Wild Times on Taris

Wild Times on Taris is the next story of Star Wars: Mammals of the Old Republic.

## Premise

In this second story of Nick's epic galactic adventure, he finally awakens on Taris, meets Finnick, and, together, they start the search for Judy. As they work toward finding her, they meet new allies and battle new villains. All the while, Darth Malak seeks to destroy Judy. This part is in Nick's POV. Logan is in the role of Calo Nord.

## Story

I see a battle going on.

It is occurring on the bridge of a large ship. I see a beautiful female bunny Jedi that must be Judy Hopps wielding a yellow-bladed lightsaber, battling a tiger Dark Jedi with a red lightsaber. I can see those energy blades connecting with that burning hum, hear the clashes, see the chaos of battle. It all feels so real. I want to help her, but there seems to be nothing that I can do.

Then, suddenly, my eyes snap open.

It was all a dream. I am in some strange apartment on a world I don't immdediately remember traveling to. I see a Fennec fox in an orange flight jacket and green flight pants. He introduces himself as Finnick Onasi. I rub my head for a moment and sit up. Finnick and I hold a long conversation and he begins to tell me everything: how we were the two remaining survivors of the Endar Spire, and how we must find Judy. He tells me that Judy is a Jedi, and that she lead the strike team that defeated Darth Revan, Malak's Sith master. She also has the Force power of Battle Meditation, allowing her to inspire allies and demoralize the enemy. Finally, I learn that we are on Taris, an outer rim world that the Sith control. They have blockaded the planet, placed it under quarantine and martial law, and that no one could come or leave without being obliterated by the Sith space fleet. However, we needed to leave the apartment to find Judy. If Malak defeated her, we had no hope of winning.

I was ready to do the duty of a solider of the Galactic Republic.

Finnick and I walk out of the apartment and into a Sith interrogation. A  Black bear Sith solider was harrassing two aliens of the Duros species, one of which he murdered right in front of us, shooting him right in the chest with a blaster rifle. He spotted us and a battle began. We defeated the bear with strokes of a vibroblade, and the grateful Duros said he would drag the body off and hide. Finnick and I moved on. What followed was a grueling series of events. We tricked our way into the gang-infested lower city, where we agreed to help the Hidden Beks swoop gang get their accelerator back from the base of their rivals, the Black Vulkars. We also learned that a bunny Republic officer named Judy was found by them, and that we had to win a swoop race to help get her free.

Finnick and I were ready.

We got into the undercity, home to disease-carrying monsters called Rakghouls and the mammals and aliens of the village of outcasts. We also met the first of many allies that would be journeying with us: Mission Vao, a pretty teenage female Twi'lek, who needed help to find her Wookiee companion, Zaalbar. She agreed to help us find the base if we would help her find Zaalbar. I smiled and agreed. Traveling into the smelly, Rakghoul-infested sewers of Taris, we fought through, freeing Zaalbar from Gammorrean slavers. He also joined the team. We stormed the Vulkar base and defeated the gang members we found there, getting the accelerator back, despite the odds being stacked heavily against us. When we won, we breathed a sigh of relief. However, the real fight was only just beginning. There was still much more to go.

Now, to win the race and free Judy.

We returned to the Bek base, where we were welcomed back by the tiger leader, Gadon Thek, and told to stay overnight. The next day, I went to the swoop track. After signing in, that is when I saw Judy for the first time. She was beautiful beyond imagination. I knew I had to give it everything I had in order to win. I headed out on my run. Not only did I succeed, I won first place. It was time to free the Republic's heroine. However, Brejik, a male kudu, wouldn't have it. He accused me of cheating, then verbally attacked the race hosts. I noticed that Brejik had a lightsaber on his belt. From its size, I could see that it was designed for a bunny, meaning that it was Judy's. Suddenly, with no warning, Judy used the Force to escape her cage. Brejik was shocked when Judy raised her paw and used the Force to call her Jedi weapon to her.

In her paws, the glowing yellow blade ignited, just as I had seen in my dream.

Together, we defeated Brejik. Then, I got a chance to speak to Judy. She was beautiful, and strong-willed. I couldn't help but be drawn to her. We left to the upper city after I mentioned that Finnick was nearby, as he had left with Mission and Zaalbar in order to get supplies for the rest of the mission, not thinking that this would happen. We caught up with them at the apartment. After a brief disagreement with Finnick, Judy calmed herself, and we all left. That's when we were approached by a green-skinned male Twi'lek. He told us that we had a summons from one Idris Bogo, a famed Mandalorian mercenary that I had heard spoken in the cantinas during the course of the mission. It was said that he was the best merc in the outer rim, and that he now worked for Exchange crime lord Doug Ramses. We agreed to go. We then headed for the lower city. I tried to picture Bogo in my head, but his species I had not been heard of or told. Surely, he was a large and mighty mammal or alien.

When we entered the lower city cantina, that's when we saw him.

He was a massive Cape buffalo wearing a black shirt, tan pants and a brown vest. He had both a massive vibrosword and and a large blaster rifle slung over his shoulders. For a long instant, I wondered if he fought in the Mandalorian Wars that ended just five years ago. Then he spoke to us, to me. His plan was simple: Escape Taris. However, his plan required us to break in to the Sith base to get the starship launch codes. That done, we could get into Doug's estate, and, with me posing as a new recruit, take his starship. However, the codes were key. Without them, we would be destroyed. I agreed. Bogo told me to go to an upper city droid shop and buy an astromech droid that Doug was having built, even giving us the four thousand credits for it. Having no choice, we did so. T3-M4 joined us when we bought him, and we all genuinely liked him. We broke into the Sith base and, with Judy's help, defeating the Sith governor of Taris, a leopard wielding a red Sith lightsaber, we got the codes.

Our escape was at hand.

When we returned to him, Bogo took us to Doug's estate. If only we know what was going on in space above us. Up there, Darth Malak was telling his ibex admiral, Omri Curvehorn, to gather the fleet and destroy the city on the planet. We had no sense of it as it began. Meanwhile, we met Doug and his Honey badger bounty hunter Logan Whitestripe, considered to be the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. We began to speak with Doug and told him that we couldn't wait to work with him. He left to perform a background check on me. Now was the time. We sprang into action. No one could stand before our might. We got the codes to the hangar, and the codes to open the hangar. Opening the door, Doug was furious as he realized what the Sith were doing: destroying the city, and we had interrupted his escape. He and Logan attacked, but we defeated Doug, and Logan was taken care of by a falling section of the roof. We boarded Doug's legendary ship, the Ebon Hawk. Finnick was the pilot, with me serving as the co-pilot. We blasted off into space as Taris' once-grand city was destroyed. Judy suggested we head for Dantooine, home to a Jedi enclave. After I destroyed some Sith fighters in a brief but deadly space battle, we headed off.

It was on to Dantooine, where I would begin the path to my destiny.