Chapter 14: Display of strength
"We're coming upon the destination, Ma'am." Lieutenant Quinn announced to the Sith standing behind the pilot seat.
"Take us in lieutenant, nice and easy if you would." Uri grinned with newfound determination.
"Right away ma'am." He pauses for a second before noticing. "Ma'am, Darth Baras is hailing you."
"Right on time." The white haired Sith clasped her hands together and strode out of the cockpit.
Upon entering the room, Uri spotted a certain twi'lek closing the door to her room. Making her way closer almost skipping with joy, "hello there, partner of mine." Uri greeted with a smirk.
"Hey you. What's on the menu for today?" Vette replied with a wink.
"Oh you know the usual, committing unspeakable deeds at the behest of the empire." Uri deadpanned to her companion.
"Yes but wh-"
"The armpit of the galaxy, slave." A foreign and electronic voice answered. Quinn stood behind the two girls with his hands behind his back staring forwards towards the holocommunicator. Darth baras with his own hands behind his back stared at the Twi'lek; who seems to have shrunk a bit as she stood slightly behind Uri. The white haired sith shot a glance at Quinn before turning her attention to the hologram.
"Master." The warrior bowed slightly.
"Welcome to Nar Shaddaa apprentice, I'm sure you know that this cesspool of a planet is home to many distractions: Gambling, debauchery, Spice, Gang disputes." The Darth said with a hint of disgust in his voice.
"Oh i'm sure it's a lovely place once you get to know it better." Uri smirked at her master.
"Another time. You are here to eliminate yet another agent. This agent, Dellocon, he has found solace and a powerful ally against my authority. A young Sith lord by the name of Rathari, an upstart that openly disrespects my position as well as my methods." The masked Darth explained. "Rathari cannot be allowed to be in the possession of the knowledge kept within Dellocon's mind."
"Where do I start?" Uri shifted her stance to one side.
"Halidrell Setsyn. She runs my slave operations on the planet and is ready to receive and brief you more on Rathari's movements. That is all apprentice." At the mention of 'Slave' Uri mentally twitched. The holocommunicator shuts off and Uri once more turns to Quinn,
"I hope we don't make it a habit of answering a hail without my permission on my ship Lieutenant." The white haired sith laughs as if it was a joke but the atmosphere about her says otherwise.
"O-of course ma'am, my apologies. It will not happen again." Quinn stands at attention and salutes.
=0=
Uri and Vette make their way out of the Fury with Malavi standing at the top of the ramp behind them. Uri pipes up first, "I know you don't need me to tell you to watch the ship while we're away Quinn but, Watch ship while we're away Quinn."
The Lieutenant does a slight bow, "I won't let anything happen Ma'am." The ramp begins to rise with a hiss as the two walked off. It was vette's turn to speak up, "I hope he doesn't go through my stuff…" Uri merely scoffs at that and continues to walk on.
=0=
The two girls wander till they reach a balcony of sorts, allowing them to overlook most of the city. Stretching across the horizon a mass of buildings and moving lights. The twi'lek moved closer and placed her hands on the railing and muttered, "Maybe you're here…"
Uri stood behind the other girl with her hands behind her back head tilted curiously to the side. "What was that love?" Vette sighed and turned to her companion with a weak smile.
"Nothin' c'mon let's go." She said the tone of her voice slightly sad, but the twi'lek pressed forward in front of Uri. The white haired sith looked off the spot where her partner was standing before jogging after her.
=0=
The duo walked up to the door leading to the place Baras included in his worded instructions sent alongside his holotransmission. As the the two approached the door they could hear a couple of voices barking back and forward at each other. Uri swiped her hand in front of her gently activating the door, and on entry she saw three men standing with their backs towards her, facing another woman.
"Look lady, lord Rathari is taking over your operations 'round these parts. So pack it up and get on out of here unless…" the man speaking in the middle places a hand on his blaster. "You want things to get violent."
The woman he was threatening crossed her arms and stood firmly. "Touch me, and you'll have 20 sith on you in seconds." The three men looked to one another and laughed, the woman concentrated hard on the man in the middle unamused by his attitude.
Through his laughter the man assumed to be the leader of the group spoke up, "awh sweetheart. You don't even have one."
Uri calmly strode forward with Vette in tow. "Well I wouldn't say that." The white haired sith smiled at the group with her hands placed behind her back.
