Balto: A Star Wars Tale

All things in reference to Star Wars are the property of George Lucas and Lucasfilm.

Balto, Jenna, Boris, Muk, and Luk are the property of Amblin entertainment and Universal studios.

A long, long time ago

In a Galaxy far, far away....

“I'm never going to get off this worthless hunk of rock” Balto said to himself as he walked down the alley. He was a husky/wolf living in the suburbs of Ord Mantell. A not so nice place to be. It rivaled Tatooine in the number of outlaws, gangsters, black market dealers, and other sorts of scum that lived there.

Balto was from the planet Lupis. Three different species shared the planet. There's the Canines, the Geese, and the Bears. The Canines were the most advanced of the species and had begun space travel around 15 years before the Battle of Naboo.

The Geese had begun space travel around the same time but preferred to stay on the planet. The Bears were the most primitive of the three. They had launched their first ship around the time of the Battle of Geonosis.

As the Clone Wars began, the Confederacy of Independent Systems invaded Lupis and quickly conquered the planet. They secretly kidnapped 200 husky's and began genetic testing on them. They were hoping to create an Elite force of enhanced soldiers. They were successful in increasing there strength, endurance, and even physical height.. When completed they were given the name Wolves.

Unfortunately, they rebelled and managed to get off planet and began attacking anyone they came across. As the Clone Wars dragged on, they continued their path of destruction. They got so bad that even General Grievous was reported to have said that they needed to be eliminated. After having run free for over 5 years they decided to return home.

This was a dark day in Canine, as well as Goose and Bear, history. The Wolves took over everything and enslaved the Geese and Bears. They ruled for almost ten years before being defeated by the newly formed Empire. When the Wolves were defeated, the huskys began to imprison all the pups of the Wolves. After they had done that, a new law was made saying that cross-breeding was illegal. But one Wolf managed to escape.

He was found as a pup by a kind family and raised in their house. After he had gotten old enough, he started working for a merchant and saved his credits for as long as he could. He started his own trading company and became very successful. He even managed to buy a Neimoidian Lucrehulk-class cargo freighter. He soon married a husky and within two years had puppies. But some were suspicious of one of the pups because of his looks and size. An investigation by some of the dogs who lived around them revealed that he could be part wolf. The authorities quickly came even though there was no proof of the claim. They forced the whole family to have a blood test. Only the wife checked out negative.

They tried to make a run for it but the guards pulled out their blasters and fired. Three of the fours pups and their mother dropped to the floor with a blaster hole in them. The father took one in the arm but kept running while cradling the fourth pup. He made it to the shipyard and saw a freighter with it's cargo hold open. Knowing he had no choice he threw his pup into the cargo hold just as it was closing. A few minutes later the ship took off. He stood and watched as it shot out into space. His last words before a blaster bolt hit him were “Goodbye Balto.”

Balto walked into a bar not far from where he lived and decided to try is hand at a game of sabacc.

Sabacc was a game played with electronic cards. When the cards are dealt you add up the total value of your cards. The objective is to get as close to 23 as possible without going over (like blackjack). Each round players have to either bet to stay in or fold. Any player who choses to stay in can draw a new card, discard a card, or place a card into the interference field to lock it's value. At the end of any round a player could come up, revealing his or her hand and forcing all other players to show their cards as well. Best hand at the table wins the pot. Any score over 23, or below -23, is a bomb-out that requires the player to pay a penalty. The hard part about the game is that at random times the cards shift to a new value, meaning that you could have a pure sabacc, 23, or even an Idiots Array (the highest score possible, like a royal flush in spades) and all of a sudden the cards shift to where you have 40 and you bomb-out. It's a game of luck.

“And the way my life has been so far... I have poor luck.”

Balto sat down at the table anyway. He looked around at the other five players. There was a middle aged human who looked as if this was his first game by the way he was sweating, a large Barabel who Balto hoped quit real soon because he had seen an angry Barabel before and it wasn't pretty, a Rodian who, if you could read Rodian expressions in the first place, looked as if he had played before. And won. There was also a blue skinned Twi'lek female who also looked as if she had played before, and finally, a Kel Dor. The Kel Dor was the one Balto was most worried about.. No matter how hard you tried you could not read his face. Maybe it had to do with the big, black antitox mask he was wearing so he could actually breathe in this atmosphere.

