(Collab between Heat, Vietmyke, Sep and Britton.)

Deep in the hull of the ship there was a room, a vault. Locked and sealed, doors made of the toughest durasteel at least one foot thick. It was obviously a newer addition to the vessel, in fact it looked distinctly out of place. As if it was removed from somewhere else and then put into the ship haphazardly. While the ship is secure, it doesn't take long for it's existence to get reported in to the higher echelons of command...

As the elite Stormtrooper squad moved through the downed ship they paused, Talina raising a closed fist as the soldiers stopped behind her. She saw something unusual, an out of place door in the hull of ship. They were moving to make their exit, but this drew her attention. It was too unusual to not investigate. Their departure would be put on hold, but it was necessary as she did not want to miss anything important.

"We must have missed this on our initial sweep through the corvette. It looks odd, must be a vault of some kind. See how thick the doors are?" She said to Victor, motioning to for him to follow her as they stood in front of door. She moved her hand down it, then glanced back at the rest of their squad.

"We can tear it down though, lets strap some explosives on there and force it open." Talina stated with a smirk.

As a New Republic Cruiser dropped into orbit alarms started blaring on the bridge of the Archer. The Commander paced up the stairwell to the main viewport aboard the bridge. "Status?"

"One cruiser, New Republic. She's just dropped out of hyperspace on the far side of the planet, no indication it's noticed us yet." Commander Vure looked down at the readout they were getting from the enemy ship. The only reason they had these readings was from all the probes they had left around the planet, it wouldn't be long until the New Republic knew they were here. It wouldn't be long until they were noticed.

"Bring all stations to alert. Contact the ground team and let them know we've got company up here."

"Right. We've got bigger problems." Tarick replied to Talina, still pulling out some explosives from his pack nonetheless. As he went about setting up the explosives on the door, he pulled up his comms once more.

"Archer, begin silent running and stay out of sight. Send down the transport with the stormtrooper platoon for an armed extraction." He paused for a moment- Moff Orro had granted them unlimited resources to see this mission to its completion. Maybe it was time to test the Moff's commitment. "Send word to Moff Orro, we've found some rebel ships in need of crushing."

Turning to the rest of his squad, Victor gave a series of hand motions and short orders. "Fred- secure the airlocks and prepare a Republic distress beacon, spoof an all-clear signal on my mark. Koss, see if any of the ship's weapons are still online. Gater, Jakal, setup chokepoints. Ashe, Rocks, bring it in, find some cover and setup overwatch."

The rest of the squad scrambled off on their respective directions, leaving Tarick and Talina in front of the armored hold on their own. Bringing up the detonator, he tossed it to Talina before drawing his blaster.

"On your cue."

"Right. We'll surprise those Rebel bastards. I'm sure the Moff will happily let use his resoures to show them the full extent of the Empire's strength." Talina stated as she took hold of the detonator, then retreated a safe distance away from the explosion prepped door. Moving enough away from it with Tarrick, then once they were clear she gave a nod towards him and pressed the detonator.

The sheer noise of the explosion was amplified by the tight space within the downed corvette. If it were not for their helmets then all their ears would have been ringing for days afterwards. The floor shook for a brief moment, and Talina popped out of cover, smiling at the sight before her. The metal door was torn right open, allowing them full access to the inside. She stared as her and Tarrick approached the now open vault.

Inside in chains was a droid, robed in red with a black dome for a face. It's head looked up as the door exploded and it pulled against it's chains, however it remained restrained behind them. It spoke in a deep, harsh, robotic voice. "Imperial forces detected, identify."

"What... is it?" Tarick murmured to himself as they approached the droid. It was obviously a droid, but Tarick couldn't readily identify it's function. Most-if not all droids were purpose built for a specific function, be it combat, translation, or being a walking battery. The best Tarick could guess for this droid was that it was perhaps an advanced protocol droid?

He narrowed its eyes as it requested identification. He shot a look at Talina, behind his helmeted visor before returning to the droid.

"Captain Victor Tarick, 322nd Stormtrooper Legion."

"You are not authorised. You are instructed to escort this unit to the nearest Moff, Admiral or General. Directive O74-Omega."

---

The NRS Phalanx Heavy assault cruiser, came to Dhira to help retrieve the crew of the crashed vessel. It had been temporarily transferred into hutt space to retreve the cargo and bug out. But now no one was responding to communications, Captain Hayle Largo paced the bridge her hands folded behind her back. "This is Captain Hayle Largo, the New Republic cruiser Viridian is not responding to any communications, requesting support from any Task Force Rancor elements you can spare, how copy?" She said, she tried to make her voice as clear as she could but the nerveousness was palpable. They were a big ship, in hutt space. And for all she knew pirates had taken that vessel to ground down on the planet. She could lend the X-wings attached to her docking rings, and maybe a few soldiers in u-wings but still if there was a whole host of pirates on this planet she was betting they didn't stand a chance.

As is parts of the New Republic had been stretched thin fighting The Empire, at flashpoints all over the galaxy. But here they were trying to retrieve the cargo of a downed cruiser, they didn't tell her anything. They just pointed, and she went. "By the force, please send someone." She whispered to herself.

A few tense moments, before a signal broke the ice. Encrypted on NR channels, a static voice rang out. "This is Staff Sergeant Elias Folen, 6th Pathfinders attached to TF Rancor aboard the NRS Ark Raleigh. I have exactly seven capable fighters aboard. Unsure if I'll be any help, but as for this sector-" A pause, more static. "We're it."

The Rigger freighter exited hyperspace moments later, making a concerted effort to align itself with the Phalanx, transmitting its NR commission codes.

The Phalanx was quick to respond. "Alright Patherfinders, we won't turn down the help." Hayle said, she was much quicker than she should of been heading to the docking rings, almost giddy with excitement, she smiled as she climbed down the last of the ladders to greet the oncoming troopers, a datapad in her hand so she could go over the mission with them.

The plan was a simple one, the pathfinders would take one of her U-wings down to the surface, another squad of her marines would serve as rear guard to secure the cargo on board the craft, they would engage any hostiles in the vicinity, then they would jet to the nearest safe location to drop of the pathfinders. Of course she would be planning on the fly as well, after all she was sure something would go wrong. Like the cargo would be too hard to secure, the resitance too heavy, or they would sustain too many losses for the mission to continue. Whatever the case she was ready, her smile still never leaving her face even faced with these grim possibilties.

Elias, with a scowl on his face, traced the words on the datapad, before nodding and motioning to his troopers, all of which were armed appropriately. Six riflemen, four with A280Cs, and two with E11s, one of the riflemen toting a quite sizeable launcher on his back. The odd one out was the squad machinegunner, with a T21.

All seven Pathfinders circled up, reiterating the plan, before turning for the awaiting U-Wing, propping the door open and seating themselves. The Barabel rifleman of the group, identified as Tesar Raine, took the door gun, securing it and finally sliding the door closed.

The U-Wing's engines hummed to life seconds later, making a crescendo into an infernal growl before the craft began its descent.

Search as he might, the Paladin could come up with no leads to the Jedi, nor their previous whereabouts on the ship, so after nearly two hours of searching, he instead set to finding out where he could go to learn more about the current arrangement of Hutt space. And while he had heard that no one knew more about the state of affairs in the sector than Paradise's owner, Koren Graeff, the member of the Order of the Grey had no desire to risk opening his Order, his family, to another Witch Hunt like what the Jedi had done years prior at the hint of a non-Jedi sect. Heading to one of the seedier, or as seedy as it could be on a place with incredibly strict non-violence rules, bars, known as the Tipsy Rancor.

When he walked in, he took distinct notice of the fact that they were still cleaning up after what seemed to be a bar fight, and giving medical treatment to one of the participants. Shaking his head that there were those still foolhardy enough to risk tangling with the ever watchful security forces for breaking the rules, he approaches the bar. "What'll it be?" The bartender doesn't even look up from his work, preferring to stick to cleaning the glasses and other duties. Tarion chuckles before answering, taking a seat.

"No drink today, just information." The bartender glances at him and shrugs, returning to his job.

"You're in the right place. Meet with Mister Graeff and you'll get all the info you need." Tarion shakes his head at the man.

"Information that won't have me meeting with your employer is the best bet." He knew he was already on the cameras, but without a name, Koren had nothing on him, or at least nothing meaningful. The man behind the bar finally looked up from his work and gave the Paladin a good look, narrowing his eyes.

"That's a dangerous thing to ask on Paradise, buddy." Tarion simply grinned, keeping his eyes on the bartender's.

"And your answer?" He would ask as he slid a couple hundred credits across the counter. After a quick check to make sure no one else was looking, he took the credits and pocketed them.

"Nar Shaddaa. It's close to Hutta and the Hutt Queen's seat of power, basically making it so nothing happens without it reaching the Smuggler's Moon." Nodding his thanks, the Paladin stood and left the bar, making his way slowly towards the hangar with his ship in it. Nar Shaddaa was a far more dangerous place for someone with lightsabers to be, but he also knew that the sight of a lightsaber would discourage most. After a moment of brief debate as he walked, he decided to stick to his plan and sped up. Nar Shaddaa would give him an idea of where to start.

---

The sounds and sights of the Smuggler's Moon were just as Tarion Je'and had always heard, loud, bright, and incredibly distracting if you didn't tune them out, which was a task in and of itself. "Bah, crazy people living in a place like this..." Tarion muttered, walking the streets of the city planet. So far he had tried four different bars, all with the same general information, Kintan had been liberated or conquered, Timana was to take it back, and there were new powers, as of yet unidentified, in the sector of space. He was sure his Uncle was one of those factions, but he had no confirmation, so he did not let the idea stick in his head.

After some time, he wandered towards one of the landmarks of the planet, Grakkus the Hutt's arena. Perhaps he could find someone there.

Koren stood up, and signalled for Sirka to follow him. Leading them down into what would have used to been quarters aboard the ship, in the ‘wing’ like portions of the vessel. In it there were steps up to a hatch, and through the hatch Sirka would be able to see a cluster of droids. “It’s not going to be incredibly comfortable. That’s a boarding craft, I have several. We’re going to go down, take control of that station-” The ship shook slightly, as weapons fire was sent out. Koren had to lean slightly as the vessel suddenly accelerated, before the inertia dampeners kicked in and he corrected himself.“-and end this conflict before it escalates any further. The last thing I want is to piss off the pirates, then they’ll want the station for themselves and that isn’t happening.” He sighed. No matter, everything didn’t always work flawlessly to plan. “You take that craft, I’ll take this one-” He pointed at a different one. “-We’ll rendezvous after boarding. Any questions?”

