[968:3:2] 9:30am (3:47pm on Vjun)
Three hundred and sixty eight days.
One Galactic Standard Year.
One year since he had left the Jedi Order.
A rattling explosion quickly drew Obi-Wan Kenobi – or Ben Merak as he now called himself – out of his reverie.
Screams, of fear, rage and shear stupidity mixed with blaster fire and explosions, rubble threatening to fall on any poor shabuir not fast enough to keep moving, he hated catacombs with a passion, no matter if they were a fucking shortcut or not.
The dismembered arm of some poor bastard caught in a frag explosion served to underline that thought, ambushes were just too bloody easy in unmapped, cramped fucking catacombs.
Instincts honed from mock battles with his aliit told him to lean out and fire now damnit! The scream of a modified blaster pistol ringing out three quick shots – head, arm, torso – onto the two poor shabs that chose that moment to lean out and were a fraction too slow. Not waiting to see the results, the young Mandalorian leaned back into his rocky cover.
His comm buzzed to life, quickly flicking it on, he pulled his wrist close to his mouth and bellowed at his alor
"You dik'utla bastard! You think we all have jaro? Your damn contact screwed us over! When I drag myself out of here, we'll have a talk on fucking good intel before a job!"
It took a few seconds for Corvin Wolesy to respond to that, obviously hoping the job was complete.
"Dammnit Merak, you don't tell me how to run my jobs. You may have karking decent nav skills, but you're working for me you wermo mando! Once you deal with the Red Titans, grab the stims and get out with it, I'm not letting another shipment fall into those schutta's hands. Kill them then contact me. Wolesy Out."
"Karking di'kut." Obi-wan muttered into the now deactivated comm. He turned to shoot some other merc that tried to use stealth to move up through the brief no-mans-land the firefight had created, and sighed. Just as it was turning into a relatively peaceful day, an ambush. For the love of Hod Ha'ran, something had it out for him, he just knew it.
"Alright Mikiyuna, ears up. Garret cover the left with blanket fire, do not let up. Kira with me, focus small arms on the far right stalagmite. Trevik, use your poison grenades at the centre. Na'hallas, cover him. Lets kill these Stupa and get home." Not for the first time, Obi-wan felt grateful that they all had comms, and he had what would pass as small-unit militia training.
He waited, one beat, two beats… Now!
He quickly leaned out of his cover, blaster screaming at the right stalagmite. Garret, quick off the mark, followed half a beat later with blanket fire, which by the sounds of it, removed one chakaar from the equation. Not fast enough that a brief blaster burn to Obi-wan's shoulder didn't hit at the weak point between the plating, freezing his arm slightly. Kira, thankfully spotted this and fired a salvo closely behind, getting the arm of the poor bugger, with Nas' almost obliterating the centre, with the characteristic chink-clank of a metallic grenade.
And three, two one…
The hiss and accompanying gagging sounds, followed by six thumps told him that their enemies were down at least.
Thankfully, they had expensive-but useful – air filters built into their helmets – and the Force, which always helps – while their opponents obviously didn't.
That, was lucky. Any longer, and they'd have lost another crew-mate. Thankfully, only desperate idiots would even think about using frag and poison grenades in enclosed spaces, especially if the integrity of the area was uncertain, but, using the Force and some intelligence, they were able to, barely, make it out.
"Ha ha. Da tinka leah Ben. That was brilliant." Chortled Na'hallas – or Nas to his friends – his furred hands gleefully tapping out a small rhythm on his rifle. The Bothan was always excited after a fight.
"No, it was stupid, and barely worked, thank Kiax we weren't killed." Kira grumbled, coming up to the bodies to inspect their handiwork and lighten the corpse's load. "But" she begrudgingly allowed as she appropriated the blasters, "That was the best of a bad situation. Good plan, but it will probably kill us next time."
"We're alive, that's what matters, thanks to the young one." Garret, the zabrak came over, fondly cluncking Obi's shoulder guards. Noticing his wince, the zabrak pulled out a medi-stim from his belt and handed it to the man he called 'young one'.
"Can't have a wincing Mandalorian with us when we get the deal, it'd ruin the whole intimidation image we have going."
"Oh yes, I completely forgot, my only purpose here is to stand around and look menacing whilst his holiness Corvin completes the job via hologram. Lucky me."
"Well we've already lost our wookie, so you're now top of the intimidation list. If our big bad mando walks with a limp, we'll be laughed out of the deal."
Trevik ambled up, the zabrak, with a strange affinity for explosives began immediately searching the rest of the caves for any un-triggered tripwires or traps. On his all clear signal, the eclectic mix of a Correllian, Mando Bothan and the Zabrak pair, began moving through the larger, central tunnel.
Upon reaching a set of roughly hewn stairs leading to a small door that would open into an alleyway, the group paused and began checking their gear for any damage. It would do no good after all, to meet the client that would sell them a kark-load of stims looking battle-weary, that was not the intimidation tactic they were using. The whole reason they had a mando and Zabrak pair, and their much lamented colleague Taraan, was to force the corporate double-dealer into a lower price range.
After informing Corvin, who began cursing the Red Titan's to take a one-way trip to Kessel, he told them to go straight ahead whilst he changed into his 'Noble Robes' for the hologram meeting.
Whilst medical stims themselves were definitely NOT illegal, the large quantity they were planning to ship, could only be carried legitimately by registered medical transports. Enough medi-stims together, with a bit of clever thinking and syntho-chemistry that Obi Wan didn't even pretend to understand, and surprisingly mediocre quality hallucinogenics, could be created and later sold. The beauty of it was, that the excuse of very much concentrated and specialised medication would actually stand up to scrutiny, so possession of small quantities of 'Synthstim' wouldn't actually get the possessor in too much trouble.
