The ramp came down at the back of Wrehn's Kuat Drive Yards D-5 Mantis. It was originally manufactured as a patrol craft, but the previous owner had it modified to be a light freighter. This worked out quite well for Wrehn.
When she and Mako stole the starship, they ended up killing the owner and a few Imperial Army spaceport security soldiers. A detestable man, Tarro Blood, tipped off the starship owner that she would steal the ship. The owner and security were waiting for her, and attempted to apprehend her. It turned into a blaster battle.
Not only did this put Wrehn and Mako on the Empire's spaceport security radar as wanted criminals, it made them wanted criminals everywhere in Imperial Space. Fortunately, for them, they were very low on the wanted list. The bounty on their heads was quite insufficient to be worth the risk of bringing them in.
While this fact didn't seem to bother Mako all that much, it wasn't enough for Wrehn. She wanted her criminal history expunged, and Mako had given her an idea about what she could do about it.
"Say, Wrehn?" Mako began, as she, Wrehn and the rest of the crew walked down the ramp, "Our client is pretty high up in the Empire's ruling class. Why don't you ask him to clear our criminal history in Imperial Space?"
"That's a great idea, Mako!" Wrehn said, excited.
The Chiss woman turned to look behind her and found Vindis and her droid just reaching the top of the shallow ramp from inside the cargo bay. She walked up the ramp to the Sith lord.
"Say, Vindis," Wrehn said, quite casually, "I wonder if I could ask you for a favor?"
Vindis had to remind herself that she was surrounded by Mandalorians, not Imperial citizens. She had resigned herself to being treated casually.
"What do you want of me?" she asked, pulling back on her contempt for the unwashed peasant.
"Do you suppose you could ask Tormen…," Wrehn started, but was cut off.
"I've tolerated your familiarity with me," Vindis said, hotly, "but I insist that you refer to him properly! He is a darth!"
"Fine, fine," Wrehn said, obviously annoyed, "In the interest of maintaining good relations, and considering that he is paying very well for my services, I'll make an exception in his case."
Vindis looked past Wrehn at her crew. They'd spread out and had their weapons at the ready. Vindis shook her head angrily at the fools, but otherwise said nothing as she returned her attention to Wrehn.
Wrehn sighed, shaking her head in disgust.
"Working with Sith is such a pain!" the Chiss woman thought. Out loud, she said, "Vindis, it's just occurred to me that maybe this is the first time you've ever worked with non-Imperials, especially with Mandalorians."
Vindis blinked in surprise on hearing that, but said nothing. It was actually true.
"You've never seen how non-Imperials act. Anyway, it seems I put you in a bad mood. I'll talk to you later about what I wanted to ask you," Wrehn said, "We'll have about ten hours of down time. This is Nar Shaddaa, lots of places to have a good time. We'll meet up in ten hours before heading over to Clan Sharratt's enclave for our meeting."
"Very well," Vindis said, before stepping around Wrehn and making her way down the ramp.
Wrehn's crew visibly relaxed.
They parted to clear a path for Vindis to walk past them as she departed the starship.
Gault called up to Wrehn, "What are you going to do with your short shore leave?"
"I'm going to a very nice hotel, take a nice hot bath, and get into that very soft bed, and go to sleep," she said, dreamily, with a faraway look.
"That sounds like fun," Gault quipped, "Can I join you?"
"Personal relationships between an employer and her employees is unprofessional and undesired," Wrehn said, coldly and professionally. The dreamy look was gone from her eyes, as she added, "Did you forget how that turned out last time?"
"I remembered how very good it was, before it got ugly. I figured we could have another go of the fun part while skipping the ugly part this time around," Gault said, shrugging.
Wrehn's facade didn't show cruelty, but it was stern as she replied, "That's a hard No, Gault."
"How about using some tact, Gault?" Mako asked, rebukingly, "You know, some things require privacy. Are you some kind of idiot-genius?"
