Private What's So Special about Jakku?

[Therax Milbon]

In one day Basil went from hopelessly pathetic dork to a folk hero.

His actions from saving his commander from death to wading through blaster fire to hack into the security system, opening up the ray shields in half a second to allow Saint Lauren and the other Alliance troops to enter and capture the Sith scientists. As a result of this decisive victory, the men and women of Basil's unit threw a party for him celebrating his heroics. The young man was rather embarrassed by the whole ordeal. What he did was nothing new but Basil did spend the time getting drunk and singing karaoke. Basil even kissed a girl for the first time in his life! A private around Basil's age who came from somewhere in the mid rim. It was a shame though that Basil's first kiss wasn't Samatharis he wondered how she would react to his successful mission?

The next morning, Basil's commanding officer woke him up beaming. He explained that Basil was going to be transferred to Jakku for whatever reason. He was going to be promoted to reparimen and from what Basil understood was that he was one of the youngest to be one. "Great," Basil muttered while he got ready. "A planet full of sand what's so special about Jakku?"

As he got on the dropship, Basil's CO informed him that a Jedi will be waiting for him. The young man saluted as the ship flew from base and headed straight to Jakku.

 

[Samatharis]

Jakku was a recent acquisition of the Galactic Alliance. It was currently listed on the books as "a fixer upper". Which, was bad. Honestly.

The secret of the planet was already uncovered however. A warlord named Palpatine had created a secret base on Jakku long ago and it spanned hundred of kilometers underground. A network of irrigation tunnels and secret bunkers. All used as a secret Sith Observatory and storehouse. Unfortunately, it had been looted several times in the past thousand years and even blown up twice. So most of the "secret Sith bunkers" hidden underneath the empty where still just that. Empty.

However, Jakku was also something else these days. It was the secret Enclave hideout of Romi Jade and her adepts. A centerpoint for Jedi networking in the galactic effort to stop the Sith'ari and the Crab Destroyers. Even if, this was still top secret.

Meanwhile,

Samatharis of Rulon stood on the warm desert sands of Nema Outpost.

It was the hub for local traffic and the GA outreach program for the locals. It was mostly just a bunch of huts and tents in the desert. Complimented by an assortment of park starships and GA heavy vehicles. Still. If there was anything Basil was about to learn about Jakku? ...It was that this place was a empty, sandy, wasteland in the middle of nowhere. Literally. The worst.

Sam stood in the shade of an open tent flap. Waiting for the new GA workforce to arrive. She did not know Basil would be among them. Sam was wearing a black EV bodysuit wrapped in a white linen shawl. With a white wrap to cover her head and face. She looked every bit the desert tribal woman. Only her eyes could give her away and those where hidden behind careful desert sunglasses too.

Wrapped up in white linen, she watched as the spacecraft touched down out in the salt flats just beyond the outposts anchors. An ATV of Alliance soldiers pulled out from the tents and drove up to Basil's ship.

There would be two soldiers from Jakku Base waiting to greet him.

Therax Milbon

 

[Therax Milbon]

As the dropship touched the ground, Basil immediately exited shielding his eyes from the bright Sun. Was this the reward that earned? To be a repairmen in this force foresaken dustbowl of a planet? Jakku wasn't even on the map when Basil was in school, the only reason why people remember it at all was because Jakku was the staging ground for the final battle between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire centuries ago. Basil was going to be stationed for who knows how long and he didn't even know who his commanding officer was.

Taking his black bag, Basil lumbered towards Nema Outpost where he saw two soldiers and they escorted him towards a woman wrapped in white linen. "Ma'am!" As soon as Basil approached the woman he snapped to attention saluting. "I'm the repairmen sent by the Alliance military!" He handed the woman his papers. "I've been relocated after my heroics against the Sith Empire! It is an honor to be working with you!"

Samatharis

 

[Samatharis]

Sam smiled underneath her linen mask. Of course. Of course it was Basil Giles.

The cloaked woman just shook her head at his salute and handed his papers to the two troopers at his left.

