Chapter Text
Where to begin. What started as ‘things finally looking up!’ quickly devolved into the week from hell. As you lay flat on your back staring at the wiring of the hunk-of-junk ship you inherited, you figure this is as good a time as any for self pity. You deserve at least that.
You’d finally done it. You worked long hours, saved enough paychecks and tips waiting tables and washing dishes, even working on ships for next to nothing as an uncertified mechanic. Almost three full years of hard labor all to buy the parts you needed to fix up your ship and get the hell off of Tatooine. It was by no means cheap, living on the same ship you were working to fix was definitely a blessing, paying a landlord rent and paying the jawas for their overpriced parts would’ve been next to impossible. However, in your current predicament, you’re beginning to realize you might’ve been scammed.
Two days ago, when its engines finally hummed with life, you cried tears of joy. Everything seemed to be functioning properly and you were hopeful for the first time in what felt like forever. You ignored the little voice in the back of your head telling you to go easy on the test run, and after it went surprisingly well, ignored that same voice that was now screaming, and went full send. You knew it was a bad idea, of course you knew! You were too overeager! You pushed that voice deep down and plotted your course on the hyperdrive. The one planet you’ve always wanted to see, the one you were sure you’d make it to someday if you only had the means, and now you thought you did. You punched in the zeroes, smile big enough to split your face in two as you pictured Coruscant and pushed the handle forwards with just a little too much force. Theres that voice again. But when the stars you knew turned into a beautiful, swirling dance, you were too mesmerized to care.
And you went.
And went.
And, wait, you might coming in a little too hot.
Oh, oh no, you’re not stopping. Why won’t the lever pull back? Oh, its really stuck. Panic sets in as you pull the lever with all your might and it doesn’t budge, then desperately hitting it with the hammer you’d tossed on the empty copilot seat. Suddenly struck with what what you hope is a good idea, you wipe the sweat off of your hands before hooking the claw end of the hammer over the lever and grip the handle as tight as you can, you try pulling back but it still won’t budge. You huff, realizing your best option, you readjust your vice grip and drop your full body weight to the cold floor. The hammer comes with you, and with it, the lever.
“Can’t believe that worked,” you sighed, screwing your eyes shut and taking a second to decompress, “oh that’s going to leave a crazy bruise.” You stood without opening your eyes, not ready to accept the fact that you’re definitely way off course, and given the burning smell, in desperate need of repairs. As you sat back down in the pilot seat you reluctantly opened your eyes to glance over at your coordinates. They’re definitely not familiar, and the planet outside the viewport is definitely not Coruscant.
“Kriffing hell,” you mutter as you begin your descent to this strange planet. As you get closer you notice it seems to be pretty populated and you take that as a good sign, but decide it’d probably be best to land somewhere outside of the city. You shouldn’t need any new parts and you feel pretty confident doing the repairs yourself. After a shaky landing you smack the top of the nav a few times before it finally reads Ord Mantell, “Well, not Coruscant, but at least its not Tatooine, I guess.”
So here you are, two days on a new planet and you’re still fixing this karking ship. Deciding your pity party’s lasted long enough, you open your eyes to get back to work on what you’ve found to be burnt wiring and busted hyperdrive components. It almost brings tears to your eyes to realize that, yet again, you were so wrong, you’re definitely going to need new parts and you can’t even fly into the city given how much of your ship you’ve disassembled to get to the problem area. Tossing your tools aside, you shimmy out of the crawlspace and begin collecting your things for your trek into town, writing down all of the parts you need on a piece of flimsy.
The walk wasn’t even that bad, you just can’t help feeling deeply irritated with everything, mostly yourself. The closer you get to civilization, the more you have to tell yourself to tone it down and take some deep breaths, checking your pack to make sure you didn’t leave anything back at the ship. Not long after making your way into the city, thankfully, you spot a vendor that seems like they’ll have the parts you’ll need and decent prices. The man behind the counter is already haggling with a customer so you decide to look around the bins in the meantime.
“What’ll it be? Got some droid parts, fresh in, good R5 unit, too,” he motions towards the back room. You shake your head and hand him your list of parts.
“No, just these if you have them,” he scans the list, clearly running the numbers in his head.
“Yeah, yeah, some. Cost ya around 4,000 credits though.”
“4,000? For some?”
“I can do 3,700, lowest I’ll go, it’s really a bargain,” he tries to rationalize while waving the flimsy in the air.
“Yeah, bargain, right,” you scoff and snatch your list from his hand, “thanks, I’ll pass.” As you turn and start walking away he reconsiders.
“Alright, alright! I got the wires, at least! I can do 500,” you hear him rummaging through a bin and think for a moment, glancing down at the list, it is a fair amount of wires.
