Chapter 8
Slumming it
Terri had actually enjoyed spending time with the Twi'lek teenager. She was sassy, witty, streetsmart and if you looked closely enough quite lonely. You could see through the mask of the tough street urchin who needed no one's help, quite easily the longer you talked to her. The more attention you gave her; the livelier she became, even while becoming a stroppy teen when Carth questioned her, you could see the longing in her eyes. A longing to belong somewhere. Careful questioning had revealed that apart from Zaalbar, she had been on her own for a long time. The large age difference between the two did not help matters either. Though clearly dedicated to each other the differences in age, gender, species and circumstances had created a gap between the two. Though she had to admit the over the top and cheesy flirting with Melissa was hilarious.
Zaalbar was a closed book, he was more content to keep on eating while Mission chattered on. The two had left shortly after Zaalbar had reached his limit in eating. Carth had made the costly mistake of saying that they will cover the bill, the information obtained while still valuable and diverse was not worth the price of admission.
Carth was swirling a very watered down ale around in his mug, one hand kept under the table.
"Seems we have very few options down here." He finally remarked.
"It keeps on getting back to the fact that with our limited resources we will not achieve much. And the only thing we will accumulate sitting here is liver failure and a few diseases before any useful information might come through" Terri sighed.
"So do we just wander around hoping for the best? Joining a gang? Despite Mission's advocacy I still wouldn't trust these Hidden Becks and the Vulkars do not seem to be the helpful kind." Melissa gave her input.
"Not trusting your girlfriend's intuition. Not a good start to your relationship." Terri teased.
Melissa sighed in exasperation.
"Not my girlfriend."
"No! But I was already picking wedding dresses, both pretty in white. You both being escorted down the aisle, you by Carth, Mission by Zaalbar. We will have to decide on the planet though, and between a civil marriage ceremony or something more religious. Ryloth is out though; too hot and barren"
"I am told Alterra is lovely this time of year." Carth added
"Maybe get Zaalbar to talk to his elders. A treetop wedding sounds magnificent."
Terri seemed to ponder for a moment
"Before we settle on white we have to ensure you both qualify for it though. You do qualify right?"
"What do you mean …"
The credit chip dropped and a new shade of crimson was achieved.
"Terri! Gods, that is not something you just ask like that."
Their attention was drawn to the foyer of the cantina. The two idiot Vulkars had decided to harass another man. The small man was dressed in a blue longcoat and a white mushroom shaped hat, his eyes covered by reflective glasses From the sudden silence and the slight moving away from the scene, this was no lightweight target. A name was whispered
"Calo Nord."
Due to the distance they could not hear what was being said. The Rodians looked confused by a monosyllabic answer. Belligerence resumed, a second short answer. One stepped forward aggressively. Terri noted the grenade leaving the bounty hunters hand
"Close your eyes! Flash grenade!"
There was bright flash and a loud sound, the sound of two lasers nearly went unnoticed. When sight was slowly being returned the man was striding to the door the two Rodians unmoving on the floor. Three cleaning droids came into view, two extended their manipulator arms and started dragging the bodies. The third cleaning up the drag stains.
Conversations resumed as if someone had just made a ridiculous statement about the weather. The Bith band on stage resuming their song from where they had paused
"I believe we will have to take up bounty hunting, as distasteful as it sounds." Terri said with a grimace.
"Care to elaborate on that?"
Terri waved a hand around.
"Here we will achieve nothing. The bounty office will have the most up to date intelligence available. Secondly it will give us access to more funds. We will have to set up a base of operations at some point and I doubt we will be as lucky as we were on the upper level. As far as I can see it the law is if you can take it, you can keep it. Trying to legitimately obtain a place is likely to cost triple if not more and considering our identity cards is probably useless now we cannot raise any flags on the systems."
"Valid points, just hunting down desperate old men for bad debts seems so distasteful. Especially if it just to find a place to sleep" Carth said
"We can pick higher paying marks, being none guild will result in getting paid less though, so not doing really distasteful jobs is possible." Terri replied unenthusiastically
Carth took one look at his mug and placed it down with a look of disgust. He stood up, slightly hitching his gunbelt before shouldering his pack and rifle.
