Chapter 405 - My SI Stash #5 - Isekaid to Star Wars by Chastity (Star Wars) (1/2)

-Chastity seems to be putting his SI Worm fic on hold and just focusing on his new SI Star Wars fic~ Ain't gonna lie, it's another W, albeit chaotic/

Synopsis: ???

Rated: M

Words: 55K

Posted on: forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/isekaid-to-star-wars-commission.13053/ (Chastity)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics/originals mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1

I had gotten a couple weeks off from work, and after lazing around in my house for a day or so, I got so stir crazy I had to go out and do something new. I wound up deciding to go on a whale watching tour at the local aquarium, since it was something to do.

It turned out to be pretty fun - there were a surprisingly large number of whales out and about, coming quite close to the surface. As I watched one just beneath the surface make a long circular movement with its whole body, I heard an enormous splash from behind me and turned to look, fully expecting to see a whale that had come very close to the boat, or perhaps one that had leapt out of the water. Instead, I saw a truck. My brain simply froze, failing to process the image as it flew out of the water like a dolphin leaping into the air, dripping wet as it faced me. It felt like it was in slow motion as it simply glided directly towards me, crushing me roughly against the boat and shattering my whole body in an instant.

I snapped back to consciousness, seated in front of a desk. For a moment, I thought it was just a dream, my b_u_t_t feeling like it was firmly planted back at the office, the desk having a similar familiarity to it. A glance up, though, revealed I was in a grimy alleyway, cool silver and white metal disrupted by flakes of sticky black gunk that clung to it, some kind of moss or similar material, by the looks of it. The buildings on either side seemed to stretch upwards far, far into the sky, towering pillars of industry with thick glass windows colored in various elaborate shades - though there were only windows well above the ground.

It was a vast alley too, the street proper feeling as if it were blocks away, like the pair of towers had simply eaten away at all the area around us. Despite the fact that there was no natural sunlight, glowing lights from various windows rained down on me between the buildings, and I glanced down at the desk again. Sitting on it was a hardcover book, a belt with a pouch that looked about right to hold the book, and a letter with the words ”READ THIS” written at the top in large bright capital letters.

The letter itself was handwritten, in a good, clear, crisp writing. It explained that I had died and been inserted into a new universe, specifically one that... closely resembled Star Wars. I paused, glancing upwards, and the pair of buildings definitely seemed to stretch far higher up than I was used to, even in the big city. It had a distinct aesthetic to it... I turned back to the paper, which explained that I also had been given powers to ”aid” in my new life.

It went into more detail, but the short version was that I couldn't have my powers taken away from me by any means, I was immune and invisible to any form of precognition or fate-manipulating powers - which I supposed was good, given the presence of the Force - and that as an actual active power, I was now... psychic. The book on the table was apparently a ”Living Tome,” which was alive and could actively help me if I asked, and would grow in power alongside me. It also couldn't be permanently destroyed, just reforming if it was incinerated or something. It could also act as a notebook if I wanted it to.

The letter ended by telling me I could now speak and read Galactic Basic Standard, and wishing me good luck.

I put it back down on the table, thinking about what it had said. What the hell was going on? Was I seriously in some kind of bizarre, contrived self-insert scenario like this? Was I just really, really high? I picked up the letter again to skim through it, but it immediately caught flame and I had to hurriedly let it go - it took only a scant second or two for it to completely immolate itself, turning into nothing but ash. I stared at the new pile on the ground for a few seconds... then finally recovered my senses picked up the book.

Remembering that it was supposed to be 'alive,' I leaned forward and spoke in a quiet voice to it. ”Could you help me learn my powers?” I felt ridiculous doing it, but the book immediately started to flip to the beginning, ink appearing on the page as if it were bleeding out of the paper itself. What appeared was a beginner's guide to my powers, written in simple, well-typed English. I skimmed through it for a bit, before shaking my head and putting the book into the pouch on the table and slinging the belt around me.

I didn't have much idea of what to do next, so I decided to just wander around, hopefully getting a feel for the place. These stories normally had some kind of event early on to draw the hero into important matters, right?

* * *

I'd been here, by my best guess, for a week, and I was currently sitting in an alley. Before me was the cooked remains of an animal that looked vaguely like a dog; I was chewing on a bit of it, the tough meat hard to really get into my mouth. I was in a shelter, at least. A small little 'house' around the size of a closet, made of scavenged metal that I'd managed to piece together.