Fired up, Mako really laid into him.
"You can play cards like a genus. You can come up with the slickest con jobs, but when it comes to how you treat a lady, you're just plain stupid!"
"Ha! Ha!" Skadge laughed, "Gault is stupid!"
"I guess I'll go find a casino to pass the time, then," Gault said, as though it didn't matter either way, and completely ignoring Mako's rebuke, asked the others, "What about you guys? What're you gonna do for fun?"
"I'm gonna find a fighting pit somewhere, have some fun beating in some heads," Skadge said, with anticipation.
"I'm taking Mako to a Duros restaurant," Torian said, as Mako gave him a scalding glare.
She didn't like that Torian had nothing to say about Gault's lack of decorum towards Wrehn.
Torian seemed oblivious about Mako's anger, as he added, "They do a Duros/Mandalorian fusion cuisine. It's really good stuff. Mako wanted to try it."
"So, you're going to the Duros Sector?" Gault asked, genuinely surprised.
"Club Vertica," Torian corrected.
"Club Vertica," Gault repeated, "High class playground for the super wealthy, and ultra-famous. You're bound to have a great time, until you look at your credit balance after the fun is over."
"We aren't poor anymore, Gault," Mako scathingly chided the Devaronian, "I knew you liked credits, but I never figured you for being a cheapskate, but seeing how you treated Wrehn, I can see why you'd be white-knuckled with your credits, too."
Lord Vindis' blood had been boiling, listening to the inane prattle of those riff raff as she walked from the back of the starship towards the concourse and the taxi kiosks.
"Such frivolity!" she thought, with great disapproval. She soured more when she remembered she was to meet with Calaverous in a week.
"Such a glib man!" she fumed.
Vindis returned a bit early from their ten hour shore leave. She walked up the ramp, and would have walked past the Chiss woman towards her guest quarters, but regrettably, the Mandalorian hunter called to her.
"Say, Vindis, you got a minute?"
Vindis recalled that the blue-skinned barbarian wanted to ask something of her. She was prepared to give Wrehn a thorough tongue lashing, fully expecting that Wrehn would seek to renegotiate the contract and ask for more.
"What is it?" she asked, a bit testily.
"Darth Tormen's a pretty powerful guy, yeah?" Wrehn asked, "I mean, he's got political clout, right?"
Vindis couldn't believe the ignorance in display.
"It is as she has told me," she reminded herself, trying to keep her anger reined in, "She is Mandalorian, not Imperial. I should not expect her to know about Sith Politics."
"Darth Tormen is an agent of the Dark Council," she told Wrehn, "He delivers their decrees and has the power and authority to do whatever is required to ensure that their decrees are carried out."
"Then maybe he could do a side favor for me, yeah?" Wrehn asked, hopeful.
Vindis was at the edge of fury. She wanted to punish this rocks for brains, but she did not want to anger her master. Punishing the backwards nerf herding ruffian, as she wanted to, would mean mission failure.
"What sort of favor?" she asked, her voice trembling with rage, "Isn't what my master paying you enough?"
Wrehn began to sense that Vindis was probably worked up over something when she heard her voice.
"I'm not trying to ask for something unreasonable," Wrehn told Vindis, "If he says he won't do it, I won't make any noises about it. It won't affect the contract in any way. I guarantee to carry out the terms of the agreement. That's business. What I'm asking for is personal."
"Personal? What is it, then," Vindis asked, her rage decreasing substantially since it was not what she'd expected.
"A few years back, I was in a competition, which I won," Wrehn said, explaining, "Part of the problem is that I was told to steal this starship as part of the competition."
Vindis raised an eyebrow on hearing this as she swept her eyes around the ship's interior.
"Stealing starships was a part of the competition?" she asked incredulous, not believing what she was hearing, then asking, "This starship is stolen?"
The Sith lord's curiosity was sparked, and a tiny hint of mirth appeared on her features.
