Timana sat at in his podium, unlike most Hutts where his visage was purely repulsive he was physically dominating enough to be even intimidating. Not many Hutts could say that, the scar running down and over his left eye just helped contribute to the horrible visage of the one who was arguably one of the most militant and easy to anger Hutt. He had a reputation in Hutt Space, he controlled the most violent Hutt Faction with various fight arenas in the grounds of his palace alone.

He spoke in a thick Huttese accent, a droid translating in a mechanical voice. [It is said that you have brought great Timana a gift. Timana demands you tell him what it is.]

Being that Sirka was not part of the conversation, her concentration fell off of the Hutt and onto the more dangerous guards around them. Her eyes watched their movements, while her nose gauged their intentions. Right now, most everyone was fairly calm, apart from Boqo. Even the Hutt himself, as disgusting as he was smell, was not in the worst of moods. That, she imagined, would change quickly, and in short order. It was her job to figure out a way of the mess if something went wrong, which would be a tall order for basically anyone. They were surrounded, after all. Part of her wondered if she had been hired just to give Boqo a false sense of security to get him to accept the job in the first place. Few mercenaries would be able to do anything at all against such odds, but fortunately for Boqo, she was one of those few who might actually be able to do something. She could take more shots than they would expect, and she could get up to surprising speeds in a sprint.

Sirka paid more attention to Timana directly as Boqo started to speak. “This gift comes from my employer: The Golden Exchange.” He said simply before pressing the button to automatically open the box.

Timana roared a little, pushing a nearby slave off his podium as he moved forward. He was surprised to see one of his most trusted spies lying on the ground, at Timanas obvious outburst of rage the guards around the room all raised their weapons at the two individuals. The droid spoke up translated Timanas speech as soon as he had finished speaking. [Timana demands to know how the Golden Exchange found out about his most trusted agent? And what right Koren Graeff has in killing an agent of the Great Timana? Koren was the one who refused payment to assassinate, the Great Timana had to take matters into his own hands.]

Again, Sirka flicked out her tongues. The reveal had the predictable effect on the Hutt, which meant that Sirka had to be on guard. Being that she grew up on Nar Shaddaa, she understood Huttese, so she would not need to wait for a translation to know what orders he gave. Boqo remained both professional and confident in his outward demeanor. “We are just the couriers for this message. There is little that escapes Koren’s eye, and he feels this message is self-evident.”

By virtue of their scents, Sirka could feel how both the Hutt and his guards were reacting to the developing scene. Anger, confidence, worry. Everyone was on a blade’s edge, but she had a feeling the Hutt was hesitating to lash out at them for a reason. The Golden Exchange was a capable and frankly frightening entity to face. That was not to say that others, even Timana, could not stand against it with sheer might, but the balance of power in the region was so divided that no one could truly afford to make an enemy of them. That was a fact of which Sirka suspected the Hutt might need to be reminded. She had not been specifically told to speak, but she also had not been instructed not to speak. She could read a situation, and she felt that threat could be just what was needed to force a peaceful resolution. “It’s wise to...respect the Golden Exchange’s neutrality.”

Timana had a long inhale of breath before laughing in the age old Hutt obnoxious laugh ‘Oooooooh, ho, ho, hoooo.’ The guards all lowered their weapons, all most likely used to this form of trading in the Hutts domain. Timana began to speak closely followed by that of his translator. [Koren is a brash one. The great Timana advises that you take this time to leave, now and relay a message to the great Koren Graeff. He should be careful of whom he threatens.]

The guards relaxing was not enough to take Sirka off her guard, though she did try to avoid looking any more directly threatening than usual. Until they were out of Timana’s compound, or really, off the planetoid, they would not be truly safe. Still she took it to be a good sign, particularly since, as Boqo’s response indicated, they would be leaving shortly. “We will take our leave. Koren is always willing to do business, as long as conflict is kept away from his property.”

With that, there was nothing more left to say. The message had been delivered, and it would be hard for Timana not to understand it, even if they had said nothing at all. It was abundantly clear that the angry slug wanted them out of his sight, and for Sirka, the feeling was mutual. The pair started to make their way out of the chamber, though just in case, Sirka kept herself between Boqo and the guards.

---

Tez had serious thoughts about going to sleep there and then. The bed was just so soft, at least by his standards. He sat up though, knowing it would be bad form to be sleeping when the man who runs Paradise walks into the room. Tez looked at Kast who was still waiting alongside him, probably eager to get his pay and then leave. It seemed the girl didn’t leave either. She hadn’t really said much during this whole event, if at all anything though. It was a strange concept to Tez that Koren would’ve let someone close to him personally accompany the bounty hunter. Little did he know that the Mandalorian wasn’t fully okay with the arrangement of her joining. She seemed very young to be in a place like this though. Did she think Tez was scary? Afraid of Jedi? Superstitious about those who could use the Force? The Jedi dismissed the thoughts. He didn’t really care what people thought of him at the end of the day, as long as he’s done his job by the end of it.

Koren was walking down the corridor droids in tow, he handed a datapad of reports over to a B1 droid that then ran off with the data. It was coming up to memory wipe season, the issue with droids was that they tended to develop quirks over time. B1 Battle Droids were notorious for their ‘acting stupid’ when activated for too long. He just had to rotate the droids as effectively as possible, this was why he had various ‘batches’ of droids with any unique programming so he could rotate them occasionally for maintenance. He opened the door to the room, eyed the Jedi and Kast and his attention turned to Loretta. He was instantly annoyed, though at the same time not overly surprised. He tilted his head towards the door. “Tara was looking for you. She’s in her office.”

When Loretta didn’t move Koren just gave her a look, and put more force into his words. ”Go.”” She sighed as she walked out of the room, her bodyguards in tow. He cleared his throat and then looked at the other individuals in the room, the Jedi looked like he was ready to sleep and Kast was waiting for one thing. He turned to Kast first. “The credits have all been transferred, I’ve also seen to having your ship rearmed and refuelled for a hasty completion.” He couldn’t blame Kast for Loretta going. She was stubborn as anything, she had learned off him after all.

“Could use a new paint job too.” Kast mused, his datapad read the finalization of his payment. Straightening up, he left the two men alone. “I’ll see you around, Jedi. Not sure for what yet.” he said over his shoulder as he left the room, the implications of the innocent statement quite clear.

He then turned to the Jedi sitting on the bed. “My name is Koren Graeff, Master Jedi. It is very nice to meet you-” He bowed his head slightly. “-I’m the owner of this establishment and the Golden Exchange.”

The Jedi stood up from the bed as Koren introduced himself once the girl left the room. Tez wasn’t quite sure who to expect when he was told he’d be meeting Koren Graeff. Tez respectfully bowed in response to the kind greeting. “It’s quite an honor to meet a man of your stature in person.” He replied. “I’m very aware of your representation and your business. I wouldn’t believe a peace-zone like this could exist within the Outer Rim.” The Jedi admitted. “As much as I’m not a fan of the kind you harbor, I for one am impressed.” He said with honesty. It was truly a feat.

“However, I am most curious why you would want to speak with me, Koren. It’s your business to hold the information so I know that you know who I am. Have I upset a client of yours?” The Jedi asked curiously. He did not want to waste much time from getting to the point.

Koren sat in one of the luxurious armchairs, and indicated to the one across from him for the Jedi to sit. “You know, I was still kind of hoping you’d introduce yourself. Though first-” Koren leaned forward his hands clasped. “-If you had upset a client of mine would we really be speaking?”

The Jedi sighed as he sat on the chair and leant forward, resting his elbows on his legs. [b]“I’ll be honest, Koren. I find the pleasantries rather unimportant when you hire a bounty hunter to bring me here.”[/b Tez retorted. “But I suppose you have a good point there. So why are we speaking?”

Koren merely shrugged. “I see your point, that was rather rude however there is a certain level of appeal to your character. Had I merely sent a courier you would have undoubtedly suspected a trap. Sending a bounty hunter who doesn’t instantly open fire sends an entirely different kind of message, one that shows it’s legitimacy.” Koren clicked his fingers and a small hatch in the wall opened, a droid waddling in with a tray holding glasses containing drinks for them both. He hadn’t known the Jedis drink of choice so had just ordered two for Corellian Whiskys for himself.

He hated that many just considered it as Corellian Whisky. This was Sal-Horn Whisky. No doubt if it had been branded Solo it would have been far more popular, and undoubtedly popular for people to call it by it’s real name. “Tez, if I may call you Tez-” His eyes seemed questioning at this point, as if he genuinely did not want to offend his guest “-How much do you know off me
before my time in Hutt Space? Or should I say, how much can you guess?”

Tez was actually glad he was not given a drink. Not only did he find it unnecessary in his personal crusade, he also knew alcohol created difficulty in using the force. “Tez is fine.” He replied. While the politeness was rather nice, it really seemed that Koren was dodging the point. If this conversation was going to be a wild bantha chase then he was pretty disappointed. “In complete and total honesty Koren, I know nothing about you for sure. I was born in Hutt Space, I was born after the Old Republic, the Clone Wars… Considering your chosen occupation, I’d imagine you’ve had experience in intelligence offices. Now, you gain information and sell it to the highest bidder, without care of who the bidder is. The New Republic, The Empire, or Criminals. That’s what I know for sure.”

“I wouldn’t say I don’t care. I have stipulations, conditions that need to be met. I’m not going to explain all my methods to you, but they exist. In terms of who I am-” Koren shrugged. “-Small outer rim world, abused by the Republic. Separatist Intelligence Officer throughout the Clone Wars-” He indicated to the patch of armour that still clung to his shoulder and the faded logo upon it. “-that’s how I got the ship. What I’m getting at, is while our methods differ, our ideologies aren’t all that dissimilar. I just go about executing my long term plan in a… less direct method.” He shrugged.

“In terms of Paradise’ clientele, well not all are criminals. There are those that come here for safety to enjoy some time as families, as a form of holiday that they can afford. Without worry of being attacked, maimed or killed. I mean how many other places do you know in Hutt Space where you can have this form of freedom?” Koren leaned back in his chair, sipping his drink. “Can I get you anything to drink? I’m being rather rude, and I don’t just have alcohol. Caf, Soda, Water. What’s your pleasure?”

Tez nodded at each detail of his explanation, and didn’t utter a sound until he was asked about a drink. “A water would be just fine, thank you.” He requested in his polite tone. “And I do commend you for achieving such a feat Koren, I really do. However, what I don’t agree with is ideology. You cover yours in an impenetrable fog, so I’m having trouble comprehending this comparison. I do not wish to be rude either, but I hope you didn’t send a bounty hunter after me so we can have a conversation about our work lives.”

The small droid walked off to fetch the water, it wasn’t long before it re-appeared with a glass of crisp clean and clear water. Likely the cleanest in Hutt Space. “Well, we don’t all have a Lightsaber and the Force to keep us safe. Some of us have certain tools at their disposal, mine are simply different than yours. You use blunt instruments, I use precision tools. Though, I feel that we can combine the two. You want to know what I brought you here for? I want to sponsor you. I can give you resources, and up to date information on important goings on in the Galaxy.”

