Chapter 94

Obi-wan sighed in exasperation as R4 tried to connect him to the jedi temple.

The constant rain on the hidden planet of Kamino was playing havoc with his ship's long-range communications and was also making it impossible to stay dry.

But he had found the planet that the mysterious assassin had been hiding on, as well as an entire army of clones that were apparently commissioned by the jedi for the republic.

Which was odd because Obi-wan never remembered the council mentioning something like, but they must have had a reason.

The kaminoans had given him a tour of the cloning facility and even introduced him to the man whose genes were used in the creation of the army.

Jango Fett had been a very grumpy Mandalorian man who had glared malevolently at Obi-wan throughout their entire meeting, as had his equally grumpy looking sister and a small boy who was apparently his son and clone.

At first Obi-wan had thought that maybe Jango was involved with the assassination attempt, he was definitely expecting to be visited by a jedi and didn't seem too happy about it.

But he had quickly discounted that after he caught a glimpse of the man's armour that had been stored in a nearby room.

The man's armour was completely different from the assassin's, but he still seemed to know something.

Obi-Wan sighed again as R4 informed him that he still couldn't reach the jedi council, but that he would send Obi-wan's pre-recorded message as soon as a connection was available.

He was wondering what he should do next when the door to the landing pad slid open and a surprised looking bounty hunter stared at him in shock.

Obi-Wan looked back at the man in an equal amount of shock, as stood in front of him on the rain battered kaminoan landing pad was the assassin he had been hunting.

The man regained his wits moments latter and bolted away, and Obi-wan sprinted after him. Hoping that by the time R4 reestablished communications he would have much more to report.

-

"Why is it that I'm the one lugging all this stuff back to the ship?" Renn moaned half heartedly from behind the girls as they made their way back through the streets of Mos Espa.

"STUFF?!" Dia, held protectively in Seela's arms, said with a look of mock outrage on her face, "Those crates are full of precious cargo, and Mr. Wires isn't stuff! He's a good boy."

Mr. Wires, Dia's strange homemade astromech that was made from a mishmash of different astromech parts and currently being carried under one arm by Renn, beeped excitedly in binary to confirm Dia's statement.

"Yeah, you're the one who decided to spend so much time covering yourself in muscles," Opal said as she grinned and prodded a finger into Renn's powerfully built chest.

"So how could you expect delicate maidens like ourselves…. to…... carry?" Opal began trailing off and continued poking at Renn's chest with a slightly dreamy look on her face.

"Stop that. Children are watching." Shae slapped Opal in the back of the head when the girl looked like she was about to start caressing Renn's muscles, which earned her a glare from Opal and a giggle from Dia.

After the small distraction they resumed walking back towards the space port and Renn grudgingly readjusted the three precariously stacked crates held on his shoulder and then carried them and Mr. Wires after the girls.

After leaving Seela's parents house with her little sister, they had headed straight for Dia's makeshift shop to pick up the droid as Renn had assumed she would want to bring it with her.

He had been right, and when Dia had realised she would be able to bring Mr. Wires with her she had been over the moon with happiness and had begun excitedly telling the droid all about their new family and about how they would be able to go on adventures together all across the galaxy.

It had been quite sweet and Renn hadn't objected to carrying the droid back to the ship when Dia had explained that one of his tracks had been damaged in a sandstorm and still needed repairing.

But when the girl had then began pulling the three crates crammed with spare parts and random bits of electronics, some looking like they had been scavenged from rubbish piles, Renn had protested a little bit.

He had explained that he had access to a vast amount of wealth and hi-tech equipment so all the parts she would ever need to upgrade and fix Mr. Wires or build whatever she wanted were already at their destination. And so, she didn't need to bring the crates of scavenged parts with her.

But in response Dia had only given Renn a blank look before explaining slowly and patronisingly that they were her things and that she was bringing them with her.

He had then looked up to see Seela giving him a look that seemed to imply very bad things if Renn upset her sister, and so with a sigh of defeat he had hefted the three crates along with the droid and agreed to carry them all back to the ship.

Renn didn't actually mind carrying all the stuff, as the load that might have been too much for any of the ordinary residents of Mos Espa who had sent Renn envious looks as he had walked past them was barely much of an effort for him.

Plus, if bringing a few boxes of junk back with them made Dia and by extension Seela happy it was worth it.

But that didn't mean that Renn wouldn't use the occasional opportunity to complain about it and try and tease them.

