Underworld Uprising

[Lynorri Starfall]

The captain was asleep beside her in his bed chamber. She had needed a flight to Nar Shaddaa and his wife had passed away years ago. The look in his eyes and thoughts in his mind quickly told her how easily she could acquire the transportation she needed to the meeting she was determined to attend. The poor man had been in such need she would gladly have satisfied him even if she hadn't needed anything in return. The enjoyment she had gotten came mostly from knowing just how much she had satisfied him. Not that he was a bad lover, he was just in such need that it hadn't lasted as long as she would have liked.

He awoke holding her breast and kissed her lips, thankful to her. The beeping of his datapad had stirred him. She smiled and lightly stroked his hair as he checked the incoming alert. His voice was bittersweet as he spoke to her.

"We have entered the Y'Toub system Miss Starfall. We will arrive at Nar Shaddaa shortly. I must confess, I wasn't actually going to the Smuggler's Moon. Your beauty is just so intoxicating, I simply couldn't help myself."

"I know Captain. I didn't object at all did I?"

As Lynorri slid out of the bed, the Captain watched as she dressed her pink body in her tight black bodysuit. He wished he had more time with her. She had restored his confidence and now he felt like he was actually in a position where it might be possible for him to date again. Maybe he would start to look for someone at th Orange Lady. Finally he gathered himself enough to dress and return to the cockpit as they dropped out of hyperspace and sat in his pilot seat in order to bring them in for a landing near the Refugee Sector. She kissed his cheek tenderly and smiled just before she disembarked from the vessel and sauntered to the flophouse where her meeting was to take place.

A mystery man was hiring a large number of mercenaries of all skill sets for a nearly obscene amount of credits to pull various jobs. All of them targeted the Hutts. Over the past couple of weeks, two shipments of slaves had been hijacked and freed, a load of spice had been rerouted to different buyers, and two weapons deals had gone south as the buyers decided they would rather kill the Hutt agents doing the selling rather than pay. There was a lot of speculation, but nobody knew who the man behind this was or why he was doing all this. Nevertheless, the credits he was paying were very real and could possibly help put her in a position to acquire her own ship or even replace the lost eye she now wore a patch to cover.

The mystery man had succeeded in getting the attention of the Hutts. They wanted to know who this man was, why he was doing this, and they wanted him stopped. They too were willing to pay. She expected that there would be some opposition. For her, having once been a slave, she wouldn't help a slaver. And if this man was freeing slaves, well... that was the side of this that she would get her credits from.

When she arrived at the meeting she knew that she would have to team up with a partner who had a ship and could fly. She was already releasing pheromones as she surveyed the mercenaries, scoundrels, smugglers and rogues present. She found herself gazing into the blue eyes of a handsome man only slightly taller than herself with dark brown hair. He wore a bantha-leather duster with a wide brimmed hat. Her heart almost forgot to beat. She flirted heavily with her eyes as she made her way to his side. Smiling she introduced herself, knowing just who she wanted to partner with.

"I'm Lynorri Starfall. I'm going to be your partner." Seductively, as she massaged the back of his neck with her left hand, holding his right elbow with her right hand, she softly whispered. "You do like Zeltron's don't you?

They only had a moment or two to get acquainted before the mysterious man with the credits arrived to tell them why they were here. He said little about his ultimate objective. He seemed to know everyone here, at least by reputation. He had several missions available and spoke to each being or group individually.

"Quin-Val, I hear the Hutts don't like you worth a stang. How would you like 75,000 credits to bork over their operations and cost them credits? Starfall, I see you made it here. Your skills could prove helpful on this assignment. How would you like to make 25,000 credits to help him?"

Lynorri didn't like this boys club thing that meant her new partner was being offered three times what she was for this mission. But then maybe her not owning her own ship had something to do with it. Still, 25,000 was a lot of credits and she wasn't about to turn them down. She listened as he continued.

"The Hutts are about to ship out a dozen slaves from Vinsoth to the spice mine of Kessel. Your mission is simple. Make sure they get lost on the way and never arrive at their destination. As long as that happens, you get paid. Any other details are irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. You in?"

Lynorri smiled and nodded, then looked to the man beside her. She was rubbing the back of his neck again. "What do you say cowboy? You wanna ride me to Vinsoth." She doubted the handsome man would miss the insinuation made by her purposefully having misspoken while asking him to give her a ride. She hoped this would be the beginning of a very enjoyable, and profitable, friendship.

[Jass Quin-Val]

They say credits make the galaxy go round, and wouldn't you know? They are right. Anyone trying to tell you different either never left the backwater rock they drifted on and called home or was trying to sell you something. The need for credits could drive a man to do crazy things; steal from the needy, double cross a lifelong friend, or in extreme cases. murder their mother. Fate catches up with everyone sooner or later, no matter where you go in the galaxy fate will eventually find you. Be it in the most lavishly appointed luxury apartment in Galactic City, or the seediest cantina on Nar Shaddaa. Which is exactly where Jass Quin-Val currently found himself. Word had spread among certain circles that some mysterious up-and-comer was recruiting, the job? Put the hurt on the Hutt clans. Normally Jass wouldn’t have found himself on this side of the coin, however since that fiasco on Tattooine with Gorga Desilijic, and that droyk¹ Mandalorian bounty hunter, work had been hard to come by.

Jass was willing to bet that, that slug Gorga had put the word out, "Jass Quin-Val was a smuggler who couldn’t deliver". During the Yuuzhan Vong war, Jass had made plenty of runs that other pilots didn’t have the guts too. Of course, back then making sure the mission got completed was a little self-serving. If the republic troops or resistance didn’t have what they needed, then the galaxy at large would have been overrun by those scar-headed monsters. Granted, it was less about the credits then than it was now. After losing his foot in the shootout, Vissek, his Selonian partner rescued him and they both got the hell out of that system and to shadowport run by the Black Sun. The Shadowport was friendly to smugglers if you had the money, and if you didn’t, well the Black Sun would gladly give you a loan, for a criminally high interest rate.

Jass didn’t have much to trade on, his name wasn’t too well known of a smuggler (yet) and word was already spreading that he was black listed by the Hutts. Which proved to work in his favor, at least somewhat, the Black Sun knew he wouldn’t be running to the Hutts for protection, and they could dole out as many or few jobs to Jass as they wanted to make sure they earned more and more interest off of him. It was how they did business, and apparently it was a damn good business model because the cost of his cybernetic replacement was astronomical. But the Black Sun covered the cost as if they were buying him a beer. Since he was going to be in deep in the hole anyways, Jass opted for the full package.

From just under his knee down was now a replacement limb fitted with a pair of enhancements. One cloaked his weapons and tech to scanners, the weapons, comm., or other technology he had on him couldn’t be traced, this included tracking bugs. It wasn’t a passive ability; Jass has to turn it on with a thought. The amount of power the enhancement consumed meant that he only have enough power to run it for about 20 minutes at a time. Which was about twice as long as your standard gun fight. The second enhancement was an implant that would release a stim shot into his system to make him more aware, less fatigued, help suppress the effects of poisons, or potentially revive him if knocked unconscious, the implant had enough for five doses before it needed to be replaced. The chemicals were released into his body when the sensor detected irregularities in his blood, blood pressure, or neurotransmitters.