"Do tell me more?" Vindis purred.
It was the first time Wrehn had seen the Sith lord show a sense of humor, but Wrehn was more astonished at how quickly her mood changed.
"Maybe she's crazy," Wrehn thought to herself, as she considered the possibility.
"Well, it's not stolen anymore. I'm its owner, now," she said, returning the smile as she continued, "But, yeah, it's an old tradition of this competition. Anyway, I had it all set up. I knew the previous owner would not be at the hanger."
Wrehn shrugged, resigned to tell the whole story as Vindis waited to hear more.
"I had this rival, more like an enemy," Wrehn continued, "He interfered by tipping the owner off that his starship was gonna get stolen. When Mako and I got there, we found the owner and a squad of Imperial Army spaceport security officials there waiting for us."
"Where was this?" Vindis asked, after learning that it involved Imperial forces at an Imperial controlled spaceport.
"It was the big spaceport outside of Kaas City," Wrehn said, to Vindis' great amusement.
"Ha! Then you are a wanted criminal!" Vindis declared, laughing in delight, before adding, "There must be a price on your head, too! The irony is too delightful!"
Wrehn's smile diminished a bit, but she didn't begrudge the Sith lord her chuckles. It really was kind of funny when you thought about it.
"So, what is it that you want Darth Tormen to do about it?" Vindis asked, already guessing what it might be.
"Well, maybe he could wipe our criminal records clean," Wrehn said, qualifying what she'd said, "As far as I know, that's the only thing on my criminal record. Mako's, too."
"The only thing?" Vindis asked, incredulous, "You murdered a man and stole his ship. You killed Imperial soldiers while in the commission of several crimes. I wouldn't characterize that as, only."
Wrehn's smile left her.
"Yeah," Wrehn said, sourly, "When you put it that way, it doesn't look good, but we've been on the bounty board for years, now. We're famous and dangerous bounty hunters. That small bounty on our heads won't get anyone to come after us, but maybe he could rescind the Empire's bounty on us, anyway. Yeah?"
"So, you want this criminal record erased and the bounties on your heads rescinded?" Vindis asked, grinning with mirth, a grin that became serpentine as she reminded the Chiss woman, "When you finish this job, the Galactic Republic will place the biggest bounties in the Galaxy on your heads! Clearing those old murders and the theft of this starship, from your criminal history and rescinding these insignificant bounties on your heads will mean nothing! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Wrehn sighed, and shaking her head, she smirked at Vindis.
"Did you forget that you'll be doing this job with us?" the Chiss woman asked, adding, "The second biggest bounty will be put on your head. Or maybe it will be the third biggest, after the clan chief of Clan Sharratt."
Vindis' mocking grin diminished greatly, at that realization.
"I'll bring up your request to Darth Tormen," Vindis said, having lost interest in any more talk with Wrehn, "I make no guarantees that he will grant your request."
"It's all I can ask, for," Wrehn said, pleasantly surprised at Vindis' cooperation, "Thanks."
Vindis became gratified with the Chiss woman's proper display of gratitude. She nodded acknowledgment and turned to go to her guest quarters. Wrehn turned to face out the back of her ship, to await her crew's return.
"Grand Champion of the Great Hunt," Ymmiir said in Mando'a, smiling and nodding his genuine pleasure, "Mandalore's champion is here, asking to hire my clan for a very great mission!"
Wrehn nodded acknowledgment of his very gracious welcome. It was obvious that he had Wrehn checked out and discovered that she was no impostor, but the real deal.
"You honor me with your warm welcome," Wrehn told him, also in Mando'a, "I look forward to train with the men and women you have selected to participate in this operation. I expect your whole clan wanted to volunteer, but only your best were lucky to make the cut."
"It is as you have said, Great Hunt Champion," Ymmiir Sharratt replied with a chuckle, "The others who were not chosen complained loudly. Don't be surprised if they show up anyway. They really want to give the Republic a good hurt."
