> 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.

----------------------------------------

MULTI POV CHAPTER

Rina's P.O.V. :

I continued reading the decrypted data logs, occasionally sparing a glare at Jake. I couldn't help it. The nerve of him fiddling with the pedestal like that! Although, in hindsight, I had done the exact same thing with the first pedestal. Hypocritical? Absolutely. But back then, we didn’t have cloaked assassin droids trying to kill us.

Who am I kidding? I’m not mad because of the danger—it’s because Jake beat me to it. That realization soured my mood even further, but I shoved it aside and focused on the logs.

The entries revealed more than I’d hoped to find, piecing together the story behind this Vault. And what a story it was.

This wasn’t the “treasure-kind” of vault. Despite the shiny trinkets we hauled out of the upper levels, those were just distractions. A decoy. The real purpose of this place was far more ominous.

It was a prison.

The pedestal in front of us wasn’t some grand control panel or repository for secrets. No, it was a door knob—literally the key to opening the prison. The IG droids we’d fought weren’t just here to protect valuable artifacts; they were prison guards, tasked with ensuring that whatever was locked away stayed locked away.

I felt my breath catch as I absorbed this revelation, my mind racing through the implications. The Jedi and the Senate of the Old Republic had gone to extraordinary lengths to secure this place. That begged the question: What was so dangerous that it required an entire facility to contain it?

By the time I realized I was holding my breath, I was lightheaded. I exhaled sharply, shaking myself out of my trance, and turned toward the pedestal.

"Jake, don't touch anything—"

The words died in my throat.

Jake wasn’t alone. Kado, Mira, and Davik were standing by the pedestal as well, all of them looking at it with various degrees of curiosity. Gears were moving, and the faint sound of mechanisms unlocking filled the room.

"No, no, no, no!" I muttered under my breath, panic rising.

It was too late.

Belatedly, I noticed Arlos standing beside me, a quiet sentinel. I hadn’t even registered his presence until now. He was positioned like a bodyguard, keeping an eye on me while the others unwittingly unleashed whatever nightmare the Vault was built to contain.

I glanced back at the pedestal. The metaphorical lock had been turned, and the process of opening—whatever it was—had begun.

"Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?" I snapped, my voice breaking the tense silence.

Jake turned to me, his face a mix of guilt and defensiveness. “I thought—”

“That’s the problem! You thought!”

The sound of gears grinding grew louder, accompanied by a deep, echoing thud from somewhere beneath our feet. The pedestal’s lockbox began to retract, its panels sliding back to reveal something hidden inside.

I clenched my fists, dread pooling in my stomach. Whatever was in that Vault wasn’t meant to see the light of day—and now it was waking up.

----------------------------------------

Jake's P.O.V. :

Rina’s glare is something else. Seriously, it’s like a vibroblade to the chest—sharp, precise, and utterly unforgiving. I’m pretty sure I’ll find a scar from that look later.

Thankfully, she seemed to be done trying to kill me with her eyes and had gone back to reading whatever was on that viewing monitor by the data panel. I took that as a cue to turn my attention elsewhere.

When I saw Kado, Mira, and Davik approaching, I waved them over with the kind of excitement I probably shouldn’t have considering our situation. “Hey, check this out!” I said, gesturing at the pedestal.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Kado leaned in first, squinting at the mechanism. “Another lift? You think it goes even deeper?”

Davik murmured from behind him, “If it does, I bet there’s more of those invisible droids waiting. Probably not just IG models, either.” His tone was grim, and I could tell the idea of anything deadlier than what we’d already fought wasn’t sitting well with him. Honestly, same.

Mira tilted her head, studying the pedestal. “So, what do we know about this one?”

“Not much,” I admitted, shrugging. “Could be a lift, like Kado said. Or maybe something else entirely. I mean, the one upstairs revealed the key, so who knows what this one does? Guess we’ll find out soon.”

Kado nodded thoughtfully and then glanced over at Rina. “Looks like she’s done slicing into it, though. Probably decrypting whatever info she pulled. So...” He turned to me, raising an eyebrow. “Go ahead. Let’s see what happens.”

And that was all the permission I needed.

I pressed the activation panel on the pedestal, a bit of a grin tugging at the corner of my lips. Mechanisms inside whirred to life, gears grinding as the pedestal began its process. It was fascinating to watch, the way the parts moved with such precision and purpose.

Then it happened.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

The yell startled all of us so much that we practically jumped out of our skins.

We turned in unison to see Rina standing by the data panel, her face red with fury. She was livid, and her sharp voice echoed in the cavern, cutting through the sound of the pedestal’s gears like a thermal detonator in a quiet room.

