Heroes' Caul: Chapter 6

Hermi Odle tells the crew of the White Wing that their droid is repaired (IL-1D20). However, Donovan is still relgated to the ship's bacta tank, healing, aided by MD-1102. They fill in a repaired D20 on what has been happening. He claims to have gaps in his memory banks, but regarding the Kubaz, is for some reason reminded of Vespar IV. Fabius Kane finds the planet in the computer’s database. It is located on the Outer Rim, approximately between Bespin and the Minos Cluster. Papa Beedo wants to go buy clothes for the children who are supposed to bring him and Kane information, as well as for Naria Lester (the ex-prostitute), as promised. Kane agrees to go with him after breakfast. They decide to bring Beedo’s droid, IL-1D20.

Beedo looks around a nearby outlet, while Kane keeps his eyes open for anything. They buy 25 outfits, not sure how many kids there were; Beedo also buys clothes for Naria. They split the costs and then head back to the hangar. As they leave, D20 notices two women pointing out Beedo. One has a blaster aimed at him.

Kane quickdraws his heavy blaster faster than the women can match, but fires wide. Beedo is hit by one of the women and then takes cover. D20 runs past the women to confuse them, as he takes cover. The other woman knocks a table over for cover. Kane also takes cover, firing as he backpedals. One of the women misses as she fires at Beedo again. The Ithorian runs towards them with his staff, when suddenly the women’s table picks up and lands in front of him. D20 turns and a rod extends out of his arm; he smacks one of the women with it and she gets shocked. Kane fires again but misses, as the other woman pulls a table in front of them.

Beedo pulls that table also with the Force and moves it in front of Kane. Taking advantage of this, D20 hits the same woman with his electro-rod and she falls. The other woman tries to pull her sister away, but Kane guns her down. D20 picks up the injured woman’s blaster and assassinates her. Beedo and Kane are shocked. They tell the droid to carry the other woman away, while they scramble to get their packages. The shopkeeper is about to call the authorities, but Beedo uses to the Force to convince people to go about their normal business. D20 leads them to a place they can go to interrogate her.

The three pull her inside of an abandoned building. The surviving woman’s name is Brea Taneka. She and her sister were after Beedo for his actions as Dobo Hutsah. She reveals that all the people from Tatoonine are on Kegan searching for Garindan. Apparently, he knows both where Jabba the Hutt's vault is and how to access it. Kane offers her a chance to join their crew. She refuses. Kane then kills her. He wipes down any prints they might have left in the room and they all leave.

They all go back to the hangar and drink ale while discussing things with the rest of their crew. D20 checks other some other computer records while they do this. They decide to do nothing else before meeting the kids, and then plan to head out for Vespar IV as soon as possible, to try and head off the others, in the hope that Garindan is there, as D20 suggests. Drea asks Fabius out again; by now, he has had a weird enough of a day to want to get away from it all, so he accepts.

Drea has been with Odle for five years; he helped get her off the streets. Kane asks her if she wants to leave ever; she says yes, but not yet. They enjoy dinner. She asks him to walk about afterwards, but Kane doesn’t feel that is safe. On their way back, Drea notices that they are being followed; one is a Talz, the other a Chadra-fan. Kane tells her to pull out her hold-out blaster and follow his lead. He turns and walks right up to them. Fabius gets them to admit that they are after He who knows where Jabba’s Vault is. Kane also gets them to talk about Dobo Hutsah. They say he is one of the most ruthless men in the galaxy. Kane tells them to back off because the two roll together. They soon shuffle off.

Kane spends the remaining time with Drea at the hangar. He then goes to get Beedo and D20 and make the meet with the child-gang. They wait for half an hour before anything happens. Finally a small girl arrives and says that the gang was attacked by the men in white hats. “Stormtroopers,” Kane mutters. Beedo convinces the smuggler to go help the kids. They follow the girl back through the streets towards what appears to be an abandoned warehouse. There are two stormtroopers guarding the entrance.

