Nar Shaada

As the Kandosii descended Vestara saw endless cities reminiscent to what she had seen on Coruscant, but with a clear difference. Coruscant itself had a somewhat refined look at first glance given the overall importance of the planet as a whole, only the slums in the lower layers of the planet were destitute and crime-ridden. This world however seemed dank, rundown, and overall filthy as well as unusually dark, save for the light emanating from the building's themselves Vestara saw no light on the tiny world.

As the Ship docked at the nearest spaceport and everyone disembarked Vestara noticed a number of the Mando didn't join them at all, which puzzled her given that they were technically all invited to this meeting. Vestara once again found herself seeking answers from Mirta, a habit that had become commonplace given Vestara's overall ignorance of the galaxy as a whole.
"Why are they staying behind, doesn't this concern them?"
Mirta answered but did not take her eyes off of a group of rather unsavory looking Devaronian's across the room from them. "You've never been to Nar Shaada before have you?" Vestara simply shook her head. "Well then I apologize for being the one to expose you to this cesspool."
"Kind of looks like a small, more depressing version of Coruscant."
"Yes well, while Coruscant is a respected place that serves as the political capitol of the republic itself where Senators, dignitaries and such all congregate, Nar shaada is one of those places where the galaxy itself defecates it's stagnant bile."
Vestara nearly lurched at this rather explicit description. "How colorful."
"But anyway, given how crime ridden this place is we all agreed that a portion of the crew should stay an keep the ship on lock down, lest unsavory characters should try something untoward. And then when we all get back we'll just convey what was said and done to everyone that stayed behind."
"Okay, another question."
Mirta finally turned to face her and held her hand up as if to halt her "Let me take a guess at what that question is. Why, of all the places in the Universe, are we meeting my Grandfather here?" Vestara simply nodded "Because he lives here at the moment." Vestara once again opened her mouth to make another quandary but was cut off by Mirta again "Why does he live here?" again Vestara simply nodded. "Well it's true over his LONG career he became...how to best describe it?"
"Filthy stinking rich?"
"There you go. He had numerous bank accounts, all well stocked so to speak. As well as numerous estates throughout multiple sectors so if he ever went on a job anywhere he always had a place to rest and resupply. But when we got my Grandmother out her Carbonite, she had nothing to make a living with. She'd been a hunter just like Grandpa, after nearly 5 decades of being frozen all of her contacts and business connections were either dead or retired. So Grandpa gave her everything."
Vestara eyes widened as much as they could at hearing this "Everything?! As in..."
"Bank accounts, Estates, investments. EVERYTHING!"
Vestara began shaking her head "Wow, can't say I know of many who would do that for their ex."
Mirta's expression turned somewhat serious and she turned her gaze away from Vestara as she spoke "Their marriage didn't end because they stopped loving each other, if anything it ended BECAUSE he loved her." Vestara didn't understand this remark at all but chose not to pry. "Despite everything that's occurred my Grandfather still cares about everyone in our family, he gave her everything so she wouldn't have to hunt ever again. So that she could rest and find peace, which after losing Mom, she really could have used."
Vestara was silent for a moment before realizing she hadn't actually answered her base question at all. "So why does he live HERE?"
"Oh, well when the virus hit my grandmother contacted us and offered to have the deeds to all of his estates returned so we would have some place to stay. At first he turned her down, citing that he could take care of himself, and me I haven't exactly stayed one place at a time lately. But she insisted we have some place to retreat to should the need arise and this is the only residence he would take back."
Vestara glanced around the large open area of the Space port they stood in gazing upon several uncouth looking people, some even missing limbs, while others just looked utterly repulsive to behold. "And he picked this place because..."
"Ah, I see that's what you were getting at. Well Nar Shaada may be full of the literal scum of the Universe, but EVERYONE knows of Boba Fett, and so EVERYONE knows to leave him alone, even here. Doesn't matter where you go Grandpa's still the scariest guy in the room."

After leaving the Space port Vestara, Mirta, and the Mando accompanying them entered several cabs to be taken to their destination. Throughout the cab ride Vestara gazed out the window into the distance taking in what passed for scenery, noting to the fullest just how much Nar Shaada contrasted with Coruscant. How different they truly were. But in the end she figured everything must have an opposite, and this was Coruscant's, one was the capitol of the republic the other the center of illegal trading by the Hutt's. Continuing her examination she saw building's that looked as though they were on the verge of collapsing and at one point she even thought she saw one on fire! And yet strangely enough Mirta claimed her grandfather to be perfectly safe in this abysmal place which made Vestara ponder the validity of the claims of Boba Fett's reputation, she had never met him yet he sounded larger than life and almost beyond belief. Yet she sensed no deception from Mirta when she spoke of Fett, so either Mirta believed him to be everything she said, or he really was!

