Chapter 1
“What are you waiting for?”
Damian sighed, Drustan was always too impatient. Whatever it was that they set out to do, Drustan wanted it finished quickly and recklessly. His Zabrak friend had been by his side since they were children, they’d always been inseparable. The orphanage even let them have bunkbeds when growing up in the outskirts of Nar Shaddaa.
Like most Zabraks, Drustan had a set of vestigial horns, pertruding from his skull. The Zabraks were known for these prominent features, and always admired for their self-determination. Their species were also gifted with having two hearts, something that allowed them to move faster, and for a longer period of time, than most species in the galaxy.
Damian glared at his friend, the light from the city shining off his Zabrak horns. His striped brown face half covered with a dark grey mask that Drustan used whenever they did a job.
“In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a Weequay keeping watch by the front of the building. Also, the fact that there’s two hovercam droids darting around inside doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.”
The guard stood in front of the door was indeed a huge Weequay. The dual plated metal door seemed small being alongside the guard, when in all fact it was the guard who was abnormally giant. Their species were known for their brute strength, and the anger that came with it.
The Weequay seemed to be armed with an electrostaff, standing taller than the guard himself, capable of zapping the life out of a couple of Nar Shaddaa criminals with ease.
The droids inside were no bigger than Damian’s torso. These spheric shaped security droids were brought by most rich families, automated for constant surveillance on their properties.
“I don’t exactly want my face plastered on every Holo-Board planet side”, Damian thought as he noticed the many boards lit up for miles above him.
Nar Shaddaa was the primary moon and main shipping port for the planet Nal Hutta, which constantly loomed above them outside the atmosphere.
Damian preffered the moon to it’s gravitational planet. Nal Hutta was mainly a swamp. The only land on the planet was occupied by the Hutts, the native species, who always craved more power. Aside from the constant power struggle, the planet was constantly covered in a slimy rain, which was horrible for anyone who wasn’t a Huttanese.
Nar Shaddaa was different, a metallic moon, amass with spaceports, factories and an everbuilding skyline. There were hundreds of different levels, walkways and complexes citywide. A constant mist was swept in between the buildings from constant air being pushed out through mass vent systems, designed to keep the moon habitable.
Damian and Drustan stayed relatively low on the many structured layers of platforms on the moon, as there was less monitoring of crime down in the depths or Nar Shaddaa. Something that suited the pair quite nicely.
“I still say we go now...we can be in and out before anyone or anything notices us, look!”
Drustan pointed at the skylight above the room they needed to enter.
They were a couple stories above the target building , a converted factory with a metallic exterior. The inside was now a mansion, fit for a politician.
They had used their speeder to make way to the apartment block adjacent to the complex. The pipeline that ran from the complex linked to the walls above the mansion with a 10ft drop below. Damian noticed there was an open window on the roof.
Damian nodded at his friend. They shimmyed off the ledge they were crouched on and along the pipeline, gripping the wall to prevent them from plunging to their demise in the drop below.
When safely above the rooftop, they dropped down silently. Then, crouching down, the pair approached the window which was slightly ajar.
“I thought this was too easy”, Damian exclaimed throwing a hand towards the laser sensors beneath the open glass.
“Do you still think of me as an amateur?” Drustan replied, whipping out a hyperspanner from the sack he had strapped over his shoulder. Opening the ajar window further, he latched the spanner onto the back of the laser emitter.
Damian looked through the window. The main hallway below had various sculptures and relics along its walls, with the walls themselves holding up egotistical self portraits of the family residing here.
“Rich snobs” Damian muttered to himself, frowning. He didn’t mind making money off those who were wealthy when he seen pointless credit-wasting trash like this.
The way he saw it, if they weren’t going to share their many profits, he was going to take them.
“Drustan doesn’t mind taking money off anyone” Damian thought.
It was what Drustan called ‘Easy pickings’, he didn’t care who the victim was. The more vulnerable they were, the easier the job. Damian felt remorseful if they took from someone who needed it. But then again, they needed to survive too.
The spanner slowly whirled around disconnecting the laser from its power supply.
Without a word being said and a wink toward his friend, Drustan leapt through the open window, causing panicked Damian to head on after.
The house was almost silent, with just the slight hum of the hovercams from the floor below.
From what the pair had learnt, the house occupants were away for a family funeral. The many jewels worn by the countess of the house, however , would still be here, and more likely be in her chamber.
The heist was lucky to come across. Damian had heard the count speaking to his advisors , near the Chiss Embassy a few moons ago.
Damian had easily spotted the count and his entourage. The Chiss were near-humans, meaning their shape, features, and dimensions were greatly similar to those of humans. However, some notable differences being that their skin was blue, their hair a shimmering blue-black, and their eyes a glowing red. Seeing the Chriss this far from their home plannet, either meant royalty or a politician, and that meant they came with riches.
From listening into their conversations, he had learnt that the count and his family would all be away for a couple of days leaving Drustan and himself to relieve the count’s wife of her valuables.
Drustan peered over the balcony. It looked as though a hovercam had just hit the second floor below them. They’d only have a couple minutes before it was up on the hallway where they stood.
Damian signalled Drustan to try the first door whilst he took the second. Quickly , but silently the pair each ventured into the adjoining rooms.
Damian slipped in and closed the door behind him. The room was pitch black, other than a small beam of light coming through the cracks in the door behind him.
His eyes adjusted. He seemed to be in the master bedroom, or what he assumed it was.
The room was half filled with a giant bed in the centre, with what looked like hover tables either side.