Inexpicably, D20 heads off to the door and tells the guards he is there for a pick-up regarding a future delivery. They buy it and let him in. Kane is frustrated with Beedo and his droid. Beedo just shrugs. The droid gets in and ultimately sees the child strapped before an interrogation droid. D20 takes a random box and goes to leave. He is questioned, but convinces the Imperials he has a job to do. He returns and tells the others what he saw.

Beedo decides he will surrender himself and trick them into letting the child go. When he approaches the guards, he tells them he knows something about the Kubaz. One goes to tell their leader. In a moment, the other returns with the colonel. With his blaster out, he demands to know who Beedo is. He then takes them inside. Beedo convinces the Imperial that Garindan is at the spaceport across town and trying to escape that night. They believe it and begin to mobilize. However, they still want to eliminate the child. Beedo convinces the colonel to let the child go with him, but the Intelligence officers have problems with this. Beedo convinces one to let the child go, but the other disagrees. The stormtroopers are confused. The colonel is trying to get people out, Beedo tries to get one stormtrooper to shoot the Intel officer for disobeying the colonel, but the trooper resists and says that’s not how it works.

As some of them try to get out, D20 wants to shoot the colonel. Kane and the girl stay hidden; he wants no part of it. D20 fires, hitting the colonel. In the chaos, Beedo convinces the last Intel officer to run. They somehow do not notice D20 and march on. With them all gone, D20 and Kane run in. Beedo passes out using the Force to heal the child. D20 picks up Beedo and Kane grabs the child. The girl leads them to a safehouse elsewhere.

The child leader knows why the Kubaz was there. He was meeting with someone named Saelt-Marae, a humanoid with a long neck. D20 knows he hung out in Jabba’s palace and was well liked there. The child says that he was a ‘freelancer.’ Labria, a Devaronian, and a poor spy, let everyone know this. The kid got the information right from Labria, who was with the wider, big nosed, Chevin: Ephant Mon. They talk with the kid and instruct him not to take revenge on the Imperials, but to stay on the streets and get strong. The kids agree. Kane and Beedo give them a hundred credits to go along with the clothes.

When they get back to Odle’s place, they find blaster burns on the doors to the hangar. Kane runs in. They find the MD-model medical droid malfunctioning in a corner. Kane moves further. He finds Herm Odle, unconscious, but alive. Kane calls Beedo and moves on. He finds D’urrou in the same condition. He continues on. All the doors to the rooms have been kicked in. Except one. From the closed doorway, Kane notices a rancid smell. He goes in. Drea is hanging from chains, flayed, her organs pulled out and placed on a table. Disturbed, but knowing there is no more he can do there and that there are others still unfound, Kane moves on as Beedo pulls forward. He immediately pukes as he sees Drea. Donovan’s bacta tank is smashed and he is in a coma, but still lives. Naria is not there. They move all the unconscious bodies to the ship. D20 notices that the hyperdrive is not installed yet. Kane remembers it was scheduled for the next day.

On the ship, Beedo heals Odle. The garage owner says that people came in in uniforms, like Lady Valerian’s (a competitor for Jabba’s palace). As they’re questioning him, Naria comes out. She was hiding until it was safe to come out. The others want to find Redge, who is still missing; he is either in danger or a traitor. D20 says Lady Valerian has a base on Kegan. Kane wants to find Redge directly, but Beedo and D20 say they want to go look for Valerian’s base. Odle shows them a speeder he has. Kane smiles in anticipation.

The three non-injured crew head off for Valerian’s base at full tilt, with Kane behind the controls. When they get there, it is closed. D20 picks the lock. They move in, Kane leading the way. They find nothing. On their way out, they see an AT-ST scout walker patrolling the streets. Kane and D20 move to leave, but Beedo starts walking towards it, saying something about saving the galaxy. Kane curses and jumps into the speeder as the walker lowers its weapons at Beedo.