"Who the hell are you?!" One of the men spat, reaching for his weapon.
"My name is Uri. What's yours?" The sith shot a finger at the thug with a wide grin. The group exchanged confused looks before turning their gazes towards Vette.
"Oh! I'm your voice of reason! I would not want to piss her off." The Twi'lek warned pointing to her companion. Who was smiling innocently back at the group.
"What the hell is this halidrel." The man in the middle questioned the woman with equal parts confusion and frustration.
"I-I uh… I really don't…" the woman trailed off as she stared at Uri. Her eyes widened as she realized the duo was her contact she was supposed to brief.
"Tell you what gentlemen, I want all of you to turn on your heels and walk back to that door, and I won't maim you lot. Deal?" The white haired sith proposed with a shrug. The three men exchanged a couple more confused looks before one of them grabbed hold of his blaster. Before he could pull his weapon from his holster his body was flung backwards towards the entrance slamming against the doorframe.
The remaining two thugs watched in shock as their friend's body collapsed to floor unmoving. Uri lowered her good arm to her side and sighed.
"Oops. I guess my aim is a little off, my bad." Uri's eyes seemed to flare a little red as she said so. "I do hope you'll reconsider your next move." The warrior darted her eyes between them. Both men raised their hands above their heads and slowly walked towards their escape before breaking out into a sprint.
"Y-you'll pay for that bitch, lord Rathari is gonna hear about this!" The leader whimpered as he picked his friend's limp body up and struggled to drag him out. Uri and Vette chuckled as they watched the mess of a group make their exit.
"Ahhh… onto business miss Halidrel, was it?" Uri clasped her hands together her vibrant golden eyes staring at the woman.
"Y-yes my lord." Baras's contact stammered out as she stared back in awe.
=0=
'As it would seem my lord, while Darth Baras holds a significant foothold on this planet. This lord Rathari upstart is challenging his authority here.' Halidrel's briefing replayed in Uri's mind as she made her way forward.
'Rathari and his apprentice are putting the screws to the hutt cartel here on Nar shadda, while they are our allies they do have certain… allegiances within this empire of ours.'
Vette stepped a little closer towards Uri as she scanned her surroundings of the Hutt's hideout. "Geh… not the best memories come to mind when I look at a place like this."
The white haired girl threw an arm around her partner and brought her even closer. "Technically, you're still my slave dear Vette, and you're not for sale."
Vette wrinkled her face as a response and quietly jabbed her 'master' in the side, causing Uri to keel over slightly with a chuckle. "Ow ow kidding!" Uri continued walking with her arm around Vette moreso as a protective measure than a joking one. She gazed around the building; spice, weapons, slaves. All manner of illegal dealings were happening, the weapons and spice were things she was used to but the slave trade… made her stomach churn and something inside her ticked.
The two continued their pathway spotting at the end a clearing with two hutts and one man in the middle. As the two got closer Uri let go of Vette and listened in carefully to the conversation going on between the group. "Hand over the specified territories before Lord Rathari loses his patience."
The two hutts looked at each other before speaking, "Your master is a powerful man, it is not easy to corner a hutt and force their hand."
Uri stepped forward chuckling before breaking out into a laugh, she pointed in the direction of the hutts "haha! I knew hutts were gutless but I didn't realize they were spineless too!"
The hutts turned their attention to the newcomer, "Who is this?" One of them asked.
"I'll tell you who this is, this is the apprentice of an upstart of a sith named Darth Baras." The man walked towards Uri, "that's right my master and I anti-"
"Shut up, I don't care." The warrioress glared at the man with hate in her eyes before passing through him knocking him off balance. She turned her attention to the hutts and began to address them, "You two are not going to entertain the thought of giving Rathari what he wants."
"And why would we not do that, we've seen Rathari's strength firsthand why should we listen to you?" Both hutts chuckled at the girl who merely broke into a smile.
After shaking off his shock the man stomped towards Uri and placed a hand on her shoulder, "I am Girik, apprentice to the great Lord Rathari! I deman-."
Before Girik even had time to realize it there was a brutal searing pain in his wrist. The pain finally registered in his brain as he clenched his arm in pain finally realizing that his hand was severed.