"If we are going to do this, we might as well start now."
The other two shouldered their gear and was about to move to the rear when Melissa spotted the coat check station. Though in this case the coat check more resembled an arms bazaar. Five credits each and they could move more freely.
The bounty office was beyond the dance floor. The name being a euphemism for a stage in the middle of a floor. The room was poorly lit and all attention was on the stage. A Zeltron and a Twi'lek were bumping and grinding on stage, with clothing dropping every few moments. Credit chips cluttered the stage.
"Get out of the way or get on the stage." An obnoxious voice called.
A flashily dressed man sat at a table flanked by two flunkeys. He stared leeringly at the two women
"Go shake what mother gave you, though me and the boys would rather see little red strut her stuff, right boys"
The two flunkeys laughed slavishly.
"Now a real treat would be a lap dance, what do you say red?"
Carth pulled him over the table and was hammering blows onto his face. Terri was kicking the living hell out of the one on the left. Melissa grabbed a serving tray from a waitress and brained the one on the right as he tries to rise from his chair, glasses and fluids going everywhere. She felt a savage satisfaction as the man dropped back. She gave him another dose as he tired to rise again, denting the plasteel tray in the process. He decided discretion was the better part of valour and stayed down
Melissa handed the dented tray back to the waitress.
"How much to replace the order?"
The waitress gave a smile.
"No need you delivered it to the right table."
Melissa handed her a credit chip.
"Thank you for the good service."
The waitress struck the chip into her cleavage with a smile. She gave a slight smirk.
"Ask for Candy if you want a dance. I will make you sure your first lap dance will be the one you remember forever."
She sauntered back to the bar, a definite sway in her step. Melissa was flabbergasted.
"What the hell! Am I giving off some pheromone? I know it is not my deodorant, I am not wearing any." She said, confused
Terri was hiding a smile at the exchange, before pulling Carth of the man he was still beating.
"Enough big guy, he is down and learned his lesson."
As Terri pushed Carth back, the man rolled over spitting out teeth, his face a mess. He reached into his jacket and pulled a hold out blaster. The blaster dropped from nerveless fingers as the sound of a blast disturbed the bass music.
Melissa had her blaster in a police grip. Firmly keeping the barrel pointed at her target, ready to fire again in case he tries to go for his weapon. He reached up to touch the wound.
"But I work for Davik." He said in confusion
His eyes glassed over and he dropped. A brief round of applause came from the patrons for the impromptu floor show before they turned their attention back to the stage. Melissa holstered her blaster, a slight tremor in her hand. She shook her head and mouthed I am good when she saw Terri's concerned glance.
Zax the Hutt was a typical representation of his species. Over large, fat, smelly and repugnant with no morals whatsoever. He was puffing on a hookah as they approached.
"There was no need to give a demonstration of skill before asking for work. There is more than enough work for everyone."
"Even for non guild? For slightly reduced pay of course." Carth spoke.
"Guild, independent as long as you deliver I will pay."
" Let us see what you have."
A bodyguard handed over a datapad.
" Red are reserved contracts do not interfere, grey is inactive or complete, blue is open for all. Take a picture to provide proof of completion, the software in this will match the picture to the details inside." The guard explained
A line on the list of names greyed out. Dia Artura.
"That one is now of the table, since you killed the placer." Zax explained
"I always thought contracts were pre paid." Carth remarked
"Holden believed he is a big man and the rules do not apply, because he worked for Davik . He insisted on paying the successful contractor personally, the contract was too small to make an issue of it."
Terri pointed to a bounty with the value set of two hundred thousand.
"I am surprised this one is still open."
"Not anyone willing to take contract on Davik's nephew, afraid of reprisal. Officially Davik has stated that he will protect his nephew."
