A year after the destruction of the second Death Star in the celebrated Battle of Endor, another war was waged between the New Republic and Galactic Empire. Basking beneath the desert sun of Jakku rests the remnants of this hostility. Shifting sands have since buried and uncovered countless treasures and relics—to the delight of scavengers eager who hope to recover tokens from either side of the conflict!

The harsh desert offers little shelter from the elements, remaining barren and flat against the imposing backdrop of a fallen Star Destroyer that was left uncovered after the famed Battle of Jakku. Rather than allowing the vessel to fall into the hands of the Republic after the self-destruct had been sabotaged, Captain Ciena Ree ordered the Inflictor evacuated and sent it crashing to the planet’s surface. Sunken into the shifting desert sea, the upper portion of the Inflictor’s hull and exhaust ports remain otherwise intact, preserved amidst the rubble of untold casualties that had once occurred on both sides. Although it has been scoured by the passing of several sandstorms, it still displays the former power and might of the Galactic Empire.

Countless scraps of metal and machines of war share the same grave, echoing the lives of those who fought and died among the perilous wastes. Hundreds of these relics sit untouched, lingering amidst the ghosts that tend and reside in Jakku’s graveyard.

Kadrol looked out the cockpit of his Gozanti Cruiser. The desert planet of Jakku lay below. He was headed to the wreckage of the Inflictor, an Imperial Star Destroyer that had crashed into the planet’s surface 30 years prior, in search of imperial artifacts for his collection. As his ship neared the Inflictor, it began to descend, guided by the autopilot. A cloud of sand was kicked up as the ship touched down on the surface. After the dust settled, Kadrol exited his ship. The old Imperial ship had probably been stripped of most of the scrap metal, but the Knight knew that there had to be artifacts left in the bridge, protected by the security measures and any scavengers that may have decided to call the ship their home.

Kadrol spotted a large hole in the side of the Star Destroyer and made his way over to it. The interior of the ship was dark, only lit by the sunlight that peered in through the holes in the hull. The Pantoran unhooked his lightsaber from the belt around his waist, a violet glow illuminated the hull of the ship around him as he activated the saber. He walked around the inside of the ship looking for anything worth taking with him, his plastoid armor boots clicking against the skeletal remains of one of the most recognizable marks of the empire. As he walked towards the ship’s stern, he noticed a white panel shimmering in the sun. Upon getting closer, Kadrol identified it as a TIE Fighter.

If I could get my ship in here, I could bring this home, he thought.

He made his way back to the entrance, and sliced a gap in the destroyer to accommodate for the width of his own ship, for the gap was already big enough vertically to accommodate the Cruiser. Despite being unable to effectively fly his own ship, he was experienced enough with smaller ships to understand in a basic sense how to move his ship.

He turned on the ship’s vertical thrusters and got the Gozanti hovering just a few feet off the ground. Each maneuver Kadrol made in order to manipulate his craft backwards through the hole took minutes. Luckily for him, the TIE was straight back from where he needed to enter.

After nearly an hour of guesswork, the Knight was able to successfully navigate through the hole and line up with the TIE. Using a winch, Kadrol was able to pull the TIE fighter onto his ship. The Fighter was in nearly perfect condition, with only a few dents in one of the wings. After securing the artifact, the Pantoran locked up his ship once again to search for more artifacts. After a few hours of searching the lower decks, he had made a few trips back and forth to drop off finds at his ship, but had only found a few armfuls of artifacts.

Back at his ship, Kadrol decided it would be a good idea to get his ship out of the destroyer and ready to leave in case he had to make a quick escape. Getting out of the destroyer was a whole lot easier than going in. Now outside of the Inflictor, Kadrol punched in the hyperspace coordinates to his home in the Caperion System; all he had to do was turn on the autopilot and hit confirm. Now prepared for a quick escape, Kadrol exited his ship and prepared to make his ascent into the bridge.

Tahiri watched from the cockpit of her Star Courier Nocte Drakon, as the endless sand dunes raced beneath her craft. The sand stretched from horizon to horizon, with the occasional outcropping of rocky cliffs springing up from seemingly nowhere. However, the outcropping she was looking for was the remnants of the Star Destroyer Inflictor, which was quite unmistakable rising out of the desolate landscape ahead of her craft.

