It didn't take long for him to find a doctor - or at least someone claiming to be a doctor - among the throng of the trading post. The stalls were laid out like broken tiles in a mosaic and everyone seemed to be hollering at the tops of their voices about some kind of miracle cure or blaster which could knock the leg off a smuggler at one hundred paces. He almost tripped over the 'clinic' thanks to the plethora of crates strewn around the entryway and a human with a face like a smacked butt beckoned him inside.

"You go inside and you behave," the overzealously muscled guard at the door mentioned as the patient stepped into a thin, dim stairwell leading back and down. It smelled strongly of antiseptic and something unidentifiable and sweet. "Cause any trouble and you leave your organs and meet the alley."

At the base of the steps was one large open room covered in metal and tiles, rung with beds and a few bacta tanks. Some were filled, one only bloody sheets remained. Sitting at a desk by the door was a tired looking human woman nursing a mug of something hot as if it was her lifeline to get through the day. She turned watery brown eyes his way when he staggered forth with the same amount of suspicion as any other chop shop clinic should. "What happened to you?"

He kept his mouth shut as the question lingered in the air. He hadn't spoken to anyone in more than a week and he wasn't sure how to explain away a badly patched burn and a leg which looked like it had done three rounds with a particularly vicious cheese grater. "I've been in an accident." He eventually offered unhelpfully.

"Obviously," she groused back, setting the mug against the table a little harder than needed. "It's pretty obvious not a headache or a social disease, though if that was the case, wouldn't you be screwed. First bed to the left. You got credits?"

"Listen," he began, "I don't have any credits on me at the moment but I can pay you for your time if you can patch me up." He hoped beyond hope he'd stumbled across the only doctor in the galaxy who would take him at his word. After all, it wasn't usually the best first impression to roll in with a bunch of fairly obvious injuries and no cash - that just wasn't polite.

Rolling her eyes, the doctor simply continued to wave him in the direction of the bed. "Yeah, yeah: I know the spiel. Just let me see the wound already and stop jawing. I don't want your name, don't want your story. If asked you weren't here. Just find your way back at some point and leave Dagin a gift upstairs and we never met there after." She winced when she saw the damage done and looked back up to his eyes briefly. "You know I'd throw you in the vat if you had credit. It's been a pain getting bacta in the last little bit, though, so you and I are going down the adventurous path. You need to lay back, try to relax and hold onto those grips on the side of the gurney if you need to. Might hurt like hell at first while I numb the area with a nerve block, but then it's just a hop and a skip to get you mending. Still try to rest while you lay low wherever you're going.."

"I'll come back and sort you out, don't worry about that." Ingenito tried to offer a smile and think about whether he had anything of value to offer the doctor. Nothing sprang to mind. The syringe pierced the crusted burn, causing his arm to spring in agony.

It wasn't long before he was on the mend and his leg felt one hundred times better. His arm still looked like it had been through an industrial spice mill but at least it wasn't likely to go septic anytime soon. He tried to put some weight on his leg and found that where he had needed to wince through a limp, he was now able to walk almost normally. He didn't think he'd be running any time soon but he hoped he could avoid that altogether.

---

The Doctor [Played by Rhanda Dreaga]

Gaio Ingenito

Fixed up and ready to, at least gingerly, face anything the Galaxy had to throw at him, Ingenito stepped out of the little clinic and headed to the shop that the 'doctor' had suggested. The trading station was incredibly busy with weird and wonderful aliens from wall to wall, all speaking dialects and languages that he couldn't pick up.

He pressed himself against a wall as he noticed a couple of the kids from the Piombino crew emerge from a back lane. You didn't have to be a cop to realise what kind of thing got done up back alleys, even on 'nice' worlds like Sullust. He wasn't exactly the arbiter of morality though, if the kids were enjoying all the narcotics that the Galaxy had in store then who was he to stand in judgement? That said, it meant they might be carrying money.

They'd have enough to get home and they could probably spin some yarn to the elders about why they came back with less than they were supposed to. They'd clearly been doing it for a while already. The question was, how to get the chit from the leader, young Gio Rossi. He was the biggest of the kids in the little academy and had the most of what people on Piombino would laughingly have called street smarts. He wasn't going to be stupid enough to...

Ingenito sighed.

It turned out that Gio Rossi, the biggest and smartest of the group of traders was exactly stupid enough to carry his credit chit, a colloquial name for the credit 'passes' which had to be loaded with monetary values to actually have any worth following the fall of the Empire, on his belt. It was a fairly simple proposition for the former Governor to create the necessary distraction to lift it by knocking into a swarthy Sullustan, sending him knocking into a queue of people like a toppling domino. Eventually it reached Rossi and he hit the deck with a crash.

Ingenito swept in, picked him up, pocketed the chit and was on his way before anyone noticed he was there. An easy win, something to hang his hat on.

He twisted and turned toward the slicer's shop, a shop which claimed to repair broken tech but had a much darker side business. At least according to the doctor it did.

---

"It won't be cheap, my friend." The bulb-nosed human told him through a thick black beard covered in various tassles and ribbons. He looked like a hedge. "A data spike like that, without leaving a trace, will be expensive."

It didn't take long to convince him that he would be paid in full when the transfer was complete. A hard bargain, that was for sure, an extra haul for the inconvenience of not being paid up front. "You got a name?" The little guy asked.

"G-" Ingenito stopped himself. In the time he'd spent in the hold of the ship he had known he'd need to come up with a new alias but hadn't thought of anything. "I hadn't given it much consideration." He lied.

"Tell you what, I'll come up with one for you." The little guy smiled widely, showing what remained of a yellowing mouth of teeth. He turned back to his slice and pulled down a visor which seemed to be entirely cosmetic. Whirring, clicks, chirrups and some deeply concerning beeps eminated from the desk as Ingenito paced at the door, giving himself as much of a view of what was going on outside as he could.

The little guy scratched at his thick beard, the satisfying noise just audible to Ingenito who rubbed at his own face, realising he hadn't even washed properly in days. "You've a pretty penny in here, perhaps I should up my rates!"

"Pick up the pace and I'll put you on retainer." He replied.

That wide smile again as the slicer turned back toward his work. "Almost there," a few more clicks, "and done! You're now a man of means again. Your money has been processed and subsequently laundered through a total of three hundred thousand and sixty five Galactic accounts - if someone was monitoring your transactions then they sure aren't now."

He took the details from the datapad and transferred the little guy his fee. "Thanks."

"It was my pleasure, Mister Dene."

Gaio Ingenito looked down at the datapad. Tycho Dene. What in the hell kind of name is Tycho Dene?

---

Tycho Dene
Man of Means

Tycho Dene stood in the centre of the trading station watching the comings and goings below. You could tell some of the people were together but besides that there were a lot of people with one specific goal in mind. That suited him down to the ground, less people to notice him. He had scouted out a little clothing bazaar and decided to make that his next stop.

His clothes he had been wearing on Piombino, the finery of office, were now little better than tattered, oily rags which made him blend in nicely with most of the crowds hanging around the trading station. They wouldn't do him much good anywhere more respectable and he still needed to find somewhere selling ships.

"Hello, sir!" The sycophantic bazaar owner called as he ducked down through the entryway. "You're clearly a man in need of some new thread!" Perhaps not that sycophantic. He was a little alien, probably not more than four feet tall but moved as if he were gliding above the floor of the shop with deliberate almost practiced movements. "Let me kit you out with everything you might need to enjoy a long holiday on the surface of beautiful Sullust.

Dene had been to Sullust before and certainly hadn't thought of it as a holiday destination. He tried to ignore the alien and instead began picking up a few bits and pieces, some dark trousers with enough concealed storage for equipment, a few dark tunics which fastened at the shoulder with a cream inside to the flap. "You'll need a coat! Yes, a beautiful coat for a man of your appalling stature!" The alien hummed as he came closer.

Did he just say 'appalling stature'?

There wasn't much time to dwell on it as a long duster coat, not unlike the scarlet one he had worn on Piombino, was draped over his shoulders. "It has plenty of material around the neck and the chest," the alien told him, "perfect for bad weather. It pins up like this, you see?" He was now being rumbled into the coat by a very experienced salesman.

"Okay, I'll take all of this."

"That'll do nicely, sir." The alien buzzed over to the counter and returned with a datapad, ringing the clothing up and pointing Dene toward a small cubicle at the back of the stall. "You can change out of your rags in there, sir."

Dene narrowed his eyes at the alien but obliged. He changed in the cubicle and decided to ask for some local insight. "Do you know anywhere I can purchase a blaster?" Blaster sales weren't illegal by any means but getting something that was new or at least worked could be a struggle. Most traders were peddling in repurposed E-11s which only fired about half the time, not ideal.

Suddenly a bright light flooded the cubicle as the shabby furnishings were replaced by gleaming racks of weaponry which seemed to emerge from the walls. "As a matter of fact, sir," the alien had poked his head through the curtain and was somehow at eye level with his customer, "I do."

---

Tycho Dene

ON

The captain exited the ship, checking his weapon before holstering it, looking over to Izzy and Rhanda and exchanging a few words. He then rejoined Ash and Kyfo. "Ok, let's go. Down to the main docking port, over a couple city blocks, and in again. That should do it, fairly simple."

Looking about the docking port Ash sorted her equipment and then glanced up at some of the port security before looking away from them. "Quicker the better id say. How much stuff are we looking at actually moving?" Not actually having been to this place before she followed Spivak.

Kyfo took a moment and closed his eyes, he felt his horns tingle and said, "Am I the only one expecting an ambush or shootout?"

He then threw the hood up on his cloak feeling like a jawa right now. He swallowed hard and looked at one of the sulstan security officers feeling like maybe just maybe he was more baggage then crew. He took out his datapad and started to access the Sulstan language program. Just in case he needed a phrase or two.

Joh chuckled as he walked down the way. "No ambush." He folded his long coat over his sides all cowboy-like. "Well, I hope not. No clue on how much, although it should fit in the Bantha."

"So long as it fits in," she shrugged a little bit and turned to Kyfo, "No point ambushing us when we don't have anything right? - Besides I think you know how to use a blaster or two. Im half expecting a giant cargo container weighing so much we cant get it back." The situation wasn't too different from what she was used to, stop, pick up, go - all be it most of that took part in the one cargo bay.

"No clue."

Kyfo felt his horns burn some more, everything was feeling just plain wrong. he had his hand on his blaster and slowly undid the peace bind so he could quick draw. It was almost as if there was a imp or a shade following them and it was starting to whisper this was not a good setup. "Normally I know better then to ask this, just what kind of contraband are we getting? I mean Sullustans don't really seem the spice or gun runner type?"

"Hey, I'm assured, by a trusted source it's cool." Spivak kept walking confidently, eventually turning a corner at the main market and docking area that attached all the landing bays and pads. "We've got this." Ok, maybe it was naiveté or optimism more than confidence?

Ash looked over the marketplace quickly and looked to Spivak, "If you say so. Regardless the quicker we do this the better."

Kyfo placed his hands in his sleeves and went to doing an imitation of a really tall jawa. He couldn't agree any more with Ash if he tried. "Derinti." He muttered, for him it was his first mission out with a new person and a person whom he had not seen in a very long.

Eventually they made it to the target cargo area. No ships, and if one were to bother checking public logs there were no landings here for quite some time. But a lot of crates and cargo were stored here, and one of these batches was theres.

With a determined look, Spivak would approach one of the crates, looking for the code numbers on the side. "Ah, here it is." He held up his datapad and smiled at the large crate. It would indeed fit in their cargo hold, although it may take a repulsor-trolley to get it over to the Bantha. "Alright, let's get in here and see--"

"Now you think you can just come in here and grab this job, Spivak?" The voice interrupted him, coming out from around the corner of the cargo. Even if Ash and Kyfo were aware, there was not a huge reason to be alarmed.

"Filo?" Joh said, surprised. "What're you kriffin doin' here?"

"This was my job, at least that's what I was told." The short pudgy man didn't have a weapon out, although the two rather large Trandoshans who typically accompanied him had their rifles at the ready, held in an upright position against their chests.

"From what I hear, you weren't wanted for the job." Spivak looked over at Ash and Kyfo. "Friends, meet my old skip... Filo."

Kyfo let his hand drift to the hip resting on his D-18. "I remember this guy, he he screwed us out of money from that Zibaar run. Nothing like life catching up with you hey Filo? So unless you are here to pay up or say you are sorry, get bent."

"Well this is fun... " said Ash looking between both Spivak and Kyfo. Taking the opportunity to place her hands on her hips one of them over a stun grenade knowing she would probably need to react quickly if one of the Trandoshans decided to try something stupid. If so hopefully the blast would let her get into cover reasonably safely. "I take it this is a little social call and your moving on then?" Ash commented towards Filo.

Filo looked around, and waved back his guards to not draw their weapons forward. "Listen, I've already looked inside and--"

"How did you get--" interrupted Spivak.

Filo interrupted back. "I have my ways." He shook his fat head. "But you can have the cargo. I don't want the job, I've got other matters to attend to here on Sullust anyways."

Joh sighed, squinting his eyes. "You're up to something. You don't work with someone for 20 years and not know when they are hiding something."

Filo laughed. "You are keen, Captain. But I'll give you the pleasure of opening your cargo, and I'll even give you some piece." He grunted, back towards the Trandoshans - one of them started to head out and the other stayed behind Filo, and the three began filing out.

Kyfo said nothingbut drew a bead on Filo and looked at Joh, "Say the word and I can hit him in the head from here."
For some reason Kyfo had no problem shooting a man from behind, especially some greasy son of a gamorean like Filo.

"Negative," Spivak said, keeping his weapon holstered now. "Why don't you make sure they leave for sure and watch the entrance. Don't leave the docking bay though." Joh wanted all three of them in eye and ear shot.

The Zabrak holstered his blaster and gave a nod. He meandered towards the entrence glaring at Filo's now absent direction. His hand rested on the black grip, His horns now started to burn as if a real disturbance was being felt. He kept it to himself, but really felt that ambush coming on.

Spivak then walked over to the container and went to the console pad. He looked down at his hand - he had written the numbers down just in case, which was a bit immature he admitted. Tapping the numbers in, sweating from the encounter and getting a bit nervous all of a sudden.

The numbers went in and the console turned green, the front lid opening before them. Spivak had his hand on his gun, ready to draw. When inside as the sealed contents were revealed from a haze of the seal itself, a small Sullustan was sitting there, in a chair, with a table at his side. He was drinking something out of a consumer bottle, and yet you could also see the twitching in his fingers. Perhaps Filo shook him up for information? Or meeting the wrong contacts. "Are you Spivak?" he asked, his nervousness obvious in his shaky voice, with accented Basic.

Ash looked at the Sullustan and tilted her head to one side picking up on the nervous vibes coming from him. Her eyes moved over him looking for any obvious signs of rough-housing, none. "He is - and i am one of his associates. That bantha wasn't giving you any grief now?" She said referring to Filo, "If he was, he's gone now. Only us here and we want to get this job done nice and easy."

Kyfo turned his head towards the group, "If I know Filo like I think I do, he doesn't just hand over anything. Skip, he was waiting for us.... There is something so wrong with this whole situation."

