A Speck of Blue in a Sea of Brown

[Myra]

"Are you sure.. you've spotted one?" Brae's fiery red eyes burned into the communicator screen before her, boring into the sole occupant, a young overly nervous Dathomirian who had been charged with locating Brae's prey. "Ye-Yes Ms. Theyirir-" The boy started "I'll give you the location when You.. You come and pay me!" The boy was obviously trying to sum up the courage to force her to give in to her side of the deal, and she found it annoying if not adorable to think that this boy would be naive enough to think that someone in her position would Not pay him, after all, a deal is a deal and one must stick by it. Yet she will let him stew on it a bit longer, terminating communication, she started for her starfighter.

The modified Nssis-class Clawcraft was docked in her private station on Csilla, the sleek white design had not been altered but rather the inner workings updated with only the most advanced technologies available to the Chiss species. She took a moment to admire the design, tracing the curves of one of the four blades with a tender appreciative gaze in her eyes. It was a shame that it had such deformities that a non-chiss would have added. Yet, the ship had special meaning to her and she would keep it.

Climbing into the cockpit, she initiated the startup sequences, flipping a few switches here, checking a few screens there, and most of all making sure it had enough fuel to make it to Tattooine and back. She's been preparing for this day ever since she joined the Chiss military, foreign environment adaptation, survival in the wilds, tracking, and learning bits and pieces of the local language of the Tusken Raiders should she ever run into them and they did not immediately attempt to kill her.

The trip was as long as expected with luckily no complications. She arrived at the great desert world, with so many legends of the old force users who saved, or threatened the galaxy, who was born here. Luckily no such person existed in today's societies. The Clawcraft set down in Mos Eisley, where she was to meet her contact. She knew of this 'hive of scum and villainy' from databanks back on Csilla, and made proper precautions as to make sure her ship wasn't stripped for parts while she was away. She grabbed the large backpack from the Clawcraft, as well as a data-pad, and headed out to meet this boy.

Spike, or so he and his friends called him, was waiting for her at the edges of the city, near a lot of speeders. It took him a few seconds to notice her behind the scarf that covered most of her head and the light brown rags she had surrounded herself with, and she was pleased her deception was working so easily. Although it must have been her eyes that gave her away. "You're lucky you got here so quickly, I was just about to sell it to another buyer" The child sneered at her in anger, which only caused her own emotions to flare up. Luckily it was difficult to tell from behind the mask but the sudden brightening of her eyes caused the boy to realize his mistake and hurriedly begin transmitting data to her datapad. "What can you tell me about this beast? I've read that it swims through the dunes and has ten legs, is this true?" The boy just shrugged, deciding to be suddenly unhelpful. Brae sent him his credits, before renting one of the speeders, and setting out into the dunes.

​

The great sand world was living up to its name. Great, and sandy. Her speeder luckily was giving her a much-needed speed advantage as the creature she was hunting, that the boy had stuck a tracker on, was moving much faster than she could have ever hoped to walk. Yet as night fell, and the two suns burning in the sky dipped down beyond the horizon, she found a place under a sand dune to set up camp. It was significantly cooler, and she set up a tent, although no fire, stored her belongings in it, and slept for the night. Soon, she would find her greater Krayt Dragon, and she would slay it, bringing its pearls and head back to raise the name of House Theyirir in the chiss books of legend.

 

[Myra]

The night was all too short and Brae got way too little sleep. The suns themselves did not wake her up, but rather the boiling feeling of the sand beneath her tent. It took her less than thirty minutes to pack away the bags and tent onto the large land speeder and to get going again.

Why was she doing this? Why would she fly to the other side of the galaxy, abandon the comforts of modern living for a powerful long rifle, simple garbs, and land speeder? Simple. Prestige, and the thrill of the hunt. Dragons are some of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy, beasts capable of instilling fear into entire cities. Yet she, Brae'owiawo'theyiri would hunt a greater Krayt Dragon and use its skull for furniture and its pearls for decoration. She was to be feared far more than any dragon, every city should fear her and every planet pay her tribute when she demands it. Yet things were not so. The Chiss Ascendancy was broken and weak, a fledgling compared to the mighty eagle it once had been. The Chiss worlds had produced some of the greatest minds in the galaxy yet now they were shattered and in ruin.

Maybe that was another reason she was out here? To escape it all, the ruin and destruction of the planets she had fictionalized and idolized her entire life? Maybe..

These thoughts took up a majority of her thought as she rode through the great sand dunes, ever chasing a red blip that was steadily getting closer and closer on her navigational software. She was so absorbed in self-reflection and watching the radar that she didn't notice the five tuskens on their banthas. At least she didn't notice until the first blaster went off. Luckily the streak of red soared over her head, her own red eyes widening at the sudden shot, causing her to jerk the wheel and fly over the sand dune next to her. She jerked as the speeder landed, causing her head to hit the steering wheel. Stomping on the brake she slowed the speeder down, jumped out, and took cover. Leaning her head back against the hovering speeder and groaning, her head aching like a bad hangover. Clutching the rifle to her chest she waited.. but she heard them, yelling their guttural language of which she only understood a few words. She would not die today.

