Forum Thread

Ey welcome to my newest fanfic! Fragments is a story that will take place within the rule of the Galactic Empire, following a crew entirely made up of OC's. The goal for this fanfiction is simple. I want to create an appealing story with a colorful cast of characters made entirely by me. I hope you all can be as invested in these characters as I have become. Anyways, this first post may go through some changes as I find time to add BBcode and such and create a better layout but for now this is it.

Also please dont post here. If you wish to say something you can PP or PM me I guess.

Character List:
Aten, a 25 year old human male and the protagonist. He can typically be found fixing anything that might need repairs, which is somewhat often.
Vex is the captain of the Quadrant, she's a 37 year old half-Mirailan. She mostly pilots the ship as she's probably the most qualified to do so (but that isn't saying much).
Carissa is a 27 year old human. She often maintains the ship's cargo and is quick to lighten the atmosphere.
Vricollei is a 47 year old Devaronian who goes by the name Trigger. When he isn't being a grump he typically handles the heavy lifting.

Word Count for each chapter
1. 1,088 words
2. 1,160 words

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Aten grumbled as he slung his blaster off of his back, opening a panel from the ship's flooring and placing the weapon inside. Slamming it back down he got back up on his feet, dashing down the hall to the cargo hold.

"12 years the Empire's been in rule and you still can't figure out how to avoid getting us in trouble!" Aten hissed as he passed a rather peeved half-mirialan woman.

"Yell at me all you'd like, just get that cargo hidden!" Vex snapped in response before pounding on a closed door. "And where, stars tell, is Trigger!"

"Probably sleeping, much like I was trying to do! Besides, it's probably better if he stays hidden. The Imps never take to kindly to him anyways." A feminine voice piped up, lightly startling Aten. "What, you thought I'd be slacking as well?"

Aten turned to face Carissa, giving her an unimpressed look. She chuckled and held up her hands before returning to rifling through a box. Aten turned to his own materials, picking up a few bags and shoving them into Vex's hands as she collected the contraband materials to hide.

"What flagged us this time?" Aten questioned the remaining sentient in the hold.

"Not sure. Far as I know no scan was performed."

Asten shook his head. "You hid the spices yet? Those're the worst thing we're holding."

"What do you take me for, an idiot?"

He hid a small chuckle at Carissa's response, sliding the top of the box back in place as he finished unloading the more illegal items. While they hadn't been able to learn to avoid Imperial interception they had at least learned the more efficient ways to hide their questionable cargo.

Within a few minutes Vex returned from hiding the last load, just in time to watch as Imperials boarded the ship. Aten shifted in discomfort as he noticed something different about this search. Normally a group of about three low ranking officers would search their cargo followed by two stormtroopers. However, white now dominated his vision. A single officer stood at the head, their eyes landing on Aten.

"State your business here on Kijimi." The officer droned, her tone leaving no room for argument.

Aten glanced at Vex, his fists clenched tight. He turned his gaze back to the officer, his response just as firm. "You'll have to ask my Captain."

The Imperial narrowed her eyes as she followed his gaze to Vex, he could practically taste her disgust as a sour taste filled his mouth. This could go two ways, and more often than not it never went well.

"We're just here to drop off some supplies, rest for a bit and leave." The half-mirailan answered, her tone clipped.

"Very well. Hand over your ship's manifests and pray it all lines up with what we may find on your ship." Came the officer's cold reply, venom seeping through her voice.

That certainly wasn't normal protocol as far as Aten was aware. He hissed as a stormtrooper pushed past him, stumbling back a few steps. It could only be hoped they would stay in the cargo bay. While they hadn't hid anything in plain sight it couldn't be assumed they would leave everything as it was. Trigger also wouldn't take too kindly to the Imperials if they barged into his room.

Disgruntled he turned to Vex, seeing her hand over the ship's manifest. Carissa was typically the one maintaining the logs, making sure everything was logical and there were no… inconsistencies. Truthfully he wasn't quite sure what to do with the Imperials searching the ship, so he supposed he would wait for further demands from the officer. Dropping himself on a box he laid his head in his hands, shutting his eyes. A faint hum buzzed in his head, though he had already become familiar with the sound over the years.

