Chapter 62: Drifting Shadows

Disclaimer: Star Wars and all of it's Intellectual Properties is owned by George Lucas and Walt Disney, This fictional work and all of it's original characters are however mine.

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Jake's P.O.V. :

I had already sent Nick-01 and Nick-02 outside into the void, the cold vacuum of space, where they were now maneuvering with precision thanks to the jetpacks I had attached to them earlier. Those packs were still prototypes, but I had confidence in their performance—enough that I didn’t expect the droids to need retrieval assistance. That said, the Skew droids were a different story. Unlike the Nicks, they weren’t sporting thrusters. Instead, I had them sticking to the hull using their newly modified magnetic clamps. Even though I was certain of my upgrades, I wasn’t about to risk losing a Skew droid to the abyss if the magnetism somehow failed. So, I secured a retrieval cable to the backs of Skew-01 and Skew-02, triple-checking the tensile strength and anchor points to make sure the line wouldn’t snap.

From the comms, I caught Rina suggesting to Tarek that he minimize our own emissions. Smart move—I would've suggested the same if I had thought of it first. Cutting down on the ship’s energy signatures would help reduce the "noise" in our scans, making it easier to pick up any anomalies in the surrounding area. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue, not with the kind of advanced scanners on the market, and definitely not with the modifications I had installed on the Stellar Envoy. But with an unknown anomaly in play, it was better to stack the deck in our favor.

From my spot, I heard Tarek and Nick-03 in the cockpit. The pilot was flicking switches and pressing buttons, methodically shifting the ship’s systems into a low-power state. He wasn’t shutting everything down outright—this wasn’t some backrocket freighter that needed full-on power cycling—but from my observation, a lot of our systems were shifting into a standby mode. I smirked; he was getting better at this. Maybe Nick-03 calling him "captain" all the time was starting to make him take the role more seriously.

After ensuring the Skew droids were secure, I sealed the access hatch and set the airlock to depressurize so they could deploy. The Skews' sensor suites weren’t as good as the Nicks', but they were still leagues above the standard droid sensors you’d find in the open market. Every extra pair of optics outside gave us a better chance of spotting whatever was interfering with hyperspace travel in this lane.

Satisfied with my work, I left the airlock behind and headed back to the common area, where Kado, Davik, Mira, and Arlos had stopped playing Sabacc. Now, they were busy checking over their gear, going through their usual routine of field-stripping and calibrating their weapons. It was a sight I was more than familiar with—mercs didn’t leave their blasters to chance, and these guys were no exception.

Figuring they had the right idea, I decided to follow suit. I made my way over to my own kit and started strapping into my combat armor, sealing the plating into place and double-checking that everything was vacuum-rated. No telling if we’d need to step outside, and I wasn’t about to be the idiot caught without proper protection. As I ran through my own checklist, I called out to the others.

“Double-check your suits! I don’t want any of you karking your own seals!”

Davik rolled his eyes but went over his gear again anyway. Mira smirked as she tightened the straps on her blast vest, while Kado and Arlos exchanged glances before nodding in agreement. I was going to check their suits myself anyway, but a reminder never hurt.

With our preparations handled, all that was left was to wait. Out in the void, it was up to Tarek, Rina, Nick-03, and the droids to find whatever was messing with this hyperspace lane. I didn’t like sitting on my hands, I prefer to at least be tinkering with something but for now, that was our best move. If something went sideways, we’d best be ready.

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It probably took me about fifteen minutes checking my gear and running through the others’ equipment in the common area before I decided to head back to the cockpit. If we were going to get into any trouble, I wanted to be sure everyone was properly sealed up. No one was arguing with me about the precaution—not even Davik, who usually grumbled about excess prep work. That alone told me that the strange hyperspace ejections are being taken seriously or it's possible that Davik not grumbling shows that he considers the possibility of getting ejected out of airlock.

By the time I arrived in the cockpit, I caught Tarek and Rina in the middle of discussing the latest scan results. From what I overheard, they were running through every possible lead the droids had gathered so far. Before they could continue, I decided to jump in.

“What’s the latest?” I asked, stepping up to the console where Rina was skimming through the data feeds.

