Public &nbsp; Directive: Tatooine

Sachi Maren | OPEN TO ALL

While Sky was at the crossroads Tavian was leaning against the wall. It was uncomfortable, but that was just a good reminder of the sort of place they were in right now.

A courier droid was limping down the street. Its transponder was emitting an open frequency request for aid, but nobody seemed to pay it any mind at all. Several blaster holes were just about visible, peaking beneath a makeshift harness holding several canisters of water. Some poor bastard was waiting on water that probably wouldn't reach the edge of Mos Espa much less whatever farm was lying outside the city lines.

He agreed with Lyra, she ought to help and she had enough processing power to do that and continue the mapping of the HoloNet junctions around the town.

"You know, I think-" Then Sky was almost hit by a speeder. His eyebrows quirked up as he stepped towards Sky to make sure she was okay. "Looks like he was in a hurry to reach the race, but I don't know how much good it will do them. Rickety rag like that isn't going to win any competition today." His tone was a bit sympathetic as if the very act of talking chit about the reckless driver could make Sky feel better.

"Sachi was trying to slice into the nearby cantina. If we can get ears in there, we might have a better idea what the power dynamics look like around this place."

Not that you needed a lot of imagination to make an educated guess.

"Some invasions come like a storm. Causing destruction along its path. Others... happen like the small drip of water to a mountain. Eventually it will erode even the steepest peak into a canyon."

And Espa certainly looked like a canyon. A place with no depth to the depravity it could sink to.

"Let's go around back and see if she is done yet. I want to check out the race. Usually blood sport like that has a leader presiding over it. Could be useful intel for us."

Sachi Maren · Jun 17, 2025

Hot. She was so hot. Everything about this planet seemed to reolve around heat. Like everything just got too high in temperature, and the planet was abandoned mid-process. As if someone had started a civilization and then walked away, leaving it to melt and be scavenged by anyone who cared to do so. There were no triage maps. No clear traffic flow. No clean water indicators, no citizen grid cohesion. Everything here survived by exception, not by system.

"Holy feth," she panted, and wound her ponytail around in a spiral to pin it into a bun to keep her hair from her neck and squinted again at what she was meant to work with.

Sachi crouched beside a junction box tucked behind a cracked refrigeration unit that hummed like it was dying slowly. Half of it looked self-installed. The other half looked inherited, like it had outlived five owners and two turf wars. She adjusted the external patch line on her wrist interface, fingers moving with practiced efficiency. It wasn't elegant, but it didn't need to be.

"Just stabilize the pulse, loop the access code..extract without triggering.." The usual sequence. Even that recipe didn't change from system to system. She bypassed the encryption—not sophisticated. All the code seemed more like a drunk puzzle someone kept rearranging than anything meant to be sliced.

Local comms net detected.
Internal channel node: CANTINA-FRONTBAR-MAIN
Subnode bleed: PRIVATE LINK (ENCRYPTION: RUSTCHAIN LOW-GRADE)
Audio packet cluster available: 12 hrs backlog.

The feed opened like a chest cavity. No passwords. Just scar tissue and noise. She filtered the chatter—live feeds from the bar, hushed backroom arguments, even a ping-ping-ping of sabacc chips colliding on durasteel.

With a fair amount of dread, she listened to the first few passages. Waiting for the dreaded drop of Sith.

Thankfully none came. Just a few mentions of the High Republic, Hutt Cartel and some other mishmash of words that sounded like they were speaking about organizations. Many talking about certain payment types being rejected. She quickly programmed a scraping protocol, and extracted all mentions of leadership, or reference to, organizations as a summary for The Captain and Tavian.

When she unplugged, the system sparked.

"Of course." She murmured, and hastily adjusted her pack to go back and find the others. How long had they been apart? Where did they say they were going to meet again?

Truth be told, she still hadn't shed some of the mental imagery from the repots on Sluis Van — and even though these conversations from the bar were relatively harmless, it felt like shew as waiting for another Sith shoe to drop.

