Chapter 46
Renn and the others ended up staying on Naboo for a few weeks before leaving and heading to Sullust.
They had visited the land Renn had been given as part of his reward for his help in the battle of Naboo and had been amazed by its views and scenery. The green grassy meadows, deep blue lakes and gentle rolling hills looked mesmerising.
After looking around for a bit Renn, with the help of Opal, Seela, Shae, and Sapphire, chose a spot on a tall flat-topped hill overlooking a large calm lake for them to build a house. One of the businesses that Renn and the ex-slaves had started was a construction company and its manager had promised to build the house for Renn once the company was well established on Naboo.
Sapphire was helping Renn with planning the houses layout and once it was done, she would relay it to the construction company. The company would take a while to get properly established but Renn didn't need the house built for a while anyway, so he was alright with that.
They spent most of their time on Naboo relaxing and de-stressing after the ordeal with Gardulla. The girls spent quite a bit of time with Padme, who was also in need of relaxing with the stress of running Naboo left to her, and also spent a lot of time hanging out with Renn.
By the end of their time on Naboo they had all recovered from their time on Naboo and were ready to once again face what the galaxy had in store for them.
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For most species in the galaxy Sullust looked like a hellhole.
The planet's surface was covered in numerous active volcanoes and oceans of bubbling lava. Thick clouds of poisonous gasses and hot streams of fresh magma erupted from the volcanoes and cracks in the planets crust frequently. Making the planet's surface almost uninhabitable.
To adapt to the perilous conditions of their planet the native Sullustans had built their homes in tunnels and caves deep beneath the dangers on the planet's surface. And over time they had turned their isolated underground home into a bustling trade hub and became the headquarters of the SoroSuub Corporation a prominent member of the Commerce Guild.
The Speedy Vagabond landed in Sullust's capital city Byllurun. Byllurun like most of Sullusts cities was built in what used to be a magma chamber and its unique appearance meant that as well as being a busy trade city it also had a big tourism industry.
Renn and the others spent some time exploring the city and its sights before heading to a local vendor to sell the loot they had got from Gardulla's palace.
They managed to find a 'helpful' merchant who was convinced by Alpha and Yaddle to give them the best possible price for their goods and soon they were a small fortune of credits richer.
After meeting with the merchant Renn and the others browsed the shops in Byllurun and visited some more of the tourist sites. Sullust was a big producer of Star ship parts, so Renn wanted to check what they had available before they went to inspect the Lucrehulk he had commandeered during the battle of Naboo.
Byllurun had a large variety of parts and ships available for purchase. Not quite the same range as one of the bigger ship building worlds such as Kuat or Corellia, but those planets had their own downsides with most of their more advanced stock going straight to either the republic or other wealthy conglomerates like the techno union or the trade federation.
Besides Sapphire was going to be converting some droids to act as workers then building her own parts anyway, as the technology of the now fallen world of Aruum was still vastly ahead of anything found in the rest of the galaxy, so they really only needed the raw materials. Making Sullust a perfect place to buy what they needed, and its proximity to the outer rim also meant there was less chance of anyone asking too many questions.
After looking around Byllurun Renn and the others returned to the Speedy Vagabond set a course for the uninhabited system that was the current home of their captured droid control ship.
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The uninhabited star system was fairly empty.
Its single solitary star was only orbited by three planets, and none had won the galactic lottery to be provided with an atmosphere.
The closest planet to the systems sun was a small rocky world that was too close to the lone star to be anything other than a burning hellscape.
The second planet had through some bizarre galactic incident collided with both its moons and now all three-lay scattered in a massive cloud of debris and broken pieces of former celestial bodies. Whether the incident was caused by nature or was caused by some ancient sentient creatures had been long lost to time.
The third planet in the system was an average sized gas giant and orbiting the sixth moon of that gas giant was a single Lucrehulk-class battleship.
The Speedy Vagabond entered the system and headed straight for the battleship's open docking bay. They landed in its spacious hangar and were greeted by a procession of battle droids, their eyes glowing with blue light due to being controlled by Sapphire.
The wreckage from the brief battle for control of the ship had already been cleaned away and the hangar bay was now spotless. Allowing the droids to form up in two neat lines while they waited for the Speedy Vagabond's landing ramp to descend.
The avatar of the fragment of Sapphire that was in control of the ship floated in front of the battle droids a happy smile on her holographic face.
Renn and the others exited their ship and were greeted warmly by the assembled welcome party before being led on a quick tour of the captured battleship.
The tour ended on the battleship's bridge, and they began listening to Sapphire as she gave a brief description of what they would need to upgrade the ship and what they could use it for in the future.
"All in all, the ships main selling points are its droids. Although they aren't the most advanced, I can reprogram and upgrade them fairly easily so that shouldn't be much of a problem.
But the ship itself would be better served as a mobile base or something similar rather than as a battleship. The trade federation mainly uses ships of this class for planetary blockades as they aren't vey manoeuvrable.
The system we are in currently is well hidden and out of the way, so I don't see any problems with the ship being discovered even if we store it here for several years. But I have detected some unusual sensor readings coming from the neighbouring star system so would recommend we investigate before committing to keeping the ship here for a significant length of time." Sapphire summarised for them.
Renn sat in the captain's chair and considered what to do.
"Okay, first we will check out these unusual sensor readings and then decide what we will do after that." He decided.
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The Speedy Vagabond dropped out of hyperspace in the neighbouring system and immediately its bridge was filled with red warning lights and the sound of alarms.
"Warning! I'm tracking multiple unidentified ships present in this system." Sapphire's voice cut through the alarms and soon sensor readings of the unknown ships were popping up on the bridge's consoles.
A small fleet seemed to be present in the system and from the size of them they appeared to be war ships. The sensors on the Speedy Vagabond showed them to be large triangular ships bristling with heavy guns and hangar bays.
The fleet was orbiting around a small moon in the star system but didn't seem to be in any recognisable formation. Some of the ships were clustered together and some were far away on their own. And as Renn studied the sensor displays he saw, to his confusion, that two of the ships actually seemed to have collided with each other.
"Target analysis shows that the unknown ships belong to the …. Sith empire?
They seem to be completely powered down and look like they have stayed that way for thousands of years." Sapphire said slightly mystified as she cancelled the alarms now, she knew they weren't in any immediate danger.
Renn and the others looked watched in wonder as a picture of the ancient Sith fleet was displayed on the bridges view screens. The ships still looked menacing despite their age and despite time, and whatever caused them to become trapped in the moons orbit, clearly having taken a toll on them they still seemed fairly well preserved.
"Well, lets get a closer look at them then." Renn said barley able to contain his excitement.