She barely glanced away from the displays as she answered. “Well, good news first—we managed to pick up some ship signatures once we minimized our own emissions. Looks like we weren’t the only ones who got kicked out of hyperspace along this lane.”

That got my attention. I moved in closer to examine the readings. The ships Rina was talking about were cold—lifeless, adrift in the void. They weren’t registering any active power signatures, and from the way they were drifting, they had been left to float for some time.

“Did they send out distress signals?” I asked.

Tarek shook his head. “If they did, nothing’s left of it now. No active comm beacons, no energy readings beyond the residual decay of old systems.”

“That’s strange,” I murmured, narrowing my eyes as I focused on one of the wrecks. The hull design looked unfamiliar, yet oddly reminiscent of a time long past. It wasn’t standard Republic, Trade Federation, or even Mandalorian. I leaned in, running a few quick calculations on the decay rate of the ship’s alloys before something clicked in my mind. “These designs… do they remind you of some museum ships, like old. I’m talking pre-Ruusan Reformation old, maybe even dating back to that era.”

That got Rina’s attention. She frowned. “You’re saying these ships are over a thousand years old?”

I nodded. “The tech suggests as much. And if they’ve been stuck here for that long… that raises the question of why.”

Tarek exhaled sharply and crossed his arms. “Why abandon them? Even if the ships lost power, crews don’t just leave perfectly good hulls drifting in space unless something serious happened.”

The cockpit went silent for a beat as we all considered that implication. I didn’t like the thought of it. Starship graveyards didn’t just happen without a reason, and the fact that there was no immediate evidence of why these ships had been left behind only made it more unsettling.

Rina shook off the grim atmosphere and switched to the next set of scans. “There’s something else. We picked up a cluster of asteroids, but some of them are a lot bigger than expected. We’re talking over two Lucrehulks wide, side by side.”

I raised an eyebrow. That was massive—definitely big enough to house something.

Tarek was already ahead of me. “Cross-referencing with the droids’ visuals. They found something.”

The holo-display updated with an overlay of the scans, pinpointing a structure embedded within one of the largest asteroids. It wasn’t a natural formation. The readings indicated constructed materials, albeit heavily deteriorated by time and space exposure.

“A station?” I guessed.

“Possibly,” Rina admitted. “Mining station is the best bet given the location, but there’s no official record of anything out here. Whoever built this place wanted it off the records or charts.”

Tarek leaned back in his seat, rubbing his chin. “We’re already out here investigating. Might as well take a closer look.”

I smirked. “You’re just looking for an excuse to fly closer to a potential death trap.”

Tarek shot me a grin. “Hey, I got a reputation to maintain.”

Rina rolled her eyes and mumbled "what reputation?" while Tarek started adjusting the Stellar Envoy’s course. “Nick droids are already on their way back. They’re securing themselves to the hull so they can hitch a ride in case we need them.”

I folded my arms and nodded. “Good to hear. The Skew droids are still out there, too. I’ll keep them tethered, but they should be able to hold onto the hull on their own.”

Tarek flipped a few switches, adjusting power distribution to the sublight drives. “Alright, let’s go take a look at possible history.”

Rina sighed. “Let’s try not to become history instead.”

I chuckled, but the uneasy feeling in my gut didn’t fade. Specially with Rina jinxing us again quite recently, but I can't really place the blame on Rina since even without her calling out Murphy shit still hits the fan. Something was out here, abandoned ships and a mysterious structure - I feel like I'm in a horror movie.

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Tarek's P.O.V. :

With the Nick droids latching onto the hull and the Skew droids secured, I kept my hands steady on the yoke, waiting for confirmation that they were locked in place before making any moves. The last thing I needed was to shake them loose with a rough maneuver and have Jake chew me out for losing his walking toolkits to the void.

Jake and Rina were going back and forth behind me, throwing out possibilities about whether salvaging some of the adrift ships would be worth the effort. Some of them looked ancient, and while I wasn’t opposed to picking through some old relics, my priority was getting a closer look at whatever structure was sitting inside that asteroid. Nick-03 was relaying updates over the comms, keeping the rest of the crew in the loop but conveniently leaving out the theories we were tossing around up here. Probably for the best—no sense getting the others wound up over speculation when we didn’t have solid facts yet.

