Malix how's lock coming?"
Malix shrugged and mumbled something. He was tinkering with the door, locking picking tools poking out from his mouth, and from between his knuckles.
Scar violently snorted and grunted at Ashadrakka. It sounded like a threat, but then, everything in Gamorrese sounded like a threat.
"Don't move," she shouted.
Scar shook his axe in defiance, snorted some more.
"You have axes. I have a blaster. I will shoot you," warned Ashadrakka.
Scar began to pace aggressively. Spat a much more accusatory series of grunts and snorts, shook his axe above his head.
"Are you really gonna do this?"
Scar charged. Made about it three paces before Ashadrakka shot him in the mouth. His bulbous body fell backward. His vibroaxe slid across the floor.
Killing wasn't new for her, it was almost as familiar as running. Just another part of the job. Life and death in the barrel of a blaster. Ashadrakka pivoted and took aim at One-Tusk. "Get out."
One-Tusk dropped his weapon, grunted something apologetic, then ran awkwardly out of the room.
"He'll be back with friends," Ashadrakka said, holstering her weapon.
"Ain't that the truth," hissed Malix as he dug a jagged electrode into the security box next to the door, blue sparks flying.
"What can I do?" she asked.
"Cover the door," he said. "And help the girl."
The dancer was curled up in the corner with her back pressed against the wall. Obviously a recent purchase; veteran dancers didn't bat an eye at danger. They spent their lives around scum and villainy. Violence was an inevitability. A few years on stage and this girl would be hard as durasteel, but right now all she could manage were a few tears and a helpless stare. Ashadrakka thanked the stars that she never ended up a Twi'lek slave herself. Sure, she became a criminal, but better a criminal than a slave. Right?
"You need to get out of here," Ashadrakka said, helping her to her feet.
"Where should I go?" muttered the girl.
That question - Ashadrakka had asked it the moment the captain set her free. All those years, smuggling, and fighting, and running, and she still remembered the captain's words, clear as day. After all, they'd kept her alive, hadn't they? Best to pass them on. "I guess this is where you start running," she said.
"Speaking of running" -Malix cut in- "Do you know how to get this door open?"
"That's not the way out," muttered the girl. "If you can't go back the way you came in...there's an emergency exit." Then she pointed towards the bartender, who looked up, shook his head, and went back to polishing glasses.
Malix approached the bar, "The girl says you know another way out. Care to fill us in?"
The bartender sighed, then delicately placed the mug he'd been cleaning on the bar, lining it up with the other mugs. He took a moment to be sure all the handles pointed in the same direction.
"Really, Guy? People trying to kill us, ya know?"
The bartender walked past the liquor cabinet. He reached behind it. There was a click, and part of the wall slid away, revealing a staircase. "This way," said the bartender and then, in a vastly melodramatic gesture, he bowed and waved his hand for them to pass.
Malix and Ashadrakka's boots echoed off the dry stone staircase as they exited the cantina. The blinding light came suddenly; the two blinked and shielded their eyes. Watched the horizon dance in the heat, under the two scorching suns of Tatooine.
Ashadrakka felt a tugging at her hand, she turned quick drawing her blaster. It was the girl. She was signaling with her Lekku: Take me with you.
Ashadrakka signaled back, We've got enough problems. If you value your freedom, run, and don't stop running.
"What's up with her?" asked Malix. Ashadrakka had been teaching Malix to read Twi'lekki. If he managed to learn it, he'd be just about the only non-droid, non-Twi'lek who could understand the language. "I could only make out the take me part."
"Take me?" Ashadrakka raised an eyebrow, "That's all you got?"
"Well, yeah," Malix shrugged then cracked a smile. "I'm not sure if it's my charm or my looks but you say it all the time."
Ashadrakka rolled her eyes. "Not the time," she said.
Please, the girl signaled. Help me.
Ashadrakka reached into her belt pouch, pulled out a few credits and pressed them into her hand. Use it to bribe your way on a freighter, Ashadrakka signaled. Get going.
"Thank you," said the girl, then she disappeared into crowded streets of Mos Tooma.
"And whatever happens," Ashadrakka shouted. "Never stop running."