War On Falling Stars

"M-Master? You're, you're gonna enslave me?!" this prompted a whole new wave of tears and banal babbling.

Heaving a breath, I shot a glare down at the girl. "No. I have no interest in you as either product or stress relief. I am not a barbarian."

"Wh- then, then, what're you...?" She was curling up. Pathetic, but understandable. The loneliness and fear I felt from her was palpable.

"I want to teach you how to survive," Standing, I kept my hand outstretched. "In exchange, I ask only for information."

"I-I-I don't know anything though..." Emica said, hesitantly reaching for my hand.

"We will see. Now, do you accept, or will you continue to keep your hand shaking midair like a crochety elder?" I barked.

"Eep! Uhm, yes! Yes!" Clasping my hand tightly, I pulled her to her feet and nodded.

"Good. Now," Turning around, I kept a firm grip on her hand as I began to walk out of the alley, grabbing the crystal as well with one arm. It made for a conspicuous scene, but with the size I am, could be explained as just the natural strength of a hardy alien race. I was close in height to a Wookie at current, that would have to be sufficient. "Stay close. The closer you are, the easier it will be to keep you safe once we return to that shop you stole from."

"Hieh?! Why are we going there?!" she screeched, yanking on my arm.

"You are going to apologize, and I am going to pay your fine," I explained. "Otherwise, her reputation will fall, and she will deal with more than just thieves of your caliber."

"I-I can't-" There was a pause. "You...you're paying my fine? Why?"

"You are my student now, are you not? As such, I am responsible for any poor judgements you make, such as this," I replied as we stepped out into the sunbathed streets proper.

"Guh!" She flinched. Literally flinched as she made that noise.

Slowly, I turned my head to look at her, ignoring the crowd of onlookers and their murmurings around us. "Did you just 'guh' out of reaction to that?"

The girl known as Emica Hiroto shrunk in on herself. "M-M-Maybe...?"

I cannot believe this. She may as well BE an anime protagonist if she reacts in such overly dramatic ways. Feeling a twitch upon my brow, I slowly turned my gaze from her increasingly embarrassed visage and began to once again pull her along.

"Wh-Why aren't you saying anything?!"

"Cease your stuttering," I snapped. "You are my student now. My students do not stutter or babble like prepubescent school children."

"Nng!" Another flinch and noise. Another twitch of my brow as I struggled to keep my emotions in check.

"Neither do they react so dramatically to every reprimand," I hissed between clenched teeth.

"Wh-but-!"

"Be. Silent," I snapped.

"Mmph~!" she whined with pursed lips.

My eyes trained upon our destination, yet my mind could think only one thing; 'I hate adolescents.'

"Is she uh...she gonna keep blubbering?" Brighteye asked, looking to me, then the sorry excuse on her knees before her, wailing and making a sobbing puddle of herself on the floor. Brighteye rubbed the back of her neck. "I mean, you already paid for her, and she's apologized 20 times now..."

"B-Buh I stol frum yooooo!"

"Yes," I replied. "And you apologized. She accepted. The first time."

"B-Buh-!"

"Hiroto."

Squeaking, the girl swiftly extricated herself from Brighteye's leg and crawled over to myself.

"...Kindly pull yourself up. You look a fool."

"Ah!" She shot to her feet, but swiftly clung onto me.

"..." Exhaling deeply, I looked to Brighteye. "I take it the matter is settled now?"

Brighteye snorted and nodded. "Do you even need to ask, Shaper?" She hefted the bag of credits I'd given her. "Trust me, we're square."

"Good," I nodded, and after pulling the girl off of me, I walked towards Brighteye's storeroom. "Then I'll be taking what I initially paid for."

"Wh- You can't just-!" Brighteye sighed as I brushed past her and into the storage room, already searching for the other crystal I needed.

"I'll be using your repuslorlift," I called back as I took one crystal in the grasp of the Force and moved it over to the repulsorlift's container. Satisfied, I guided it out of the storeroom and back to the storefront, where the crystal the girl tried to steal awaited.

After securing it with it's companion, I turned my head to address my new student and Brighteye as they emerged from the store.

"I'm uhm...sorry I dislocated your arm..."

"Just stop already, kid. Apologies are done, it's behind us," Brighteye waved it off, but set the girl with a glare all the same. "Just remember us feathered folk feel a lot more pain when you do that, alright?"

"R-Right!" Emica nodded shakily.

Brighteye smiled, patting her head. "Then we're square." Looking to me, she added, "Now get outta here, both of you, before the other creeps show up!"

"As if your charm didn't scare them enough," I returned, eliciting a squawk of laughter from the shopkeep. Shaking my head, I turned fully to address them. "Come now, girl. Don't dawdle."

"Y-Yes!" She replied, hurrying over. Nodding, I turned back to the repulsorlift and set it to follow us as we walked.