“I’m guessing your droids pilot these things.” Sirka commented as she looked up the steps, though their time seemed to be limited, so she followed up quickly with a more important question. “Well, I can’t protect you if I’m not with you. Where are we meeting up, exactly, and how quickly?” She asked.

“They pretty much fly themselves, point and shoot style methodology. In terms of breaching, we should land metres apart. We’ll be flying right along side when we launch to prevent any chance of being intercepted-” the ship shook as fire was exchanged. If this ship was damaged, the captain better hope that he did not survive the space battle. “-in terms of separate pods. It’s mainly a space issue, you’re going to take up a lot of room and these things aren’t really made for that. They’re used to small droids that don’t mind tight spaces, as such I’ll take my own ride down.” He moved up the stairs as his two droids floated into the craft. “You ready?”

Sirka gave a nod. “Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s end this quick.” She replied, lifting herself up into the cramped space within. It was an even tighter fit than usual for her, but she could see that Koren had obviously prepared for this possibility. Most of the droids had been taken out of this craft, leaving her just enough space for herself and her weapons. There were a few of those dark-painted commando droids folded up in one corner, but this craft was meant mostly just for her. She found the controls and readied herself to input the exact destination that Koren gave her. As he said, they were going to be doing a flyby, so they would not be in space for long.

“Get the Revenant’s weapons ready. Take down any of the larger vessels that are trying to take the Revenant out. Show them our full firepower.” Lalni ordered as she fired upon another TIE, then curved hard right in pursuit of the enemy craft. “Those of you that are able to, divert to attacking the ships targeting the Revenant. If she takes a single ounce of damage then I’ll have all your heads.”
Then a group of Marauder starfighters broke away from the large dogfight taking place around the station. Speeding off to defend the Revenant. That was her prize and Maker knew she would not let those Imperial deserters even touch her Star Destroyer.

“Scramble more fighters and bombers to assist in defending the Revenant. Burn every last one of those scum out space. Get in radio contact with our nearest corvettes and frigates, we may need them.” She exclaimed into her comm link.

As the Star Destroyer’s weapons were initiated, then aimed towards the approaching Defenders. Turbolaser cannons spread across the Revenant unleashed laser hellfire upon the enemy ships that dared to challenge its strength. More pirate ships leaked out of the Star Destroyer’s hangar.

Koren got in his own boarding craft, similar to Sirka however with more droids. Once he had belted himself in he slapped a button on the side of the craft, tapping his commlink to let Zhast know that they were ready to go. The light in the pods turned red, for both Sirka and Koren letting them know that it was about to drop. Within a second the Nightfury got close enough to the station that the pods shot off towards the station, the dampeners took a second to kick in pulling around in his harness. A few seconds later he slammed in it again as the ship made contact with the station, the arms of the craft tearing the metal open.

The droids activated and dropped down, blasters raised and firing. Koren dropped after them, falling to his knees for a second due to the shock. He wasn’t as young as he used to be and as of late he had been taxing himself a lot. He winced as he stood up turning to Sirka and pointing down a hallway as droids fanned out all around them. “The command and the control centre is that way. Lead on.”

Unlike Koren’s pod, Sirka was the first to drop out of hers, mostly so she could confirm as quickly as possible where exactly Koren was. This might have been an infiltration, but she was still being paid to be a bodyguard. Fortunately, the part of the station they had punched into did not have enough stormtroopers immediately in front of them to truly challenge them. Though, that would no doubt change quickly enough. Koren’s droids were already shooting by the time Sirka’s feet hit the ground, so she hefted up her E-Web and let loose indiscriminately onto the retreating stormtroopers.

As soon as Koren gave his orders, Sirka replied quickly, not taking her eyes off the direction of the enemy. “Got it. Just make sure to keep some droids on all sides of you.” She recommended. After taking a brief moment to confirm that she was on Koren’s comm channel, she pressed forward, keeping her weapon leveled at the hallway in front of them. The tight hallways would be perfect for it, and it would be particularly useful if they ran into any fortifications. She flicked out her nose-tongues frequently, searching for evidence of any nearby hostiles.

The space near [i]Revenant[i/] was a chaotic scene. As the Star Destroyer unleashed the full power of its armanant, the larger ships aiming to attack the massive vessel were hammered with turbolaser fire and ion blasts. Marauder starfighters zigged and swerved among the stars as they kept up the offensive, concentrating on any bombers. As the ex-Imperials attempted to assault the Revenant, its high powered shields took the brunt of any shots that landed on it.

The Marauders were in great shape, as long as they kept up the offensive. They were losing starfighters, but not nearly as many as their opponents. Lalni made sure that they were keeping track of every vessel they lost. She smirked widely at the [i]Revenant[i/] as it showed off its power. Over towards the TIE manufacturing station the space battle raged on, the pirate queen darted through the bedlam of combat, two of her underlings followed her trail in X-wings. Ensuring their supreme leader was protected, though she was holding her own.

“Those of you that can do so, fire upon the station with your fighters. Don’t do too much damage to it, but enough to force them to try to divert ships away from the Revenant in defense,” Lalni stated, then squeezed the triggers on her ship’s controls, unleashing a volley of laser fire at the station. It wouldn’t do any damage to it, but that wasn’t the goal.

Koren pushed on following the group. This wasn’t exactly what he had initially planned for this operation, however he was going to make the most out of it that he could. Sirka certainly seemed to be thriving in this environment, it was just a shame there was as much life being lost as there was. Koren tapped a button on his wrist communicator. “Have the Victorius drop out of hyperspace and enter escort formation with the Revenant. Let them know we mean business.”

Out in space an Imperial Light Cruiser would appear, it’s smaller and faster tracking guns taking aim on the fighters swarming around it’s big cousin. It’s intent alone let the crew of the Revenant know it’s allegiances before there was any form of communication. Koren tapped Sirka on the back as they neared a corner. “There’s likely to be some form of defenses around this corner, as after this there is the door to the command centre.” He held out a concussion grenade. “My throwing arm isn’t what it used to be, though I imagine you can make good use of this.”

Stopping just before the corner, Sirka took the grenade in her hand. Lifting up her head, she took another few sniffs of the air, but just ended up looking annoyed. “Hmm, hard to tell. Stormtrooper armor is airtight. But...the scents are stronger in that direction. Best to take the careful approach.”
Sirka shifted her gaze to the commando droids that had stopped immediately with herself and Koren. “Will they listen to me too? I want them to push in right on the detonation. I’ll hold the corner and lay down heavy fire. Just keep clear of my line of fire, machines.”

Sirka shifted her blaster cannon to her left side and moved up slowly to the corner, at least attempting to keep quiet. She let the back of the weapon rest on the ground as she took the grenade in her left hand, hovering her thumb over the button to arm it. Once the droids were in position, she armed the device and gave it a quick toss down the corridor. There were only a few seconds before the near-deafening sound that prompted Sirka to lean around the corner. Although she could handle some blaster fire, Koren had instructed her not to go around jumping in front of it, so she crouched down and exposed herself around the corner only minimally while the droids took the lead. She looked quickly for the toughest target on which to focus her heavy firepower.
“Captain, a vessel just emerged alongside us, helping to defend the Revenant.” One of the bridge crewmen aboard the colossal pirate ship said, the surprise evident in his voice. Lalni blinked as she noticed the Victorious’ appearance. Well, any help was good help.

“Excellent. Keep the defense of the Revenant as our priority. I want us to show our appreciation to our allies though, send a detachment of fighters to help defend the Nightfury. Keep up the assault on the station, utterly crush any of these deserter scum that dare to attack the Revenant.” The pirate queen stated with a wide smile. The space battle was clearly in their favor now. It was before, but the arrival of aid only increased that tilt.

She watched as concentrated laser cannon fire essentially sliced one of the larger enemy ships in half. She’d predict soon that some of the more cowardly deserters would attempt to flee. The Marauders would ensure no such thing occurred. She turned her attention back towards the TIE manufacturing station, as several smaller pirate ships hammered it with shots. Not enough to do any serious damage but an amount that would certainly worry the ones in command of it.

Koren nodded at the droids as they looked to him for confirmation, as the explosion rocked the hall Sirka leaned around. Blaster fire erupted heading out towards them, two of the droids got knocked down and Koren shook his head slightly. The more proactive he became, the more droids he lost. The more he needed facilities such as this to replace the ones he lost. IT wasn’t a cheap process. He peered around the corner, looking at the hastily built fortifications. Ten Stormtroopers crouched behind crates piled outside the door, one of them even held a heavy repeater.

He back as he tapped on his wrist device to get information on the Nightfury on how the operation was going on out in space, as the entire station shook from weapons fire. Things were going better on the outside than they were on the inside, that was for sure. It would all be over soon however.

After opening fire, Sirka did not relent. She saw the stormtrooper with the heavy repeater, which was a weapon that could do some serious damage, even to her. Resistant as she may be, Sirka was not immune to blasters, especially after repeated hits. Naturally, she placed all of her focus on him before he could focus on her. He was in a good position behind cover, near the rear of the defenders’ position, so he was difficult to hit. However, Sirka was not too concerned with accuracy. A continuous volley of cannon fire from her E-Web struck against the crates that formed the makeshift cover in front of him. Simple containers were not up to the level of fortification as the armor that an E-Web was capable of dealing with, so her shots scorched and burned holes through the metal. It rapidly chipped away his cover and left him more and more exposed. He was, of course, returning fire on Sirka, but his blaster was not quite as capable of tearing through the very walls of the station.