"First. You don't salute me." Her voice sounded wayyy too familiar, "...Second. These men will take your papers and trade you a radio."

The two soldiers smirked and pocketed Basil's paperwork. Then one stepped forward and handed him a sat-comm.

"Corporal Giles. Welcome to hell. You're to report to Jakku Base when the Jedi here is finished with you for bunk and duty. There is transport here at Nema when you make it back from the desert. Ask for Private Kyles in the cantina. In the meantime,"

He pointed to the woman as she removed her hood and mask. Then Sam smiled as Basil recognized her face,

"In the meantime Corporal, Jakku Base has assigned you to my dig team."

She folded her arms over her chest and waved the other soldiers away.

"So? I hear you're good at opening locked Sith doorways? Let's put that to the test now, shall we?"

Welcome to Irrigation Dig Duty soldier. Hope you like sand.

Therax Milbon

 

[Therax Milbon]

"Wait a minute?!" Basil's professionalism briefly disappeared as his eyes rose up in shock. He ignored the sand getting past the gaps of his white armor gaping at the masked woman. " Samatharis ?!" Before he could say anything else, the soldiers snatched the papers from him warning Basil not to drool over his armor.

"I thought this was supposed to be reward for my good work," Basil thought while listening to his orders. "Of course Knight Samatharis," Basil said nodding. "I'm willing to help you."

There was actually something hidden beneath this dustbowl? Well at least he won't bored just repairing Droids or helping old people find the on button on the Holonet. "An Sith structure hidden beneath Jakku?" Basil asked. "That is something to look at."

As he began to grab his rifle, he smiled at Samatharis. "It's good to see you again," he said.

 

[Samatharis]

Samatharis smirked and motioned for Giles to follow. The other two GA soldiers disappeared back into their ATV and drove back around the outpost. Meanwhile, Sam lead Basil through a number of red tents and market stalls. The busiest sign of civilization for kilometers around.

"You'd be right to say something is buried here. Jakku was more important than it looked, thousand of years ago."

She walked out into the hot sun and put back on her sunglasses. Pointing out across the loose sands.

"See. Out there among the dunes. Nothing but desert for kilometers. Out there, your buddies found a ship graveyard and a bunch of Sith cultists salvaging it. After a short fight. We found tunnels underground. Huge tunnels. All connected to a massive planetary terraforming system. Long ago, somebody had wanted to restore this world. They just never got around to finishing the project before they got blown up."

She reaffixed her white mask and resumed her costume as a local. Turning about to return to the shade of the tents.

"The GA has been scouting these tunnels for weeks. It's why Jakku Base even exists here in the first place. They've found old Sith bunkers belonging to an old king. Palpatine. He used to use this planet as a base and storehouse or something. Naturally, most of the external entrances have been blown and looted long ago. But the tunnel network? It's still there and mostly uncharted."

She folded her arms over her chest and sighed.

"The NJO has taken an interest in the tunnel network and any Sith history from this planet. I've been asked to help exploring some of the irrigation regions near the Nema Beltway. We've got about twelve soldiers and a few probe droids to work with. Unfortunately, none of my computer guys can work with the Sith symbols used in the complexes old computer system. It's a lost language, I'm afraid. So I asked for a specialist and they sent me you. The guy who can open a Sith Shield System in ten seconds."

She turned to him and shrugged,

"That right eh? You can open a Sith Shield Door written in a lost language in ten seconds huh?"

A million to one odds, Basil probably couldn't.

Therax Milbon

 

[Therax Milbon]

As Samatharis explained the details of the mission, Basil stood there in silence his mouth agape. If there was one thing his Mom had taught him as a kid was that even the most insignificant of things can have the most wonderous things. Looks like there was definitely more to Jakku than what he anticipated and it only took some digging. "That is very interesting," Basil said his eyebrows raising. "I mean I've hacked into some forbidden files about the Sith and they displayed a language that was hard for me to discipher. Even R6 couldn't do it and he's knows approximately 3 billion forms of communication."