“Deal,” you turn back to him, reaching into your pack for the credits and making the exchange, “hey, you ever been to Tatooine?”
“Never, why?” He asks, counting the stack of credits.
“You’d fit right in, is all,” you laugh, stuffing the wires in your pack and heading off to the next vendor.
It feels like you’ve been searching for days, though its only been a few hours. You glance down at your list, noticing you only have two more parts to buy and decide you’ve earned a drink after all this haggling. You turn a corner and spot a cantina, it doesn’t look too sketchy so you decide to give it a shot and begin heading down the stairs. The musics not too loud but the two patrons sitting at a slot machine are, deciding it’s tolerable, you make your way over to the bar. After a couple minutes of glancing around for the bartender, or any employee for that matter, five more loud patrons come down the steps. A strange group you wouldn’t expect to see walking into a bar like this, four men in armor and a kid. That seems to grab the bartenders attention. A Trandoshan woman emerges from a back room to begrudgingly greet them. The men glance at you then the bartender before deciding to take whatever conversation they were about to have back to the room she just emerged from. She waves them over and turns to you.
“Whatever you’re gonna order, I’d say get two, I’m gonna be back there a minute,” she asks, before turning to the two men at the slot machine, “why didn’t you guys help the customer?”
“Oh, they work here?” You question, realizing you could’ve ordered before you even sat down.
“No,” you both stare at each other for a moment before you nod with a puzzled look on your face, “you gonna order or not?”
“Spotchka,” you decide without thinking, “a double, I guess.”
“Quick learner,” she deadpans, pouring your drink and sliding it across the counter to you, “I’m leaving your tab open, I got some business I have to attend to. Bolo! Ketch! Make sure they don’t skip the bill, this is gonna be a few minutes.”
The two men look almost as confused as you before getting back to their game while the bartender returns to the back room. You decide not to think about it too much, could be the Force’s way of telling you that you deserve another drink, and who are you to question the Force. You’re halfway through your drink going over your list of parts for the third time when the door to the back room hisses open yet again, the group exits and take their seats at the other end of the bar while the bartender begins pouring their drinks. You feel eyes on you as you take another sip, while you’re used to lowlifes picking bar fights back home, you really weren’t in the mood right now, especially after the events of the last couple days. You set your drink down slowly and turn to see the kid staring at you from a couple seats away, silently thanking god its not one of those guys in armor looking for trouble. You nod at the kid and return to your drink but she just moves closer a seat.
“I’m Omega,” she says, still staring.
“Hi, Omega,” you nod again, setting your glass down, “I’m Y/N.”
“You’re not from here,” she says, strangely matter of fact. Is she a regular? Do these guys just take this kid out drinking with them?
“Uh, no I’m not,” why is everyone in this cantina so weird?
“Where are you from?” She asks as the bartender brings her a glass of juice.
“Tatooine, I’m only here until I fix my ship, though,” you watch as the bartender relays that information to the armored guys. The kid’s eyes light up.
“Really? What’s Tatooine like? What kind of ship do you have? Is it broken? Are you with the Empire? Where are you going after its fixed? Maybe my brothers can help you!” You’re not sure what kind of response you’d get to that but you definitely weren’t expecting that many questions. You take a moment to think about your answer.
“Yes. Very hot and dry. A broken one. Busted hyperdrive. Absolutely not. Coruscant. And thats a very kind offer, but I think I can handle it,” you return her rapid fire questions with rapid fire answers and a smile. Just before she has a chance to ask you any more questions, the armored men she called her brothers appear at her side. None of them say anything right away so Omega seizes the opportunity.
“Hunter! This is Y/N! They’re from Tatooine, the hyperdrive on their ship is broken, we should help them fix it!” She says to the one with the long hair and face tattoo, then she remembers a detail she’d left out, attempting but failing at a whisper, “oh! And they don’t work for the Empire!” The man sighs and you are now fully convinced they are, in fact, siblings. However, he doesn’t look fully convinced they can trust you.
“Yes, we heard, Omega,” the one with goggles reassures her, briefly looking up from a datapad to look at the kid, then to you, then back to the datapad.
“What’s on Coruscant?” The shorter bald man asks, also hesitant of you.
“I mean, thats personal,” they all stare at you, still waiting for an answer. What is with these guys? “My parents met on Coruscant, I think my dad still lives there, and I have his ship, so,” you trail off.
“Ohhh, the broken one?” The tall, loud bald man asks, and you shoot him a look. You really don’t want to remember you’re the one that broke the stupid ship right now.
“Yeah,” you stare at him blankly, “the broken one.” You finish the rest of your drink, waving the cup at the woman behind the bar to signal please, please bring me another drink and maybe help me out of this interaction I promise I will leave a good tip.