Aten had found that often he could lose track of time whenever he paid too much attention to the sound, and he didn't need that now. Opening his eyes he cast his haze over towards Carissa, who had seated herself next to him. Spotting a rather tall merlot colored being, Aten held back a groan. It appeared as though the Imperials had, indeed, awoken the grumpy Davaronian. Trigger was standing with his arms crossed, a clear displeased look on his face. A poor stormtrooper stood on guard of the horned man, though it certainly seemed the other way around as Trigger held at least two feet over the white armored trooper.

Three more troopers finally emerged from the halls, giving what Aten assumed was an all clear as the Imperials quickly left their ship.

"What the kriff was that about?" Trigger growled, ever as eloquent. "Never in 12 years have we been searched like that!"

"Clue me if I know!" Vex said, throwing up her hands and marching towards the cockpit. Trigger mimicked the motion, his every motion dripping with sarcasm as he stomped back into his room and shut the door, leaving Carissa and Aten.

Turning to his fellow human, Aten pointed towards the hall. "Gonna get my blaster now."

She snorted as he turned towards the hall. "Man, you really are attached to that thing."

"Course I am, I assembled it piece by piece using only the finest of materials. For years my portion of the pay went into it, it's like my child." Aten responded, splaying a hand on his chest in a dramatic fashion before retracing his previous steps to retrieve his gun.

Prying off a section of the metal flooring he picked up his blaster, working around the spices that had been stored alongside it. He grumbled as he closed it back up once more. He could only hope it's packaging was secure, he didn't want to spend hours cleaning off his blaster just so it didn't blow up in his face. Slinging his weapon onto his back he grabbed hold of the ladder, quickly climbing up and opening the door to his room. They had roughly an hour or two until they arrived at the surface of Kijimi, and he planned to follow Trigger's example and take what sleep he can get.

Sliding his blaster under the bed, Aten placed himself down on his bed, shutting his eyes as he laid against the firm surface. The gentle and familiar hum once more entered his mind, carrying him to a steady sleep.

"You have to go, I'm̶̡̂ ̵̠͕̤̬͌̏̄͘n̸̹̩̅̕ơ̸̫̰̋̌̿t̵̪̓̓̾ ̷̲̦̑̋̎̏ĝ̵̠͛̈́̚ö̴͉̮̖́ȉ̸̼ṇ̵̯̤̲̼̎̂g̴̢͙͚͓̥͕̬̯͎̳̭͕̯͘͘ͅ ̵̟̳̳̅̇͒̌͒̇̔̇t̴̰͌͑̀̑̒̇̅̎͆̕ỏ̶̡̦̳̪̤̂́̽ ̴̨̢̨͍͚͙̹̳̲͎̻̏̑̏̅̐́̔̄͛m̸̧͓̹̤͍͖͙̚ȧ̴̫̻͍̩͇̑̀͠k̶̛̤̗̭̄̇̏̋̏̕͜ȩ̸̡͈̬̱̘͕͔̍̒̎͌̏͑̄

"Aten. Aten. Son of a mudscuffer. ATEN!"

Aten's eyes shot open with a gasp as he was dropped on the floor, staring dazedly at the Devaronian. He scowled as he got up on his feet, his back slightly aching. "The kriff was that for?"

"Ya weren't waking up." Trigger grumbled, not at all intimidated by the being sitting a head and a half shorter than him.

"Okay, but did you have to drop me?"

Trigger laughed, leaving the room in lieu of a verbal answer. Aten sighed, slipping out after him. Fractious as the merlot colored sentient was, the crew knew he meant well. Didn't mean Aten wouldn't call him out for being a flame-brain.

Vex was quick to greet him, shoving a handful of various tools into his hands and grabbing his arm. She wordlessly dragged him through the halls of the ship before sitting him down next to one of the maintenance hatches. Aten quirked an eyebrow in her direction, finally speaking. "Mind telling me what's up?"

"Accidentally entered the atmosphere too quickly. The outer plating is going to be messed up and some wires are going to be fried for sure." The half-Mirailan woman answered with a small grunt. "R3 is still out of commission, but I don't wanna waste any time fixing the ship. Pretty sure I used parts of the droid to fix the alarm systems."

