Shards of the Past: Shopping Trip on Dromund Kaas

[Captain Larraq]

Rygel Larraq stood upon the bridge of the Naast'ika Laaran, eyes set upon the star-speckled void beyond the transparent beskar-glassteel alloy viewports that lined the semi-circular bridge of the prototype bio-corvette. A dot, small and insignificant, held Larraq's gaze. Faint violet light outlined the tiny blue marble, contrasting brilliantly against the innumerable white pinpricks that dotted the void beyond this tiny gem.

A deep breath of air filled Larraq's lungs, was held a moment, and exhaled slowly.

<Dromund Kaas.> Larraq thought to himself as his young creation hurled itself towards the distant world, drawing the Mando'ade within closer and closer to the world that had once been forever altered by the choices of a single man. Absently, Larraq rolled a small stone between the fingers of his right hand. A meteorite fragment he had picked up on his first, last, and only trip to the surface of that cursed world... it had been several years since that day.

"Status?" Larraq asked absently as he watched the gem of a world grow slowly larger against the black backdrop of the void.

 

[Naast'ika Laaran]

"Systems nominal." Captain Tupu said as he stood next to his employer. "Nothing hostile anywhere on sensors. Nothing but civilian and merchant traffic around the planet." Outside of that, Lani kept his thoughts and opinions to himself.

Captain Tupu had commanded the Naast'ika for a few years now. Command being more of a figurative term for a living ship that can choose to ignore you at any moment... But the ship was a warship. They had been sent on several escort missions, exploration missions, and combat missions over the past several years. At each occurrence, no matter the mission parameters themselves, the Naast'ika Laaran had been sent in because the potential for violence existed and the capabilities of the bio-corvette made it uniquely suited to handle itself if the situation got out of hand.

So being chosen for a simple courier mission worried Lani. There were plenty of ships belonging to Mandal Hypernautics and Hyperion Security that could hold more cargo than Naast'ika and fly faster than Naast'ika. And, supposedly, Dromund Kaas belonged to the SSC, the parent organization that the Levantine Sanctum had become a part of. The latter being an organization that Mandal Hypernautics filled starfighter contracts for.

Which left Lani with the obvious question.

If this is a civilian world controlled by allies, why send a warship?

 

[Captain Larraq]

"Good." Captain Larraq said simply as he pulled out his datapad and typed in a series of commands. "We'll be landing at the following coordinates." He explained as he finished the commands and transferred a latitude and longitude to Astrographer Technician's console. The transmission sent, Captain Larraq returned the datapad to a pocket at his waste and turned towards the rear of the bridge. "I'll be waiting in the cargo bay."

The walk was a short one, but longer than expected for a ship as small as Naast'ika. The corridor that connected the bridge to the cargo bay included many twists and turns intended to slow down a hostile boarding party and included many sealing bulkheads. Larraq was familiar with the layout though and made the transition quickly. By the time he arrived in the cargo bay, he could already feel the subtle vibrations the ship made as it was entering atmosphere.

The cargo bay was vacant, with the exception of a handful of loader droids. The usual cargo manifest had been emptied out with the exception of a small crate kept in the center of the room. Payment for what would soon fill the bio-corvette's 500 ton cargo bay.