So when the he inhaled the scentless pheromone, his body reacted as it would normally. Jass’ heart rate speed up, he could feel it hammering in his chest as copious amounts of blood were sent to his groin causing a swelling that made the crotch of his pants bulge. His eyes dilated, and suddenly he felt the need to take the first female he saw. The implant reacted as it should, releasing a stim shot into his bloodstream. It didn’t decrease the effects of the pheromone, his pants were still tight in the crotch, but he was more aware mentally than he would have been. What it did do was highten his sense, the smell of sex clung to her like a perfume. Jass had to swallow as images of doing obscene things to her on the nearest table filled his mind. Without the stim shot he doubted he could keep his cool and not be blindsided by her pheromones.

Jass had felt that way before, quickly his blue eyes danced about and they met what should have been a pair of purple eyes, instead it was a single eye and another patched over staring back at him. Jass watched as the woman sauntered over to him and wound herself around him as if he was an old lover. Jass had to stop and think, was she an old lover? He took a second glance at the girl’s face, she didn’t look familiar, and Jass only could remember ever being with two Zeltron females. Of course on Zeltron you were lucky to remember anything that happened the next morning. One time Jass woke up tied to a bed, which wouldn’t have been so bad if someone had come back to let him out. He was there for a day before the resorts cleaning crew came to freshen the room and found a bound, naked, Corellian with a freshly shave, lower, area.

“Ah, Zeltron”

Jass thought with a chuckle, his foggy mind recalling what he could from that week he spent there. Most of what he could remember was sheer pleasure and a woman’s moan. In his current state though that did little to quell the urge to coax them from the lips of another member of the fairer sex, and urgently; taking a breath Jass returned to the here and now. With a small force of will, he managed to tear his eyes off the woman long enough to steal a glance around the cantina. It seemed like his loins were not the only one affected by her secretions. Jass did have an advantage over most, the clarity provided by the bump of stim allowed him to take stock of the woman.

She had the air of a woman who was used to getting what she wanted, no matter whether it was from a man or woman. If sex was a weapon, then she was a loaded and cocked blaster full of it, a sex pistol. Jass could only grin; it appeared that she had set her sights on him as her next mark. If that was the game, Jass could play too.

“Is that so?”

The Corellian flashed his roguish grin and let her watch as he looked her up and down appraisingly.

“Sure, I like them well enough… and from my experiences I made sure they walked, or limped away liking Corellian’s just the same.”

He said as his eyes wandered up her body to meet hers once again. She held onto his right arm, but he lifted his left and rested his open palm just over his right pectoral, where he could quickly pull the “Deathhammer” holstered in its shoulder rig. He wasn’t conspicuous about but he didn’t hide the motion either.

Before she had the chance to reply, this mysterious contractor entered the cantina. He started calling out names, and when he got to Jass, the Corellian was mildly surprised the man knew who he was. Jass wasn’t hiding out from anyone, or anything like that. Just, he hadn’t pulled any jobs of note since being on his own name. Jass was a smuggler by trade, that meant transport, he was cool with that, but assaulting another ship? His vessel didn’t have quite the firepower needed to make that happen. Sure he ran a CEC ship which almost begged to be modified, and it could be done, provided he had the credits.

The man had Jass at a disadvantage, he seemed to know him well enough to pick him out of a crowd, but Jass knew next to nothing about him.

“I’m game as long as you’re paying, 75,000 sounds agreeable. But seeing as I don’t know you, I’m going to need ½ up front. For me and…”

Jass turned to look Lynorri up and down again before looking back to the man.

“My partner. As an investment in the job.”

The man considered this for a moment then glanced around as other in the smugglers were nodding. He suppressed a grimace and nodded.

”Done.”

With that, the man continued to pass out jobs to those willing to take them. Once it was over, he made his way to Jass and Lynorri. He made a show of eyeing the Corellian, it was a bold move to make such a demand, but the man made good on his word and produced a datapad. He inserted a blank credit chip and coded it for 40,000 credits before pulling it out and handing it to Jass, then glancing at Lynorri he did the same coding it for 13,000 credits and handing it to her.

”This is a good faith payment Quin-val, make sure it gets done, or you won’t need to worry about the Black Sun loan sharks, do we understand each other?”

Jass smirked and stared back into his eyes and nodded.

”Sure thing boss. You know what they say, “Lofahchu ets pyroni vyoryn viske.” ²

When he left the pair of them Jass looked over at Lynorri and grinned. What she said, or at least what she implied wasn’t lost on him. He was enjoying her company already.

”I wasn’t looking for a shipmate. What can you do for me, huh? To ensure I’d even want to give you the ride of your life?”

He grinned and stared into her eye once more, letting his own eyes wander down her body and back up before he turned and began to walk over to the bar. He nodded to Tender droid and ordered a bottle of Corellian whiskey and a pair of glasses. Taking the bottle, which was some cheap knock-off of Whyren’s Reserve, in a similar looking bottle with a similar looking label, and handing it to his new friend, Then taking the pair of glasses he walked with her to a booth out of in the corner and out of the way, so that they could get better acquainted with out the prying eyes of the other patrons.


Translation:
1- Expletive in Old Corellian
2- Loyalty is a smuggler's worst vice.

[Anjea Skirata]

Anjea Hated the Hutts. Not as in, "Oh Force, I hate that," but as in, "Holy Osik I'm going to tear you into tiny pieces, shove them up a bantha's shebs, feed him fiber, then light his hole on fire as you come shooting out." More than hating them, she hated being bullied and suckered into working for them. Nonetheless, it was preferable to loosing any clout she might have gained as a bounty hunter already or in the future.

She stood in a sleazy Nar Shaddaa bar in an even sleazier outfit. The owner of the bar "purchased" her from the Hutt, on the assumption that she would make the male patrons more eager to buy ale and whiskey than the serving droids. He wasn't at all wrong in his assumption. She wore a slinky golden bikini, that showed off her "ass"ets extremely well. She was a toned and curvy girl, and her chest filled out the top too well. Under the golden metal was a see through mesh of emerald green that complimented her waist length curly red hair brilliantly. She had a slave collar around her neck, but the chain had been removed so that she could move around the bar easily. Her skin was usually ivory pale, but the Tatooine suns had given her a slight colour, but not much. Her hazel eyes seemed more green against the fabric, and her plump and full lips were painted a pale red.

Anjea had been placed in this bar as an information sponge. She was to liquor up the mercs that passed through and find out who this mysterious being was that kept sabotaging the Hutts' plans. Once that knowledge was gained, and relayed to the Hutt, her family's name would not be black listed and they would release her ship and armor.

