The SW-Fans Holiday Special

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Hoth

It was Life Day.

A day that all set aside their differences and came together as one. Gifts were given and received, the food was plentiful, and merriment was everywhere.

Echo Base was much changed in the years since its' abandonment, and now it reflected the spirit of the holiday. Red and green decorations had been set up all around, candles burned brightly in silver and gold holders, and holly had been hung along the hallways. Wreaths adorned doors, and a few open archways even had mistletoe hanging from their topmost centerpieces.

The main hangar had been cleared of debris, and a large tree placed in its' middle. Brightly wrapped gifts seemed to overflow from the base of the tree, which itself had been decorated profusely with ornaments, lights, garlands, and tinsel. All present had had a hand in placing their own decorations, and the tree was a hodgepodge of dangling Imperial gears, Rebel insignias, and an assortment of other doo-dads.

People milled about everywhere, exchanging happy - and very foreign for some - greetings.



Moving easily through the sea of bodies, s'Il was mindful to keep a firm hold on Tak's hand. The little girl was a veritable ball of energy, eyes big as she grinned from ear to ear.

"Where's Wyl??!"

"I don't know, Sweatheart. Keep looking, I'm sure he's here somewhere."

"And Sanis is here too, and Cirr and Daani and Zem, right?"

The elder Lupine gave a smile.

"Somewhere."

"... And where's Dad?" The little girl suddenly cast her eyes about. Her Dad had been walking right beside Dama not long ago, but had somehow gone missing.

"Probably over by the eggnog."



It was Life Day.

[Sanis Prent]

We were far beyond the inner marker of Echo base, and the winter chill was making itself known. I tugged the fleece-lined hood of my outer coat tighter over my head, and redoubled my scarf. Somewhere in these snow drifts, commscan had detected an unidentified landing. How Cirr and I drew the short straw to figure out exactly what it was, was a total crock, that's what!

"Cirr, hurry up! I don't want to become an ice sculpture out here!"

My ever-present Cizerack sidekick was taking the weather a little better than I was.

"We'rre almost therre, hang on."

He trudged through the ankle-deep snow in long strides as I struggled to keep up. I could hear the locator pinging in his hands. The pings were getting closer and closer.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei was sitting at the bar, up to his eyeballs in liquors from all over the galaxy. "Man's got to do something to keep warm," he said to a Talz on his left. "Best way to keep warm ever.

"You know what I want for Life Day?" he said to the nervous Twi'lek on his right, "I want a..." his voice trailed off in search of his train of thought. "I want a thing. A big thing what I can use for--"

Jedi Knight Wei Wu Wei found his exposition thwarted by the sudden realization that his glasses were empty. There were five before, but now there were twenty, and only five of them were real."

"A thing I can use to always keep the stinking booze still. It keeps moving around and I can't grab it."

Wei reached past one glass: first on the left, then on the right until the bartender (an adorable little thing) gave him a sweet smile and took it away from him. "Thanks for the patronage," she said and kissed him on the cheek. "Come see me later. You don't want to pass out before you have had the chance to celebrate Life Day."

[Rossos Atrapes]

Soundtrack

Everyone in one place. It was almost too good to be true.

"Hehehehehehehehehehe," he chuckled evilly. A gravelly voice just made it sound that much more evil.

"Now, which plan will I use to bring them under my sway, and to FINALLY see the looks on their faces when they learn they are drinking... high fat content and calorie egg-nog!"

He scratched an itch on his chin. A nice side-effect of the action (other than making the itch go away), was that he looked awesome doing it. It wasn't all that often he could go all out and be the type of evil he truly wanted to be.

"But the high calorie fad may have gone out by the time the Mandalorians arrive from my phony distress call. Or maybe not. You never know with Mandalorians. One minute Boba Fett's leading them in the clone wars, and the next he's a little brat!"

He grumbled about villains needing to be consistent a bit more, before getting back to his evil plotting.

"So, scrap the high fat egg-nog plan," a large hologram in the middle of the darkened (what else would it be?) room added a giant red X beside High-Fat Plan 365-6.7822.

"Ahah! Mind control! A villain's greatest friend! Always comes through until they get stupid and rely on it too much. But since I'm so good, I'll be different. Hehehehehehehehehehehe."

He grinned as he pulled out a bag from a drawer full of red and green socks. Upon this bag was printed: Liquid Soluble Mind Control Chemical Powder: An Early Life-Day present from A Villain's Best Friend Mail-order catalogue!

"Now, I surely can't show up there myself. They'd know straight away that I was up to no-good this holiday season!" He pondered a moment, until his clever and sneaky villain-y brain came up with the best solution. "Hire a bounty hunter! No! Two! It's fool-proof! MWahahahahahahahaha!"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena felt uncomfortable amongst all the merriment. It reminded her of her childhood.

She didn't like being reminded of her childhood.

The Dark Jedi hung out against a wall near the punch table, a cup in her hand and her arms crossed defensively in front of her.

[Wyl Staedtler]

Wyl liked Life Day. A lot. There was an entire section in his brain cordoned off and devoted solely to the countdown until the holiday. The boy's energy was directly related to how close the season was, and by the time the actual celebration rolled around, Wyl was practically frothing at the mouth.

It couldn't be helped though. Everything was so magical at this time of year. The lights and camaraderie, the treats and fireworks, the singing and gift-giving. He was the sort of kid that, given the right environment, had the potential to grow into that guy - the one who wore knitted seasonal sweaters and put lights up at the tail end of summer and hummed carols until his coworkers threatened bodily harm.

