A/N: Sorry for the wait but numerous clusterfucks at work had me working an ungodly amount of overtime, on the bright side I worked an ungoldly amount of overtime so black Friday is gonna be fun for me. Ill be posting chapters at irregular intervals whenever I get a chance and regular updates will only continue after the festive season….. enjoy.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr, Atin’s stomach growled in protest as he looked at the rations on the plate in front of him. “I’ve been eating the same shit for three weeks now, I need real food……….I need meat.” Said Atin. Grrrrrr, as if agreeing with him, Miilo’s stomach let out a similar noise.

“What you request is quite impossible young master, any food other than standard rations are impossible to acquire, unless of course you settle for the meat of a garbage worm which I do not recommend,” Answers Floaty.

“Didn’t you tell me about a hybrid worm? Do you know if that’s edible? “Asks Atin.

“Ah, you mean Jeff, I strongly advise against hunting him, the risks involved outweigh any nutritional value the meat may provide.”

Grrrrrr, Atin’s stomach growled again as he answered Floaty. ”It’s not about nutritional value, organics need variation in food or else we go insane.”

“There is nothing in my database that correlates to this phenomenon; it seems I am in dire need of an update.” Floaty answers, the second half of his sentence accompanied by a disappointed sigh.

“That’s how it is, so if you don’t want to neglect my and Miilo’s mental health it would be best to help me in this endeavour.” Atin felt a little guilty as he lied to the medical droid but the thought of eating one more of those bland rations quickly washed that guilt away.

“It’s time for your daily lessons, young miss." Clearing the plates off the table, Floaty turns to Miilo and reminds her, only to be met with a pouting face in return, ”Now, Now, no complaints, we’ve worked through almost the entire curriculum and once you’ve passed your final test you’ll have more than enough free time on your hands.”

Miilo turned to Atin with a pleading look, “don’t look at me like that, Floaty is right. Your lessons are important, Knowledge is power and you can never have too much. “Atin explained to Miilo but it did nothing for the look of disappointment on her face. “Tell you what, once you pass your last test ill teach you how to shoot a blaster, okay?”

“Yaaay!” Miilo let out a melodious yelp as she left and rushed toward her room to start her lessons.

“So tell me about Jeff." Atin was tinkering with the latest version of his cybernetic legs as he asked floaty to inform him about the hybrid worm. He had gotten quite used to removing his legs and going back to the hover chair when he made adjustments,  the lack of mobility didn’t bother him as much as before.

"As I've said before, Jeff is a hybrid that most likely escaped its enclosure at the races, its powerful prehensile tongue, acid spit and the ability to travel underground at increased speeds, all point to Jeff being some sort of Joopa/Kryat dragon crossbreed.”

“Did you just say Joopa?” Atin almost choked on his saliva as he asked floaty this question.

”Yes master Atin, the shape of Jeff’s head, the location of his eyes and his lack of teeth all point to him being a Joopa, However his acid spit and overly aggressive nature are clear indicators of his Kryat dragon DNA.” Answered Floaty.

“How big is it?” Atin was now barely holding back his excitement as thoughts of mouth-watering Joopa meat entered his mind.

“As of my previous scans, Jeff is 62.3 Metres long not counting his tongue, 5 metres wide and the range of his acid spit is an estimated 35 metres.”

”That’s a lot of meat.” Atin Replied

“And a lot of acid.” added Floaty “how do you plan on felling the beast if I may ask?”

”Simple.” Answers Atin, pointing toward a small mountain of explosives. “Its Giant monster hunting 101, the real challenge is going to be getting him to swallow it, tell me more about him, I need to know as much as I can.” Atin spent the next few hours with floaty planning out his attack.

“Just 1 more” Connecting the last cable to the single power cell sitting in the bed of the speeder truck, Atin inspected the harpoons spread out on the floor in front of him “That should be enough………… maybe I should hook up another power cell.” Before Atin could get back to work he was interrupted by Floaty.

”Young master Atin, please keep in mind that the Sensor beacons rely on those power cells, and if they cease function no amount of meat will save us from scrappers.”

”Yes, yes I’ll keep that in mind, is Sparky back yet? We won’t be able to do anything without his Electrostaff,” Atin replies.

“Not yet, but master sparky should be back any minute now,” Answers Floaty.

“Good, help me load the speeder truck in the meantime, we can set out as soon as he gets back.”

Before the two could finish loading the speeder truck they were interrupted by a blood curdling scream that sent a shiver down Atin’s spine. Atin rushed through the corridors on his hover chair, the possibilities of what caused that scream racing through his mind, each imagined scenario worse than the previous. As he opened the door Atin barely had any time to notice Miilo’s fear filled face before he was struck and sent flying. The hover chair crashed violently into a table, the blow sent Atin flying out of the chair and a gasp escaped his mouth as he slammed against the floor and the air left his lungs.

A loud crash woke Atin from his stupor, while struggling to catch his breath he took note of his surroundings. Floaty was beside him, a wisp of black smoke trailing out of his head as he lay motionless. Miilo had a look of horror on her face as she stared at the unmoving medical droid.

“NOOOO!! FLOATY!!” Miilo let out an anguished wail and started crying as she tried to crawl toward floaty.

“Shut up whelp!” a human man dressed in filthy rags growled as he kicked the crawling Miilo in the stomach, sending her sliding across the floor and causing her to crash into floaty. “You’d be dead already if the Hutts weren’t so generous to those what bring back runaway slaves.” The Scrappers words were lost on Miilo as the little girl had already passed out, he then turned to Atin. “I can probably find that fancy ship myself, no need for a cripple.”

“STOP!” Atin yelled as the man begun to raise his blaster.

“And why shouldn’t I just kill you?” asked the man, now pointing his blaster directly at Atin’s head.

“You said it yourself didn’t you? The hutts are generous to those that bring back runaway slaves, imagine what they’d give you in return for a republic senator’s child?”

A look of undisguised greed took hold of the scrapper as the words left Atin’s mouth ‘I have to stall him, just long enough for sparky to come back.’

“Prove it.” The scrapper demanded.

“I can prove my identity if you take me to the ship.” Answered Atin

“lead the way then.” Replied the scrapper.

Atin was in his hover chair again, less than a step behind him walked the scrapper, holding his blaster firmly against the back of Atin’s head as he lead the way to the j-type, there was a deafening silence in the air until the scrapper spoke up.

“Y’know, when I set off lookin for yer ship I never woulda imagined id find this, imagine my surprise when after gettin through yer traps, I find a bleedin Dreadnaught buried neath all that trash, not to mention the payday that comes with catchin slaves.”

“How did you know that anyway, that she was a slave?” Atin asked.

“Up top” pointing upward the man continues, “The hutts n their kind leave postings for the slaves they think are hiding on the planet, Easy money if you can find em.” The man’s tone changed as he continued, “the best are the woman though, the Hutt’s don’t mind if you have a taste before you bring em back. Might just give that brat a try, never had a ugnaught before.” Atin could practically hear the man smiling behind him, an intense feeling of disgust welled up in his stomach and he had to stop himself from turning around and lunging at him. Maybe it was years of exposure to the atmosphere or perhaps he was too distracted by his excitement but the scrapper failed to hear Sparky approaching, the cargo doors opened and the all too familiar crackle of a Electrostaff filled the air as sparky knocked the man unconscious.