The Sullustan rose and pushed his hands out, setting his drink down. "No no," he said in his accept. "Filo meant me no harm. He just no like who I am." The man smiled, as much as a Sullustan could, and bowed his head. "Senator Ja'umn, at your service. I am your cargo."

Joh cocked his head and took a few steps closer. "Wait, what?" he asked plainly and somewhat dumbfoundedly.

"I am your cargo, captain," said Ja'umn. "Filo stopped right after I told him that and closed the crate back up." He chuckled a bit. "So now you get the real story, Mr. Spivak." The Sullustan must have had some info on the captain. He eyed Ash and Kyfo then looked back to Spivak as he spoke. "So unless you're a bunch of malcontents, you'll like what I have to say."

Spivak merely nodded, and motioned for his friends to take it down a notch with his hands, not clear of his own pistol.

"Great," Ja'umn said, clasping his hands. "I am the Senator for the New Republic, representative of Sullust. I, however, was not supposed to be on Sullust, as I was supposed to be on Hosnian Prime for one of our major sessions about demilitarization. But as you can see, I am here."

Spivak nodded. "And you need us to smuggle you back to the Hosnian system?"

"Precisely," he said. "I am really there, so you should make that a reality."

Joh turned to his comrades with a glare, then back to Ja'umn. "This was supposed to be a low-danger mission. What gives?"

Ja'umn laughed jovially. "I are danger?" His missed-grammar was strange, as he was rather elloquent with Basic other than the accent. "I don't think so."

"Well, cargo is cargo I suppose, Senator wouldn't you be better off with an offical military escort. We are kind of well a gang misfits?" Kyfo asked he had a look of bewilderment and utter confusion on his face.

~Fantastic~ Ash was less than impressed but some how rather unsurprised, "I suppose that a military escort might draw attention to you. Attention you don't want? Last time i went past Hosnian they weren't too willing to let any old ship in - took a bit of time to build up a bit of trust before they lay off the full security screening. I imagine they might be surprised to see a Senator on board our ship - and a lot of questions if they find you there."

Casting her mind back a bit Ash went through some of the times she had passed through the system with her parents. ~Running into someone i know there might not be the best thing in the world~

Kyfo sighed, "So we are smuggling a senator, Okay thats fine by me I have seen crazier things. Done crazier too. I can't speak for anybody else here but I am a malcontent, a scrappy one at that, So this sounds like a job Joh would do? Skip you knew about this right?"

Spivak chortled, but still looked concerned. "Not really, but this just became a whole lot more interesting." He walked closer to the small senator, not looking threatening but showing concern. "I think we're going to need more pay."

Ja'umn performed a Sullustan smile again. "Ah, jebo jebo! I knew you would ask that. Don't you worry, the peoples who brought me here have many to pay you when we go Hosnian Prime."

"Yeah, and who's that?" asked Joh pointedly.

The Sullustan wagged his finger. "Uht, uht. Too much for you. Radar spike go boom if you know." The short little man started to head back into his cargo container. "Now, take me to your ship. I have food and water to get me there."

Spivak's eyebrows shot up. "Um... ok." He looked to his friends. "I guess we accept." Joh looked back and approached the container. "Ash, can you prepare for a repulsor sled? Kyfo, keep your guard up as we get going." There were easier ways to get the cargo to the Bantha, or the Bantha here, but they were far more noticeable to those who may be watching. Taking the cargo the old fashioned way was the most inconspicuous for short notice.

Kyfo sighed, "Aye sir." Kyfo managed, his hand was on his blaster, he was fuming on the inside. He had to keep telling himself ~As long as the credit transfer clears.~ He rested his hand on his blaster handle and swallowed hard. He turned back towards the Captain, "Joh.. er Skipper, we shouldn't use the same route we came in on. I also want to suggest maybe buying somethign that requires a large crate so it looks more I don't know legitimate? Maybe a bunch of fungus or knick knacks?"

Pull up one of the sled Ash switched in on as it started up smoothly for her. "Whatever we do lets just do it quick. The more we hang about the bigger the risk. Especially now." She looked down at the container as she grabbed a side trying to move it ~Many he weighs more than he looks!~. "I could use a hand if you have a spare one. Very chivalrous letting the woman do he heavy lifting," a wry smile slipped her face showing she was only joking. "Kyfo's right its going to look a bit odd with just a singular piece of cargo."

Kyfo looked at Ash rather sheepishly, "I am so sorry where are my um manners, if you want to keep an eye out for trouble, I can push the cart?" Kyfo looked at Joh. He then snapped his fingers, "What about something from the droid shop? There was a nav comp there that looked like it was made in the past hundred years, it might even be an upgrade?"

Spivak went to help Ash and Kyfo. "I was going to help you lift it, I just wanted the repulsorbed nearby." He grinned and hefted it up with them. "We don't need an excuse, as we are already known, as far as the port authority, to be hauling this container. But it might be good to get another containers to go with it. Maybe Izzy can find some good supplies to go with it."

He considered it a bit as they began the trek out of the cargo bay area and into the main corridor, slowly making their way back. It wasn't long into the trek that Spivak spoke up. "We're being followed."

"You can smell them too?" Kyfo quipped right back.

"Filo sees us as unfinished parts, and probablly promissed tens of jugganath points if they vapped us and took Ash." Kyfo turned his head to Joh. Inhaled sharply.

"They aren't going to let up until they kill us. You know this?" Kyfo said as he began to pinpoint or at least try to the exact location of the two serpents and their fat friend.

Joh nodded and looked over to Ash. "Keep this going back to the Bantha. I'll contact Izzy and see if they've found Phelan yet." Spivak got out his comlink and whispered something into it over to their friends. Hopefully he would get a response before the people tailing them figured things out.

Ash kept moving forward toggling her head piece to a thermal view. She took a quick glance around her with it and then back to the front toggling it off. "Ill keep going. I dont see anything too close to us just now that looks out of the ordinary on thermal. Im flattered that they might want to take me but i think ill just have to disappoint them on that." A thought did cross her mind as to how well shielded the container was from weapons fire.

Kyfo sighed, "Alright pretty lady, He who pays me lots of money to go and do stupid things, I am about to do something..." He began to play with his datapad, "Dumb."

Kyfo's datapad brought up a schematic of the area where the dosh were. Kyfo quickly hacked a tourism droid who approached the Dosh and in their native tongue it greeted them with, "Happy Life Day it is nice to see a nice married couple such a syou two coming to Sullust to enjoy your honeymoon! Sullust is known for many things including the strong and long lasting lubricants we sell for fractions of the cost of...."

The two Trandoshans would take the bait and attack the poor roaming protocol droid. The moment they did alarms would go off and Sullust Corporate Security would be notified to come to that spot, even if the Dosh fled, it would give the group just enough of a distration to get away without a fight. Or so Kyfo was planning it. He looked at Ash and the Captain, "Well I suggest we keep hightailing it out of here, Security should be too busy worrying about the us, and fighting the Trandoshans who just shot that droid..."

Spivak chuckled as he caught back up. "Clever." He then looked over at Ash and nodded. "Ok, let's go, we're almost back. I've called Izzy for some backup." Spivak went to check the crates and help Ash ensure they were still all inline and steady.

OFF

The halls of the judicial office in Phelar went from silence to that of a full blown ruckus once the doors parted. A rather upset human being dragged by his cuffs was trying to that about but getting no where. "You'll pay for this you horned shit, you hear me?" shouted the Human as people stopped to stare. The thing was no one was really looking at him, no, they were laughing at him. However, the onlookers attention were turned towards his captor, a tall and imposing looking Togruta. Finally the Togruta stopped after the man yanked back once more and he hit the human square in the jaw. The onlookers quickly went back to their business and the captor smirked in satisfaction.

A few moments later the two of them serious in front of a desk where a rather grizzled judicial officer eyed the two of them. "Can I help you?" he asked half annoyed.

"Jartrisk Ker, you'll find my bounty hunters guild id on the data card. This piece of crap is..." Jartridk shoved the Himan forward so he'd speak. "My name is Tyro Zan, and this bounty is completely..."

"Shut up!" the judicial barked. After Tyro paused he typed a few commands into his console and smirked. "Your bounty is for a warrant Mister Zan. It seems you decided to steal from our docks, kill a few workers and run. Guess you weren't too smart. Lucky though, it says your bounty for the warranty was dead or alive."

Tyro Zan opened his mouth as if to say something but then shut it and growled under his breath. The officer handed the data card back to Jartrisk and came from around his desk to take the prisoner that had been delivered. "Your reward will be in your account within a day. Processing just has to verify the identity."

"I'm sure they do. Keep an eye on him, he's slippery." replied Jartrisk as he took his data card and handed over the bounty, now prisoner. Turning around he began walking away, his attention drawn to the building and it's design as he walked. From what he understood it had once been an Imperial Junior Officer Academy and if you looked close enough you could see the Imperial architectural influence. It was sharp, clean, and efficient much like the Empire has over been. The colors though certainly heightened up the building which the bounty hunter find amusing as the facility was for dealing with the law, not making people cheerful. As Jartrisk was nearing the door a commotion broke out behind him and he turned around to see his bounty note free of his cuffs and running from judicial officers and towards him and the exit.

"Morons." he muttered as he spun around to face Tyro head on. As the criminal drew closer the Togruta reached to his side and unholstered his blaster and took aim. Firing a single shot a bolt screeched through the air and landed directly in the chest of the human who dropped on the spot, a large scorch mark burnt through his diet and chest.

"What the hell did you do?" the grizzled and apparently out of shape officer asked him in a demanding tone. "You said dead or alive and I wasn't going to lose my payment because you couldn't do your job and get him to processing. It should be much easier now." Jartrisk replied cool, a hint of wit in his voice. Holstering his blaster he turned back around once more and walked out of the Judicial Office without another word.

Back on the Crimson Akul an old B1 Battle Droid let out an exasperated sigh through his vocal processor as he dug through the wiring of a console station on the bridge. "Sometimes I don't know what's worse... fixing this old ship or my time serving as target practice."

Once his repairs were complete the droid reactivated the console and then tilted his head as a communication came through, now that the station was operational again. "Oh look, maybe Ker will let me join him in capturing this bounty." Just as he was about to continue talking to himself Jartrisk walked up, having returned to the ship. "Let you join me in capturing who Shooter?"

"The Galactic Army scum...I mean this bounty Ker." Shooter replied. He motioned to the transmission on the screen and suddenly the Togrutas eyes got a lot bigger. "Shooter, payday just got a lot bigger my friend. I'll send them a confirmation, set coordinates and get us launched she we can go finalize this deal."

"Oh joy, money that I have no use for. What a wonderful reward." Shooter replied sarcastically. When he saw Jartrisk eyeing him he shook his head with a clank. "I mean roger, roger. Coordinates set, launching us from port." A few minutes later the Crimson Akul had cleared orbit and was underway. Their biggest payday yet awaited them.

OFF:

---

Jartrisk Ker
Bounty Hunter, The Crimson Akul

Shooter (OOM-87)
Pilot Droid, The Crimson Akul
NPC'd by Jartrisk Ker

Beeping sounds of droid speak could be heard moments before there was a loud banging sound and then another. Groaning, Stephie frowned and turned towards where her droid had careened into a corner. Sticking her head around to the little droid, she spoke, "Stay, Smack."

She had come to the store to look for items, and would rather not have to pay for anything that was broken. But Stephie had been worried that her droid could have been grabbed otherwise.

As the woman entered the store, a droid activated sensing a newcomers presence. "Welcome to 'Trader'R'Us', if you need anything please ask, if your requiring something specific the owner can help you and if we dont have it! then we can point you somewhere that does. Enjoy your shopping pleasure and have plenty of credit chits for us to take!" The Magna droid called out in every known language he knew which happened to be every single one known in the galaxy. Even Wookie.

"Damn droid!" the Sullust owner cursed coming out to welcome to new client to his shop. "I swear that droid is going to be the death of my business!" The trader said as he looked at the woman. "Need something?" he asked curiously as he tapped his fingers together expectantly.

Walking over to the Magna droid, Stephie smiled and began examining it, being quite fascinated, "You do know that it could probably snap you like a twig? He's rather nice though."

"Oh yes, but I bought him off world, then did my best to wipe his memory." The owner stated.

Turning to the owner, she pulled out a datapad and handed it over, "I'm looking for all of this. Bits and pieces really, but some of them are.. exotic. I need to get my speeder fixed before I head elsewhere. Oh, and we can tag on a bit to the price due to Smack."

Stephie wasn't really going to explain more about her current little troubles, which she sort of brought down on herself. It wasn't really her fault that the crime lord's wife had been cute & interested and taken to Stephie's flirtations, or that he wouldn't be happy. And it sure wasn't her fault that wife had decided to run with a chunk of his cash.

"Oh yes, I have most of this, though, a few of these pieces will need 'special' ordering." The owner said smiling. "So are you interested in purchasing the Magna droid, for ohhh, a considerable fee?" He asked curiously.

Stephie mused for a moment, "What do you mean by special? And from the looks, this Magna has seen quite a bit of wear. I can see the results of numerous dings, pock marks and battle damage. I am pretty sure he is older then either of us. combined."

She knew enough about droids to have an idea of how old and this one's value, but she always haggled and had been around Hutts long enough to know all the tricks.

"What sort of price are you thinking of?"

Pulling out a credit chip and her data pad, she mused before bringing up a number and showing it to him. She knew that it was pretty reasonable and did go a bit above what she felt due to Smack's earlier issues, "How about this? And to throw in the restraining bolt you have on it - I don't want it going all psycho."

"Oh of course, I can go for this price though, if you want the restraining bolt thrown in it might cost you a bit extra than this. As for it going psycho, I have had it for two months and it hasnt gone psycho yet. After all, it doesnt remember who he was before so how cant he go on a murder killing spree if he doesnt remember how?. Though, all he remembers is to protect and he has chased down a thief once or twice but never killed anyone. Though, my technical expertise isnt that great but one of my workers did wipe his memory outside of what he needed to do to act as guard of my store." The Trader told the young woman.

Stephie smiled and handed over the credit chip, "Cool. Here. Forget the restraining bolt then since he has been good. I work with droids and I can handle him then. I'll come back later for parts."

Moving over to the droid and motioning to Smack, she patted it, "Hello, I'm Stephie and I just bought you. Let's get you out of here. This is Smack by the way. What is your name?"

Stephie wasn't going to mention that technically, all the money that she had at the moment was freshly laundered by a local fencer out of stolen proceeds from the crime lord, and she was thinking it might be better to get away from Sullust.

"My designation is Magnus001. The thief trader here, has been calling me Mags for short." Magnus said calmly as he got out of the clothes he was wearing outside of a tattered sand colored cloak, which he then placed the hood up around his head. "Do you require anything? If you wish a bodyguard? I can do that?" Magnus told the woman.

Smack had come up and beeped a little, rocking, before Stephie patted the astromech, "Nice, Magnus001. What do you prefer? That sounds like a good idea. I'm thinking that I am going to need to get off Sullust and need to find some way. I might have people after me. Lets get going."

"What do you know of this master of yours?" Mags asked as he translated his language processes into the droid language, as he directed his question to the astromech droid.

