I, in no way, hold the rights the Star Wars and or the Universe it surrounds. This story is just a reflection of the characters I create and who just happen to fit into their own little corner in George's wonderful space opera.

I'd like to give thanks to the talented Author Karen Traviss, who inspired this story, with her books, Hard Contact and Triple Zero.

Thank you for giving my little fiction a chance, while not finished I hope to be working on this story to the most of my abilities, if there are terms and or Star Wars references you are unclear of, check out the glossary at the bottom of each chapter. The Star Wars Wiki is also quite useful.

Hope you like numba 3!

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CHAPTER 3

15th Lower Level Courasant, Electrical maintenance lift

Mission clock: 20:03, Day 1, 42 BBY

There was a distant faint trickle of water and clamminess to the air as their descent started to slow. Lizean was peculiarly interested in the different levels of Courasant as they continued down; their scumbag really didn't want to be found to be lurking in a dump like this.

Cyare, the Nexu, named in Mando'ade as "the beloved one" by Lizean, sat completely still; her sleek silver white fur shimmered in the dim light. Hoda kept himself busy fiddling with his gear, with his hand lightly touched the brim of his helm; she figured he was re compiling his visors many visual settings.

As the service lift slowed to a stop Lizean scanned the dark street before her. A miniscule number of people lingered about, the only bar on the street seemed to be the focal point.

"I hear that he's a pretty nasty drunk." Hoda stepped up next to her peeling away from the shadows.

"So I'd assume." She replied plainly, "We need to get a head count on the number of body guards this guy had toting around with out raising a commotion."

His tone brightened up, "and what kind of fun would that be?"

Lizean visor met his "Your surprisingly cheery today, what's the occasion?" He shrugged as Lizean's beloved Nexu shoved him aside and bounded to her left.

They decided on a full frontal confrontation after intel confirmed that while the guy was a drug lord, he was also quite the cheapskate. Being cheap was not the best when hiring "dirt under the nails" quality security to watch your back.

It was 20:20, the set time for an exchange to go down, the streets were dead silent, save for the gentle hum of speeders and commotion from the levels above. The pair of Mandalorians were spread out, Lizean left to scout out for possible targets and Hoda was perched on a rooftop in the prone position. If need be, she'd lure out the guards into the open and he'd pick them off quickly with his DLT-20A variant with a long range scope attachment. Cyare sat beside him, watching intently with her many eyes, she would pounce down below and fetch Lizean away if anything were to happen to her. Easy.

She rounded corner, watching the street carefully, and her own standard blastech D-11 was pulled to her chest. The archway into the dump of a bar was illuminated softly by rays of purple and yellow light, which reflected out into the damp surface of the street. It had been 20 minutes already, with no sign of activity, when suddenly the excited chatter of slurred conversation busted out of the doorframe.

Lizean clicked her com once, a few seconds later a small burst of static replied, they were ready. She let herself melt up against the wall, watching her HUD's access panel and tuned into her partner's local visor cam with the blink of the eye.

There were 8 of them gathered onto the street in a noisy cluster, 6 males, human, and 2 female, Twi'lek. The scantly dressed females might have been the entertainment if it wasn't for the outline of a holster clinging to one of the Lethan's thigh, in her tight blue dress. It wasn't the first time she'd encounter undercover guards so she wondered how well trained these ones were, but no, I don't have time to fight, quick and dirty.

With out even having to ask, the camera zoomed in and focused on the party of males, she couldn't pick out the leader… That is until she noted the male dominating the conversation in his flaunting red jacket. Human. Male. Around his 20s. She checked her information and nodded. This was him, it had to be.

They idled there for a short while immersing in senseless recounts of the evening, that is until the faint hum of a small speeder hushed the group. The camera focused back out and blurred into nothing just as the sleek bright green vehicle came into sight. Hoda had shut off his helmet's auto zoom, that meant he was now on the scope of his sniper, good.

The driver quieted the engine and popped out of the drivers seat, making hast to the red-jacketed man's side. They embraced and laughed, the new comer complained of the foul smell of the group but chuckled anyways. By the obvious good terms they were on this man had to have been a distributor, their illegal spice accounting would not last much longer. She had to move quickly.

Reaching to her belt carefully she plucked a small silver sphere from a rectangular pouch. The ball would've been seamless if it wasn't for the thin clear white line that ran completely around, spreading like a web over the 5 cm circumference.