Sky Wulicailt · Jun 18, 2025

She glanced to where the speeder had left, seeing only the ghost of an uneven dust cloud it left behind. Rickety rag indeed.

She didn't exactly get Tav's philosophizing, but Sky supposed she understood the gist of it. Mos Espa's sickness had deep and sinister roots. Its sickness lay quietly beneath the surface. At least, that much had been apparent since they arrived here.

"Agreed," she replied on all counts.

The pair walked across the busy street and then made their way to the back of the cantina. It was quieter here. Less busy. Only a single drunkard passed out in the shade. When they crossed behind some weathered junk, there she was, busy as always.

"Hey Maren," Sky announced their presence. "Packing up already?"

The captain stood tall, a hand on each hip, though her gaze was kept characteristically low. A planet like Tatooine proved even worse for her phobia than Sluis Van did, but thankfully, she had avoided any episodes as of yet.

Tavian Vale · Jun 20, 2025

Truth to be told Tavian's hands were itching.

It was indignity landing on indignity. Not his, he didn't care about that, he had been raised to believe his suffering was acceptable as long as it meant that those around him would grow stronger, better, happier for it. But the people here weren't happy. They were miserable and misery was outlawed... except here it wasn't.

Here it was packaged and sold for profit. A little cut every day until they all bled out.

"We should do something." He murmured softly as he glanced to Maren and then to the Captain. "I know our orders, but... we can't just go from world to world and observe the obscene without doing anything."

Tav glanced past them towards the alleyway that led back to the main streets.

"We could at least make an example out of this town. A preview of what is to come. This world desperately needs a Societal Rebalance. We can start with the slavers." His hand already going to the weapon clipped to his belt. It rested there on the pommel without taking it out, because he knew that consensus was important.

If both of them disagreed... he would have to swallow it. For now.

He was so aggravated he didn't even bother to ask Maren how her mission here had gone.

Velok Brokentusk · Jun 21, 2025

Sky Wulicailt said:
The pair walked across the busy street and then made their way to the back of the cantina. It was quieter here. Less busy. Only a single drunkard passed out in the shade.

Tavian Vale said:
Tav glanced past them towards the alleyway that led back to the main streets.

"We could at least make an example out of this town. A preview of what is to come. This world desperately needs a Societal Rebalance. We can start with the slavers."

The supine and well-shaded drunk, a large matted Whiphid, cracked a baleful eye.

"Make an example out of this, snacky," he rumbled, raising a middle finger comparable in size to their forearms. Whiphid hands had just three digits yet the gesture had its share of delicate finesse.

He hawked, spat, smelled the air, and heaved himself to sit against a stucco wall.

"Let me guess. Nabooian. Only world that doesn't like a good podrace."

Sachi Maren · Jun 22, 2025

Sky Wulicailt said:
"Hey Maren," Sky announced their presence. "Packing up already?"

Was she in trouble? She'd been at the Cantina for what felt like half a rotation, sorting through feebly stitched together wires and barely-there security systems.

"The log only goes back 12 hours. Clean slate daily. If we want to dive deeper, we can, I found a few repeated key words and triaged them. They could be used as a filter to monitor number of mentions and see if we can use that to build a better idea of who's in charge here." Once more, like on the planet before, Sachi deployed the summarized report to both Tavian and Sky's personal devices.

It had been two planets just the three of them, and nothing more formal or less informal seemed to be lending to their structure.

Tavian Vale said:
"We should do something."
"I know our orders, but... we can't just go from world to world and observe the obscene without doing anything."
"We could at least make an example out of this town. A preview of what is to come. This world desperately needs a Societal Rebalance. We can start with the slavers."

Sachi short circuited. Tavian's voice wasn't raised, but every syllable rang sharp. Like someone cutting with a scalpel instead of a blade —precision mattered. It sounded almost like an anger that didn't belong to someone who worked in Outreach. It sounded He was angry in that quiet, and generational—like he'd been waiting for the right injustice to step into.

