Chapter Text
Dryl Thrysa was born on Kiffu in 15BBY but moved with his parents in 10BBY to Kuat when his father got a job with KDY to work on weapon systems for the AT-AT. It was watching the behemoths being manufactured that Dryl promised himself that one day, he would drive one of the giant walkers and joined the Imperial Army to train as a pilot for the AT-AT shortly after his birthday on 3ABY. After completed training, he was stationed in the Imperial Armor Corps where he became friends with the three other pilots in his platoon, Erka, Nyko, and Carja. An advantage they had was Nyko teaching them the martial art Zama-Shiwo which made their team even more cohesive. As the Empire began to fall into disarray after the Battle of Endor, troops started being reassigned. Luckily, Carja was also a slicer and was able to manipulate the systems to keep them all together so they were all given orders to join the Hellhound Attack Force on the Star Destroyer Interrogator.
In the year 5ABY, his AT-AT, along with the others in the platoon was destroyed during the Battle of Jakku. In the resulting crash from the fall, Dryl’s right leg was severely injured along with some serious head trauma and internal injuries. After being released from the infirmary, Dryl was in New Republic custody for only a short time as he and the others were able to escape after fabricating weapons and leaving nearly two dozen casualties in their wake. During the course of their escape, Carja intercepted a transmission concerning a sudden end of pursuit by NR forces.
TO: M. Zynn- Warden, Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center
FROM: Director Janitz, New Republic Security Bureau
RE: Escaped Prisoners D. Thrysa, E. Hunel, N. Markey, C. Keen
Concerning the loss of 21 personnel and extensive facility damage during the escape of the four All Terrain Armored Transport pilots listed above, you are hereby ordered to call off any and all pursuit that you are currently conducting. It is not in the New Republic’s immediate or long term interests to expend resources trying to recapture these individuals. It is my understanding that one was barely able to walk but still managed to kill 4 of your men. If these individuals are capable and dangerous enough to accomplish what they did acting on instinct and improvisation, I cannot imagine what they may be capable of if they were to gain access to real weapons and are encountered in a place of their choosing.
Over the next few years, Dryl and the others worked on the planet Denon as enforcers for a Hutt named Gyn. With the four having a habit for excessive violence, he tagged them as his Wrecking Crew. Their unique 'problem solving' skills were utilized when Gyn wanted to send a special message to competitors and others that greatly offended him.
Between assignments for the Hutt, the Wrecking Crew were permitted to merc themselves out so long as their activities didn’t interfere with or affect his interests. After completing the job on one such occasion, the four decided to take some time off and go fishing somewhere off the beaten path. While away from their camp to answer the call of nature, a scanner Nyko always carried picked up a very faint distress beacon. After gathering the others, they follow the signal and find it coming from an abandoned Corellian YT-1930. On the outside, they found nothing of interest and the ship itself looked as if it had been sitting there for several years.
Nyko first had to bypass the lock to lower the ship's ramp which lets the team find the remains of who they guessed to be the ship's captain. Judging by the clothing and style of the whisps of hair sticking to the skeletal remains it's guessed the person to have been a female in her later 30s and the cause of death was a blaster shot in the back. There is a Crimson Dawn necklace around the corpse's neck but there was absolutely nothing else to indicate who she was as her chain code had been rendered unreadable. The ship's computer revealed nothing of significance as everything other than factory installed programs had been wiped. Diagnostics showed that the ship had been upgraded to contain a Class 1 hyperdrive and was in good working order aside from having sat for an indeterminate amount of time.
After giving the body a proper burial, Carja sliced into and changed the transponder, registering it to Wreckers Unlimited out of Denon and when asked what the ship is to be named, without hesitation everyone deferred to Nyko as he was the defacto leader of the team. After a moment's consideration and a lopsided grin the answer “Fool's Errand” had everyone reaching for a flask of Haidoral brandy they each kept to 'seal the deal' on very important decisions.
Dryl and Erka are given the task of finding anything of value or importance. Except for a few spare parts and other equipment, the port side cargo bays were empty but in the starboard side Dryl and Erka found several crates marked as belonging to the Imperial Army. Hitting the comm button, Dryl calls for Nyko and Carja.
“Get back here. Now.”