Smack beeped a little, speaking in droid, "I should warn you that Stephie can understand Droidspeak. She is unusual and unlike other squishies. I have gathered that they think she has problems in the head. Also, she has a tendency to leak a lot from her eyes and seems to let others take advantage of her. But Stephie is rather good at fixing things, even if she does tend to get in trouble a lot, and really cares for droids. Our mistress has a cybernetic implant and a comm, so can communicate direct with her. She also misses a black-haired woman, Mira, who she spent a lot of time with in a state with no clothing. That happens a lot for mistress actually."

"Well thank you for telling me, she can speak droid. I will see how good she is at languages later. The Trader she bought me from, kept my language database intact for obvious reasons. I can speak all known languages, even wookie. Im no protocol droid of course but that doesnt mean much. As long as our master doesnt get angry and attack me like my creator did, I think we will be OK. Also, good to know about the implant. What frequency does she use?. So I may beable to do the same thing if the time is required for it, and do you know the range of the communicator?. As for her skill at fixing, I hope she is better than the trader at fixing things. He wiped my memory of who I was prior to meeting with him. Which from what I understand probably was a wise thing to do." Mags said in droidspeak to Smack, mostly to keep the conversation between the three of them rather than to everyone in range.

Smack mused and when Stephie nodded, he gave the frequency code out and the encryption key before continuing, "That is good. I have no modules for that. She is good enough and learns. She put me back together from parts, although I do have issues with stopping as my brake module fails to engage mostly. Walls and squishies may good alternatives."

Mags added the frequency to his list of communication alternatives and continued on with his conversation. "You havent replaced your brake module yet?. I believe my old master might have had parts for a crude module that can be used as a breaking system for your type of droid. Or you could try Korak's Emporium, we are near his shop if you wish to purchase a semi used module for breaking." Mags said trying to help a fellow droid out.

Smack beeped, "It is okay. Mistress just fixes all the bangs. She will get around to it eventually, but we are on the run most of the time. Mistress has very light fingers and a tendency to seduce the wrong sort of people. She told me that a crimelord lost his girlfriend because of Mistress and we need to leave Sullust. Do you have any ideas?"

"Heading to the space dock might be the best option, their are always vessels coming and going, very easy to have someone disappear in their and hide as well." Mags suggested to smack.

* * * *

Phelan moved through the sparsely packed northern end of the bazaar, a heavy pack swung over his shoulder and a respirator hanging loosely around his neck. The Siege of Inyusu Tor had created starship graveyard beyond the now disused Inyusu Tor processing plant and its location made it difficult for salvagers to reach. He'd have to overhaul his speeder's distribution coils from his excursion out there but he'd managed to scrounge together enough parts to trade for what he needed, along with a couple of souvenirs for himself.

The crowds grew thicker as he moved further south in the bazaar, stopping occasionally to look at food stuffs, clothing, and anything else he might need for his new job. He made mental notes on items to come back for after he traded in his haul and moved on humming to himself, happy that he was finally getting off this rock.

Leaving the shop with Smack and Magnus in tow, Stephie wasn't really looking where she was going until moments too late to be able to stop. She gulped, her hands moving without thinking as she spoke, "Sorry." The heavy sack hung over his shoulder slid free and stuck the ground with a thud.

Instinctively, Mags ran to his masters side placing himself between his master and the new comer. His red spherical eyes gazing at Phelan, expecting him to retaliate, and if he did, Mags would be his masters shield.

Phelan half-frowned as he looked the droid over that had now interposed itself between him and the young woman. "You're an old one aren't you." Phelan commented after a moment, then knelt down to retrieve the fallen sack. The worn snaps had popped loose when it impacted the ground and a drive motivator had spilled free.

Quickly looking through the small pouch she had lifted and deciding it wasn't worth it, Stephie spoke up, "Maybe, but he works well. My name's Stephie and this is Magnus and Smack. And you are?"

Kneeling down to help, she covertly slid the pouch to the ground before saying, "I think you dropped this too. Don't suppose you know a way off Sullust?"

Phelan pausing staring at the pouch for a moment before picking it up and slipping back into his vest pocket. Odd, he thought.

Tikkit was watching this little group, with her droid Wreckage. They all had the look of spacers except the male with the green tattoo on his face. She was about to come out of her hiding spot, but she retreated as a group of three Gamorreans walked by. She knew the one that was sporting many bruises and wounds. He was the one that she got away from. Once they where gone, she threw up her hood to cover her badly bruised face, but Wreckage beeped at her and pushed her into the street. She cleared her throat before she spoke. "Excuse me Captain," she was addressing Stephie, "do you have any openings on your crew for a mechanic?" Wreckage came out with his trailer in tow, and beeped at them (Droidspeak: Don't forget about me master). The trailer contained various capital starship parts. "And a repair droid?"

Stephie giggled, "I'm no captain and I'm hoping to get off here too. But you can tag along if you want."

"Sorry for the mistake." Tikkit said with a painful frown. "But I will..." She seemed to think for a moment. "Tag along, but can we leave the Market?"

Stuffing the drive motivator back into sack. "I can't say for certain but you might be able to find passage on the freighter I'm joining. You'll have to talk with the captain to find out. That goes for both of you."

"I really don't have many credits to book passage, but I do have some salvaged parts that I can trade," Tikkit said to the man, while gesturing to the various parts on the trailer, "or even my time as a ship, vehicle, and droid mechanic."

"Well, I'm sure you can work something out with Spivak." Phelan shrugged as he shouldered the sack. "I'm headed to meet them. I guess the two of you can tag along. Though I'd suggest you leave the droids. The bar isn't to keen on droids."

Hooking into the comm relay for Steph and Smack, he sent a lone message to them only. "If you wish us to remain outside, Mistress, we will. But if the bar is as dangerous as these people claim, they might drop that certain level of disrespect and allow our admittance if I was along. I am getting the suspicion that people look at me differently and back down quickly as if they are scared of my presence. But it is your call, mistress." Mags told his master.

"Thank you, sir." Tikkit said remembering the name that the man with the green tattoo on his face. She took the opportunity to empty a few of her hidden pockets in her robe. She knew that something was going to catch her attention at this bar. "Wreckage will wait outside for me."

Stephie nodded to Magnus and Smack, before deciding to speak openly so the others could hear too - possibly as a warning since she didn't really know, "Magnus and Smack, It might be good to wait outside. Stupid racist pricks that they are. But if I send word that things look hinky, you are welcome to come in with all guns blazing."

"Yes mistress, we will just drone about outside expecting danger so we can come in to beat up some people." Magnus said via internal comms with a hint of humor to his voice.

ON

The bar he called 'Sue' was probably named something else at some point. But the weather worn sign hanging over the entry had only three visible characters left on it. S - U - E. And so he had started calling the bar Sue, as had numerous other patrons. Phelan gave Tesis, the bar's current owner, a smile and nod as he moved to one of the table near the back. When he left a message at the space port for the Bantha, letting Spivak know where to find him, he'd planned on being alone. But like usual when it came to his life he'd had to make adjustments.

Tikkit kept herself close to the man with the green tattoo. She wasn't sure how this man, Spivak, is going to act towards her, but she needed to get off this world, because she wasn't going to be a slave again.

Entering inside to the place, Stephie could tell it was just like every other dive bar she had been to and while Phelan went off to get a table, she made a bee-line to the bartender. Putting down a credit chip and sliding it over, she smiled, "A round of Deuterium-pyro shots and a bottle of Corellian brandy. Four glasses too."

Tesis went off to make the order and when it was done & paid, Stephie carried over the tray, sitting down at Phelan's table before sliding one of the shots to everyone, "Any of you realise how much you stand out coming to a place like this and not heading to the bar, right?"

Phelan just shrugged as he glanced quickly at his chronometer. "So why do you two want to get off Sullust?"

Stephie thought for a moment and then decided partial truth with omissions would be fine. "Well, it was rather a misunderstanding. There is a guy who is particularly resourced. It started all as an accident that I met this really smoking hot blonde in an upscale bar I was.. visiting, and we got to chatting. She was rather interested and things led the natural path. We both really enjoyed the night back at a hotel she took me to, and the next morning, she had decided to bat for the same side and leave her douche of a husband. It wasn't my fault she decided to blind rob said douche as well and skedaddle. He sort of blames me now before he figures out details."

Tikkit only stared at the woman, because she had no clue on what she was talking about. "I want off, because some piece of bantha podo turned me in when I was salvaging the wreckage of the Dark Treasure, and then attempted to sell me to the Crimelord that she owed credits too and cheated me out of credits also." She shifted her hood to the two of them can see the massive bruising on her face.

"Everyone has their story." Phelan said with a half-shrug, amazed at the similarities in reasons to his own.

----Outside SUE----

Meanwhile, Magnus, Smack and Wreckage, waited outside like common animals, as humanoids went into the tavern, as well as their masters. Magnus just stood there, slightly hunched over and leaned against the wall. "So....your name is Wreckage, why is that?" Magnus asked in droid speech, as they were being ignored so it felt time to get to know the new one a bit.

"My mistress rebuilt me from various destroyed droids on the Dark Treasure, so she called me Wreckage." Wreckage said in droid speak as it disconnected from the trailer that it was towing. It moved to the various ship parts and it started to see if they will work.

Smack beeped out, "That is interesting, Wreckage. I'm just as badly put together too. Mistress has had to cobble parts together and rework my coding, so I don't have control over my brakes very well."

"My Mistress is really good at getting salvaged parts and droids working." Wreckage beeped. "She spent most of her time with the Jawas that where on board the ship, before they where killed off."

Smack beeped, "Lucky you. Mine runs with Hutts, and Jawas don't go for disintegration."

Wreckage beeped back. "My Mistress can fix you up very quickly. The Jawas where surprised on how fast she could stripe a piece of tech, fix it and reassemble it."

Smack rocked a little, "Maybe, will see. I don't mind it actually, and Mistress can be protective."

----Inside SUE----

Phelan and the others were just getting comfortable when a priority communique would come to his own device. The sender would be obvious to the Kiffar.

=/= Phelan, I heard you're planet side... =/= It was Spivak, in an apparent rushed voice with a hint of heavy breathing.

=/= Spivak, I'm waiting for your crew to meet me. =/= He replied.

=/= Yeah, we could use a hand. Sending the docking bay coordinates. =/=

=/= About that. I've got a couple of others who are interested in getting off this rock also. I'm not sure what sort of space you might have on that bucket. =/=

=/= I don't care who comes, and yes now. =/= There was a pause, but blaster fire and some shouts could be heard in the background. The comm channel closed without a good bye of any sort.

Stephie smiled when she heard the sound of gunfire and opened up the internal comm channel, broadcasting on the frequency she used for Smack and now Magnus so that others might not hear,

=/= There is possible trouble that we will need to help with to get off world. Magnus, what sort of restrictions might you have about shooting humans and if you have any, got any ideas on how to override it? I'm thinking we may need to do some field testing on your upper limits to rate of fire. =/=

A moment later, acknowledgements that it would work came back from Smack and Magnus, who had been discussing it.

Turning to Phelan, she continued, "So, can I count on you be willing to provide passage off this planet in exchange for helping with.. whatever shit your friends have walked into? Coz you saw the droid outside with me."

"Well, it ain't my ship so I can't speak for the Captain. But I get the feeling that whatever Spivak has got himself wrapped up in is going to mean he is going to owe us a lot more than just transport." He stood and downed the drink. "We should get going."

Stephie shrugged, "Regardless, sounds good anyway."

OFF

"Look, I really don't care what you think, the location's not right."

Tycho Dene had been watching the men argue for a good fifteen minutes.

"We don't shoot here if we can't get the right shot!" One man exclaimed for what must have been the thirtieth time. He was clearly the more senior of the two but his word didn't seem to carry much weight. "You won't get a better shot here without someone knocking the recorder over on the walkway." His associate sniped back.

The little news crew stood against a fairly dull shop-side just off the main thoroughfare of the trading station. It wasn't the technical side of their argument which interested Dene though. It was the ten minutes of preparation which had kept him riveted. It seemed that they had been keeping tabs on a representative of the First Order who had arrived on Sullust.

That put Dene on edge. The last thing he needed was anyone involved with them knowing he wasn't a corpse on Piombino.

That made Step Five of his plan all the more vital - get a ship and get the hell off Sullust.

He moved quickly through the crowds toward the docking areas where he had been told there would be a decent shipwright. To be fair, he could have been walking into a mugging but he felt much more comfortable with a blaster strapped to his leg. Even if it was a real shipwright the chances were he'd be peddled the same kinds of junker he'd been shunted toward more than once since he arrived. Some old freighter, a stripped bare Imperial shuttle with the wings clipped, someone had even offered him a busted Y-Wing. "She still flies beautifully." He'd been told despite the craft looking like all of its panels were about to fall off.

He climbed onto a gantry and headed towards the hangar shown on the wrist device he'd just bought. It was a pretty clunky bit of kit but it would do the job and allow him to keep abreast of what was going on through newswires. That's when he noticed him. Spivak had never exactly been subtle and here he was, striding through a cargo zone and getting shot for his troubles. It was fairly easy to identify his crew given that they were the only ones who looked like anything was happening to them. Everyone else who had been on the concourse had continued to go about their business on another route, leaving Spivak, his crew, and his cargo, exposed.

Slipping through the crowd, Stephie kept one hand next to her concealed SoroSuub ELG-3A blaster pistol, as she didn't really trust the sort of the people who were mingling around her - basically, rich stuffy people that could buy small moons on a whim. She had managed to get in by the simple means of turning up at the servant's entrance dressed up in clothing that suited a waitress and bluffed her way through.

It was rather easy and laughable about the security to get in, considering the person running this place on Sullust was stinking rich. It had drawn Stephie like a moth to a flame, and she had already slipped a few nice rings off hands as she took empty glasses & handed out sparkling wine or canapes.

Further on, Stephie spotted a rather beautiful looking woman in a very beautiful emerald green dress the plunged all the way down the front to stop before going indecent and was completely backless. She didn't realise when she licked her lips, but she could feel herself getting warmer. It didn't take much to notice that the woman seemed to be with the man running this event, and to some, that would mean hands off. For once, Stephie managed to restrain herself and headed back towards the kitchen.

Entering, she smiled to one of the kitchen staff who nodded, and handed her a new tray, this time with some rather pungent orange balls on what looked like brown .. she didn't have a clue what .. on some sort of bland looking biscuit, topped with a little green thing. Not really caring, she turned back and headed into the room, moving past a few groups and stopping to let people take some off. It was quite interesting what she was hearing too, as no one really cared about wait-staff.

So when Stephie had emptied the tray, collected some more trinkets and was about to head back to the kitchen, she stopped suddenly as she felt a hand press against the back of her skirt, rubbing gently against her ass. Stiffening, Stephie didn't move and felt the hand, definitely a woman's one, slowly slide her skirt up and then rub, before she heard a female voice next to her ear, "You are a rather cute little one, and I saw you notice me. In a few minutes, head to the door on the left and down the corridor to the end. I will meet you there."

Stephie nodded and the hand moved away. Collecting a few glasses to make it seem like she was inconspicuous, Stephie put the tray down and headed tot he door, opening it and going in before closing. She hadn't been seen and walked down the corridor without stopping at all like she was meant to be there - a lot of bluffing was confidence, as someone who was meant to be there wouldn't even think about it.

