Chapter 1

Ch. 1

Kestra Verd walked down the ramp of the Ka'rta Tor, a Dynamic-class freighter that had been in her family for a long time. She placed her hands on her hips and looked around Nal Hutta, grimacing when she breathed in the smelly and polluted air. It’s been a week since she had left Mandalore to strike out on her own, she was considered to be adult in her adopted culture and now she wanted to find herself. Kestra wore Mandalorian armor of a primarily black coloration, over a black form-fitting flight suit. In addition to boots, jetpack and a utility belt, Kestra also benefited from her armor's gauntlets, the left of which was equipped with a hologram projector. Both gauntlets housed miniature flamethrowers capable of producing powerful streams of fire, and each was mounted with wrist rocket launchers that fired deadly projectiles. Kestra has a lightsaber clipped to her belt and has said that it was a gift from a Gotab. Kestra doesn’t wear a helmet, since she normally uses it as a melee weapon instead of what is it is actually used for. She carries two blasters holstered on her armor's thigh plates, that she was known to wield with deadly accuracy. Kestra also carries a sniper rifle.
Kestra can sense her pet strill, Jax, standing behind her and without turning around to look at him, she said, “This shouldn’t take long.”
Jax looked like any other strill that could be found on Mandalore, he even drools a lot too...at least she thought Jax was a he, she couldn’t see anything on him that told her what gender he was but Jax felt male to her.
Kestra raised her hood as she began walking down the walk way and as she passed a group of Trandoshans, she saw that they had a male Wookiee and he had a slave collar around his neck, Kestra reacted on instinct towards the sight, she had been taught at birth that slavery is something that cowardly people use when they can’t fight against others. She ran towards then and in a flurry of kicks, punches and spins, they were all on the ground either dazed or out cold. Kestra turned and looked up at the male Wookiee; he was covered with a uniform of mid-length coat of thick hair in various shades of black and gray.
“Are you okay?” Kestra asked him, she really had to crane her neck back in order to look up at him.
He made a sound halfway between a bark and a snarl. “No problem, do you have a name?”
He moaned, shaking his head. “No name, uh? Well, how about Shuk'orok?”
He cocked his head and moaned again. “It means ‘crushgaunt’ in Mando’a; it’s a sort of gauntlet.”
He purred, which meant he liked it so she didn’t need to respond, luckily she can understand Shyriiwook which was one of many languages that Ranek and the others had taught her. Kestra felt a ping of pain when she thought of the handmaidens, she missed them so much but she had to do this, she had to make sure that their dead and not doing anything stupid like going after the traitor.
Kestra looked at her new ‘friend’ and said, “Do you need any credits to go back to Kashyyyk?”
He growled low in his throat. “I see…so I saved your life and you owe me a life debt? Hmm, can you pilot a ship?”
He growled low in his throat again. “Good, though I doubt that even if you couldn’t you’ll come with me anyways, eh?”
He moaned. “Good to know that. Now you can either go to my ship or come with me.”
He made a sound that was half way between a snarl and a moan. “Fine, but please try not to rip people’s arms off.”  And with that she turned on her heel and began to walk away, but she didn’t get far before she was nearly plowed over by a Mando’ade in red beskar’gam, luckily Shuk'orok caught her before she made friends with the pavement and by the looks of the pavement, she could that they didn’t clean it…at all.
“Thanks, Shuk'orok.” Kestra said while Shuk’orok purred at her then snarled at the Mando’ade. She could see that Shuk’orok was going to be extremely protective of her, which was okay with her because if she was going to get ran over by crazy Mando’ade then she’s going to need all the help she can get. And she just realized just how much beskar’gam hurt when you weren’t wearing it; she just knew that she was going to have a bruise later.
Surprisingly the Mando’ade understood him because he said, “Look, fuzz ball. I didn’t see her walking there because I was too busy running from my new pals.” And he jerked his thumb over his shoulder at a group of men in weird looking armor that was running towards them. His voice sounded menacing, coming from his helmet's vocoder though Kestra was used to it because she lived on Mandalore and everyone wore their beskar’gam, which reminded her of her own beskar’gam that was stashed under her bunk. Kestra sighed and shook her head, this day just kept getting better and better she almost couldn’t yet to see what tomorrow would bring her.
“Fierfeks, what is it ‘debts day’ and no one even bothered to tell me?” Kestra said as she pulled out her personalized BlasTech LL-30 blaster pistols and started firing.  She looks at the Wookiee and the Mando’ade over her shoulder and shouted “Go! Run to hangar A-10”
Both Wookiee and Mando’ade turned and ran off as Kestra fired a few shots then spun around and ran after them, she pulled out her comlink and said, “HK-28! There’s been a change of plans! Prep Huntress for quick evac!”