She was supposed to be following orders, and those orders came from Tavian. But the other orders came from back home, and the other other orders came from Sky. She tapped her screen, pointing at some of the summaries in her report that indicated potential starting points and opened her mouth to speak, when, rightfully startled, she leapt to the side.

The sudden movement meant she only got a splash of dust and gob-juice on her boot. Her nose wrinkled. She was, of course, used to bodily fluids. But not from anything this huge or hairy. The Sluis Van were more reptillian. This fellow looked furry beyond belief and if she was hot, he must have been boiling.

For a second, she stayed totally silent and blinked owlishly.

Then: "What do Nabooians like about Tattooine instead, if not the primary entertainment?"

What were those words. What was a Nabooian.

Velok Brokentusk

Sky Wulicailt · Jun 23, 2025

The captain chuckled at Sachi, "I was just giving you a hard time."

That was when Tav's mood began to fester. Clearly, the impact had been felt, and he suggested something the three of them alone did not have the power to deliver. Yet, Sky felt the heat rise within her. The words 'Societal Reblance' were met with an audible click of her tongue. A thoughtful click. The captain, too, considered such a course of action.

Maybe... The chain of command was murky out here. Leadership stretched thin... This wasn't an occupation; there was no path to integration. Not yet.

He continued to talk. Explained how they could make an example of the slavers. It was good talk. Technically, she was the highest-ranking fleet official on this mission. Could she give the order? Hard to say. So much has changed... it could be justified. It ought to be justified. She clenched her fist. Then, another voice interrupted them.

Sky turned on her back foot and saw the large pair of legs. Big, strong, lumbering but terrifying. Clumsy? Probably. Stronger than he looks? An unwelcome thought, but likely.

'Careful with this one,' Sky shared among their embedded network.

She hadn't seen his vulgar display, however, as her gaze was kept low, almost feet forward. Only heard his words. "Snacky?" She snorted.

The captain walked forward, stepped into his spit without grace or care, and leaned against the same wall. Her gaze slowly tilted up, though she squinted even in the shade. Flicked her attention towards Sachi, who asked a question, then flicked to Tavian, wondering what he thought.

Sachi Maren |

Velok Brokentusk

Tavian Vale · Jun 23, 2025

He was waiting to her Sachi and Sky's opinion when someone butted in.

Tav shifted his attention... and then continued to have to shift, because the monkey was large indeed. Enough to crane his neck and stretch it uncomfortably until it decided to sit down. Uncivilized, dirty, no proper manners and it spit on the ground in front of them. Snacky? "You are not my type, Sweettusk, but I appreciate the attention."

Choosing to ignore the gesture, the spit and the obvious secondary meaning of 'snacky'. If this monkey decided to try and eat them this would turn into a chit fest real quick.

He acknowledged Sky's reminder to be careful, it echoed his own thoughts, which only reinforced the consensus.

"I don't mind a good podrace. I have a bigger problem with people being treated like chattel." Tav finally said, trying to remind himself that he was supposed to be the diplomat of the group. But this entire place was raising his hackles. It was difficult to remain diplomatic when every fiber of your body was screaming at you to do something about what was happening all around you.

A glance towards Sky before back to

Velok Brokentusk .

"You are strong." Tav finally said. It only took one whiff to sense the Darkside from him. "Are you with the slavers?"

Velok Brokentusk · Sunday at 10:18 AM

Sachi Maren said:
"What do Nabooians like about Tattooine instead, if not the primary entertainment?"

"In my experience, mostly the pure satisfaction of condescension. Everyone here's just a Gungan to them."

Sky Wulicailt said:
"Snacky?" She snorted.

The captain walked forward, stepped into his spit without grace or care, and leaned against the same wall.