"Unofficially is a different story right?" Melissa asked
"Unofficially Davik wants him gone, causing too much embarrassment, but Davik has to be seen to protect him."
"And no one has bothered to ask this I am guessing." Terri stated.
"You are the first to ask."
"What did he do to earn this?" Carth asked
"Could not keep his dick in his pants; when the Halcoyn girl got thrown from the top."
With that conversational gem of wisdom they decided to depart and retreated to a table to go through the contracts. After ordering drinks to keep the table they started scrolling through. Melissa spoke after a while
"Is it just me or is there an inordinate amount of contracts on Black Vulkars?"
"Saw that myself. Could be an in with the Beks if we can show we eased some of their problems if we need one." Carth remarked
Terri was going through the map locations provided by the pads. She widened an area.
"We got six clustered in a residential area not far from here, low paying which is probably why they were not taken. Recorded as unregulated spice traders, gambling rackets."
" Franchised crime, what a concept." Carth remarked
"It is close to that dealer Mission mentioned might as well go see if he has anything useful. Armour would be nice but I don't feel like wearing silver." Terri mused
" Not really sure I want to go to place where the owner is described as crazy Jack. Just putting it out there." Melissa stated
A chime jingled as they stepped into the dealer, the shelves were bare. A man was seated at the counter staring at a sport game on a holoscreen.
"If you do not have republic credits walk away."
Melissa took a look at the empty store.
"No stock and not taking the dominant currency. I see where the names comes from."
Carth noticed a tattoo on the man's arm and walked closer shrugging of his jacket.
" I was on Serrocco when I heard, where were you?"
"Coruscant. You still in?" The man stood up
"Dropped down after the incident upstairs, stuck here since."
Terri was about to interfere till she saw a matching tattoo on Carth's arms. The two men clasped arms.
"We will never forget. We will never forgive" They said in unison
The two embraced, muttering softly. Melissa prodded Terri.
"What the hell is with that?"
"I have no idea."
The two men broke apart
"Carth Onassi" Carth introduced himself
"Jack Silver."
The now named Jack pressed a button under the desk and the door locked and shutters slid over the windows.
"What is going on, is the fleet coming? "
"We were riding herd on a bunch of Jedi on some super secret mission. No one knew where we were going, when you asked you were told the Force is leading us. The Force led us straight to an ambush."
"Figures." Jack snorted" They only care about their vague ideals and the senate is pretending to care while we have to deal with the Sith on the ground."
"Fleet just does the flying and the dying." Carth remarked
"Preaching to the choir."
Jack looked at the other two,
"Junior officer and one wet behind the ears, really swimming in resources here aren't you?"
"We make do, but we need some decent stuff."
"Follow me."
There was the whine of cybernetics as he moved to a back room. A stepladder led to a basement. A medium sized fabricator stood in one corner, two droids were docked in an unplugged charger. Various pieces of armour and piles of random equipment were scattered all over.
"Sorry about the clutter my droids packed up and getting a decent mechanic to take a look is a bit of a problem. Well anyway, if I don't have I can fabricate it."
Jack coughed slightly.
As much as I would like to help for free unfortunately I will have to ask for credits."
Carth pulled a still sealed tray of Republic credits from his pack.
"That should cover it."
"Good enough for me."
Terri pointed to the droids.
" Melissa, will you take a look."
Melissa placed her pack next to the charging station, She stopped before opening her pack as a though struck her. She turned to Jack.
" Just so you know, you will see some Sith armour being unpacked before I reach my toolkit, we needed it to get down here."
Jack slightly stiffened before he relaxed.
"Thanks for telling me girly. Might have had a bad reaction."
Melissa unpacked her backpack, once again reminding herself to make a tool roll for a side bag of the backpack. Jack strolled over and lifted the bow as she placed it on the ground. He grunted in disgust
" Kebla Yurt?"
" How did you know?"
" Poorly made from crappy material. Taking one look I can tell you probably struggle with the draw,"
"Can you approve on it? I have the plans on a datapad if it helps."
Jack looked at the schematics supplied.