From everything she had read about the Star Destroyer, it was driven into the surface of Jakku by its captain. An honorable way to go down, Tahiri had to admire that, even if she didn’t agree with some of the Empire’s ideals. Now she wanted to find out what artifacts were left aboard after all these years. Especially since there had been reports of other Brotherhood members searching through the wrecks of older Star Destroyers from the Galactic eras. The Battlemaster’s objective was the bridge and the officers quarters. Being a Rear Admiral for a brief time in Clan Tarentum’s Navy, gave her enough knowledge of where to begin her search.

“Arriving at our destination, landing procedure has begun, Mistress,” a mechanical voice brought Tahiri out of her thoughts of the past. She felt the Star Courier descend and touch down on the sanding surface. “Okay Max, keep the engine warmed up and ready to go. I have no mind to stay here longer than I need to. Oh, and make sure to scan the surrounding area every five minutes for anything suspicious.”

“Yes Mistress.” Leaving her Rx-series pilot droid, Max, to take care of the ship, Tahiri departed down its ramp. Stepping out onto the sand, the Togruta could feel the heat of planets’ sun, even though Max had landed the Nocte Drakon within the looming shadow of one of the Star Destroyer’s huge engine exhaust ports.

Looking up, the Sith Battlemaster spied the place she wanted to be, the bridge. Walking up the sand dunes, Tahiri headed inside the wreckage through a large hole in the behemoths hull. Pulling her Assassins datapad from her cloak, Tahiri pulled up the archived schematics of the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, and checked the alternate routes she had mapped out on the hyperspace jump here. Matching the corridor designation to the map so as to get her bearings, Tahiri mentally traced the path she wanted to take.

Igniting her crimson Rune saber for light, Tahiri began to make her way through the dark broken corridors, sometimes jumping over spans where the floor had deteriorated away, sometimes having to retrace her steps due to an impassable portions of collapsed sections. Over the consistent hum of her saber, Tahiri could hear the ship creaking and groaning, as it kept settling into the soft embrace of the sand around it. However, three quarters of the way to her objective, the Battlemasters’ wrist link beeped. Checking the frequency, she quickly answered, “What’s up Max?” “One of my scans indicates that on the other side of the wreck, that there is a another ship. I believe that there is someone else here, Mistress.” The droid answered with what seemed a hint of urgency. “Mistress, it would be advisable to proceed with caution, or leave the exploration of this wreck for another time.”
“Max, I’m didn’t come here just to up and leave at the first sign of danger,” Tahiri replied indignantly. Sighing, she went on, “Continue scanning, and let me know of anything else. See if you can figure if the ship belongs to the Brotherhood, Collective, or just a trader. Tahiri out.”

The Togruta stroked her grey Lekku absentmindedly, before quickly making up her mind to quickly get to the bridge and finish her search, before anything bad happened. I have a feeling that this is going to be an interesting day. Reaching the uppermost level of the main decks and finding the main lift door to the bridge, Tahiri used her saber to cut a decent sized hole. Peering up through the dark shaft, the Togruta saw that strangely, about 150 meters up, near where she could best guess the entrance to the bridge was, was a flood of light. As if the doors to the bridge were left open? Or were they blasted open? Whatever the reason was for those doors to be open, Tahiri decided that luck may have been on her side. Drawing upon the Force to augment her limbs and strength, and to find every hand and foothold possible, Tahiri extinguished her saber and began to climb towards the light.

Reaching the top, Tahiri pulled herself over the lip of the edge to the bridge and lay there for a moment, breathing hard. “Kark, that was a harder climb than a I thought it was going to be.” The Sith Togruta paused for a moment, her entire body tensing as the Force warned her of a presence in the room. The sound of footsteps on the durasteel floor and the signature snap hiss of a saber coming to life, was all the proof Tahiri needed that she wasn’t alone. Looking toward the sound, she found a young Pantorian man with a amethyst bladed saber standing just a few meters away. Well, he looks ready. Slowly rolling over and getting to her feet, she thought about going for her saber, but thought that maybe she defuse the situation another way.

“Who are you, and to what clan do you owe allegiance to?” The Pantorian asked quickly, wary as to Tahiri’s intentions. Tahiri calmly replied, bowing and flashing the Pantorian a small smile, “My name is Tahiri Thorn Morte Tarentae, Aedile of House Karness Muur of clan Plagueis. And you are, Jedi?” The young man seemed a bit taken aback by her upfrontness, but quickly regained his composure. “Kadrol Hauen, of clan Scholae Palatinae. What brings you here?” He shifted slightly. “Well, Kadrol, I’m here to find information this big beauty of a ship still holds. That is, if you’re okay with that?” Tahiri folded her arms and thrusted her left hip out nonchalantly. “I’m going to make a wild guess, and say that you’re here for the same thing. I don’t know about you, but I know a bit about the bridges of these ships, so I can help, if you are willing to let me?”

