Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
Taris
Part Four
Skye Imarr shook her head sarcastically. Her lekku flapped slightly back and forth: "Well, what a great welcome I've received so far on this planet. First I got spit at, teased and cold glares; now it's getting worse! They don't even bother to open their mouths anymore. They simply just point their beloved blaster-slash-rifle, or wave their ever-so-incredible melee weapon straight at us and fire! You said this used to be the Coruscant of the Outer Rim? Force, whoever it was that made this comment must have been terribly drunk."
She had changed into a set of Echani battle armor, which she obtained from a dead Black Vulkars gang member a few minutes ago. The thin, breathable emerald suit wrapped her slender figure quite nicely. It was also a lot lighter. Skye could not believe something like this could protect a person's body that well. She still kept her knee-high army boots, however. It was a matter of personal choice, really. She was quite comfortable in her own boots and was not intending to change for some time.
Carth Onasi gave her a sympathic 'same here' smile and buried his head down for his great dead body-looping spree. He was still in the Sith uniform they stole from the officer a few days ago, but he had removed the helmet. It was one size too small; he kept having trouble breathing when he was in it.
It was indeed getting terribly ridiculous. The minute they were out of the turbolift and on the street of the Lower City, all kinds of weapons were firing straight at them and it hadn't stopped since. No, Skye didn't believe these people had some special grudge against them-they had never seen Skye and Carth in their lives before. They were simply caught in the middle of the swoop gang war that had been going for quite some time in the Lower City.
They'd heard all the stories and rumors about it when they were in the Upper City: the older, more traditional Beks versus the younger, rebellious Black Vulkars. Skye and Carth knew it was bad, but certainly had not expected it to be this bad.
"I felt like I am in a war zone." Skye summed up her comment. She took the medpac and several credits Carth handed over to her.
"You can say that again," Carth chuckled, but then he looked at the area behind her in alarm."Oops, there is more coming. Grenades, ten o'clock, DUCK!"
Skye dived away just in time to avoid two grenades that exploded right where she was had been standing. Smoked and debris filled the entire section of the street. She held the blaster rifle against her shoulder tightly, aimed at the grenades throwers' direction and fired a couple of shots. They hit right on target. The Black Vulkars in the distance groaned and collapsed.
"Bull's-eye." She whispered to herself in triumph.
"We are very close to the cantina now." Carth busied firing his blaster to another group of Black Vulkars in the distance: "Shall we seek shelter there for the time being? I don't believe there will be any shooting or attacking going on in there."
"Good idea. I need a drink." Skye put away her blaster, finished up searching for items on the Black Vulkars' dead bodies, and followed Carth through the cantina's door.
Carth was wrong. There was a fight.
Well, it wasn't exactly a fight, but judging by the tension there would definitely be one very shortly.
It had already taken place when they walked in. There were four aliens harassing a short but strong-muscled looking fellow. He was in a blue robe, white hat, and a pair of gigantic goggles. From the facial expression he had he wasn\f1\rquote\f0 t exactly impressed that his lunch was being disturbed.
"Go away" He warned the aliens.
"[Hey, you not talk like that. We just want say hi to big, bad bounty hunter Calo Nord!]" The leading Rodian joked.
"[Nah, this can't be Calo Nord. He's supposed to be tough. This guy's nothing but a runt!]" The Twi' lek said. Somehow Skye had a feeling they didn't really just want to say hi.
"One." Calo started counting.
"[One?]" The other Rodian's eyes widened: "[What that mean? You be funny, tough guy? You know who we are, Calo? We're members of the Black Vulkar gang! You don't want to be getting funny with us, tough guy.]"
"Two." Counting continued. Obviously Calo thought the same thing. Freom his expression he wasn't exactly joking.
"[Me no understand. One? Two? Why he count?]" The leading Rodian put his hands up. Skye noticed one of the Twi'lek placing his hand on his blaster rifle.
"[He trying to count how many of us are against him? It's four against one, Calo. What do you think about those odds?]" The remaining silent Twi'lek finally spoke.
"[Well? You have something more to say?]" The leading Rodian asked.
"Three." Calo finished counting. He heaved out a detonator device and threw it in front of the gang. The detonator ignited before any of them could respond anything, taking out all of them at once
The whole cantina was quiet. Calo let out a light scoff and began to move towards the exit. He paused just before it; his eyes scanned across the room and met Skye's. As though he had recognized her somewhat, he glared at her with some degree of examination from top to toe. Skye, frowning, looked back at him with query. After a few seconds, he turned his head around and left the cantina.
"Do you know this guy?" Carth stared the back of Calo and asked.
Skye shook her head. No, she was certain she had never met that fella before.
Buzzing noise resumed. The two made their way towards the bar. There seemed to be a few more alien species there in the Lower City, which put Skye at ease, as people were a lot friendlier. There were even one or two warm greetings and nods when Carth and Skye went past them. Carth noticed her lips curved up slightly.
"What's wrong?" Skye asked, noticing that Carth was looking at her.