Tavian Vale said:
"You are not my type, Sweettusk, but I appreciate the attention."

Tavian Vale said:
"I don't mind a good podrace. I have a bigger problem with people being treated like chattel."

"That is entirely fair and, speaking as career chattel, kind of brutally naive."

Tavian Vale said:
"You are strong." Tav finally said. It only took one whiff to sense the Darkside from him. "Are you with the slavers?"

"Comrade, I am not."

Velok heaved himself to his feet. At nine foot six and nine hundred pounds, a little on the hefty side for a Whiphid, he was technically bigger than some of these buildings by two important metrics. He looked down at the three humans.

"Nor am I going to eat you. Nor take you under my wing, nor condescend further, nor spur you beyond the limits of your callow tradecraft. My name is Velok of Toola, extorter of billions and secrets from incautious Jedi and Sith Lords alike, voyager beyond the galaxy itself, and what I will do is tell your fortunes."

A double handful of carved bones skittered in the dust.

"What do you want to know, snackies? What do you want most?"

Tavian Vale · Sunday at 6:31 PM

The large ape called him a snack again.

Really a case of mixed messaging unless he was being quite literal and thinking of them as food. It wouldn't surprise Tavian. Nothing surprised him anymore about this barbaric reality they had found themselves in.

Velok Brokentusk said:
"That is entirely fair and, speaking as career chattel, kind of brutally naive."

"Nothing naive about it. We can't change the world alone, but if enough people act, we can turn the wheel and show a better path." Brows furrowed and head tilted as if he was listening to someone else. It made him cough lightly, almost embarrassed for one reason or the other. "That is to say, even if it won't save every slave, there is no reason not to nail every slaver to the wall we can get our hands on."

Then the ape stood up and Tav blinked.

He listened and sighed. This Velok was... interesting, but not interested in changing the status quo by the looks of it. The bones was a surprise though and for a moment he wasn't sure what to say.

Then-

"Who is the cruelest slaver in this town?" It was probably not the kind of question

Velok Brokentusk was anticipating, but he was kind of tired of all of it. First they encountered a huge flame giant who seemed to know everything while speaking in riddles. Now they met ANOTHER giant who was offering cryptic answers to questions they didn't even know yet.

Sky Wulicailt · Monday at 3:45 AM

Sky had crossed her arms as Tavian and Velok exchanged further words. She particularly agreed with Tav's directness towards the slaving practices on Tatooine and the galaxy at large.

She felt satisfied by his every retort to the large being. Suddenly, bones were scattered in the sand. At first, the Captain was confused but otherwise disinterested. Ready to stop paying him mind. Only for Tav to follow up with a question--consenting to the game. She didn't even use their comms.

"Huh!?" She spat. "Wha--" then switched to their subvocal comms. "What the hell are you doing?" Her frustration was made clear.

It certainly didn't help that she paced in the sand with her head tilted far down like a dejected child.

Velok Brokentusk |

Sachi Maren · Monday at 10:04 PM

Velok Brokentusk said:
"In my experience, mostly the pure satisfaction of condescension. Everyone here's just a Gungan to them."

"Offworlders abuse this planet? And the planet...monetizes it?"

Sachi blinked up at the enormous figure, mouth parted slightly in a soundless what in the hyperlane… as he rose. Gaze climbed up him like a topographical scan—shoulders, jaw, weight-bearing posture. Definitely oversized. Nine feet, easily. Denser than a gundark's femur. The cantina architecture behind him shifted in proportion and for what seemed to be the home of so much information suddenly dwarfed by comparison.

She stared obviously at him. He'd seemed large when not at his full height, and now it was just outstanding.
What would a tissue sample look like? Would his blood even register on their standard spectrometrics?

Being called a snack could be a compliment or a threat — unlikely that it could be both.

In case either Tavian or Sky looked at her, the usually bookish and strict Sachi would be giving a proud smirk at her near-joke.

er head tilted, narrowing her eyes, as if squinting would help her see the data inside the act. Her gaze moved: bone to Velok, to bone, to Velok again.