Kadrol seemed to contemplate her words for a few moments before replying slowly, “How do I know you won’t stab me in the back, once we find something? Or once my guard is down, Sith?” The question was reasonable, but harsh to Tahiri. Her choice of paths led to a lot of people to automatically assume she couldn’t be trusted. Oh wells, better to ask forgiveness later than permission. Wait, is that really how it goes or is it the other way around? Ah Kark it!
“I’ll tell you the truth, you can’t trust me. You already have an assumption of me, from who and what I am. However, let’s see how you stand up against me first, cause the same can be said for you. How can I trust you?” With a sudden flick her wrist, she sent the throwing knife she had palmed while getting up towards the Pantorian’s leg. The knife served as enough of a distraction for Tahiri to reach for her own saber, it’s crimson blade springing to life as she leapt forward to engage the young man.

Kadrol whipped out his saber, igniting the violet blade just in time to block the strike from the Plaguian. The Togruta danced around him, making frequent attacks with her saber. Kadrol’s eyes darted to keep track of the woman; barely able to defend himself against the assault.

“Thank the Force that Brimstone never went easy on me.” The knight said to himself. The red-skinned Togruta stopped her flurry of attacks. “Brimstone?” She asked. The Aedile had a Chiss under her leadership by that name.

“My old master.” Kadrol replied, deactivating his lightsaber.

The Battlelord deactivated her lightsaber. “I’ve heard much from him about you. Anyways, a friend of Brimstone is a friend of mine.” She said, offering out her hand. Kadrol shook it. He didn’t know what lurked within the ship, but he knew that the tiny Togruta could be of use.

“We’ll split the loot afterwards.” He said. With that, he led on. He could sense the good within the Sith.

I have to try to turn her back to the good, he thought.

The two took opposite sides of the bridge and began to sweep the room with their eyes for artifacts. A mass of bodies lie in the lowered section of the bridge where all of the navigation and course plotting was done. Upon closer inspection, the skeletons were those of the Imperial officers on the ship when it went down. Wrinkled skin still draped the figures; slowly rotting. The arid climate of Jakku had nearly mummified the corpses, drastically slowing their decay.

Kadrol gagged when he saw the maimed bodies, and smelled the rancid air surrounding them. He made several trips, collecting the rank plates off their bodies and then darting back to fresh air. After five trips, he had collected around a dozen plates ranging from ensign to Admiral. The knight dropped the square pieces of metal into a pouch on his utility belt and then made his way back to the main level. As he continued his way around, he found several more small trinkets: several hats, a couple code cylinders, a blaster pistol, and a few other small things that would make great additions to his personal collection of Imperial artifacts.

When Kadrol finally made it to the middle of the far side of the bridge, he found his new partner standing there, waiting with her left hand on her hip and her right arm relaxed by her side. “What’d ya find?” The Sith prodded him.

Kadrol knelt down on the ground and carefully placed his findings in front of him, with the exception of the admiral rank plate. He didn’t want to risk having to give that up to the Sith, as it was one of the few ranks he didn’t have a plate for yet. Tahiri placed her finds down in front of Kadrol. A stack of half a dozen uniforms, belts, rank plates, and hats, code cylinders, and a single datapad were gently set on the floor.

“Let’s split this now. We can redistribute it if someone finds something really good.” Tahiri said.

“Alright. What do you want?” Kadrol responded in agreement.

“Give me the datapad, some of the code cylinders, and one of these uniforms. You can have the rest.” The Togruta offered. She valued the possible information contained within the datapad much more than the other things the pair had found.

The young man contemplated for a minute before making a decision. He looked through he uniforms, hoping that it would help him make a decision. Almost immediately, one stuck out amongst the others as he searched through them. The armored uniform worn by the ISB agents.

“Deal. As long as I get this one.” He said, holding up the ISB uniform.

“Alright.” Tahiri agreed. The two put their part of the finds in the backpacks they had brought along to carry stuff in.

“Do you think there would be more artifacts left in the living quarters?” Kadrol asked as he slipped the backpack over his shoulders.

“I don’t know, but it’s worth a look. Follow me.” The red skinned Togruta replied.

Leading the way to the officer’s quarters, back down into the main body of the ship itself, Tahiri couldn’t help but wonder why Kadrol had left Plagueis. The Aedile was curious and wanted to ask him, but she decided to leave it alone until they got to know each other better. I’ll ask him another time, he may think that I’m just phishing for information at this point. I just hope he learns to trust me more than his former master. Clearly they didn’t get along.