Tez took a sip of the water as he listened. Best water he ever tasted. However, his face clearly became disgruntled at Koren’s offer. While he could take it at face-value, it was a very kind offer. On the other hand, Tez couldn’t be certain of the underlying intentions of offering such a generous hand. Tez’s skills have been sought out before, many believing they could contract him to be a hitman. “I apologise Koren. Really, I do. If you think you can make me into a personal weapon for the Golden Exchange, then I might as well thank you for your time and take my leave.” He sighed, doing a poor job of not showing his annoyance.

Koren snapped his fingers and the door swooshed open, a BX-Commando droid walking in. Though instead of drawing any form of weapon it through Tez’s lightsaber over at him. “Tez, have you ever heard of the Exchange performing contract killings? Or killing people to benefit it? You forget. I lived in a time of Jedi, I’m not stupid enough to try and turn one into a goon, if I want a goon-” He tapped his foot on the floor indicating the levels below “-I have plenty of choice that would require far less resources and would come with much less of a moral compass to contend with. I’m offering you somewhere safe to rest your head, resources to train and equip yourself and information on targets of your choosing. You doing what you are currently doing, that’s the payment.”

He shrugged. “Consider currently giving you your lightsaber a mark of trust.”

Tez listened to Koren’s explanation. This man was hard to argue with, and he knows how to make a good offer. But something about it made Tez very wary that Koren most likely stood to gain from it. What was a shock, was the droid giving the lightsaber back. Tez affixed the hilt back to his belt. “You must forgive my stand-off attitude, and I do appreciate this token of trust…” Tez began. “You make an offer that I should find very hard to turn down, but I must know your intentions. I will not work under someone so secretive. I understand that you run a business of information, and secrets are the product you trade with, but I’m having trouble understanding why you would provide these resources with no clear profit. In such an efficiently run operation, I’m sure many would consider it a gross misallocation of resources.”

Orro took the droids hand and shook it, he rose from the crate and nodded to the shuttle awaiting them. "Everyone, lets get moving. All personnel on leave are to return to their shuttles, we leave as soon as possible. Now, Willoh have you ever been on a star destroyer before?" He asked, walking up the ramp of the shuttle.

The Moff took a seat, and looked to the bottle of brandy that he left out with his conversation with Talina, with any luck they would be on their way shortly and see what was so important on Dhira that not even Koren could truly find out it's cargo. He sighed, he had to focus on his mission now. "I think this will be the start of a beautiful friendship." He said, and chuckled, in his mind he didn't have friends he had weapons, and tools. But apart of him didn't believe in that, the years of politicking had probably made him a cynic. But this droid was a bounty hunter, it wouldn't take her long to betray him for the promise of more credits.

The moff got so lost in thought, he almost forgot about the droid. "So, where exactly were you made, and why were you made. Your skill set is unique to say the least." He asked, picking up the bottle of brandy and putting it away instead. He didn't need anymore of the drink at the moment.

A star destroyer? While Willoh had seen them from afar, she had never actually boarded one. To her they seemed to be small cities flying in space, and it was quite impressive how the Empire had so many of them. She wondered what it was like on one, and started to think of fun scenarios However she was brought out of her revere by Orro's targeted questions. No doubt in curiosity, but Willoh didn't know him very well so she decided to go with vague answers.

"Oh, I was made in Hutt space, I think Nar Shadda, but I find something as trivial as that to be pointless to remember. As for why, well, lots of strange droids are made in Hutt space, it is quite lawless after all. So its not uncommon for some super droid lover to decide to build a droid with 'quirkiness' already there from the get go, instead of needing to wait many, many years for a droid to develop those quirks on their own." Willoh explained, acting casual about the whole matter. As far as she knew, all Orro knew was what was on her bounty card for abilities, which was mostly weapons expert and stealth abilities with a quirky fun twist. Nothing too out of the ordinary there, considering some of those assassin droids had similar specs.

As the shuttle was loaded, up the men left the hangar with the exception of a few who entered and sat down. They were his bodyguard, and they had been disguised well as mechanics. But he didn't doubt that they would rather be in their armor, but he thought maybe she didn't know what he was talking about. The quirkiness was endearing to say the least, so he reaffirmed things. "Yes you certainly are quirky, it makes you unique. But I haven't met a droid who could change it's color on a whim, or speak so...Freely" He said this with a nod.

At the same time, the shuttle ramp closed and it took off leaving the hangar. Orro, didn't say much after that until the shuttle landed softly in the hangar of his star destroyer. "Welcome aboard The Adamant, my flagship. She's a beauty." He said, nodding he left the star destroyer down the ramp of the shuttle into the hangar. "Come on!" He shouted, from the bottom of the ramp.

Willoh departed from the shuttle behind Orro and his guard, a couple following behind her. Looking around, Willoh was pretty impressed with the star destroyer. But of course it was an imperial flagship, imperials always had that sense of grandiose, and well, they had ruled most of the known galaxy for many years if the holonet was to be believed. She didn't show her usual 'bouncy' curiosity at what she was seeing though, considering she was on a job, and only gave a more 'looking around with some enchantment' look instead. "Nice. Never been on one of these before, just like I figured. Its really big. Considering its a flagship, I wouldn't be surprised if you had a pool here for morale." Willoh said, showing her respect and admiration for the whole situation.

"So, which way to the meeting room or bridge or whatever? Or are we going to start things here?" Willoh said, not against a tour, but figuring asking something wouldn't be very professional.

Orro nodded. "It's quite the ship to explore, A pool would definitely be a nice addition. But alas, not something that comes standard with the ship." He laughed, the joke was so stupid he cut the laugh short. "I will show you to the bridge." Orro said, and led her through the ship. It was abuzz with various imperial personnel going about their business, they all stopped to salute the pair as they walked.

The further they went into the ship, the more his bodyguard was replaced with storm troopers in armor and with blasters. This continued until they had a small squad behind him, when they made it to the bridge they dispersed in a circle around it. "Don't mind them." He said, and sat in the command chair. "Bring us into hyperspace, we are going to Kessel." His voice had visibly changed, it was more tense, more commanding.

It didn't even seem like seconds had gone by, before the crew had jumped into action and the familiar view of hyperspace was all the pair saw. "Make yourself at home, it won't be long." He said, turning in his chair to face the droid.

There were lots and lots of neat things to see on the way to the bridge, the chief among them being all the people. Course the storm troopers were pretty funny as they replaced the squad that was following the pair beforehand. It was something about those helmets that just made Willoh laugh at them. None the less, they followed the pair to the bridge, getting into a guarding formation, Orro saying not to worry about them before telling his crew to jump to hyperspace.

"Make myself at home? I think that's not something you want me to do." Willoh said, practicing proper maid droid motions and etiquette. "Otherwise you guys would have no atmosphere, No atmosphere really keeps the pirates at bay when your traveling alone." She continued, still practicing motions, but trying to make them super cute.

Orro chuckled. "Guess I keep forgetting that part." He said, Orro just sat and stared out into the void of space, as stars passed them at lightspeed. It didn't take long to drag him out of his his thoughts before his second in command entered the room. "M'lord, are you sure you want to go alone?" She asked. "I have confidence in our droid friend, if i run into trouble on the inside, she has my permission to do what is necessary." He laughed, and gestured to Willoh. "Am I right? Besides, I'm not going to win this game. I'm going to lose on purpose." He turned to Willoh. "But my confidence does run deep, but understand failure is not an option. If you fail, it's both of us on the line, and your reputation as well." He looked over over cupped hands at her, and nodded hoping that she would take this mission seriously.

Mr. Orro was a chipper sort. Not like the stories Willoh had heard about other Moffs. "Of course I'll get the job done." Willoh said, replying to Orro's question, practicing her speech patterns."I'm equipped with many tools and self defensive measures." Her eyes gave a disgusted look for a moment. Standard droid talk was so... boring and so... predictable. But she had to do it for the mission, at least til it was over. "Or should I go in-between how I normally speak and how factory default droids speak? Something that isn't too out there? Hm...." Whilloh said, pondering for a moment before deciding. "Yeah, something in-between should be better. Call it an 'enhanced human relations' program or something. Usually I get all this sorted out when I'm on transit, guess you get to see it all!" His worry about failure wasn't much of an issue. Worse comes to worse, there was always plan B.

Orro nodded, he was sure that if it came down to it. The droid would do anything for those credits, but he didn't care what happened to her as much. After she fulfilled her purpose, maybe he would hire her. "How many languages do you know?" He asked, the droid. Willoh was practicing her vocabulary when asked, and she replied. "Whatever I can find on the holonet. But mostly common and binary."

At the same time the star destroyer emerged from hyperspace above Kessel, other imperial ships were prominent in orbit, two star destroyers started to approach The Adamant, but they stood down when they identified themselves.

Confident in her practices, Willoh put on her maid act. While she was still a bit more articulate than a standard droid, that wouldn't really be noticed considering she was posing as a maid anyway."Alrighty, lets get this job done, shall we master?" Willoh said, getting into the act.

The moff nodded, and led the droid back through the ship to the hangar, the shuttle was already prepped and awaiting. This time the moff, and the droid were the only two occupants besides the pilots. Another first, was Orro arming himself with his officers pistol tucking it away into a hidden holster. He had back up, intelligence agents were sent ahead in a normal run of the mill freighter, and they had hidden T-7 disruptor rifles in their cargo.

So if things went south Orro could extract the droid before she gave up to much, not that he doubted her if things went south but he knew bounty hunters. When it came to their own skins, they would sell you out in a heartbeat. As the shuttle left the hangar, Orro seemed to be going over things in his head one last time. First he would lose the game the wager being the droid in his company, the droid would gather information while he stayed on the planet for a few days to do "Business" Then he would confront the other moff and make him throw his support in with Orro.

The shuttle touched down at a landing pad within the grounds of the manor, as the pair stepped off and the Moff stepped out of the shuttle he was greeted with a older man. The other moff, Moff Livani was older than Orro, where Orro's hair was brown, the older mans was turning white, Livani was less kempt than Orro preferring a beard, and to top it off his eyes were much more inviting than the other mans. "Jacsen my friend!" The other moff said, he went for a handshake, but duped the younger Moff pulling him into a hug instead.

At this Orro would of struck the other man, both were veterans of the clone wars, but Orro saw combat during that war, due to Livani's status he was on a nice cushy outpost that wasn't even worth it to the seps. He hadn't seen what Orro did, didn't see men sucked out into the void of space. For that alone it was enough to want to punch the other man, that is when Livani saw what Orro wanted him to see. "Ho ho, whats this a droid? You finally got over your phobia I see, well then that's good! What's your designation droid?" Livani asked.

This guy... No wonder why he was into droids. He was also quite loose tongued, at least when it came to his 'friends' information. A phobia of droids? Must've been something quite serious to have something like that, but that also explained the lack of droids on the star destroyer from what she saw.