"Hm..urh..Nothing." Face bright red, Carth hesitantly turned his gaze away and changed the topic. " You seem a lot more comfortable here"
"Hmm…now that you mention it, you are right." Skye cocked her head sideways, gently tabbing her fingers on the side of her chin: "Other than those attacks on the street, people here are a lot more welcoming when you compare them to the people in the Upper City. I know this may sound a bit silly, since you said I should have gotten used to the glaring and everything by now. But honestly, I don't believe I will ever 'get used to' those things and I do take it personally when people are rude to me because of my race. This place, the Lower City, even though it may not be as pleasant to live in as in the Upper City, at least they have no problem with aliens and offworlders."
Carth nodded in agreements: "The atmosphere is indeed a lot easier here. Well, at least people haven't been looking at me like I have a horn coming out of my chin. That makes our job a lot simpler from here onwards, I suppose."
A Twi'lek girl, who looked like she was no more than 14 and stood not very far away from them, obviously heard what Skye and Carth had just said, suddenly snapped her head around and flashed them a little smile. She was in a white long-sleeved T-shirt, a slightly ripped multi-pocket vest, cargo pants and a pair of army boots. Her skin was a few shades darker than Skye's and she had some cute dimples on both sides of her cheek. She also had some piercing done on her face, one on her left brow and one on her nose. Skye grinned back. Seeming to have been encouraged from the smile, the girl became all enthusiastic and was about to make her way towards their direction for a chat before being stopped by two evilly smirking Rodians.
"Oh, for gizka's sake!" the girl snapped. She obviously knew who those two people were. " I'm pretty sure I've told you two to leave me alone, haven't I, Bug-eye?"
"[Tut, tut. Little girl shouldn't hang around in the cantina by herself.]"The Rodian teased. : "[This no place for little girl. A good little girl should stay at home with her mommy and daddy.]"
"WHAT?" Evidently the girl was very offended by the callings those two Rodians had just given her, and her voice nearly hit the ceiling: "Who you calling a little girl, Chuba-face?"
"[Cha, Cha]" The other Rodian grimaced. "[Little girl needs lesson in manners!]"
"This is getting hideous. I could have sworn your breath smells like bantha poodoo. Just a sec, boys." The girl cursed loudly before turning her head around towards where she came from and yelled on the top of her head: "Oy, Zaalbar. Got a little problem here. Will you please come over and sort this out for me? Some insects got way too may legs; I need you to do a bit of a fixing job for them."
Skye and Carth turned their heads around simultaneously, and both of them nearly jumed from their seat and cry out a loud yelp. A tall, brown hairy figure was emerging from the corner of the cantina. He was so huge, the already dim light over that part of the room looked as if disappear all of a sudden. Skye wondered how could they have missed him when entering the cantina. Perhaps it was because of the little commotion of Calo' s a few minutes ago.
"My Force, a Wookiee!" She heard Carth murmur: "Now you don't see this everyday. Wookiees seldom wander off their homeworld planet of Kashyyyk, unless they are slaves."
But this one did not look like a slave.
The Wookiee pushed the full plate of food aside, made a few low growling noises and started walking towards them.
"[Mission, can you hang on a minute? I am BUSY.]" He groaned in Shyriiwook: "[I haven't eat anything for the whole morning and they finally brought my food!]"
"Bloody hell, QUIT COMPLAINING!….you can finish eating later," Mission retorted impatiently: "Besides, you need the exercise, so get over here."
Zaalbar made a series of inaudible complaints and turned towards the two now visibly frightened Rodians who seemed to realize they may have bitten off more than they could chew.
"[Oh, no, no, no.]" The Rodian waved his hands: "[We no want trouble with Wookiee.]"
"[Yeah, our problem with you, little girl.]" His partner shot one more glare at Mission.
"Oh, well. That's just tough," Mission shrugged, she appeared to be enjoyed this: "You got problem with me, then you got a problem with Big Z. So unless you want to take on my furry friend, I suggest you two greenies hop on out of here."
"[Little girl lucky,]" The Rodian sneered before they headed off: "[she has big friend. Little girl better make sure she never alone.]"
"To hell I won't" Mission screamed at the back of the Rodian before turning her attention back towards Skye and Carth: "Now where was I? Oh, yeah, you two. I don't think I've seen you before and I pretty much know everybody in the Lower City. I don't believe you are from the Upper City either as those stiff-minded people there don't really like alien species and you look downright Twi'lek to me." She pointed at Skye.
"Likewise."Skye chuckled softly.
"Anyhow, that makes me and Zaalbar the official welcome committee here." Mission gently patted her chest: "My name is Mission Vao and this is my big friend Zaalbar." She pulled the Wookiee's arm slightly, who was just about to go back to his table to finish up his food.
"Pleased to meet you, Mission and Zaalbar." Replied Skye politely: "My name is Skye and this is Carth."