The small tray in her hand was heavy with tihaar and ne'tra gal bottles. She internally growled as a half drunk merc grabbed her backside for the hundredth time tonight. She smiled down at him, though the smile never touched her eyes, and said, "Now now, if you keep handling the merchandise, you will have to buy it!"

He, as well as his friends, laughed and pulled her forcefully down into his lap. She nearly lost the tray but recovered it, setting it down on the table and passing them all a round. She gave a small giggle and leaned back against the chest of the merc, "My my, what big..." she wiggled her hips, "Armor you have. How's about showing a girl all about it."

The man grinned, then stopped, looking up at the door. Anjea blinked and looked around, seeing a Zeltron slink her way inside and towards one of the other men in the bar. She must have done that pheromone thing they like to do, as all the men were oogling at her. She gave a roll of her eyes and looked back at the merc of who's lap she was perched. He shook his head and grinned at her once more, telling her all about his armor. She assumed he thought she had no clue, being a simple serving girl, and she gave him the satisfaction, acting amazed and interested.

"If they only knew," she thought. She could have dealt with the Hutt black listing her, she would have done a lot to avoid it, but not this. However, she would do literally anything to avoid it for her family. She screwed up, they shouldn't suffer for it. She was fignering the merc's chest plate when someone came into the bar and started calling people out, assigning them jobs. "Is this the guy?" she thought to herself, watching the room as people took their jobs, mostly without question. She didn't exactly disagree with what the guy was doing, but she couldn't afford to oppose the Hutt at the moment. It made her skin crawl.

She must have actually shivered as the man wrapped his arms around her and said, "You cold in that little thing? I can warm you up good."

She gave a laugh and wormed out of his grip, giving him a simple bop on the nose with one finger, "Maybe in a bit, I've got to make sure my customers aren't thirsty." After another slap on the backside, she slid away from the table. She went behind the bar and made as if she was bending down to gather more bottles, and pressed the collar on her neck. It gave a slight buzz and she said, barely audible, "He's here, they are about to move out."

It was her signal to the other hands that the Hutt had placed around to catch this guy. She had notified them and they would come slowly, tailing the guy from here. Anjea stood with an armful of bottles and set them down on the bar's surface, and adjusted herself back into her top. Force, she couldn't stand this outfit. She wasn't a side of nerf that was on market for sale. She loaded another tray, and was about to take it around the dining area when the man called for a "Quin-Val". She froze and looked around, spying the man that responded.

That di'kut was the reason she was stuck in this mess. That was the di'kut that almost lost her her bounty, and put her family at risk. She caught herself glaring at him, but blinked it away and went about serving the drinks. She eyed him out of the corner of her vision. He was the one that Zeltron had wrapped herself around. Were they in on things together? She made an effort to keep her face pleasant, keeping a seductive but sweet smile on her full lips.

Jass Quin-Val wasn't unfortunate looking, quite the contrary. She was handsome, and he exuded sexuality. Anjea couldn't tell if it was because of flying pheromones or he was naturally gifted. She wasn't inclined to figure it out through the loathing she had for him at the moment. She smirked at the thought that at least she blew his leg off.

She went about her business, making idle chit chat with the mercs of whom she served, picking up tips and information that was willingly spilled from tipsy lips. Any bonus information she could send the Hutts' way was added security for her family's name to be erased completely from those that would black list it. After a round of tables and booths, she ended up at a booth in the back. She looked up to see the Zeltron and the di'kut. She had to steal herself for a moment and regain her smile. She gave a small bow of her head and torso and said quietly, to cover her falter, "Those pheromones. They work well on either sex." She stood again and added, "Is there anything I may bring you? It's my pleasure to serve."

[Lynorri Starfall]

Lynorri had her datapad out and pulled up her various tools as she prepared to give the man a demonstration of a small sample of what she could bring to the table. She was intrigued by his resistance. Normally men just tripped over themselves to have her body for a moment and wanted nothing more. This man though, there was a substance to him. It wasn't tangible, but oh it was there. It turned her on and made her actively want him rather than just simply allowing him to have her. She hoped he would live up to her growing expectations and not turn out to be a disappointment.

Then the waitress came over and foiled her planned demonstration. She needed to think quickly.

"Is there anything I may bring you? It's my pleasure to serve."

Then a twiddle came from her datapad. She scowled at it, not liking what it was telling her. Now she definitely had to get rid of this waitress until she could figure out why someone would build a comlink into a slave collar. Quickly, she slid the datapad under the table to her new partner so that he could read the screen while she acted.

She glared up at the woman. She chose to act as if she was jealous of the barmaid for trying to flirt with him and muscle in on her man. She dismissed her with a frosty word and insisted the server droid be sent over instead of the bitchy waitress. A scene was starting to develop and eyes were watching. Smugglers were whisting and telling the bikini clad woman she could come flirt with them all night and day. Some sneered and snickered at the way she was burned and others placed bets on how much trouble she was going to be in for angering the customers. Lynorri then pulled Jass to her and made a show of making out with him and kissing him passionately, hoping to add insult to injury and send the waitress away without another word.

[Jass Quin-Val]

Jass settled into the booth, it was one of those ideal for patrons who didn’t want to be seen. There was no direct light over head, only the glow of the other burning lights lit the area dimly. It was perfect for say a handsome smuggler and sexy new friend to get to know each other a little better. The cantina they sat in didn’t do justice to the term seedy; seedy would have been an upgrade from where this place was, however there was almost an honest nature to it. You could always count on these people here to try to rob, kidnap, or otherwise maim or inflict bodily harm upon you. There were no false illusions about intentions. Aside from the overpriced booze it really was a descent place. As long as you didn’t mind the carbon scaring on the wall, right about the height were your head was.

Jass had to do a double take as he looked at the edge of the table opposite the side of Lynorri, “Kriffing, is that blood?” he thought and shook his head. Class, total class this place was. Jass set the glasses next to each other before taking the bottle and pouring a pair of drinks, filling each glass about a third of the way. Setting the bottle back down, he glanced at Lynorri. She actually pulled out her data pad and was looking like she was pulling up some inventory. Perhaps he misjudged her cues after all.

Shrugging mentally he set the glass down in front of her and took a drink of his own. The dark caramel color whiskey wasn’t the best he had, but it wasn’t bad, not as flavorful and wouldn’t be surprised to find it was watered down. Just as well, with her pheromones causing certain biological reactions, perhaps it was best he didn’t get too deep into his drink. Oh, Vissek would not let him hear the end of this.

Slipping an arm around the back of head read so he could lean over to see her screen. He heard another voice and Jass threw a cursory glance in the speaker’s direction before having to take a second look again. His blue eyes slowly wandered up the body of the serving girl. “Are you kriffing kidding me?” Jass thought to himself. “Do they just grow smoking hot women on Nar Shaddaa or what?!” Maybe it was Lynorri’s pheromones, maybe this girl was just that naturally good looking but he found it hard to tear his eyes away from her. There was some unseen trait about her, she didn’t seem downtrodden, her spirit wasn’t beat up, she seemed too eager to please. Jass’ faculties came back to him and he took another look at her. She didn’t look like she was a spice addict or used deathsticks. Maybe she was new, but she seemed a little too self assure to be just a serving girl.