The droids were doing a good job of keeping the other stormtroopers’ attention, and indeed, were admirably effective in actually fighting as well. They were not like the cannon fodder of average B1 droids. They moved quickly to avoid fire, aimed accurately, and were altogether more survivable than the more mass produced battle droids. However, they were not invincible, and they did not have any cover to speak of to advance on the enemy position. If they wanted to get by without too many losses, they would have to push quickly and aggressively.
Sirka could see the barrel of her weapon start to heat up, but she kept up the fire on her target, until eventually she got what she needed. Out of the entire volley of bolts, she just needed that one good hit, center mass. It hit him in his stomach, and with his stormtrooper armor not being designed to deal with something so heavy, it penetrated with ease. Perhaps it was lethal, perhaps it wasn’t, but all that mattered to Sirka was that it kept him from shooting back. She finally let up on her suppressing fire to duck back behind the corner quickly and grab a flash grenade from her belt. She used the holographic slider to adjust its fuse just slightly, keeping it short.

“Flash out.” Sirka said through her comms, hoping the droids would know what to do with that information. Immediately afterwards, she activated the grenade and tossed it down the hall, though instead of backing up to hide her eyes from the flash, Sirka started to charge towards it. Compared to the first concussion grenade, it had a shorter fuse and detonated mid-air. Sirka’s triple-eyelids protected her from sudden bursts of illumination, but the same could not be said for Humans. Some of the stormtroopers were blinded, some turned away, but before any could reorient themselves, Sirka was already halfway to the closest stack of crates. The droids were running up along with her, and all of them were firing to keep the stormtroopers suppressed. It was a role that Sirka continued upon reaching the first stack of crates. She was able to at least partially obscure herself behind them, and heft her weapon up onto one of the lower crates to stabilize it as she spread out another torrent of automatic blaster fire in an arc onto essentially the entire defensive position. If she could keep up suppressive fire, the droids could move up for more precision shooting.

The Marauders continued to ward enemy fighters off the Nighfury all while pushing the assault on the TIE fighter factory. The space battle was clearly in the pirates favor now, the weakened Imperial deserter forces still trying to fight off the attackers. The Revenant’s turbolaser cannons ripped into the ships that attempted to damage it. The pirate queen kept her eyes focused on an enemy TIE fighter, as she and another Marauder chased the spacecraft before it went down in flames.

“Keep it up! I want any of those deserters that try to escape to be shot down.” Lalni stated as she continued her flight through the stars through the battlefield. She did not feel it would go on much longer, the forces defending the station were scattered and weakened.

She briefly wondered if it was possible for the Marauders to get their pirates inside the station. Then they could really pressure the ones in control of the manufacturing plant. Considering her deal with Koren, she figured it would be better to focus their attention on domination of the space outside the plant. They were in control.

The droids didn’t need orders to know to move up, moving quickly they jumped onto the walls with their magnetic feet and pushed on to the unsuspecting Stormtroopers. These troopers had trained to fight against insurgents, rebels. Not droids designed specifically for war, which is why as soon as Sirka had given them an opening they pushed up rapidly on the defensive position and wiped out the stormtroopers. Waiting at the door for Koren to push up he joined them at the door. “Route me through to the station comms via the Nightfury” He spoke into his commlink without so much as declaring himself, he didn’t need to. He was the boss after all.

“Listen, it’s over. I have control of the space, and I’m right outside the door into the control room. I don’t want bloodshed, if you are willing to work for me that’d be a much better arrangement than me having to find out what individual members of your crew are willing to work for me and are trustworthy, and which ones I need to send off to a private reserve-” He cut the comm for a second and turned to Sirka. “-I actually do have a private reserve. This isn’t slang for a prison or killing them, it’s quite nice actually. If you ever have anyone you want to relocate somewhere nice let me know-” He activated the mic again “-We don’t need anymore bloodshed. So what say you, is it over?”

Collab between Sep, Zarkun, Archmage MC

"I wouldn't do that, unless you want a blaster hole in the side of your head." She winced again, turning around even slower. Hands raised. "Listen, it's a real bad time. Tell you what, why don't you take this up with one of my two friends here, you can even take your pick-" She pointed her thumb back in the direction of the arena. "-I've got other things I need to do."

Elias narrowed his eyes at the man and strode forwards, his hands coming to rest on both his pistols. "Willoh, stay with Loretta. I've got this." Coming to a stop a few feet away from the black coated man, he took a dueling stance. "Mind telling me what has you so hot and bothered, or do we just get to the shooting?"

Willoh nodded at Elias, and got into a defensive position around Loretta. Forming a gauss rifle inside her arm, she popped it out, as if she was hiding it in there all along. On her other arm she raised it in front of herself and formed a shield, again making it look mechanical as if she had it in her all along. She didn't have that many shots with her gauss rifle but considering how difficult it was to dodge and how much damage it did, she probably only needed a single shot. That was assuming Mr. Mando missed, and Willoh doubted he would. And her shield made out of her own alloys could probably only take a blaster shot or two, but it was better than showing what she really was.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This ain't nothing to do with you lover boy. This is between me, the princess and my boss. Who'd so love to see her pretty little face." The man smirked a menacing grin, the Gammoran guards at this point had changed stance and the civilian population in the streets just so happened to disappear as if they could sense a fight.

As the rifle and the shield appeared Loretta shot a disbelieving look at Willoh. "Okay, now what kind of droid are you? You didn't have those before and your programming is all out of wack." Then she remembered the situation they were in. "Though perhaps these are questions for another time." She lowered her hand to her belt and pressed a button, activating a beacon. A sad look upon her face.

Elias's grip on his pistols and he rested slightly to one side. "Now see, that's a problem. Because she's currently my employer, and well, it would be in bad fashion to let you take her anywhere without a fight. But I'll give you a fair chance, walk away now, and I'll only make you half dead."

"Or you could just leave before you get riddled with blaster fire and shrapnel. Why did you think 3 on 1 was a good idea?" Willoh said. "Like seriously, threatening someone with a two bounty hunter escort sounds like a horrid idea. Take Mr.Mando's advice, pally."

The man just chuckled and shook his head lowering his pistol. "You would be right droid. Three on one isn't a terribly good idea..." He looked up with a devilish grin on his face.

"Oh hell..." Loretta muttered under her breath.

"However, who ever said I was alone?" The man whistled and a number of people from various species appeared on rooftops around them, all with blasters trained down on the group of people. It was easily five to one. At best.

"Guys, I'd appreciate ideas, we're in the open and I don't like these odds..."

Elias grimaced, flashing back to the ambush back on Circumtore, but his helmet kept that from being seen. Instead, his secondary visor dropped into place as his pistols came loose from their holsters. "Just one. Run." The visor highlighted several targets that would be optimal to fire on, including the first person, and he fired, more for effect than for damage, forcing them to duck out of sight or get lit up. The man in the coat was forced back behind the wall he'd emerged from while Elias boosted to a nearby doorway for some cover.

"Welp, this turned belly up real fast." Willoh said, shepherding loretta to some cover. With Elias more or less being a good distraction, a few non glamerous bolts fro Willoh's gun wouldn't be as noticed, especially with her and Loretta in cover. Glancing at the targets above, Willoh took aim at the ones who were taking aim or actively firing. Since her gun was a bit more powerful than a blaster, her shots went right through the shabby cover they were using if necessary, her gun letting off a 'thonk'' sound as if a larger droid was sneezing. And unlike her Mando counterpart, Willoh was a lot more vicious, aiming for vitals and ensuring kills. After all, they were firing upon her, Loretta, and her mando comrade, so they knew what they signed up for. And a dead target couldn't shoot anymore.

Loretta was now covered by an arch as blaster fire came raining down upon them. While Elias may have been the one to fire first the majority of fire shifted the moment Willoh began shooting and taking out targets through cover, a variety of heavier weapons being used in her direction. As a blaster bolt came close from some form of sniper Loretta retreated further into the arch to keep herself covered.

"We really need to get out of here! There's at least twenty of them, we can't fight them all off."

Elias didn't reply, but he did grin. Taking aim with his wrist launcher, he fired three rockets at three different roofs, aimed at various support corners to cause a cave in, before firing his jetpack rocket at the largest concentration of enemy blaster fire. If there was one thing he could do, it was scatter a group of enemies. Spotting several of them adjusting aim towards him, he jet across the way to a different doorway and peeked out, firing at them with his pistols. Two dropped, but he wasn't sure how much damage he'd actually caused with his roof trick.

Ok, why was there such a big ambush here? This was supposed to be a simple drop off and tour, not a giant firefight. Considering Willoh had to use her own metal to fire her gauss rifle, she didn't have enough shots to take down everyone, but at least after killing a few of them, they started to put out more priority targets with larger guns. At least taking out those big hitters as Willoh made a covering retreat with Loretta would really slow them down. Losing a sniper through his cover while he was setting up must also be really demoralizing for any of his allies watching.

Elias's maneuver destroying some buildings was pretty decent too, and the resulting debree gave Willoh an opportunity to grab some metal. When Loretta was distracted as the two of them made for better cover, Willoh quickly scooped up some of the metal that lay on the ground and absorbed it into her chest. It would take a bit to process, but it'd give her more shots. Shame one of their blasters didn't get knocked over to her.

But Loretta had a good point, they did need to retreat. Or at least into a chokepoint where their enemies could funnel into. Looking around, Willoh noticed a sewer grate near the arch she and Loretta were using as cover. "Hey, that looks promising." Willoh said, ducking behind cover as a blaster bolt just barely missed her. Using her strength, she popped off the grate and gestured for Loretta to head down there, pointing the spot out to Elias as Willoh dropped down it after Loretta. Hopefully Elias would put the grate lid back on when he came down, and make it obvious he was the one coming down, considering Willoh had her gun aimed at the ladder.

As soon as the two of them were down the ladder, in the less than pleasant sewer there was a whirring sound as a small orb landed between Loretta and the droid. "Ion Grenade!" In no time at all the orb emitted a pulse of energy, even Lorettas equipment felt the result of the ion pulse as her emergency beacon was cut off and her blaster rendered useless.

Seeing the ion grenade, Willoh cursed to herself and to whoever threw the thing, they were going to have a very unplesent end. Crouching down, holding her shield in front of her, to attempt to block some of the blast, and solidifying herself, she waited for the blast that would knock her out for awhile. But a least with these precautions, she wouldn't turn into a goo puddle and possibly get separated from the group and hopefully she would be able to reboot faster than normal if the shield blocked some of the ion damage. And out she went.

