Tatooine

[Xar]

The ship around Xar shifted and groaned as its engines worked to land softly in what felt like unsteady ground. The droid peered from his hidden compartment, a little peephole the only way to see anything in the storage area.  It was still dark and cramped with boxes upon boxes of miscellaneous items. Nothing had changed. But the ship was landing. 

 

Silently the droid nodded to itself, satisfied  with the change of events. It had been getting annoyed with its cramped quarters. Xar had spent so much time observing the organics with his now gone drones, planning on how to escape, slicing computer terminals to plant data and erase camera footage, and sneaking onto a cramped ship that carried only some spare machine parts that wouldn’t notice a little extra weight. Xar sighed to itself, its three voice boxes making an odd harmony with itself. So close to getting free. 

 

Footsteps. Xar peered out again. A large rodian had entered the storage area, and was using a cable to move some of the heavy crates, digging to one of the sealed crates on the floor. Xar observed curiously. Why was the rodian moving the crates? There was nothing of note in the ship’s manifest. 

 

No matter. Xar had enough of this. He wanted out. And the Rodian was in leaping range. With a surge of energy, Xar pushed on the wall that contained his cramped body.

 

A clang of metal. A whir of motors moving into action. A look of fear and surprise. A scream suddenly cut short, following by choking.

 

Xar stood over the dying creature in silence. As the rodian gasped for air through its sliced throat, the Hunter Trainer droid looked over the blood stained claws and gave out a sigh. “Organic lubricant...so…” Xar paused to find the right word. “...execrable. We despise such ichor.” 

 

Without acknowledging the rodian’s dying breaths, Xar wiped his claws on the victim and moved to the crate. Xar lifted up the lid to reveal numerous small containers filled with orange and blue powders. 

 

“Spice” Xar muttered, its three voices all alike in recognition. This ship was smuggling illegal spice with its scrap metal. And from the looks of it, a quite rare kind. Not Ryl but almost just as good. Xar looked at the now dead rodian. “Clever. We are impressed, though you should’ve covered this with something in case of inspection. Then again, out here on Tatooine means no inspections...” 

 

Xar reached down and grabbed the rodian’s data pad. A quick hack to get past a password, and Xar was surfing through the data. While the data didn’t show the spice on the manifest, knowing about the spice might clear up some information. Like why a ship from Rodia would bring a load of scrap metal, some blasters and bacta to such a dust ridden, resource-lacking, worthless planet like Tatooine.  

 

Xar sighed at one line of data. “Must be delivered in person.  Do not be late. Only hand bacta and special materials to KREXEL VIDEL. Payment upon arrival. ” 

 

The shipment should have been out of the ship by now. If Xar didn’t hurry, the ship might have gangsters or worse onboard soon. And the ship needed fuel before launching again. 

 

A moment later, Xar stepped out the ship, data board in one hand and the crate of illegal spices and some bacta behind him on a hovercart. The droid’s green chassis sparkled under the twin suns above. Somewhere nearby the roaring of a tuskan could be heard. Xar sighed again as he looked around. Such a horrible place. Still, this had to be done.  Xar couldn’t have people trying to track his ship so soon after leaving Rodia. 

 

A short distance away Xar could see a few beings. One of them matched the description of this Krexel. Approaching the beings, Xar spoke out, all three voices trying to sound intimidating and gruff. 

 

“Attention: Mr. Krexel Videl. We are Xar, with your delivery.” 

 

Silently, Xar prayed that there were no unwritten special instructions for the delivery. He had rewritten the manifest to have his name instead of the rodian pilot who was bled out in the cargo bay, but beyond that there wasn’t much he could do. Except maybe wipe his bloodied claws off a bit more, but time was money right now. 

[Xar]

“Krake has suffered a case of blood loss and is unable to make the journey.” 

 

The human’s reaction to Xar wasn’t surprising. Most organics saw droids as second class citizens...at best. Xar did not move when Krexel’s companion tried the spice, giving the human an euphoric feeling that would make any organic dizzy. Xar calculated a little bit of a larger dose through the nostrils would have had the human spinning around singing “All ‘round the bantha hole” for an hour. Nor did Xar move when the blaster was pointed at him. Any sudden movements would likely end up with Xar dying before he could rip out the human’s throat. Even if he did, his partner, while partially stupefied, could still have a weapon as well. 

 

The offer did surprise Xar. He stared at Krexel, studying his facial features, trying to detect any deception. But his face and his words seemed to be genuine, though a bit demeaning. It was an ultimatum. Work for these people, or at least who they represent, or die. Xar deserved better. He should be commanding these two, not taking offers from them.  

 

Still, it was better than working for the rodians. 

 

“Xar accepts your request for our services Mr. Videl. We look forward to helping your group. Shall we all...” Xar reached back to the crate with his free arm and produced the container Co’bo had sampled, and held it and the data board out to Krexel’s tripping partner, in an effort to have him do the manual labor beneath Xar’s position.

 

“...memorialize the event?”  