The brothers share a look as the bartender brings you a drink but shoots you a look that says I’ll believe it when I see the credits, until then, you’re on your own. You sigh into your fresh drink, taking a long gulp before one of the guys speaks up again.
“Tech and Echo can help fix your ship if you can give us a lift off-world,” Hunter says, and Omega smiles even wider.
“Well, like I told Omega, thanks for the offer but I think I can handle it,” obviously their help would get you off this planet and on your way to Coruscant much faster than doing it yourself, but these guys are a little weird and giving them a lift doesn’t sound like its going to be a quick trip.
“Do you have experience repairing hyperdrives? From the parts you have listed I can tell you with absolute certainty you will also be in need of a hyperdrive attenuator, which you do not seem to have included in your list,” the one with the goggles, who you can only assume is Tech, asks after looking up from his datapad to glance at the piece of flimsy on the counter.
“Yeah, I knew that, I was a mechanic back home, thank you very much,” while you are a little offended, you were never technically qualified to work on ships for credits, it was all off the books. He could be right, but you’d rather not admit that, just make a mental note to pick up a hyperdrive attenuator just in case.
“There are several other components missing from your list, as well,” he looks up from his datapad to turn to Hunter, apparently he won’t elaborate on that one, “I estimate it will take Echo and I half a day to have the hyperdrive fully operational, should they accept our help.”
“Kriff, you guys don’t give up, huh?” You ask, taking a sip of your drink, “where are you going anyway?”
“Lothal, we just need safe transport there and back,” Hunter says.
“And why me, why my ship?” You ask, realizing you could get some help out of this, sure, but maybe picking up a side job wouldn’t be a bad move either. You could always use some extra credits.
“Need something a little less,” Hunter begins to explain but trails off, looking for the right word, “obvious.”
“So what’s in it for me?” You thought this was a fair question but he raises an eyebrow.
“Besides fixing your ship for free?”
“Exactly,” you say taking another sip of spotchka, and you thought you were tired of haggling after your time spent in the market today.
“5% of our cut,” he says a little too quickly, you get a feeling thats not gonna be much.
“15,” you shoot back, “or 10, and fuels on you for the way there and back.” He turns to his brothers as they silently consider it.
“10% and fuel,” Hunter nods, “reasonable deal. Where’s the ship?” Huh, that was easy.
“‘Bout two kilometers outside the city,” you say before glancing at your chrono, “not too bad a walk, but i think we missed our window to get those parts tonight.”
“Echo, do we have what we’ll need back on the Marauder?” Hunter asks the shorter bald man.
“Should have some spare parts laying around from last time, I’ll go double check,” they nod at each other before Echo makes his way towards the cantina’s exit and up the stairs. Not long after, Hunter’s comm goes off, “I’m not at the ship yet but I just spotted a stall with that attenuator, better head over.”
“Copy that, we’re on our way,” Hunter comms back, looking to you and then his siblings, “we’ll go get that part, then meet Echo at the Marauder.” You nod and finish your drink, reaching into your pack to pull out some credits when the big guy stops you.
“It’s on us! Cid, put their drinks on our tab!” He yells to the woman behind the bar, far too loud for someone who’s only a few feet away, and they all turn to leave.
“Like you morons will ever pay it, anyways!” She yells back, not noticing you leaving a couple credits next to your empty cup.
“Wrecker, you can’t keep offering to pay for people’s tabs,” Hunter protests but leads the group to the exit anyway, clearly not fully objecting.
“Aw come on, but they’re helpin’ us out!” Hunter only shakes his head, while Omega nods looking between you and Wrecker.
“Fine but thats coming out of your cut,” he concedes after seeing the look on Omega’s face, Wrecker lets out a surprisingly quiet aw and hangs his head. You elbow the big guy and nod, silently thanking him. He lets out a loud laugh, straightening back out, and claps you on the shoulder a little too hard causing you to stumble up the stairs. You all make your way to the vendor Echo mentioned, part of you feeling a little guilty to drop in as the merchant is obviously trying to close up shop for tonight, you decide to make this as quick as possible. The woman behind the counter nods in greeting and to say ‘what do you need, please hurry up’.
“How much for the hyperdrive attenuator?” You ask.
“1,000 credits, and I don’t haggle so don’t bother,” she says, crossing her arms. Omega notices your face drop and rushes to the counter.
“We don’t have that much!” The kid pleads, you look down at her confused. The merchant is silent for a moment, considering the situation. Omega sees the merchant thinking it over and, for good measure, adds a, “please!”
“800,” she says, raising a hand in the air to stop the both of you, and you can tell she won’t budge any more.
“Deal,” you reach into your pack, pulling out the credits. The merchant grumbles something and hands you the part. You quickly thank her and hurry out of the stall with Omega, stuffing the attenuator into your pack with the other parts and wires. As soon as you’re out of earshot you look to Omega, “thanks for that, saved me 200 credits.”