Aten fought back a wince as Vex almost violently starting ripping the droid parts out of the console, alarms immediately blaring. He could only hope she had told the others what she was doing. The older woman didn’t even flinch as the sharp trills ran off, pausing only for a moment to reach back and grab a small chip. With a single jerk of her hand, the wires disconnected from the metal in her hand and the alarms ceased their cries. Vex tossed the chip behind her, removing one last circuit board before gathering her small pile of electronics and quickly walking towards the small storage closet. Aten followed behind, stepping aside the mess made by his captain.

Rounding the corner, he watched as Vex dropped the still frame of R3 onto the floor of the ship, a loud clang echoing out through the halls. She then dropped her handful of wires and various components into Aten’s hands and disappeared around the corner. Shaking his head, Aten sat the droid up on its legs and started reassembling the droid. For the most part it wasn’t too difficult, stray wires poking out hinting where something was taken, a small compartment capable of only fitting a certain item. The rest Aten just made a quick, educated guess based on the rest of the droids circuiting. Once he had placed the translucent dome back atop the droid's head, the blue and red lights flashed to life with a loud chirrup. It rolled forward before a sudden pull from gravity knocked Aten off balance and set the astromech rolling. Once the droid’s tread had caught it began its journey to the cockpit with a frustrated warble.

Aten pushed himself up on his feet, stumbling once more as the ship jostled once again. All their cargo would be obliterated if things kept going on like this. Luckily the ship came into contact with the landing platform within seconds of Aten’s worrying. Unluckily he found himself on the floor of the ship once more.

❖⏣❖
Aten quickly found a strong hatred for Kijimi, and they’d only been on the planet for 10 minutes. He pressed his teeth together, determined to stop his shivering as they traversed the frozen streets of Kajimi, if one could even call it that. It was more of a path really, marked only by the firmly packed snow covered in footprints. Aten wasn’t the only one frustrated with their situation however. Carissa’s hands were gripped tightly around her hands with furrowed eyebrows while Trigger glared at every sentient being that passed by. Vex was the only one who seemed fine to voice their feelings.

“He’s late. We were supposed to meet here 15 minutes ago.” The half-Mirialan woman grumbled, pacing back and forth. Aten held back a comment that they too had also been late to the meeting by about five minutes. “Who does he think he is, making us wait out here in the cold.”

“Oh whatever. At least you're more used to the cold than us.” Trigger said with a small growl. A small puff of air escaped the Devaronian’s mouth as he spoke, distantly reminding Aten of a myth he had once heard, though the details had long escaped him it didn’t stop a quiet chuckle from escaping him. Instantly the horned man was looming over him, eyes narrowed. “Wha’s so funny?”

“Nothing, nothing!” Aten hastily said, waving his hands in front of him. Carissa gave him a look, and instantly he found himself breaking into laughter once more. He tried to collect himself before speaking, holding a hand over his mouth to control his breaths. “He looked like a Duinogwuin!”

Trigger looked lost at the word, his face molding into one of confusion while Carissa and Vex joined Aten in holding back their laughter. Carissa looked close to tears, and when Trigger quickly demanded another explanation she began howling in laughter, clutching at her stomach. The crew tried to explain the creature to their older crewmate, but every few minutes they found themselves snickering.

“I hate to interrupt this… conversation.” A voice spoke, drawing the attention of Vex and Carissa. The half-Mirialan woman broke Aten and Trigger out of the conversation, the smiles sliding off their faces as they looked over at the one addressing them. A man wrapped in furs stood in front of them, his hands wrapped over his chest as he looked over each member of the crew before his gaze stuck on the crate behind them. “I assume these are the spices?”

“Yep. You Darro?” Vex replied, placing a hand over the crate. The man nodded, holding out a medium sized bag, and Carissa stepped forward, taking it in her hands. She slipped open the bag, mumbling out incoherent words as she counted the credits inside before nodding to Vex. The crate of spices was wordlessly handed over to the man, which he took.

“All seems to be in order.” Darro said. Aten’s eyes flickered over to the corner of a building, watching as two Weequays stepped out into the path to help transport the spice. “I trust you’ll keep quiet about this?”

“Only as long as you are.” Vex spoke, her foot crunching in the dirt as she readjusted her stance, taking the bag of credits from Carissa. With those words the exchange ended, and soon the crew found themselves standing alone in the street. Trigger quickly straightened up, pressing his hands against his back as a few quiet pops filled the silence.

“Well. I’d say that went pretty well.”