Reaching the door and opening it, Stephie continued inside and closed the door behind before looking around, hearing a click as it locked behind. Sitting on a bed in front was the woman in the green dress and Stephie watched as she stood up. She had the most beautiful eyes, smile, figure and long legs. Stephie smiled a few moments later as the woman walked forwards to her, and Stephie stepped forward to meet her.

The woman purred, "I think we are a little bit overdressed I think."

"Oh yeah."

~~~ Many happy hours later ~~~

Stephie lay under the very luxurious sheets of the bed next to the previously green-dressed woman - well, the green dress that formerly had been draped and was now puddled in the corner with Stephie's maid uniform, and took another puff of some sort of burning plant product in a stick.

Grinning as she snuggled against her lover, Stephie smiled, "You were quite good."

"Thanks, and I loved being with you. Is being with women all like this?"

"Oh yeah."

"Nice. My husband's an ass and never was like that. I'm going to leave him."

Stephie smiled, nodding, "Good for you."

Getting up, she walked over to the maid uniform and slid it back on, "I think I need to get going. Maybe some other time?"

"Sure."

With that, Stephie slid out of the room and made her way out through the guests. She had a good night and just wanted to go back home.

It would only be the next day that she heard about a crime lord being ripped off and his wife taking the money when Stephie realised who it had been.

ON

Kyfo was in full blown alert as the group made their way back to the ship. He was now practically seeing enemies in every shadow and every corner. He looked back at Joh and said, "I am not smelling the lizard men. Lets hope that is the last of encounters."

Spivak nodded back. "Yeah, it's quiet like it should be, but I'm not so confident we're--" As Joh was speaking a shot rang out and tagged him right in the shoulder. The captain was pushed back and, even with his light padding, the shot hit true to his left shoulder. He dropped his blaster as he went up to grab the wound and then try to catch himself with the other hand as he fell to the ground.

"Agh!" he shouted. Spivak had no time to bark orders. He'd been shot before, and he wasn't in shock, but he was not expecting such a bold move. Guards from the docking port would surely be heading this way eventually, but that would leave a lot of time.

Kyfo sighed and pulled out his blaster, he looked at Ash and said, "Could you fight them? I will get the cargo to safety." Kyfo then decided a little out and out revenge was in order. He began to call upon that darker part of him, the part of him that normally came out in nightmares or in great moments of rage or frustration. He had been trained very little in actual force usage, but what he knew he knew well. He reached out and felt Filo's presence. He felt himself grow stronger and began to push the repulsorlift cart towards the ship. He was going to be damned if a hope for peace died on his watch.

Ash looked at him awkwardly and let go of it as she took cover and returned fire with her blaster laying down a bit of covering fire as best she could.

Tycho Dene was struggling to get used to his new name. He had already come close to giving the old one several times while trying to find a shipwright who wasn't peddling some pile of spacejunk. That's when he noticed him. Spivak had never exactly been subtle and here he was, striding through a cargo zone and getting shot for his troubles. It was fairly easy to identify his crew given that they were the only ones who looked like anything was happening to them. Everyone else who had been on the concourse had continued to go about their business on another route, leaving Spivak, his crew, and his cargo, exposed.

It was as good a time as any to test the new rifle, an A280C which was still in decent nick given its age. He raised it and took aim at one of their assailants who had jutted into cover. His first shot caught one arm, sending its blaster spiralling through the air. Dene looked approvingly at the top of the gun. From his starting position on an upper gantry he could see someone with a similar idea to him. The guy looked human - Dene couldn't get a clear enough view through the limited scope of the rifle. It didn't matter who he was, he was taking aim at the group and had a much better angle on them than he had on the opponents below.

He squeezed the trigger, sending the long range rifle clattering from the gantry to the ground before being followed by the sickening thud of a body.

Spivak looked up after speaking into his comm device. He had a call out to Phelan to get his rear-end over here, as they would be leaving post haste. And then of course someone shot Filo right in the torso... brutal, although it did not appear to be a killshot. And the fall likely did not kill the rotund thug either.

Dene slipped off the gantry and dropped onto some piled crates, feeling the pain in his leg suddenly return full force. He'd been noticed now and had started to attract some of the fire of the more optimistic ambushers. He dropped again and found himself crouched next to Captain Joh Spivak. "You look like you're having fun."

Joh couldn't believe his eyes. "Was that your shot, Dallas... or wait, The Herbalist or something, right?" He cradled his left shoulder, before grabbing his blaster again, trying to help Ash and company take out the other thugs. They seemed to be retreating a bit now that Filo was hit. They'd likely be dragging him off to safety soon.

Dene laughed. He had forgotten the name: Dallas Brenko from when he had first met the man he was now - albeit inadvertently - fighting alongside. "Yeah, you looked like you needed a hand." A blaster bolt smashed off the top of the crate just behind their heads. "Who are these guys anyway?"

"Not sure if you remember Filo, or heard his name. Evidently when I left his crew and bought my own ship he decided I wasn't worth as much." Spivak looked over at Kyfo and gave him a nod, trying to indicate he was ok. "But they want our cargo, that much I can tell you."

Dene laughed. He kept laughing an unsettling, bellowing laugh until tears began to run down his cheeks. "Filo?" He wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "That was Filo? I shot Filo?" The laughter stopped. "That's all I need."

Spivak gave another chuckle, although he was aching from his wounds something fierce. He had a new outlook on this line of work, and the man he used to call his mentor.

Izzy and Rhanda should have been there by now, although they were doing a different dance elsewhere in the docking area of Sullust. A comm would come through. =/= "Captain, we need to stay behind." =/=

Spivak sighed. =/= "Not now, Izzy. We have to go." =/=

The unknown-noble from Hapes chuckled on the other end of his comm but then became serious again. =/= "I need to look out for Rhanda, and that means staying here. We have your comms - we'll be in touch some day soon." =/=

Joh nodded, and then saw another group running into the docking bay area, led by Phelan this time. =/= "Ok... be safe." =/= He would have had more of a salutation but things were getting a bit crazy. The captain turned to Phelan. "What the devil, man... this isn't a party boat."

Phelan grimaced. "I'll explain on board. Trust me, captain."

Dene looked round and could almost hear the shouts of the syndicate he'd just crossed for no sensible reason coming behind them. He stared at Spivak's ship - a junker of the highest order and shrugged. "Mind if I tag along?"

Spivak nodded, looked over at Dene with a nod. "Ok, everyone on board. Let's get out of here!" He began to hobble over there, coddling his shoulder.

Ash climbed into the pilots seat and put her headset on, "Sullust Control, Docking Pad Gamma Nine. Requesting departure clearance. Sending the Id code over to you now," Quickly her hands flipped several of the controls starting the ship up while she waited for their response.

"Bantha, cleared to depart at your discretion orbital exit path three," The voice was not the same as the controller that brought them in and slightly more masculine in tone.

"Weather conditions?" she asked quickly.

"Clear skies - light turbulence at twenty three thousand, moderate traffic, watch your spacing." said the controller sounding a little stressed.

~probably the only one manning the desk~ A glance up she checked the outer doors were closed and started to lift the ship off the pad, "Affirmative, proceeding now." With a slow shudder the ship rose up and the landing struts retracted back into place. A quick tap of her headset threw up the orbital escape trajectory from the controller and - what felt like an eternity - the ship panned round to line up with it. Pushing the throttle full forward the ship jolted away and towards orbit.

OFF

ON

Cervidena had unexpectedly been hired by a group of senators. A couple young thugs had made the mistake of trying to rob her figuring she was easy pickings. Their mistake. Both had found out otherwise the hard way as they lay dead at her feet.
As she gathered her composure she stood up from her crouch after checking them anything valuable. She wasn't a bad person, really. But, she wasn't proud either.

"You there! Twi'lek." Called out a male's voice with unmistakable tone of being highly educated. "We saw what you did."

~Oh, wonderful. This won't end well.~ Cervi thought to herself with her hand on her holstered weapon. But, these three weren't thugs and more than likely had contacts everywhere including up their asses. "They tried to rob me, really." She pleaded defiantly.

"We know. We all saw it." The taller man glanced between his two friends. "We want to hire you. As a bodyguard."

"Yes, you're very handy and quick with your weapon there." Said another waving a hand towards her sidearm.

"Umm, ok?" Cervi needed money, not that she was dead broke. But, every little bit helped. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "How much?"

"How much do you want?"

Oh, this was too good to be true. She walked over the prone bodies to her new employers. She was a salvager of space wrecks not a hired gun in the common sense, though she obviously could handle herself well enough. But, she wasn't about to say no. And, by the looks of them, they could afford her.

The money would be enough, that was for sure. They already had a haul with them, depending on how they cargo delivery ended up. The rather seedy docking port was in the clouds of Hosnian's main city. It was not the underworld by any means, but it was not the brightest of landing pads.

Sure enough the Bantha would land and its landing codes and security clearance would be verified by their own individual scanners. The Senators, now joined by Cervidena, and with a couple shooters on neighboring landing pads, approached slowly.

The main loading dock of the Ghtroc opened and Spivak and Kyfo came down the ramp, a repulsorsled hauling the lone crate. Spivak took the lead, still assisting Kyfo with the light load. "Senator Farrington? We've got your cargo."

One of the older senators took a step forward. "And it is in... working order?"

The doors of the crate slammed open and the Sullustan burst out. "Oh come on, I am not a load of medical supplies or shield generator batteries."

Cervidena stared in a daze as the Sullustan emerged from the container before looking over at her protectees for their reaction. She'd actually be glad to be rid of the trio that had hired her. They kept asking questions she couldn't, nor did she really want to answer. When the Bantha arrived breaking her impatience somewhat, she knew she was one step closer to getting paid and being on her way. [i]Maybe I'll see if the Captain will let me catch a ride off this rock.[/i] There was another vessel inbound, but, she didn't want to wait another twelve hours if she could help it.

Spivak looked over at Kyfo and back to Ja'umn and then Farrington. "Come on is right, Senators. We worked harder than we thought for this one." He patted his shoulder, wrapped up now, but it was still sensitive to touch even after a good medkit. "Can we settle this so we can figure out why that was the case?"

Farrington cocked his head after shifting his view from Ja'umn back to the rogue captain. "Captain, your efforts will not go unnoticed, I can assure you. In addition to the credits we agreed at the onset, the Resistance will be providing you something extra. You will receive an encoded transfer on your ship by the time you return to Rogue Moon. If you can decrypt it successfully, then you will have earned the bonus."

Ja'umn joined his companions and shook a few hands. "This is truth," said the Sullustan in Basic. "Well worth your trouble, Captain Joh." He then looked over at Cervidena. "Meatshield?" he asked, rather bluntly and crudely, partly due to broken Basic and partly just Ja'umn.

Cervi's left brow arched at the less than complimentary description, which was also followed by her lips forming into a frown. Though, remembering the credits promised her by Ja'umn's companions it quickly turned into one of those forced smiles. "Long as I get paid, you can call me whatever you want...Senator."
With her task completed, she moved off to approach the Captain of the Bantha and asked him about passage somewhere else. Anywhere else, actually.
She tipped her head a little to one side, her 'tails' moving to the front over her chest. "I don't suppose you're needin' a salvage tech with EVA skills, Captain?"

Spivak looked over at the Twi'lek curiously, sensing what was going on here. "We might." His ship was getting full, but who was he to argue with fate which was stomping on his new adventure. He nodded to Cervi for her to come over towards him, hoping they would not be senators of an unfavorable ilk and just kill her off. It had happened before.

Farrington nodded and handed a credit chip to Cervi. Ja'umn also handed her a second one. "Give this to the human Spivak."

Cervi nodded and headed over to Joh with the two chips.

Spivak chimed back in as he gave a nod to Cervi standing with him and Kyfo now. "Ok so did I hear you say something about the Resistance?" This was the real troubling part of their statements, as he was not sure he wanted involved in any of that mess.

"You must have misheard, captain." Farrington's lip curled. Something was up and it was foreboding for sure. And yet at the same time, it seemed like it might not be a bad thing. "But we are done here. Your good work is appreciated."

Spivak cocked his head, squinting in examining thought yet again. "Good day."

"Force be on you, captain," called out Ja'umn in mis-spoken Basic.

Spivak chuckled as he turned and took his companions, including the newcomer, back to the ship. He had yet more questioning to do for this Twi'lek.

OFF

ON:

Jartrisk walked across the lush forest of Cularin, making his ways towards a network of caverns outside the capital city. As he continued to walk his bare feet felt at ease and he himself felt close to the lands. Some had said this planet was strong in the Force, but Jartrisk knew nothing about that. On the other hand though, Togruta had a natural talent for connecting with the land around them if they chose to walk barefoot through it and kept focused. He credited his intense practice in this and honing his skills as what made him successful at what he did. As he approached the caverns however he eyed from a rockface a sentry who was doing a poor job at hiding and he raised a hand to him.

"You do a poor job for a sentry." Jartrisk called out mockingly. Moving from his hiding spot a Trandoshan appeared and huffed before laughing. "And you are still cocky Ker. What brings you here?"

"Crylania reached out. Said she had a job for me. And yes I know I said I was done here but the reward she teased was too tempting to pass up." the Togruta replied. "So is that all it takes? A huge pile of credits? And here I thought you enjoyed the challenge."

The Trandoshan didn't even give Jartrisk a chance to reply but instead motioned him to follow and began guiding him through the caverns to the Syndicates base of operations inside. Originally the Syndicate had once been ran by a group of off worlders on the planet until they were stopped by the local populace but during the waning years of the Empire a rather opportune Tarasin reformed the organization, building it from the ground up. She did well to ensure that those in power on the planet owed her so nothing was ever done against them. After a few moments of walking the duo came to a small hub where a gray skinned and fierce woman sat. The others nearby looked at Jartrisk and then her and then slowly cleared the room. "I hope the promise of credits wasn't just a lure because you missed my montrails Crylania."

Crylania nodded and grinned wryly. "Good to know that money is all it takes, my boy," she joked, as if reading their minds from outside. It was truly happenstance that she made the same comment. " And it is in fact good to see you though, Jartrisk."

The Cularians response caught Jartrisk off guard but he smirked at the comment. She knew the game all too well and for now he would play along. "Well I am glad someone around here actually misses me."

She nodded, her smile broadening a bit. "But yes, this trip is worth it." She pointed with one long grey finger to her right and one of her guards tapped a button. A holo-image of a ship cropped up and spun around slowly - it was a Ghtroc-720 light freighter. "Three of these have been stollen, although one was destroyed during the thieves' escape." She maintained her gaze on Ker. "I want those responsible found." Her distinct accent made her menacing look seem even more foreboding.

"How do you let three of your ships get stolen Crylania? Please don't tell me business has been that poor that you stopped paying for security at the docks?" Jartrisk replied, a sarcastic tone to his voice as he studied the holo-images. These weren't large freighters by any means but they weren't small ones either. Surely someone should have seen one of the two surviving ships by now.

Her smile waned to a more somber look. "Security is fine." She was curt. "It was the thieves that were exceptional. Or at least, their employer had a great many resources." She paused and tapped another button, showing several profiles. "These are suspects, as they all have been offered or taken offers of Ghtrocs lately. Unfortunately, that's about all my investigators could find out." She paused and slid a data padd across the table, containing the files that the two of them had just viewed. "I expect you will do better?"