His suspicions were confirmed a moment later when Lynorri slid her datapad under the table to Jass. He took it in his hands and glanced down at the screen of the datapad and furrowed his brow at the read out then leaned down make sure he was reading it right. He threw Lynorri a quick glance then let his eyes shoot over to the serving girl before sitting back and tossing back the rest of his glass and setting it back down on the table. The gears were already turning in Jass’ head as he tried to piece together who this girl was; she had to be a plant if she had a comm. link. Then again she could just be a prostitute who had a comlink in her collar to notify her pimp she had a client. But there were those other things that still didn’t add up, sure it was possible that hard lifestyle hadn’t worn her down, but it wasn’t likely.

Jass was about to open his mouth when Lynorri beat him to the punch, getting confrontational with the serving girl, Jass almost felt bad for the girl. Cute didn’t even begin to describe her, and she was just being nice and friendly and probably trying to do her job. Perhaps that was the pheromones kicking in. Either way, Jass didn't have time to protest before the small Zeltron woman grabbed his duster in her small pink fist and with surprising strength pulled him to her. There was an instant of surprise before his lips touched hers and he found his body automatically responding to the action, pressing his mouth to hers and returning the kiss back. His body must have experienced some type of biochemical reaction because another dose of stim was released into his system. A moment later Jass, very hesitantly, pulled back from the kiss and cleared his throat.

“Um, no…. we’re good here. I think we were just leaving….”

Jass had to have another drink to take the edge off. He reached out and poured himself another glass of whiskey and downed it in a single swallow. Then looking over at his new partner, he smiled.

“What do you say we take this back to my ship.”

It was less a question, and more a statement of, “…this is where I’m going, you should come with.” Jass capped the bottle and slid out from the booth, grabbing it as he walked over to the bar to close out his tab. As he did walk he took out his own comm and told Vissek to prepare the ship for a new crew-mate, as well as the quest quarters.

[Anjea Skirata]

She watched the man's cool eyes float over her body and she found herself arching her back and pushing her chest forward for his pleasure. Later, she would have to gloat about it as she blew something else off his body. She could tell that he was also sizing her up, as was the woman. She heard the datapad beep and blinked down at it, then back up at the bottle of whiskey. She was about to excuse herself when the Zeltron opened her mouth.

Anjea mentally raised her eyebrow as the Zeltron made a scene. However, to keep up her front, she physically cowered in front of the woman. She glanced aside as the cat calls and whistles played in her ears, and she forced a few tears to fall down her cheeks. She wanted to put pieces of the woman on the floor, but she didn't dare blow her cover. Instead, she gave the pair a curtsy and pushed the side of her slave collar, speaking meekly, "JV, booth six requests the serving droid wait on them."

She lifted her hand with a forced sniffle and wiped at her face, glaring at the woman while she was turned away, her face suctioned to the man's. Before she could turn and walk away, a run down JV-Z1 butler droid shuffled over to the table. As the two parted, Anjea gave another curtsy and said, "Forgive me for intruding Mistress, Master. JV will assist you further."

She turned and walked away, hunching in on herself, just as the man began to speak. She didn't stop to listen, only acted as if she'd been hurt by the words and sulked away from the table. Inside, she was steaming. If she hadn't been in this situation, that woman would not be breathing still. That datapad had no doubt picked up on the comlink in her collar. At least she'd had a good reason for it in front of them. It was actually convenient to be in contact with the droid in that manner, she made it clean up messes she didn't feel like dealing with.

She skittered around the other tables, timidly smiling as the other patrons tried to cheer her up. She gathered the orders, as well as a few juicy tidbits of information about this new raid against the Hutt, and headed towards the bar to fill the orders. She stopped a few steps from the bar as she saw the man standing there. She wasn't exactly upset that he was there, she was the one that would have to close his tab, it was part of her job. The owner wasn't afraid of her stealing the money, he watched her as she made each transaction. It wasn't like she had anywhere to hide it anyways, did people see what she was wearing, or what she wasn't wearing?

Maybe it would be a slap in the face to the Zeltron. Like she thought before, he was definitely not an unfortunate looking guy. He had a great ass, now that she could see him from behind. But she was still mad at him. She smirked to herself and put her timid and hurt face back on. Anjea stepped around the bar and faced him, giving a curtsy once more, her eyes never going quite to his face. "How may I assist you sir?"

[Lynorri Starfall]

"Touché..." Lynorri was forced to admit as the damnable schutta inserted herself in their business yet again and ruined her opportunity to display her skills. All might not be lost however. As Jass dealt with paying the tab, she quickly went to work. In a matter of seconds she had JV's security protocol bypassed and was connecting her datapad. She added her program quickly and then instructed the droid's memory to wipe once the program was completed. It would then delete itself and not even the droid would know it was there. With Jass being checked out by the woman who wouldn't be the one who bedded him this night, as he paid for that knock-off bottle of imitation Corellian whiskey, it should prevent her actions from being noticed until it was too late.

Closing the hatch as Jass finished dealing with bikini girl, she caught up to him and took his hand. She pulled back slightly as they neared the door, urging him to pause for a second as the droid caught up to them. The droid had brought them a bottle of the top shelf, genuine bottle of of Whyren’s Reserve from the owner's private stash not available for sale.

"I told you I had skills fly-boy. Now I suggest we split before this droid gets deactivated so they can pick its memory apart for the program they won't find." The droid said as she took the bottle of the good stuff from him. As soon as she did so, the program deleted itself and the droid's memory wiped itself clean. "I say how did I get over here. What a time to get a memory wipe. In the middle of my shift no less. How embarrassing." The droid continued as she stepped into the Nar Shaddaa night pulling Jass along with her with a smile and a fresh excretion of pheromones.

"You asked earlier what I could do for you in regards to our current assignment. Though I can't yet afford a ship of my own, I have a scoundrel's skills. I'm not bad with repairs, I'm better with bypassing security systems, and I'm best at slicing a computer and having my way with it like a hard lover on soft satin sheets."

[Jass Quin-Val]

Few things get to a guy like a dame who looks on the verge of spilling buckets. Perhaps it is some baser instinct to spring into dominate male mode and protect the girl. Men have egos; Corellian Men have egos the size of capital cruisers, and often with the same kind of firepower. So when Jass looked up into the eyes of the serving girl who just a moment ago scurried away from his table he offered her a kind smile and nodded to her. Jass wasn’t a fool, he knew this girl wasn’t a mere serving girl, despite her rouse; there were too many things that didn’t add up. That didn’t mean she was a plant, sure she was probably thrown a few credits here and there to repeat anything she overheard, but the way she moved and worked the room. Yeah Jass was willing to put money on the fact that she was a prostitute.