Kane roars off in the airspeeder, soaring up then diving down. He fires a volley of shots and the walker explodes. He swoops down and picks up Beedo and then D20. At Kane’s suggestion, they go to find a computer terminal, to see if Redge has accessed any computer systems recently. They discover that he has accessed his personal holoaccount several times over the last two days, conversing with someone named “badgirl82.” It seems like the conversation is a code of some sort. It appears as if they were trying to arrange a meet. D20 believes they are meeting at the mall off of the spaceport where Beedo sent the Imperials.

On their way, they see an older woman running from blaster fire. They are about to pass, when Kane recognizes her as Winter, a Rebellion procurement agent associated with the real Solo and Organa. Kane banks the airspeeder hard and flips it right towards the alleyway and blows away the thugs shooting at her. He then backs up towards Winter and tells her his name. She is also looking for the Kubaz. It looks like an easy comradeship, but then Winter starts talking about Rebellion. Beedo wants to help her. Kane just wants the money. Ultimately, Beedo uses the Force to convince Kane to join them.

Winter knows where Garindan is. When they arrive there, they find a compound surrounded by several different encampments. Many of the scum they had already seen are there: fighting amongst each other (including a Bothan and Dark Slain of Lady Valerian, the stormtroopers and their colonel, Jodo Kast and his crew, Labria and Ephant Mon, a woman leading Black Sun reps, a Snivvian alone, and a swoop gang.) Kane proposes that he flies them in, drops them off on the roof of the building and then comes back in when they have Garindan.

Kane gets them there safely and pulls out. Beedo pulls off part of the roof with the Force and throws it at the Bothan with the Dark Slain. The three drop down into the compound; it is dark. A small mouse droid comes at them. D20 puts his foot on it and asks it what it’s doing. It says going to them: it is a bomb. It blows. Fabius notices it as he flies away. They all survive, though. Beedo determines with his Jedi powers that Garindan is down on the first floor. Rather than risk more bombs or traps, Beedo rips open the floor; they jump down to the first floor from the third. They drop down right on the Yarkora and the Kubaz.

D20 hits the Yarkora, trying to stun him, but it doesn’t work; in response, he pulls a blaster rifle on the droid. Beedo pulls the blaster to himself, however, using the Force, and begins to threaten them, when suddenly the building shakes.

As Kane speeds away, Boba Fett’s Slave I comes right at him. The bounty hunter gets a shot off first and ionizes Kane’s airspeeder. Kane is just able to land the ship, but he cannot get the ship working again. He sees Fett fire on the crowd and then on the building. He tries to call his friends, but his comlinks are fried. He tries in vain to fix the vehicle, even calling on the Force in his anger, but cannot.

Inside, Beedo bluffs that the shaking is his doing and the others surrender. They are about to try and make their way above to their escape, when two figures start moving towards them: Boba Fett and Dengar. Boba Fett shoots a grapple line at the Kubaz and reels him in. Winter fires at Boba Fett, missing. Dengar shoots, hitting Winter and Beedo: stunning the former. However, Beedo controls Dengar’s hand and weapon from the ground, forcing him to fire into Fett. D20 then somehow intimidates Fett: telling him to stand down. Between Dengar’s apparent treachery and the menace before him, Fett starts to back up. Dengar drops his stun rifle and pulls his blaster carbine and fires at D20, slagging him. Beedo tries to bargain with him. He warns Fett about Jodo Cast. Yet Fett already knows: Me Lyn (the Twi’lek woman) told him. Fett both appreciates this and is impressed at their skill for giving him so much trouble. He talks with Beedo about helping them get their hyperdrive. He makes some calls. But then takes Garindan as his prize.

Finally Kane gets the aircar working and picks up the others, returning them to the hangar. Beedo tries to convince Winter to come with them when he notices that she is a Force-sensitive, but she declines. Redge is waiting when they get back. He’s waiting with Zerrisk Math’ha. The real Zerrisk Math’ha. The one Xax had with him was a decoy. Kane senses he is telling the truth about his whereabouts. Those two wish to join the others.

The next day the hyperdrive is fixed and the quarantine is lifted.