The Togruta nodded. "I'll look into all of them and see what I can run down. Do you prefer the actual thieves brought back dead or alive?" Jartrisk asked her.

Crylania smiled. "I want the Ghtrocs back alive." She stopped there, adding a menacingly spaced inference there.

Even though Jartrisk knew what the woman meant he almost opened his mouth to question her and her odd statement of only to keep his snark going. But there was no need, the ship's would come back in one piece and depending on the thieves and how they responded... Well he'd let his droid clean up that mess. "Understood, just remember my fee doubles if I have to hide any messes for you. I'll ring once I know something."

Before sure could even respond the Togruta bounty hunter had turned around and was on his way out of the cave. Pulling out a comm device from his pocket he signaled his droid companion. "Fire up the ship Shooter, we've got ourselves a job."

OFF:

Jartrisk Ker
Bounty Hunter

Crylania
Cularian Crimemistress

ON

Phelan kicked the door again after entering the code into the keypad had no effect. "I hate this rock." He muttered. Between the heat and the dry dust this type of stuff happened to often. He'd be glad to leave this planet behind him. With a resigned sigh he tried to key in the code again.

Tikkit watched the Human from her trailer that was connected to her Droid. She only shook her head the man.

Stephie watched Phelan going at the door before moving up, "Step aside dude, and I'll get it open."

Waiting until her did, she pulled up the skin flap concealing her wrist cable and knelt down as she opened up a panel, connecting up the cable to the access port insde. Closing her eyes, she connected upto computer and began using her slicer skills to rip through all the security systems. While she was there, she took a quick look around and smiled about figuring out why Phelan couldn't get in.

Opening them a moment later, Stephie waved her other hand, "Open sesame."

There was a click and the door opened as Stephie disconnected her hand, "Oh, and Phelan. I also reset your access code to have the two extra digits you added in the middle."

Tikkit only listened as the door opened.

Smack moved forwards and headed into the docking bay. There was a bit of a crash and Stephie giggled, "Stay close, Smack."

Looking around the bay, she spotted the Bantha inside, whistling, "Nice ship. Maybe not the fastest but we can always tinker with that,"

Phelan grunted. He didn't like the Ghtroc freighters. Too unreliable in his book. Poor quality control in Outer Rim territories meant that sometimes you got a deal and sometimes you got a lemon. He craned his head around, eyes scanning the bay. "Spivak!" He yelled.

Moments later the captain came in, noting the slicer and the commotion going on. "I could have given you codes..."

Stephie grinned with amusement to the man that would be her new captain and shrugged, "Maybe, but it is more fun to just do it myself. Your computer is quite friendly and thinks a lot of you by the way. It is proud of its squishy cargo."

Joh just shook his head with a smile and moved over to Phelan. "What do you and your cabal need now?" He was still grinning.

"Not my cabal. Possible customers?" Phelan shrugged. "Ran into them in the market. They are looking for passage off this rock."

"Well, they got off the rock," Joh motioned to the ship, which was inevitably already in hyperspace by now. "Now what?" He looked around at the group.

Stephie smiled, "Well, I've a pretty good slicer and tinkerer with experience on this model. Should you need it, I'm also quite good at retrievals, and I have contacts."

Reaching into one of her pouches, she pulled out a bag of credit chips and threw it to Spivak, "That help too?"

Joh's head shot back to dodge the back but also to dodge the crazy offer. "Um, yeah." Her technical skills would have sufficed, but this would definitely help. "As some of the others will tell you, we need some work on this bucket."

"I can offer some parts and my time, to pay for passage." Tikkit said.

"Great, just help with the engine room to start," said the captain, getting a bit overwhelmed. Of course he had to get them back to Rogue Moon after Hosnian before he could make any promises. "If our drop-off goes well, we should be good to talk about permanent assignments. Until then, we're all kind of waiting..."

Stephie grinned and nodded, "Sounds good.. When do we leave?"

Spivak looked over. "Well, I have to drop off our cargo, and then we head back to Rogue Moon. We should be arriving at Hosnian soon." He took a small pad out of his belt. "Aye, and we have some work to do to ensure everyone has a good fit on this ship. My carrying load doubled on Sullust somehow." He chuckled a nervous laugh, as he looked around with that nervous smile to match.

OFF

ON

Tycho Dene sat quietly in what laughingly counted as a lounge aboard a freighter that, up until an hour ago, he hadn't known existed. It wasn't quite the plan and Tycho Dene liked to follow the plan. Passengers and crew bustled around him and Dene spent a few minutes trying to identify who fell into each category... there was no real way to be sure.

He took one of the pills the doctor had given him to dull the surgery pain. Dropping off that gantry hadn't helped much and his leg was positively agony. Spivak had been gone for a while, presumably trying to work out where he'd picked up so many refugees and he wasn't 100% sure that the Captain even knew he was aboard.

Joh had just exited one of the cargo bays talking to some of the crew and saw Dene sitting in the lounge area. He stopped mid-gait and chortled, spinning to come into the common area. "Herbalist... you managed to get on board, eh?"

"I did." He replied, "I appreciate the lift."

Spivak nodded. "Not a problem... until we run out of oxygen." He chortled, hoping his joke came across. "We do have a lot of newcomers. I started with a crew of five and now we have... a bunch? Anyways, I'm rambling. How'd you end up on Sullust anyways?"

"It's a long story full of sighs." Dene took a moment to reflect on the little Piombino crew who would be hearing about a shootout on the grapevine and probably wondering what had happened. They'd fly back and they'd never mention it to the elders - they'd only worry. "Suffice to say I ran into someone who had a bad opinion of me." He stuck his hand out. "The name's Dene, by the way, Tycho Dene."

Spivak took the hand and nodded his head slowly. "Wait, so it's not Dallas or the Herbalist?"

"Well," he smiled wryly, "not any more it isn't. In my line of work, you need to be adaptable."

Joh chuckled. "I am impressed." Although having a bunch of names can get you into trouble just as easily as get you out of it, Joh found over the years. "So where to next?"

Dene thought about it for a second before he answered. Where the hell was he going to go? If he was going to escape the auspices of those who wanted to find him he would have to keep his head down but he didn't see himself too far into the rim. "Good question - where are you heading?"

Spivak snorted a bit again. "Eventually, back to Rogue Moon. You remember that place, don't ya?" He was half-joking about the memories.

"You're operating out of there?" Dene was surprised. It wasn't much, Rogue Moon, but the more he thought about it the more it appealed. It was close enough that a fast ship could get you pretty much anywhere you needed to go but far enough out of the way that no-one would come for a look around.

"Well, that's where we call port. Gotta figure out this cargo of ours," Spivak motioned to the side of the ship where their cargo was hidden in one of the Bantha's turtle arms. "Then it's back home to figure things out." The captain paused a bit, cocking his head. "Want to put your sniping skills to work?"

"I need to pay you back for the lift somehow." Dene smiled.

Joh nodded. "Indeed, although my shoulder may not have been the only thing with a blaster bold in it has you not showed up." He motioned with his head. "Come, let's go get you settled. I need to introduce you to some folks."

Dene hopped onto his feet and felt another pang of pain shoot through his leg. It would pass. It had better pass. "Let's do it."

OFF

:ON:

Joh walked up the small ladder into the cockpit area and found Vesper awaiting, doing some final checks on the ship, presumably. "Heya Ash." He paused and took his seat next to her. "Well done back there on Sullust, I should say."

Turning round she tapped a few of the buttons and rested back in the seat as she swivelled round and accepted the complement, "Thanks - I can't really say that was the type of cargo I was expecting. Couldn't we have got a shipment of clothes, fish, chairs or something else like that?"

Spivak nodded as she inquired, undoubtedly mostly rhetorical. "I knew it was a good run - medical supplies, ammo and arms maybe - but yes, this was a bit much." The pain of his shoulder, and of his nerves and adrenaline, still fresh.

She folded her arms and smiled a bit, "All im going to say is when you get paid for this shove a bit of that into the engine pre-fire chamber if you want to make a faster getaway next time" Hearing a bit of noise from the ladder she tilted her head off to it.

"Actually," started the captain, "I will want you to meet one of our newcomers. She's already..." Then Joh saw the heads pop up from the ladder as well.

"Here - apparently," she said to the end of the sentence as she unfolded her arms and turned her chair fully round to the centre of the cockpit.

As Stephie was climbing fully up into the cockpit and sprang over off it, she had started speaking, "Cap, you called? By the way, you need to give some extra loving to Barry and Sally at some point. I was connected up talking to them so I know they don't hold it against you."

Cervidena had been in the cargo bay securing her EVA suit in an out of the way corner when the call came from the Captain. The whole time she jogged to the cockpit, she recalled how elated and relieved she felt when Joh decided to take her on as crew.
Hand over hand with her boots in sync with them, she climbed the ladder and took a spot near Stephie with one hand resting casually on her gun belt and the other at her side. "Is everything ok, Captain?"

Nodding to each as they climbed up Ash acknowledged their presence. Ash looked at the other two women and raised her brow a bit and looked back at Joh. "This better not be for a party," she joked.

Stephie grinned, "Well, you are kind of cute. But I'm guessing he wants us to break into something."

Spivak chuckled as the others arrived, turning his head to Ash but leaving his gaze on the other two women. "No, there's someone in the engine room you should meet. Later."

The captain turned straight to the others and nodded to recognize them. "And yes, you need to decrypt something. Our reward from, what I presume is the resistance. If not, a couple senators. In either case, it will hopefully be worth something. And it will be in addition to the load of credits we received."

Stephie grinned with joy as she reached to her left wrist and extracted her cyberjack, "Oooo, goodie. Where is it?"

~Someone else looking after the engines down there?~ Ash through to herself ~Ill chase that up later~ "They weren't kind enough to supply us with the decryption keys with it? - How rude," She mused for a moment. ~I don't really have a great deal of skill in hacking - maybe that not why I'm here - maybe he thinks there's something on it that id be useful for once its broken?~

"Looks like this is more your area than mine Stephie," she said noticing her excitement and the tool she carried. Ash sat back into her seat and folding a leg onto it and waited.

Joh nodded as Ash slunk back in her chair. "Indeed. You need to help me find out." The captain motioned for her to have a look. The contents of their reward were dumped into a datapad with a small holo-emitter attached so they could show anything visual right there in the cockpit.

Stephie shrugged, "They probably thought that someone aboard would be able to break into it, and saves on it being evidence if caught out. Although, probably still make you blaster-pin cushion bait. Oh that reminds me, I realised I forgot to introduce them earlier. Barry is your hyperdrive, and Sally is the navicomp. Closest thing based on their id tags."

Taking the datapad, Stephie sat down on the floor with her feet bent in a yoga position with the datapad in front and began connecting it upto the cable, before closing her eyes, "Easier to be sitting down in case I get out of balance."

Spivak looked over at Cervi. He didn't think she knew anything but it was worth a shot. "Any thoughts by chance?" he asked her.

Cervi would be lying if she said she wasn't interested. 'What' was the optimum question they all had. She shrugged. "Could be anything, I suppose. Parts, fuel. Hard to say, Captain." She folded her her arms under her breasts with her eyes narrowed in thought.

Beneath her eye lids, her eyes were moving as she began rooting through the filesystem, taking care to watch for triggers before begin to run through different decryption strategies. In her imagination, this one looked like a giant castle built of odd-shaped bricks and she was a knight with a giant hammer.

Opening her eyes, Stephie smiled, "I think this will be breakable but could take a bit of time."

Closing her eyes again, she began working on slicing into the device. It was obviously quite a complicated one as the low-level techniques didn't show any progress, but then the defenses started breaking down after a bit.

Without opening her eyes, Stephie gave what she thought was a progress update but really came out as a blurred string of sounds made of letters jammed too close, having lost track of time as she worked.

At some point, the encryption broke and Stephie ran it through her internal circuitry to check it out before running it into the holounit. A brief moment later of investigation began showing various bits of information about the galactic map segment of what seemed to be some sort of battlezone and how it had come from the terminal of one Crewman Elisam Trenchalm on a First Order star destroyer, the Adjudicator according to the identifying data in the metadata. A short search against a map she had downloaded from Sally earlier gave her an idea of where it is.

Eventually, her eyes opened again and she looked around, "Done. Oh, sorry. It's up already. I'll load the coordinates up that Crewman Elisam Trenchalm recorded for us. Hope he didn't get in trouble with his First Order bosses. One second."

Opening a channel with her commlink, Stephie sent the stream of vectors through to the terminal next to Ash, "That should do it. Why are you looking at me funny? Am I talking funny again?"

Ash raised her brow, "Just a little - I presume its... 'normal' during the process? You'll need to tell me more about Barry and Sally later."

Turning back round to her controls and input the coordinates, "Shouldn't be a difficult spot to reach through the backwaters." Pausing she looked back at them, "I take it you factored in stellar drift from any timestamps there? - last thing I want is to hyperdrive into a chuck of metal."

Stephie grinned, "No one ever called me normal before. Most of the time, I get asked if I got slapped too hard in the head by a Hutt. When I'm connected, I sort of lose track of the speed of time and my mouth tries to run at the same speed as my processor chips, so I go all garbled. At least I didn't throw up this time. Oh and yes, I got Sally to double-check my math on the calculations. So should be fine,"

"Thats... happened before?" Ash said looking back at her, "Please... no vomiting up here. Have you ever seen what happens to the stuff when the gravity goes on the fritz. Not a pretty sight and a nightmare to clean."

Spivak just managed a chuckle after the entire hacking sequence. It was amazing to see the woman go to work and produce the holo battle scene in front of them. "Well done, I must say." He would cock his head and a more somber look would come to his face. "Now, First Order. I've heard their no threat. Then again, the Resistance is listed as a defiant much of militants out of the Republic. So who knows what's going on."

Spivak turned to the three in the cockpit. "Suffice it to say, someone will not be happy we have this info. And yet, someone has ensured we get it." Joh squinted his eyes at the holo, and the corresponding map now on display showing a possible path to get there. This could be interesting, dangerous, exciting, profitable... or all of the above.

"Ok, before we move on this..." The captain kept his gaze on the holo. "Thoughts? Concerns?"

Cervidena tapped her lips with her gloved index finger while taking in the decoded information that Stephie, their gifted hacker had managed to crack. "She'd been to many battlefields with her former employer scavenging whatever they could to sell, or, keep. But, this map didn't ring a bell. And, knowing the data came from someone on a First Order Star Destroyer was rather unsettling to say the least. Red flags of ambush popped up in her head. Though, it wasn't like her former employer hadn't done jobs for them. He took whatever paying job he could. Just like this crew it seemed.

"We could keep our distance, send a shuttle in first which wouldn't be picked up on sensors all that easily with that much debris floating around." She shrugged as her eyes shifted to the other and landed specifically on Joh. "I mean, this Trenchalm is from the First Order. They don't tend to play nice."

Ash looked over at Cervidena and chirped in, "We could always pop that escape pod contraption off there to scout it out and retrieve it once it had went through. If there was someone waiting I don't think they would miss the opportunity to pick that up or destroy it. Gotta remember this ship ain't exactly build for stealth if they are looking for anyone approaching us jumping out of hyperspace would be a dead give away. Too far the get our radiation signature. Too close they could use the space disruption to calculate our place from the displaced debris. Of course all depends who - if anyone -is watching. Maybe we just play it like we stumbled on it. The ignorance game?" Her gaze moved back to Joh, "Also who am I meeting in the engine room?"

