Setback (Patreon)

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Third Person P.O.V.

When his newly acquired perfect starship exploded, many things went through Hector’s mind at the same time. Maybe it is the danger and adrenaline, but it felt a little similar to when he used the NZT drug.

His thought process got super fast and moved in many directions.

“That is not an accident…”

“A bomb…”

“I should have checked it thoroughly...”

“I planned to stop at some planet and do this checking to not do it in front of them…”

“Am I some sort of bitch? Afraid of being rude?”

“Fuck it…”

“I should have checked…”

“Palpatine…”

“Fuck…”

“He is from Naboo…”

“I killed Maul…”

“I should have checked the ship thoroughly…”

“I need x-ray vision…”

“In which worlds can I get X-ray vision?”

“Fuck!”

“My ship…”

“The vacuum of space is one of the few things that can really kill me…”

“Luckily, it didn’t explode in the hyperspace…”

“I would be dead…”

A searing pain started running through his whole body, his survival instinct kicks in, and he immediately clenches all his muscles. The explosion, even if it is absurdly big, will not kill him… it is only pain… He can take it… His biggest worry is the vacuum of space.

He can’t think about everything he learned about the human anatomy in space and what happens with the human body in those conditions, so he is just holding in to try not to “pop”. He doesn’t need to breathe, but he wants to prevent his lungs from exploding and his blood from boiling. He is holding on to increase his life for a few seconds.

Hector was a little careless this time, but he is still an over-cautious person. So he was prepared for a situation like that.

Why wouldn’t he be? In this universe where space travel is common, he would obviously make some contingency plans against one of the few things that can kill him for good, and there is a high probability of happening… the vacuum of space.

In case of him getting stranded out there, he knew that he would have only a few seconds to react, so he left an item he acquired ready in his inventory.

His hand disappears inside a green portal that he doesn’t even bother making small and subtle, and removes a box with tubes and what looks like an aquarium.

That is not an aquarium, though. Hector quickly puts it around his head, and the edges make a suction sound, sealing around his shoulder like a helmet.

“Haaaaahh~” Hector releases the breath he was holding, his stiff body finally relaxing.

He was in a bad state, purple-red veins could be seen under his skin, his eyes were bloodshot, and blood started leaking from his skin like sweat.

If it were not for his strong body and the Talismans he rarely removes from his waist, he would have been in an even worse state.

“...” He stays floating in the empty space, with his oxygen tank only connected by a tube,  for an unknown amount of time.

His face looks normal, but he is very angry… He doesn’t want to look at it, eyes forward, but eventually, there is nothing else to do.

His pupils move to the edge of his eyes, and he finally sees the wreckage of his new starship.

“Son of a rotten womb of a fucking thrice damned dead bitch born in squalor during a moonless night.” He said this nonsense with a surprisingly calm voice.

His starship is no more… the dream is dead.

From the wreckage is obvious that the explosion came from the middle, to maximize the damage, and it split the ship in half. Even to Hector’s amateur eyes, it is obvious that there is no way to save it.

Hector has his telekinesis and flight, so he slowly floats to the wreckage even without any leverage. After all, one of the reasons he was comfortable coming from this universe is that he acquired all those tools to survive in a dangerous situation.

“I guess I could be considered lucky that I haven’t started decorating the place and put anything in the ship…” He sighs as he pushes some pieces of metal out of the way.

There are no personal belongings to recover, so he is thinking about making some sort of “space boat” that he can use to travel to the nearby planet. He wants something to defend himself from the cosmic rays. Yes, he has a healing factor, but you never know.

He would also be able to move inconspicuously, disguised as wreckage.

“Not even the escape pods are intact… This shit was 10000% planned.” He sighs. Now he really will need to make something to hide with the wreckage.

His moves are calm and methodical, but inside, he is fuming with anger. It is just that Hector knows that there is no point in letting that anger out now; he needs to deal with the situation at hand.

“It is what it is…” He says while pulling some pieces to himself, looking around a nearby green planet, and trying to not to think about what he will do if it is an uninhabitable one.

Thinking the worst, he starts grabbing any piece of machinery he can and putting on his inventory; luckily, the cockpit was relatively intact. He was sucked when the door exploded, but the shockwave only damaged the controls a little.

It was at this point that something suddenly blocked the light from the nearby sun on him.

“...” Hector looks up to see another starship standing above him and the wreckage.

It is not a pristine one; it looks like it saw some rough travels, and it immediately starts using a giant claw and magnets to get the wreckage.

“I see, a distress signal was automatically sent when the ship exploded.” Hector's eyes remain calm as he slowly floats to this new starship. “Or it could be the culprit coming to make sure the job is done… anyway, it is my way out.”