Besides the powers I supposedly had, all I had were the clothes on my back. I couldn't even remember my own name. I certainly didn't have any identification, or contacts, or money, so as far as this world was concerned, I was just some random homeless guy living on the streets.

It didn't help that I wasn't in a particularly hospitable spot. Oh, sure, it turned out I was on the capital world of the Republic, Coruscant, but I wasn't in the good parts of it. I was in the underlevels: dirty, lawless, and literally dark, as the towering buildings that stretched up to the sky completely shut out the sky, levels and walkways above us cocooning us from the sun and clouds above.

Apparently there were even worse levels lower down - I wasn't about to find out myself. The first day I was here, I had seen two people get in a fight and one of them wound up stabbed to death. No one gave a shit.

Interesting as it was to see aliens - both of the animal and of the intelligent varieties - I had been more focused on getting some kind of safety. An alcove to build my little hovel in, the metal to make it into a proper shelter, insulating me from the erratic cold and hot winds that came and went due to whatever vague equivalent of a climate this planet had. Once I had that vague, tiny degree of security - limited as it was - I set about trying to learn to use my powers, since they could only improve my current situation.

The book's introduction on my powers was detailed and thorough. There were five schools that my powers were divided into: biomancy, pyromancy, telepathy, telekinesis, and... daemonology. Technically six, but divination wasn't available to me due to my immunity to precognition. I thought it was rather strange that they were divided up like magic, despite supposedly being psychic powers, but what would be the point in arguing about it?

I'd spent most of the week training my powers. I also scavenged a bit of food, and found a source of water - there was a faucet on the side of a building that seemed to dispense clean water, which I was more than happy to drink from.

In terms of what I had to show for it, it was somewhat limited, but definitely something I should be able to leverage soon enough. I'd learned a biomancy technique to keep my body in an ideal state, making me reach and hold a peak level of physical fitness, even slowly altering me to be more attractive over time. I'd learned enough pyromancy to create fire in my hand and throw fireballs - small ones, no bigger than a baseball, but it was useful to have some ability to attack. I could push and pull small objects with telekinesis.

Telepathy was obviously the strongest of them, though. There was a technique to compel people to follow short, basic commands. I'd tried it out on a street far away from my shelter, managing to make people drop what they were holding, or stop their movements. I'd walk by them, say the command, and quickly make my way away. From what I could tell, they were confused by what they'd done, but there was no sign that they realized it was me, specifically, doing it.

Daemonology didn't actually involve demons - or daemons, as the book insisted on calling them - just yet, since it was apparently a more advanced skill. Instead, it only involved rituals, like putting a few drops of my blood on a piece of metal to move my power through it, causing it to produce a small flame if I said 'flame on,' which would disappear if I said 'flame off.'

I mostly used it to make a light in my hovel so I could read.

The rat-thing I was eating had come into my hovel while I was asleep and tried to eat me while I slept; after a lot of screaming and struggling (luckily I had enhanced strength, now), I hit it in the face with a fireball and then began smashing its head in with a piece of metal until I was very sure it was dead.

Since I'd spent so long without any good source of food, I decided to cook it for breakfast. I figured whatever it had, it couldn't be that much worse than starvation, and my biomancy meant I'd probably be safe.

As I kept trying to get the meat down - it was really chewy - I heard a commotion going on outside. I put the slice of meat I was currently eating down, stepping outside to check on what the noise was. I hadn't quite absorbed the local values of ”ignore everything you hear, no matter what,” so I wandered a bit from my shelter and finally peered around the corner to spot the event in question.

There were five men, all armed with blasters, some human, some not; two of them had a blue-skinned twi'lek girl grabbed by the arms, holding her in place. The still-struggling twi'lek girl had a small cut on her lip, a couple other visible minor wounds elsewhere on her body. It was obvious she hadn't let them capture her without fighting back.

”I've finally caught you, bitch,” one of the men said, acting with all the bravado of a guy who was in charge. ”The boss is going to give us a huge reward when we bring him your head.”

”You can go f_u_c_k yourself,” she said, spitting up into his face, making him flinch back as saliva hit him.

There was a brief moment's silence as he wiped the spit off with his shirt's sleeve, offering no apparent reaction. Then, with his face retaining that same angry and bored expression, he just punched her full force in the face, making it lol to one side. ”The boss said to kill you, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun with you first,” he said, smiling viciously, reaching for a knife in his waistband. He started to cut her shirt open.

”You're too chickenshit to get a girl the normal way, huh?” She asked, flailing wildly, attempting to become dead weight, then when that failed, starting to struggle and push herself away. ”What? All of you have tiny little d_i_c_ks too?” She lashed out with a kick at the man cutting open her shirt, but she didn't have the proper leverage.