Stephie shrugged, "I've spend most of my life doing dangerous shit, so no problems with me.. Especially if could be a pay day."

Spivak kept nodding as the three spoke. "I definitely want to check this out, and I like the idea of going in cold and sending the lander. It's not very stealthy, but I could probably get her in close enough for some scans. Those coordinates are pretty specific, so I've no doubt there is something else there."

The captain paused, rubbing his unshaven face. "Ok, Ash, program in the coordinates, but let's keep this under wraps. We'll fill everyone in once we're on our way." He rose from his seat and shut off the holo, taking the datachip out and putting it in his pocket. "We leave once we're fueled and supplied."

Stephie nodded and although she wasn't sure it was best, she definitely didn't feel like arguing - she was fine with just putting her head in the sand and if anyone asked, she would just evade with saying that she isn't the pilot.

"Aye, Smack and I are all packed away, so I'll just go and see if anyone else needs help. That all you need me for, Cap?"

Spivak gave a nod to Stephie.

Casually leaning behind her Ash pushed a button, "Done and done. I'll see everything is fueled back up and check down in the engine room"

Cervi looked around at the others, in her mind the map appeared clear and concise. "I'll go down and check to make sure everything's still secured in the cargo bay if anyone needs me."

Joh grinned and head towards the ladder, leaving the three of them there to chat as needed. He had a few things to settle and maybe make a few calls before they left.

:OFF:

Tikkit had found a little hidy hole for herself. She just hoped the Captain would allow her to stay, but was scared that he would put her off on the next port or sell her to a Hutt. She know she was taking a huge risk with this ship and crew.

Spivak found his way to the back of the main common area which held a lounge area as well as engine access, escape pod access, and access to the small craft that was a converted escape pod. Incidentally, he heard a small noise and saw the young lady that came with Phelan, huddled up in a corner next to one of the consoles.

"Hello there," he said, looking down. He remembered her name, but knew little of her so far. "Tikkit, no?" Spivak had come to terms with all these crew, although he was not sure how they'd split mission rewards or find enough jobs for all these people. "Everything alright?"

Tikkit just looked at the floor before she spoke. "Just worried and very cold." She said.

Joh nodded as he stopped, forgoing his stop to check on the atmospheric engine coolant which had shown an alert. Someone would have to take a look at it most likely. "Some of the others are gathered up front." He pointed towards the fore section of the more open central area. "It'd be better company perhaps?"

"This is more comfortable for me." She said coming out to see what the Captain was looking at. "Reroute the coolant into the secondary tank, and I will look at that tank." Tikkit said hoping she did over step her bounds.

Spivak tapped at the console and was going to reply to her comfortable statement. Then she piped up on what he was doing. "It seems we have a couple mechanics on board," he said, without looking back. He rerouted as she had suggested and eventually turned back. "Well, go take a look." He would follow after her.

She went to where the primary storage take was and with her small stature she shimmied into the hatch. The Captain could hear some banging and hissing from in the hatch, and then Tikkit popped back out as Wreckage her droid pulled up. She pulled a few things out of a bin that it had welded to it casing. Then just as fast she disappeared again. Just as before banging and hissing, and then she popped again and throw a part on the floor and headed to the main console. She returned the coolant back to the main tank. There was a brief moan as it built up its pressure. With a quick check no alerts appeared and the system was running better then normal. "Some Bantha Poodoo replaced the coolant pump with a water pump and the pump was starting to fail."

"That's good..." Spivak nodded and looked over at the girl. "I might have to send Phelan back here." He paused. "That is, if you're wantin' ta stick around with our little band of crazies."

"As long as I don't get sold to slavers." She said. "I have some parts and my mechanical talent to pay for passage, but if you want me to stick around. I'm willing to." She dropped her hood and showed the large bruising on her face.

"That should be just fine. And no," said Joh without pause. "I wouldn't sell you at all. I don't play that game." Now revenge... that was a game he could get into, feeling his sore shoulder, still field-bandaged at this point. "So yeah, stick around. We'll all have a chat when we arrive back at Rogue Moon."

"How soon do we leave?" Tikkit seemed to get a mischievous look on her face, which was painful.

Joh chuckled, again being asked about timing. At this point they had made their drop and were about to get on their way home. "Now?" He grinned. "We're headed back to Rogue Moon. That's our port of call, as it were."

"Okay." She said looking around the room. "I feel more comfortable back here," she pointed to her cubby hole, "then up there," she pointed to the front of the ship. "Now do we have credits for new parts or am I going to have to do with salvaged and used parts?"

Spivak nodded. "We should get quite a bit from this job, so yes. The hyperdrive will likely need some work as well, so we'll have to see what you can do."

"I'll get right on it." Tikkit said.

"Great, I'll send our pilot, Ash, back here as soon as we have some time." Spivak turned and began to head to the fore of the ship. "Welcome aboard!"

ON

The day was coming, in the morning actually, and Spivak had begun thinking harder about their upcoming mission. He had not filled the crew in much, waiting until they were in hyperspace to give them the full scoop. But he was handing out bits and pieces trying to get some good background from Rogue Moon before they left. He had invited his old pal Dene and new friend Stephie, who both had a good grasp of unpleasantries in the galaxy, not far removed from Spivak's own skillset and experience.

Joh sat down at a small table with a small drink in hand - nothing too strong, but something to take the edge off a bit. "So... I want to plan for contingencies, plan for the unseen. Filo was an unseen foe, and I don't want that to happen if we can help it." He took a swig of his rum-like concoction. "So, what do we know, Dene?"

"The guy's been a bit of a ghost in the eyes of the authorities since he went off the rails. From what I've heard, he gets about six months in each spaceport before he disappears and leaves a lieutenant in charge of the smuggling racket - not exactly the most imaginative gangster in the galaxy but he's good at what he does. That's to say he's good at knocking off other people's property and coming away scot-free." Dene had refused a drink and was regretting it. He hoped that casting a longing look toward the bar would see the bartender take pity on him.

It hadn't worked so far.

"I only worked with him the once after he stopped being legit." He still had the scars. "He was just dipping his toe in the water at that point but he seems to have combined the work ethic he used to have with a pretty staggering lack of a moral compass. The real question is, Joh, what did you do to piss him off?"

"I've no idea." Spivak nodded as Dene asked the question. "But your explanation sounds about right. I'd not been in contact with him for a bit after he started to... well, fall." Joh looked at Dene. "He was not openly mad about the Bantha, even if he showed some anguish I suppose." He paused. "Do you think he wanted the Bantha? I mean, we both helped procure some of these Ghtrocs for someone else, and maybe he had ulterior motives." That was ages ago, though, Joh thought to himself.

Dene thought about the ship and tried to fathom why anyone would want to take it by force when they could probably buy it for less than the price of a sandwich. "I suppose it's possible."

"Yeah, and the senator could be just another job..." Spivak shook his head and exhaled a sigh. "You ever hear of him in your neck of the woods?" he asked, turning to their new acquaintance.

Stephie had come along when asked as she had mentioned to her new captain that she grew up on Nar Shaddaa working for Hutts, and was subconsciously fingering the thin collar around her neck that reminded her of Mira. Stephie nodded her head, "I've heard the bad sort of stories about Filo but never met the short little dude in real life. When I was working for the Hutts, he hadn't really gone bad. And not really sure about the senator either - but he does sound like a good mark."

The elephant in the room was growing larger and more imposing by the second. They had just delivered a Sullustan in a crate to some senator or other and here they were discussing why Filo might want to steal the Bantha. "I take it we're ruling out the idea that someone else knew about your 'cargo'? Doesn't seem like too big a jump to think that might be of interest to someone." He tried not to think about the kind of people who might be interested in that - it made him nauseous. "Someone or something."

Joh nodded to their input, making a frumpy face a bit. "Aye, there was brief mention of the Resistance, of which we've probably all heard rumblings. So if someone was against them..." It could be other Senators, it could be some rumors of something in the Unknown Regions, it could be the Hutts, or it could be a collection of thugs like Filo or someone he met long ago named Crylania. None of those were good.

"Regardless," Spivak said after the shuddering thought. "we need to be on our toes. Stephie, if you could keep your ear to the... uh, holo? That would be good. And Dene, old friend... just keep a keen shot like you did the other day." He grinned.

Stephie grinned, "Aye aye. I've been using an alternative identity so won't be traced."

Dene just nodded as a drink arrived at the table.

Joh chortled. These two would be good additions to the crew. "Very well," he replied simply, raising his glass and sipping his own drink.

OFF

ON

Rogue Moon

Spivak hopped up into the cockpit after a nice morning coffee at the cafe across from the docking area. A bland biscuit dunked in the coffee made for a fairly decent fair to kick off the day. The captain took the copilot position, as Phelan was sitting this mission out to deal with some things on Rogue Moon. Joh would handle the navigation pieces as well.

"We ready to go, Ash?" asked the man, starting to check in on some of the systems on his side, including verifying the coordinates the group had figured out deep within the encrypted message.

"No thanks to the ground crew - but yup we are ready to go," she replied filling a few switches on her controls and fixing her headset to her head.

"And you two?" he leaned back and gave a glance to Cervi and Stephie, who were inevitably jacked into the Bantha's main computer as well as the holonet.

Stephie grinned, "Fine with me and Smack." She was looking forwards to getting onto the job and pleased she had been accepted so far.

Cervi looked over her shoulder with a nod after a glance at Stephie. "Looks good to me, Captain."

Spivak grinned. "Giddyup." He flipped a toggle on the main console in front of them both. "Alright crew," he said over the comm. "Here we go. Tikkit, Dene, buckle up!"

Dene was already strapped in tightly. He'd been on his share of questionable ships in his time but there was something about the Bantha that he specifically distrusted. He checked the rifle which lay across the chair next to him - a nice little upgrade he had procured on Rogue Moon had secured him a magnifying scope. It wasn't perfect and it occasionally gave false readings but it would do for now.

"Bantha - Rogue moon contol requesting clearance to depart. Transmitting codes and in system flight plan," there was a bit of a pause until a droid jumpped onto the comm

"Excuse me ma'am - currently there staff are on a break do you require to leave now?"

"Yes right now its quite urgent please," Ash let out a small sigh and powered up the engines regardless.

"Oh my - Could you wait? They left me here and just said to keep everything on the ground."

"So everythnig is on the ground right? You could just let our ship go one at a time - no trouble there right?"

"But - mmm Oh my oh my! There are lots of ships - they are quite angry."

"Im sorry but we are... to pick up a shipment of food in urgent need to an outpost if you dont let us out those people might starve you dont want that?" Ash lied - it wasnt the first time a droid had tried to keep her tied up in port - fortunetly this one sounded more receptive than the authorites.

"Oh no Ma'am we wouldnt ummm - ill see what i can do!" the comm cut out sharp

Stephie had been listening in via her computer connection and called out, "He sounds like an easy one to seduce if you want me to go try."

A few moments later a light bliped on her controls signalling the ship could take off, "Great here we go." Slowly the ship lifted off the deck and turned slowly round as Ash put full power into the engines take the ship through some empty skys into orbit. A glance at her controls showed a few ships stuck in a holding pattern off to port as she checked the jump coordinates and powered up the drive.

Pulling a few more controls she glanced down at the systems and counted off, "Jumpping in five four three two one..."

Cervi stiffened as the countdown for the jump was announced. Not all ships regardless of how good the pilots were handled jumps the same. And, though she'd been through them with the Bantha, it was a natural reaction more than actual apprehension.

The Bantha shook and shuddered a bit as the hyperdrive kicked on and zapped the ship out of Rogue Moon asteroidal system, the streaks of hyperspace now before them in the cockpit. Joh tapped a few buttons on the console to his right and flipped some switches to lock in their successful jump coordinates. "All seems nominal. We should arrive in... 52 hours."

Ash glanced back at everyone noticing Cervi bracing herself, "Not too bad right?" She checked over the hyperdrive system linked to her visor and turned back to Joh, "Looks good to me. 52 hours. Guess we just need to kick back and pass the time."

Cervi shook her head and relaxed her grip on the arm rests after the hyperdrive engaged. "Considering what you're flying, I'd say just fine, Ash." She said reassuringly to the pilot before Ash turned her attention to Joh.

"Oh you charmer," Ash quipped back to Cervi quickly giving a small smile out the side of her mouth.

Cervi crossed her arms over her chest and winked at her. "You're welcome."

Unknown Sector, Outer Rim

Spivak had gotten the call from Ash that they would be dropping out of Hyperspace momentarily. He was now in the copilot seat having a look at the navicomp to ensure their arrive was still ok. From what he could, they were cleared. "Whenever you're ready."

Nodding Ash tapped the controls and grasped them firmly just in case she needed to take some immediate action. Fortunately as the ship slowed down her grip relaxed as she took stock of the debris around them on the scanners.

Joh marveled as the Bantha pulled out of the streaking blue of hyperspace into normal stars. The only difference here was that much of their view of the galaxy was blocked. Some major cruisers, smaller fighters, some corvettes, and even asteroid-like debris, presumably from an old mining port. This was not a major battle and was certainly not in the history books, but it was something big. "Target those exact coordinates." They had pretty strong, detailed coordinates.

"I'll take us in half speed," she tapped the controls and edged the ship into the debris field. Manoeuvring in it was relatively easy with only the sound of small metal fragments occasionally bouncing harmlessly off the hull. "That a lot of soup out there..." she commented as the ship twisted round part of a larger cruiser.

"And let's do a full sensor sweep," added the captain, plugging in the scanner controls himself, following his own orders. As they got closer, things became clear. This was a salvage job, but not just parts and spacecraft hulls... there were some interesting craft about, one of which appeared, from afar, to be in decent condition, for being completely disabled during this battle.

"There," pointed the captain, towards a small corvette. "Those are the coordinates, right?"

"That's what they say..." The ship slowly edged up close to it and Ash hit one of the running lights to get a better look of the corvette. The light bounced of the hull as Ash moved the ship along the length of it and round the opposite side, "Doesn't look to be too banged up. "

(no, it's not still on fire - the battle was 50-60 years ago)

"Looks likes there is a docking port on the starboard side if you want to try and get a seal on it? Wouldn't be surprised if the atmo on that thing is long gone by now. What's the scanners saying?" A couple blasts from the maneuvering thrusters twisted the ship round in line with the docking port in anticipation.

Dene and a couple of the others had pressed themselves against one of the Bantha's tiny external viewing ports to get a decent look at the debris field around them. There was no doubt that there was some tidy money to be made in here. "I wonder why this place hasn't been stripped to the bone, it looks like it's been here a while." He muttered, trying not to kill the excited buzz as the hiss of maneuvering thrusters muffled his voice.

Cervi had been to other battles sites, but, unlike this one, those were usually gone over pretty cleanly by other salvage crews. Or, like a few nothing left enough of the debris to waste their time on. To see this was a little peculiar. Her eyes darted about the eye candy outside the ship as Ash moved the Bantha expertly about the debris.