“Yeah, I just want to close out my tab. Hey, sorry about that misunderstanding. “

He allowed his eyes to take in the pretty features of the girl’s face. She was definitely cute, such a shame. Jass waited for her to process his tab before sliding his credit chip into the reader and paying for the bottle of whiskey, it was over priced and watered down, but it wasn’t like he was in a top-notch bar. He keyed in the price of the bottle, then through in a generous tip for the serving girl before flashing her a roguish smile. Then, tucking the credit chip away and thanking her once again as Lynorri slid up to him and took his hand into hers.

Glancing over at her, his smile broadened and he moved with her toward the exit, she slowed down form a moment, and Jass came to a stop. His blue eyes shot up and around the cantina. His eyes passed over faces and hands doing a basic threat assessment.

“What? Was it?”

Instinct causing Jass to drop his right hand down, his deft fingers brushing over the fastening holding the strap securing his Bryar pistol in its holster on his right thigh. His paranoia proved to be unfounded when the server droid rolled up and produced a bottle of Corellia’s finest, Whyren’s Reserve. Jass was shocked, Whyren’s Reserve was expensive, a delicacy, kind of rare. However this being the Smugglers Moon after all, he shouldn’t be surprised, you could get almost anything here.

Reaching out and taking the bottle Jass looked to the droid as it started to speak. He gave an approving glance at Lynorri and smirked as he backed away, pulled along by Lynorri into the city as they headed for the spaceport where his ship was parked. Jass had to admit, he was impressed. From the moment she walked in the cantina till he left to pay the tab he had more or less kept his eyes on Lynorri. She had made a quick slice into the droid’s programming.

“So, a slicer huh? Well that can be very useful.”

He commented as they walked down the walkway, as they walked, they passed a Trandoshan beggar. Jass handed over the cheap booze; they wouldn’t need it now that they had a bottle of the good stuff. Jass was careful not to talk about the job while they walked toward the spaceport. It wasn’t long till they arrived at his ship. Pulling out his comm. Jass doubled clicked it and waited. A second later a chittering voice came over the comm.. Jass chuckled and replied in basic.

“Yes, this is our new partner… open the ramp.”

The voice came back over the comm. and it didn’t sound too pleased. Jass glanced at Lynorri, looked her up and down and replied.

“That won’t be a problem.”

Without another word Jass slid his comm. back and the boarding ramp lowered for them to ascend into the ship. A Corellian Engineering Corporation model FA-504s, it was one of the lesser known and liked models that CEC put out. It did not have the disc shape that the YT-Series of transports had and were made popular by Han Solo and his "Millennium Falcon". That made it less expensive and more affordable to a smuggler who had earned some renown but was still looking to establish a name for himself.

“My crewmate thinks I should check you for weapons or other malicious items. I think We’re going to have to do a strip search, I have to agree.”

He grinned and cast a wink at her before heading up the ramp into his ship.

[Anjea Skirata]

Anjea rang up Jass' bill and waited for him to pay. She was glad that he used a credits chip so that she wouldn't have to pretend that she didn't know how to count out change. She pushed the button that would authorize the transaction and glanced up at his face, "No need to be sorry. I apologize if my presence was threatening to you're mate. I'd be jealous too."

She paused and realized that that was a comment above the place of a serving girl, so she quickly looked down and added, "Forgive me, was not my place."

She nodded to him as his transaction cleared and turned, having seen that the Zeltron was making her way towards their direction, and disappeared into the storage room behind the bar. She'd had enough for one night. She was tired to being seen as a common whore or a piece of meat on the market for sale. She found a tall crate of ale near the back of the long storage room and sat on it, letting her tears fall freely where no one could see. She heard JV come in, then go back out, and didn't care enough to turn around to see why.

Her hatred of the Hutts grew ten fold. She folded her arms across her bare stomach and hunched in on herself, trying to let out her emotions quietly before returning to the floor. After a moment or two, she pulled a datapad out of it's hiding place on a nearby shelf and typed in the information she had gathered over the course of the evening. She submitted it to the Hutt on planet who were overseeing her stay here, and she waited.

It was a long five minutes before she got her reply. The message she received back was, "Follow them. Your family's name was... lost... on it's way to the black listing. Make sure those slaves reach where they were sent to ensure it doesn't find it's way back. Retrieve your things at the nearest star port." When she was finished reading, the collar's snap clicked open and it fell off of her neck. She rubbed where it had been. The information she sent must have been what they were looking for, and she would follow, but not for the reasons the Hutt wanted.

She was about to stand when the bar's owner came stomping into the storage room. He marched over and kicked the crate she was sitting on, hard enough to make her fall off of it to the floor. "Get up and get back out there! Drinks don't sell themselves, girl! Oh yeah, pretty boy left you a tip. You must have made an impression on him." He tossed it on the ground in front of her.

Anjea pushed herself up and stood, giving the man a sultry smile. He raised his eyebrow at her and crossed his arms as she slid over to him. She moved behind him and purred in his ear, her hands lifting to caress his cheeks, "Right away... chakaar." Then, she broke his neck.