"As long as they do not interfere with our mission, they are free to do as they please," Wrehn said, laughing, then lied when she added, "I would be upset if I were left out of a juicy fight, too."
Wrehn preferred to cheat and end a fight in a hurry. Her belief was to do as little as possible but to still get the job done – and then get paid. If pay wasn't involved, she wasn't interested.
Vindis had enough of not understanding what was being said. For all she knew they were cracking jokes at her expense.
"Darth Tormen has a great deal of interest in your success," she said, cutting in, "What will be your plan? How will your forces prepare for the coming operation? When will you be ready to begin?"
Vindis knew what the plan was. During the two weeks of travel in hyperspace, she observed as Wrehn and her crew developed the operational orders planned for that fateful day which was not too far in the future. She just wanted them to speak Basic, so that she would know what was being said.
Wrehn's and Ymmiir's smiles diminished at the interruption.
"There is order to things, young woman," Ymmiir said in Mando'a accented Basic, and to Vindis' great consternation.
"I am a lord of the Sith!" Vindis nearly exploded, indignant, "I'm not just some little girl!"
"I not say, little girl. I said, young woman," Ymmiir said, in his heavy Mandalorian accent, before sagely adding, "I said, there is order to things. First are greetings. Next are introductions. Then inspection of troops. Last, we discuss plans. Already talked about credits on holo. No need to talk about credits again."
Vindis was becoming hot under the collar as Ymmiir concluded his lecture.
"If only he'd speak Basic without that insanely, barbaric accent!" the Sith Pureblood fumed to herself.
"Greetings are finished," he said, "Now, introductions."
With that, he turned to Wrehn.
"Ymmiir Sharratt," Wrehn began, "This is Lord Vindis. She's a lord over other Sith in the Sith Empire. She works for our client, Darth Tormen, a top agent of the Dark Council. She's here as his representative and observer, but she has also entered into a contract with me and will take part in the mission. She's pretty strong."
Vindis was surprised that Wrehn used her title, but said nothing about it.
"She's strong?" Ymmiir asked, skeptically eyeing the young female Sith lord.
He eyed her appraisingly, taking note of her dark red skin, the tiny fleshy spikes at her temples, barely noticeable under her tar-black hair, the yellow irises of her eyes, and the barely noticeable vertical crease running from below her lip, down to the tip of her chin. Anyone not paying close attention would have mistaken her for a female Devaronian.
"I have watched her demonstration of skill in simulated combat," Torian said, in Basic, using the stilted formal syntax of Mandalorian speech, "She will be formidable on the battlefield, Clan Chief."
"Simulated combat?" Ymmiir asked, sounding dubious.
"Her war droid did all it could to kill her during her demonstration to me and my crew mate, Gault Rennow ," Torian said, pointing at the Devaronian, "There was no holding back, except by her, as she tried not to seriously damage her droid."
Hearing this changed the clan chief's perspective of what was meant by simulated combat.
"I would like to see you fight," Ymmiir said to Vindis, nodding his great interest.
"Vindis, this is Clan Chief Ymmiir Sharratt. He is the chief of Clan Sharratt," Wrehn said to the Sith lord.
The Sith Pureblood finally realized that the use of her title, was balanced by the use of his title during their introductions. An awkward silence descended on them all, with all present eyeing her for a bit before she finally realized they were waiting for her to say something.
"I look forward to glory and victory over our enemies on Coruscant! Together we shall crush the Galactic Republic's spirit!" she declared, "Death to Supreme Chancellor Dorian Janarus!"
"Ha! Then is true!" Ymmiir exclaimed, excitedly, "Supreme Chancellor is target! I look forward to battle with you, Vindis, Lord of Sith!"
Vindis finally got it. The small lecture that Ymmiir gave her was not just a bit of razzing. This meeting really was some kind of formal custom among Mandalorians. However, she didn't know what else she could say. So, she just bowed her head, respectfully acknowledging his declaration.