"Take care you two! Don't get that kid shot, you hear?!" Brighteye called out.

I snorted under my breath. "Old hen."

After we had secured the rest of the necessities on my list that I'd been forced to neglect, we arrived at the landing pad for my ship and found a fresh slew of reprobates waiting around it's hull. I glanced around, spotting the corpse of the Mirialan near them, riddled with Blaster burns and holes.

I sighed. "I suppose paying for just one guard was foolish of me."

"Oi, you, tin can!" cried one of the reprobates.

I looked to find a Theelin man brandishing an elaborately carved trimantium blaster, the green of the metal gleaming in the light of the sunset, a similarly elaborate cloak wrapped about his shoulders and upper torso. He was lightly armored, but I recognized the sheen of ciridium plating protecting his vitals.

His mottled green skin blended with his chosen armor, as it's design did his facial horns. I rolled my eyes behind my helm. Typical Theelin.

"I can just about guess that you don't have many brain cells to toss around that bucket of a head you have, so I'll spell it out for ya," the Theelin tapped his blaster against his shoulder, grinning like a man who'd already won. "You parked in my territory, so as compensation, I'll need you to hand over the codes to your ship." The six pirates behind him all aimed their weapons at me at his words. "Ya read me?"

"No," I replied, drawing my blaster and casually loading the lower barrel with red-tipped rounds from my utility belt.

The Theelin snickered. "Ah, that's too bad. But I'm sure your corpse will provide some good compensation itself. Same for that little runt behind ya." His men jeered at this, Emica whimpering as she hid behind me.

"As will yours," I replied, grabbing a 'grenade' from my hip and tossing it their way.

As they scattered and took cover, I took aim. The first few rounds punctured what they did not protect; knees, shins, arms, shoulders. Their ensuing confusion at the grenade's lack of exploding allowed me to fire off more shots, rendering the Theelin with only himself and six guards with pulped heads.

Growling, he took aim at myself and fired. The bolt merely bounced off the silvery songsteel plating as I recoiled slightly from the force. Raising my blaster, I returned the gesture in kind with a practiced flick of the striker followed by a flick that sent the magnetic inductors alight, firing off a bolt that seared through his armorless head.

Gazing briefly at the array of corpses before me, I grunt before pushing on towards my ship. "Gather up their belongings, then board the ship." I told the girl.

"Wh- But-!" she sputtered.

"What did I say about stuttering and sputtering, girl?" I queried, shooting a cool glance over my shoulder. Sensing her shock and hesitance, I narrowed my eyes behind my visor. "Forget those fools. They threw their lives away for money and debauchery. They do not deserve to be afforded your pity or mercy."

"But..." She looked uncertainly at the corpses as the repulsorlift hovered past her.

"They would have enslaved you, girl. Used you as a plaything. Amusement. Property," After punching in the codes to my ship, the bay door opened and I turned to face the girl. "Afford them nothing. It is survival of the fittest here, and their equipment will serve you better than it will their corpses."

She continued to look disgusted at the idea, hands held up before her chest in uncertainty. Fixing her with a glare, I shook my head and turned to enter my ship. "Pick up the pace, girl. I do not have all day." Even as I said that, I could not deny I understood her dilemma.

But the woman who once shied away from robbing the dead had died long ago, in the cruel lands of Nathema, and the poison of survival.

I didn't have anywhere else to go.

That's what I ended up with, when I tried to think of a way out of robbing those people's corpses. I didn't want to lose my chance at a home, and I didn't want to make the man in armor angry. So I did as he said.

Lowering the chestplate of that gangleader into the crate, I looked up at the person in question. Normally I would have been ecstatic at everything I was seeing, at being in an honest to Ancestors spaceship, but the shame I felt at robbing another person's corpse was hard to ignore.

"Good. Now, come," my... I wasn't sure what to call them at this point. Teacher, I guess. That's what they said they would be.

I followed them all the same as they showed me how the ship worked, what not to touch, what I'd be helping with, the various rooms...

"This is where you will sleep. I do not have any other quarters, so make do. I will as well," they said as they gestured to a single bedroom marked with a blue teardrop.

My blood ran cold at the sight. It was obviously their room. And they obviously expected me to sleep with them-

"I will sleep on the bridge. If you are in need of rest, then take it. I will chart our next destination in the meantime," I could only stare at their back as they walked away.

"Y...you're giving me your room...?"

They stopped, before sighing and grabbing their helmet, pulling it off as they turned around. My eyes widened as they revealed a face similar to mine. Brown fur, a silver right eye and an icy blue left eye, the patterns, muzzle and ears of a Tanuk native...and a very feminine shape.

"I am a woman, girl. I have no interest in using you for pleasure nor for monetary gain. How many times must I say it?" she asked, an exasperated look crossing her features as she moved a strand of purple hair from her eyes.

"EEEEEEHHHHHHHHH?!?!?"