The part of me interested in continuing to live was telling me not to involve myself in this matter. It was probably comon down here. There wasn't anything I could really do. I should focus on keeping myself alive. I didn't want to get involved in a gang thing. It wasn't nice but I had to be pragmatic, given the situation.

Instead of listening to it, I got out of cover, running towards the men. Mentally, I was calling myself the dumbest piece of shit in the world; also muttering words to much the same effect, except cruder.

The men, naturally, heard me running towards them, their heads swiveling nearly simultaneously over for me. One of them was already leveling his blaster at me, so I quickly gave everything I had into my power. ”Let go of what you're holding!” I yelled out.

They all did so. For the ones with their guns in hand, that meant the blasters clattered down onto the ground in front of them. For the ones holding the twi'lek girl, that meant that she was now free, and she immediately started to dive for one of the dropped blasters, taking it in hand and quickly twirling around to shoot one of the men who had just been holding her. I started throwing fireballs, one of them hitting the leader in the face, causing him to instantly hit the ground, writhing in pain, hands desperately smacking at his features to try to put out the fire as he screamed in bloody agony.

I was still in motion even as I'd been throwing fireballs, so I now closed in on one of them who had dropped his blaster - which I promptly snapped up from the ground, shooting its former owner even as the twi'lek girl kept shooting, blasting away at the other man who had just been holding her, her eyes wild with bloodl_u_s_t in the moment.

That left just one man still on his feet - who had managed to recover his blaster and was now desperately moving away from us. I reached out for his blaster, yanking at it and dragging it out of his hands in the process, which caused him to immediately just book it, running as fast as he could in the opposite direction. The twi'lek girl shot at his retreating form, but she missed, and soon enough he turned a corner. ”That's all you people are, isn't it, a bunch of cowards, huh? When you don't have a numbers advantage you just run away! Well, you should! I'll kill you next time I see you!”

By the time she was finished, the leader of the men - the one I'd hit with the fireball - had stopped moving, simply inert and dead on the ground.

I was catching my breath at the time, as the twi'lek kept screaming various curses at the last guy, until finally turning around to face me. ”Thanks for the save. I'm Ipresi Kru,” she told me, letting out a long breath and absently fiddling with her shirt. The guy had cut a pretty big gash in it, so it probably didn't look to great. ”Mind if I ask who you are?”

I hesitated for a moment, then let out a long sigh and answered. ”I don't actually remember my name,” I admitted. ”I'm not from around here - I just woke up here a week ago.”

Her brow furrowed slightly, her lips pursing. ”You're from the upper levels, then? Drugged and dumped?”

That wasn't what had happened, but I saw no reason not to agree with it. It was close enough to the truth, and the actual truth was ridiculous and impossible to expect anyone to believe. ”Yeah, I think that's probably it.”

She let out a little laugh, shrugging as she holstered her blaster. ”People get dumped down here for all kinds of reasons. Usually they die, since they're used to the upper levels, and not...” she gestured vaguely around her, ”this. It is weird that you'd forget your own name,” she admitted. ”Even with brain damage...” She trailed off, her lips curled into a faint frown, then she shook her head. ”Anyway, I have to call you something. Any preferences?”

”Haven't had much chance for conversation down here,” I admitted.

”Hm. How about, Sav? Like for Savior, since you saved my ass.” She had a playful smile as she said the words, gently rolling her shoulders as she looked at me. After a moment, she let out a sigh. ”With that mind thing you did, are you a jedi or something? I hear they're totally celibate.”

”I'm not a jedi,” I said. ”It just looks similar. It's just something I can do, I've been learning it from... only recently.”

She looked me over. I knew I looked like crap - I hadn't bathed, hadn't had a change of clothes, and hadn't had a chance to shave or get anything to eat. ”Have you found a place to stay yet?”

”Oh, kinda, I found an alcove and started putting up sheets of... metal...” I said, trailing off lamely as I realized how pathetic I sounded. I did feel a certain amount of pride in succeeding at something like that, but it was quickly overpowered by the shame of being looked at by a rather attractive woman as I recounted my proud tale.

”Well, since I owe you one for handling those layt rat-lickers, you can crash at my place for a while.” She paused, scrunching up her nose a bit. ”And you can take the opportunity to take a really nice, long, shower, right away, as in first thing,” she said, fixing me with a firm gaze.