[Xar]

Xar would have glared at Krexel for defying his show of gratitude in letting his new co workers celebrate, but at the same time he respected Krexel. He was a man who stayed focused, at least at the moment. Co’bo was a bit more wild judging from first impressions. Xar wondered how much more the other employees in this group would vary.

 

As the ship was unloaded and destroyed, Xar had a moment of amusement. His body was based on the Hunter Trainer Master Control units the rodians designed, which was in turn based on their own skeletal structure. It seemed that with the death of a rodian, the life of Xar was given another opportunity. 

 

The amusement only lasted for a second. 

 

At Krexel’s question, Xar wanted to give a sigh of annoyance at such a question, but he was above that in front of these humans. Instead he met the human’s gaze. 

 

“We are Xar. We have the combined memories of three different droids, all who met unfortunate ends where their minds were not wiped. If you must know, we are comprised with the base memory core of a Hunter Trainer Droid, originated from Rodia, a NR-1100 constructed on Coruscant, and an IT-O, also from Coruscant. We are much better than the common droids you organics are used to commanding.  As such, we are more than one. We are Xar.” 

 

“Now that we have explained ourselves…” Xar looked around at his surroundings. “This planet seems to be an odd place for a group to meet, and since we haven’t left yet, I suspect there is more here than just picking up illegal drugs. Tell us: what is this group that you spoke of, and what is next for us?” 

[Xar]

“Black Sun?” Xar spoke when he heard the name. He recognised it, but not greatly. It was a name that was floating around on some data terminals on Rodia, as well as a few rodians mentioning it to each other. It seemed that their thoughts on Black Sun as well as the Sith had changed recently. Xar couldn’t tell if it was for better or worse, or even how uniform it was thoughts were across the planet. 

 

Xar appreciated the lively and zealous introducion. Such displays were worthy for him, and he expected anyone who would work for him to approach all things with plenty of energy. The introduction and knowledge of Black Sun’s past may have put another being off, but Xar was ignorant enough and proud enough to not care. When Krexel thanked Xar, the robot nodded its head slightly, a small sign of respect. 

 

At the offer, Xar had looked over the desert sands. While he could probably survive a day or two of travel across the desert sands, and could ask these men for directions to the nearest settlement, he didn’t like the idea of ruining his chassis under the scorching sun and potentially dangerous sandstorms. Not to mention, the jawas would probably dare to wipe their dirty hands all over him. 

 

“Working for Black Sun…” Xar mused out loud.  “Agent...Agent Xar. Xar, agent of Black Sun” Xar let his voices repeat the title and his name a few times, seeing if it sounded good to him. The title certainly had some interesting connotations. And would hopefully give Xar a chance to rise through the ranks and get a more prestigious title. 

 

“Very well, we accept. You will appreciate having us working alongside you.” 

[Xar]

Xar looked over the sands of tatooine from the helm of the ship, constantly analyzing every piece of detail around. He couldn’t help himself when he saw a few wild banthas wondering about, desperately looking for some water source. His programming began to run scenarios, ideas on the perfect way to kill the banthas. They were big, slow creatures and the dunes were high. He could simply jump off the ship, stalk the banthas until he could launch himself at their throats, tearing them apart. 

 

Xar shook himself. “We are better than that. We do not hunt worthless beings like that.” Xar told himself. Having three droid memories meant he didn’t need to fulfill the original directive from the Hunter Trainer droid’s memory. Still, he couldn’t help himself but think further. He wouldn’t have to kill the banthas. Not right away. A slice along their belly would prolong their death, make them suffer under the twin suns. And with a bit of sand, the nerve muscles could…

 

“Useless distraction” Xar criticized himself. He looked down at his still stained hands and sighed. A metal screech filled the area as he scraped his claws on the walls of the ship, the dried blue blood coming off. Now he claws, while scratched, at least weren’t bloody. 

 

“Better” Xar commented and unapologetically looked at his newfound companions. Ahead Mos Eisley was rapidly approaching but Xar had a few more questions. 

 

“This...R3 unit…” Xar was still surprised to hear that a fellow droid was in a top leadership role. Perhaps that meant he himself could, as he should, earn such a position as well. “Where did it come from? And why in the galaxy did it choose Tatooine as a place to operate? This is just a dustbowl!” 

[Xar]

Xar pondered over Krexel’s words about the R3 unit. It almost sounded like praise, especially the part about the Zinthos Empress. He couldn’t help but wonder how much of it was true. If they were though, that certainly would explain why he was so eager to let Xar join Black Sun. After all, if a droid just became leader of an organization, wouldn’t helping another droid make one look good? 

 

Xar took the registration form silently and watched as Krexel walked away. Looking around, Xar was immediately disappointed with how everything looked. Dusty, poorly illuminated, and messy, the outpost had seen better days. 

 

Still, there was opportunity here, in more ways than one.  While Xar had voiced his distaste for Tatooine already, he could see why an outer rim planet as a base of operations, especially for something as suspicious as Black Sun (He had guessed they were involved with illicit activities from the drug shipment). By being so far out of the core worlds, no one would come out here to investigate them. Still, Xar desired a better, upstanding, and most importantly, cleaner, place for his work. Maybe he could convince someone to give him a position on Kuat. 