Opening the crates, the crew finds 10 complete sets of DC-17m ICWS including DC-15s pistols, 10 DLT20A blaster rifles, 20 E-11 blaster rifles, 20 SE-14r light repeating blasters, 10 DLT-19 heavy blaster rifles and 20 Scout Trooper blaster pistols. Another case held 10 Verpine sniper rifles. The SE-14r cache caused a bit of nostalgia for the four as these were what they carried while piloting their AT-ATs. Nyko looks to his friends,
“We have a decision to make. Do we turn these in to the First Order and see if they’ll take us in or do we find us a buyer for the hardware?”
Dryl takes several of the DC-15s pistols along with parts kits and heads for a work station, the ever-existent limp from his leg injury very evident as he had been crawling around in the ship’s weapons systems earlier.
“Why would we even think about going back? They abandoned us Nyk. We gave them everything we had and when things went to poodoo, we were left for dead. There Empire we served is gone. I vote that we say Echuta to the all of them and we keep doing what we’ve been doing which is looking out for nobody but each other.”
Nyko nodded in acceptance of Dryl’s answer then turned to Carja and Erka,
“What about you two?”
“He’s right Nyk. There’s nothing for us to go back to.”
Carja pulled one of the ICWS kits and two SE-14s out of their respective crates before answering,
“I’m with them. Let's grab what we want out of the stash here and then find buyers for the rest.”
Dryl stripped one blaster and assembled a custom sidearm that while not visually appealing by any stretch of the imagination and will be very loud, it is more powerful than is legally permitted to the point that to be caught with it would guarantee 5 years in an Imperial prison colony and offers the option of a three shot burst. After finishing the blaster, he finds the beginnings of a double barrel custom piece that is referred to as a chopped special in some circles. Looks like finishing it will take a long time but he figures it's a project piece for later. Back on Denon, Gyn was more than happy to find buyers for the weapons before releasing them from his service as some of their activities had brought him trouble from the New Republic.
While profits were not a windfall, the next two years were successful for the crew as their reputation preceeded them and someone was always in need for their associates and competitors to come to a special kind of 'understanding'. Continued prosperity was not to be theirs though when they took a job for a Wroonian wanting protection while on Malastare during some of the annual pod races. Unbeknownst to the team, their client was on the run from debtors after having welched on several bets on Cantonica and Tatooine. While at a pre-race party, four Trandoshans got too aggressive in demanding the credits she owed to their employer. The confrontation turned into a brawl very quickly where the team did not fail to demonstrate how they got their name by using whatever was in their reach and several flat surfaces (tables, walls, the ceiling) to put down the threat to their client. Flying fists, furniture and bodies stopped suddenly when Nyko was shot point-blank in the chest.
The resulting firefight left the Trandoshans and several others dead, including Carja and Erka. After recovering his fallen comrades’ weapons, credits and identifying materials, Dryl limped back to the Wroonian who was applying a bacta patch where a blaster bolt had grazed her cheek.
“You knew someone would be looking for you so you hired us to keep them off your back.”
The blue skinned woman pales considerably before nodding and starts to inch away from look in her bodyguard’s eyes.
“So what now?”
“Now... I'm going to do I was hired to do. Before we take another step though, have you placed any bets today that I should be aware of?”
The client shakes her head, which lets Dryl relax some.
“Good. In light of recent events, if you were to be approached by any more collectors, I might be inclined to say to Hell with our contract and look the other way while they do whatever crossed their nasty imaginations.”
As the two are leaving, Dryl tosses several small gas canisters in different parts of the room along with a remote triggered explosive in the middle before closing the door as the canisters start releasing their contents.
“Why did you do that?”
“So it will take longer for anyone to identify the remains and hopefully it’ll keep us away from any other unpleasantness.”
Before she could ask anything else, Dryl pulls the woman along and once a safe distance away, he pushes a remote button for the explosives, reducing the building to rubble.
While the client hadn’t lied to Dryl about placing any bets that day, she had placed several bets remotely before landing and as luck would have it, she won big, allowing her to transfer credits and pay off all but one of her debts. Dryl fulfills the contract by returning the client to Saleucami but he doesn’t look back as she is beset upon by a Zabrak who works for her remaining debtor.