“Response: Yes, Master,” said the cold metallic voice of her HK-series assassin droid, HK-28. He and two other droids, T3-M7, a T3-series utility droid and 3C-CD, a 3C-series utility droid were the only three non-organic things on Ka'rta Tor. And like the Ka'rta Tor had been in the family for a very long time.  
“Go to the Dynamic-class freighter! Shift it, people!” Kestra shouted as she turns around and fires a few potshots at the pursing group. Then she ran up the ramp hot on the heels of the other two.
“Outta my way!” Kestra said as she quickly darted past the two and ran to the cockpit and pulled up the steering yokes hard and the ship lifted up and shot out of Nal Hutta. Shuk’orok sat down in copilot seat as the Mando’ade sat in the navigator seat. Kestra pulled up the galaxy map then typed in ‘Tatooine’ then pushed another button to go into hyperspace. And as the ship got ready to make the jump to hyperspace, she looked over her shoulder at the Mando’ade and asked, “You got a name or am I going to have to name you too.”
“Nope, my name is Ge'tal Gra'tua.” He said as he took off his helmet, she inclines her head towards him then turns around. She didn’t bother to give him a closer look but she did see that he had tribal tattoos on his forehead and most likely had them on the rest of his body, though she would get a better look after they jump into hyperspace. As for right now thought, she had to get out of Hutt space ASAP then she’ll ask Ge’tal just why he was being chased by what was clearly bodyguards that belonged to a Hutt, not that she was going to send him back and nor did she care, but if it will help to know why and if she wanted him to become a member of her crew.
“My name is Kestra Verd; we’ll discuss pleasantries after we make the jump into hyperspace.” Kestra said, as the Ka'rta Tor made the jump into hyperspace. Once they did, she spun around in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest and said, “So why were you being chased by a Hutt’s bodyguard?”
Ge’tal sighed and said, “I apparently insulted the Hutt.”
Kestra cocked an eyebrow and asked, “Which Hutt? Jabba?”
“No, Jobo the Hutt.” He said, with a light chuckle. Kestra heard about Jobo the Hutt, who was very well known for taking everything as an insult, you even looked at him funny he’ll take it as an insult. Kestra sighed and asked, “So are you any good at fixing ships then you are at insulting a Hutt?”
She didn’t need to ask him how he insulted Jobo the Hutt, if the stories the Ori had told her were true then it was probably something very stupid. Ge’tal looked at her and said, “Yes, why?”
“Well, I have a copilot now,” she said, jerking her thumb towards Shuk’orok, “and all I need now is a mechanic. I can fix anything just fine but I can’t be piloting and fixing whatever is broken at the same time so I need a mechanic which leads me to another question...are you willing to stay aboard and become my mechanic?”
“Exactly what are you going to be doing? So I can know what I am getting myself into before I agree.” Ge’tal said, leaning back in his chair. Kestra shrugged and said, “Sure, I am going to be Bounty Hunter hence why there were force cages in the hull and the ships name the Ka'rta Tor.”
Ge’tal nods then says, “What the hell, I got nothing better to do so I’ll become your mechanic.”
Now that she got a better look of him, she saw that he wasn’t any older than she was by probably a few years, and he had black hair, which is rather messy and spiked up and green eyes. Kestra held out her hand and said, “Then welcome aboard the Ka'rta Tor. You already met my new copilot, Shuk’orok who I had just hired as well and soon you’ll meet my three droids who should be powering down for right now.”
Ge’tal stood up and stretched saying, “Alright, is there anywhere I can sleep at?”
Kestra turns her seat around and said, “Sure, pick any room that isn’t locked.”
Ge’tal beings to leave but stops and says, “Thanks for helping me out back there at Nal Hutta.”
“No problem but you better pay me back by keeping Ka'rta Tor in tip top shape otherwise I’m going to dump your sorry shebs on Tatooine.” Kestra said with a smirk at him. Ge’tal laughed at that and walked out of the cockpit, Kestra looked at Shuk’orok and said, “You should get some sleep as well, Shuk’orok. I’ll take care of everything here.”
Shuk’orok growled. “I’ll be fine! Go on, get some sleep.”
Shuk’orok stood up and walked out of the cockpit and as soon his footsteps could no longer be heard, Kestra sighs and pats Jax, saying, “What a day this has been, Jax ol’ boy.”
She stands up and stretches, Jax stands up as well and stretches, yawning hugely, “No kidding, let’s go to sleep we both need it after the day we had.” Kestra walks out of the cockpit and heads towards her cabin, she could hear her two newest additions moving around somewhere on the ship but felt that they would need sometime alone to get used to their new life so she would leave them be for now.  So for right now she was going to get some much needed sleep and the alarm would alert her when the ship was about to leave hyperspace.