"Hey, you speak Basic," Carth remarked: "This is the second time I've seen a Twi'lek speak my language this well." He shot a glance at Skye, who went slightly pink from his compliment: "Don't Twi'leks usually speak their own native tongue?"
"Well, that's no big deal, really," Mission beamed: "I've been here since was very little. This is pretty much my home and people here speaks Basic, so this is my native tongue."
"You grew up in the Lower City?" Skye asked.
"Oh, yeah! I'd offer to give you a tour, but the streets down here aren't safe. But if there's anything else you need…."
"Unsafe is an understatement here." Carth gave Mission a sarcastic smile: "But we know what you mean."
"Yeah, those Black Vulkar gang are crazy, aren't they? See, they were even tried to take on Calo Nord!" Mission shook her head.
"You mean the short guy over there a few minutes ago?" Carth frowned: " Do you know him?"
"What? You would have to be deaf or blind here to not know Calo Nord!" Mission tutted: "Everyone's been talking about him here over the last few weeks! He is one of the most famous bounty hunters in the galaxy. He's killed more people than the Iridian Plague! I've seen him kill people just for trying to talk to him!"
"I can imagine that" Carth grunted, his arms folded.
"Anyway, he hangs around Zax's bounty office, but I don't think he's looking for work there. All the postings there are small time - way beneath a bounty hunter of his caliber. I figure Calo's been hired by Davik to do a special job for the Exchange. I'd wager a thousand credits that as soon as the quarantine ends, he'll be getting off this rock."
"Davik? Exchange?" Skye raised her eyebrow.
"Goodness, you really don't know much, do you? Where have you been for the last couple of years, the Unknown Regions?" Mission glared at her: "Okay, here is how it is: The Exchange is the intergalactic crime web and Davik is their representative here. They do all sorts of dirty job here, smuggle spice, and even kill people. If you drop by Zax's bounty office you might see a couple of posts that were issued by the Exchange. Both gangs here, yeah, even though they are in the middle of a war, have to listen to Davik. So you can see how big they are. You know what? Rumor has it that he owns a new ship for his smuggling operations - the Ebon Hawk! I don't know much about space travel, but I hear that ship's fast enough to break the Sith blockade. Of course, this is all just second hand rumor. If Davik does have a ship, he's got it locked up in his estate. Nobody gets in there, except the people working for Davik and the Exchange."
"I see." Skye managed to stop a waitress and order some drinks.
"We've heard so much about this gang war thingy." Carth passed a glass of ginger ale to Mission: "What's your take on that one?"
"You've asked the right person, mate!" Mission gulped down a large amount of ginger ale before opening her mouth again, her eyes beaming with excitement: "Okay, there's only two gangs worth worrying about here in the Lower City: the Black Vulkars and the Hidden Beks'. You two know that? Right, the Beks are led by Gadon Thek…. genium bloke, I'll say. Lost his sight in a swoop bike accident a few years ago, but even blind he's a great leader. Unlike that traitor Brejik!"
"Traitor? What do you mean?" A small alien queried. Mission's louder than life voice volume somehow had gathered quite a number of audiences.
"Well, before he took over the Vulkars he was a Hidden Bek. Gadon considered that ungrateful space slug his adopted son. When Gadon went blind everyone figured he'd step down and appoint Brejik in his place. But Gadon figured Brejik wasn't ready yet. He wanted him to wait a few years. But Brejik was too impatient. He left to join the Vulkars, and ever since he's been waging a war to wipe Gadon and his Beks from the face of Taris! This gang war in the Lower City is totally the Vulkar's fault. They're the ones killing everything that moves out on the street. It's like they've gone insane." Mission's arms were waving about in the heat of the moment. A few people seemed to agree with her and nodded in agreement.
"The Vulkars are the only ones who couldn't see things straight," A patron commented.
"Yeah."
"Have you heard anything about the escape pod that crashed in the Under City?" Skye grabbed the chance and asked.
"Escape pod?..Hmm..I think I overheard about that a few days ago in the Hidden Beks base" Mission's eyebrow frowned.
"Hidden Beks base? Where is that?" Carth asked.
"Just down the road. Zaalbar and I hang out there sometimes. Nice food there. Sometimes better than the one here." Mission flashed the passing by waiter a sorry smirk.
"How do we get in there?"
"Just walk in. The base is open to everyone…..all right, perhaps not the Vulkars lately but everybody else is pretty welcome."
"Right." Carth gave Skye a little look. She knew immediately what he had in mind: he was going to that Hidden Beks base next.
"I think we better get going." Skye excused themselves politely.
"You're going? Yeah, this dive is pretty boring. No action around here. Come on, Big Z, let's go." Mission called out for her furry mate.
"[But I haven't finished eating!]" Zaalbar complained loudly.
"Zaalbar," Mission sighed: "Can't you think about something besides your stomach for five minutes? Come on - we'll go see if there's anything good to eat at the Bek base, shall we?"
She gently patted Big Z's lower back (he was way too big for her to pat on his shoulders). The two soon headed towards the door and off they went.