#hero material

           The first thing Nico felt was a sharp pain as she fell out of her cot. She sat up, clutching her aching head and slowly taking in her surroundings. A ship’s barracks. Republic, judging by the bright lighting and orange and white color scheme. That’s right, she thought as she stood up, she’s on a Republic ship transporting someone of some importance, a Jedi probably. And judging by the constant shaking threatening to knock her over again, this ship was under attack.

           She carefully made her way to the footlocker by the window, trying hard to keep her balance as the ship continued to shake as it took fire, and opened it up. A Republic scoundrel uniform, two blaster pistols, a sword, and a stealth field generator, as well as a small amount of credits. Nico quickly changed into the uniform, before taking the generator and securing it around her waist. She strapped the sword to her back and slid the pistols into the holsters at her sides. She pocketed the credits. The ship was going down anyway, it’s not like anyone would miss them.

           She made her way towards the door when her commlink buzzed. Nico fished it out from her pocket and held it up to her face. A girl’s voice crackled from the device. “Attention all crew of the Endar Spire,” The voice said, “we’ve been ambushed by Sith forces. If you are still alive, please make your way to the escape pods. We don’t have much time before they destroy the ship, so please hurry!” Nico shrugged before pocketing her commlink again.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” She said as she opened the door. She was already headed for the escape pods; she didn’t need some stuck-up officer reminding her.

           As she exited that barracks she heard the unmistakable sound of blaster fire. Ducking where she was sure she couldn’t be seen, she peeked out to see what the cause of the commotion was. A lone Republic soldier, his orange armor covered in blood, was defending himself from an advancing trio of Sith soldiers. He managed to gun one down, but another landed a fatal shot on him. He crumpled to the ground, bloody and lifeless. Nico cringed. She hadn’t personally known the soldier, but it was still a little painful seeing a comrade mowed down like that. Nico took out her pistols and leapt out from her hiding place. She quickly aimed her weapons at the Sith’s shiny, visored helmets and fired, hitting her mark in both cases. While one Sith collapsed and died from the shot, the other proved to be a bit more hardy. He fired back at Nico, but she skillfully dodged the bolts. Nico holstered her pistols and pulled out the sword on her back. She rushed the Sith and slashed him across the torso. She grinned with satisfaction as he slumped over.

           Nico made her way around the ship, killing the invading Sith soldiers as she encountered them and raiding whatever storage containers she came across. By this point she had found a handful of grenades, some medkits, and even a combat suit, which she gladly changed into, as it provided a little more protection than her uniform. As she shot the last Sith on the ship’s bridge dead, her commlink buzzed again. Nico pulled it out. “What do you want?” She snapped.

           “Oh, thank the Force, I actually found someone!” It was the same voice from earlier. “Look, you’re on your way to the escape pods, right?”

           “Yeah. Duh,” Nico replied.

           “Okay, good. The pods are just past the starboard section of the ship,” The voice said. “I just need to warn you though; the starboard section is crawling with Sith troops. There’s a lot of them, and unless you’re really confident in your combat skills I’d suggest you sneak past them.”

           “Sneak past them?” Nico said with a hint of pride in her voice. “I’m a freaking master of stealth, this shouldn’t be a problem at all.”

           “I hope you’re as good as you say,” Replied the voice. “When you reach the escape pods, I’ll be there.” With that, the communication ended.

           Nico activated her stealth field as she entered the starboard section of the ship. The voice wasn’t kidding, apparently. There were Sith soldiers everywhere. She actually did pretty good sneaking around them until she entered a room where two of them were standing guard. Perhaps her foot fell a little too heavy, because one of the troopers whirled around and fired at her, barely missing her face. Nico’s stealth field fizzled out and she pulled out her blasters, firing quickly at the two Sith. Her shots hit them several times in the body and they both fell over. Nico stepped over their bodies as she went to examine the damaged battle droid that was just sitting in the room. Her commlink crackled to life again.

           “Heads up,” Said the voice, “There’s a bunch of Sith in the next room. One of them looks like an officer. You might have some trouble sneaking past them.”

           “That so?” Nico said smugly. “Guess I’m gonna have to get a little creative.” She fished around in the storage containers off to the side until she found what she wanted. She grinned as she turned her attention back to the droid. “Now, let’s have a look at you.” She opened a panel on the back of the droid and began untangling its wires. She worked quickly repairing the droid, replacing parts as needed using what she had found moments earlier. Soon enough, the droid was set in patrol mode. Nico stepped away from the droid as it opened the door. The Sith troopers turned and fired at it, but the blaster bolts just bounced off of the protective shield Nico had activated. The droid aimed its weapon and quickly gunned down the troops, and when the sound of blaster fire stopped, Nico stepped into the room. Her attention was drawn towards one of the bodies. Instead of having silver armor like a normal Sith soldier, this one’s armor was red. So that’s what the person I’ve been talking to meant when they said one looked like an officer, Nico thought. She examined the body and noticed the sword the soldier was carrying was rather unusual. Nico took out her own sword to compare. The hilt on the officer’s sword seemed slightly better designed, with an actual rubber grip instead of the simple metal handle her sword had. The blade was also visibly sharper, and the weapon as a whole felt lighter. Nico put down her sword before putting the officer’s sword in the sheath on her back. It was her sword now.