Elias noted where Willoh and Loretta dropped down and continued firing before jetting from his piece of cover over towards where they'd down into the sewers, taking cover in another doorway. Aiming another wrist rocket, the Mandalorian wasted no time before firing it off, blowing a group of three individuals he'd been taking fire from sky high. He then moved into another doorway. The truth of the matter was simple, and that was that he need to get down there and get Loretta moving back towards the spaceport and his ship. Another round of fire hit the wall he was braced against and he grunted in annoyance; this was getting old fast.

Spinning around the corner, Elias fired four times, but only two of his shots found their marks, the third and fourth managed to find cover before he could get them. Another volley forced him back into cover before he retaliated with a rocket at another small group of two. However, their cover was tougher, and it didn't quite blow as intended, so he peppered it with blaster fire before being forced back into cover. After another five minutes of exchanging blaster fire, the man who'd first confronted them called for his friends to cease fire. "Come on, lover boy, you're outnumbered!"

The Mandalorian grimaced, but his wit remained sharp. "That might be true, but I've still got more brain cells than all of you put together."

In the darkness, Loretta was gone. Absconded by several armed figures, however up top the battle was about to change in favour of Elias. As over the rooftop he would see several droids jumping over the roof tops, two IG-100s and four BX Commandos. As soon as they identified targets they immediately started firing. The element of surprise was on their side.

Such as it was down in the sewers, the Ion Grenade used had been an old 'droid popper' from the Clone Wars. It's charge diminished, Willohs advanced systems wouldn't take as long to reboot as those of a more standard droid. However when she awoke, she would find no trace of her ward. The heat of the sewers and myriad of life forms making her impossible to trace.

Spotting the droids, he figured that they must have been Loretta's back up plan. Elias waited until they opened fire before joining, using his jetpack to gain the height advantage and buzz a group of three mercs. The fighting was intense, and the Mandalorian's armor gained a few new scorch marks from it, but within minutes, it was over and he liFted down by the sewer grate that he'd seen Willoh and Loretta dive down. "Willoh, it's all clear up here. You can bring her back up."

"Ugh... Hate those things..." Willoh muttered to herself, rebooting after getting hit by the droid popper grenade. She wasn't surprised that Loretta had disappeared, but what was surprising was the coordinated ambush from both the rooftops and the sewers. How else would she get hit by an ion grenade if that wasn't the case considering she had her gun trained on the only entrance from the rooftops and no grenade had fallen down there.

Scanning for Loretta to no avail, she sighed. It was around this time she heard Elias call down at her, she guessed having cleared out the remaining people. Climbing out of the sewer and sticking her head above ground, she groggily said. "Uh, we might have an issue. They had an anti droid squad down there waiting for us. Your lucky you never have to worry about droid poppers, those things... ugh...." Messaging her head as she tried to wake up, she continued. "Best come down here and help me track her, pretty sure shes fine, just abducted. There is no blood or fluids of any kind down here. dunno how far they got though.". Willoh was pretty annoyed at getting hit by a droid popper, so whoever had thrown that had better beware.

Elias grimaced when she popped up but there was no Loretta and Willoh's explanation did his mood no favors. Further news that tracking her with her no doubt advanced sensors wasn't happening, he sighed. "We'd be wasting our time, especially here on Nar Shaddaa. We'll have to head back to Paradise, let her father know what happened. This...well, this won't be fun." He turned to the two IG-100s and the Commando Droids, one hand resting on a holstered blaster out of habit. "I take it you have some way to contact Koren directly, right?"

That idea, while sound, didn't sound like the best idea. She only knew Koren by reputation, and he probably wouldn't be too happy about all this. Although most of the blame would go on Elias, since she was a droid, or so she figured. "Thats probably the correct coarse of action, although how long was I knocked out for? Could probably do a little bit of tracking or tell him with long range." Willoh suggested. It didn't feel like she was out for all that long, so Loretta had to be somewhere nearby, but then droid poppers tended to mess up your senses for awhile. She was still a bit groggy though.

The IG-100s shook their heads before turning and walking away, breaking into a run shortly afterwards. The Commando droids on the other hand moved over and picked up one of the mercenaries who had been groaning. Carting him away, there was no apparent choice in which mercenary they had grabbed.

Elias watched the IG-100s before turning to follow the commando droids. "I'll report it to Koren, Willoh. You...go recover. There should be a movie theatre nearby, usually shows some good ones." After all, Koren had sent him with them to ensure this didn't happen, and he'd failed to do his job. As he started to follow the Commando droids, he realized he would have better luck with an interrogation of his own and grabbed a another mercenary after hitting him with a stun blast for good measure, changing course to head for his own ship. Still, as he walked with the Weequay over his shoulder, he silently hoped that he hadn't just earned a trip out the airlock.

"I should be ok after I eat." willoh said, walking in a different direction than Elias. "Thanks for the concern though. I'mma look myself. Someone is going to get sawed." willoh said, waving to Elias as he went off with the droids. When they were out of sight, Willoh grabbed a few fallen weapons from the surrounding mercs and ate them, using their cartridges and metal to repair herself and arm her with some ammo. The surge of materials and energy snapped her out of her grogginess, and she began to take a fast pace through Nar shadda, looking for anything that might help her find whoever stole her client. After all, Willoh didn't get paid!

Alyx swung his blade around, about to move towards the man who carried the largest gun. However when the man pulled the trigger Alyx saw the gun suddenly go towards the ground, the shot landing harmlessly at his feet. Alyx grinned and then laid his blade on the ground. As if surrendering. One of the mercenaries leered as he turned his rifle towards Alyxs head. "What's wrong Imperial? Surrendering?"

Alyx chuckled slightly and shook his head. "No. My Master is taking part in the battle now."

Almost as soon as he said it the two mercenaries closest to him started clawing at their throats as an invisible force lifted them in the air, fighting against something they couldn't see. Then there was a snap as bones were broken within their bodies, Alyx didn't even turn as he heard his master land behind him, nor the instability of the red blade as it swung through the air deflecting bolts and cutting at mercenaries. This was not his battle now, his master had made it his.

---

A Dreadnaught heavy cruiser dropped out of hyperspace above the world of Kintan without precident, without warning. It's shape cutting an imposing figure in space. What was even more imposing however, was the communication that came through open channels. "This is the Desolator part of the Hutt Fleet-" There was a sound of clicking as the Harch clicked his mandibles together. "-"be advised. You are under your first, and final warning to stand down and be boarded. Or we will destroy you."

((Collab post between Letter Bee and Sep.))

Leonard blinked and spoke through the comms at the Dreadnaught Heavy Cruiser: “Yeah, no; I like your ship and I am taking it for my own.”

Raj grinned at that, while Ken found himself smiling at this man’s gumption. Droid Starfighters began deploying out of The Gamechanger and the Ton-Falk Carrier, forming a cloak that would cover the Scipio Industries fleet. Several more squadrons of fighters and bombers began to appear out of the depths of local space, where they had been deactivated and frozen until just such an occasion. Within moments, the Dreadnought was surrounded not just from the sides, but from above and below; a full envelopment.

Note, however, that Leonard and Co. had not thrown caution into the wind; the minefield they had tried to set up had been bypassed, but it can still fulfil a purpose. Said purpose was covering the rear of the Scipio Industries fleet, which was now positioned in such a way that any attempt to catch them unawares from behind would run into a swarm of crude shrapnel and energy-based explosives.

Not just that, but the Dreadnought and the Ton-Falk Carrier were filled with his loyal battle droids, so as to still any disloyalty from the remaining organic crewmembers.

Leonard then said, “Fire when ready, folk! Clear an opening for our boarding parties!”

There was chitinous clicking. “You can take the ship if you want. After all it isn’t mine, think of it more as a -” there was more clicking. “-Gift from one Captain to another.” Just as he finished speaking a group of ships dropped out of hyperspace slightly further out, Scipio had played his hand. They knew where the mines were, the fighters had already moved into position to capture the decoy. The cards were in the open, now to play their own hand. An Invincible-Class Dreadnaught dropped out of hyperspace in the middle of the formation, surrounded by four Victory-Class Frigates, six Lancer Corvettes, Two Consular Cruisers, a Gladiator Class Star Destroyer and two Recusant Destroyers. It was clear that the Hutts weren’t messing around, as the Lancers and Consular cruisers moved into a screening position. Fighters weren’t approaching the fleet without a fight.

“Will you play with me? -chk-chk-chk- said the spider to the fly.”

Leonard kept a clear head, turning to Ken and Raj. “If we can take their ‘gift’ as early as possible, we can have a chance of winning; I’d take getting away with one extra ship as a win. Send in our Separatist Troop Transport against the Dreadnaught; as well as four of our L/AAT Shuttles. All of those will contain an even mix of battle droids and mercenaries.”

Now to wound the enemy fleet. “As for the larger enemy flotilla coming towards us, let’s turn and face them head-on; focus our turbolasers and ion cannons on their corvette screen; our torpedoes - which contain buzz droids - on their larger ships. At the same time, however, a sudden jump to lightspeed is an option; always.”

Had his species been able to ‘smile’ he would have. As boarding craft moved towards the dreadnaught there would be no warning as the ship suddenly exploded, with far more force than it should have, debris went cascading into the nearby ships knocking the shuttle out of the sky and damaging the LAATs. They’d be doomed to death if they weren’t recovered. The long range fire attempt wasn’t expected. Laser fire came out in their direction, however due to the extreme range very few shots made their mark. It did however, pay to be careful. “Reposition the fleet, have the corvettes move to be shielded by the frigates though ensure that we still have an overall protective arc of fire -chkchkchk-” He stroked his mandibles. “-until the fool sends fighters towards us, have all all defensive fire focus upon any torpedoes he sends our way. Send our own in return.”

This was not a long range battle his foe could win, long range his fleet held the advantage. The ability to take down torpedoes, while also being able to send out far more than his meager defenses would be able to shoot down.

For a brief moment, Leonard’s head was no longer clear as Ken, Raj, and Rule Findos looked at him for further orders. But clarity would be regained as the businessman-turned-warlord spoke, “Pull back, wheel around, and use the Dreadnaught and Shuttle’s debris as cover! Then use our remaining starfighters to escort the LAATs, which are tasked to limp back into The Gamechanger!”

A purse of his lips. “Once the LAATs have been recovered, stay behind the Dreadnaught’s debris; use Tractor Beams to take hold of the largest pieces and use them as shields against enemy fire. I hate to say this, but all we can hope for is a delaying action in order to allow the Believers time to evacuate all the former slaves who want to leave.”

