Gacen frowned as he began to fly towards the old Horned Rancors base, there was so much traffic, he could see all sorts of ships coming and going from the station. It was much larger than he remembered but most of all it seemed so commercialised he looked to Ash who seemed unfazed by all this.
He brought the ship into the open hanger landing the ship with a delicate thud, he turned to Ash "I'll be honest things seem a little different since last time I was here" Ash nodded looking out the viewport at the bustling hanger bay
She raised her eyebrow "different good or different bad?" she gestured to one of the many weapons on her person, she really was a walking armoury.
Gacen thought about the question for a couple seconds "uhhh I dunno yet, it definitely seems safer though" Ash seemed satisfied with that answer as Gacen stumbled towards the landing ramp, he was still pretty hammered but this was when he did his best work. Gacen teetered as he made his way down the landing ramp, he could see a Nautolan shuffling towards him looking flustered
As he arrived Gacen tried to stand up straight "uh ah um hello sir we uh don't appear to have you or your ship on our flight records for today" Gacen frowned what flight records this was still a criminal organisation right
Gacen wobbled catching himself on the landing ramp "do I need to be last time I was here I didn't need that" the Nautolan nodded frowning at him
He stuttered "well ah you must have not been here for a while this place is a spaceport and has been for a while" Gacen frowned they better still own this place this place was a hot commodity at least he thought it was.
Gacen glanced to Ash who was silent "well uh who's in charge here then" Gacen looked around at the busy hanger it certainly seemed more legit and less dingy or whatever
The Nautolan looked at his datapad "uh well that would be Vlugo Deys I can't think wh-" before the Nautolan could finish he was interupted
Gacen snapped his fingers "that's his name ohhhh yeah I remember now he was a big guy, uh zabrak super friendly ah he was great" he looked to Ash proud of himself, Ash's expression didn't change however and after a few seconds of awkward silence he turned back to the Nautolan "tell him the voidhound wants to see him it should clear things up" the Nautolan didn't seem to believe him but still messed with the datapad for a second.
A look of surprise crossed his face and he looked back to Gacen "I uh have been asked to escort you um sir" Gacen grinned people still knew him that felt good. The Nautolan began leading them through the spaceport, it was surprising to see the halls of a once secret hideout covered in franchises, neon signs everywhere and so many people it made Gacen's head spin
Gacen turned to Ash "I am freaking out right now this is wild" Ash frowned at him confused
She cocked her head at him "what do you mean?" Gacen could tell Ash was already scoping out every danger around them, must be hard to turn that sort of thing off.
Gacen rubbed his neck awkwardly "I dunno last time I was here it was a super secret hideout for one of our gangs and now it's so uh docile" Ash nodded rubbing her chin
"well it's been five years Gacen things and people change" she had a point he was never expecting it to be the same
Gacen screwed up his face "yeah I know but changing this much, it's like I'm at a mandatory republic gathering" Ash gave him a stern frown, they had been at plenty of those gatherings together and 9/10 times Gacen had embarrassed her or Risha, it was really the republics fault for making it open bar.
They made their way to a lift where the Nautolan gestured for them to get in, once in Ash turned to Gacen "so what if this is a trap" Gacen let out a jovial sigh
He put an arm on Ash's shoulder "man you really don't trust anyone" Ash's expression stayed stern
"Gacen on my first proper assignment my entire squad betrayed me I have pretty good reason" oof she had a good point there he couldn't exactly argue with that
Gacen conceded answering her question "well in that situation I have plan A" Ash looked at him expectantly "by which I mean plan Ash cause regardless of the dangerous situation we get in to you are still gonna kick their ass" Ash couldn't help but smile
She lightly punched his shoulder "damn right" Gacen flinched back a little rubbing the surprisingly large pain in his arm wow she was strong.
After a few minutes the lift opened and they were met with a large lavish chamber filled with expensive rugs, in the middle Gacen saw the form of Vlugo the pale stocky zabrak wearing very expensive clothes, looking admittedly older but still energetic as his face broke into a large smile. He clapped his hands roaring with laughter "Gacen fucking Zandar you son of a bantha" as Gacen approached Vlugo pulled him into a hug "where the hell have you been" Gacen laughed happy to see his old friend even if he hadn't really remembered him, the fact he wasn't trying to kill him was a big plus.
Gacen laughed to himself "well that's a long story but the basic jist is that prison sucks and don't be noble" he let go of Vlugo, Gacen felt weird seeing someone from before Zakuul but it did feel kinda nice.