 

The other opportunity here was a personal one for Xar. Since he was alone, he put down the registration form and found a computer terminal. Within a  few moments and some slicing to bypass a few firewalls, Xar had connected himself into the small database the outpost had available. Xar was both disappointed and impressed. Disappointed because there was so little data here. But impressed because there was information only accessible via knowing certain information. It was a whole different language in here. 

 

“Still, we are better than giving up.” Xar commented. While he couldn’t figure out all the information, he could figure some things. Like the fact that there was a large power output going to what Xar guessed was a cloning facility, judging by the materials being sent there. And that there was investigations into several Black Sun assets, like a savage Tusken Raider and a human woman with a codename of Gamma Blue. Xar committed their names and images to his memory, as well as the names of other Black Sun Agents. Apparently Krexel’s partner’s name was Co’bo, and judging by how these two were always named together, they were inseparable. 

 

Still, the one thing Xar was disappointed in was information on the supposed R3 unit. There was next to nothing, except a few orders from a ‘REMO’. Xar wasn’t even sure if this Remo and the R3 unit were one and the same, but Xar couldn’t help but connect the way humans tended to name droids with their model numbers integrated into it. He himself had a different name given by his rodian creator, but like the superior droid he was, denied it and chose a better one for himself. 

 

Sighing, Xar disconnected and turned back to the registration form. At least he could do one thing to prove further that he could be useful to Black Sun. A few moments later, Xar exited the outpost and found Krexel and Co’bo. 

 

“Your securities need some important updates Krexel” Xar stated outright. “Any wandering jawa with a halfway decent brain could discover that you have an outpost in the dune sea. And should that jawa have half the cunning I do, could figure out that the outpost is for reviving your agents.”  

 

Xar knew he was taking a risk, but by stating this information, Xar was hoping to prove himself to these agents. That his talents were not just limited to killing Rodians. He had so much more potential, and these people should understand his greatness. 

[Xar]

Xar was somewhat annoyed that the two didn’t take his comment about the facility and the fact that he was able to hack their local system more seriously. Surely these two should’ve been impressed with such a droid like himself! It's not like anyone could rival his greatness. 

 

However, the apparent respect and subtle fear for this Swaav character. Though he didn’t believe in wizards and magic, if it was something to earn this kind of respect, Xar was interested. He did recall seeing his name in the system, if only as a mention here and there. No profiles existed in the small amount of data. 

 

This was the kind of attention Xar desired. He would have to keep this Swaav character in mind.

 

“Yes, here it is…” Xar mentioned as he handed the register form back the Krexel. There was an obvious hint of pleasure from his three voice boxes. “It will be good to leave this dustbowl. Sea air does sound...lovely. Tell me, is it someplace more civilized than this edge of the galaxy? Perhaps the facilities of Kamino I've heard about? Or perhaps that poor watery excuse of a planet Manaan? Their Kolto is still used by some criminals as a substitute for Bacta. Or perhaps  the beaches and casinos of Spira is our new destination... ”

 

 Xar didn’t even wait for an answer, he just kept musing to himself where they may go. He was simply happy to be leaving this place. Still talking to himself, he walked towards the closest ship, expecting the two to correct him if he was going the wrong way.  

[Xar]

Xar paused when he heard the name Mon Cal. He had to pause a while and search his memory to find whatever he could about that planet. It was the homeworld to a bunch of water based species, including the Mon Calamari and the Quarren, two races who fought many civil wars. But one fact stood out…

 

“Mon Cal? That, purely oceanic world? Then you weren’t kidding about sea air. Hopefully, our chassis won’t suffer too much there…”

 

Indeed, his chassis was partially waterproof, in the sense that a rain shower wouldn’t kill him. But being dunked in an ocean probably would be….harmful to say the least. 

 

“I guess we will have to do our best not to fall out of any boats then.” 

 

Still, Xar was pleased at the choice of planet. From what he knew, he would soon be in a more pristine location, not filthy with dust and sand particles. He would be surrounded by modern conveniences, and not being burnt under multiple suns. His chassis’ paint color wad been slightly damaged. Maybe he could get a new paint color, or some new parts while they were on Mon Cal.  

 

So pleased in fact, Xar  even lowered himself to pilot the ship. He barely even asked permission to do so, simply saying “We shall drive” and went to the controls. While he was too proud to be some piloting droid for a few lowly humans, he reasoned that if he was driving, he could get off the planet sooner. While he started up the ship’s controls,  he watched Krexel instruct Co’bo to remember this was a mission and not a pleasure cruise. 

 

“Always the working man” Xar commented, before chirping up and saying “Well if this is a mission, let us get off this planet and complete it”.  

 

And with that, with the ship now humming with life and beginning to lift off the ground, Xar took the controls and led the ship into space. With a few clicks and pulls, the ship launched itself into hyperspace towards that small blue orb known as Mon Cal.