She then squatted and flicked the ball to get it moving; from there she clicked on a command to her right gauntlet. Her pointer finger extended and a series of small sensors lining her finger directed the momentum of the ball as it rolled out onto the street before her.

She curved it left and along the side of the building as to draw little attention as possible. The noisy bunch, with their backs facing Lizean and the sphere had little warning when the sliver marble sped out into the middle of the group. One of the female's eyes widened and began to yell, "flash det…!" But it was too late. A brilliant white light filled the dim street in an instant like the explosive death of a tiny star. Lizean's helmet filters adjusted to the light, but her lidded eyes still detected a faint burst.

Now was the time to move. She nodded to herself, braced her blaster with a second hand and sped out of the ally just seconds after the flash detonation. The confused group flailed their arms about hopelessly; a couple were on the ground already unconscious. She made no hast in dropping the first she came upon with the butt of her gun, the grungy male flopped down in a pile. The second was somewhat consciously aware of the situation, fumbled at the hilt of a vibroblade and attempted to activate the thing. He fell with pitiful scream when a concentrated blaster round struck his calf and blew the majority of it away. Thanks Hoda.

Two more men went down with little struggle, one even pleaded for his life before her boot met his side to quiet him up. She felt for the guards the slightest bit, they were just doing their jobs and now she'd be doing hers. One of the four left, charged her blindly when what little sight possible came back. She swept her own under his legs and he fell face first into the permacrete with a crack. The drug lord had made a run for it and Hoda calmly let her know over the com "The target's running, I'll finish off the rest, just make sure not to kill him."

Lizean glanced about; one of the unconscious bodies twitched. She spotted him dashing for the speeder and just barely grabbed a hold of the passenger side door before he sped off. The fancy speeder skidded against the side of a building with a shower of sparks and Lizean felt her shoulders screaming for mercy as he pulled the vehicle up two more stories. Her gloved hands reached their limit and she hadn't realized until then that she had dropped her gun when she first lunged for the speeding craft moments before.

She cursed and racked a button hard with her now free hand, razors spat out of her gauntlets. She had done so just in time as the speeder rounded a corner sharply, causing her body weight to veer to the side and her torso to spin on the axis on her shoulder. She put the pain to the back of her head and slammed her opposite forearm into the green paint, the razors split the metal like fresh baked Tusken bread and finally held her form in place.

Now they were diving, fast. With a quick glance down Lizean had finally realized how far up they had gone. They weaved between traffic with several close calls and her body drifted towards the nose end of the craft by the unseen forces of inertia. This was a fortunate mistake of his, in her favor, now she had the advantage. She eased on the razors and swung a leg onto the open cockpit's windshield. The glass shattered into a million sparkling pieces and the man shrieked.

It took not more then a moment before she eased her way into the swerving cockpit, fighting off the violent g-forces and grabbed the man. He swung a free fist but the futile swing landed strait into her armor-plated chest, she laughed. Lizean retracted the blades and send a hard blow into his cheekbone, felt something snap and his head slumped. Out cold, now for the spe…

The craft smashed squarely into a warehouse rooftop in slow motion. Lizean clutched the unconscious man tightly as the craft spun nose to tail once and flung the pair into the open. They bounced to the side of the building, she tried to find a hold, but found that her grip on the heaver man was slipping fast. They tumbled down over the lip and into freefall. Lizean wrapped her legs tightly around the meat-bag and fumbled for her gauntlet. She flipped a small lever and a pair of the polished silver metal spikes sprung to life in a millisecond. The tips of the rods burst open and blossomed into something similar to a grappling hook. A small clunk told her that the cable imbedded in her forearm's armor was connected in a heartbeat.

She fired the twin grapples, hoping to hit something. To her amazement the wires strung taut and swung the two forward. They bashed into the side of a building and a massive windowpane gave way. She released her grip on him and somersaulted into a support beam. It took her a few minutes before, wincing she rolled to her stomach, lifting herself onto a tired knee. He was about 3 meters to her left in a pile of crates. One of his arms stuck out at an odd angle. So they had indeed landed in the same abandoned warehouse, she could smell the smoldering metal from the speeder still.

Crawling to his side, she checked for a pulse. He was alive at least as she yanked him from the pile by the collar of his once fancy jacket. His black hair was slick from blood and his clean-shaven face was obscured by his swollen jaw and cheek but he groaned with contempt and protest still. Good, good, I didn't kill him. She opened the com channel "I've got him," she breathed with a simple satisfaction.