Bowing to her target, she said. "Hello sir, I am a new model maid droid. Master Orro here has said good things about you, Mr. Livani." Willoh said, acting curtsy and super polite.

The other man laughed. "Ha, I'm sure he told you all about the time he cleaned me out of credits, in a game of pazak. This man may not look it, but he is sharp." The other man smiled at that, Orro expected this and took the barb with a nod of his head. "This is Willoh, at least that's what they said when I bought her, but yeah shes slowly teaching me to not want to scrap every droid I see." Both men laughed at that, and they began to walk down the path. "When I saw your invite, a week ago to play pazak, I was shocked. You seemed so busy, but here you are fresh from rounding up Moff Taurus, and saving Paradise. What brought you out there my friend?" There was a brief look of fear in the other moff's eyes before it was smother, if he knew this could make things difficult. "My men needed the leave, and with the glorious emperor dead the galaxy has become less safer, any thug who hated the imperials is now emboldened by this." Orro replied.

At this Livani just nodded. "Galaxy isn't as safe as it used to be." He said, and the other moff just gave a solemn nod. "But alas, lets not live in sadness, lets live life to the fullest!" The other moff said this with so much enthusiasm in his voice that it sounded like things were going to be party, as the entered the manor both guests were taken aback by the variable wealth in this building. Livani led them through the manor, and into a parlor that had all sorts of hunting trophies and a table set with a deck of cards, the rug the table was on top of turned out to be a silverback wookie pelt. "Tell me Willoh, what is your master like is he always so uptight?" The other moff asked, shuffling his deck of cards.

It was impressive at how much money this guy seemed to have. Being high up in the empire at its height must've been very lucrative. As they walked through the mansion to the playing room, Willoh made sure to make a mental map of what she saw and what could possibly be a trap down the line. This target was quite jolly, which made him very dangerous. She'd have to keep an eye on this guy as she did her mission. "I'm sorry sir, I can't reveal Master Orro's personal information without his consent." Willoh said, giving a bow to Moff Livani.

Orro smiled, she played her part well. "Let's play shall we?" He said, sitting down in one of the chairs he reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out his deck shuffling it and setting it down, from there the two men played their game without much of a word.

Both seemed highly focus on the game, Orro won the first round. And the way he was throwing his matches could only be seen by a pro, or a droid. But at the end of it all he got what he wanted Livani won, and the other moff smiled a triumphant grin that looked so smug Orro wanted to wipe it off his face. "You won..." The shock from Orro sounded so geninue that it was hard to determine if he was acting or not. "Take whatever you want, you won the match it's yours." At this the other moff smiled and his eyes settled on Willoh. "I hope you aren't too fond of her." He said, gesturing to the other droid.
"By all means, shes yours you won the game after all."
"She'll make a fine addition to the family, little Shiria needs someone to look after her while i'm away." The other moff said this with a smile.

And like that, with some proper acting and everything, it was done. Willoh was 'property' of Livani, but she couldn't be too eager to leave. Not until Orro handed over her 'controller'. She only bowed and waited, making sure to prepare to take care of a little organic, if that was what Livani meant. It was a good thing this wasn't an actual 'trade', otherwise Willoh might be a wee bit annoyed at everything.

Orro handed him the the controls for her fake restraining bolt, both men shook hands. "So you are staying around to buy some merchandise, before heading back into hutt space right?" The other moff asked, Orro nodded. "Indeed, the hutts need more slaves. And I need their support, for the time to come. I also need your support as well my friend, we can crush the rebels together if you join me." The other Moff shook his head. "You know my answer, I do not wish to get involved anymore. I'm too old to get involved in a war, I've got to think about Shiria's future here."
"So be it." Orro nodded, and shook the other man hand one last time and they both turned out. When Orro exited the building, and was hidden away in his shuttle he smiled. This is where the fun was going to begin.

As Orro left the other moff let out a sigh of relief. "That man is going to bring about his own downfall." The other moff looked over at his new prize. "Now, what are you programmed to do?" He asked, there was a glint in his eye, as he said that.

Off went Orro, and now Willoh belonged to this new man, or so he thought. That pointed question of his was a bit strange, but that was probably more due to the look he gave Willoh. Bowing, she said "I can do many things sir. Cleaning, cooking, human relations, and I have an enhanced capcity for human communications Master Livani. What would you have me do for my first task?" Considering Willoh was told this guy was a droid lover, she was expecting almost anything at this point.

Livani smiled at all of this, he looked geniuely happy. "Guess I found out why Orro bought you, guy must of been lonely. And I'm pretty sure, no woman would come near him with that stick up his ass." The other moff gestured for her to follow, and led her down the hallways of his manor. "I think I'm going to leave you with Shiria for the moment, while I go find find out what to do about our mutual friend." With that the other moff stopped at a door and opened it.

Shiria wasn't a little girl at all, but a teenager. The teen turned, and looked at her father and the droid, sighed and spoke. "It's fine, come in I guess." And with that Moff Livani turned and left the pair alone.

---

“You make an offer that I should find very hard to turn down, but I must know your intentions. I will not work under someone so secretive. I understand that you run a business of information, and secrets are the product you trade with, but I’m having trouble understanding why you would provide these resources with no clear profit. In such an efficiently run operation, I’m sure many would consider it a gross misallocation of resources.”

---

Koren shrugged. “Everyone in this sector has an agenda, everyone has secrets. Even I don’t know them all, that is something you’re going to have to get used too. Should you not want to be alone forever, and I’m sure even you realize that as a Jedi you’re not invincible. Sooner or later you’re going to need to pass on your knowledge and need someone, or something, to keep you safe enough to do so. In terms of my Agenda-” Koren cleared his throat as a holo-projector was placed in the table by the serving droid, though it didn’t turn on yet.

“Unpredictability creates conflict, and conflict creates business. You’re an unpredictable variable, also as much as I seem like an arrogant, self obsessed man, I don’t like this crime ridden sector anymore than you do. Do I believe the New Republic or Galactic Empire can bring peace to the Galaxy? Well, we’ve seen how the latter has done and the former is still working on it. As much as I disliked the Jedi during the Clone Wars, they were pure at heart and good men, women and beings. They just became too tangled up in politics and ended up serving the Galaxy as warriors. So here’s the two rules. You don’t cause any fights on Paradise, and you don’t sign over your soul to the New Republic. In terms of other people considering it a misallocation of resources. Well-” Koren leaned in as if he was spilling a great secret.

“-That’s the bonus of being your own boss. I get to decide.” The holoprojector turned on, revealing one of the Imperial Light Cruisers that Koren had just acquired. “I remember reading about Jedi school ships, while it isn’t incredibly unique or attractive it’s fast, armed and requires a small compliment. Which I can either give either in terms of people I trust not to screw you over, or in droids.”

The Jedi studied the hologram in detail. It sure seemed like an upgrade but he had become attached to the old CloakShape fighter he literally dredged up from the jungle and repaired himself. However, better armaments and speed seemed like a good trade-off. On the other hand, thinking about being given a crew or droids to handle. That wasn’t really his style. Apart from his master, Tez had always worked alone. For a long time, he almost wanted it to stay that way. “The peace maintained on Paradise was something I never planned to disturbed. However, do not rule out the possibility of self-defence.” He mentioned, pulling the sleeve of his outfit to highlight his next point. “I wear these robes proudly, and I will not take them off for the sake of laying low. If someone get’s a wild idea to start the fight, that’s on them.”

Koren snorted. “Know how many people wear robes?” Koren chuckled slightly looking down. “Jedi need to get over themselves, farmers wear robes, people on warm worlds wear robes. In terms of self defense, there’s security all over the ship to make sure everyone is safe and fights are unnecessary.”

Tez grunted at his comments of the robes. “These robes are different. Jedi were…” He took a moment. “Are a symbol for the galaxy. Regardless of who I’m aligned with, I have to maintain that. In terms of preconceptions of us, I will not be able to change that, so I uphold it.” His next point to address was the New Republic. Tez had not been approached by them yet, but it wouldn’t be like him to not hear them out if they ever did. “I have nothing to do with the New Republic at this time. I never have, so you will not be seeing me contacting them first.”

”Lastly, is there anything smaller you can provide me with? I have… certain difficulties within a group, whether it be a crew or droids to look after. If it cannot be crewed or maintained by one person, I have little interest in it. What I do have is a CloakShape back on Ilos. From what I understand, it’s modular? As a suggestion, perhaps it’s better suited for the job.” Tez offered these points up politely. He did not want to offend the kind offer but wanted to make his opinion heard at the same time.

Koren leaned back in his chair. “At the same time Robes are Robes, if someone attacks you based on Robes… they’re an idiot. In terms of the New Republic, if you choose to work with them, that is your choice. In terms of ships-” The hologram panned out to a list of various ships.”

“-There are various other vessels I have available. However I’ll keep the light cruiser on retainer, you may one day decide that you want to train others and it’d be a safer place than many to do so.” Koren clapped his hands together. “The important thing is first, do we have accept my offer of sponsorship? You can walk out whenever you feel that you are being taken advantage off.”

Tez sat there in thought for a moment, contemplating in his mind about the whole situation. After a minute or two, the Jedi finally nodded and offered his hand out. ”I accept.” He said, a small smile appearing on his face. That was a rare sight itself.

Koren took the mans hand and shook it, smiling as he stood up. “Very well. I’m going to have the Light Cruiser moved to a sector of space, the entire thing can be run and maintained by a couple of Astromechs should it not need to do much. If you want you can buy the Astromechs yourself if you’re worried about me spying on you. This gives you somewhere to base yourself out off. It also gives me somewhere to drop off anything you need. In terms of a smaller ship, hash out the details with the dockmaster. There’s plenty of ships down there that have been ‘sold’ to me to cover debts, or off people who’ve simply left and forgotten about them, or that have stopped paying their rent.”

He stood up. “However, I have other business to attend to, the room is yours. Do you need anything else?”

Tez nodded at each detail Koren gave. At first, he didn’t think of anything. “Thank you for your time, Koren. I appreciate this generous offer.” He then remembered something that Koren had said earlier. ”Actually…” He piped up, standing up to follow. ”You mentioned training apprentices…” The Jedi began. ”Did you… have someone in mind?”

Koren moved towards the door. “Not yet… Not yet. Though to train you, I have IG-100s. When was the last time you thought against a melee opponent that could handle a lightsaber?”

Tez was definitely curious at the prospect of training someone, but more curious about the combat droids. ”A VERY long time…” he admitted. ”Sometimes just showing I have a lightsaber is all it takes to win a fight

Koren chuckled and pressed a button on his wrist, the door opened with the commando droid walking through it again. Drawing a sword, corotis weave had it’s upsides. “Let’s start you small then, don’t worry about the decor. I can send someone to fix it. Enjoy, also if you can avoid damaging the droid I’d appreciate it. It’s programmed to desist if you manage to get your blade past its defenses in what would be a killing blow.”