Before too long they finally reached their destination, though Mirta was certain the driver intentionally took a longer route so as to make the cab fare higher than it should be. They found themselves deposited atop a large building of condominiums that was in surprisingly decent condition given what everything else in their immediate surroundings looked like. Atop of the building, set down on a landing pad, was a Firespray-31 class craft that Vestara herself pondered what it was doing at a residential building rather than at the spaceport, but figured t likely had something to do with it's compact frame and how easily it fit on the roof.
At a nearby elevator they were awaited by two tall figures in Mando gear, the first was a blonde haired man with a small beard who wore primarily red armor with black decals but the helmet, which he held to his side, had the image of a large skull near the top. Vestara could easily recognize this man as the person Mirta spoke to previously, her husband Ghes Orade.
The other wore faded green armor that could only be described as battle-worn. Dents, burns, and scuffs in the paint likely from blaster fire riddled the suit, the armor alone made the figure appear quite old. On his back he wore a small sage cowl that hung down to his waist, the pauldrons on his armor were yellow while the gauntlets were a faded rust color each as worn as the rest of his armor, and on his waist he wore a belt with numerous pouches and hand bags attached likely filled with a wide variety of tools to match any circumstance. Vestara wasn't sure but she assumed this aged warrior to be none other than Mirta's grandfather Boba Fett.
Mirta herself smiled widely at the sight of both of them and upon making eye contact Ghes and Mirta both advanced towards each other. Upon finally reaching each other the two gleefully embraced one another holding the other for a long moment. Vestara couldn't help but let a small smile sneak its way onto her face as she felt happy for the two, Mirta quite obviously missed Ghes and it seemed the feeling was mutual. However after a moment this feeling of joy turned into mild amusement as she realized Ghes was almost an entire foot taller than Mirta as she only came to his collarbone causing her to notice Mirta had to jump slightly in order to hug him.
When the happy couple finished their tender moment they were joined by Fett who stood with his head tilted towards Mirta, not once did he ever remove his helmet, Mirta herself greeted him with a smile and though it could not be seen she was certain he was smiling back.

Before too long the remaining Mando arrived each complaining or cursing at their individual cab drivers for taking a roundabout route similar to her and Mirta's experience and everyone made their way towards the elevators to adjourn inwards. Vestara soon joined Mirta and Ghes, whom had locked arms at this point to which Vestara herself found some overall amusement that didn't go unnoticed by Mirta.
"What's so funny?"
"Your smiling and someone isn't about to get maimed, set on fire, or in some other heinous fashion killed. It's unusual."
Ghes found great amusement in this remark and started laughing before quickly receiving a stern look from Mirta which silenced him instantly, but his smirk still remained.