" Keep that piece of junk for practise and strength training. It will be easier to build a better one from ground up and the arrows I built will be better as well. Have to ask you though, why this? You obviously have no problem with blasters."
"I don't know. I just feel comfortable with it for some reason."
" It is also silent and usable from range" Terri remarked, "No blaster flash to betray your position either."
She had brought several armour inserts and two battle suits over. Jack looked at the inserts, he rubbed his chin.
" Those are better suited for males There is a measuring tape here somewhere, better take your measurements and I will custom built. You want plates or solid?"
"Whatever gives the best protection without compromising movement." Terri answered.
Melissa shrugged of her jacket and was rolling up her sleeves, a large bruise was on her forearm from where the bowstring had struck her.
"Better make some vambraces as well."
Jack found the tape measure and handed it to Terri along with a flimsy and a stylus. He pointed to a door of to the side.
"My rooms are through there."
"Thanks. Melissa come work first, play with the droids later."
Terri led the way from the room and started stripping down as the door closed.
" Best way to get a decent fit for armour is to take measurements as close as the skin as possible." She explained.
Melissa gasped at the state of her back. Terri looked over her shoulder.
" Just minor scratches, no need to fuss about it."
Melissa pointed to a chair.
"Sit! Stay!"
She marched from the room and collected her medkit. Carth and Jack was looking at her in concern when she grabbed it.
"Girl issue."
Jack just shrugged and continued modifying armour for Carth. Carth narrowed his eyes. Melissa shook her head, he nodded with a sigh. She stepped back into the room. Terri was seated on the chair, her expression downcast.
"We should have done something about this already. We cannot risk an infection down here" Melissa chided.
She applied a disinfectant spray and placed a kolto dressing before securing it. She leaned in and gave Terri a comforting hug.
"I know it is hard to ask for help, but please let me help." She whispered.
Minutes later they were done and handed the flimsy to Jack. He walked to the fabricator and input the measurements. He sat down in an easy chair nearby.
"What has been going on outside in the republic. We have been cut of from news since they took over. Who is leading the griffball league"
Melissa ignored the background chatter as she concentrated on taking the droids apart. One was an easy case with a few connections to be re soldered and some wires to be placed in the correct places and secured properly. The droid rebooted easily and went about on its duty.
The second droid was more problematic. Getting inside its casing was challenging. The frame was solid durasteel instead of the usual light alloys. The central processor was also protected by a second padded casing. The problem was an easy fix, worn out receptors. Reassembly was difficult due to the abnormal built of the droid.
On booting up the droid walked to the door of a reinforced room and stepping through; walked to a workbench. A hardlight shield sprung into place. Jack looked up in delight.
"Great you got him fixed."
"Why is his build so different?" Melissa asked
" XJten is a demolitions and ordinance droid. Nominally they are built to disarm explosives, but a little program change now lets him build instead. Grenades, mines, shaped charges. He can build whatever type you need."
"Can he do custom builds?" Terri asked
"Depends. What do you need?"
Terri quickly sketched a design with some added notes and descriptions and passed it to Jack.
"It is an idea I had for an area of denial device. Remote and/or motion sensor trigger, depending on how you set it up."
Jack gave a low whistle.
"That is going to be nasty. Will take some time to build and properly design. Should take me a day to figure out. In the meantime what do you need explosive wise?"
"Frags, thermals and some stun grenades and a few breach charges."
Terri laid the second tray of republic credits down
"Four of the new design once you figure it out and the specs to have more built off world. If there is money left some top ups on the explosives."
Melissa was repacking her kit when Jack handed her the new bow, the new armour slightly uncomfortable and the vambraces felt heavyon her forearm.
"It collapses into a smaller form for easier carrying."
When she tested the draw she could feel an immediate improvement. Jack handed over two new quivers. The shafts now had bristles on the ends added for better aerodynamics and the heads were broadpoints. Jack pointed to the right vambrace.
"See that little sensor at the end. Bring up your wrist sharply to block it quickly."