The young man blushed a bit when Samatharis asked him if he opened a Sith gate in seconds. "Well," Basil said slowly rubbing the back of his head. "It wasn't that impressive. It was just a UNIX system something I've been cracking in since I was a kid. If there's one thing about the Sith is that they have terrible Holocomputers. Hacking them was like "guessing" 1234 as the password. But the most important thing was that people's lives were saved that's what matters. I've realized as long as my skills can help people other than myself than I'm good. That being said I can give it a go."

Good feels good, who would've thought of that?

 

[Samatharis]

Sam gave a sad and somber nod. So much for a Sith Language expert. Damn.

"Well. Fair enough. I suppose while you're here, we'll find a use for you."

She tugged on her hood and looked back into the desert. Pondering the long journey to come. Even by way of air speeder. They had a long way to go.

___


It was later in the evening when their air speeder finally landed down at a heavy mountain ridge line. Rocky and robust, this was definitely more mountainous terrain than out by the outpost. The sun was going down and the sky had changed to a dim pink color. Canvasing the dune sea like a terribly fascinating painting.

Sam got out and unwrapped her linen hood. Standing over by the craft's bright white headlights.

"Come on. Entrance to the Irrigation Network is this way."

She motioned for Basil to follow her down into a slight canyon. It tunneled into a wide open cave and quickly unveiled an ancient Imperial Gateway. This was obviously man made. Looked like a permacrete bunker entrance really. Though? The door way was smashed in and sand and debris had been trickling into the structure for eons. You could even see a few shrubs growing inside the entrance way.

"There are thousands of entrances just like this one. Littered across the Jakku desert. Most are broken and hundreds of years old. Buried under meters of sand and blocked off from the world topside."

She pointed to the etching above the gate way. Both letters were in unfamiliar languages.

"It's old Imperial construction from before the plague. But all the letterings are in Ancient Sith."

Then she pointed to the door's control panel.

"All the power has been dead for ages. Long ago I guess it all connected to what they call "The Emperor's Observatory". The center of the Network. Some GA teams have known about the Observatory for awhile I guess and an old GONK droid accidentally turned back on the old Anti-Matter Generator about a month ago. Some sections of the Irrigation Network have power now I guess. But it's sporadic and prone to failure."

She turned back to Basil and put her sunglasses away,

"It's not much to work with. So we bring portable generators down here and use flashlights. Meh."

Sam motioned for him to follow her through the gateway. The temperature immediately got a touch colder. Out from the frying pan. Into the freezer.

Four speeder bikes awaited them at the entrance to the tunnel network. A long square metal highway tunnel. The light from the world outside slowly drifted into darkness.

"Your guys have been nice enough to leave a few bikes lying around for transit. Hop on. We've got a base camp set up further down the tunnel."

Sam mounted a bike and turned it's headlights on. A few bats scattered out from their resting places. Retreating overhead and out into the world outside. Then Sam's comm started to buzz,

~ "Yo Captain? What's the good news?" ~ An unfamiliar voice inquired.

Sam tapped her wrist, "I'll tell ya when we get there. HQ sent us a new computer whiz kid. So tonight we're just gonna get him settled in and we'll start working on the new charts tomorrow."

~ "A'yo. Roger that Cap. We'll see ya, when we see ya. Squirt out." ~

Sam gave Basil a quick nod.

"Hope you don't mind sleeping on cots inside old Imperial Bases. We're pretty far out here. ...Anyway. Come on. Just a bit further now."

It was obvious they were many dozens of kilometers from anything resembling friendly territory. They'd flown across the desert. Delved into ancient tunnels. Rode speeder bikes down long meters of metal hallways. All just to camp out in the middle of nowhere. Cold and underground. In the middle of the dark.

Jakku had it's secrets all right. But Basil wasn't sure if he was going to die of heat stroke or boredom first. There was literally, nothing out here.