“You played sabacc before?” asked the Twi'lek.

“Once or twice. I'm not very good though.”

“Never say that out loud” said the Kel Dor “You lose your advantage.”

“Here are your cards Gentlemen” said the droid dealer pleasantly.

“Humph. They should have one that a female made” grumbled the Twi'lek.

Everyone was quiet as they got their cards. Balto tried his best to keep a sabacc face but he wasn't very good at it. The human looked at him and nervously put his cards down and said “Fold.”

The Rodian took a glance around the table and said “I'll raise 100 credits.”

Balto groaned inwardly. 100 credits was all he had left! He had spent everything else trying to fix his ship. “I should have known better than to do this” he thought to himself. “I forgot how high they bid.”

He put in the hundred anyway.

The Kel Dor and Twi'lek matched the bet. The pot was now 600 credits.

Balto was waiting to see what everyone else was going to do and noticed suddenly that his cards were vibrating. He looked down and saw that his cards were shifting! “Come on, come on...” 'Blip' “Yes.”

His card total was 20. Not bad.

He jumped with surprise when the Barabel slammed his cards on the table angrily. “Bombed-out.”

The Rodian smiled and laid down his cards. 19.

The Twi'lek snorted and put her cards down. “Stupid shifter. 10.”

Everyone looked at the Kel Dor. “20 as well.”

The droid spoke up and said “There is a tie. The game will go into sudden demise.” This meant Balto and the Kel Dor would play against each other for the pot.

The droid dealt there cards. Balto looked down at his hand. It equaled 8.

The Kel Dor put one of his cards into the interference field at the center of the table.

The dealer dealt two more cards. Balto now had 22. He couldn't believe it. First a 20, now a 22.

The Kel Dor was looking at his cards when they shifted.

“Oh... no” Balto said to himself. He closed his eyes for a second. He looked down, at a pure sabacc. “It only had shifted one point! How is that possible?”

He looked at the Kel Dor who was as always, unreadable. The Kel Dor looked up and said “Bombed-out.”

Balto reached in and scooped out the credits. Almost 700.

Balto decided to try one more game. It went smoothly enough with Balto winning another pot, this being 1,500 credits. “Boy, I should do this more often” he thought to himself.

He thought about one more game but after seeing the look the Barabel was giving him he decided he better quit while he was ahead and in one piece.. But the Barabel wasn't happy with that.

It jumped at him from across the table, just as he was getting up to leave.

Balto managed to get out of the way but the Barabel turned around and came at him again. By now the whole cantina had joined the fight. Just when things were about to get real ugly there was a snap-hiss sound. Everyone stopped immediately. Standing in the middle of the room, was the Kel Dor holding a bright yellow.... Lightsaber!

Balto couldn't believe his eye's. A Jedi standing in the room!

“Everyone calm down” said the Kel Dor in a low voice.

Just then a squad of six stormtroopers walked into the cantina after being called about the fight. They saw the lightsaber and stopped dead in their tracks. The commander recovered quickly and began to open fire on the Kel Dor. Balto had never seen a creature move so fast. The lightsaber was knocking away blaster bolts as if they were nothing!

Then the other troopers opened fire.

The Kel Dor looked over at Balto and yelled “RUN!”

Balto was only too happy to oblige. He made a quick dash for a side door and quickly found himself out on a alley way behind the cantina. He jumped with surprise when he saw the Kel Dor next to him.

“I need to hide . Do you know of a place?”

Despite Balto's better judgment he said “Follow me. I'll take you to my place. We have to hurry!”

They quickly ran down the alley into the night.

Hooo..... Peeer. Hooo..... Peeer.

Darth Vader's breathing quickened a bit when he got the report about an incident on the planet Ord Mantell.

“So it appears that a Jedi survived. This will not be tolerated.” He

1 2 3 4 5

Next page