Or is it? thought the businessman-turned-warlord. Nevertheless, his point-defense systems ought to hold for a while yet, especially with his tractor beam and debris-shield combo mitigating the salvoes of torpedoes.

“Sir!” spoke one of his anonymous organic crewmembers, “The Believers have finished evacuating all the former slaves who want to leave!”

Well, that was convenient. Leonard then turned to Raj and said, “How many Droids have been left planetside?”

The Mandalorian said, “35,000 Battle Droids and 300 Droideka Mk. IIs, most of them in former mines, the desert, and the fortress of Kha’ris. Enough to be a problem for them should they try and rebuild the planet’s slave infrastructure.”

Leonard nodded. “Then we - and I seriously regret this decision - jump to lightspeed. Droids can be rebuilt should we find enough asteroids and space wreckage. Lives...well, they can be bought with money, but that comes later.”

The Scipio Industries fleet began to prepare for a jump to lightspeed...

The trip back to the Eclipse wasn’t fantastically long, though it felt that way with the weight of the weequay on his shoulder. While there was no doubt most of it was muscle, the guy could also stand to cut back on his drinking and eat less whatever that other smell was the bastard had just burped up. And being honest, the Mandalorian could confirm that he had eaten way too much of it, because it almost overpowered the alcohol’s stench. If he hadn’t needed the bastard to find out who had hired them to kidnap Loretta, he probably would have just dumped the guy on the street and walked away. As it stood, the hanger his ship was landed in in sight, the smuggler was probably going to jet him out of the airlock when he was done asking questions of him.

---

Kromm Vierd groaned as he slowly regained consciousness, the effects of what he assumed was a stun blast finally starting to wear off. The last thing he could remember before waking up was that blasted Mandalorian hitting the rooftop he’d been standing on with a rocket and the Weequay had been to slow to move. First came the hard floor of the hovel, then came several decently sized pieces of roof, one of which had caught him in the head.

That lead to a rather disturbing question then came into his mind, one he couldn’t help but speak out loud. “Hey guys, if we won, why did you blast me with a stun blast?” The shifting of an armored form drew his now open eyes to a section of the wall to his left, where the Mandalorian who’d made snatching their target so hard stood against the wall.

”I see you’re finally awake.” There was a pause while the armored figure walked around to the front of the merc. ”Good.” The sound of a door opening behind the Weequay was nothing more than a prelude as, without any other warning, all the air in the room was being sucked out, suffocating him. Moments before he passed back into unconsciousness, the door slid shut and the pressure in the room equalized. Kromm wheezed for a couple of minutes before speaking.

“What,” he gasped after the word, swallowing the air before continuing, “the hell was that for?!” An armored fist met with his head in response, knocking a tooth loose.

”Who hired you to come after Loretta Graeff and how did you know where she’d be?” Kromm spit out a glob of blood before answering, sneering at the Mandalorian.

“Well wouldn’t you like to know? What’s wrong, Mando, didn’t get paid before we took her away?” His lip earned him nothing at first, and he thought maybe he’d stunned the armored man into silence. That was until the sound of the airlock doors being opened again caught his attention. “Shi-” And the air was gone, sucked out into the vacuum of space. Once more, just as he was about to pass out, the doors slid shut again and he was gasping.

”See, that’s the problem with you mercenary types, think because there’s more of you, you’re invincible. And yet, it only took a droid and myself to decimate the twenty of you that attacked us. Now, you can either tell me who hired you and who told you where to find us, or we play the low oxygen game all day.” Silence reigned as the Weequay mercenary considered his options. On the one hand, he could just keep his mouth shut, and repeatedly find out what it’s like to nearly be sucked out into space, but he’d not have to worry about his buddies coming to find him later and finish what this Mando started.

And then on the other, he wasn’t sure he actually liked being on the edge of death every time he shot off his mouth or refused to give the Mandalorian what he wanted. Plus, death by blaster bolt is much preferable to death by space in his book, even if the people shooting him were formerly his mates. Sighing, he looks the Mandalorian in his visor. “Alright, alright, I’ll talk if you don’t open the airlock again.”

The armored person didn’t reply, he simply waited for the mercenary to continue. “We were approached by another merc group, looked former Imperial. They wanted us to nab Loretta Graeff and that was all they said. The pay was good, so we didn’t ask too many questions.”

”And how did you know where to find her? Was that the Imperials too or a set up of your own?”

“It was the Imperials, some officer lookin’ woman. Said they’d fed info there were artifacts of particular interest to her at Grakkus’s arena. All we had to do was wait.” The Weequay watched the Mando as he paced side to side, wondering what he was thinking. That was everything that Kromm knew, mainly because as a lower ranking member of his group, he wasn’t included in the arranging of the finer details like drop points, final deliveries or anything important like that. If the Mando let him go, he might be able to reach one of the armored man’s blaster pistols, turn it on him before making a break for the escape.

But then again, it was well known that there was a reason larger mercenary groups than his own let slights go when the risk of dealing with an entire Mandalorian clan was at risk, their lifestyle of growing up warriors usually trumping much of the best military training in the galaxy. But the potential alternative wasn’t great either. “Is...is that all you need? Cause it’s all I got, I swear. I don’t rank high enough to know anything more.” There was the barest hint of fear in the mercenary’s voice, especially since the Mando had been silent for far too long, simply kept pacing. However, after a moment, he stopped in front of the mercenary and drew a pistol, shooting off the restraints. ”That’s all I need for my employer. Thank you for the help, Kromm.” The Weequay’s sigh of relief died in his throat as he saw the position the Mandalorian’s other hand was in.

”Oh, and thanks for the supplemental income.” The doors came open again and Kromm Vierd rushed out them, screaming.

“YOU BASTARD!” The doors slid shut and Elias stepped up to the viewport, taking a picture of the now deceased Weequay mercenary before storing the camera. He’d need the money that bounty was going to bring in if Koren was as pissed as the smuggler was sure he’d be. As he left the cargo hold and headed for the cockpit, he wondered just how Koren would take the news once more, hoping that his own knowledge of who’d arranged the kidnapping would be enough to sway Koren away from total fury.

Scipio Industries and Finance + Ken Neumann

Leonard was no fool; the loss of Kintan had hurt his standing among the small minority of organic troops he had. But there were other targets, other battles that can restore his and his troops' confidence. And this time, he would choose his targets; the warlord-businessman had lost because his enemies had baited him into attacking a lure of their choosing. Or at least, that's what he told himself.

As the war council met on the bridge, Leonard would announce new intelligence from his contacts on Dandoran. "Several stragglers from the Imperial Fleet, fleeing Inter-Moff fighting, have been reported on the planet of Cyrkon. It is my belief that they are merely seeking refuge, but might offer their services to Orro or another Imperial Warlord should they be given a chance to get their bearings. Which is why they will not."

A hologram of Cyrkon would appear; it was an ugly planet, with a toxic and hot climate that forced the local population to live in domed cities. Several paragraphs of Basic would then appear, detailing the planetary economy's dependence on the black market, even slavery.

This image was then replaced by the Imperial stragglers, which were composed of two Acclamator-class cruisers and one Victory-class frigate; a small flotilla indeed, especially compared to the Hutt Fleet that had defeated the Scipio Fleet on Kintan. Perfect for regaining the morale of the troops, as well as the strategic and tactical initiative. But part of Leonard's ego was still annoyed that he had to 'prove himself' with easy pickings. Was he truly not the next Thrawn? Bah, even Thrawn lost sometimes.

He continued to speak, "We will hit hard and fast before they can scuttle their ships and take them for our own. Then we will replenish supplies at Cyrkon itself just in case you're tired of eating artificial food. Any objections?"

There were none.

@Sep@EliteCommander

((Edited out a few inconsistencies with the timescale.))

-Deleted-

"No. My Master is taking part in the battle now."

Former imperial Hadrex turned at the sound of the bones of his men being crushed and his eyes widened in shock at the sound of a lightsaber being activated. He raised his comnlink and yelled an odd series of words to whoever was listening on the other side.

"Activate Counter-protocol Cheska!

The Imperial gang leader unleashed a barrage of blaster bolts and immediately dodged to the left to avoid the bolts that would most likely be deflected back at him. "Heads up!" He shouted to the other gang members as a series of explosions rocked the walls above him. He grinned as he ran back out of range of the falling debris and the explosions as more and more pieces of buildings and other debris came down around the force-user and the few remaining mercenaries. ZD locked onto the fleeing imperial general with his blaster cannon and fired off a quick series of shots, one of which hit his leg and he staggered but managed to keep on his feet, albeit he was fleeing much slower. A few of the surviving mercenaries began to fire cover fire at the droid and the others as they attempted to protect their fleeing leader.

The droid saw a large piece of debris coming down on the force-user and yet another coming down on the one who had attempted to assist them in the first place. ZD immediately locked onto the first piece with his blaster cannon and unleashed a barrage of blaster bolts which was able to shatter the first one into two pieces that would be more easily handled and then locked onto the second piece that was coming down on the force user and was about to unleash another barrage when a piece of large building came down and slammed into the droid, knocking him to the ground.

@Sep

The timing of events were going to be as exact as they could make it. Communication across the galaxy, even within the same sector, was not instant, so there was going to be some variance. Perhaps a few minutes, maybe half an hour, but that would be acceptable. As long as it all happened quickly enough that the word could not spread between systems, it would serve its intended purpose.

A Twi’lek sat behind his desk, staring into the screen in front of him at the button that would send his message to start it all. His slicers had already infected every vulnerable system they could find with the virus that would allow his message to be heard. It would not be perfect, as there were some places with good enough security to have stopped his slicers, but it would be good enough. So many businesses in Hutt space were not well enough off to worry about such things, after all. In truth, he was not worried about the plan actually succeeding, but rather the effects of that success. This was a major step, and one from which there was no turning back.

Across several major systems in Hutt Space, the message was sent. In the streets, cantinas, any place that the public gathered, about half of the holographic screens in view suddenly turned black. After a few moments, the advertisements, sports games, or whatever else they might have been showing were replaced with the image of a blue Twi’lek. It was a face that many in the public would have become at least somewhat familiar with, the face that had become known as Cinder.