His dead body fell to the floor. She stripped him of his clothing and donned it, discarding the trash she had been wearing, gathered the money he had thrown at her, and slipped out the back of the bar before anyone could see her. She headed for the nearest spaceport and found her ship waiting for her. She inspected it from the outside and found two tracking discs, of which she pulled off and destroyed immediately. Once inside, she ran a shipwide diagnostic to search for any damage. Her armor was waiting for her, and while she waited for the scans, she went to the refresher to rid herself of the stink of the slum bar.

~~~~~

She walked back into the cockpit as she placed the last bit of armor on her chest, and read over the scans. Her ship was fine, but there had been a slave circuit wired into the nav computer. She glared at the screen and looked over at the navigational panel, and promptly went about deactivating the slave circuit and uninstalling it from her ship. No one would command her ship but her. She wasn't worried about anyone tampering with her beskar'gam, because it would only respond to her voice and visual commands. She also contacted her father and told him all that had happened.

She dumped the extra wiring outside her ship with the tracking discs, then secured her ship as she made her way back through the city, in full armor and armaments. She was no longer afraid of what the Hutt could do, as her father and uncles were now fully involved. She bought a few supplied, but kept the money that Jass had tipped her, as she had a plan for it. She had the supplies delivered to her ship, and loaded them on board when she arrived back to it.

Then she laid in the coordinates of where the slaving ship was to be on it's way to it's destination, and headed for it, to screw over the Hutt.

[Lynorri Starfall]

Lynorri smiled and followed Jass to his quarters where she took hold of him and kissed him. She then turned around and bent over slightly, rubbing her butt against the swell in his flight suit as she brought his hands up under her top to cup them over her breasts. She lowered her own hands and let her utility belt and pants fall to the floor before lifting her hands so that her shirt could be removed. She submitted to being frisked, making sure to guide his hand between her legs under the transparent guise of making sure she had no weapon there.

I should frisk you too.

Kissing his lips, she moved to undress him. As she did so, she pulled on his clothing to lead him towards the bed. When they reached it, she fell backwards onto the bed with her legs spread. She pulled him down on top of her as she did so.

You like what you see? Or do you need to inspect me further?

[Jass Quin-Val]

Jass didn’t really subscribe to a belief system per se, sure there was some greater power which created the universe, some called it the Force, some called it the work of a God, or Gods, and still some said it was a random act of circumstances. Jass didn’t know, and to be honest, he really didn’t care. If you wanted to slap a label on Jass’ believes, you’d call him a hedonist. Hedonism is the belief that pleasure is the only natural “good” there is out there. Now that wasn’t to say that the means by which said pleasure is secured isn’t always good its self, but that was an argument for someone who cared.

After he led Lynorri into the ship he closed the boarding ramp and introduced her to his Selonian partner Vissek who seemed less than happy to be bringing on a female into the crew and on a job. Jass gave him reassurances that he’d check her out thoroughly. If Vissek caught the meaning, he didn’t let it show on his face.

In a gesture of placation, Jass gave him the credit chip and instructed Vissek to arrange a few upgrades for their ship, Jass gave him the quick details and told him that they’d need to upgrade the firepower and the power core. While he left his partner to the details, Jass led Lynorri to the Captain’s quarters where they proceeded to pat each other down.

Jass was a guy who didn’t like doing a job half-assed. So when she moved to the bed he continued to probe and inspect her. For the sake of security, really. Jass inspected her with fingers, mouth, hands, and another appendage before finding her more than willing to use the same hand and mouth method to check him out. In these matters, it really is better for both parties to be sure. Jass inspected her on his bed, against the bulk head, bent over his table, and in the fresher, twice.

[-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-]

Jass awoke after a mutually beneficial nap, he found his new Zeltron partner sprawled atop of him. Her nude body pressed up against his with her head resting on his chest and half straddling his leg. Jass smiled and drew in a deep breath as groaned and stretched. He hadn’t been inspected that good since, well ever now that he thought about it.

“Thank goodness for safety precautions.”

He said softly, a smile tinging his words as he looked over at the chrono, several hours had passed and sometime during their inspections Jass had felt the vibration and tilt of the ship as it left port and moved to wherever Vissek needed to go in order to get started on those upgrades. Memories of the hours before filled his mind causing him to smile more. Without moving too much, Jass reached over and took the bottle of Whyren’s Reserve and a whiskey glass they had set out sometime between inspections but never got around to using. Jass poured himself a glass and leaned up to take a sip. It was like paradise in a bottle. Warm, subtle notes of flavor danced over his tongue causing a self-indulgent groan to escape as he swallowed his sip.

“Can life get any kriffing better?”

He asked to himself as he eyed the caramel colored liquor in his glass, then glanced down at the beautiful naked woman draped over him. His moment of feeling like Emperor was cut short when the comm. near his bed activated and Vissek’s dour chittering tone came over the comm. informing Jass that the upgrades were near complete, they were just waiting for the system scan to finish its analysis of the new core to see if everything was stable. Jass blinked, ”That was fast.” He thought to himself. Though Vissek and he had been partners for a while now, there was still so much he didn’t know about his past. Selonian’s were remarkable when it came to technology, that crafty critter must have had contacts waiting in the wings for just an occasion when they could afford to put some money back into their ship.

Vissek’s voice came over the comm. asking if he heard him and Jass was forced to delay his second sip in order to reply to him. Vissek was a male Selonian, as far as Jass could figure, he was sterile and there for had none of the biological urges to mate, because well, it was pointless, in reproductive terms. So much of what motivated Jass to do what he did was lost on him. Vissek was very much Jass’ counter balance; his yin to Jass’ yang. Taking up the comm. from the bedside table he clicked it and replied.

“Yes, I heard you. Awful quick to have those upgrades done what, eight hours?”

Vissek chittered away with emphatic disapproval.

“A DAY?!”

Jass had to chuckle and glance down at Lynorri, you know what they say, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Then Jass did have to take a sip before he added.

“Still, fast.”

The comm. was silent, he was sure he annoyed Vissek. Not that he was opposed to new crew mates, or to females, mostly. But this ship was his home; the Selonian had almost a fanatical obsession with the care of the ship. Even though Jass may have owned it, and gave the orders, Vissek tended to and oversaw the ship as if it was his sole charge in life.

Jass set the comm. down and looked down at Lynorri as he passed his hand through her hair. Enjoying the last few moments with what was left in his glass, and the warmth of her body against him before it was time to get to work.

“Hedonism, I kriffing love it.”

[Lynorri Starfall]

Lynorri reached over Jass, rubbing her naked breast against him, to pour herself a glass of the fine Corellian whiskey and to pour him a refill. She smiled at him as she did so. She hadn't been this satisfied after an inspection since... She couldn't think of a time off hand which didn't rule out the possibility but meant that it had certainly been a while ago.

"To hedonism."

She clinked her glass lightly to his and downed the whiskey like it was a glass of water in the middle of the Tattooine desert. Having two livers made it quite easy for her to hold her liquor. She enjoyed its fine taste and was reluctant to get up. Eventually they would have to get up, but she didn't particularly want to rush it.

Pouring another round she decided they could enjoy each other for just a bit longer as they discussed their plan.

"So exactly are we going to stop a ship full of slaves from making it to Kessel?"

[Jass Quin-Val]