A blade jumped out from underneath and retracted quickly. Jack handed over the datapad he had taken earlier along with a small case. Ten arrowheads laid inside, they were designed to look like medical injecters
" Designs for the bow and the bracers are in there. I also added a few new designs for your arrows, fill those with a knockout drug and poison, does not matter what you hit themwith, they go down. The other is for a design to add explosives to it, better have an armourer make those for you though."
Feeling better prepared the trio walked to the target residential area. Melissa felt her stomach churning and spinning, she followed the tap rack bang method to check her weapon for the fifth time. Carth was back to a sullen silence. Terri walked in silence, eyes darting all over.
The door to the building opened and two Duros stepped out, dressed in Black Vulkar colours. A man stepped from the gloom of a nearby buildings doorway.
"You don't call, you don't write. My feelings is hurt. More importantly you are behind on your payments"
"We no longer have to pay. The Vulkars will protect us"
The man started to laugh deeply and richly
"Do you really believe some pissant swoop gang can protect you from Davik. Do you really want to play it this way?" He chuckled
The Duros did not reply. The man stopped laughing
"Okay."
He whistled and another man stepped out. He was solidly built, close cropped blonde greying hair. His armour looked well used, muscles rippled as he easily held a rotary blaster. His scarred face was impassive, the blue eyes cold and dead.
"Hi Canderous, since when are you working for Davik?" One Duros stammered.
The now named man did not bother to reply, a twitch of his hand caused the barrels to start spinning on the blaster. The two Duros frantically emptied their pockets. The man took the credits with a smile
"I knew you could be reasonable. Same time same place in three days with the outstanding amount then. Oh, and do not even think of running."
The two Duros looked at the men and then the trio. They rushed into the building looking as if the denizens of the underworld were looking for them, screaming for help
The two men walked past them. The one named Canderous gave a small smirk. The other man looked to them
"If possible leave those two alive, if not leave something to the value of fifty credits with them if possible. One does need to keep the books balanced."
"No promises, considering you just let our marks get warned, I do not think that to be likely." Terri remarked
They looked at the door to the building. The red LED indicating it is locked. Terri sighed in annoyance looking around.
"This just got a lot harder."
Carth pointed to a pile of rubble on the right and a burned out swoop bike on the left.
" Breach charge on the door, crossfire positions."
Terri nodded. She turned to Melissa
"You are with me at the bike. Inside we use an inverted triangle formation, Carth at the back he will check rear. You take left check front check left, I am on right. Keep low keep spread out, fire first ask questions later. Call as you move, call if you see movement, and if you throw a grenade call out which type. Considering the gang tags this is a Black Vulkar stronghold so do not worry about any innocent civilians, there are none in there. We will sweep the halls first before checking units. We will alternate on the doors one slices the other watches. You hear movement chuck a grenade in. Good to go?"
"Good to go." Carth stated
"Good to go" Melissa gulped
The defenders were gathered behind whatever barricades they could create. Weapons pointed at the main door, more than a few held in shaking hands. There was a loud crump and the door halves jumped apart. A sustained volley of fire rang out, most impacting the half opened doors, forever ensuring that the door would not be able to be closed again. The fire kept on going and power cells ran dry. No movement came.
It quickly devolved in a round of you go, no you go. Friendly fire claimed three; before three Weequay inched to the door. One head was quickly pulled back after barely clearing the door. No fire came. A longer look followed. No response. They stepped beyond the door, clustering up. Three bolts slammed into them.
A volley of friendly fire in the back ensured that if they were alive they would not be so for long. Gradually the wild volley tapered out. Two female voices came from the door
"Stun."
"Stun"
Involuntarily the defenders followed the two orbs flying in with their eyes.
" Frag."
"Thermal"
The meaning behind those words finally registered. It was too late to duck for cover. The stun grenades exploded with a cacophonous sound and blinding lights. The other two exploded with a crump. A fifth and sixth explosion came followed by a wall of flames.
In their hurry to set up barricades they had not paused to check what they used and two gas cylinders from the spice lab were placed in the mishmash of items.
