[Past]

  The grass beneath Nicoash squelched as she hopped off her speeder. She could practically feel how wet it was, even through her boots. She stepped around the back of the speeder and opened up the storage compartment. After a bit of digging, she managed to find a pair of electrobinoculars that she had stashed inside. She walked over to the edge of the nearby cliff, careful to not slip on the dew.

  As Nicoash stepped up to the cliff, the town where the pirates had made base came into full view. It was an old, abandoned settlement: the final remnants of a fallen community. Nicoash didn’t really know what happened to them, just that they were gone. The pirates had taken control of it some time ago when they arrived on Ventano. Most people on the planet were warned to steer clear of the sector, lest they be ambushed and looted. This time, the pirates would be the ones getting looted. At least, that is what Nicoash told herself with a grin on her face.

  She knelt down at the edge of the cliff, resting her leg in the wet grass below her. She pulled the binocs up to her face and powered them on, carefully zooming her view in to see the pirates within.

  The first thing Nicoash noticed was that there were far more pirates than she had been expecting. She had only ever seen a handful of pirates at one time, but now she saw at least double that, and those were only the ones that were awake and outside. As she scanned the area, she noticed a few traveling into and out of a large building toward the center of the town. That had to be the town hall. Nicoash grumbled softly. There was no telling how many pirates were inside.

  She lowered the binocs from her face for a moment. This was going to be much harder than she thought. She turned to look at the speeder behind her. The low hum of the engines served as a reminder that she could hop back in and head home at any time. Afterall, she knew that is what anyone would expect her to do. She pursed her lips, watching the way the grass pulled away from the speeder in waves. A little grin formed on her face, and she turned back toward the town, pulling the binocs back up.

  She looked around the outskirts of the town, noticing the tall electric fence posts surrounding it. Clearly the town had an issue with nexu as well, but for some reason the fences were left off. Nicoash shrugged her shoulders as she brought the binocs around to look toward the entrance of the town.

  A couple of pirates stood around the edge of the biggest road in the town. Each of them were already armed, but none of them had their blasters raised. They all seemed to be completely relaxed, and they were lost in casual conversation with one another.

  The sound of a speeder below Nicoash caused her to immediately drop down onto her stomach, pulling away from the edge of the cliff. As the sound got further away, she poked her head back over the edge, pulling her binocs up again. A speeder carrying a large trailer meant for livestock was slowly making its way up to the town. As it arrived, it was greeted by the guards who stood in its way. They seemed excited, but Nicoash wasn’t very good at reading lips, especially ones that spoke in basic. She turned slightly to look into the trailer behind it. Through the gaps left around the sides, she managed to make out the distinct silhouettes of nerfs. She couldn’t tell how many were in there, but it looked like a lot.

  A big booming laugh cut through the quiet, echoing through the valley surrounding the town. Nicoash jerked the binocs up and saw exactly what she had been looking for. Vesho walked up to the group of pirates surrounding the trailer, patting his big belly. He pointed further into the town, directing the trailer. As it started inching its way forward, he turned to the guards with a big smile on his face. After patting a few on the shoulders, he motioned toward the town hall and started to walk toward it. As he turned, the moonlight reflected off of his ring, flashing the video feed on the binocs briefly. After recovering from the surprise flash, Nicoash started to grin again. She watched as Vesho travelled up the road and walked into the town hall.

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  All the pieces were in front of her now. All she had to do was put them together. She continued scanning around as she tried to formulate some sort of plan. Each plan that started to form was immediately shot down, however, with a simple fact. There were too many pirates in the town for Nicoash to just sneak through.

  The familiar high pitched growl and loud barking of a Nexu pierced the silence of the night just as powerfully as the booming laugh of Vesho. Nicoash cocked her head around toward the noise. It sounded fairly distant. Nicoash looked back at the town briefly before grinning. It was close enough.

  She pulled the binocs up to her face one last time, scanning around to find the trailer. She found it toward the edge of the town on another side, as a couple of pirates were unloading the nerfs and leading them into a warehouse. The warehouse was only a few meters away from the controls to the force field fence. Nicoash pulled the binocs from her face and stood up. Now she had a plan.

  Nicoash made her way up to the eastern side of the town, far from the road that the guards were blocking. She made sure to keep herself low to the ground, dropping onto her stomach or jumping into one of the many bushes whenever she saw any of the pirates. It didn’t take her long to arrive at the edge of the town.

  She rushed over to the force field controls, darting her head around to make sure no one was watching her. Luckily, it seemed none of the pirates seemed to really care about the fence. She crouched down under the controls, opening up a little panel on the bottom. She reached inside and started messing with the wiring. She pulled out the power converters and dropped them down below the wires before pulling a few wires and crossing them into the wrong places. She knew the pirates would need the fence eventually, but all she needed was time. She pulled her hands away, admiring her work for a moment before replacing the panel just like she had left it.

  She pushed herself up and turned, sneaking over toward the warehouse. As she reached it, she peered around the corner to look out for pirates. The trailer was gone, and most of the pirates had left by this point. Nicoash stepped around the corner, keeping close to the wall as she snuck over to the entrance of the warehouse. She pressed a button on the wall, opening up the door to the large loading dock. Once it was open, she whipped around the edge and rushed inside.

  There were plenty of nerfs inside. It was enough to keep the pirates fed for weeks. The nerfs all stared at Nicoash expectantly as she entered. She brought the sleeve of her jacket up to her face and covered her nose tightly before running inside.

  “Out! Out!” She ran around the nerfs, slapping as many as she could as she beckoned them forward. She kept shouting and yelling and slapping the nerfs to get them moving. The room immediately filled with the foul stench of fear as the nerfs started screeching and running forward. Nicoash grimaced from the stench that seeped through the fabric of her jacket, but she kept pushing the nerfs and slapping them. “Go! Go! Out! Get!”

  The nerfs all filed out of the warehouse and scattered. Some of them sprinted further into the town, while others turned and ran out the way that Nico had come in. As soon as they were all out, Nicoash sprinted toward the buildings that surrounded the warehouse, diving into a nearby alley. She climbed up the side of one of the smaller buildings, struggling briefly to pull herself up. She then snuck over to the edge and looked out into the field surrounding the town, waiting.

  It didn’t take long for her to see an entire pack of nexu climbing down from surrounding cliffs. The scent of nerf fear was like a dinner bell to them, and they seemed hungry. They got low to the ground and scattered, sneaking up on some of the nerfs outside the town to pounce on them. A few of them were very quickly nearing the town.

  A couple of pirates ran over to the warehouse to inspect the commotion. They cursed loudly as scared nerfs ran past them, covering their noses to avoid the stench. Only one of them noticed the nexu at first, but he was quick to yell at the others. The frustrated curses quickly turned into fearful ones as they started scrambling. Nicoash could hear the sound of them sprinting away to tell the rest of the pirates what was happening. She admired her work for a moment longer before twisting around and hopping off the back of the building. She quickly made her way further into the town, weaving through alleys and staying out of sight as the sound of panicked footsteps and yelling surrounded her. Everyone was too busy to notice a twelve year-old girl.