Of course, this wasn't stated in the job description, which asked for a crew to transport a lot of stims at a disproportionately high price tag, to an old lab section on Belkadan. Only after their idiot of a captain accepted it, along with a selection of decidedly illegal alcoholic beverages as a 'tip', did the rest of the crew agree to the potentially illegal smuggling run.
Upon reaching the cantina, as agreed, the group split up and entered one at a time between groups of customers. Garett, Nas and Trevik all entered after around 10 standard minute intervals,
Obi-Wan entered along with Kira, and selected a not too grubby table near the centre of the room, not too far from the entrance. If this table was in the perfect view of the corner and side tables chosen by the others, well, that was just coincidence. Whilst Kira went to the bar to subtly get their client, Obi-Wan let his Force senses spill out, allowing him to at least notice everybody in the cantina.
Before long, Kira returned with a rather mousey looking human in very carefully non-descript clothing. Obi Wan could just feel the nerves coming off him.
"So, this is my friend Bendak." Kira muttered almost sweetly into the anxious human's ears. All the more disconcerting with her scarred eye glaring at him. "Bendak, this is our client…"
"T-Tomaso."
"Hmm, yes, you did mention. Well, he is being very generous by giving us twenty five k-grams of med-stims for ten thousand credits."
"Hey, I-I need to sell this for at least twenty, no way I could make a profit otherwise. And no one said Mandos would be getting involved."
Sometimes, the bloodthirsty stereotype of madalorians annoyed Obi-Wan. Other times, like this, the lazy stereotype of people that never looked beyond holo-dramas, came in useful.
"Unless these are high quality med stims, and this girl knows high quality, I do think you should reconsider your offer."
A quick hand gesture, unnoticed by Tomaso, gave him the signal.
"Well, it seems we are at a disagreement. There are a few ways we could settle this." Obi Wan, under the distinctive helmet, put gruff emphasis on those particular words, and with a few movements to coincidently reveal an array of blasters and knives, he continued "But first, such a large quantity to be selling. Should we be worried that this will cause trouble for us. Because." Obi wan continued, just as Tomaso was about to stutter an answer. "If it does, we always find a way to repay any transaction, on a like for like basis. You help us, we help you. It seems rather simple really"
Just as Kira was about to add her own thoughts, Tomaso suddenly appeared to grow a spine.
"Ha, you can't threaten a legitimate citizen in a public place, how many cameras and witnesses are there here."
Of course, that observation may have worked better if Tomaso didn't allow Wolsey's crew to choose the location.
At that moment, just as Tomaso began to get a second wind, a human server came up.
"Ah, hello Kira, I thought I saw your face here. The usual my dear?" The man leaned over, sharing a smile with Kira, looking like an old friend.
"Oh of course Falin. And a small Savareen brandy for my friend here." She indicated Tomaso, and carried on.
"Unfortunately Bendak wants to keep his head clear, so has to pass on your delightful selection."
"A celebration? And you are not drinking my friend." Falin turned to Obi-Wan, who gestured as if to say 'well, what can you do?'
"Ah, I shall of course see to it, if there is anything we can help you with, it would be a pleasure." And with that the server walked away.
Tomaso was, hopefully, not stupid. The slight widening of his eyes made it clear.
"Oh and don't try anything foolish like running Tomaso my dear." Kira really could have become a very good actress in a number of holodramas, as she gestured to the two tables, both with an eyeline and position that any exit would pass by one of them closely.
"We have lots of friends here." And with that, both tables turned to stare directly at Tomaso.
Sweat was now cascading down Tomaso's face, eyes frantically going back and forth. And to seal it off, at that moment, Obi-wan's comm chimed. A short 5 inch hologram of Corvin, in robes more befitting a minor lordling of alderaan appeared.
"Ah Kira, punctual as ever. Have we finalised the deal, I have many impatient clients knocking on my door eager for this to work."
Confronted with the presence of hardened mercenaries, a cantina willing to look the other way and now nobility from the Core worlds was too much for Tomaso, he quickly caved to their twenty five k-grams at nine-thousand ("A lesson, Tomaso, never leave a girl waiting, you won't know what would happen to her prices."), and their drinks arrived, a bitter ale for Kira and brandy for Tomaso, who rather shakily drunk to a 'profitable deal', before handing over the coordinates and keys to the warehouse, and following the mercenaries out of the cantina to pick up the goods.
Disguising the sealed stims as crates and generic rations, the crew made their way back to their ship 'Sundered Desert' in high spirits, packing the stims, still disguised, into lined-smuggling compartments, and enjoyed a taste of some highly fortified Vjun wines, illegal almost everywhere outside of Vjun itself.
After Obi Wan had entered the coordinates, and drunk his fair share, still under complaints that he just didn't seem to get drunk, he entered the comm room on the ship, essentially a glorified cupboard, he then made a call home.
"Hey cyar'ika the job is nearly finished, give me another week and we'll be five thousand credits richer." He looked fondly at the blue hologram of perhaps his one true love.
"Oh Obi, as long as you are safe. As soon as you are finished, we'll meet up on Tallek. Remember ret'lini ganar kad ratiin."
The Mandalorian once known as Obi-Wan chuckled.
"That was one time Satine. I don't think you'll ever let me forget it."
Mirth in her eyes, Satyne Kyrze, at that moment hunting a bounty in the Kooriva system, giggled and ended her comm call.
"Gar be'ner darasuum, Obi-Wan Kenobi."