As each of them entered the elevator Vestara took one last glance at the docked Firespray and decided to placate her curiosity concerning it.
"Does that ship right over there belong to one of you?"
A big prideful grin stretched across Mirta's face upon reference to this particular craft "That, is the Slave I, my grandfather's ,and his father before him, personal ship."
"Slave I, sounds inviting. Forgive me for sounding naive but how does he know nobody is going to mess with it HERE?"
"He owns the landing pad it's docked on."Vestara rose an eyebrow to this as a it seemed quite random to simply own a landing pad. "As well as the entire top floor of condo's in this building, so you could say he owns the roof as well, no-one comes up here without his say so. And as I said before NOONE messes with him here."
Vestara wasn't even remotely surprised that he simply owned the top portion of the building, especially given that they had just had a discussion in which he was once described as 'Filthy,stinking,rich'.
Upon exiting onto the top floor she immediately noticed it appeared that it had been renovated so all the condominiums were now inter connected with a large open area between rooms, essentially giving it the appearance of a single story mansion. For a moment it almost made sense why Fett would have picked this out of all of his potential estates to hold onto.
Glancing around Vestara noted that aside from the MAndo that had joined Mirta and her, as well as Ghes,there were several more present though it seemed likely they were under Fett's employ either as a hunter or as Mand'alore, as well as someone who strangely looked out of place. An elderly woman with primarily gray hair save for a few copper colored strands, she dressed herself in formal attire rather than any sort of armor, giving the impression she was not Mando, but what stood out was her left eye was covered by an eye patch. After a moment the woman noticed Vestara staring a made eye contact, when she did, an indescribable chill ran down her spine, she didn't know who she was but she now believed her to be dangerous.
While distracted by the strong foreboding aura this woman gave off someone placed their hand on Vestara's shoulder causing her to nearly just right into the air, as she turned she saw it to simply be Mirta greeting her with a serious expression.
"That's Natasi Daala. I think you should steer clear of her, for your own safety."
Vestara turned to quickly examine the woman as she stood at the far end of the room typing something onto a data-pad, before turning back to Mirta. "Who is she that she's so dangerous at that age?"
"Do not let Daala's age fool you. She is one of few remaining from the Galactic Empire, apparantly as the story goes she had an almost unsettling obsession with one of her commanding officers, practically worshiped the guy."
Vestara gave Daala another quick glance, now getting the impression she should know where she is at all times. "Okay, but what dos this have to do with me."
"YOU can use the force!" Vestara gave her a quick confused stare. "That commanding officer I told you about, he died when Luke Skywalker blew up the space station he was on. Since then Daala has had this extreme blood lust towards all Force-sensitives, especially those who actively serve as Jedi. She spent YEARS trying to kill Skywalker and his Jedi order. IF she finds out you can use the Force, and IF she finds out you used to date the son of the person she hates the MOST, well I shudder to think what she'll try. For you own safety steer clear of her, try to avoid any and all contact if you can."
Vestara was now beginning to wonder where she was safer here or facing judgement from the Jedi? "Okay, if she's so scary, WHY is she here?"
"Well, last I heard she was in prison for abusing her power as the Republic's Chief Of State. I also heard she was facing the death penalty, I guess Grandpa must have broken her out."
"Okay, why would he do that!?"
"Well Daala has never had a problem with us, we've actually enjoyed a decent relationship with her, I even had her as a guest when me and Ghes got married. Although I won't lie having her and Jaina in the same room was equally awkward and entertaining"
Vestara rolled her eyes at the mental image of romantic wedding taking place whilst in the back of the room Daala and Solo sat there eyeing each other fiercly while separated by two Mandalorian ushers, but then remembered another point she felt it important to clarify. "What did she do that earned her the death penalty?"
"She was rather abusive with her political power, people called her a 'Second Palpatine'. She tried to use Mandalorian mercenaries to execute slaves who revolted, she tried to turn the Jedi into her pawns by holding the children of a member of the council hostage. And she spent her last moments in power trying to destroy the Jedi AGAIN!"
"Oh, so just little things right?!"
After a moment Mirta let out a small amused chuckle that piqued Vestara's curiosity. "Although I guess in a sense she is, albeit indirectly, responsible for you meeting your boyfriend."
"Say what now?"
"Correct me if I'm wrong but when you met dear old Ben, he was just traveling with his dad, right?" She gave a quick nod "And had they not been out on whatever mission they were on you might not have met them,yes?" Vestara simply nodded again. "Did you ever wonder what they were doing out in that sector of space by themselves?" After a moment's contemplation she realized she actually didn't know what they were doing out there, causing her to once again regret not knowing more about Ben's life, but after a moment Mirta understood Vestara didn't know the answer to her quandry. "Daala exiled Skywalker for the crimes of his nephew, Jacen Solo, or as others knew him Darth Caedus."
"Why did she exile him? It's not like he did anything."
"Caedus was dead, the public wanted their pound of flesh, so to speak, Daala argues that out of everyone Skywalker should have known, should have seen Caedus's fall to the Dark Side. He was the Grand Master, which as a Jedi made him Solo's superior, he was his personal Jedi Master, and he was his uncle as well. In some cases Solo spent more time with his uncle than his own parents. Daala argued that the fact that Darth Caedus even came to power was a failure of Skywalker himself for not seeing his descent into madness. So she exiled him, his son tagged along so Daddy wouldn't be lonely, and then they met you."
Vestara was now holding her head as this was all somewhat painful to keep up with. But she understood the gist of what she needed to, stay away from Daala.

"Everyone's here that needs to be." Vestara turned to see Fett standing right behind them and was alarmed at how silently he seemed to move. After a moment Fett turned his gaze towards her and looked her up and down, before simply turning and walking away without another word.
Curious as to what grabbed his attention she looked down and remembered she was still wearing some of Mirta's armor, it was advised she do so given that Mandalorian's apparently don't like outsiders being involved in thier personal business. But she got the strange feeling he might not have taken well to seeing his only grandchild's armor on another.
"That's going to be a fun conversation."

As everyone gathered into a large room for their intended meeting Vestara spotted an elderly figure at one end of the room, he looked to be around Skywalkers age, with faded brown hair, what really sttod out was his armor which seemed patched together from different pieces of different typed of armor. But after staring for a moment she realized something about him, suddenly as this realization came to her his head shot up and he stared directly at her and shook his head ever so lightly as if imploring her not to speak of what it is she just discovered.

As everyone finally situated themselves in the room, Fett walked over to the man Vestara had just seen and addressed the room. "For those of you who don't know this is Venku Skirata, one of my top advisors. He's the reason we're all here today." Fett then tilted his head back towards Venku and simply nodded before stepping to the side.