It was about a good standard hour later before Hoda arrived, peeking into the hole the two had made when they flew into the building. Lizean had the man bound by legs and his arm in a makeshift sling. He had asked in a delirious slur if he could have a pain reliever stim, she had replied by offering another crack of her boot. He had sat quietly since then. She kept herself busy by retracting her favored multiuse spikes and performed an extensive maintenance check, just incase anything was damaged by their bumpy ride.

He chuckled at the mess their prize was in and Lizean shrugged, removing her helmet at last, she shook out her hair and itched at her scalp. He did the same and they stood there for a moment in quiet until he spoke up with a sly grin, plucking her dropped blaster from its shoulder strap across his chest. "Drop something?"

She shot a glare at him, snatched it and began "Well it's kind of hard to try and hold on to something like that when you have a speeder racing off like th.." He planted a soft punch into her shoulder armor and shrugged.

"Don't' worry about it so much, it was just a joke."

She paused, nodded and let forth a small sigh, "Sorry, I guess I'm just still a little edgy."

She turned for the speeder parked out the window and leaped in. Hoda soon then lowered the bound man down to her and she shoved him into the back seat next to the sleeping heap of Nexu. The ex-drug lord flinched with bulging eyes, but Cyare simply snorted with indifference and went back to sleep. The fellow Mando slipped into the passenger's seat and they sped off. A waste-reclaiming vehicle hummed overhead to pick up the mess the green craft had smeared across the huge building behind them.

"You know their giving us an extra 4 k for the thugs we picked up with him?" She glanced up to him with a lifted brow and he grinned softly.

"That much?" She challenged.

"Yep," he dug into his pocket and revealed a compact datapad, "see?"

Lizean whistled softly and folded her arms behind her, having put the speeder into autopilot. "That'll make Bryen happy."

Hoda pocketed the screen and looked off, "Who said he has to know about it?"

Edd's Ranged Weapons and Speeder Services, Undercity Coruscant

Mission Clock: Day 2 12:49, 42 BBY

They had arrived in the warn down shop after they cashed in their bounties and Lizean had gotten a few hours asleep. But before they even set foot onto the doorstep they were quickly ushered in by a sickeningly friendly dug, it was a show though, all he wanted business. Especially from the Mandalorian fashion, their pocket books were generally quite generous.

"Come, come, see here!" the middle aged dug bounded across his shop enthusiastically, the human pair, though, walked slowly, examining the displays carefully. Still in full gear the Mando'ade pair were rather something the Dug forced himself to be lenient to, of course.

"Hmm," Lizean broke the awkward silence and the Dug instantly bounded back into the room, a bandolier in one of his small hands.

"Ah yes, yes!" He took little effort in climbing the display and standing on the counter like he'd done it a million times before. "That would be the double bladed vibroblade, hmm yes." He absentmindedly dropped the bandolier and it landed halfway on Hoda's foot, he shook it off.

The dug opened the casing with the patter of his foot, keying in the numbers so fast that Lizean couldn't even catch the blur of the red digits. He stretched up to reach the blade and handed it very carefully to her. She carelessly tossed into the air, and for the split second the Dug's jaw dropped and eyes widened, Lizean smiled through her visor and caught the blade effortlessly.

The Dug in response swallowed, still pale from the act, "Very impressive miss…"

"Lizean." She replied plainly, she tested the balance of the weapon with one hand.

"Oh good, good, very nice to have Mandalorian costumers, yes." He still watched her, wringing his hand like feet. "I am Edd, I am at your services Sir and M'aam, is there anything else you might be interested in?"

Hoda nodded once, Edd watched him nodding back, "Verpines."

Edd instantly halted and some sort of tangled snarl that could be passed for a smile formed on his lips. "Right away Mist..."

"Hoda, you know," Lizean answered for him, still playing with the blade as it danced between her fingers. "If we come back with one of those things, they're going to suspect something?"

The Dug glanced back at her with a curious implement, Hoda disregarded her, "Verpines, please."

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Glossary:

42 BBY: Star Wars Cronology, 10 years before the battle of Naboo

Nexu: A large feline with multiple eyes and large powerful fang lined jaws, commonly used for police work and as property guardians

Intel: Short for Intelligence

Twi'lek : A colorful race with twin head tails and hairless bodies

Lethan: Twi'lek skin type (red)

BBN: Before the Battle of Naboo

Dug: A small bipedal race who use their limbs reversed for walking. Subulba was a famous dug.