Corellian’s are known for being as rich (in personality), flavorful, strong, and as artfully crafted as their liquor. However, they still didn’t have the benefit of having a Zeltron anatomy; namely the second liver which allowed them to enjoy copious amounts of alcohol with greater efficiency than humans. Jass had to stop his partner from refilling his glass too much lest he make some bumbling, half cocked plan and get them all killed or turned into slaves themselves. Drawing Lynorri closer to him and sipping his whiskey, Jass stared blankly at the bulkhead as he ran through what he knew from what he didn’t about the situation.

“All that was said to us was make sure these dozen slaves don’t get to Kessel. He didn’t say rescue them, he didn’t say bring them to him. For all we know he would be fine with us vaping the ship en route. Not that I would do that.”

He cast a glance down at her and nodded reassuringly before taking another drink.

“Twelve slaves? That isn’t exactly a great work force, so the slaves mean less to him than their presence on Kessel.”

He paused as he mentally tried out the equation with several different variables before continuing,

“Well, we would need to find the specific hyperspace route. If they’re coming from Vinsoth that also means there is a good likelihood that the slaves will be Chev. I probably could carry eight or nine of them, this is a small cargo transport, and well didn't the report say there was a dozen? I don't want to leave any behind. So the better option would be to either intercept them as they leave Visoth, catch them at one of the jump points, or just outside Kessel’s orbit. I think the best course of action would be take out their engines, board the ship, you can slice your way into the cockpit and we can take it over. Vissek can run escort detail in the Ke’dem Jeboe’i.“

Jass took a final sip, savoring the flavor of his drink.

“We are a lot closer to Kessel than to Vinsoth, if they wanted to avoid pirates, that means they’d probably travel the Hydian Way towards the core then hit the Perlemian Trade Route toward the outer rim.”

Jass grunted and shifted as he reached over for his comm. and double clicking it and waiting for Vissek to reply.

“Or they could take the Hydian Way to the Corellian Run, travel through Hutt Space to get to Kessel. It is the longer way but it affords more safety.”

Vissek voice came over the comm. devoid of any malice or mal content.

“Hey, what information have you managed to gather? By my figuring they’d either have to travel the...”

Vissek chittered away cutting him off.

“Always one step ahead of me buddy. How we doing on…”

Vissek cut in again forcing a scowl from Jass when the Selonian stopped Jass looked down at Lynorri, he hadn’t realized that he had been idly stroking her body as he had been thinking out loud and talking, well listening to Vissek. Jass threw Lynorri a wink and waited for Vissek to finish, when he did Jass waited, a moment later Vissek asked if he heard him. Jass let Vissek wait for a moment before replying.

“Yeah, I heard you. I’ll be out in a second. Oh hey Vissek, I checked Lynorri out as thoroughly as I know how, she isn’t carrying anything that would do the ship or us harm.”

Vissek’s reply was short and his tone seemed pleased.

Jass put down the comm. and set down his and her glass and smiled.

“That crazy, Selonian critter works in mysterious ways; Vissek managed to get into contact with someone he knew and found out that the ship is taking the long way. They departed Vinsoth about 4 hours ago. Vissek said his people saw a ship matching one that departed the Vinsoth system, stop for a micro-jump to change course in the Corellia system. A Wayfarer-class transport, named Nibobo Killee, or the Killer Contract, in Huttese. Sounds like our ship!”

Jass leaned down and kissed her fiercely for several long moments before slapping her on the ass and slipping out of bed to dress.

“Do you need some clothes? I mean I’ll be fine if you choose to walk around naked, but I can understand if you want to put a little something on. Until we do laundry.”

Jass grinned and waited for her to dress before moving out to meet Vissek.

The Ke’dem Jeboe’I was a Corellian Engineering Corporation model FA-504s, it was fairly stock, the smuggling duo couldn’t afford to invest much money into the ship. This was the first chance they had enough credits enough to do so. CEC ships practically begged to be modded out. It went with the Corellian’s predisposition toward freedom, to rebel against convention, and pre-established thoughts and ideas. Corellian’s learned to fly about the same time they were learning to walk.

Selonian’s were brilliant when it came to technology, and Vissek had contacts from a past he wished to not speak about. Jass didn’t question it as long as it yielded results, and so far they have. As the pair approached the cockpit, Vissek glanced up from a display and nodded to Jass and a hesitant second later to Lynorri before handing over a datapad to Jass and chittering away about what had been done.

The powercore has been upgraded to a Quadex power core, to power a top mounted, 3-barreled rotary laser canon (R-9x cannons). This design only allowed for one barrel to be fired at a time, but greatly increased the rate of fire. Also a pair of SW-7a light ion cannons, and lastly GN-40 twin blaster cannons. All in all it wasn’t a whole lot of fire power, but it was what they could afford for the job. Vissek had used all of the advance payment and had to give a couple IOU’s to his mod dealers, not much only another thousand credits or so. Not bad, they’d be able to make that up when they completed the mission.

Jass blew out a whistle and leaned back in the captain’s chair as he looked to both his partners.

“Well then, now we have the right shoes on to dance, we just need to get to the party. By my figuring…”

Jass turned to type away at the nav-computer.

“We have 6 hours to get to the most likely intercept point. Based on their last known trajectory. I say we get moving. Unless there are any exceptions?”

Jass glanced at Lynorri knowing Vissek would have secured what they needed to already. Hearing no objection, Jass turned and fired up the ship and took the ship out headed to the intercept point just outside Hutt Space near Rishi. They would arrive a couple hours before their contact ship was due to drop out of hyperspace to reorient for their next jump.

“This is how I see it going. We jump the ship as soon as she drops out of hyperspace, we disable her engines. From there we dock, Lynorri can use her slicing skills to get us into the ship, from there we work our way to the cockpit taking out any crew we can find. That Wayfarer may have a couple fighters stored in its cargo hold ready to launch to deal with any type of attack. Vissek you will fend them off till we can take the ship. From there we divert the ship… somewhere not to far…. Bothawui?”

Jass glanced up at his partners to see if they had anything else to add as they speed away to intercept the slaves.

[Lynorri Starfall]

Lynorri had been running her finger nails ever so lightly between his thighs as he stroked her body and calculated their best plan. She had been hoping that passionate kiss would have led to another inspection, but Jass was right about then having a job to get done. She considered his offer of walking around the ship naked. She enjoyed pleasing those who took the time to please her. And ohhhhh he need how to do an inspection. Mmmmmm she couldn't wait to be inspected again, for security purposes of course... If that euphemism pleased their pilot, then he could use it all night long.

She only decided to dress because without her clothing her utility belt with her tools and weapons would chafe. Well that and because she did want to look somewhat professional when the story was told that would hopefully affect her reputation in such a way that would lead to her receiving more jobs than paid escort.

Every aspect of the plan that Jass presented sounded spot on and well thought out. She didn't have anything to add really. She ought to be able to slice what they needed to slice. She would spend their time en route researching the standard security used by the Wayfarer-class medium transport manufactured by Kuat Systems Engineering.

Kuat Systems Engineering installs excellent security in there ships, but I can beat it. Vissek, sweety, you seem to be able to find out things faster than pod racer can pass a bantha. My sources would probably take 18 standard hours to get back to me. Do you think you could have you people find out if this Nibobo Killee has been modified with any security upgrades before we make the jump to light speed? Give me enough time and I could defeat whatever socketguards they have in place. But if I know who made them and who put them there before we go in, I'll have the right override codes ready and several long minutes become a few short seconds.

Lynorri took a deep breath. She knew they needed to make the jump to light speed as soon as possible. However, she wanted to be a prepared for surprises as she could be and they couldn't download modified specs from a contact over the Holonet while traveling through a hyperspace lane. She was also concerned about having overstepped with regards to making a request of Jass partner. Since he hadn't, ummmmm, inspected her, she wasn't sure that she had the right report with him. She also didn't know anything about his species and their social graces. Her pheromones usually made up for that, yet this being seemed immune to them and she found that rather disconcerting. If it hadn't been for the pleasurable inspection with Jass that she had just had, then she might think there was something wrong with her.