Collab with @vietmyke


"So, what do you think we'll find?" Asked Frederick, as he attached a reinforced plate to the forearm of his black bodysuit. "Secret weapon plans?"

"Pah," snorted another trooper, checking a blaster "Probably just troop locations or marching orders."

"That's just as good too right? If we know where they are, they'll be all the easier to strike down. The rebels don't have much of a foothold in this sector as it is."

Victor tuned out the rest of his squad's idle conversation as he armored himself up, pulling a reinforced durasteel cuirass over his torso. While the standard stormtrooper armor was certainly more protective than any sort of armor worn by rebels or insurgents, Victor found it ultimately lacking for the rigors of combat he expected himself and his men to go through. During the old age of the Empire, Victor would have never raised these concerns to any of his superiors, who would've most likely ignored if not punished Victor for such transgressions. With Moff Orro's permission, Victor had commisioned a more durable set of armor for his own stormtroopers: most of the major portions of the body- torso, head, shoulders, and thighs had been completely replaced with durasteel plates, while the forearms, hands, and feet's plastoid parts were reinforced with durasteel.

While the durasteel made the armor more protective, it also made the armor heavier, though Victor found the drawback negligible, as he fully expected his soldiers- men already at or near peak physique- to be able to handle the slightly increased weight without much penalty. The armor had thus far proven quite successful for Victor's special operations troopers, and he was in the middle of greenlighting the shift from plastoid to durasteel for the general stormtrooper corps. In addition to the durasteel armor, Victor's special operations troopers also made use of lightweight assault packs, a smaller, more compact version of the survival backpacks that sand troopers used, carrying spare ammunition, rations, and supplies for a long mission.

Securing his black pauldron over his shoulder, Victor grabbed his blaster rifle, an E-11D- a high power variant of the E-11 used by the special operations sector, and looked over his chosen squad. Checking their weapons was a group of 12 men and women, a dozen of the Ultmara Sectors elite stormtroopers. They certainly looked the part, their white stormtrooper armor had long since been marred and dulled with scorch marks and smoke, and they made no effort to clean those marks- shiny armor much more noticeable, and a special operations team liked to remain as unseen as possible. Besides their dusky armor, what really set them apart from their standard counterparts was the deep blue covering their shoulder plates, and a gash of dark blue running down the front of their helmets. The troopers bore a wide array of weapons: Two carried DLT-19 heavy blasters, for heavy fire support, one carried an E-11s sniper blaster, the team's combat medic carried the smaller E-11 carbine, and two of their troopers carried scatterguns alongside their E-11D rifles, the remaining troopers carried E-11D rifles as their primary armanment.

Victor turned to Talina, rifle slung over one shoulder, helmet carried by the lip in his other hand. "I believe we are ready ma'am."

"I'd agree with that, Tarick." Talina replied as she stood in front of the assembled, handpicked soldiers.She walked in a line, eyeing each of them up, in way inspecting them even though she knew each and every one was ready for war.

She was clad in the armor of an Imperial scout trooper, with the color scheme as the troopers she was going to lead on this mission. It wasn't that she couldn't wear the standard Stormtrooper's iconic outfit, but rather she preferred the scout varient's lighter composition. It did come at the expense of less protection, but she wasn't planning on getting hit. An E-11s sniper rifle sat on her back, just waiting to be unslung and used to take down some otherwise unsuspecting rebel scum. Her trusted Model 434 blaster pistol sat in a holster on her hip, while it was not standard issue for Imperial soldiers she was too used to using the weapon to not take it with her. Considering her talent and marksmanship with the high powered heavy blaster pistol, they wouldn't have told her no to taking it regardless. Her helmet was clipped to the armor, it shook slightly as she walked.

"You all look ready to kick some rebel ass, that's for sure," She said, a smile breaking onto her face as she paused in her stride, addressing the troops.

"I trust that you all have been briefed on the mission, and know who I am. You may refer to me as Commander Eriston, as I am in command for this mission. Your squad leader Tarick knows you all well, and I will rely on his talents, as well as all of yours, to aid us in the mission. I expect to see brillance from every single one of you out on that rock. Don't let me down, don't let Captain Tarick down and most importantly, do not let the Empire down." Talina spoke, her attempt to challenge the soldiers to do their very best. To try be as close to being perfect as they could be.

"The current plan is for us to land a distance from the crashed vessel, then approach it on foot. Dirna is a bland, rocky place, as soon as we begin our approach on foot I want our designated marksman to take a higher vantage point. They will be joined by one of the DLT - 19 wielding troopers who will set up a bipod alongside the sniper.Those two will survey the crash site from above, then radio us any signs of life that can be seen. If any rebels are spotted then these two troopers will simply radio the exact locations of the enemy, not engage, only observe until the rest of the team has reached the corvette." Talina stated, glancing towards the squad sniper, then at both the soldiers clenching heavy blaster rifles.

"Then we will divide into two groups, simply termed A and B. A and B will seperate and approach the site from opposite directions, using the rocky landscape as cover for the approach. The two with a higher vantage point continuing to observe and report any enemy activity. If there are any enemies outside the ship then those will be engaged and taken out." She stated, laying out the plan.

It was subject to change if there were any new developments regarding the crashed vessel. Walking into a trap was not part of the plan. She then pulled a device from one of her pockets and clicked a button on it, a large blue holographic layout of a CR90 corvette rose up from it, displayed before all of the troopers.

"A and B will then breach the crashed ship in different locations apart from each other, clearing it out as everyone searches the corvette, neutralizing any surviving rebels as we move, converging in the center once all enemies inside the ship are confirmed dead. From there we extract anything important we can find, then make our escape. The two soldiers on the outside will remain there, ready to provide fire support if rebel troops attempt to flee from the ship or others approach in an attempt to ambush the fire teams. Once our entire squad has regrouped and gotten a safe distance from the crash site a transport will be awaiting us to take us all back here. We do not know how many rebels there are in and around the crash site, so be ready for anything. We have the advantage, if we pull off the approach flawlessly then they won't even know what hit them until we breach the ship and butcher those inside. We're not taking any prisoners." Commander Eriston sternly said, her face showing how serious and comitted she was to a flawless mission. The hologram slowly rotated before she turned it off. She was not used to working with such a large group, but she would try her best to make it work, while holding back her lone wolf tendencies.

"Are there any questions? Tarick, would you like to add anything?" She asked, glancing around at each soldier.

Dagger squad was solemn faced and silent, different from their standard counterparts, instead of a staggered chorus of 'yes ma'am's, Talina instead recieved a single, uniformed nod from the entire squad. Following this, Tarick stepped to the front to doll out orders, splitting up the unit.

"Ashe, Rocks, you're on overwatch." Tarick started, glancing at the marksman and DLT-19 weilder pointedly. "Jakal, Gater, Koss, you're with me." He continued pointing towards one of the pointmen and a pair of riflemen. "Fred, you're taking the rest as team B."

It was a strange feeling, referring to other stormtroopers- and even himself by names and nicknames. Most of the Special Operations Troopers were 322nd Legion like himself, and Tarick had spent much of the last several years referring to them by number. It wasn't until they joined up with the Ultmara Sector did they start using their actual names and nicknames- Orro Moff's idea. The Moff didn't like referring to the stormtroopers by number, it took too long, so he took to calling them by name. The rest of the stormtrooper corps under the Ultmara Sector eventually took up the same principle.

"Keep it quiet, hit them hard, and we'll be home before they even know they're dead."

There was the sound of half a dozen armored gauntleted fists pounding against durasteel chestplates. "SIR!" came the acknowledging reply.

"Excellent. Not a single rebel will escape that rock alive. We'll show them how powerful the Empire they foolishly thought they defeated actually is." Talina stated fiercly with a smile as Tarick handed out orders to his loyal soldiers.

"I'll go with you and your team, Tarick. Perhaps you'll get to see my talents on display for the the first time in awhile," The Imperial agent added confidently. "I do think we're ready to begin the mission. It would not be wise to waste any time, we should strike as soon as possible. Our team seems as ready and prepared as ever. We do not want to give the rebels any chance on this mission."

Talina had a rush of excitement coursing through her normally cool veins. It had been some time since she had participated in a mission on this scale. The chance to strike hard against the rebels ruthlessly and enact total vengence only added to fuel how ready she was.

"You heard the boss, Dagger Squad, mount up!" Victor barked as the rest of them finished prepping their gear. "Let's go find us some rebels." Victor remarked cooly as he pulled on his helmet, the second half of his command coming across as a digitally filtered drawl.

Ken Neumann had returned to the base with the kids, and was sitting down on a mat spread across the floor of the hollow tree, wondering just why the mercs were so reasonable. After all, these were rough men, and that reptilian person with them was clearly a hardened soldier. So why was their commander so...kind? Kind in a way that made him hurt so much, that reminded him of what he didn't have?

He shivered at that, his mistrust warring with gratitude which in turn fought with a deep, overwhelming sense of loneliness. The boy - for boy he still was - was 18 and bloodied now, but in the (unwilling) absence of parents and adult guidance had developed both a cynical personality and a secret, suppressed desire for someone, anyone, to sheperd him through the torturous path of growing up.

And other teens and especially children could not help him with that. Not even Puevi can help him; that guy was a bundle of fun, but still not that much older than Ken was. Ugh, Force-kriff this; time to take a risk.

Moving out of the hollow strangler fig that had made up the residential headquarters, he waved to Puevi, Terrence, Corrin, and Rika as they trained and played on the dry and dusty ground before walking to the comms suite hidden inside another hollow trunk. Ken was going to try and figure out what comm frequency that captain used so that he can privately message him. Why was he doing something so risky? Well, let's just say that the Merc Leader was literally the first adult who had given him pure, unadultered kindness for an entire year, perhaps even longer. And he missed that; wanted to latch onto that even though it might be unhealthy.

Right now, the only thing Ken Neumann mistrusted was himself.

@CaptainBritton

Koren sat in the central chair aboard the bridge. A station he rarely used, as he was often either in his study or on the move somewhere doing other important business. The fact he was in this chair, was a sign in itself. The door hissed open, he didn't even bother to turn to see who it was. Only certain people were allowed to enter this room, so he wasn't surprised when he heard her voice. "Father, why did I get a communication between you and a slaver." She virtually spat the word, and for good reason. He never understood peoples fascination with slaves, when droids could do the jobs better and with less risk. Sure some people liked having slaves for things that droids couldn't do, without some seriously messed up modifications, however when you lived in Hutt Space there was always someone working for credits.

Loretta, who had more of a moral compass than he did was even more anti-slavery than he was. "Honey, you know. Business is business, I don't like them anymore than you do."

"You literally have an army of droids at your disposal, why do you need slaves?" Koren stood and turned to face her.

"Who said I was buying slaves? Who said I was selling? Sometimes a slaver has something I need, that's all. I can't get that without contacting them, it's a necessary evil."

She crosser her arms across her chest. "Okay then, what is it you need from them?" If a T-Series droid could roll it's eyes, Koren knew that Thinker would have done so. After all Thinker was cold, calculating, and didn't do any of this emotional stuff.