"We shall spill blood and give anguish to our enemies!" Ymmiir declared vehemently, adding with fury in his voice, "Even if Galactic Republic bring war to Clan Sharratt and kill us all, we will know that when we kill Janarus, that grief and confusion will fall on all Galactic Republic! Death to Galactic Republic!"
Vindis had no way of knowing that her little speech was exactly the right thing to say. A high ranking Sith lord, representing an agent of the Dark Council, had given honor to Ymmiir and to his clan.
Yehw'reh'nomai, Ymmiir, and Vindis toured the ranks of highly experienced, combat hardened Mandalorian warriors standing at attention in formation. Their armor was clean, rust-free, but dented, scratched, and otherwise showing the signs of many battles, with their helmets set facing forward at their feet. Their weapons, held at port arms, were clean and ready for battle. The power packs had been removed from their weapons, so that the battery wells could be inspected for cleanliness and the power contacts checked for damage.
Wrehn yanked the blaster rifle from the hands of the warrior, at the head of the first rank and broke it down at its takedown pin. She inspected the beam pulse generator and found what she expected, a perfectly cleaned and well maintained weapon. Wrehn, however, furrowed her brows in anger at what she pretended to see.
"Your weapon is clean on the outside, but your beam pulse generator has scorch marks on its contacts, Warrior!" she said, berating the Clan Sharratt Mandalorian, "Dirty contacts like this causes the power packs to deplete faster, and causes the beam pulse generator to get too hot, too quickly! What a disgrace to keep your weapon in such a bad state!" Turning to Ymmiir, Wrehn told him, with great displeasure, "This weapon is dirty!"
"Let me see it," Ymmiir said, in a tone that warned the warrior's days were numbered.
The warrior briefly rolled his eyes and made a face, as though realizing that he was the butt of a joke.
Ymmiir made a show of looking and shook his head in disgust, before passing it off to Vindis. Vindis looked and saw a gleaming, spotless, weapon. She didn't see a trace of dirt anywhere in the weapon.
"What is this?" she asked, not understanding the problem.
"It is a terrible disgrace, is what it is," Wrehn said, taking the weapon back from Vindis.
Wrehn re-assembled the weapon and handed it back to the warrior who tore it from Wrehn's hands. The three inspectors went on to inspect the next warrior, his armor and his weapon.
For the rest of the inspection ceremony, it seemed that Wrehn couldn't find any issues with the weapons of the remaining warriors waiting to be inspected. For the life of her, Vindis could see no difference between these other weapons and the first one they'd inspected.
Later, they were in Clan Sharratt's training facility, a huge open rectangular space, about twenty four city blocks. This huge space was once a sprawling park, with artificial turf and holographic trees and shrubbery, but Clan Sharratt converted it into a training center, removing the holographic tree and shrub planter/projectors.
The ceiling of the space was thirty stories high. The floor of the open space was filled with combat engineers disassembling hundreds of temporary, mobile structures, which represented small buildings.
Wrehn really liked what she saw. These temporary structures could be disassembled and reconfigured to mimic the urban terrain of any municipality which they wished to assault.
The combat engineers were already disassembling the existing temporary structures and assembling new ones. The new metallic training field resembled a gently rolling landscape with structures greatly spaced from each other, some of them walled in.
One walled in structure, in particular, also had a large open space between the structure and the driveway gated entrance. It was a very good approximation of the chancellor's mansion on Coruscant, and the surrounding neighborhood of mansions.
Unlike ancient Taris and Nar Shaddaa, Coruscant had areas where the natural open terrain enjoyed exposure to sunny days, starry night skies, and to the natural weather. In all such gently rolling, grass and tree filled areas, the super wealthy and the politically super connected were the residents, living in sprawling mansions and not in the towers rising above the mega buildings.