Entering the deck proved a bit harder than Tahiri had expected. Upon getting through the lift doors, a foot of the way in, there was a wound that went through several floors in the ship. Kadrol stood beside her, glancing down and then up.
“Well, looks like we have more climbing to do,” the young Knight sighed in exasperation and frustration. Tahiri gathered the Force within her limbs, amplifying her muscles. Looking at the distance, and then back to Kadrol, she backed as far as she dared to the edge of the lifts entrance. It took only a single step to reach the edge of the crevice, Tahiri crouched at the edge and sprang off the balls of her feet, leaping the distance easily. However as the Battlemaster landed, her left foot caught on a large piece of twisted durasteel sticking up. As the Togruta’s momentum propelled her forward, Tahiri’s reflexes kicked in. Tipping her head forward and throwing her arms in front of herself, the Plagueian fell into roll which carried her body across the floor and into a debris pile. The Togruta slammed into the pile upside down, her feet embarrassingly above her head. Dazed she looked straight across at Kadrol as he attempted to jump the same crevice, making it only barely but he managed to miss the twisted piece of duresteel she had tripped on.

“Are you ok?” concern ebbed from the young Pantoran’s voice as he approached Tahiri and helped the Togruta right herself. “Yes, I’m alright.” Tahiri replied as he helped her stand. “Not one of my best landings, but at least I didn’t hurt myself too bad,” chuckling and then wincing a bit as her left foot and both shoulder blades cried out in defiance. Rolling her shoulders, the pain there was minimal, however when the Plagueian flexed her foot and took a few steps forward, the pain was a bit higher. The crimson skinned Togruta hopped over to a wall and gingerly propped herself against it, while gathering some the Force she carefully and slowly flexed the foot. Concentrating on the spot of where the bone hurt from the impact, Tahiri massaged and soothed the pain out of existence, before she tried to walk again. “Are you sure that you’re ok, Tahiri? Do you need healing?” The Palatinaean asked again. Kadrol had followed her every move, arms tense and ready to catch her if she fell, even as he looked around, his eyes searching the corridors. There was only a bit of soreness left in her foot, as Tahiri pushed herself off the wall and rocked back and forth on her feet. Throwing a smile to the Pantorian, she replied, “Yes, I’m much better now. I sincerely thank you for your concern, but don’t worry about me, already healed up.”

“Alright, good.” Kadrol nodded, then looked around at the three connecting corridors. “So which way now?“
“Well, if I remember correctly, the officer’s quarters should be down this middle corridor, and then the quarters spread out to the right and left, starting at about sector D25. Though I may be one or two off, you’ll know an officer’s quarter, even a lower ranked one, from everyone else’s.” Tahiri replied pulling out her Assassin’s data pad for her notes. Studying it for a moment, she ignited her saber and began walking down the middle corridor, her crimson light mixing with Kadrol’s violet colored saber as he followed close behind. Their footfall echoed through the ship, Kadrol’s ringing out more than Tahiri’s, as his fell heavier than hers. Tahiri stopped suddenly and looked up at the corridors designation, then back at her pad. Then motioning slowly with her saber, the crimson skinned Togruta pointed down the corridors to her left and right.
“Ok so based on the schematics, the officers quarters should down this way and this way.” Kadrol was about to reply, when a huge clang rang through the corridor. Both of them tensed and turned back towards the way they had come, watching for what had made the noise. The light that pierced through the wound in the ship had gotten significantly dimmer, for some reason. Tahiri quickly entered the corridor to her right, whispering as she did,“Kadrol come here.” The Plagueian extinguished her saber nodding for Kadrol to do the same. As he did, the darkness engulfed them as they peered round the corner, watching the dim brightness of the crevice and waiting for whatever made the sound. A sudden bright white light flashed and voices could be heard as they saw figures descend on ropes to their level. At that moment Tahiri’s comp beeped. Quickly covering it and muffling the sound, she turned down the volume as she answered in a whisper, “What is it, Max?”
“Mistress, my sensors just detected a ship land on the upper portion of the Star Destroyer. The signature of the ship indicates that they may be either pirates or raiders.” Max conveyed his findings to her.
“Yeah, neither of those sound good. Max stand by, and don’t contact me, unless either I contact you first, or you have to move the ship. Overwise stay put, and quiet.” Tahiri swiftly ordered.
“Yes Mistress. Max out.”
“Well this certainitaly just became more interesting,” the Togruta whispered to Kadrol