Vlugo gestured for them to sit down "words to live by I'd say" Gacen laughed as Vlugo turned his attention to Ash "and who is this lovely lady" Gacen gritted his teeth as he saw Ash's face twitch
Gacen stammered "uhh this is uh Ash and she will uh probably kill you if you call her lovely or lady again" Ash's eyes narrowed nodding
Vlugo's stepped back wide eyed "I uhh I uhhh noted" he sat down opposite them hands clasped together "She reminds me of Akavi" Gacen laughed maybe a bit more friendly "now not to insult you but given what I know about you you're not just here to see your old pal" man was he that obvious he had to work on keeping up with people first Amy now Vlugo.
Gacen cleared his throat "yeah sorry I am here for a reason but first what in the force changed around here? it's all commercial" Vlugo laughed looking at the expensive items around him
Vlugo rubbed his chin "well a couple years ago we noticed a lot of ships coming through this route result of a new charted hyperlane and many of them needed somewhere to refuel. So we thought we'd oblige considering they had plenty of money" Gacen did think the new hyperlane was perfect to get here quickly. "and well we made like twice what we made as a gang so we talked to Risha about it and we decided to turn it into a spaceport of course with you guys getting a cut" Gacen grinned Risha was always the opportunist he would've totally done the same.
Gacen clapped "that is awesome man trust Rish to take advantage of that sort of thing" Vlugo nodded suddenly his face turning serious
He looked away for a second "how are you and her Gacen is it all ok? She didn't want to talk about you when I last saw her" Gacen sighed slipping out of his nostalgic moment and remembering his situation he couldn't imagine what she'd been through he just hoped she hadn't given up on him.
Gacen's tone got much more serious "I uh still haven't seen her" Vlugo nodded solemnly "that's actually why I'm here, she was last seen here right?" Vlugo pondered the question for a few seconds.
Gacen glanced to Ash for a second, she was still silent he could see her analysing the guy man she really couldn't turn it off. Vlugo looked back to them "uh yeah I guess so I saw her maybe three maybe four years ago, she said she'd take a ship and dump the old one, that was it she was acting kinda weird kinda jumpy" that explained why he found the ship at a dump and it added up no doubt Dubrillion had definitely gotten more intense with their searching. Gacen still remembered when he read that King Acta-whatever had levelled 6 cities to suppress the rebellion that guy seriously had no chill.
Gacen refocussed on the matter at hand "did she tell you anything else like where she was going? or who with if anyone?" Vlugo sighed shaking his head. No no no no no there had to be something anything what about those records he looked at Vlugo intensely "you keep ship comings and goings on record right? we could check those" Vlugo frowned
He looked at Gacen concerned "I uh I guess maybe they could have something I can give you access as long as you have supervision" ok that's something the lead wasn't dead phew
Gacen nodded frantically "yeah yeah sure that's perfect" he caught himself letting out a breath he looked like a lunatic he had to calm down.
Vlugo shrugged off the moment messing with his datapad "ok lift should take you there, it was great to see you Gacen I hope you find what you're looking for" he put a hand on Gacen's shoulder, Gacen smiled at him and after a few seconds Gacen and Ash made their way back into the lift.
Gacen caught his breath before turning to Ash "do you still think this is a trap?" Ash gave a thoughtful look
"it's still yet to be seen" Gacen nodded she may be paranoid but at least paranoia would equal safety. Ash turned back to Gacen "you ok?" ugh he didn't want to answer that
Gacen sighed "I dunno I just want this to lead somewhere" he felt a hand on his shoulder as Ash gave a smile good thing she put up with him he'd get nowhere without her help, he still didn't understand why she put up with him. The elevator was silent for a few seconds before it arrived in a small room overhanging a large hanger, a short rodian turned around to face them
The rodian cleared his throat "I uh was told you want to look through our records on a day about three years ago" Gacen nodded he looked to the screen which already had a day inputed, good old Vlugo remembering the day if he restarted his crime syndicate that guy would be his first hire.
Gacen peered over the console "Ok uh look for departures on one of your ships by uh human females is that possible?" the rodian nodded putting some data into the console and in a few seconds a long list of hangers came up, wow this place is huge now.
The rodian frowned looking at the different logs "I uh sir there seems to be a problem" Gacen frowned but as he looked closer at the data on the console he saw all the information for each hanger was mysteriously redacted. Gacen let out a long sigh clenching his fists "Of course" trust Risha to redact not only her own information but the information of everyone with her description, he took a few deep breaths how the hell was he supposed to find her if she kept doing this shit. There was a long tense moment of silence then Gacen had a realisation "ok you know what scratch that last thing search for male mon cal all other details the same" Ash frowned at him
"last time I checked your spouse was not a fish" Gacen couldn't help but chuckle, he really hoped that doofus was still with Risha
He smiled at Ash "yeah but in my crew I had a incredibly loyal mon cal friend" Ash's face flashed with realisation "and I'm willing to bet he would help Risha honestly just so he had some structure in his life" the rodian began putting in the details
Ash frowned "this is the guy who's always praising you right?" Gacen nodded that was definitely one of the reasons they got on "as if you needed your ego stroked any more" Gacen took a sarcastic gasp before looking back to the console
The rodian spoke up "here we go two results one in hanger A22 and one in" he paused frowning "G31 I uh I don't think we have a G31 it should end at 30″ Gacen frowned that didn't sound right
Ash folded her arms "if there's no G31 who noted it down" that was a good point this could totally be something
The rodian stammered back "It's uh an automated system it doesn't make mistakes but it says there's a male mon cal and the other information is redacted" Gacen sharply gasped and began to choke.