I tapped a few switches on the console, making sure the ship’s turrets were ready to go in case this wasn’t just an abandoned rock. “We’re flying careful, but I want eyes on the guns,” I said.

“On it,” came Davik’s reply, followed by Arlos confirming he’d take the other turret. No complaints, no hesitation. Just like our practice.

I nudged the throttle forward just enough to get us moving, keeping our approach slow and steady. I wasn’t about to jolt the ship forward and risk our droids tumbling off like some rookie handling their first barge. Besides, taking our time gave the scanners more opportunity to dig deeper now that we knew what we were looking for. If this turned out to be more than just some stripped-down mining station, I wanted to know about it before we were knocking on its front door.

As we crept closer, the visuals got clearer. The asteroid wasn’t just some chunk of rock with a prefab station bolted onto its surface—it was more like a shell encasing something much bigger. The initial scans showed that the structure didn’t just sit on top of the asteroid; it extended deep inside. More than likely, this rock had been hollowed out over time, stripped of whatever minerals were worth taking, and then repurposed into a full-scale installation.

“Look at the size of that thing,” Rina muttered, adjusting her readout. “If this was a mining outpost, it must’ve been operational for decades—maybe longer.”

“Long enough that it might not be just a mining outpost anymore,” Jake added. “No signs of active power, no transmissions, no life support signatures… but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing inside.”

I exhaled through my nose, gripping the controls a little tighter. “We’ll get as close as we can without skimming the hull. Nick-03 keep running those scans, and let me know if something starts looking unfriendly.”

I hear Nick-03 respond. "Affirmative captain Tarek".

Rina said this was supposed to be a simple job. Find out what was kicking ships out of hyperspace, maybe salvage some parts, and call it a day. But I get the feeling this is just gonna be a repeat of our previous luck. I did say I was born for adventure - now that I got it, maybe I shouldn't have said that.

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Jake's P.O.V. :

When we got a bit closer, I held up a hand and told Tarek to hold off on pushing the Stellar Envoy in further. "Let the Nicks check it out first," I said, already keying into the comms to issue orders.

Rina turned in her seat, giving me a questioning look. "What are you planning?"

"Last time we checked out an old station, we made a straight beeline for the first entrance we saw. In hindsight, we got lucky—real lucky," I said, crossing my arms. "What if there had been more surprises? This time, I want a proper sweep of the exterior before we go rushing in."

Rina's expression twisted slightly, like she was having trouble reconciling something. "You realize that kind of caution usually comes from Kado or Mira, right?"

I raised a brow. "What’s that supposed to mean?"

She smirked. "I mean, Davik doesn't count—he's only ‘cautious’ when it comes to where to aim his blaster."

I huffed out a laugh. "You better hope he doesn’t hear you say that."

Meanwhile, Tarek kept an eye on the Nick droids’ progress, their maneuvering thrusters flaring as they drifted ahead, scanning every meter of rock and durasteel plating they came across.

Nick-03’s voice came through the cockpit speakers. "Captains, Nick-01 and Nick-02 have identified four hangar bays positioned along two distinct axes. Additionally, multiple boarding pods detected. Estimated quantity: between six and twelve, scattered across the exterior."

I turned to Rina, shooting her a smug grin. "See? We wouldn’t have known that if we didn’t investigate first."

Without missing a beat, Rina kicked me in the shin. "Don’t look so pleased with yourself."

She leaned forward, fingers flying across her console as she toggled comms. "Nick droids, can you confirm if there’s any visible danger? Is it safe to approach and dock?"

The reply came promptly. "No observable threats. Hangar bay access appears functional. Recommend proceeding with caution."

Tarek glanced my way. "Well? Do we move in?"

I exhaled, drumming my fingers against my arm. "Let’s not get complacent just ‘cause we haven’t spotted anything yet."

Still, I muttered under my breath, half-hoping the others wouldn’t hear me. "For once, I’d like a job to be simple—get in, find the cause of the hyperspace anomaly, and get out."

A second later, a warning beep chirped from the sensors.

I should’ve known better.