Deep down, he is wishing that it was the culprits… Or even some low-lives criminals…he needs to blow off some steam and release this anger that he is holding.

……………………………………….

In the Star Wars universe, the starships use a technology where the area of retrieval of derelicts is separated by an energy field that keeps the air inside, but it does not prevent objects from going through it.

It is also what allows smaller ships to leave the motherships without killing everyone walking in the hangar.

In this salvage ship is no different; the area where they deposit the wreckage recovered is open and completely operated by giant robot arms.

One alien is controlling the said giant robot claw in a small cabin when suddenly.

Blam

Hector lands on the glass, making the alien yelp in fright.

“Gaaah…” The alien suddenly becomes paralyzed, something holding his wrists and throat.

Hector's eyes are bloodshot as he looks around the cabin, then he looks at the alien and gestures to him to open the big double doors behind the inner energy field.

The alien is trembling in struggle, understanding what Hector means, but he still can’t move. Because Hector never intended to ask him to open the doors to him, he just wanted to see where the alien eyes would move.

And without failing, the alien looked at two levers, one down and another up. Hector doesn’t need to be a genius to guess that the one down is of the external energy field that allows the giant robot claw to get the wreckage, while the other, which is still up, is from the still-sealed inner door.

With his telekinesis, he makes the lever go down, and as he predicted, the doors open.

He quickly floated inside the ship, landing in a hallway where he walked until he reached an elevator. With a strange calmness, Hector presses the only button and waits patiently for it to reach his destination.

He cracked his knuckles while closing his eyes to focus.

Ding

The elevator opens, and he is met with a scene of half a dozen blasters pointed at him. The aliens holding the blasters are a rough-looking bunch; their clothes scream mercenaries or pirates, and their expressions are unfriendly.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, but if you give me a ride to the closest inhabited planet, everything will go well, and I will even pay you. I have the money. I also don’t want to operate this huge starship alone.” He says “Said that, I am in a horrible mood, so please… shoot. Just give me a reason… I really, really want to let off some steam.”

The aliens look among themselves, and for a while they don’t do anything, but suddenly one of their comms beeps and a strong voice echoes.

“Kill him and take his belongings.” The order came from someone who is obviously their superior.

The first to react, surprisingly, was Hector.

“Thank you!” He says with relief, throwing his hand to the air and forward.

Boom

A telekinetic blast sends everyone flying without giving them a chance of pulling a single trigger. Some bodies bounce on the walls and ceiling, others slide through the ground, and one is even thrown to the end of the corridor.

The attack was so brutal that despite not having any blood, some bodies are obviously broken, with limbs going into unnatural directions and necks dangling loosely from their shoulders.

“...” Hector’s eyes show no remorse or pity; those people already want to kill him, so he simply kills them first. That is the law of survival.

Palpatine tried to kill him, but he survived and lost his starship, but it seems he has a smidgen of luck… Just enough for a new ship to appear so that he could steal it.

He doesn’t care anymore. He is taking this ship after killing the whole crew. He will accept it as compensation from the universe.

Hector decides to end this fast, without taking any chances, so he even puts on the Armor of the Eight Immortals. The blue armor turns into a skin-tight suit that will protect him from damage while he focuses on the offense.

In a chaotic battle against multiple foes in the enemy territory, he can’t guarantee that he will be able to avoid being hit at least once.

Unaware of the starship’s inner design, he decides to move straight to the bridge. It is a much bigger starship than the one that was destroyed, but he can arrive there quickly with his powers.

“This ship is too big for me alone, so I will not keep it forever…”

Whoosh

Without holding back, he dashes through the corridors, destroying walls on his path. This starship will only be a placeholder till he gets something better, so he can be a little rough.

……………………………………..

This salvage starship is at least four times bigger than VCX-100; the cockpit is a bridge where at least 6 crew members control the travel. The crew in total is 40-member strong, and at the moment, the captain is seeing Hector go through this crew like a hot knife through butter.

“What is that bastard?” The captain is a Gamorrean, a pig-like alien humanoid, no different from how one would imagine an orc of a fantasy story.

His strong arms are clenching the armrest of his seat as he angrily stares at the holo-screens.

“I think it's a human…” A skinny alien responds with a trembling voice.

“I know that is a human, your piece of crap!” The captain shouts furiously. making all the operative crewmembers flinch. “Tell those idiots to regroup in the main hallway! Tell them to come back here so that we can finish him for good!”

After shouting his orders, the captain leans back on his chair and tries to appear relaxed, but his heart is beating fast. Just now on the screen, he saw the human moving so fast that he disappeared and reappeared behind one of his men and turned the Trandoshan's head backward.