“My people, today is a day of destiny. On this day, I come with a message. It is a message that has already been spread among the oppressed and the suffering, among the people who have needed our help the most. Now, it is a message that I intend to bring to light among all of this sector’s people. My message today is that the faith that has been given to us by the people has not been misplaced. For as long as any alive today can remember, this sector has been under the tyranny of corruption. The rest of the galaxy thinks of Hutt space as being lawless, but as any born here would know, the law here is simply what they would call ‘crime.’ The iron grip that they have held with their power has squeezed the life, and the hope, out of the good men and women who just want to live their lives in peace. The rest of the galaxy, whether at the height of the Republic, or the Empire, was content to ignore them. But we are not. We are the Believers, and we are the ones who dare to fight. Where we see the decadence and decay the Hutts have wrought upon their worlds, we are not content merely to survive. We do not intend to accept their rule just because they have convinced us that it is the only option. We believe in another choice. We believe that no one should be forced to serve them, and we believe that it is within our power to fix that. I have spent many years fighting them, have poured my sweat and blood into resistance. And in that, I learned something…”

On the screens, the Twi’lek leaned in, his face becoming more clear in the darkened room. “They bleed too.”

Although the transmissions were not perfectly in sync across the sector, the attacks themselves were coordinated with the local broadcasts. Each attack was different, but they were all sudden, violent, and certainly could not be ignored. Not all of the targets were exceptionally valuable, since it was, naturally, quite difficult to infiltrate the important targets, but where they could not find a strategically important target, they found something else to destroy that represented the Hutts’ power.

On Nar Shaddaa, there were multiple attacks across the moon simultaneously, one of which was particularly impactful. The Believers had infiltrated a mercenary group that had come to work exclusively for the Hutt Queen Boonatta, and had set explosives among their store of munitions. The explosion was massive, lighting up the streets around with a fiery glow. It shook surrounding buildings and sent out a deafening sound for kilometers around, reaching even the skirmish between the mercenaries, former Imperials, and the Sith. The building itself did not collapse, but it was certainly set ablaze.

Meanwhile, above the planet Vontor, a ship dropped out of hyperspace, with a significant fighter complement dropping out of hyperspace alongside it. This was where the majority of the fleet that had been sent to Kintan had originated from, which was precisely why the Believers had chosen it as their target. It was still, of course, well-protected even without the ships at Kintan, but it was just vulnerable enough to attempt their plan.

The ship was a cruiser class vessel, specifically a captured Ton-Falk-class carrier: something a fair amount larger than the Hutts might have expected from a group like the Believers. The ship wasted little time in making its intentions clear as it began to launch long-range missiles from outside the range of the shipyards’ own weapons. Although, neither the carrier nor its fighters had yet begun to advance on the shipyards.

Scipio Industries and Finance + Ken Neumann

Several Hours after the Believer Attacks

The Scipio Fleet jumped out of Hyperspace at Cyrkon's orbit, only to find no Imperial stragglers in space; only the local government's picket fleet was around. That was the bad news; the good news came seconds later, of bombings on Nar Shaddaa and Cyrkon itself, as well as the Believer attack on Vontor. Leonard took in the information from the HoloNet broadcasts with an artificially calm demeanor, which then changed into a smile. Looking at Ken, the businessman would say, "Well, it seems our plan worked!"

Ken Neumann followed his...lover's lead; it was clear he was faking having known all along. "Indeed it has! The attack on Vontor was only made possible by the Hutt counterattack on Kintan, which you drew to yourself. Now Hutt Space is truly in chaos!"

Leonard looked smug in his assumed triumph. He then ordered the local authority on Cyrkon hailed with a transmission. The man also began to address the organic contingent of his crew and his troops. "To the people of Cyrkon; we are the Scipio Fleet, the heralds of the Corporate Sector and the philanthropic and innovative organizations that live there." He didn't see Ken and Raj roll their eyes. "We have allied with the Believers in the name of eradicating the scourge of Slavery and the iron monopoly of the Hutt Cartel, and the attacks at Nar Shaddaa and Vontor were done with our knowledge. Now you face a choice, a choice between the past and a new future."

His grin growing, Leonard warmed up to his pitch. "In order to avert the wrath of the Believers and the Corporate Sector Authority on your local government, we, the Scipio Fleet, ask these terms. One, that you grant us fresh supplies. Two, that you free every slave being held or sold in your domed cities. Three, that you allow us access to your star system's asteroid belt in order to replenish our store of valuable minerals. Non-compliance with these orders will be punished by the dismantling of your leaders and security forces that stand with said leaders. Do not try us."

Raj Vizla, meanwhile, would give orders to the crew of the ships. "Watch out and see if any Imperial Stragglers remain. Mr. Scipio probably hasn't seen this, but our Droid Starfighters have been mostly left behind on Kintan; our remaining wings are at a fraction of their old strength."

@Sep@EliteCommander

[ Gavon TreVayne ]
[ Aboard the Paradise | Hangar 2 ]
[ Sometime in the evening hours ]

“What would it take to acquire the information we need out of this sad excuse for a human?”

The shorter-than-average Arcona hissed in Huttese, while reaching into a rectangular case laying at the foot of the bed which appeared to hold several small vials and various metallic surgical instruments most likely not approved by the Galactic Medical Association. What was worse, based on the condition of the plasteel shell housing, the tools within were no doubt in dire need of sterilization.

“Ah, this will do just fine.” The creature’s alien lips parted revealing a disgustingly sinister reptilian grin and mangled yellow-green stained teeth that had a strange glow to them in the otherwise dimly lit room. He opened a side panel and lifted up what appeared to be some kind of mesh headcap, with little receptors and wires at each cross section, and a powerpack attached to a longer wire.

“You realize that piece of archaic trash isn’t going to work?” The man’s expression and overall mood was, for the most part, calm and cool considering he’d been restrained in a chair for over an hour, with both hands cuffed behind the seat back, and a stream of blood running down his face. “So let's settle this, man-to, uh...” He arched a thick, dark eyebrow as he stared in puzzlement at the other across from him. “What are you supposed to be again?”

A mammoth-sized fist cracked against the man’s jaw, eliciting little more than a grunt. “Dammit, can you tell your goons to stop hitting like little girls?” He spat blood, as the residual trickled down the side of his mouth.

The “goons” in question, stout Gamorreans dressed in their cultural primitive leathers, furs, and carrying a terrible stench made a series of exclamatory grunts and snorts in response to the remark, ready to pummel the seated and shackled human once again for his insolence. The creature’s twin, who flanked the other side of the chair, egged his brother on, hoping the next punch in the head would be the puny man’s last.

The Arcona stepped up closer to his prisoner as he splayed the gel-like mesh weaving of the neural contraption out as far as it could go and raised it above his head. The alien nodded to the Gamorreans and two large hands held the human’s upper body in place as the net was lowered onto the top of his head like a crown, the receptors slowly burrowing through thick brown hair and attaching themselves to various points along the scalp. The man gritted his teeth, trying to pull away from the grip of the creatures behind him as tiny sharp pin pricks were felt everywhere the device anchored itself.

“Now, misssster, Gavon TreVayne.” The reptilian creature continued, spewing a more ancient variation of Huttese than before. “You’re going to give me the information I am requesting, or I will simply incinerate your worthless mind, reducing you to nothing but a husk where you will be forgotten.” The creature cocked its bulbous head slightly. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal" Gavon’s response almost sounded as though it were a question. “But eh, I have to warn you-"

“Silence!” The Arcona hissed, at the same time urging the two flanking brutes to restrain their captive tighter. “You will say nothing unless it is relevant to the answers I seek!”

The man said nothing, but rather stared lazily at the other and shrugged.

“Good” The reptilian species nodded, and Gavon could have sworn that it even cracked a smile, but it may have only been the unusual formation of its face. “Where is the pirate scum known as Koran Graeff?”

There was long moment of silence, save for the uncontrollable heavy breathing and low snorting of the two Gamorreans. The Arcona was clearly not a patient creature, as its clawed foot began tapping against the tiled floor, and scales along its brow spasmed ever so slightly, awaiting a response. Gavon allowed a drawn out sigh as he stared at the other for just a moment longer and then parted his lips.

“Who?”

The button from the neural device’s remote trigger clicked, yet nothing happened. The creature clicked it several times again, which yielded the same results and followed up with a colorful line of curses in its native language before signalling with his hand.

“Kill him." Came the immediate order from the leader, but before the two lumbering brutes had a chance to react, both of Gavon’s arms swung up from behind his back, small shivs gripped tightly, as they were simultaneously thrust up under the chins of the twin uglies, eliciting a high-pitched squeal as they fell back bleeding profusely while holding their necks.

The Arcona, clearly caught flat-footed, reached for his blaster but the human’s foot swept up and over in a roundhouse kick, the impact knocking the weapon free and several meters across the room.

“Wait!” The alien pleaded, holding both hands out as he backed away slowly, all the while Gavon was pulling the neural mesh from his head and untangling himself from the subpar restraints across his torso. “We can come to some kind of agreement!” The Arcona continued, trying to distance himself from the other.

“I'm pretty sure we're passed that.” The human scoffed, standing to his feet and straightening out his dark gray standard-issue Imperial Navy peacoat, wincing at the patches of his blood -as well as the Gamorrean’s- on the shoulder and sleeves. “Although you'll certainly get the bill from my dry cleaner if I decide to let you walk out of here.”

“Why do you even keep that old coat? Ex-Intelligence Agent...” The reptile cocked its head, the last part overlaid with a venomous tone.

“Sentiment, perhaps.” The human shrugged. “But don’t diverge from the point.”

“Well if it’s credits you want I- “

“I don't want your blood money.” He interrupted cooly, stepping toward the table in the middle of the room to retrieve his blaster, holster belt, and the few other effects he'd been carrying before he was drugged and woke up in the third level suite. “But I do need information.”

“About what exactly?” The other asked suspiciously.

“First, where the hell am I?” He asked, looking around the drab decor of what appeared to be personal quarters.

“My ship” The creature hissed hesitantly. “Which is currently in ‘Docking Bay 3’ aboard the Paradise.”

“Lovely.” He said, shaking his head. “And second...the ‘Shadow Broker’. ” Gavon checked his blaster’s powerpack and gas cartridge to ensure nothing was tampered with before reholstering. “Specifically, engine parts for a LightStealth-18 recon shuttle.”