"Nothing, you demand nothing of me you weakling." Uri stood over Girik as he crouched in pain snarling at his severed hand. He attempted to unclip his saber from his belt when Uri lowered her crimson blade to his face causing him to fumble dropping his lightsaber in front of him. The crouched man reached for his weapon when his remaining hand got crushed underneath Uri's boot.
"You hutts call this strength? This is the 'strength' you fear?!" The white haired sith kept her boot in place as she pivoted on her other foot revealing the face of a snarling Girik to the hutts, who seemed to flinch at the sight. Without taking her eyes off the hutts she grabbed the other sith forcing his head up revealing his neck. She placed the crimson blade just before his skin. "Rathari should not be your first concern." With a quick motion Girik was no more, his severed head lay at Uri's feet. She gave the head a slight kick leaving it rolling up to one of the hutts.
"A-a… powerful display dark one…" one of the hutts spat trying to regain its composure. The other hutt began to grovel going on a tangent about the the: 'great Darth Baras.' But The white haired sith had turned her attention elsewhere.
Her concentration was on Vette, who was holding onto a crying twi'lek child and a human child. Uri scanned her surroundings still not paying attention to the Hutt's yammering. She stood above a headless corpse in the middle of the room there were no guards surprisingly but the eyes that were trained on her was that of the servants and slaves.
The looks that she received were a myriad of emotions from disgust to content to worry. Uri's eyes widened as Vette looked up at her and gave her a weak smile but her eyes full of worry and…'fear...I overdid it… again..' she thought to herself. The warrioress took a breath and turned to the hutts. "Listen up you slime bags, everything this headless fool told you about his master is now inconsequential." Both hutts quickly silenced themselves letting Uri speak.
"I take that back, some of it is of merit; any resources you're supplying him anything at all is now cut off." Uri sheathed her saber and sighed deeply.
"Y-yes of course." One of the slugs stammered out. The white haired girl punched the bridge of her nose thinking to herself.
"Next, you're going to halt all slave trade and release every single one in your custody." Uri spat sharply at the two hutts.
"B-But that's… a good deal of our income." One hutt muttered just audible enough for Uri to hear.
"Good enough to die for right now?" The white haired sith began to approach. The hutt cowered and made a squealing noise of sorts. "That's what I thought."
=0=
Uri and Vette regrouped, both girls removing bolts and shock collars from the captured victims of the Hutts. Most of them approached Vette as they were still a little shaken by Uri's 'Display' after a couple of hours passed the two addressed the group of now former slaves telling them to go into hiding, try to keep their heads low even though Uri was able to 'convince' the two slugs to drop all debts and give them all freedom.
"...lastly, I apologize that I am not able to do more for you all. I may have well doomed you in another way." The warrioress rubbed her hands together nervously. "But… find your resolve. Stand tall and stand strong. But most importantly, stand free. Never give in and never give yourself up. Face your adversary head on." As she spoke Uri found her own resolve to address the group. There was a ear ringing silence in the room before someone stepped forwards, two people, the two children from earlier slowly approached the white haired sith.
Uri stared at them as they stood nervously in front of her. The sith dropped down on one knee to meet them face to face.
"Yes?" The warrioress pondered, tilting her head to the side. Both children looked at one another before the twi'lek child responded.
"Are you a Jedi?" Uri was taken aback from the question almost visibly so.
"What a peculiar question, why do you ask?" The sith asked with a light hearted grin. The human child piped up.
"I-it's just that… Jedi help people and you helped all of us… kinda like… a hero?" the kid was able to stammer our before Uri reached out placing a hand on his shoulder, causing him to flinch. He opened his eyes to a surprising warmth of the white haired Sith's golden ones.
"That's silly. Don't gotta be a Jedi to help people, let alone be a hero, small one." Uri explained with a slight chuckle ruffling the child's hair as she stood up. She began to make her way towards the exit, the mood of the crowd changed to that of praise and approval. The Sith waved off the 'thank yous' and praise along with Vette and a smile.
She arrived at the entrance to the complex before the twi'lek child called out, "So, what are you?" She stood at the head of the crowd watching the duo leave.
Uri stopped for moment to consider her next words. "I'm.. merely someone who wants to help." She said without turning, giving a slight wave before heading off.
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A/N: I haven't given up! and neither should you! thanks to you lot for sticking around. Hope i'm not falling off the deep end. Hope you enjoy this new chapter too! Thank you all for followin' favoritin' and reviewin' really brings a smile to my face. Have a stellar day!