Terri and Melissa leaned back from the door as an unexpected gout of flame erupted from the doorway. They waited a moment before entering. The barricade blocking the left side of the ring passage was enveloped in flames. Years of poor to no maintenance had resulted in the fire suppression system being inactive, effectively sealing the passage to one side. A few gang members were still on their feet and stumbling about. A rapid volley of fire dropped them.
"Left clear!"
"Right clear!"
"Rear; no contact"
"Right moving!"
"Left moving!"
They moved rapidly down the circular hallway, a door sprang open behind them
"Contacts rear." Cart called firing.
Terri spun around to support Carth. Melissa saw movement behind an overturned bed that had been hauled to form a barricade.
"Contact front, Thermal out."
The grenade dropped behind the barricade and blew on contact. One figure briefly flailed before dropping. The burning bedding, now adding a new layer of smoke.
"Contacts Down!"
"Contacts down!"
No further contact was made as they circled the passageway till coming to the flaming barricade. Terri motioned to fall back. They swept the passage again before stopping by the first door. Using a small pry bar, Melissa forced the cover from the door controls and attached a slicing pad. She moved to the side and Carth and Terri took up position
" Door. Three two one."
Fire came from the opening door. They leaned back against the doorsills and the volley slammed into the wall opposite
"Frag Out!" Carth called
Voices inside screamed in panic before the thump came. They swept in, three bodies laid on the floor. They moved on, no movement was noted on the door slice. A mine was set over a crate. A bunch of holograms was displayed over a terminal. They shrugged deciding to come back.
Contact was made in the third room, a woman had been standing still against the doorsill as they sliced the door. On entering she tried to grapple after kicking the gun out of Terri's hands. Terri threw her over her shoulder and drawing her pistol and fired down.
They slowly cleared the rooms. One room had the occupant trying to stage an ambush from under his bed, however his feet had been sticking out from the small bed he was under.
Melissa sliced the last door. The barricade fire finally starting to flicker out. Terrified voices came from within, terrified young voices. Carth took a rapid look and stepped back, a litany of curses coming from his mouth.
Melissa stepped into the room and dropped to her knees in shock. Eight children were crammed into two cages. In the first cage a blonde boy and a black haired boy stood protectively in front of two redhead girls, their smalls fists balled, ready to fight. Their panicked eyes showing their fear.
The second cage held four girls. A blonde girl was standing defiantly, with a smaller black haired girl holding onto her leg. A white haired girl was staring at the ground in apathy, her clothing clearly a higher quality that the others. Another black haired girl was crouched ready to jump. Melissa noted a pair of cat ears and initially thought Cathar. But the girl had a second set of human ears and no facial fur.
Terri summed up the situation in one word
"Fuck"
"Bad word, swear jar." The smallest girl cried out
"Shh, Ruby, not now." The blonde girl loudly whispered.
Three tired bounty hunters and eight munchkins exited a building. Two of the bounty hunters were on point, The third led a line of blindfolded and stumbling line of children. All of them bemoaning being blinded, loudly declaring that they had seen bad stuff before so they did not need the blindfolds. One red haired girl was starting to bounce; brimming with nervous energy.
Terri was beyond done with this day. A quick call to Jack via comlink had revealed that yes no social services were available on the lower levels. Leaving them there was not an option they would be enslaved or eaten within ten minutes of them leaving the building if not less. Jack had come through for them though. Jack had a third room available in his basement and was willing to take them in on two conditions. One they provide the food for them, Two when they leave the planet Jack, his girlfriends, two droids and the kids go with them. Terri and Carth had shared a look and agreed, not bothering to ask Melissa where she had been sitting down on the ground with them in a huddle, while Carth and Terri had gone around to sweep the rooms for valuables and record faces where possible
Things had gotten even more complicated when careful questioning had revealed that they came from a pre space flight planet, they had named as Remnant. Curiously they spoke basic but could not read Aurabesh. Although the blonde boy, Jaune, said the symbols looked like something he had seen on a continent called Anima. All eight had been stolen from their beds from different places and appeared terrified of any medical device they saw. They were unable to identify their kidnappers with vague descriptions of big heads and grey bodies.