I hardly had to think about it. ”Sure thing, I promise to take a very thorough shower. I miss them,” I admitted, earning a small laugh from her. ”Can you by any chance spare some food?”

She laughed genuinely at that, a warm smile spreading across her features. ”I think you earned at least a couple meals with that showing.” She turned her attentions to the corpses. ”We should loot the bodies and get going - don't want to get chased down by his friends.”

”Makes sense to me,” I agreed.

* * *

Ipresi had explained her story to me as I ravenously consumed every last bite of food that she offered me, smiling as she watched me, her chin perched on her palm. I gave some compliments to her home, she gave some compliments to my work in saving her, and since I'd showered already, she just let me go at whatever she had in stock, making conversation here and there, until it turned to her own past.

”It happened a few weeks ago,” she'd begun, with only the mildest of promptings, ”these guys, the Blade Eaters, started moving into this neighborhood. Taking territory, messing with the locals, you know how it is.” I didn't, really, but I made a mild 'mhm' noise to urge her on as I tried to see if I could fit one of the fruits she had on offer entirely into my mouth.

”My parents scavenged things, fixing up trash other people threw away before going ahead and selling them. I helped out around the shop, learned a bit here and there. We sold all kinds of things, but with the Blade Eaters horning in on everything, taking 'protection' money from everybody, business started drying up. My parents tried to stand up to them, and wound up getting killed for it.”

She let out a long sigh, leaning back and crossing her arms in front of her as her story entered its harsher stage. I was still trying to put as much food in my mouth at any one time as I could manage, my stomach feeling practically bottomless after everything I'd been through. ”I got away, but I decided to get even with those sc_u_mbags. I made a few detonators, put them near where places the gang frequented, and blew them to high heaven when they walked out.” There was a vicious grin as she said that. ”I got a few others with a blaster rifle I stole from one of them.” She let out a little chuckle. ”Once, they had this little droid, I reprogrammed it and put a bomb in it, and... well, you can probably guess.” There was a genuine joy in recounting these stories to me, her body soon leaning forward again, excitement glittering in her eyes. I also got the impression that I was the first person she'd told these stories to.

”You're good with tech, then?” I asked, in between mouthfuls of quite tasty pastries that had been popped out of a can.

”Yeah, I know a lot about it from my parents' work.” She paused, turning her gaze back onto me. ”The day we met, a few Blade Eaters set a trap for me, actually managed to catch me. If you hadn't showed up, I'd be dead. Thanks. Wish I could tell you they weren't going to be after you too, but...” She trailed off. ”Since they probably want both of us dead, we should team up. You seem like a badass, and you've got that weird force magic-” I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the force, but I didn't correct her, ”-so why not? We've got the same enemies, after all.”

”Sounds good to me.” I was honestly mostly just glad for a shower and a fresh meal at that point.

* * *

We spent the next few months killing off the Blade Eaters, getting closer to one another as we worked our way through dozens of bodies until all the membership was scattered or dead. I'd learned to use my powers better and better, and Ipresi had shown her talent at killing people. It wouldn't be quite right to say she was good at winning fights - it was more that she avoided them and instead engaged in one-sided ambushes.

We used the money from the loot we'd gathered - we actually managed to grab a ton of guns from the hideout when they fell apart - to buy a better place. It was a bit strange, buying a home with somebody who was pretty much just a friend and a sort-of business partner, but since we'd had each other's back in countless life and death situations over the months prior, I wasn't too concerned about it.

Shortly after moving in, the problems of having no fresh income source began to present themselves. It wasn't like we could dump our guns into an investment fund. Ipresi quickly found us a contact who could get us contracts for catching or killing people for credits. There were lots of different groups down in the undercity, and there were always at least some of them skirmishing, and there were always people who wanted other people dead and were willing to pay to make it happen. That kept us above water on such matters.

* * *

A year after I'd first met her, Ipresi and I were living together. She was a youthful sixteen at that time (fifteen when we'd met), and I was eating breakfast on the couch, watching a holoprojector screen. It was a damn sight better than ”burned rat monster,” but it was still the local equivalent of a TV dinner, something you warmed up and ate. Neither of us actually knew how to cook.

On screen, the news was talking about the ongoing war between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Discussions of planets being occupied and invaded, numbers like ”millions dead” thrown around for single systems without a trace of surprise or consequence. Sometimes they would show footage of a hollowed-out shell of a city, where troops had been forced to such a grinding seizure of territory that the entire population either died or fled. It sounded far worse than it did in the movies, but then again, they couldn't exactly show the sheer scale of a galactic war in the six hours or whatever they had to do so.