Cervi felt her heart speed up at the prospect of what they'd find of value, and couldn't wait to go out in her upgraded EVA salvage suit she'd been spending time and credits on. And, then an unpleasant thought occurred to the Twi'lek with her gaze turning to the others. "We'll need to keep an eye out for anyone who might've followed us in, or also know about this."

"Indeed," replied Spivak. "Ok, I'll ready the lander. Ash, I'll let you know when we're ready." He hit a button on his own comm device. "All crew, let's be ready." He started to slide down the ladder out of the cockpit. "For anything..."

OFF

[[Verona V - Former Imperial Palace, 2145]]

Rain came down in sheets. Lightning crackled across the sky. Thunder roared in the distance, echoing off the expansive walls and grounds of the former Imperial Palace, which was alive with the sights and sounds of a very exclusive and very affluent party. They party goers bad no attention to the storm, in fact some of them hardly noticed the rain rippling off the shielding that surrounded the courtyard. Niobe was not one of those people.

Just being around the group rich privilegded society made Niobe's skin crawl. Once, he supposed he would have felt at home at a party like this. But that was a long time ago. Before his life had taken a rather unexpected turn and before he found himself jumping all over the mid-rim. He took a long drink of wine and then turned away from the railing, casting a glance out among the moderate sea of beings that crowded the courtyard. He knew his target was here, it had taken almost a month and half to track down Vehn Sovar and now that he had all he had to do was locate him among the sea of this filth.

Okay, that might have been a little too harsh. He was sure that not everyone here was some sort of horrible person. But that didn't apply to Vehn Sovar. Not in the slightest. Niobe pulled his cloak closer around him, pushing back the slight chill of the night air. He began to slowly make his way through the crowd, nodding politely when he made contact with the various other party guests. Niobe enjoyed the fact that he as a rather unassuming looking fellow. He wasn't too tall nor too short. He didn't have any physical features that stuck out or that would have made him readily identifiable. It was perfect for his line of work.

He passed a nearby mirror, taking in his appearance. He stood at 5'10, with short brown hair, and he was often told mesmerizing green eyes. He had a solid athletic build that was hidden underneath his black cloak and black evening attire. The only jewelry that adorned his hands was his wedding band. Even after all these years, thinking about what he and Jace could have had set still created a dull ache in his chest. He shook those thoughts away.

You have a mission to complete Niobe, he thought to himself. Wallowing in the past is neither productive or healthy.

As he made his way through the crowd, he picked out Sovar's security, not hard to do considering they weren't even trying to hide it. He stepped around a large gaggle of core system nobles and was about to stop at the small bar when he spotted his target. Vehn Sovar descended the stairs, dressed in on of the most expensive black suits that Niobe had ever seen. The Twilek male's head tails were covered in ornate and expensive gold jewelry and the same lavish amount of gems and metal covered each finger on each hand. He was flanked by several women and man, all of whom where dressed almost as expensively as he was. Niobe smiled to himself

Enjoy it while you can Vehn, in a half hour all this will be long gone.

Getting him alone wasn't going to be all that hard, Vehn was known for having particular... appetites. That was one such reason that he Niobe had been hired for. He set off towards the man, who by now was mingling with a group of Nemodians near the large center fountain. Niobe smiled as he approached and was happy to see that none of Vehn's guards even made a move. They were relaxed, probably too much given the wide array of people that were at the party. As he approached two of the Twilek men that had been near Vehn's side stepped forwad, eyeing the smaller human with some concern.

"I am Navar Ren," Niobe said, bowing deeply. "I do believe that I might have merchandise that your master would find most... appealing."

"My master isn't interested," the taller of the two stated. Niobe took notice of how he dropped his hand to the dagger that was concealed within his gaudy robes. It looked brand new, although Niobe was fairly certain that the man didn't have any clue how to use it. "I suggest you move along."

"Tell him I am a friend of Wexxer Trix," Niobe stated. "Go ahead, I'll wait here."

"I doubt that he'll want to see you."

"You still aren't asking him," Niobe replied, with a shrug. "That's fine, I can always take my business elsewhere. I just know how much he hates to pass up a good deal."

"Stay here."

Niobe smiled to himself. This was going to be easier than he thought.

OFF:

:ON:

"The hell do you mean union break?" shouted Ash at one of the docking hands as he waved the back of his hand and walked away, "Fine you lazy Bantha ill finish this by myself!" The man just walked off through one of the exits leaving the pad somewhat void of ground crew. ~cant get the staff these days can you~

Looking at the ship Ash assesed it taking note of the connections to the ship and moved over to the side to pull over the correct fuel line for the ship. It was rather large and with the lack of any equipment on the deck she hauled it up and began pulling it over to the ship. "Yeah no problem - just leave - oh no no its ok ill be fine. I wouldnt want to spoil the tea and crumpets at the union meeting. God forbid anyone needs to go anywhere."

Tikkit and her droid, Wreckage, came off the ship. She looked around before she spoke. "Where is everyone?" She asked the only person she saw.

"Looks like they decided to take an early lunch," muttered Ash hauling the pipe, "Fancy giving a hand with this - just need to connect up to port T3 and we can start filling this tub back up."

"Sure." Tikkit said going to the woman and grabbed the hose with her. "Lets get this connected."

"Thanks - I'm Ash - your pilot for the time being," With help the hose connected into the slot and Ash flipped the switches on her side sealing it in place, "Fancy starting the transfer sequence ill monitor the pressure here."

"Okay?" Tikkit said getting the pumps started.

"Joh said you were hiding in the engine room? Can i presume you know a thing or two about them?" Ash asked looking at the woman's relatively young age.

"I wasn't hiding there. I was someplace I was more comfortable and warm." Tikkit said. "Tikkit is my name. I grow with a Jawa tribe on Tatooine, so I learned their customs, language, and there knowledge of technology."

"Nice to meet ya! That musta' been quite a bit of effort," Ash tilted her head a bit towards her, "Cant say that i've spent that much time round them."

A quick glance at the pressure gauge showed everything normal. "Planning on tinkering with the engines down there then?"

"I'm having to deal with some Bantha Poodoo that don't know their ship parts. They placed a water pump on the main coolant tank, which almost failed. I found a few completely worn out couplings in the main power core, with fancy new casings." Tikkit said pulling open a create that was near her. "Oh in the name of the great dunes!" She exclaimed as Wreckage, Tikkit's droid, pulled up with its trailer. "Corellian Engineering Corporation Thermodin Power Sequencer Couplings. Do you think they are going to miss a couple of them, Ash?" She said checking the box label.

"Something tells me in a place like this equipment is very carefully inventoried and when things go missing they tend to come after the person - and anyone else with them - to get them back," she sighed a little as the fuel like cut off. "Sorry to disappoint your lil buddy there but i think they should stay until we can afford some. Who knows where were going you might find a bit of salvage."

Climbing onto the line Ash pulled off the fuelling clamps and stepped to the side, "You can retract the line now - we are good to go."

Tikkit retracted the fuel line. "Those are very expensive and hard to come by second hand." She said looking longingly at the the create.

"I have no doubt, but id rather not anger people in here unless we really have too. Besides where's your sense of adventure keeping all the tape together. Maybe leave them a note asking if they could leave you one. Never know sometimes you get a nice person here and there," she replied taking a peek in the box knowing the odd were that one would defiantly not be left, "How much those things normally go for anyway?"

"On Tatooine, about a hundred thousand credits, and that is brand new." Tikkit said. "That create would be about 6 hundred thousand, and it seems they have about 8 creates." She pointed out all the same markings on the creates. "They are mostly used in the Power Cores of the Corellian class starships." She said climbing onto the trailer that was attached to Wreckage.

"Yea someone would defiantly notice one of those disappear then," she let out a small smile as she seen Tikkit get into the trailer attached to her droid like a young child would. "We'll be on the way out soon. If you could prep the hyperdrive for a long jump that'd great," Moving over she leant down to the droid, "We should get her back to the ship before she gets herself into any trouble out here - what do you think?"

Wreckage beeped its reply of 'Okay'.

Tikkit smiled at the other woman. "The engines are good to go." She said. "I know not to take anything, besides they haven't made me up set. Yet."

Standing back up Ash looked to the ships ramp and started to make her way to the cockpit to start preflight, "No doubt ill see you around."

"Not before I see you." Tikkit said as Wreckage made the turn toward her hidy hole.

OFF

Niobe followed the large Twilek male through the crowd. Niobe took note of another set of knives inside the man's right jacket pocket, in addition to the blaster carbine that he had strapped to his thigh. Niobe could tell the man wanted everyone to think that he was a solider, and although he did have signs of some training, he was also sloppy and choreographing every move that he intended to make. Even with his high powered weapon, Niobe didn't really label him a threat at this time or really, at many time. They made their way into the foyer of the palace.

If Niobe thought that exterior of the palace was gaudy, well he had no words to describe what he saw before him. Lavish and brilliant tapestries hung from the walls. They were the brightest shade of every color that one could think of: green, blue, red, purple, yellow, and orange. Along with the walls the floor had been inlaid with gold and jewels, causing it to sparkle in the dim candlelight that came from the large chandelier that hung in the center of the room. The guard lead him through the foyer and into what had once been the throne room. Once again the floor was inlaid with gold and jewels. The large columns that flanked the throne room were covered in sparkling, gilttering, rubies and on the throne surrounded by half naked men and women was Vehn Sovar.

"My asscioate tells me that you might have some merchandise that could of interest to me," Vehn said, leaning forward on the throne.

Personally, Niobe found Vehn offensive in every way. He was hardly an attractive man, aside from the money and power that he held. And by the far off look in his eyes, he cleary had already had too much to drink. Niobe cocks and eyebrow and steps forward a few feet. He notes how the two guards that flanked Vehn also moved forward slightly. They were already on guard, not surprising.

"I have many things that would be of interest to a man such as yourself," Niobe said. He bowed deeply. "But I'd rather not discuss it in the company of your other guests."

Vehn looked around at the men and women around him, his yellow teeth gleaming in a twisted smile. "I suppose that you cannot do me any harm. I am a master of Taris'Ka you know."

Niobe fought the urge to roll his eyes. "I wouldn't dare."

"Plus, my security detail would have found any weapon that you happened to smuggle in here."

Niobe pulled open his cape. "I come unarmed great Vehn Sovar, all I wish to do is talk to you about business. Man to man."

"Leave us," Vehn said, making a shooing motion with his hands. "I'll call you for you later."

"Even us?" the large Twilek that had escorted Niobe in asked.

"Not you," Vehn replied. "But give us some space. Can I offer you anything to drink?"

"No thank you," Niobe said, moving slightly closer to Vehn. "I hear that you are in the business of selling pleasure, am I not correct?"

Vehn smiled his toothy yellow smile again. "You might be right. But I need to warn you I have all the merchandise I need. I have contacts in places that you don't even exist."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Niobe stated. "I have an contact on the inner rim world of Qa'Katar, he runs an orphange there, for wayward youths."

Already, Vehn was leaning forward, his hands clasped in front of him. "Do go on."

Niobe wanted to throw up in his mouth. Instead he pushed that thought aside and pressed forward.

"Now, from what I understand you are in the business of selling companionship, specifically young companionship for a modest price."

"You would be correct," Vehn replied, leaning back in his chair. "That is something that I do, among by other business activities. It just so happens that I have several customers that have been asking for merchandise that was newer and not slightly used."

Niobe felt bile rise in his throat when Vehn spoke about the people that he trafficked like they were nothing more than a nerf hide couch. He could hear Jaxa in his head, telling him to stay the course and the continue with his plan. He had gotten this far all he needed to do was finish it out and make sure that Vehn was out of business for good.

"My contact would be willing to help provide some newer models... for a modest fee that is," Niobe replied.

The Twilek's eyes glittered, much like the gems that were embedded all over his palace. Niobe knew that he had him, criminals were so stupid sometimes. How Vehn had survived this long as the top of his game was something of a mystery to Niobe. He didn't care either. He took comfort in the concealed blades that were hidden in his sleeves. They were made of an expensive carbon fiber composite that allowed him to pass through even the most adroudious of security measures.

"We should check him out," the large Twilek said. "I can have Havi run his name and credentials."

Both Twileks had their backs to him and that's when Niobe struck. He moved fluidly and in one motion, thrusting out his hands and letting his blades fly. They buried themselves in the backs of the two guards, killing them instantly. Vehn shrieked and tried to leap out of his chair. But it was of no use, Niobe slammed a foot into his chest, tearing the breath from his lungs and planting him firmly in the chair. Niobe reached down and picked up the carbine that one of the guards had been carrying.

"Who are you?" Vehn demanded.

"My name is Niobe Rand and I'm here to put an end to your little empire."

OFF:

TBC....

"Prisoner 8462, report to Warden!" The voice of the warden boomed through the tannoy as all of the yard workers stopped what they were doing to check if their number was up. Some of them had been assigned to this work detail, travelling from place to place with a private prison contractor and doing repairs or rebuilds to many of the places damaged during the final throes of the Civil War.

A few among their number were ex-Imperials, some of them were fairly high ranking too, taking plea deals to get them this comparatively easy gig rather than pulling hard labour - or worse. Prisoner 8462's number was up which either meant that he was being released, he was being reassigned or, at worse, they'd invented some kind of new crime he was to answer for. 8462 stood from the twisted metal he was removing and wiped the sweat from his brow. A few of the others on the detail offered him a sheepish grin; there was every chance they'd never see him again.

"Prisoner 8462." The tannoy picked up again sending a piercing shriek reverberating through the metal panels of the workshop. The Kuat Drive Yards had taken a beating while being reclaimed by the New Republic and after almost two years of hard work, they were almost returned to their former glory, ready for KDY technicians to move back in and start rolling out ships.

Prisoners were useful fodder for these kinds of operations. Part of the New Republic's doctrine was to rehabilitate incarcerated people but the truth was that there weren't enough workers to go around all of the damaged sites, teaching society's rotten apples to beat panels and repair components was a cheap, effective way of making sure things got done quicker.

"Prisoner 8462. Report to Warden!" The tannoy repeated for a third time and he eventually started shambling toward the stairs which led out of the workshop and up onto the main production floor. The tag around his wrist bit into his skin and had done every day since he'd arrived but there hardly seemed like any point complaining.

"Ahh, 8462." He was met at the top of the stairs by Aviss, one of the grinning guards whose disingenuous smiling always put his teeth on edge. They usually got rotated out but Aviss had been here for as long as 8462 had, if not longer. "The Warden wants you in her office ten minutes ago. Better get your skates on."

8462 muttered something under his breath and stomped off toward the makeshift office where the dour-faced warden greeted him.

"I take it you'd like to go home." She said without any hint of a greeting. It wasn't the first time she'd got his hopes up like that. "Looks like you've got time off your sentence for good behaviour."

Prisoner 8462 didn't respond and barely made eye contact.

"In fact for a drug pusher you've actually shown yourself to be a decent worker, I'd quite like to keep you until we've completed the project if I'm honest." He could tell she was eyeing him. "I take it you wouldn't want to stay on?"

She laughed before he could respond. "Your discharge papers. As of this day, you are officially a free man. Free to return to your studies." She laughed again, knowing that there wasn't much chance of him getting back into any university in the known galaxy. "Or free to return to pushing drugs. We'll have you back here in no time!"