"Loretta. How did I hire Tara?"

"You bought and free'd her."

"How about Rea?"

"You bought her, and then free'd her." Koren raised his hands as he leaned back, to indicate she was just proving his point.

"I understand I can't buy and free every slave under the sun, but when I hear about a particular case... Say of an entire clan being captured and forced into slavery. Well. I have to step in, after all I'm a power hungry megolaniac I'm not evil." She leaned in and hugged him.

"Oh, I'm sorry for misjudging you Dad."

"It's okay sweetheart, I understand. Now, go send a message to our good slaver friend and tell him I request a rendevous to purchase all his recently acquired stock." It was an investment, as much as it was with the Jedi. Though he knew it would pay out in the end. His investments always did.

As she turned and left, a slight spring in her step he noticed Thinker looking at him. "I know logically you'd rather I used alternate methods, however slaves take effort to control and I was never fond of the concept. As for using them instead of droids, I need to keep up appearances here. If a number of droids go missing from this ship, if people see me moving them theres going to be questions asked. Questions I'm not ready to answer. We're still two early, we've been working on this for years and it's still not near completion."

"If you had allowed me to do so with droids years ago-"

"If I had allowed you to do that, we wouldn't have the status we have now. Nor the recognition. We've been over this. Mine is the course of action we're taking."

Paradise station, a place that leads could always be found in, there was never a lack of scum to garner information from about slave routes, or even slavers to hinder or thwart. Unfortunately due to a lack of fund Uushaya was stuck on the station currently as she was unable to refuel her ship. However her skills came in handy here, and one of the local clubs was allowing her to dance on stage for the needed currency. In this case they had placed a small cage hovering near the bar, her hands sliding up and down the bars as she swayed her hips back and forth for the patrons to look at when they could. These places made her sick, the rotten people trading lives, and making a living off death and sorrow. Something though was throwing her off, she kept sensing something, but she wasn't sure what it was.

Meanwhile, in a higher level, Tez's lightsaber clashed with the crackling staff of the IG-100. It was nice to have some actual combat training, even if it was with a droid. Tez spun about on his heels, flourishing the humming blade of light as he did so. It certainly was a far cry from blocking blaster fire. However, something kept bugging him. Something wasn't right on the ship. Well, it might not be? Tez could feel the force converging onto a point below him, but he couldn't tell whether whoever had this was a wielder of the light or the dark side of the force. This distraction caused him to lose his attention, and suddenly he felt a sickening blow into his stomach. He collapsed to the floor, but held his hand out. "That's enough, droid. Thank you." He managed to say. The droid went stiff and seemed to enter a stand-by mode. With that, he clambered to his feet. The blow wouldn't effect him that long. Besides, there were more pressing matters at hand. With that, he set off from the room and looked for the route that would allow him to descend further into Paradise.

As the music continued so did the dance, her lithe form continuing the fluid movements as she moved to the floor of the cage bouncing slightly and down before moving to stand back straight. There was no humiliation in this to Uushaya, it suited her needs and provided a perfect cover. No one would suspect a Twi'lek dancer of being a Jedi, and further sometimes slavers would seek her out making her job all the easier. Though soon the music stopped and so did her time dancing in the cage, she would exit, and as usual turning down offers as she went from multiple patrons of the club. Stepping lightly behind the bar she would pick up a gray jacket and quickly pull it on hiding a majority of her toros and the dancing attire before stepping out of the nightclub a satchel bag in hand containing almost all her possessions. Stopping she would turn her head slightly, that sensation of a force user coming closer. "Hmm." She would move and go down a maitenance corridor that seemed to be mostly abandoned, and slip around a corner into the shadows. Uushaya would retrieve her lightsaber from her bag and moving into a hidden position and wait to see if that presence came any closer.

Following his senses, Tez found himself coming up to the entrance to some sort of club. It certainly wasn't a place you'd see him of his own accord. However, it did seem that his quarry was close by. He kept his lightsaber holstered, as not to try and make the patrons of Paradise uneasy, but also because it would not be a good look when he met this person. Closer and closer he got, the presence getting stronger with each step. He turned a corner, feeling the force resonating strongly around here. More importantly, it seemed to be emnating from a specific corridor. Checking his surroundings before going inside, he knocked on the metal wall. "Hello?" He called out into the darkness. "I know you're here. Let's make this easy for both of us." He tried to persuade calmly.

Hearing the voice she would grab hold of a lekku and slowly pull it over her shoulder and slowly give it a stroke. Taking a deep breath she would slide her lightsaber into the inside of her jacket and move around the corner slowly, a sultry expression on her features as she leaned against the wall. "Make it easy? Love I'm not on the clock right now maybe later alright?" To make a part convincing you had to continuously play it regardless of what others would say, or think. Staring at the boy for a long moment she never dropped the facade, but she did start preparing herself for combat if it came, her body loose and ready to move at a moment's notice.

Tez gulped at the female's response. Had he actually got the wrong person? As the Twi'Lek girl began to turn the corner, he could begin to make out the distinct features. Judging by her immediate mannerisms, she could be a dancer of some kind? No doubt being the kind that the club probably employs. He slowly raised both of his hands, as a sign to show that he truly meant no harm. "Forgive me, ma'am. My name is Tez. I... felt something here." He tried to explain. He didn't want to quite let on he was a Jedi in case she really wasn't who Tez was looking for.

A smirk came across her lips as she didn't move any closer. "That's okay a lot of guys feel things when they see me, but you're gonna have to go feel it somewhere else." She would start to turn away from him, and leaned over to pick up her back once more, though when she did so her jacket would open slightly and a glimpse of her lightsaber could be viewed.

Tez winced at her response. "No, wait, that's not what I-" he began to protest. He was about to walk up as he could see she was about to leave until he spotted the flash of metal which is all he needed to know. He reached onto his belt and drew his own lightsaber hilt, presenting it to the, admittedly beautiful, Twi'Lek. "I don't think it's the kind of feeling you're talking about."

She looked to the hilt in the man's hand and stood up straight tossing her jacket back and off her lightsaber hilt floating to her hand before it hit the ground. Narrowing her eyes she would extend a hand towards Tez, as if preparing to use the force against him. "I figured, but you know I was trying to avoid fighting another inquisitor. I guess it can't be helped though... I won't show you mercy Imperial..."

His eyes widened at her words, and Tez immediately shot his hands out in protest. "Wait, wait, no-no-no-no-no-no-no." He stammered. He quickly put his lightsaber on the ground. "I'm not here to fight you! I'm no Inquisitor either!" He explained as quickly as possible. "Inquistors don't look like this, do they?" He asked as reasoning, gesturing to his clothing.

Uushay stared at him for a long moment before finally relaxing somewhat and looked past Tez to the walkway behind him where different residents of the station were moving back and forth. "I see, I never figured an inquisitor would have a dress code, I have only faced one after all So who are you? What do you want?" She was still cautious and still gripped the hilt of her saber for just in case.

Tez exhaled and relaxed slightly, putting his arms down. "I'm Tez Novacore. I'm a Jedi who's master was slain. I go about trying to stop those that would do the innocent and the defenceless harm. I sensed your presence on Paradise. I... never thought I'd see another Jedi." He explained. Tez would be lying if he didn't abandon the prospect of seeing another Jedi at some point. "It's... nice to meet someone I could trust straight away." He admitted.

Chewing the inside of her lip for a moment Uushaya gave a nod, and took a few steps towards Tez before once more using the force to put her lightsaber back into jacket. "You're right I suppose, though my Master was not slain, at least I haven't felt him return to the force yet." She gave a sigh. "I am on my own though, and I find it hard to trust even those who claim to be a Jedi. What are you doing out here, on Paradise station?"

Tez considered how it would be best to answer this question. "I was... invited to Paradise by the owner. He gave me an offer that any rogue or gunslinger would probably accept in a heartbeat. Something didn't seem right though." He revealed. It didn't surprise him that the Twi'Lek was also without a master. Why else would she be in Paradise if her master was present? "He's basically given me resources to continue what I've been doing." Tez added. "May I ask why you are also here?" He inquired curiously. Judging by the outfit, he could make some guesses as to the cover story, but still, it would be nice to know.

A look came over Uushaya's features, who's to say if it was anger, disappointment, or something else, all that could be told was that it was an expression disapleased with some of his words. "So you are freelancing for a man that enables slavery, and other kinds of criminals? I haven't met many jedi, but I thought that was the opposite of what they were supposed to be doing." Uushaya began to gather up her belongings once more pulling her jack back on and shouldering her bag. "Me? I'm working, always working on getting rid of slavers in the Galaxy, but sometimes it requires me to play up the act of a dancer, which earns me the necessities to survive in this galaxy."

The male Jedi could immediately see the anguish on the Twi'Lek's face, and she raised some good points. "It didn't go down like that. He stated curtly. "Believe me, I raised all those points with Koren, and I hold as much disdain for the people he harbors on here as you do. Unfortunately, the time of the Jedi Order is over, so each of us must do what is necessary to complete our missions." He reasoned, his voice having a hint of determination. He picked up his lightsaber from the ground and holstered it. "It seems we both have the same intentions." Tez pointed out. "You may not like the decision I made, but I would like to suggest that it might be in our best interests to stick together for now. Times are tough with Jedi isolated, we could help each other." The Jedi offered.

"I don't much believe in excuses... There's no excuse for supporting slavery." She gave a sigh and turned towards Tez, Uushaya's body tense as she considered the other Jedi's words. "We can stick together for now, but only for now. I will see what you are up to, and if I do not like it I will leave. Do we have a deal?"

Tez nodded and offered his hand out. "Deal." He replied, actually breaking a slight smile, which was rare. Regardless, he had to convince the Twi'Lek that who and what he supports was not what she thought it would be. "I never got your name, by the way."

Uushaya would stand there for a moment considering and then take a deep breath. "Uushaya, Payano." Was her simple reply, moving closer to Tez once more she would loop her arm in his. "I guess if we are going to go anywhere together we will need a cover so no one gets suspicious.." She stared at him for a moment. "I'm a slave, you won me in a game of Pazaak. Alright?"

The Jedi nodded in acknowledgement. "Very well, Uushaya." He said before they set off. Before they actually left the corridor, he turned his head to the Twi'Lek. "Where shall we go for now?" He asked quickly.

She would stop and blink a few times. "I have no idea, i have no leads or anything right now. You were working for a fellow I figured you'd be taking me along..." She would lean in close. "So I guess... Just bring me with you wherever you were going."

Tez nodded. "Let's head back to my quar-" He stopped himself immediately. "That came across as creepy." He muttered embarrased. He looked at the Twi'Lek. "At least, it would be a private place to discuss things further. Tez tried to explain.

Continuing the walked Uushaya gave him a bit of a laugh. "It's fine I understood what you meant. Sure we can go to where you're staying..." She watched the passerbys and closed her eyes for a moment. "You are the Master after all."