After a brief coughing fit he spoke up again "we have to find this hanger NOW" Ash nodded at him in agreement
The rodian quickly interjected "well I can get it up for you in a second but there's a little more information" Gacen gestured to the rodian in a spit it out motion "well ah it says that the ship was a MC-18 light freighter and they headed down the hyperlane to the outer rim the one that leads to Dantooine"
Gacen's eyes widened this really was a lead "ok show us where hanger 30 is and we'll work from there"
Ash frowned at him "I don't understand what's so important about Dantooine?" Gacen smiled at her it made sense she didn't know he only knew due to Risha
"Dantooine is very close to Dubrillion she's hiding in plain sight, well probably not that plain but like near Dubrillion" Gacen paused he may be jumping to conclusions here "maybe I mean either that or they jumped somewhere else"
The rodian gestured to the screen "ok this is where the hanger is, the lift is programmed to take you close" Gacen gave the rodian a smile and headed back into the lift
Gacen shuffled agitated, Ash turned to him arms folded "dude calm down it's just a theory lets get some proof before you lose your mind" Gacen nodded trying to take some deep breaths
"i uh yeah sorry I know I'm jumping to conclusions but you gotta admit that whole things fishy" Gacen couldn't help but smile at his accidental fish pun, Ash gave him a piercing glare. He could always count on Risha to be super careful but he could also count on Guss to be the opposite. He quickly realised he was jumping to conclusions again and tried to put it to the back of his mind, the lift arrived and Gacen scurried out making his way to Hanger 30. It was at the end of the corridor with 29 opposite Gacen looked at the end of the corridor studying it, Ash caught up a few seconds later not nearly as out of breath as Gacen was.
Ash looked from him to the wall "you think it's a fake wall don't you" Gacen nodded very intently
He rubbed the back of his neck "well maybe like a bit of it" he walked up close to the wall staring at it for a few seconds before trying to slam into it. To his disappointment it didn't budge and his arm also really hurt, he saw Ash let out a long sigh heading up to the wall and knocking on different parts of it. She moved along the wall and stopped at the left side suddenly kicking at the wall, Gacen watched as the wall flew back out of his vision Ash turned to him with a cocky smile. "yeah I know you're awesome I'm a klutz let's move on" Gacen sulked walking through the passage, he could see what looked like a large hanger on the other end of the tunnel.
Ash stopped him before they reached the other side "it could be trapped let me go first" Gacen nodded that was fair. Ash slowly made her way in Gacen was trying very hard to contain himself this may be it the lead they needed finally a solid direction. Ash moved forward but no traps were triggered she then gestured to him to come forward and he quickly made his way into the hanger, it was empty which made sense but he could see a thick layer of dust this place hadn't been touched in a while. There were walkways and girders though this seemed like a legit hanger
Ash coughed to herself looking around "so where are we going to get the proof in this empty hanger, I mean a secret hanger is good evidence that something is up but it's still not proof" Gacen looked to the corner of the room spying a camera
he pointed up to it with a grin "cameras baby they have an internal memory we're gonna get that boi sliced" Ash nodded pleased with the plan. Gacen rubbed his chin "now we just need to work out how to get to it"
Without a word Ash sprinted off towards the wall, Gacen watched as she jumped using her momentum to scale the wall and grab a beam about a third of the way up the wall. God she was acrobatic he thought as she pulled herself up grabbing onto the bottom of a walkway then flipping onto the top of it, he couldn't even climb out of bed sometimes how did she do that. Gacen watched wide eyed as the walkway began to shake and fall as Ash ran up it jumping and grabbing onto a small pylon on the roof, she swung back and forth before releasing herself springing over to the edge of the room where she seemingly caught her foot in some grove that kept her from falling. Gacen watched as she ripped the camera out the wall she then let her foot free and began free falling, she fell for a few seconds before grabbing onto the now fallen walkway to slow her down and then dropped to the floor like it was nothing. Ash walked back over to Gacen with the camera in hand frowning while massaging her wrist.
She threw the camera in Gacen's direction "I think I injured my wrist a little" Gacen caught the camera still unsure of how any of that happened.
Gacen collected himself remembering the plan "awesome let's go get this camera sliced"…