“Oh, great,” I muttered under my breath, already bracing myself. This was going to hurt more than her glare, wasn’t it?

----------------------------------------

Jake's P.O.V. :

“Rina, I get that you can get mad, but did it not occur to you that I wouldn’t have done this without the others giving me the go-ahead?” I waved a hand toward the others, my voice dripping with a mix of frustration and defensiveness. “We all agreed it’s the same system as the one upstairs. All I did was push the button! And besides, you were busy with your reading—how was I supposed to know this would set you off?”

The pedestal shook violently, just like the lift mechanism we’d seen earlier, backing up my argument. I gestured at it, as if saying, See? It’s exactly what we expected.

Rina took a deep breath, clearly reigning in her temper. Then, to my surprise, she apologized. A sincere apology, no less.

“Sorry,” she said, her tone more composed now. “I got agitated because this isn’t just some random storage vault, Jake. This place is a prison.”

“A prison?” I repeated, the word tasting bitter in my mouth.

“Yes, and those IG assassin droids we fought? They were the guards—guards, Jake!” She emphasized the word as if it would help it sink into my thick skull.

That got my attention. Guards, not scavenged relics or some overzealous security detail. Actual prison guards. My mind raced, trying to piece together the implications.

“The Old Republic Senate and Jedi ordered something locked in here,” she continued. “This was pre-Ruusan Reformation, so we’re talking about the kind of stuff they didn’t want anyone to find. And since the guards were still active...whatever’s in here probably is too.”

Chills ran down my spine. “Wait, wait, wait,” I stammered. “You’re telling me there’s something in here so dangerous the Old Republic and the Jedi locked it up with assassin droids? And you couldn’t have told me this before I hit the button?”

“Jake, I was reading! You saw me!” Rina snapped back.

“Well, you should’ve tackled me or something!” I shot back.

Our escalating argument was cut short by Kado’s firm voice. “Enough, both of you,” he said, stepping between us. “Jake, don’t blame yourself. This was a majority vote. We all agreed to activate the pedestal.”

I grumbled under my breath but let it go. Rina gave me a look, and I could tell she wanted to say more, but then the shaking stopped.

The sound that followed was hauntingly familiar. It was the same low grinding noise we’d heard when the lift upstairs activated. My stomach dropped.

“Something’s coming,” I muttered.

Davik was already in motion, his instincts kicking in before the rest of us could process what was happening. He barked orders with the precision of someone who’d survived too many ambushes.

“Take cover! Surround the exit!” he commanded, pointing to the pedestal area where the sound was loudest.

We divided into three groups. Kado brought Mira to a position east of the pedestal with the most cover, likely setting up to act as our snipers. Davik took Nick-01 and Nick-02 with him, forming another group to the west, flanking the suspected exit. That left Rina and me awkwardly stuck together.

As we crouched behind a jagged outcropping of rock, I tried to apologize for earlier, but the words caught in my throat. At the same time, Rina tried to apologize as well, and we both ended up stammering over each other like a couple of idiots.

This was embarrassing. The kind of awkward that makes you want to dig a hole and bury yourself in it.

Rina smirked, breaking the tension, and extended her fist toward me. A fist bump. I hesitated for a split second before bumping it, relieved to feel the tension dissolve.

“So,” I asked, trying to move past the awkwardness, “does that file you decrypted say anything about what’s locked up in here?”

Rina nodded grimly. “An experimental droid,” she said. “Its core is powered by a kyber crystal, and its chassis is made of blaster-resistant metal. It’s heavily armed but slow, and its weapons can’t fire continuously.”

A lump formed in my throat. “You’re kidding me,” I said weakly.

“Nope,” she replied, her voice clipped.

The grinding sound grew louder, followed by a metallic clang as the pedestal area shifted. Something massive was coming up—or something even worse was about to be let out.

My heart pounded in my chest. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but as I glanced around at the others, I realized something. None of them were moving.

Kado, Mira, Davik, even Rina—they were staying put.

We weren’t just salvagers anymore, chasing scraps for profit or the next score. We’d already decided, as a crew, to use what we earned to free slaves and hunt down the scum who profit from misery: pirates, slavers, the worst of the galaxy.

This wasn’t about profit anymore. It was about doing what was right.

None of us were the kind of people who ran from our mistakes.

Even if it killed us. But honestly it's more preferable we don't die.

----------------------------------------

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

76 Chapters are available on my patreon

you can support me and become a patron

P A T R E O N . C O M / TofferPlays

(but only if you want to, okay?)

This fanfic is also on:

SpaceBattles

SufficientVelocity

RoyalRoad

ArchiveOfOurOwn