The Arcona stood speechless for a moment as he thought. “Wait. Those ships were decommissioned years ago, with all the remaining parts sold off for scrap…”

“Not all.” Gavon shook his head. “Which is where you come in...new friend.” He said with a wry grin.

In orbit above Vontor, the carrier craft launched its missiles from outside the range of the shipyards’ weapons. It focused the missiles on a few of the docked ships, particularly the smaller ones. The shields of its targets could hold for a short time, but it would force their crews to either abandon their vessels, or quickly move them to safety. Meanwhile, the fighters surrounding the carrier spread out into their formations, though they did not yet range far from the carrier itself.

Of course, the Cartel’s defensive forces were not simply for show, and they were neither unprepared for, nor appreciative of a sudden surprise attack. Even if many ships had been taken for the counterattack on Kintan, there was still more than enough of a defensive fleet to deal with a carrier ship. Most of the warships that were not already in defensive positions undocked from the shipyards and moved into formation with their battle groups. Their quick corvettes were the first to react, moving themselves into position to screen for the larger vessels. Several corvettes positioned close enough to the path of the carrier’s missile barrage to use their point-defense systems to intercept as many of the missiles as they could. Some could get through, but not enough to dent the shipyard’s shields. They launched fighters to deal with the Believers’ strike craft, and a few wings of bombers to attempt to disable the carrier itself. Then, the fleet headed full speed ahead towards the carrier, keeping their larger ships in a tight formation with their corvettes to reduce the effect of any bombing runs from the carrier.

The formation did take some time to create, and it could only move as fast as its slowest ships, but it was, nevertheless, completely effective. The carrier tried to weave its missiles between the fleet to hit the shipyards, but it was a fruitless effort. As the defenders’ fleet drew closer, the carrier made a turn away from the shipyards, and scans would show that its hyperdrive was charging. The Starfighters surrounding it moved to form a defensive shield against incoming bombers as the carrier itself accelerated away from the approaching fleet. However, the large and bulky carrier vessel was not a particularly fast or agile ship, and it could not outrun even the larger frigates chasing it, at least not over distance. They were in full retreat…but there was nothing that was not going to plan.

Had their more accomplished fleet commander been present, instead of at Kintan, the Cartel’s defending fleet may have recognized the deception sooner. They might have noticed the peculiar fact that the carrier was not actually launching additional fighters, despite that being the express purpose of that class of vessel. The reason for this was simple: there were no fighters inside for it to launch. As well, all of the fighters which had dropped out of hyperspace around it were interceptor craft, with not a bomber among them. Instead of starfighters, virtually all of the hanger space inside the carrier had been refitted to serve a different purpose specifically for this mission. All of that space was now being used for power and shield generation, making the carrier into an exceptionally well-defended distraction.

Once the defensive fleet had been drawn suitably far from the shipyards, another vessel dropped out of hyperspace on the direct opposite side of the shipyards, and much closer to it. It was also a carrier, much smaller than the sizable Imperial vessel currently occupying the fleet, but unlike their distraction, this one was actually carrying its starfighters. Immediately, the carrier launched its waves of fighters and bombers. As might have been expected for the believers, they had no single style of ship in their fleet. Their fighters consisted of whatever collection of battle-worthy spacecraft they could get their hands on. Some were converted civilian ships, others were made by the same manufacturers that tended to supply Hutt and pirate fleets. The best among them were salvaged military vessels from the Empire, Rebel Alliance, and even the Republic. They had launched two full flight groups of TIE bombers, and flying closest above them were five X-Wings in seemingly perfect condition. They had all been custom-painted with the emblem of the Believers, as well as all bearing markings on their nose depicting some variation of a growling, canid-like creature.

Inside the cockpit of the lead X-Wing was a Bothan man, middle-aged, in a dark brown flight suit. His helmet had a worn insignia of the Rebel Alliance on its right side, and a more freshly-painted Believer symbol on the left. “Vornskr Squadron standing by and ready for our attack run.”

The population of Nar Shadda were a formidable lot, everyone was packing and those who lived more than a day there quickly learned just who to avoid and who o draw attention to. The average person kept to themselves and didn't yell to loudly when gangsters were near, for the sake of living. For Dragous, he was all for minding his own business, he wasn't in the fighting mood and he certainly didn't want to attract any attention. He just wanted to eat. But he also didn't really want to put too much thought into it. So, when the streets started clearing up as a bad omen of a coming firefight, Dragous barely took note of the danger; he just noticed the opportunity to take stuff people had left behind.

Old dirty floor bread? Jackpot!

There he sat, huddled in a desolate corner, the bins leaking a sea of upturned trash around him, nibbling on bread. He was slow about it, his stomach wanting to savor the 'meal', the fulfilling feeling of a soft substance being dragged down his throat was one he wanted to drag out. Otherwise he'd be left with his stomach grumbling in the next five minutes. And if his stomach kept grumbling, he'd start making meals out of people and most authorities shun that sort of behavior. Dragous found security in this spot, splayed out like a stiff puppet, you could almost make the mistake of assuming he was dead. The meal, the clothes, the body language, the smell; Dragous certainly looked like a rather pathetic creature, one that would give no benefit to bothering for most. Unless his face really did just piss you off.

So, he was blind the trading of gunfire, deaf to the yells and screams and numb to the shaking of the ground as property was reduced to dust. His mind was completely focused on his food, that is until a foreboding presence struck a chord in his mind. A tingle running down his back that brought images of legends that haunted his mind since childhood. His hand reached down, instinctively running a finger along the cloth that sheltered the twin hilts strapped to his back. He was back to reality, hearing the damning sound of a light saber being ignited.

Was that fear he could feel? Or did his bones go stiff with all this sitting?

Marrick flashed evil pointed teeth at the Mercenary, as he deflected the bolts. As the explosion cast debris down towards them he raised his hand in the air, halting the larger piece of debris that was above his head as Alyx dodged out of the way of the debris heading towards him. Marrick roared as he moved from underneath the debris before letting it fall to the ground. Just then there was a larger explosion that shook the ground, the dust and debris pushed out from the Queen Hutts palace. More debris was knocked loose by the bigger explosion rained down upon them. Marrick growled as he looked at where the droid was, seeing it under debris he lifted the debris off it. With no more mercenaries to deal with he walked very slowly and menacingly towards the droid.

When closer he pointed his lightsaber right at it. "Tell me, what you know of the Pruidii Verda."

Dragous moved as quietly as his body would allow, the very real reality of his shaking limbs and haggard breath made made this step very difficult. There was a pause, pressing his back against the wall and swallow his doubt before peeking around the corner, only to be greeted by the sight of utter destruction. So, those explosions weren't just in my mind after all. Dear god... In any other situation Dragous might have looked upon such a sight with a bit of amazement and wonder at what could have caused it, but today he had the stone cold knowledge that this sight could mean bad things for him.

That presence increased, spreading over the area like a disease, infecting every living thing with a deadly parasite. The source stood in the eye of the destruction, standing tall and ominous with a instantly recognizable weapon pointing at a downed foe. Just taking in the man's appearance caused Dragous to instinctively reach for his blaster, visions stinging his brain with memories. Myths and legends of dark figures wielding the force like a God, descending upon those deemed too 'jedi-like' with little mercy. Were people like this the ones that his Master feared being found by all those years ago?

For the moment, Dragous found himself torn on how to move forward. The more logical side, where his survival instincts were sheltered, blared many mental alarms to tell him to get out of there. The other side was stuck to watching this intimidating figure, eager to witness him in action, take in that power; maybe take a few notes. Dragous had to admit, the idea of seeing the situation unfold made the Zabrak blood that coursed through his veins pump his heart a few beats faster.

Of course he listened to the side that had no logic to it.

The one thing about Nar Shadda, it surely was a paradise if you wanted odds and ends. Weapons, exotic goods, you named it, they had it! And if you knew where to look, there was a bunch of stuff you could find that was off menu. Willoh was looking for such a place, after all, slavers or kidnappers would want to sell off their victim, so they would have to use an established group if they didn't wanna get curvestomped into the ground. Finding a slaver tradehouse was a lot easier said than done though, especially since they didn't broadcast on the more common holonet channels.

Eventually after traveling in a few bars, she convinced a shady individual that she was a droid for some nobleman that was looking for 'exotic goods'. Though while she was going to scope out the location she was given, A Twi'lek appeared on a nearby monitor, followed by a large explosion that could be heard in the distance. Willoh took a detour to see if she could scope the damage, and saw lots of fire in the distance where the explosions had taken place, with one of the largest buildings mostly rubble at this point.

"Oooooh..." Willoh audibly said. If she wasn't a droid, she'd be drooling at the amount of raw materials that were now made available to her. And knowing it was Nar Shadda, some of them could be very rare! Lots of materials to use to make experimental components for herself? Yes please! Deciding that her lead could wait, after all Elias had taken someone to interrogate anyway, she made her way to the ruined part of Nar Shadda to start scavenging for new parts.

It took Willoh a bit to get to the ruined area, and it was obvious that someone had set off lots of bombs or something considering the damage. There was tons and tons of scrap metal everywhere and almost no one to see Willoh more or less gorge herself on all the metal, loading up on ammo, trying out a few new configurations, and seeing if there was some enhancements she could make to herself. As she was moving through the wrecked streets, she noticed a sinister red glow further down one of the bigger streets. Using her optics, Willoh zoomed in from a far to see what it was, and noticed someone with a red lightsaber harassing a lizardman and a droid!

Willoh thought for a second, and after processing what she was seeing, figured that the guy with the lightsaber was a sith. "Might be an outstanding bounty on him. Sith and Jedi usually have those. If not, free lightsaber!" Willoh said. Finding a higher up spot in the wreckage, she took a perch on a ruined roof. Turning her arm into a large cannon and changing her face and body to look like a standard assassin droid, she took aim at the sith's chest and fired a gauss bolt from her new gauss sniper rifle cannon.

"Tell me, what you know of the Pruidii Verda."