Climbing up onto her knees and turning, she positioned the rifle and fired, shooting one of the creatures off their bantha and the others roared in anger, dismounting and charging. Another shot but this time she missed, groaning as her vision blurred. They were sliding down the dune she just vaulted over and so she takes a few more shots, managing to take another down, leaving three of the horned monsters rushing her. They were too close, trying to fire with such a long range scope was going to be useless. So she did what she could. Grabbing one of her combat knives from her belt she readied herself. The first tusken jumped up on the speeder as the other two ran around either side. She stood, stabbed the first in his leg, then grabbed him as he was destabilized and pushed, causing him to fall into one of the other two toppling both of them to the ground. She then turned to the third one still standing who swung his club at her, as she tried to dodge she realized the speeder was in the way and club hit her shoulder, causing a faint cracking noise as the armor underneath her garb cracked and the shockwave hit her bones and muscles. She screamed in pain, going to charge and tackle the tusken to the ground, stabbing him several times in the chest and stomach. They both fell, the tusken dead but she having been destabilized fell with him, knocking her head once again, but this time on the tusken's thick headpiece. She rolled, watching as one of the tuskens stood and the other nursed his leg, he was storming over, ready to stand over top of her and sling his club down at her, so she did what she could and threw her knife, barely doing so correctly and sinking the blade into the Tusken's skull. She then rolled into a standing position, sprinted over, retrieved her knife, and finished off the last of the five that attacked her.

She collapsed into the speeder, head bleeding, shoulder seeming as if on fire. And so she once again fell into a deep sleep, the pain causing her to not think straight and try to carry on to a more defendable position..

 

[Myra]

Things were not going as planned. She awoke as night was falling once again, and her head throbbed like it had been shot, her fingers shakily went up to touch her forehead, finding dried blood, that's probably why she couldn't open her other eye. She stumbled from the speeder, heading to the back where most of her equipment is stored, unloading some medical equipment, water, bandages, and then slumping down against the speeder as it bobbed up and down ever so slightly. She poured the water down her face, scrubbing away at the blood until she had scraped it away from her eyes. Then working on her forehead before she finally finds the gash "Ktah!" she hisses as she feels the pain surge as she touches the wound.

She sits up a little straighter as she uses one of the cloths from the bag to wipe away the rest of the blood, then covers it in alcohol to sanitize the wound, before wrapping it tightly with bandages. This was a kink in her plans but her plan still stood as it was. Find the dragon and kill it. With a huff she pulls herself to her feet, carrying her baggage to the front of the vehicle and dropping it in the passenger seat and climbing into the driver side. Her shoulder flared up again with so much movement and she rotated it, massaging the muscles before looking up to the heavens with her eyes closed, taking long deep breaths to calm herself before she pushes the pedal and the speeder took off through the dunes, leaving the corpses of the Tuskens to be mourned by their banthas.

She was close now. She'd been driving for a few hours more and most of the pain was gone, her vision was no longer blurry, and she was alert as always. Perhaps it was the medication she'd been taking, but she wouldn't remove the bandage until she could have a proper doctor back home take a look at it. She was so close, she did not fly across the galaxy to give up now when her prey was so clo- and there it was. The great beast swimming through the sand as if it was water was only a few hundred meters in front of her. Brae's eyes widened and she instantly stopped the vehicle, grabbed her rifle, got out of the vehicle, took aim, and fired. The bolt landed but nowhere critical, causing the creature to screech and roar, climbing from the sand and charging at her, BOOM BOOM, two more shots that landed, each time the recoil putting pressure on her injured soldier, the pain so much that when she fired for the fourth time the bolt was way off course. The beast was on top of her, throwing its massive head in her direction, it was too late, she couldn't dodge, the creature flipped her speeder and sent her flying several dozen feet and down a nearby dune.

She hurriedly pushed herself up, her arms shaking as she attempts to regain her breath after it was knocked out of her, and one of her ribs was certainly broken. And her rifle was snapped in half. The creature roared as it raised its head over the sand dune, opening its maw wide read to clamp down and attempt to eat her whole. Her eyes widened in panic as she reached down, grabbed her pistol, and fired three consecutive shots up and into the beast's mouth, it flailed, fell sideways, and groaned. It was still very much alive, just stunned if not in great pain already.

Brae crawled to her feet, rushed to the creature, grabbed one of her three grenades from her belt and jammed the grenade down its throat and then ran. The beeping began.. and the creature stood, roared, and then the explosion, Blowing the creature's head off, the shockwave hitting her and sending her flying. Thankfully, this time, she did not pass out from her injuries. But then she was suddenly aware that she was not alone. Suddenly, Tuskens were surrounding her and once again she swore before they grabbed her and began to drag. At this point, she was too exhausted to care. If death was really her fate, and by these animals? Then so be it, she accomplished her goal.

She was dragged for thirty minutes until she found herself being strapped to a bantha, and then everything went black.

Who knows how much later it was until she woke up but she found her wounds tended and her bandage redone.

"You find wake?" the gruff guttural voice of a nearby individual prompted her in galactic standard, she groaned, trying to sit up, and after a second try managing to do so to look over at the Tusken Raider glaring at her in silence from behind its mask "What do you want..?" she asks half expecting to be told she was a near-human sacrifice. "Nothing." the creature begins "You.. slaid Krokk'Kok'Kir.. Sand Wyrm.. great deed.. for Gr'kek clan. Deed of.. Great Warrior"

"So what, I'm your god now?" She chuckles as she throws her head back and groans

"No.. But you.. deserve reward.." It was only now that Brae realized just how difficult it was for this creature to even speak to her, how it barely knew the language and the language was so foreign from its own. "Choose."

Brae sat there in stunned silence.. she cam here for her own ambitions and this had turned out more than anything she could have ever hoped for "You.. The dragon's head.. and the pearls within it." And it was done.

The next day she was back at Mos Eisley, packing up her ship, paying a transport to deliver the creature's head to her apartments, and situating her new friend, who was apparently a story-teller of the tribe that saved her, into her ship. Things were going way better than planned.. The galxay truely was her oyster.