Therax Milbon

 

[Therax Milbon]

Basil was no linguist he didn't understand why he was placed on this mission for something that he wasn't specialized in. Oh well, if it involved technology then Basil will figure it quickly. Still it felt like he was a last minute pick in all this, Basil nodded as he grabbed his Blaster Rifle and followed Samatharis and the troops. The young man listened intently while Samatharis continued to explain about the ancient Sith and the Imperials. "Not much is known about the plague," Basil said as they continued to trudge forward. "So many records were lost, perhaps through we can get idea of what happened to the people who lived in Jakku."

The group reached the gateway where they saw 4 Speeder Bikes, Basil sighed a bit looking at the vehicles more sweat starting to form around his brow. He never liked Speeder Bikes the last time he rode them was 3 years ago where pressed on the accelerator causing an accident. His Dad yelled at Basil for being a fool but those things were very sensitive. Basil sighed making sure that he didn't telegraph his apprehension towards speeders to Samatharis before climbing on and riding behind Samatharis really slowly.

"This place is a maze," Basil said looking around. "With a place so large and interconnected the Sith definitely took an interest in Jakku."

But why though? What was here besides sand, rock and the occasional crashed Imperial Stardestroyer? They've reached camp and found out that they were in the middle of nowhere..... again. "Or perhaps these Sith Lords are bored as all hell and decided to troll explorers." Basil grumbled as he sat down and turned on his flashlight. "I can scout out the place, knowing the Sith they probably have experiments prowling the place."

 

[Samatharis]

​

Network Station NX61

Camp was exactly that. A bunch of tents. canopies, and cots surrounded workstations, supply crates, and makeshift computer terminals. All housed in what looked like an old Imperial subway station. Another part of the underground tunnel network. There was power here. Sort of. Most of the lights in the ceiling were either too dim or too broken to be of much help. It still felt like being trapped underground in the dark. But at least their camp had spotlights scattered about. You could see the hard metal floor at least.

Sam parked their speeder bike next to a pile of other speeder bikes. Then she pointed for Basil to go say hello,

"We're here. Survey Camp NX61. Go say hello to the team. I'm going to refuel the bike."

Sam leaned down to plug the bike into the portable generator. Meanwhile, three GA soldiers approached from the tents. It was almost midnight, Jakku time.

"Yo. Sup. You the new guy?"

That was Benny. He was a black guy with a long drawl. He was the team quartermaster and self-proclaimed entertainment expert. I guess that meant smuggling but ya know. Jakku sucks so. What the frell.

"Ha. See! He looks like a computer guy. See, I told you Benny. It wasn't gonna be a chick."

The skinny guy who liked to laugh at his own jokes. That was Pauly. His short blonde hair was an obviously bad dye job and the serial number tattoo above his right ear didn't help much either. He looked like a criminal wearing a GA uniform. He was technically the team's drone pilot. But since they had already deployed all their drones in auto-mode a few days ago? I guess Pauly was just another trooper for now.

"Damn." Came a booming deep, voice. "I could have sworn they were sending us a Sullustian female. I swear man!"

The giant guy was Skull. He was tall, square, super pale, and built like a tank. He was the team's demolitions specialist. If you needed something blown up? Yeah. The big guy, was your guy. Too bad though. He often seemed dumber than a pile of bricks. Guess he wasn't much for conversation.

"Man. Everybody knows there ain't no female Sullustians. That's just a myth man." Benny shrugged.

"Pfft. Then how to do they reproduce eh? Come on now. Come on now." Pauly sassed.

"I know this one." Skull proudly proclaimed, "Cloning! Ha!"

Benny and Pauly both looked at Skull in disbelief and sighed.

"What?..." Skull shrugged. He didn't get it.

It was at that moment Sam stepped into the dim lighting of the underground camp.

"Gentlemen. Meet Basil. Our new computer expert."

She gave a motion for Basil to introduce himself.

"Benny will get you settled in. Just find a cot and keep a heater under it. Same goes for the laptops. You break it, you bought it."

"Hey yo. No problem Captain." Benny smiled and gave Basil a firm handshake, "I got this. Yo. What up man."

Pauly and Skull just shook their heads with pleasure. Then turned back to Sam.

"So what up Cap?" Skull boomed, "We finally gonna get those locked doors open or what?"