Strakisssh cautiously approached the Sith and shook his head. "We know nothing of whoever or whatever that is. We are simply mercenaries who wish to complete our assignment." He turned to look at the droid. "You managed to get a shot off that hit him in the leg. We should resume the chase, if our Sith friend here agrees to let us resume the chase." Despite the fact that it had been Imperials that had wiped out their organization this one had assisted them, so therefor they wouldn't try to fight their way out of this situation. ZD trained his sensors on the Sith and his senors flashed once as he picked up some sort of change in the local environment. "Is anyone else sensing that?" He asked carefully.

“Listen, it’s over. I have control of the space, and I’m right outside the door into the control room. I don’t want bloodshed, if you are willing to work for me that’d be a much better arrangement than me having to find out what individual members of your crew are willing to work for me and are trustworthy, and which ones I need to send off to a private reserve-” He cut the comm for a second and turned to Sirka. “-I actually do have a private reserve. This isn’t slang for a prison or killing them, it’s quite nice actually. If you ever have anyone you want to relocate somewhere nice let me know-” He activated the mic again “-We don’t need anymore bloodshed. So what say you, is it over?”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A voice came back to him through his communicator, one that he hadn’t come across yet. Likely the agent that had worked so hard to keep the station off the grid. “I don’t think we will surrender. After all, you want this station in one piece, otherwise you wouldn’t have boarded it. This leaves us room to negotiate-”

Koren cut him off. “I’m afraid your chance for negotiation is over. Your choice is to be captured or killed, or to surrender yourself. These are your choices.” The station rocked as a shot from the Star Destroyer glanced it. Then without warning the door to the command centre opened, the commanding officer from earlier was mysteriously missing, and instead in the centre of the room was someone dressed in an ISB uniform. Officers stood all around, looking up as the doors opened and the droids filed in.

Koren nodded at Sirka. “Sorry that this operation didn’t go exactly as planned, you ended up being more of a mercenary than a bodyguard.” With that he walked into the room. He raised his pistol at the agent. “Call back your fighters, and stand down. This is over.”

As they headed into the room, Sirka moved in quite close to Koren. She had not responded to his comment, instead focusing herself once again on observing her surroundings in as much acute detail as possible. The officers were the obvious focus for the droids, but Sirka too noticed that the commanding officer was not present. She was not sure that she trusted that the former Imperials would be so willing to give up, at least without trying everything they could. Of course, she did believe that they would put saving their own skins over every other concern, but that did not mean there was not some potential for treachery.

Sirka angled up her head and took in the scents of anyone she could, looking for any warning signs of betrayal. Even a brief warning could be enough for her to protect Koren from danger.

As Koren and Sirka advanced inside the station, the Revenant continued to strike it with shots, rocking it around but not doing any serious damage. The pirate band had full control over the space outside the station, they could essentially blockade it and force the former Imperials to agree with Koren. It was only a matter of time now, the deserters would negotiate before long.

“Don’t let them get away.” Lalni stated as she and several other smaller ships darted away in pursuit of a fleeing transport. The vessel was quickly brought down in a rapid spree of laser fire.

“Let’s hope Koren has already begun negotiations inside the station. We have full control here.” She stated through her commlink, speaking to Iakar, who stood in the bridge keeping a close watch on the going ons inside the Star Destroyer. He paced confidently around the bridge, a smile on his face.

“I’m sure he will begin them soon if he has not already, captain. Be patient.” Iakar replied, staring out the front view window on the bridge at the space littered with destroyed ships they tried to stop them. He was one of the only ones in the Marauders that could speak to her in such a way.

The agent stepped forward, blaster in hand before doing something unexpected. He pointed his blaster pistol at the ceiling and then lowered it to the ground. “Okay, we surrender then.” Koren blinked, he expected them to give up sure. They were outnumbered, they were outgunned. He had at least expected some negotiating first. He hadn’t expected the agent to give up, and apparently he had some pull as others laid down whatever weaponry they had.

Koren nodded. “Well, okay then.” He hid his surprise as best he could, though Sirka and her special nose would likely be able to pick up on it. “I guess we’re done here.” He pointed to the console. “Send the stand down code to the rest of your forces, and file into the same hangar that my ship was docked in. We’ll see who wants to relocate and see who wants to stay working for a living there.” He turned to Sirka. “I need you to do me a favour. Head back to Paradise and tell a contact named Toth that we’re done there. After that head to Nar Shadda, check in with your sister and then your friend Elias.”

All the while that Koren was speaking, Sirka’s black eyes were darting around, and her nose looking for anyone who might have been nearby, perhaps hidden. Aside from surrendering, an ambush while their guard was down was about the only option the defectors had left. If they could capture Koren alive, then they could perhaps negotiate their way out of the situation. It would be risky, and certainly stupid, but these men were likely desperate enough to be stupid. She did not look at Koren as she replied, having no intention of budging until the officers had issued the order to surrender. Even then, she was not going to leave Koren’s side until he was in a reasonably safe place, unless he outright ordered her to. “Yeah, I can do that. How about we get back to the ship, then I can go.”

Koren nodded as the agent keyed in the station deactivation code, however he had traitorous intent. Sirka likely picked it up before he did, all he picked up on the smug grin as the lights of the station turned red and alarm started blaring.

“Oops.”

Koren walked right up to the agent and raised his blaster. “You kriffing bastard-” He unloaded a single shot into the middle of the agents forehead. Everyone else started running. Koren punched his communicator on. “-Lassa, let the pirates know the stations set to self destruct. They’re free to the debris and I’ll repay them for their services with a second light cruiser-” That was him down to a bare minimum fleet with what he had in hiding. “-I’ll pay extra for every lifepod that they shoot out of the sky.” It was a little bit of overkill, survivors had nowhere to go except the planet and even then they’d be trapped. Though he wasn’t in a forgiving mood.

He pressed buttons to change frequency. “I want all droid units to assist those guarding hangar bay 17. Keep the Imperials from taking those TIE Defenders, and I want every single one launched and off this station straight for Paradise.” He turned to Sirka and nodded down the corridor. “Let's get out of here.”

Koren might have been given a few seconds forewarning, given that Sirka suddenly raised her blaster and growled at the agent, but it was too late. Now, it looked like they had to get off the station quick, though Sirka decided that she was done holding her fire on any of the defectors that they might see along the way. Even though it did not affect her quite as personally, she was not keen on being betrayed.

Sirka was the one leading the way, though she was careful to keep a pace that Koren could stay close to. She might not have been terribly agile with all her equipment, but her long, powerful legs could still keep up a good sprint. “Can’t trust those honorless defectors...made it too easy...whole thing smelled like a Quarren’s boot.” Sirka grumbled, mostly to herself.

“Move the gunships towards the planet’s orbit, ready their weapons towards the station. Any escape pods you see are to immediately be shot out of the stars.” Lalni replied as she received the update on the mission from her employer. Her loyal pirates also got the memo.

Her fingertips tapped against the controls as she wondered why exactly the Koren had taken the station then decided to destroy it. It was an odd decision, but she hadn’t been promised any of the fighters so it didn’t really matter to her what the man decided to do. Being able to loot the debris was a positive though, she’d make sure her more technically minded personal would scour the remains for any useful materials. She had done her end of the bargain, now she only hoped Koren held his. Him being a well known entity in Hutt Space put her mind slightly to ease on that regard, but she was always watchful of betrayal.

“Iakar, I’m hopeful that you kept a running tally on any of our brothers and sisters we lost today. Ensure an exact tally of our ships lost is sent to Koren. I would also like to schedule a proper ceremony so their sacrifices are not forgotten,” The pirate queen ordered calmly. The ceremony was more akin to a party, but it was a way to boost morale and make everyone feel closer together as a pirate band. “Also move the Revenant and any other of our ships out of the explosion range from the station.”

“Of course, captain.” He replied from the bridge as the Star Destroyer shifted, beginning to turn and maneuver away from the TIE manufacturing plant. Lalni flew towards their capital ship, as some of the fighters returned to the hangar. Others patrolled a distance from the station, watchful for any escape pods.

Koren stumbled as he tripped over what he could only presume was a dead body. “No you can’t.” He huffed and puffed through the words, he wasn’t as young or fit as he had used to have been. He tapped another button on his wrist as a code was sent to his small probe droids that immediately zoomed off. As they kept running towards the hangar Imperials ran passed them, mostly ignoring them to get off the station. Occasionally a Commando Droid would run passed firing its blaster as it chased down Imperials on it’s way to a fighter.

He spoke into his comm unit. “Lassa, let the Marauders know that any TIE Defender running to point two are mine, and to not fire on them, and that their Captain and any Crew are welcome to be my guests on Paradise when this is over-” he took a deep breath “-free of charge of course.”

He paused as he turned into the hangar just as the Nightfury zipped into it. Immediately a large group of stormtroopers started firing at the hull, likely trying to get an opening so they could board the ship and use it to escape.

The large group of stormtroopers was not particularly encouraging to Sirka, but the fact that they were all focused on firing at the Nightfury at least gave them some advantage. It allowed them to move into the hanger behind them and get into cover without being noticed. Sirka crouched down behind a collection of crates and hoisted her blaster cannon up onto them. “Just got to clear a path, then we make a run for it. If the ship has any cannons that can help, it should really join in. Droids, start firing when I do.”

Sirka had only used one of her own stun grenades so far, so she still had a few of them, and her one thermal detonator. Given that they were about to leave, she decided to use them both. She took a flashbang in one hand, the thermal detonator in the other, and quickly made sure their fuses were identical. She threw both into the crowd of stormtroopers at the same time, then grabbed a hold of her E-Web once more. She opened fire alongside the detonations, trying to spread her fire onto those directly between them and the Nightfury. They did not need to kill them all; they just needed an acceptably clear path to the ship.

Some of the troopers were stunned, while some turned to face their new aggressors. They were quickly dissuaded when the bottom turrets of the ship turned to face them and the ramp lowered to display more droids. Koren tapped Sirka on the shoulder and nodded, indicating it was time to run. He kept an eye out for any trooper that was willing to try his luck, and he even heard a couple of pleads for help. As they ran up the ramp Koren stood at the top and looked down at them.

“Blame your boss, this could have been most profitable. You ruined it for yourselves.” With that the ramp raised and the ship lifted off and out of the hangar. Koren turned around to Sirka. “Help yourself to anything on the ship, I need to cool off.” With that he just walked out of the room as the vessel jumped to hyperspace...