As the smuggler left the ship in tow with his Mandalorian a dock worker walked over and handed the duo a holotablet, on the holotablet would be an address for a warehouse several miles away, the dock worker didn’t say a word and before the two could say anything he walked out of the hangar and away from the situation.

Sol’id Fist made sure his equipment was fastened one last time before departing, standing at the exit bay of the ship as the dock worker gave the information. The man handed it to Sol’id, before making away quickly due to the danger that exuded off of the veteran. The large Mando awaited Elias to show himself off the ship, handing it to him when he appeared.

Meanwhile, Delni was back at the ship, watching her screen just as she agreed to. However, there was little for her to do just yet, and now that she had some time to herself to think clearly, she realized that she needed to tell her sister what happened…somehow. She did not know when Sirka was going to end up back at Paradise, Delni knew it would scare her half to death to come back only to find her missing. She had to tell her; there was no way out of it. She did not want to make her too angry, but she would only make it worse by lying.

After a few deep breaths to collect herself, Delni picked up her datapad and started to type out a message. It was a message that she wrote, erased, then rewrote again before she had something she could feel brave enough to send: Okay, sis, before I say anything, I want you to know that I am fine. I’m perfectly safe, and I’m not in danger. But, I’m not on Paradise. I made a mistake, and I know it was a mistake, but when I was drunk, I decided I wanted to spend a night with that Mandalorian we met in the bar. I went to his ship, he forgot, and I accidentally stowed away on his job. I’m on his ship now, at a place called Circumtore. Once he’s done, he says he’ll take me back.”

Elias walked down the ramp in time to see the man leave and, when Sol’id offered the information he had dropped off, took it to read it, absentmindedly checking his blaster pistols as he did so. ”Right, that man rushing out is not reassuring of the nature of this run. Got all your gear?”

“Everything’s loaded.” Sol’id assured him, hefting his large blaster. “Let’s move.”
The two Mandalorian’s moved out, the loading bay behind them lifting up into a close as they exited the dock. Sol’id kept quiet for the moment, though once they got closer to the destination, he felt it prudent to ask if Elias knew any hand signals.

Sirka was making her way back to the ship with Boqo, growing more and more relaxed the longer they walked. The job, it seemed, had gone smoothly. They delivered the package, made some thinly-veiled threats, and could now leave. She supposed that one advantage of working for a larger organization than just herself was that people tended to be even more hesitant to start trouble with her than usual. She had her repeater slung up over her shoulder when she heard a buzz from her datapad. Since she no longer had to be as worried, she trailed a bit behind Boqo as she fished her datapad out of one of her pouches.

Even just starting off reading Delni’s message, Sirka was already concerned, and it certainly did not diminish by the time she finished it. Without hesitation, she made a call to her sister. Although, Delni had a few seconds more of hesitation before answering. “What do you mean you’re not on Paradise!? Did you follow me here or something? Of all the…why couldn’t you just stay in bed?” Sirka opened up immediately, her voice hushed, but clearly upset.

“Okay, I know, I know, calm down sis. I know it was stupid, but I didn’t mean to. I was too drunk to think straight. I didn’t…wait, follow you? Do you mean…” Delni replied, quickly becoming confused.

“Yes, my job took me here too. I’m on Circumtore. Close to Timana’s palace.” Sirka answered.

Delni almost fell out of her chair with surprise for Sirka’s answer. It was certainly not what she had expected to hear, and she honestly was not sure if it would make everything much more convenient, or much more complicated.

Elias gave his affirmative that he did, drawing one blaster pistol and keeping it at a relaxed ready. ”All things considered, we’ll hopefully not need to use them. This is supposed to just be a pick up.” He then mentally made a note to have both blasters ready before going into the warehouse. He was on a pick up for Koren and the Golden Exchange, which meant that simple was not in the equation. ”Delni, you hack into the Hutt’s coms signals yet?”

“It’s always supposed to be as planned.” Sol’id said to the greenhorn. “Until it isn’t”

“Hey, is that…” Sirka began upon hearing Elias in the background of the call, but Delni quickly muted her as she shifted her attention quickly over to the other screen.

“I...well hold on, you literally just left. There may not even be any comms to intercept yet. The people you’re meeting with will almost certainly use their own specific channel for this pick up. Hopefully, it won’t be encrypted.” Delni answered to Elias. Her biggest task right now would be to identify which channel she should be listening in to. So, she had the ship start picking up every unencrypted channel in range. Fortunately, Elias’ ship did seem to have the basics for eavesdropping, whether or not Elias knew how to use them. She used a program to display the audio it was intercepting as text in front of her. If she saw something telling, she might be able to identify which channel was the right one.

The warehouse was empty, and barren. Bar one crate in the centre of the room, on top of the crate cross legged sat a single Besalisk with all four arms crossed on his chest. He looked up as the two individuals entered the room. “Who are you two supposed to be? Boba and Dengar?”

Meanwhile outside, things shifted in the shadows. Well co-ordinated, speaking in hushed voices as they surrounded the warehouse. Once they had surrounded the warehouse they sent a single message “We have the building surrounded, moving in once the package has changed hands.” Once the message had sent, another deployed a radio jammer. There’d be no calling for help on this day.

Although Delni was still in the middle of being berated by her sister for her, admittedly stupid, mistakes, she was still trying to pay attention to the myriad of communications she was intercepting. There were plenty of intercepted transmissions scrolling past her screen, none of which seemed to have anything to do with Elias or his job. She saw advertisements, personal calls, or just phrases that made no sense out of context. However, after minute or so, in the corner of her eye, she spotted single transmission that grabbed her attention. Someone was surrounding a building, and was waiting for a package to change hands. That was enough to immediately give Delni cause to worry.

Muting her call with Sirka for a moment, Delni tried to get a hold of Elias. “Hey, I just picked up a message that has me worried. It said they’re surrounding a building and waiting for a package to change hands, which might be you.” She explained. It was a warning that she expected to warrant an immediate response, however, she sat there in silence receiving nothing in return. “Elias? Can you hear me?” She asked again, but there was still no response.

Unmuting her call with Sirka, Delni cut her sister off mid-sentence. “This isn’t good. I just picked up a transmission that I think means that Elias is going to get ambushed. And now he isn’t responding to me. I think his communications might be jammed, or at least…I hope that’s all that’s wrong. Sis, you’re on this same planet, right? And you said you finished your job here. Do you think you could…help?”

“What?!” Sirka shouted back instantly. “This Mandalorian scum kidnaps you and you want me to help him? What kind of drugs did he put you on?”

“I know what I’m saying, Sirka.” Delni replied, her tone somewhat mirroring Sirka’s agitation. “I said he didn’t mean to; it was my fault more than anything. He’s no saint, sure, but he still doesn’t deserve to get killed in some ambush. Besides, he’s on a job from Koren too. If you end up not only completing your job, but also helping out with another one too, on your own initiative, well…I can only imagine that would impress him.”

Sirka was practically growling by this point. “I don’t care about the Mandalorian, and I don’t care about his job. I just want to find you, and get you back to Paradise safe. Just tell me where you are, I’ll come get you, and we can leave this all behind.”

“Look, I don’t know exactly where this hanger I’m in even is.” Delni lied. “I’m unarmed, and I really don’t want to go outside this ship.”

“Then just take the ship and fly it back yourself!” Sirka replied without hesitation.

“It’s locked down, I can’t fly it. Sirka, my best bet for getting back home safe is Elias flying my out of here. Besides, whoever is ambushing Elias may have already marked this ship to shoot down once it takes off. But if you stop them, then that might not happen. Or at the very least, Elias knows how to fly this ship a lot better than I could, if I could even get its controls unlocked. Please, just help him out. I’m sending you the location.” Delni pleaded.

There was another growl from Sirka, followed by a long pause. “I’m going to regret this.”

Sol ignored the Besalisks jibe, halting a few paces from the alien with Elias at to his left. The Mandalorian didn’t go for any blaster, but his every movement kept his hands open and close to where his holster’s lay, just in case. He’d survived far too many encounters that went awry for him to take chances.

“I’d question who wanted to know, but I was informed our contact would be the ‘ugly’ one. I see you’re right where we were told.” Sol’id replied. His voice deep and grating, but apparently he was not without wit. “Do you have the package?”

Elias frowned at the Besalisk behind his helmet, but didn’t reply, opting instead to search the room as he kept his one drawn blaster at his side. Being honest with himself, he didn’t take Koren as the type to agree to a warehouse meeting, but since he knew he’d be sending someone not directly affiliated with the Golden Exchange…Jack ass… Still, something didn’t sit right with the smuggler as Sol spoke to the Besalisk. He decided to try Delni and get a status update. Cutting his external audio, he speaks into his mic. ”Delni, you get anything?” Silence meets him, along with some static. ”Delni? You there?” Turning his mic back on, he signals to Fist their comms are being jammed before speaking to their host.

”And if you do, how long is it going to take to transport it back to my ship?”

The Besalisk stood up, two electrostaffs on his back now visible. Before jumping off the crate. “This thing?” He waved one of his big hands in dismissal. “This isn’t anything important to you, I just needed you to think this is the right place. You know-” He pointed a knowing finger at the two Mandalorians. “-That employer of yours isn’t an easy guy to trick. Hell, that courier you ran into at the spaceport?” He shrugged. “He’s going to have to disappear real faster as soon as Koren finds out he sold him out. My job? Well. Keep you busy of course, can’t have you intercepting the package.” He reached over and grabbed one staff with his left, and his right.

Tapping them on the ground the ends light up with energy. “So, you two ready for a fight?”

Elias shakes his head and holsters the blaster pistol before reaching over his shoulder and drawing his vibroblade, the black core lighting up as soon as he activates it. Sliding into a ready stance, he squares off with the Besalisk. ”Unfortunately for that courier, once I’m done with you, there’s no where he can hide that I won’t find him.”

He spun his vibrosword as he circled his opponent. The gunslinger wasn’t sure how Sol handled close combat situations, or even if the admittedly intimidating Mandalorian even had to worry about them, but Elias had three factors in his favor. First was that he was no slouch with a sword, despite many considering the skill to be obsolete with blaster tech in existence. Of course, it was often the unexpected blade that killed the confident. The second was he was a potent hand to hand combatant as well, though the Besalisk was definitely stronger than he was, so avoiding a grapple situation would be best. And finally, his jetpack gave him good maneuverability and allowed him to make stronger strikes by bursting his jetpack at the right time. Not that it would do me much good here. Thing would probably just jab me with the shocky end of the stick midflight.

Having no further reason to delay, Elias jetted forwards towards the Besalisk and brought the blade around in a horizontal slash, which the Besalisk counted by blocking with one electrostaff and making a jab with the other, forcing the Mandalorian to sidestep before slashing vertically at his exposed arms to try and make him move this time.

Sirka had to get Boqo back to his ship before she could safely leave him, for a few reasons. She did not want to start off her employment with Koren by abandoning a job, after all. Fortunately, it was not that much more of a walk before she could get him back to his ship so he could get off-planet. When his ship took off, she knew she was now committed.