“Well, its like Wrecker said, you’re helping us!” She shrugs with a smile and runs back to Hunter’s side. You follow them into a landing bay and finally see why they might need a different ship. Tech looks up from his datapad to check in with Echo, who’s collecting the last of the parts you’ll need, as Wrecker makes his way into the Republic gunship to rummage through a crate. You stop outside, taking in the exterior of the ship, as you go to open your mouth to speak, Omega stops you, “its a modified omicron-class attack shuttle, pretty nice, right?”
“Yeah, it’s wizard,” you laugh, looking away from the ship to see Hunter coming to meet you both.
“Wizard, huh?” He questions with a smirk and raised brows. You look back to their ship.
“Well, you don’t really see many Republic ships back on Tatooine,” you shrug, “did you buy it here on Ord Mantell?” The look he gives you is almost unreadable, and, for a brief second, he reminds you of someone.
“No, perk of an old job,” he simply shakes his head before turning to check in with Tech and Echo. Wrecker emerges from the ship with the crate hoisted on his shoulder before dropping it where the other three men stand, opening it for them to deposit the parts you’ll need. Omega notices and drags you over to where they stand.
“Here, you can put your other parts in here, too!” She points from your pack to the crate, you follow her gaze and jump back.
“Are those- kriff, that is literally full of explosives!” You try to keep your voice down but seeing the bottom half of the crate lined with what you assume are grenades definitely came as a shock. You take a step back, trying to put more distance between yourself and the deathtrap while you shake your head, “are you bringing those on my ship? Whatever this is, it’s not what I signed up for!”
“Hey, it’s got padding!” Wrecker defends the tiny bombs like they’re part of the family.
“Oh, yeah! Right, then it’s all good then!” You regret the sarcasm instantly, seeing Wrecker beam with pride at his sorry excuse for safety precautions, and throw your hands up in exasperation, “No! No, it’s not all good!”
“The thermal detonators are necessary to our mission objective and, therefore, must be transported via your ship,” Tech states with a pointed finger.
“Okay,” you sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose while you collect your thoughts, “do the very important thermal detonators have to be loose? Just loose in a box?”
“Fine,” Wrecker frowns, “I’ll rearrange ‘em.”
“Thank you,” you finally open your eyes to nod to the giant as he gets to work fixing the contents of the crate, “the padding isn’t a bad idea, but I’m not tossing my stuff on top of all that.”
“Understood. Echo and I have collected the remaining components, when Wrecker is done we’ll be on our way,” Tech stores his datapad and holds up a small handful of wires, “would you like to carry these or shall I?”
You go to grab them but hesitate, checking your already heavy pack to find that its nearly full, “well, if you’re offering?” He lets out a hm as Wrecker closes up the crate and Hunter announces that it’s time to roll out.
The walk to your ship felt shorter than the walk into the city, though, that was mostly thanks to all of Omega’s questions about Tatooine and her list of planets they’ve been to. As soon as you got to the ship you went straight to work with Echo and Tech. While you suppose it could’ve been worse, watching them take apart what you thought you’d fixed was definitely a direct hit to your pride. It even got to the point where you started to feel like you were in their way and, rather than telling them off, decided to head up to the cockpit for some alone time. Instead, you found Omega playing with a clone trooper doll in the copilot seat. You silently grab a small pouch from a cupboard and take a seat next to her, offering her some of your snack.
“So now that you know everything about Tatooine,” you start, taking a handful of the crispy snack, “where are you guys from?”
“Hm, well,” she considers your question, fiddling with her doll, as Hunter walks in, “its a small planet, you probably haven’t heard of it.”
“Kamino,” Hunter chimes in, nodding to Omega.
“Isn’t that,” you trail off, Hunter only nods again. You kick yourself for not piecing it together sooner, but hindsight's twenty-twenty and its not like Tatooine saw much action during the war. You simply nod back, offering him the bag of treats as well, “Huh, I thought you looked sort of familiar.”
“Thanks,” he accepts, as Wrecker joins you, now also looking for snacks. Now having reached a sort of understanding, you can let yourself relax a little around them. You grab another handful, offering more to Omega and Hunter, before tossing the bag to Wrecker.
“Hey, can you do this?” You ask Omega taking a piece of crisp, throwing it up in the air and catch it in your mouth.
“How did you do that?” She laughs, attempting to do the same but it bounces off of her forehead.
“Oh I can do that!” Wrecker says, his attempt also failing. Hunter just watches with a grin, deciding not to waste his snack. And as Echo and Tech work on the hyperdrive below you, the four of you sit and laugh in the cockpit. This was not the development you were expecting, but its starting to be a welcome one as you unwind with this strange family. And it’s definitely better than Tatooine.