Important to note: a trandoshan is a reptilian alien with tough scales and a tough body; it is not that simple to snap its neck… But the human treated him like a paper doll.

The captain is scared… secretly, he called back his men so they could protect him. He hasn’t reached his actual status by being a fool; he knows that the most important thing is his survival, even if many of his men die.

The captain was satisfied by seeing his men following his orders immediately, even the ones that are resting in their quarters. Everyone can at least hold a blaster.

So he reunited his remaining crew and is now waiting for the intruder, everyone with weapons in their hands.

“Is that all that remained?” The captain looks around, and there are just a little more than twenty people. The enemy took almost half of his forces so fast…

“Yes, sir.”

“Never mind them… Shoot to kill!” The captain shouts “The one that deliviers the finishing blow will get a bonus!!” 

His words were received with a cheer from everyone; he knows how to keep morale high.

“Captain, why don’t we use the merchandise as a shield?” One small alien asks while rubbing his hands

“What good of a shield those five bitches will be? Huh??” The captain retorts angrily, “They are our most precious product! Everything can be damaged on this ship, but if they are alive, we can make a comeback!” He even slapped the head of the diminutive crewmember

“Owi! I am sorry, sir! I-I am sorry!”

To the captain, every member could die, but the merchandise should be untouched; there is an infinite supply of scum he can hire in the Galaxy, after all.

The wait is the worst part… The whole crew needs to stay here, ready to ambush the intruder, their nerves tense. The ones unaware of what is happening are informed about what is happening by the rest, and it only spreads a sense of unease against this unknown but powerful enemy.

“Quiets!!” The captain needs to put an end to the gossip so that the morale remains high

After a minute or two, the door that they are facing finally opens. The crew raises their gun, their U-formation tightly locked around the only entrance.

Tsss 

“Wait…” The captain orders… He will command the attack when he sees the smallest movement. “Wait…”

On the other side of the door, they can only see smoke and darkness. The enemy is attempting to invade amidst the obscurity, but it is impossible; it is checkmate.

The captain is so smart for calling the man back and preparing this ambush…

Crack

A cracking sound and grunt suddenly happen too close to the captain. When he looks to the side, he sees one of his men falling forward with the white of their eyes rolled to the back of their head.

“Wha…”

Crack Thwack Bam 

Chaos suddenly erupts when another one seems to be hit on the jaw and is sent flying. Another was forced to the ground like gravity increased a hundredfold, and another was propelled to the ceiling.

Their brains still haven’t understood that the enemy is already between them, and with that, Hector downs a dozen more with precise attacks in the vital points.

He is holding back to not damage the bridge, after all, this starship is his ticket out.

“He is here!!” The captain finally understood, which made the crew panic and raise their blasters and point in all directions.

Voosh

But suddenly their weapons fly from their hands and join into a ball in the middle of the room.

“...” That move is the nail in the coffin; they are now unarmed. What can they do?

Hector finally appears in front of them, slowly, and raises his arm to them.

“Thank you for making my job easy.”

…………………………………………………

Hector P.O.V.

They are fragile…

Even when I only used concussive force to avoid hurting the place with their blood, most of those guys died. I mean, the ones that I broke the necks of are understandable, but even some that I just hit on their back are not breathing anymore.

Again, so fragile… Don’t go around attacking people if you are so fragile, don’t you know the galaxy is fucking dangerous?

Anyway, they all could die, the only one that I made sure to keep alive is the captain, and as I turn to face him, the bastard pulls a blaster from his trenchcoat and shoots me.

Pew Pew Pew

I move like Albert Wesker, dodging the blasts with super-speed side-steps, just to assert my dominance and make him understand the difference between us.

Arriving in front of him, I sweep his leg, making him fall, and them i kick his wrist so that he could drop the blasters.

Thwack

“Aaarghh!”

“If you wanna live, you better answer my questions…” I say coldly, standing over him, my foot smashing his hand.

“I-I will! I will tell you anything!!” He immediately shouts while crying his eyes out.

“...” Damn, so this is that type of orc. The pathetic bully instead of the cool warrior. Disappointed, but this is good for me…

“Why did you come here?” I ask, opening my eyes and all other senses to pay attention to even the minimal details.

“Wh-wh-what? Wha-wha-what do you mean??” He stutters

With my focus solely on him, I can feel his genuine confusion… It seems he is not trying to hide anything, but more like the question threw him off.

“I asked… why did you come here?” I repeat, squeezing his hand more.