He smiled as he followed after the girls, frowned slightly as they slowed as the space port came into view before slowing down himself as he saw what was wrong.

In front of the door to the hangar that Renn and the others had bought was a small group of robed people and two huge hairy animals.

The robed figures, who Renn instantly recognised as Tusken raiders, had their weapons slung across their backs and seemed to be waiting fairly peacefully for something, although most pedestrians were giving the group of four men a wide berth.

As they approached Renn noticed one of the sand people nudge one of his comrades, who Renn assumed was in charge, and point towards Renn.

The Tusken raider in charge of the group looked towards Renn before rising to his feet and striding towards him.

Renn noticed what looked like a lightsabre hanging from the man's belt as he gently lowered the crates he was carrying to the ground and handed Mr. Wires to Opal, who despite her claims of being delicate was probably strong enough to punch a hole in a brick wall and so didn't struggle one bit carrying the droid.

He then moved past the girls to meet the Tusken raider. Shae followed him but stopped to stand defensively between the incoming sand person and Seela, Dia, and Opal.

Seela and Opal had also taken up their own protective positions around Dia, who just watched what was happening with a mix as curiosity and anxiety.

The lead Tusken raider with the lightsabre stopped just in front of Renn and paused for a moment.

Renn expected the Tusken raider to then let out a howl in the peculiar language of the sand people, but instead the man bowed respectfully towards him.

"It is an honour to meet you warlord Dredd. My father has told me many stories of your heroic deeds." The Tusken raider said in very fluent galactic basic.

-

After Renn and the others had made sure that the group of tusken raiders were actually quite friendly, and not out to cause them any problems, they had moved into the hangar to sit and talk somewhere more comfortable.

"I don't think you lot are here just to say hi, are you?" Renn asked the lead tusken raider who was now sat opposite him on a crate in the hangar that Renn had bought.

"No," The tusken raider said simply and Renn stayed silent and waited for him to continue.

"My name is A'Sharad Hett, I believe you know my father, Sharad Hett." He continued and Renn just nodded.

"Since you last saw him, my father has taken control of most of the Sand people clans and is in the process of uniting them into a unified nation." Hett told him before looking away sheepishly.

"And… we would like to request your help… with a job," Hett said and Renn got the impression he was either very reluctant or very embarrassed about the request.

"I'm getting the impression you don't really want me to do this job." Renn stated matter of factly, and Hett sighed.

"It's not that I don't want to…. It's just you'll probably think that we're idiots." He said looking away into the distance before turning back to Renn.

"We would like to hire you to investigate an old shipwreck near one of our settlements in the dune sea." Hett said and Renn had the feeling he was holding something back.

"Why?" Renn asked and Hett seemed to deflate a little bit.

"My father thinks we can use the land around it for moisture farming, which will make us more self sufficient and be a big step in the formation of our own nation.

But we've been having a problem with our warriors refusing to go into to the area to get set up and so we need you to clear it out for us." Hett said and Renn squinted slightly in confusion.

"Why wont your people go near the ship?" Renn asked slowly.

"Because they think its haunted." Hett said and looked away, his tone tinged with frustration.

Renn was silent for a moment and just stared in surprise at the group of tusken raiders who seemed to be asking for his help with dealing with ghosts.

"Seriously?" Renn said incredulously with a raised eyebrow and the Hett shrugged and looked away again.

"Probably not… I hope… but a lot of our people are still a bit superstitious so they're too scared to look into it, and me and my farther are too busy with other things which is why we would like your help.

Of course, we are willing to pay… I want to say whatever you want to do the job but we know you are the fearsome bounty hunter the Wraith so that might be outside our current budget but still we'll compensate you to the best of our abilities if you can complete the job."

Renn considered his options and while he hadn't come to Tatooine for work and was currently more interested in making sure Seela and Dia were okay, he had to admit that taking this job could help build and improve the relationship Renn and his burgeoning galactic powerbase had with the Hetts and their own nation.

It might even lead to an alliance between them and the New Aruum commonwealth, plus he'd never seen a haunted ship before and he was quite interested in exploring one.

He looked over at Seela in a silent question about her view. She nodded once and gave Renn a thin smile before going back to fussing over Dia who was asking exited questions about ghosts.

Renn turned back to Hett before nodding in agreement.

"Okay I'll help you out. So, were abouts is this haunted shipwreck."