Prisoner 8462 picked up the discharge notice and raised his eyes until he was looking directly into the cold grey eyes of the warden. "Take the tag off."

---

Prisoner 8462
New Republic Prisoner
Kuat Drive Yards Reconstruction Project

OOC - Stephie: Ok, from what I gather from the news item, our job is to check up onto our wreckage destination. or as I comically put it 'will we go splat or not?'

I think we have a motley crew of astromechs available too, and Sally, which is the nickname Stephie has given to the navicomp.

That the right idea, El Jefe?

OOC Chris: If we're including the Navicomp, Spivak would definitely be involved, and maybe Ashe as well. And I think we have two Astromechs? Izzy had one, but those players departed. And we don't have the Magnadroid either. But the two Astros would be good.

OOC Stephie: Oh, scrap the navicomp bit then.

OOC: Tikkit has a Maintenance Droid

OOC-Chris: Ok, thanks guys. Keep going, and you can remove me if you wish! :)

OOC-Stephie: De-Spivaking operation is now active.

OOC: Sorry gang, dealing with the wonderful weather in upstate NY.

==========

Skipping through the ship with Smack behind her, Stephie held her hand out behind and stepped sideways without thinking to let her droid's motor have time to stop before she was crushed against the wall. Smack managed to slow enough that he just tapped against the wall, and she smiled.

Moving to the table, she waited for Smack to connect up to the holo table before connecting to the ship's internal comm network, "Stephie to Tikkit and Cervi, can you meet me in the lounge to figure out what we may end up with at our destination?"

Tikkit poked her head out from a hatch on the floor, she was covered in dirt, grim, and grease. "Yes?" She said in Jawa Trade.

Stephie smiled as Tikkit poked her head up and spoke back in Jawa Trade, "Nice to know someone else knows it. As the cap explained, we are hurtling towards somewhere that we don't have much details on except some dodgy gifted holo. So trying to figure out what we may end up with."

Tikkit climbed out of the hatch to see what the woman was looking at. "I was raised in a Jawa tribe." She said in Jawa Trade. "Now that puts everything within the range of salvage, but I'm sure the Captain wants useful parts."

Cervidena had been checking to make sure things were secured, tightened straps and checking on her EVA suit tucked away, when Stephie called over the page. She cocked her head to listen, then headed for the ladder up to the lounge. Her 'tails' were pulled back and tied with a simple leather strap. She heard bits and parts of the two women speaking in Jawa Trade and spoke in the same as she walked through the hatch. "Don't start without me." She took a seat, spinning the chair around backwards and straddled it.

Tikkit moved away from the Twilik woman and quickly through up her hood. "What are we looking for?" She said in a low and shaky voice.

Stephie grinned as the Twi'lek came in, "Haven't really got into much. The captain wanted to see if any of as had any ideas about the region we are going to. I'm pretty sure that where we come out should be clear of debris, but that's about all I have. So we won't go all pancakey."

Cervi payed no mind to Tikkit's reaction to her arrival. She understood, though still tried to converse with her now and then. It was a door that was pretty hard to open. Hopefully, she'd come around. "That's reassuring." Then she smiled at Stephie. "I know you'll get us through ok, Steph."

Stephie grinned, "I'm just helping with planning and plotting things. Ash is the one who'll be flying us, and she's damn good. "

"True, but, one wrong calculation and we're part of that debris field." Cervi leaned forward and softly drummed her gloved fingers on the tabletop. Her thoughts filling with what they may or may not find on the initial mission. As well as side thoughts with the burning desire to explore as many of the wrecks as she could. As a salvage expert, leaving derelicts adrift without taking a peek was, well, depressing to her. "Ya think we'll have time to check around for other goodies?" She suddenly asked with eyes bouncing from Tikkit back to Steph.

"We can always use the spare parts." Tikkit said. "And their is a good market for second hand starship parts."

Stephie grinned, "Yeah, that is a good idea. There is a bit of room in the cargo bays I think."

Tikkit chuckled a little. "The last I looked we have plenty of room. Also I know a few interesting places on this ship to hide things."

Stephie laughed, "Yeah, there are quite a few good places. While I was connected up to the ship's systems with my dataport, I downloaded the schematics and worked out some spots to put stuff. We probably should talk to the cap about putting some smuggler chambers in because there is a bit of room."

"Ignore those. I looked at them too and several of the previous owners never updated those specs" Tikkit said. "I have been working on my own specs of the Bantha, because some Poodoo doesn't know his parts or how to properly mount anything."

Stephie grinned, "Aye, but I have access to the internal sensors when I connect up. We will have to match up with our versions because I found my spots due to absences in the official specs. "

"That can be fooled with reactor casing material." Tikkit said. "I had found some spare reactor casing in several of the crawl ways. I think that another Captain was going to build a smuggler's compartment but never got the change. So yea we can go over the scans and compare it to my own findings. With the amount of reactor casings I found we can shield a nice quiet and out of the way area of the ship."

Cervi listened to their conversation as her lips curled into a soft smirk. "I'm just looking forward to getting out there and giving my suit mods a go. There'll be nice components outside of those wrecks just like inside...oh, and if either of ya aren't already used to EVA I'd be happy to give a quick training, Always nice to have help out there." She glanced between the two women. "I do have a certification, really." She added reassuringly.
She hadn't really delved deeply into what all the crew's particular specialties were since being aboard, so she thought she'd throw that little offer out there.

"E. V. A.?" Tikkit asked a little confused. "Why would you need a certification with someone named Eva. Who is Eva. Is she someone new on the ship?"

Stephie smiled and patted Tikkit on the hand, "Hon, she means Extravehicular Activity, which means going outside the ship in space-suits."

Turning to Cervi, Stephie nodded, "Aye, sounds good. I've done it before when I was working for Hutts but have no certs. Although, my introduction was being forced into a suit and then kicked out into space on a cable & not let back in until something was fixed."

Looking down for a moment as her voice choked up, she finally continued, "One didn't make it, but I did."

Cervi smiled at Tikkit with a soft giggle. Then, at Stephie's revelation she felt a heaviness in her chest as a couple faces from her past appeared briefly in her mind. She slowly placed her hand on Stephie's forearm giving it a gentle squeeze. "I lost a couple crew, good friends during a search and grab mission. I still see them in my dreams." She sat back and regarded Stephie for a silent moment with a glance in Tikkit's direction. "Now you've got a caring Captain and us, and I've no intention of leaving you or anyone out there if something goes wrong." She smiled at a thought. "Want to see my suit later?"
She asked as an afterthought to change the mood gears. "You'll fall in love with her, I guarantee it!"

Stephie smiled and nodded to Cervi to show she would be okay. She tried not to think sometimes of how she had been brought up, as it normally lead her to choking up like now. She was glad that the others were nice people, and it helped a lot just to know that - Cervi wouldn't really be able to know how much & Stephie had never been good at expressing that sort of thing. When she was able to speak, Stephie tried to push her voice to sound calm although wavered a little, "Sounds good."

Tikkit seemed to get a little uncomfortable about not knowing this EVA.

tag to either

OOC - Stephie: I think it might be an idea to get this out soon - so doesn't get lost.
OOC: ervi - I'm good on my end

ON

Lander

Joh Spivak opened the double-sealed hatch into the former escape pod turned lander shuttle. It could house a few people and some cargo, and could go a good distance in space or atmospherically with full fuel and energy. It had a small ion cannon and very basic deflectors as defenses, no offenses per se. It was really a cargo shuttle.

"Ok, let's get suited up. Supplies should be stocked and we should be ready to go." Joh looked back as his two companions managed to climb in shortly after him.

Dene slung his rifle over his shoulder as he clambered in and immediately dropped it next to one of the seating benches when he got in. He was hoping beyond hope that they were going to enjoy a wee milk run for his first time out. Given the luck of this rag-tag bunch so far, he wasn't too convinced. He pulled one of the smoke grenades from the inside of his coat and began tossing it up in the air.

The lander didn't wasn't spacious like the Imperial Shuttles, so Cervi decided to wear her light armored EVA suit for their upcoming task. Which was fine with her. She hadn't had it out for some time and even though she'd kept it maintained on a daily basis Cervi needed to put the systems through its paces that couldn't be done sitting in a cargo case. She only carried a single blaster on one of many utility clips that was situated around her waist, along with the tool cases and torch set that always went along. Cervi stepped into the lander and took a seat next to Dene, holding her helmet on her lap.

"Ok, Ash," Spivak spoke, after nodding at the two and hitting the comms button. "Keep our baby safe." He paused as he cracked a joke and then hit a button to lock the hatches. "Anyways, permission to disembark."

Ashley's response came in just as planned, giving them the go-ahead to launch. Spivak was the captain and owner, but he liked a bit of protocol once in a while.

Joh did not even say a word and cut the comm link as the audible noise from the rear of the ship could be heard. It wasn't quite the jarring and hissing noise of the escape pod, which was a bad sign. But it was noisy. The retrofit did not allow for much of a smooth docking and undocking of the lander. But with those noises, the lander and half her crew were gone.

"Off we go," said the captain, flying the small craft away from the Bantha and closer to the Corvette. It would be exciting to see what kind of damage was done, if any parts could be salvaged.

Dene returned the grenade to its housing in the lining of his coat and pulled himself toward the viewing port in the cockpit. "We after anything specific?"

Cervi tapped the small computer pad on her right arm to run a quick diagnostics on her suit. All green. Her eyes shifted from the front of the lander where Ash and Joh were seated to the view outside in awe at the condition of some of the dead ships. "I can see many trips back and forth from this run." She muttered softly.

Spivak shook his head, a grin showing on his face. "There's something valuable here, other than parts." Joh glanced down at the coordinates on his console. "The Corvette has the prize... the parts would be a bonus."

As the group flew closer, a few chimes would go off. Most were just blips from all the wreckage - false positives. But there was something bothering him. "We may not be alone out here." He had a feeling the Bantha may have company, as the bigger target. But as he looked down again at the console. "Cervi, check your readings. I'm picking up some low-power signatures, from some of the internal compartments. Perhaps some areas are still airlocked?"

Cervi tapped her small console keypad quickly with her tails twitching and swaying in response to the scan results. "Uh huh. Considering the shape of some of these ships, it doesn't surprise me Captain." She glanced up and turned her head to look out the viewport at the corvette. "Backup systems might still be up for life-support in those areas too." She quirked an eyebrow at Joh. "I can't imagine anyone's still alive after all these years."

Niobe's gauntlet mounted display started flashing, prompting him to turn and look out the nearby viewport. Getting to the wreck had been easier than he would have thought. There were more than a few pilots in need of credits, so paying one to drop him here at the salvage field had been easy enough. He tapped the side of his helmet, bringing up his HUD, which had the schematics for for the corvette already loaded in. He wanted to try and take these people by surprise and return the stolen freighter as fast as possible.

Spivak nodded. "Let's hope we don't find any zombies." He would chuckle, but the situation was tense. The captain took the lander in close and found a safe place to clamp on the lander pod next to a boarding portal. The little craft shuddered as the magnetic clamps locked on, and they could all hear the seal go.

"Ok," Joh said as he stood up and headed towards the back. "Atmospheric rebreathers, everyone. We need to filter this air, and make sure the air is actually there." He got his own mask on, unholstered his weapon, flipped on a light, and then looked back. "Ready?"

A click from Dene's blaster said yes.

Cervi finished adjusting her rebreather then slid her sidearm from her holster. She gave it a quick check and nod at Joh with her eyes darting between him and the rest. "Let's go see what there is to see...and not get killed in the process."

Spivak began walking into the new ship and there was a sense of eerie cold. It was truly cold, but it was also just spooky, with a few lights flickering. "I've got a bad feeling about this..." Of course just as he said that, a warning chime came out of his comm device. He flicked a button and got the verbal readout from the lander's computer.

Joh looked back to the other two. "Bantha's under attack!"

"By who?!" Dene was already turning back toward the shuttle. "Who the hell's even out he-" Then he got it. "Sneaky b-" Whatever he said was drowned out by the fizzing crack of a busted light.

"Can't believe it's a coincidence they, whoever it is attacked after we left. Something the First Order slime would do." She winced as the light blew. "So much for treasure hunting." She added dryly. Though she honestly hoped the rest of the crew on the Bantha were still alive.

Niobe was slowly moving towards the heat signatures displayed on his HUD when his gauntlet informed him of incoming vessels. Lots of incoming vessels; going right for the very ship that he was supposed to be recovering from. Given the status of their weapons, he doubted that they were there to just talk. He could confront those on the corvette later, if he allowed the freighter to be blown up then he wouldn't get paid.

"Sithspawn," he muttered, turning and hurrying back towards his fighter. "I should have known this wasn't going to be easy."

It only took him a few moments before he was back at the airlock and dropping down into the cockpit of his heavily modified Athersprite Delta 7 class starfighter. He had bought the ancient craft off a trader on Naboo and then paid someone a vast amount of money to update and restore the craft. With the flip of a few switches the sleek all black craft dropped away from the corvette and peeled off toward the Bantha.

OFF
=====
OOC-Chris: Ok Niobe, if your char would go off to protect the Bantha so he can attempt to capture it, I can switch you to that JP. Completely up to you, just let me know! :)

ON:

"Who are you!?!" Vehn screamed.

Niobe rolled his eyes and took a few steps back, keeping the blaster still leveled at Vehn's chest. He took several deep breaths and fought the urge to drill a smoking hole right through Vehn's torso. He cast a glance over his shoulder and fired once into the door locking mechanism sealing the room for the time being. Vehn still looked too terrified to move. Apparently without his guards all his bravado was gone, something that actually entertained Niobe.

"I told you who I was," Niobe said, facing Vehn again. "I'm here to put an end to your criminal empire."

"My guards will be here any minute!" Vehn said, as his headtails twitched nervously. "They'll kill you!"

"I'm hardly concerned about them," Niobe replied. He gestured for Vehn to stand up and motioned towards the terminal on the other side of the room. "Move it before I get really annoyed and do something ungentlemanly."

Slowly, Vehn rose from his chair and made his way towards the monitor. Niobe knew it would only be a manner of minutes before the guards realized what had happened and came to save their own so precious master. Of course knowing that allowed him to plan accordingly. Once they were at the terminal, Niobe tossed a datachip to Vehn and motioned to the accessport.

"What is this?" Vehn asked.

"It doesn't matter, I'm the one with the blaster pointed at you," Niobe replied. "Just insert the chip and this will all be over soon enough."

"Whoever is paying you I'll double."

"Doubtful," Niobe said, with a cocked eyebrow. "You have nothing that I want. Credits are helpful but I have plenty. I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart and because slavers and scum like you need to realize although the New Republic may turn a blind eye towards you there are others that won't."

"You're not getting paid for this!" Vehn screeched. "You are an idiot!"

"You keep saying that," Niobe responded, shrugging his shoulders. "Yet once again I am not the one with a blaster point at him. Execute the program the moment that it's load."

Vehn's fingers twitched. "I could be calling for help right now."

"I'm sure you are," Niobe said.

Even as the words were out of his mouth the door to the room exploded inwards, sending shards of metal flying everywhere. Niobe spun around and dropped into a crouch, firing off a barrage of bolts at those guards trying to get through the door. Lances of energy pierced bodies and armor, creating a pile for the remaining guards to climb over in order to get into the room.