From the spaceport, Sirka approached the location that Delni had given her. She kept herself in a call with her sister for the entire time to make sure she was on the right track, but as she neared the warehouse, she noticed that the call’s quality kept dropping until it cut off entirely. That, at least, confirmed the fact that the Mandalorians’ communications were being jammed. It still did not confirm if the Mandalorians were still alive, and at this point, Sirka still did not particularly care if she found only corpses. She just wanted to get Delni off this planet. Along the way, her nose picked up a familiar scent. Elias had walked this very path to the warehouse, which just served as more confirmation that she was heading in the right direction.

There were enough shipping crates outside the warehouse that Sirka did not have to simply approach out in the open. She knew that she would not stay hidden if she got close enough for her rather hefty footsteps to be heard, but she could at least get a look from a distance. Sure enough, she saw a few shifty-looking figures in front of her. They were armed, hidden, and in good cover from the direction of the warehouse. Her eyes were not sharp enough to get many details at this distance, but there looked to be three of them. The fact that they were entirely exposed from her angle suggested that they were not expecting any outside interference for this apparent ambush, and indeed, why would they?

Sirka kept herself hidden behind a crate, her repeater firmly in her hands. She could definitely get the jump on these three, and without any real cover from her angle, they would not stand much of a chance against the barrage of blaster fire she could output. However, if she did get involved, she would need to be ready for a fight. Delni had said that they surrounded the warehouse, so there were definitely more than just the three she would have to contend with, without the element of surprise.

Sol’id had to admit he had wanted to enter the fray and fight the Besalisk hand to hand, but when young Elias had presented the decoy contact with a challenge, Sol stepped back. Until Elias gave him a signal that he wanted aid, Sol’id wouldn’t interfere with honor during a duel. Still, he wasn’t going to sit idly by either. From what the Besalisk had said, the Warehouse was veritably surrounded apparently.

Sol’id grabbed his blaster, taking off the safety and gazing around the room for any openings or windows they could be assaulted from. While Elias took out the Besalisk here, Sol’id would kill whoever tried to enter the Warehouse.

The Besalisk rebuked Elias’ slash with a pre-emptive kick to his stomach, causing the blade narrowly miss his arm by the smallest of margins. Though, neither combatant could follow up quickly enough to take advantage. A confident smirk crossed the Besalisk’s face when he noticed the conspicuous absence of the other Mandalorian in the fight. He had evidently been prepared to face them both.

That confidence manifested into an aggressive charge, with one staff aimed to parry Elias’ vibroblade, and the other ready to jab at an exposed limb. The shock would likely give a more decisive opening.

Elias jetted backwards away from the charge and raised his arm, the one with the gauntlet. Without any hesitation, he unleashed a wave of fire at the Besalisk before charging through it and attacking in a series of high-low thrusts and slashes. The idea was to put the Besalisk on the defensive while providing very short openings that would prevent the staffs from being used. On the third move of the second pattern, Elias feinted, changing from a slash as the Besalisk moved to block and using his jetpack to deliver a rocket powered uppercut to the beast’s chin.

Landing from delivering the blow, he immediately goes for the nearest arm with his blade, aiming to take off the hand and cripple their opponent.

The flames had been enough to throw the Besalisk off-balance, particularly since he had to react quickly to dodge away from them. Even so, he responded hit for hit to Elias’ flurry of attacks to protect himself, but he had still not fully regained his footing by the time the Mandalorian managed to land a solid hit straight to his chin.

The hit was clean, and with his already-uncertain footing, it was enough to send the Besalisk flying backwards. Still, he was not out of the fight. He kept a good hold of both of his staves as he fell, and when Elias went for his wrist, he just barely managed to strike away the blade, at least mostly. He spared his hand from being severed, but was still left with a wide gash down one of his forearms. He did let out a scream, but it was more of an enraged battlecry than a cry of pain.

Though still on the ground, Elias was near enough that the Besalisk was still a danger. With his other two arms, he pushed one end of an electrostaff between Elias’ feet, then snapped the staff upwards in an attempt to deliver a frightening combination of both force and electricity straight to Elias’ groin.

Elias managed to lessen the blow by quick stepping forwards away from the shocky end of the staff, but to say that the impact didn’t hurt would be lying. In fact, if he didn’t need the Besalisk for information, he’d have probably just pulled his blaster pistol and put a bolt in the bastard’s head. Regardless, Elias slammed his foot down on the now sliced open arm of his opponent, hopefully causing his grip to weaken on one staff enough for Elias to kick it away and then placed the sword tip against the Besalisk’s neck hard enough to draw blood, even as his stomach did front flips from the previous blow. ”Alright, we’ve played at your game long enough. Where’s the real package?”

Sirka kept her eyes on the trio ahead of her, letting out a long breath. Everything pointed to them being the enemy Delni had warned her about. She could smell Elias’ scent leading up to the warehouse ahead of them, and Delni had intercepted a message specifying that they would be surrounding the warehouse. It did not take a genius to put two and two together, but that did not erase Sirka’s hesitation. She would still be opening fire, unprovoked, on an unsuspecting group of people, hoping that they deserved it. But, there was little that Sirka was not willing to do for her sister.

It was the shouting from inside the warehouse that eventually gave Sirka enough confidence to make the decision. Listening closely, she could hear, however faintly, the distinct sounds of combat from within. It all fit too closely with what Delni had intercepted to just be a coincidence. Sirka let out her breath again, this time to steady her aim as she leaned out from her cover.

The trio in front of Sirka never really stood a chance. They were fixated on the warehouse, and had nothing between themselves and Sirka’s blaster. The only warning to two of them was the first of them being blasted, and there was not much of a chance after for the other two to move. Sirka had little difficulty hitting a clustered group of stationary targets with her repeater. At that point, there was no going back for her. Sirka sprinted up to the group’s former cover and crouched down behind it. If the warehouse was indeed surrounded, the next fight would not be nearly as easy. Fortunately, the enemy wanted to radio each other about what was going on, they would have to disable their jammer, so Sirka stayed ready to contact Elias if that opportunity arose.

The Besalisk, for as stubborn as he was, still had his limits. Adrenaline kept the pain from incapacitating him, but even he could not keep Elias from knocking one of his staves out of his grasp. He still had the other in his hands, but Elias’ blade was enough to give him pause. His hands clutched his remaining staff tightly as he glared at the Mandalorian, still searching in futility for an opening. He was reluctant to give into Elias’ demands, and beyond that, the blaster fire they could suddenly hear outside further drew his attention. “What the…” The Besalisk remarked in confusion. If his reaction was to be believed, there was not supposed to be shooting outside.

Elias’s eyes flickered to the door for barely a second at the sound of the blaster fire, but his stance remained unmoved. He dug the tip in a little deeper. ”Worry about that if you survive this. Where is the real package and who is it supposed to be going to?”

For as defiant as he was, and wanted to be, the blade that was currently piercing ever-so-slightly into his throat made for a compelling argument to the Besalisk. With a dejected grunt, he finally gave an answer. “Docking bay C-12, hanger 2. Not that you’ll ever claim it.”

Elias growled as he removed his sword and delivered a knockout kick to the Besalisk’s head before taking a picture with his helmet’s visor. It had enough storage in it that one picture shouldn’t take up too much room. Koren would want to deal with the rat himself anyways. Turning away from the hopefully unconscious ass hole, the smuggler signaled Sol’id. ”Right, Docking bay C-12 in hangar 2. We’re gonna have to fly.”

A collab between @Letter Bee and @CaptainBritton

Ques, the Deal Site (23.311° N, 57.437° E)
1000 hours, 16:6, 4 ABY

---

“Elias Folen, Viper Security Solutions. Unidentified broadcaster, identify yourself.” The terse voice buzzed over the commlink.

The reply was: “It’s me, Ken Neumann; the kid. I just wanted to thank you again for, well, being kind to me. Not all mercs are like that and I should know; Hutt Space is a hard place. And, well...” a pause as if the person behind the transmission was trying to figure out what to say.

“Well, I wanted to say good luck on your deal, okay? That and to be careful; people are out there to take advantage of any kindness. I also...umm...I also want to say that you’re the first person who has been this good to me without attaching conditions and stuff for a year now! So, thank you for that, I guess; my parents are on another planet, safe but not allowed to talk with me much.”

“Honest contractors are a dying breed.” Elias’s voice softened, the terse tone gone. “I’m well aware of the dangers of Hutt Space. Ain’t my first rodeo, and all that.” He paused, thinking. “It’s easy to be kind, and it’s easier to make friends rather than enemies. I’ve never killed someone that did no wrong to me, and I’ve never regretted any of the kills I’ve made, never will. Truthfully, a day doesn’t go by without a prayer that everyone on both sides makes it home.”

A few moments of silence, before a lighthearted laugh can be heard. “As for me, I was born hating. Hating slavers, hating overseers, hating the Empire and Rebels and Hutts and everyone except my fellow slaves and ex-slaves. I kept everyone around me at arm's’ length because I’m afraid they’d stab me in the back or weigh me down.” An audible sigh. “Then I realized I was alone except for those who depend on me to pick them up when they fall. I’m tired of that; I’m lonely. I’m just a kid and I’ve seen so much and killed more than a few people to get my freedom then it turns out that I can only stay free if I keep on fighting.”

There was a deep weariness to Ken’s voice. “But you, you come here and have me under your power and just let me go and be so kind and good and honorable...that broke me. You actually care when no one else would, and we just met. And now I am breaking and taking risks and confessing everything to a stranger all because I cannot hold it in anymore.”

Elias thought, the receiver still held to his face. “Kid, I think I can help. Hm.” He paused. “Come by the Rigger after the deal is over and we’ll talk, right?”

Was that a sob of joy? Whatever the case, the next words were: “Thanks! Thank you! Thank you very much!”

Travelling from vodran to Nal Hutta, Klaatu took some time to eat and relax, as business was picking up and he needed to be at his best. Shortly before entering Nal Hutta’s orbit, Captain Oren had received a reply from the the prospecting buyer from before. They had asked to purchase the entirety of the crew’s last hull, one of the largest orders the company had filled to date. Klaatu was hesitant to accept the offer at first, as many of them would be worth a lot more if he sold them separately. But at the same time, Half of the stock would sit in cells for quite a while before either being sold in group discounts for astoundingly low prices. He’d decided better to move a large quantity and get on with the next collection. His offer stood at one million credits for fifty live cargo. Since the village had only brought in fortyseven livestock, he had thrown in three more prisoners who had been on the ship a little longer.

Before Klaatu could head to the rendezvous and meet with the buyer, Klaatu had to take the Tartarus back to Vodran and drop off the rest of the supplies and cargo from Nal hutta. They had successfully moved anything incriminating out of their former base of operations, turning it into just another cantina. On Vodran, Klaatu had left a small group to explore the area and find a better, more well hidden spot to set up camp. Of the half dozen who went into the swamps to explore only half of them returned. One had nothing to report, but the other two had both found possible spots. West of the village remains the swamp met a mountain, where another cave system weaved through the mountain and underneath the swamp. South of their location sat an old Hutt fortress, a gang of former hutt employees had taken hold, and claiming most of their area as their own.