He looked beyond the bedframe and towards the back of the room, where the light was reflecting off the surface of the wall. He crept across the room, eyeing up a potential display cabinet for what he hoped was a mass of jewels.
He stopped directly in front of it, leaning his head foward to gaze through the now apparent glass in front of him. The light wasn’t strong enough to protrude through, although he could make out the faintest of objects towards the back of the cabinet. He reached his hands to the side of the glass in front and tried to pull it across. It didn’t budge. He turned his gaze again to try and scan what was beyond the door and the object inside hurtled inself towards his face.
Damian threw himself back in fear, falling onto the floor. Before he’d got to his feet the door behind shot open as a hovercam burst into the room.
Damian rolled back underneath the bed just as the room lights flickered on, apparently through a power surge the cam droid had created.
He froze, trying to steady his breathing and racing heart.
Damian sensed the droid hovering around the bed towards the glass wall he had just leapt from. He peered out from underneath the bedframe and to see what the droid was now scanning. Behind the glass panel were three small creatures known as Mynocks. One of them had its mouth sucked onto the glass, its hundreds of teeth scraping to get through the other side where Damian had previously stood.
The droid scanned up and down the mynock cage, before making a series of beeps and proceeding to exit the room.
“That was a close one” Damian thought.
After creeping out from under the bed, keeping his ears pricked for the hum of the hover droids, Damian crept back towards the now slightly open door. The new light in the room made it apparent to Damian that this wasn’t the master bedroom that he had originally thought. There were smaller outfits laid out on the bed, evidently one of the children’s room. He gave a final glimpse around the room incase of anything valuable and headed empty handed to his friend next door. He hoped that Drustan was having better luck than him.
Damian opened the door silently and slid through the gap before softly shutting it behind him. As he turned around to face the room, he caught a glimpse of Drustan hunched over a enormous nightstand, rustling through one of the many drawers seemingly oblivious to Damians presence. Damian shuffled over to his friend, observing him stuffing a large sack with various pieces of jewellery and piles of credits that had been stashed in the many drawers in front of him.
Damian didn’t need to say a word to the Zabrak. Drustan now acknowledged Damian’s arrival with a small nod, grateful that it wasn’t a droid sneaking in to check the rooms.
They cleared the room of its contents and Drustan now had his sack full, strapped back over his shoulder.
” We leaving through the roof? You’ll have to boost me up first” Damian whispered.
“No chance , this bag weighs a ton. I’ll get the speeder to come to us” Drustan pointed at the window near the corner of the room .
It was large, stretching from the floor to ceiling but it had no hatch or way of opening from what Damian could see.
” We can’t get out that way, the window won’t open” Damian noted, frustrated with his friend.
Drustan said nothing, but pulled out his holopad and proceeded to maneuvere the speeder to hover around 6ft outside the window. Drustan stood up, and his reckless nature reached new heights as he proceeded to pull out his hydrospanner and launch it full force into the window in front of them.
Damian cursed and shot to the door, pulling his fabricated scarf up to the bridge of his nose in an attempt to cover his face from the security droids who would arrive any second. Chaos was about to unfurl.
The window was starting to crack from the repetitive bashes it was receiving from Drustans hydrospanner.
“He needs to hurry” Damian thought, as a new noise emerged from the door he was leant up against.
The droids were slamming against the door in an attempt to gain entry, Damians body was up against it on the inside, stopping it from budging.
“I’d love it if you could hurry up!” Damian exclaimed.
“I’ll be through this way before those useless droids come through there!” Drustan replied.
Then came the horrible shriek of an angry Weequay guard, storming up the staircase, the cackle of an electostaff echoing up to Damian’s ears.
At that moment the glass shattered, Drustan laughing as he jolted back. He then proceeded to run full force at the now open window toward his escape.
Damian watched his friend leap through into the Nar Shaddaa mist , landing on the side of the speeder and hoisting himself into the drivers seat.
“Now or never!” Drustan screamed , his face turning back to a calculated scoundrel.
Damian sprinted, the sound of the door slamming open almost immediately after he started his run, the ominous hum of droids behind him. He reached the edge and leapt towards the speeder, his arms flailing around as he came smashing down onto the front of the craft, completely missing the seated area where Drustan was. Drustan stared wide-eyed in fear as Damian dangled off the front edge of the speeder, the never ended gloom below him.
Damian quickly kicked his legs to propell himself, using his arms to lift up onto the front of the craft.
Staggering to his feet he looked up, just in time to see an angry weequay leap from the building they had just exited, screaming as he leapt.
The weequay had his staff fully charged, the electricity sparkling around it.
Gripping with both hands around it, and arched behind the back of his head , he was going to bring it toppling down onto Drustan, who had seen the attack coming and covered his eyes as he awaited the inevitable strike.
“NO!” Damian screamed , and reached out to stop the weequay, a surge of anger and fear of losing his friend surged through him, the weequay was too far away for him to do anything to help.
But as he stretched his arm out , it was almost like he hit the weequay with the power of a thousand blaster bolts, as the leaping guard was send flying sidewards , smashing his body into a pipe at force , before plummeting to the city depths below.
Drustan looked up, unaware of what was happening , confused about where the attacking weequay had gone. He glared at the hovercams, which were now glowing red , their sensors flashing wildly as they kept on recording footage of the pair, circling the vehicle.
Damian, feeling dazed, hustled forward over the control panel and next to his friend, and Drustan punched the speeder into flight, launching its way into the mist , away from the flashing droids and into the darkness beyond.