"We've seen this before..I think.. but different. Like a code scrambler." Their world, the world they'd come from, ran on actualities. Synchronized clocks. Zero-lag sync points. A constant hum of numbers measured, translated, and re-delivered. There was no room for unknowns. The only allowable chaos came from encryption—complexity masked as randomness, always with a key waiting somewhere from the all-knowing AI.

"Rituals like this," she said, growing volume with curiosity, "They're compression systems, aren't they? You input a question, then map the output to meaning..."

She looked up at Velok now, directly, but was forced to squint in from the shadowless brightness of Tatooine.

"Do you tune to the query, or to the person asking it?"

Of course Tavian was the first person to ask the question that would reinforce his desire for a demonstration, and his motives were assuredly good, but was he the right person? Were they the right people? By all means of definition, as an Outreach team they were, but this galaxy seemed more and more damned. Was it something their science could resolve?

Velok Brokentusk |

Velok Brokentusk · Monday at 10:14 PM

Sachi Maren said:
"Do you tune to the query, or to the person asking it?"

"Oh, the person, good question. The person most certainly. The Force binds life together just as surely as words do, but as a general rule the Force doesn't bind words together. Unless you want to get into the freaky Sith sorcery shavvit, but that is another story for another day. Which isn't to say it can't tune to the person being asked about..."

The bones had been rattling in the dust, somehow, this entire time. They settled into a map of town. At a certain point, a black-painted bone quivered tensely stop two others.

""Your slaver, snackies. Dogbann of Lorsh, and wouldn't you know it, the gentleman hails from Naboo. So many cultural exports these days, Naboo. So influential."

Sky Wulicailt · Monday at 10:23 PM

Sky turned her gaze up as much as her anxiety would allow. She caught a glimpse of two suns on her periphery and held her hand up to block out the sky. She could see almost two-thirds of Tav's body but not all of Velok's lower half.

She listened to Sachi, turned to look in that direction for a moment, as if confirming her presence wasn't a hallucination.

"You too!?" Sky transmitted over the channel. At this point, the captain felt left out. She didn't want to be separate from the conversation, as much as it bothered her. Somehow, doing so felt weirder. An odd fact for a woman who prided herself on 'standing out' from the crowd.

She sighed and spoke aloud. "Well, there you have it, Tav. Dogbann of Lorsh." She turned to Velok. "Do you know him personally?" A coy reveal of her doubt. Clearly, this was just information, and not a fortune read.

The captain might have been skeptical about the answer, but 'Dogbahn of Lorsh' seemed a slaver name if she ever heard of one. Though she never heard of a place called Lorsh, and it didn't sound very Nabooian to her either.

"Wait, am I being insensitive?" She forgot to close off the channel and transmitted her internal monologue...

Sachi Maren |

Velok Brokentusk

Velok Brokentusk · Monday at 10:25 PM

Sky Wulicailt said:
"Do you know him personally?"

"Alas," said Velok, stomach growling profoundly, "not yet."

Tavian Vale · Thursday at 5:48 PM

A slow stretch there.

Dogbann of Lorsh.

It could be their slaver. The first head to roll before continuing on through the town until every slaver was gone. But it could very well be some sort of trick from this

Velok Brokentusk . He himself said that he had tricked people before who were incautious. It could be another trick. Perhaps not worth billions, but he didn't look like a creature that had seen billions in a long time.

He glanced towards

Sachi Maren . "You tapped into the cantina, right? Check for that name. Does it confirm he is a slaver?" A slight smile towards Velok again.

"Trust but verify, no?"

But in the private connection between himself and

Sky Wulicailt his voice rang through. I don't trust him. He reminds me of the big prophetic giant. But if he can lead us to the worst offender here... that will go along way. We should not offend him if he doesn't force us to.