Currently they were in Jacks basement. Carth, Jack and Melissa were busy constructing beds in the third room. Terri was sitting down in an arm chair tiredly rubbing her forehead. The little girl was seated at the table snacking on cookies. She had fallen onto a box like a nexu on a nerf when Melissa had explained what was in the box. Her eyes were flashing between the guns on the table, the Explosive station were XJten was busy working and Jack's cybernetic legs. That one was going to be trouble.
The Two boys were quietly talking, sitting in a corner of the room. Terri felt a pluck on her shirt. A polite voice came to her, Pyrrha then.
"Miss; could you show us how to use the bathroom, we really need to go"
She looked into five sets of puppy eyes.
"Fuck my life." She said groaning
"Swear Jar!"
They left a curiously happy Jack, two droids and eight kids after making an early morning food and clothes run and paying through the nose for it. Hoping that when they eventually returned they would not find that the upper city had collapsed a level thanks to a large explosion. Melissa still shuddered when she remembered the looks on Jack and Ruby's face as they were discussing weapons, the girl Nora had been very enthusiastic as well whenever explosions were mentioned.
Zax paid out promptly, Several of the Vulkars inside the building had had pocket change bounties on them in addition to the primary six bounties. The woman who had attacked Terri had turned out to be a newly posted high profile contract resulting in an extra bonus. Careful questioning had revealed that Sith were concentrating their search in the under city for Jedi and republic survivors. Rumours had it that the were taking losses due to Rhakgoul attacks and more frequent attacks by swoop gangs in the lower city. The general consensus was that the Sith were likely to tighten controls even more now.
The crushing news was that the only access to the under city was by a single turbolift being secured by a heavy Sith contingent.
The sense that time was running out rapidly had them all on edge. Looking at the available bounties they come to the same conclusion they had to go for the biggest and most dangerous of them all.
The "rich" area of the lower City was difficult to access. The entrance to what could only be described as a gated community was through a single checkpoint, all other access point having been closed by builders and the area surrounded by tall walls where security drones constantly patrolled. This was probably the only area where there was space between dwellings, fake grass providing scenery between the dwellings. The trio were overlooking the estate for lack of better description from a destroyed room on the top of a slum building outside the wall.
"The drones pass every thirty seconds. There is perimeter patrols on the edge of the targets grounds. Movement shows multiple gaurds moving around the main building." Terri remarked
Melissa was looking down the length of the wall and stopped.
"I think I found our way in, but no one is going to like it."
"Where?" Carth asked
"Pipe, lower edge of the wall."
"Shit."
"Literally."
Orbit over Taris. The Leviathan
Pearson resolutely looked ahead, staying at attention as Dursley was standing on the tips of his toes gasping for breath. Malak made a twisting motion and the snap of vertebrae was heard and the corpulent body fell down. Saul Karath was seated at his desk looking dispassionately on as Malak strolled to the window and looked out on the planet.
A foul smell erupted from the body of the recently deceased. Malak walked up to Pearson and stopped inside his personal space.
"Do you know why you are still alive?"
"No. My lord."
"Your sense of duty to my Empire eclipses your hunger for advancement and recognition. Most would be content to play the little power games you play. Do not think I do not know one the reasons why you overstepped the chain of command to bring this to my attention. Three republic operatives still managed to evade your grasp."
Malak pointed to the corpse.
"You were saved by incompetence."
Malak strode from the room, Karath rose from his desk and approached Pearson.
"You are being reassigned to a new position as head of security to our embassy on Manaan, you will leave immediately."
Pearson spun around and marched to the door.
" Major."
Pearson stopped and turned back
"Demotion in rank as well as position then." Pearson thought.
Karath was looking over the report he had submitted again
"I am curious as to the detective you keep on referring to in your report. Is he really as impressive as you state?"