"FIII-IIIIIII-IIIVE ASTRO DROIDS!" Decked out in a fuzzy hat studded with blinking lights, Wyl belted out the song like his life depended on it. The sudden noise startled a passing technician so badly that he spilled a mug of Hoth chocolate down the front of his shirt. Wyl grinned brightly and glanced over his shoulder at his Master. His face fell into a scowl. "You're not singing, Daria!"

Before he could chastise the Jedi any further, he spotted a familiar head of golden hair bobbing through the crowd. Wyl gasped in sheer joy.

"Tak!" He darted over, brandishing a handful of Wookiee-ookiees. "Isn't this great?!"

[Tear]

Between icy pink fingers he squeezed, focusing it. It, also referred to as the destroyer, had taken him some time to gather outside in the harsh elements of Hoth but it was worth it. With the precision of an assassin he navigating the heated corridors of Echo base toward his target. Time was crucial and it wouldn't be long for someone to discover his plot and even worse possibly warn others. That worry quickly vanished as he rounded a corner finding his prey unawares clutching a cup of, what was that...fruit punch?

"I have you now." Tear whispered and with a perverse grin he attacked. He exhaled smoothly, his muscles tensing with anticipation as he lead his target and with great vigor he slung the destroyer! It past through the air like a comet through space leaving a tail of chilly white powder.

'PUFF'!

The snow ball exploded, with a direct hit, into a shower of slushy white doom.

"All to easy." Tear gave a playful wink to his somber target, Lilaena De'ville.

[Travis North]

Travis was pouring himself a glass of punch when, from the corner of his eye, he saw Lilaena eat powder. Reflexes kicked in, he dropped the ladel and shot a glance over his shoulder in time to see Tear's wink.

Just some good old fun. He returned to getting himself a drink and spoke just loud enough for the Dark Jedi to hear, "I'll join you if you want to get him back. The Inquisitors aren't my favourite allies."

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

There he was! And what a hat!! Wyl was just so much fun to be around, and he knew a lot about ships and speeders and stuff too.

"Wyl!!"

Pulling away from Dama, Tak ducked past groups of talking grown-ups and skipped her way to him. With a beaming smile on her face, she reached out to run a palm over the soft fuzz on his hat.

"I got you a present," she grinned, "... I put it under the big tree in the hangar."

[Shadow Storm]

The snow was plentiful and it was deep. This registered in the back of his mind as Shark crept closer to his target.

The beast took a sniff of the air and straightened.

He had been detected.

The wampa turned his head about and spotted him, even while he was wearing white gear that blended in with the snowy background. Letting loose a guttural roar, the beast lunged forwards, claws outstretched for an easy dinner.

The cracking of a whip sounded through the nearby landscape, accompanied by a pained roar as one of the wampa's hands was severed loose from it's arm, the bloody partial appendage falling and marring the whiteness of the landscape.

Having dodged out of the way, Shark lifted the whip, implanted durasteel fragements glistening with blood. By far his favorite tool of the trade, he never went anywhere without it, save for perhaps an occasional face to face meeting with his boss.

Roaring with anger and pain, the wampa charged him again. This time, Shark waited until the wampa was almost upon him, before ducking and side-stepping around the beast. With a quickness and agility that he was known by his superiors to possess, he leapt up onto the wampa's back.

The beast tried to dislodge him, but all he had to do was stay on the side of the non-severed arm to avoid having a claw dig into him and throw him off. Using the whip again, this time Shark used it as a garrote, wrapping it around the beast's neck and pulling tight, digging his knees into the wampa's back. Warm red liquid spilled down it's chest as the roars died off into a strange and eerie choking sound.

It took a full two minutes before the beast expired, dropping into the snow with a thud.

In most cases, his job would be done when he finished killing something. In this case however, he had only just begun. Thumbing an activation switch for his holosled parked nearby, Shark replaced his whip for a skinning knife, and set to work on the wampa's corpse.

[Wyl Staedtler]

Wyl grinned brightly, multi-coloured crumbs falling from his mouth as he laughed in delight.

"You did?!" He'd been poking around the tree earlier, admiring it's festive garnishing and the gaily-wrapped gifts beneath it's ornamented boughs. He hoped Tak hadn't spotted the package addressed to her when she was there - he'd run out of wrapping paper and had tied a scarf around the box, hiding the open side as best he could, but it wasn't exactly impenetrable. The surprise would be ruined if she'd peeked!

"I got you one too! And I wrapped it myself! Well," Wyl scrunched up his face and lowered his voice. "Rhianna helped, with the corners. They're hard."

He reached into his pocket and handed her a slightly-gooey candy stick. "Don't you just love Life Day?!"

[Rossos Atrapes]

It took him a bit to find his Extended List of Bounty Hunters bookmark on his holonet browser. He really needed to find something better than Holonet Explorer, it was just plain disorganised. Scrolling through the lists, he stopped at a flag for two up-and-coming young men known for their abilities in making a scene but still escaping during their jobs.

Best of all, they were cheap!

Digging through his carry-on bag from the flight onto Hoth, he finally found his comm-link. He entered the number...

"We're sorry, but your comm-link network is unavailable at this time. Find a better reception area, or the area you are in is currently not covered by your plan."

Rossos stared at his comm-link with something akin to dismay, anger, and outright hilarity. "Galaxy's best reception my..." he murmured, while wandering about the room looking for better reception. He knew he could make calls here; he'd called to make sure that his phicus was being watered back at the Citadel!

It got to the point where he didn't even notice where he was wandering.