The mega buildings and super towers were a hundred kilometers from the center of the neighborhood, surrounding the perimeter of the region like a wall of towering permaglass, and durasteel. The towering edifices appeared low and faded in the distant horizon from the center of this region.
In this particular region, the more wealthy and powerful one was, the closer to the center of this expanse one lived, that is, the closer to the supreme chancellor's mansion one lived.
Wrehn smiled at the idea that their most posh, most super elite, and most quietest neighborhood was about to have its peaceful, idyllically tranquil environment catastrophically disturbed.
"This is going to be a lot of fun," she told Vindis, with a wicked grin.
Wrehn was seriously thinking about letting Skadge loose with his blaster cannon.
"It might be worth it to let Skadge run wild," she told Vindis.
"What? Why is that?" the Sith lord asked.
"Just to give the super powerful a real good scare," Wrehn said, laughing.
"Ah!" Vindis said, with arched eyebrows and a widening grin of realization, "Yes. As you have said, that could be a lot of fun."
"You really, did well, so far, Vindis," Wrehn said, "If things go well here, you may even gain an ally among the Mandalorians, gain a reputation with them. When you need some major firepower, you might get reasonable rates when you want to hire them for a job."
Initially, Vindis was affronted.
"How dare this riff raff think herself worthy of giving me praise!" she thought, incensed.
She opened her mouth to let Wrehn have it, but the realization of what Wrehn told her struck her.
"I… I have gained access to military power!" she told herself.
Vindis realized that if she played her cards right, she could exercise great power. It would require a great deal of thought and prudent use of these Mandalorian warriors, she finally understood.
"This is interesting news," Vindis said, absently while wondering how Darth Tormen would react to this development.
"He may praise me for growing more powerful," she thought, "Or he may see me as a threat. Or both."
Another thought came to the Sith lord. She decided to ask Yehw'reh'nomai about it.
"I saw no problems with that Mandalorian's weapon," she said, "Why did you disparage him so?"
"It's tradition," Wrehn said, with a laugh in her smile, "He is the platoon leader. I was just busting his chops in front of his men. It's good fun."
"But his reputation…," Vindis began, aghast, before Wrehn cut in.
"The men and women in his platoon knew perfectly well there was nothing wrong with his weapon," Wrehn said, grinning and explaining, "They know I was messing with him. They're probably laughing about it and poking fun at their platoon leader. It's another way to break the ice and build closer ties with the clan members."
"Oh, I see," Vindis said, "Then I should…,"
Wrehn cut her off.
"Uh… No. Don't you do it," she said, "This is a custom between Mandalorians who are on good terms. Outsiders, and clans that hate each other should not do this. They wouldn't take it the same way."
Vindis smiled, gave a small chuckle.
"You Mandalorians are so convoluted and unpredictable in what constitutes good manners and what does not," she told Wrehn.
"Tell me about it," Wrehn said, rolling her eyes and laughing, "I accidentally burned down so many bridges without realizing why. Early on, after I won the Great Hunt competition, I spoke my mind without thinking about what I was saying, and to whom. I still haven't been able to mend relations with a few of those clans."
Three Mandalorians, not wearing their heavy armor, approached Wrehn from behind. Vindis pointed out their approach with a slight toss of her head. Wrehn turned about and saw them. The three wore fabric military uniforms consisting of khaki short sleeve shirts with the top button of their shirts unbuttoned, a white crew neck t-shirt underneath, and cobalt blue trousers. One of those three was Ymmiir Sharratt.
"Yehw'reh'nomai, Vindis," Ymmiir said, "Follow me. We go to headquarters. Now we discuss plan."
As they walked, one of the three Mandalorians caught Vindis' ear with what he told Wrehn.
"Anytime you want to reinspect weapon, I will be ready," he said, following it up with something in Mando'a."
Wrehn only grinned mischievously, on hearing whatever it was he'd growled at her.