"Sir. I have been forced to interact with multiple police officers in my various postings. This man is the only one I have truly come to respect."
Karath tapped the report thinking.
"I will have him picked up then, the constabulary on Lothal needs to be improved. This man may prove useful."
Melissa felt terrible about breaking into a fire station, though she did wonder why it was locked down and left unmanned. As a further curiosity not one of the gangs had moved in to steal from it or apply gang tags to mark it as their territory. They were in and out in under ten minutes. Taking only three containments suits and rebreathers and three medkits.
Containments suits did little to keep the smell of sewage out of your nostrils, Melissa found as she was wading hip deep through the sewer pipe, rifle held over her head. She had no hope of ever cleaning the utility vest she was wearing over the suit. She was in the rear, towing their supply raft tied to her middle by a rope. Carth was in front, testing the depth with a pole to make sure they did not step into a broken or down turning pipe, frequently checking their position against a map of the lower city. Terri was holding both her and Carths rifles up. All of their weapons had been wrapped and vacuum sealed in plastic but they had decided to keep it lifted well above the water line
Gronk was happy with his life. The job was simple. Walk around and kill anyone who stepped onto Gert Kang's land. Gronk was paid well and had five meals a day. Gronk did not understand why the other gaurds thought calling him a dumb pig was an insult. Gronk knows he is not cleverest of Gamoreans. But then the other gaurds were always looking at naked females, Gronk does not understand what big deal was. Clothes, no clothes what is difference?
Gronk was having best day ever when ground exploded and watery volcano erupted. Suddenly it smelled like Gamorra. Gronk was home.
Melissa was storming to the refresher stripping of the smelly containment suite. She ignored the body on the floor. She did not care if she was flashing anyone. There was no way she was going to let Terri reach the shower before her. Carth stood looking at the wall, contemplating something that could be called art if you stood on your head and looked sideways at it, he winced at the sound of what could politely be described as a catfight broke out. He remembered something his father once told him while they were watching a griffball game at a stadium.
"Son, there are three things no man who wishes to live do or say. One never say to a woman; are you sure you want to wear that. Two your mother cannot visit us because frankly she is a stuckup bitch. Three never get between a woman and a refresher, especially if they are pregnant."
The men behind him had nodded solemnly at that wisdom. With a shrug he walked to a spare room on the ground floor, dropping his containment suit on the way there. He walked into the body free room and opened the door to the refresher. He looked at the shower with a fond smile. It would be good to get clean.
Davik looked at the footage of the assault on his nephew's residence. Canderous and Calo Nord stood behind him as he reviewed the footage. The primary system his nephew had installed had been scrubbed and all footage destroyed, but luckily he had the back up system secured well away from all the main systems and had set it up to download to a remote server every hour on the hour. The normal holoscreen was showing the inferno that was his nephews estate, brought to all news stations by a foolhardy reporter and his cameraman. Kang replayed the point of the breach.
"I am uncertain if I am supposed to be impressed or repulsed by this." He finally stated
Calo Nord just looked on impassively. Since he was not being paid to watch this he had no interest in it
Canderous was already pulling up the building plans of the estate. There was a previously undetected weakness in security that has been exposed. He knew exactly which bounty hunters he will send to go and place counter measures.
Zax was rewatching the breach repeatedly having subverted Kangs server long ago. Chortling uncontrollably. A little known fact about Hutts is that they absolutely loved toilet humour. He kept on repeating a phrase he had heard a human bounty hunter use once before.
"Blowing shit up."
Maybe he should send a copy to his cousin Ajurr, it has been a long time since they had anything else to send to each other than recordings of prolonged executions of their enemies.
Terri was getting very suspicious when the very happy Hutt paid a bonus on top of the stated contract. Not excluding the pocket change bounties that had been on Kang's enforcers. This was reinforced when he asked if their had been any recordings made of their servicing of the contract.
Whether or not they had enough credits to buy what they need from a swoop gang leader it was beyond high time to get of this rock