“Aaaah! For what else, dude!!! Salvage any valuables!!!” He houts in pain

I alleviate the pressure on his hand. “Continue…”

“We… We caught a quick distress signal some quadrants away… We are going back to… to…”

“To?” I squeeze again

“To Tatooine!!! We are going back to Tatooine! We have to deliver something there…” He shouts, relaxing when I stop destroying his hand “I just decided to get a bonus before entering hyperspace…” He says, looking tired, breathing heavily

“...” So he is not Palpatine’s dog?

Hmm… Well, they look very unprofessional… A coincidence, really? I don’t believe in them too much, but space is filled with starships ready to get something from wreckage. I remember seeing a lot of them in the Clone Wars animated show.

And it's not like I am in a desert region of the Galaxy either…

“You are lying…” I say between gritted teeth, looking angry while stepping on his hand with even more force.

“I am not! I am not! Aaaah! Please! Believe in me!!!! Pleeeasssee~” He cries, it is so pathetic that it almost makes me feel bad for him.

But I still keep my face a hard, angry mask for long seconds… Waiting in case he cracks.

But he just continues to sob and beg me to stop.

“Tsk.” It seems that I can stomach torturing people, but I don’t enjoy it that much.

Even my anger from my starship being destroyed subsided. It is not a raging inferno waiting to be unleashed anymore, just a constant annoyance.

Fuck! It is a big setback in my plans!

“I will ask you later.” I say to him before hitting his head to make him fall unconscious

Okay, now what? I look around the bridge, two dozen aliens lying around in this giant bathtub of a starship.

Ah man, my ship was perfect! Perfect!!

This one is too big, and old, and probably has a shitty reputation already out there…

Damn, Palpatine… Yep, I am still thinking it's him, it can only be him.

That is what I gain from showing off to cameras.

I sigh loudly while approaching the central computer. With my time in the post-apocalyptic world and a few days here, I am good enough with technology to check the systems of this ship without much trouble.

It is like a computer; it changes from person to person, but deep down, it is the same, especially if it uses the same operating system.

The thing is, there are many operating systems out there in this galaxy; there is no monopoly, but I got familiar with the most used ones.

“Tsk, they don’t keep a fucking written inventory…” I roll my eyes and kick a body. I am still annoyed.

I access the cameras and check what is happening on the ship.

“Empty… Empty… empty… Empty… Food… Clothes… Weapons… Booze… more booze and more clothes… Hm?” I freeze when my eyes land on a particular screen. I then give a side glance to the unconscious captain of this starship. “It seems I will not be having any weight in conscience after killing you all.”

I turn on my heels and pull my blaster from my inventory before starting to shoot everyone but the captain. One blast in each head, their bodies jerking before going till forever.

The captain, I turn into a rat with the Rat Talisman powers and put him into a cage that I have. Yes, I carry an assortment of strange things.

I just need him not to do anything inconvenient for me while I go check his “merchandise”. Ah, I should remove this uncool armor…

…………………………………………..

Third Person P.O.V.

In every big ship, there is always one prison cell; it is a necessity when friction is bound to happen in big crews. Of course, those well-secured rooms can always be used for other purposes instead of only imprisoning criminals; they could imprison non-criminals too…

“The sounds and tremors stopped…” A female voice comments.

The cell is dark and devoid of anything beyond the people inside, and it is also small for the five people that needs to share it. There are no metal beds or anything, only a single toilet.

That was done by pure pettiness, because there are other cells in this prison corridor, all empty.

“What do you think it was?” The same voice asks

“What does it matter?” Another familiar voice says gruffly

“It is none of our business, just stay quiet.” Another female voice, now more mature, says

Tsss 

Suddenly, the door at the end of the corridor opens, and they all tense up at the same time, a reflexive response, probably.

They can’t see who it is, but the sound of footsteps reaches them, and the tension increases the louder and the nearer it gets.

The five people hurl together, in a defensive gesture, one of the five protectively hugging the others, as if it is protecting the others.

It is this way that the two groups meet.

Hector finally arrives at the front of the cell and stops to look at the five women inside.

“Three twi’leks and two togrutas…Slaves, I presume?” He comments while staring at them, his calm eyes passing through their features and collars “What a cliché encounter…” He chuckles, it even lifts his awful mood a little. Just a little…

“...” The five women inside just look at him cautiously.

Hector is an unknown person to them, but he could very well be part of this crew. His clothes are also very generic, just a compression shirt that shows his muscles, cargo pants, and boots. 

“I guess silence is the expected response…” He shakes his head with an ironic smile, “Rejoice, different from me, today is your lucky day! I guess someone has to cry to another smile.” He declares before pressing a button on the wall to open the cell.

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