Sam gave a nod and pointed down one of the dark tunnels,

"Tomorrow we'll start in the North Section. Giles here can have all day to try and crack the doors. Meanwhile, I want you and Benny to try the Eastern Section again. We need to see if we can get power over there and get some of those old systems running again. Especially before we start blasting again."

Skull nodded. He seemed disappointed they weren't going to be blowing anything up though.

"Fair enough Cap."

Sam turned and gave a nod to the tiny encampment.

"Okay everybody. Get some sleep. We'll start tomorrow at ten hundred. Dismissed."

The rest of the guys nodded and departed to their bunks. Benny stuck around to show Basil the camps layout and what equipment he could use. It was all good tech. Brand new. Just a bit dusty.

You could barely see them in the dark but the team had three sentry turrets down the tunnels too. Each one had a mounted gun and over eight hundred rounds of heavy ammo. They would be extremely safe during the night. After all. The only thing anybody had found living down here for the last few hundred years were the bats. And they were harmless. Well... Mostly.

"Get some sleep people. It'll be a busy day tomorrow."

Sam retired to her giant white tent. The only one with Jedi markings. The other tents were just GA military.

Basil was free until 10:00 AM to get to know the team, grab a laptop, and find his bed.

...

Therax Milbon

 

[Therax Milbon]

Well at least in the cavern of boringness, there was at least a sense of home to it with the camp. Then again it was like adding polka dots to drying white paint. Basil sat on one of the supply crates and began to examine his tech, the Galactic Alliance versions were too standard and can be easily eavesdropped. The young man was surprised that the Sith Empire doesn't spy on their battlenet often they probably did based on when Basil cracked the Alliance's code. He saw multiple anomalies within the battlenet but they disappeared when Basil was about to zero in, the Galactic Alliance's Holonet was definitely outdated yet the higher ups insisted that there was nothing wrong with it.

"Hey there," Basil said to the guys setting things up on his bed. "I'm Basil, a Corporal and.... yeah people often mistaken me for a girl when I was a kid. It drove my Dad crazy."

Basil had rather feminine features as a kid and his Dad made sure he looked like a man as possible. "You're a Corporal?" Skull said grinding his large knife against his shoulder armor. "You out rank all of his besides the Cap."

Basil never thought about the fact that he was second in command. Given his success in the battle, Basil was given a promotion as well. Going from a private to corporal wasn't that much of a big deal for Basil but for the first time he actually outranked a decent amount of people. "So sir," Benny said giving Basil a salute. "What do you think is going to happen? What's behind that door?"

"Who knows?" Basil shrugged seeing Samatharis enter her tent. He wondered if she thought of him while they were away. Probably not but Basil's feelings for Samatharis still lingered even after his admittedly immature blow up at her weeks ago. "But I suggest we need to be cautious with the Sith you never know what they're doing."

"My Pa once told me that the Sith kill and eat their victims as a way to gain power." Pauly said nervously chewing on some pink bubble gum while fiddling with her Blaster Rifle.

Spoiler: Pauly

"Well you'd be surprised," Basil said connecting his Laptop using his custom made Holonet router. "That many Sith did practice cannibalism because they thought they can transcend the Dark Side."

"A bunch of weirdoes these Sith are," Benny took a small, green beverage and took a long sip before handing a bottle to Pauly and Skull.

"You want some sir?" Benny asked tossing Basil a drink, the young man raised an eyebrow looking at the green goop. "What is it?" Basil asked. "It's called Starstone Brew," Skull said taking off his helmet to reveal a dark skinned, bald young man. "It's the hottest drink in the Galaxy right now. This chit is very good, very addictive."

Spoiler: Brew

"Try it out," Pauly said. "It may be alcohol but it tastes like cotton candy."

"Nah," Benny said. "Tastes like Soda."

Basil stared at the drink, shrugged and took a brief chug. "Mmmmm," he said having never drank alcohol before. "It's pretty tasty." The group spent the night, drinking and getting to know each other more before finally falling asleep.