Arriving on at on the ahsy remains of the village, Klaatu was briefed on the options that lay in front of him. He could set up where the village was, and be susceptible to attacks from above with no tree coverage from the clearing and be relatively close to what he assumed was a hostile gang. They would eventually have to be eliminated or assimilated but that would have to wait until Gort had a new HQ. He decided to go with the mountain set up. Not being able to land nearby due to the density of the swamps around the mountain, The Tartarus stayed levitating just over the tree line as crates of supplies were air dropped into dense forest below along with half of his crew and his engineers to begin work.

“Captain Oren, set a course for the rendezvous point with the golden company.”
“Yes sir.” He replied promptly, plotting the coordinates into the screen before him.
Klaatu sat back in the captain’s chair, bored as he watched space travel by at speeds he barely comprehended. All that was on his mind was the credits. With a sly smile, Klaatu was on his way to the meeting point.

Sirka had claimed her cover position behind a sturdy-looking piece of machinery. She found a spot to prop up her repeater, then looked to the left and right sides of the warehouse to watch for movement. That blaster fire would not have gone unnoticed, so she was ready to make her ambush. Sure enough, she saw some movement off to her right: an armored human. She would have tried to duck down behind her cover to let him get a bit closer, but she was a bit too conspicuous to go unnoticed. Regardless, she opened fire with a hail of blaster bolts before he was able to raise his weapon. He was farther away than her last engagement, so he was a bit harder to hit, but one of the bolts did catch him in either the side or upper thigh. Either way, it was not a lethal hit, so he managed to scurry off into cover.

The Human's allies were quick to try and reinforce them, but Sirka continued to fire on the warehouse's right side to keep them suppressed and make it harder for them to get a decent position on her. Inside the warehouse, Elias and Sol'id might have been able to hear the unconscious Besalisk's radio crackle to life. It would be difficult to hear, but they may have been able to make out some words: "...south side...don't know...big..." It was not a lot to go off of on its own, but it did tell them that the pirates had stopped jamming the radios, at least temporarily.

Elias and Sol'id had just exited the warehouse, their jetpack engines warming up, when the broken up radio message came through. South side? That's where we came from... He turns to Sol'id and nods to him. "Head off the package thieves. I'm gonna investigate this." Jetting up, he draws his second blaster pistol and heads towards where arcs of blaster fire are lighting up the relative darkness. Grinning behind his helmet, the Mandalorian levels a blaster each with two of the forms firing at..."Oh you have to be kidding me!" The sound of his voice startled the trio he was closing with, but a short burst of blaster bolts silenced them before they could turn. Landing in their old cover, he spoke into his radio. "Delni, did you make it clear with your sister that we could argue the semantics of this mess later?" He fired on another moving shadow, dropping the Duros like a sack of bricks. Another shot downed a Dug that was trying to flank him.

Spotting several pinpricks of light arcing towards Sirka, he aimed his wrist launcher and fired a rocket at them, sending the group sky high and then letting the landing and falling debris finish them off as he exchanged shots with a Wookie.

Delni hurriedly replied to Elias. "Oh, finally. I couldn't get a hold of you. Yeah, I called for some help. Hope you don't mind. It turns out that my sister had been sent to the very same planet as you; lucky, right? Hopefully she can help if you're in trouble."

"Finally." Sirka muttered to herself once she saw the Mandalorians inside the warehouse start to join the fray. It was fortunate timing too, as the pirates had just started to put their attention on her. It was safe to say that the pirates' plan had been entirely derailed by her involvement, as they had failed to prepare from an attack from the warehouse when moving up on Sirka's position. Elias had quickly put out a lot of firepower onto the group on the east flank, even topping it all off with a wrist rocket. It spread confusion among the enemy's ranks: a trend which Sirka wanted to continue.

The pirates on the west flank were probably going to react to Elias quickly, so Sirka decided to give them a reason to pay attention to her instead. Finally rushing out from behind her cover, Sirka marched towards the west flank, unloading her blaster towards anyone she saw. "That all you've got? Fight me!" Sirka shouted. Whether or not the taunting was actually effective, a few did peek out to return fire, but her weapon was oppressive against clustered groups. One Weequay stayed exposed for too long and took a hit to his shoulder.

As suppressed as they were, the pirates were not novices with their blasters. A few shots came close to their mark, and one ended up striking Sirka right in the middle of her forehead. Reflexively, her head recoiled back, and the Twi'lek woman who took the shot immediately leaned out to find a shot on Elias. However, she had dismissed the threat far too prematurely.

Sirka shook her head and let out a roar, ignoring the relatively minor burn to her tough, blaster-resistant scales. She re-adjusted her aim to pepper the Twi'lek's position with shots, one of which burned through one of her lekku. On a Twi'lek, that was as good as lethal. "I've stepped on insects more threatening than you!" Sirka continued to taunt. While Sirka was taking on the attention, hopefully Elias and his friend would be able to take the chance to clean up, at least for the pirates in sight. There were probably more making their way around from the other side of the warehouse who would not have the disadvantage of being taken off-guard.

The Mando hustled along with the younger one, having given him a nod of approval at his victory during the melee. No words were exchanged, just a small bit of unspoken respect, before they ran outside. Sol'id burst through the door, gunning down a few mercs that were hustling over to an unknown location. One halted, trying to get his blaster pistol to bear, but Sol'id, despite his bulk, was too quick and buried his Vibroblade in the man's throat. Once the coast was clear, he readied his jetpack. Until Elias had told him that he wasn't going to be joining him. Non Mandalorian women really did complicate things, he supposed.

"Right," he said regardless, and flame roared out of his jetpack as Sol'id Fist launched in the air. Unfortunately, his pack wasn't the latest model and Sol'id wasn't a small man. He landed heavily atop the roof of the next warehouse, and then launched himself again towards Docking bay C-12, thumping from roof to roof, briefly seeing lasfire in the distance to the south of him. But he had a job to do, and Sol'id Fist never kept himself from fulfilling a job.

-snip-

Being that Sirka did not know the plan that the Mandalorians had made among themselves, she could not help but to release a low growl upon seeing one of them fly away. "Suppose it's too much to expect him to actually help." She muttered to herself. Sirka had certainly managed to attract the attention to herself, as the pirates on the west flank were now trying to find any angle that she was not covering to take shots on her. After taking another blaster bolt to the stomach, Sirka made a sprint towards the nearest of the crates to finally take herself out of the line of fire. Still, she peeked out when she could to fire a few bursts downrange, so as to at least try to discourage them from advancing and potentially overwhelming her. Though, if the pirates did get more aggressive on her, she did have a plan or two in mind.

Sirka had been given the radio frequency that Elias was using by Delni on her way over, so she was able to patch herself into his communications, and her first words to him were likely not too different from what he may have been expecting. "Come on, you empty-headed hairless ape, get over here! I'll cover you, but I can't do this forever." She leaned out again to try and put more pressure on the enemy. There were enough of the pirates that, if they finally put their attention on Elias, he would not have near as easy of a time dealing with them as he had at the break of the firefight, particularly since he had some open space to cross.

Elias had just popped out of cover to take a shot at a pair of weequay approaching him when Sirka's voice came over the comms channel, causing the grin he'd been sporting to turn to a grimace as he pulled each trigger once, dropping the pair to the ground. "Let's save the insults and arguments for the post-firefight, shall we?" Jetting out of cover and up into the air a little ways, he fires another rocket into the group Sirka was suppressing, watching them go flying before dropping back out of sight. Taking a moment to gain his bearings, he fires at another Weequay as they rounded a corner, forcing them back into cover.

"Fine, then get your beautiful and glorious hide over here!" Sirka remarked with crystal clear sarcasm. "No need to keep up this fight if we don't have to. We don't know their numbers. Let's just make our escape. Run over to me, I'll give the distraction. Keep your eyes off of them." She suggested to him.

Keeping herself behind cover for a moment, Sirka pulled one of her grenades from her bandolier: a flashbang. The device had an adjustable timer through a simple dial on the top, which she rotated to give it a short fuse. "Ready...now!" Sirka said to Elias as she armed the grenade, then leaned out from her cover to give a hefty overhand throw towards the enemy. The fuse was less than a second, so it ended up detonating mid-air in the middle of the group. It was far enough away that the sound did not daze her, and her eyes were resistant to the flash, so she was able to sustain reasonably accurate fire on the dazed enemies.

Koren sat on the bridge of the ship as another larger ship dropped out of hyperspace, just in time to see his two new Imperial Light Cruisers jump away. One for an undisclosed location, he had to have somewhere to keep all his collateral after all. The second for a area of uninhabited space at the co-ordinates he had sent to the Jedi, he still felt the Jedi was foolish for not accepting a crew but hopefully he would sooner or later realize that he couldn't operate on his own. If he wanted the Jedi to continue he was going to have to work with others, train even more. Otherwise, the Jedi would die. Koren wasn't even accounting for the so called Jedi that had been present at Endor, but then one Jedi wasn't really enough to rebuild a peacekeeping order throughout the Galaxy.

Koren stood up and brushed himself down as the slave ship came alongside. Speaking to the nearest droid. "Have their commander invited aboard. We'll make the deal, do the exchange and then he can be on his merry way." He clicked his fingers as he realized something. "Also give the Jedi information on Teberus Kain on Ylesia. He's been running a slave outfit for the Empire there for Months and is about to take in a large shipment of Wookies for transport to Kessel. One of the last groups to be transported from Kashyyyk until things began to lock down. Give him the location of the compound and access to whatever ship he wishes, if he still hasn't made up his mind on what one he wishes to keep." Koren shook his head. How hard was it for someone to find a new more efficient vessel? Albeit a Cloakshape was a good ship, they were in short supply these days and finding parts to retrofit it to a modern standard wasn't terribly easy. Though if that was what Tez really wanted, then in the end that would be what he got. After all, Koren wasn't worried about expense for a project like this.

---

Lance Thereon leaned over a holomap of the Hutt Sector. He wasn't happy with how few boots on the ground he currently had, nor that they had to galavant around acting like mercenaries, however sometimes there was such a thing as an emergency where things weren't going entirely to plan. This meant that he had to make adjustments to his schedule, and to the operating schedule of the detatchment down on the planet. He turned to an aide. "Secure a line to Sergeant Elias." The aide nodded at him, they couldn't risk a two way transmission without fear of being tracked however they could get a message through.

"Verification, Aurek, Zeta, Nine, Nine, Five-" The code to let Elias know this was a legitimate transmission and a priority. "Downed New Republic Ship predicted to be in Hutt Sector. Leave current objective with squad of trusted individuals, find a way to locate downed New Republic vessel and alert us of it's location A.S.A.P, send back acknowledgement on same frequency."