Stepping forward he cleared his throat so as to better address everyone, and gave a quick glance back at Vestara to bid her silence before starting. "As some of you may or may not know, my Grandfather Kal Skirata was one of the training officer's for the clone army of whom the majority present are descended. One thing that stood out in his military career, was a deep devotion and protectiveness towards all under his command. Kal ws responsible for halting the accelerated aging of the clones, that allowed them to live full lives, resulting in many here having the chance to be born." Venku took a moment to clear his throat again. "I'm sure several of you have been trying to find means of use returning home, of ridding the Planet of the nanovirus in it's atmosphere, and I estimate several of you have been running into the same problem, everyone you speak to says something along the lines of the virus having been chemically altered to the point that noone can assuredly synthesize a cure." Looking around he noticed scattered nods and other gestures of confirmation. "You see, back during the First year of the Clone Wars, the Separatist's developed a nanovirus, much similar to what we are dealing with now, to kill the entire army. My grandfather was part of a team that personally prevented the deployment of said virus, and all remaining samples were preserved and confiscated by the Republic. When the Republic became the Galactic Empire, Emperor Palpatine began to utilize this virus to kill anyone who rejected his rule by removing the compound that made the virus target a single individual, instead it simply targeted all organic life."
Vestara grimaced at the thought of this. "This Palpatine guy sounds like a dick!"
Venku now began pacing up front as he spoke with his hands linked behind his back. "Our people have never exactly held a positive relationship with the Jedi Order, history has seen us on opposite side quite often. But the Clone's of the Republic's army held a deep sense of loyalty to the Jedi they fought beside and called their brothers-in-arms. The reality that Palpatine may turn this Nanovirus upon our homeworld became more and more likely as time passed,and so an antigen was developed, a cure for said virus." At the sound of this everyone, especially Mirta became quite intrigued and stood at attention on each of his words. "It is my belief that the Virus currently Plaguing our home is a modified variant of the same one developed by the Separatist's. After the Antigen was developed several Mando, my Grandfather included, released it into Mandalores atmosphere, so the virus could never be used on our people. I believe the reason Caedus altered the virus was so it wouldn't be affected by the Antigen that already existed in the atmosphere. Now we have been able to acquire some data regarding the virus and the manner in which it was altered. However we still require the data pertaining to the antigen already developed. Unfortunately there inlies the problem, we haven't been able to discern where the data is being stored."
One of the Mando present stepped forward to address Venku looking somewhat displeased "So what exactly are you telling us, a cure exists you just don't know where it is? What was the point of this meeting then?"
Venku simply stood silent for a moment, his expression not changing at all before walking forward to address the question "I'm telling you that after several years of the entire galaxy telling you at every turn that it is impossible for any of us to ever go home, I have discovered a solution does exist, and it has existed longer than you and most of the people in his room have, you just have to go and find out what rock it's buried under. What I'm saying is that there does in fact exist a hope for us to go back to our lives. We've just been looking in the wrong places. Would you have rather I kept that to myself?"
With this the Mando simply sank his head and walked back to where he originally stood before Fett Came forward to address the room.
"We've narrowed down the possible locations of the antigen itself to several differant military outposts that the scientists who work on it would have worked for prolonged periods of time, as well as any place the Mando who dispersed the antigen would have served in the event they had the foresight to safeguard any sample. We will distribute this list shortly and decide who shall investigate each base, understood." Everyone simply nodded without raising any objections of any sort, again surprising Vestara at how everyone seemed so respectful of him. "If there's nothing else this meeting is over."

As everyone began to exit the large room they had congregated in Mirta made her way towards her grandfather excitedly, while Vestara made her way to Venku who stood near Fett. Upon reaching him he simply held a finger in front of his mouth, again bidding her silence and leaned forward to whisper to her. "Later."
"Pardon?"
"We will speak later, and you may ask your question then. Until that point be silent of what you know."
Vestara was beginning to realize he was a man of many mysteries and that Mirta and her Grandfather surrounded themselves with rather interesting people.

A/N HAHAHA An update in only one day I feel better already.
And I finally brought Boba Fett and Venku Skirata into the story despite having them tagged since I uploaded the first chapter, I'm not a liar anymore.
And yes that part about the Separatists creating a nanovirus for the clones and Kal Skirata distibuting a cure, I didn't make that up! That actually happened, this is why authors should talk to one another the whole saga of Mirta doing bad things in the Crucible to try and get a cure could have been circumvented entirely, in fact the whole Mandalore getting poisoned could have been avoided. You guys FAIL! And technically the virus Caedus released had been altered already so as to last a long time, so it has been altered.