[Anjea Skirata]

Having a lot of Mandalorians working on the same problem, at the same time no less, was a pretty convenient way to accomplish nearly impossible tasks. While a couple of Anjea's uncles went to Kessel to handle the dealings from that end, two more arrived at Vinsoth, and they made a party of it. There wasn't exactly a shortage of mercs or hunters that wanted to screw over the Hutt, and now was their chance.

Anjea's father, Tracyn, had met her just outside of Corellian space and boarded her ship as she went to her assigned location, as a security post on the Nibobo Killee. For the plan to come together completely, she would have to keep up appearances to the Hutt until it was all over. Meanwhile, her uncles were going to do a bit of investigating on their own. They arrived giving the Hutt the impression that they wished to help ensure that the ship made it safely to deliver those slaves. While leery, the Hutt seemed willing to take the help offered, but only agreed to pay once the job was complete with nothing paid in advacnce. They, of course, agreed, not caring about the payment.

They were far from amateurs, and Anjea had the utmost confidence in them. That's why, when she boarded the slave carrying ship, she had no doubt that a few members of the small crew were already on her side. It didn't take long to convince the others to let them handle it, though, it's hard to disagree when you are unconscious and tied up in your own cargo hold. There were exactly the number of lifeforms on board that were supposed to be, so anyone scanning the ship would not grow suspicious. While her vode made sure the slaves were clothed and fed, Anjea went to the cockpit and pulled up the navigation computer to change a few things.

The next scheduled stop was near Rishi. She noted that she still hadn't seen any sign of Jass and his woman, but knew he would most likely cross their path at some point if he wanted to get paid. No matter, he wasn't hard to deal with the first time, so what would make this time any different? She smirked to herself and pulled her buy'ce off to look over the panel. It was different than her ship, but nothing she hadn't seen before. The scheduled stop at Rishi was change, so that the ship would exit hyperspace just short of Rishi space, that way, they could pull the ship in slower and Tracyn would have time to catch up to them from Corellia in Anjea's ship. If anyone was going to ambush them, like a certain annoying smuggler and his broad, they wouldn't be caught unaware and/or alone.

The Hutt were completely unaware that their ship was now no longer under thair control, nor did they expect what was to come in the near future. Anjea sat in the captain's chair when her uncle joined her in the cockpit. "They are fine, a little shaken and a lot scared, but fine," she said in Mando'a.

She looked over at him and nodded, giving him a small smile, "Thank you," she replied, also in Mando'a, "Thank you for pulling this together so quickly. If something goes wrong, we are all doubly screwed."

He laughed and nodded, "Aye, but it won't. We are all in place now. As long as they think the ship is going to make it to Kessel, then it will be fine."

Anjea sighed, pulling her knees to her chest. "Yeah, but we have to stop them sending word to Nar Shaddaa or Tatooine before we can get there. Can we do it that fast?"

Her uncle lifted his own buy'ce off and looked at her, a small smile in his eyes, "We can only try. We have people ready on Nar Shaddaa and Tatooine waiting for our signal. If we fail, it isn't your faul..."

"It is my fault," Anjea cut him off, a tear running down her cheek. "I messed up, it's my responsability and problem if we get black listed."

Her uncle looked at her, pulling her shoulders forward to make her face him, "It is Not your fault. Everything can't go perfectly as planned every single time. It was beyond your control. It is our family's problem, and our family's responsablility to see this through, whether it was just you in danger or all of us."

Anjea didn't look up at him at first, but finally did. She gave him a nod before he added, "They put you in a slave outfit? Seriously?"

She glared at him and punched his arm before laughing along with him. Wiping her face, she turned to pull the ship out of hyperspace just outside of Rishi space. The sensors picked up her own ship exiting just behind them, her father transmitting the preordaned signal so they would know all was alright. She blew out a breath as she moved the ship slowly towards Rishi. They were ready, everything that they could get in place in such a short time was ready, and waiting. Anjea scanned the area for other ships.

[Jass Quin-Val]

Vissek looked up at Lynorri as she spoke listening to her nodding in acknowledgement of her words, pulling out his datapad and began typing away at the screen making notes to himself about information he would need to research. When she was finished, Vissek began to chitter away in response explaining that when they reverted to real space he would reach out to his contacts to see what information he could gather about the ship. Jass, not knowing if Lynorri understood

Hyperspace was often a mode of transportation taken for granted, beings of the galaxy had, for thousands of years, possessed the ability to travel across the vast distances of the galaxy relatively quickly. This was done by a starship entering another state of existence, another dimension almost, that being the case it was impossible for a ship to communicate with real-space because wavelengths did not exist in hyperspace. Of course there were comm. tools such as Hypercomm receivers but they were expensive and even then it was very difficult to communicate.

Being humble smugglers, Jass had no such equipment, this meant that finding out the answers would need to wait till they reverted in the Rishi system. Which still would be ok because the way Jass plotted it out, they would have a few hours to prepare for the arrival of the Hutt transport; that worked just as well, Jass wanted to test fire the new heavy laser cannon, Jass didn’t want to try to run an assault on a ship with a weapon he didn’t personally test himself. Not that he didn’t trust Vissek’s impeccable judgment, a true gunslinger never got into a scrap without knowing how to handle his piece.

When the trio dropped out of hyperspace the comm. began to sound off with messages that had been sent to them while they traveled. Vissek began to man the comm. listening to the messages, making notations in his data pad. Jass began by slaving the turret controls to the cock pit. The trio of R-9x heavy laser cannons. These were the same type of heavy cannons mounted on B-Wing fighters, of course, illegally modified as they were, meant that if caught Jass and Vissek were looking at about a 5 year prison sentence, of course, the key phrase was “if caught”. With the new power core, they had power to spare. When they had extra credits to spare, Jass wanted to upgrade the sub-light engines, perhaps some new Girodynes. Right now Jass could make about 65 MGLT which was above average for a stock freighter of this class. Jass would like to get that up to at least 70 MGLT, Han Solo and his Millennium falcon, could make 75 MLGT, so 70 would be descent; fast enough to outrun bulk cruisers, however not quite fast enough to outrun some starfighters, that’s where his piloting skills came into play. Jass could fly boasted that he could pour, mix and serve a drink without spilling a drop or touching it. Just using his ship to do all the work, was he telling the truth? Ask him, and find out!

Sub-light speed was probably more important than what your ship’s hyperdrive was rated at. It allowed you to get to and from your location quickly, get outside the mass shadow of the planet so you could make the jump to hyperspace. Of course having a highly rated hyperdrive wasn’t bad either. The Ke’dem Jeboe’I’s (translated to “Crazy Thief’s” in Olys Corellisi) module was rated at 2.0, eventually Jass would get that to 1.0 or lower. Then he’d be on par with Mon Cal capital cruisers. However to get to that point meant he would need a lot of mods and credits.

“One day, Jassy-boy, one day.”

He muttered to himself as he flipped the last switch giving the pilot controls over the top mounted turret. Jass test fired a single bolt. It trailed off harmlessly into the void, Jass spun the cannons up and fired of a trio of bolts, one from each.

“Nice…”

Jass grinned and held down the trigger, the cannons spit out a violent stream of bolts, Jass held it down for three seconds before letting go and grinning as he thumped Vissek on the shoulder.

The Selonian chittered away and motioned to the control panel causing Jass to look at him then down to his controls.

“No way?! You can over-charge them?”

Vissek chittered some more.

“A five second burst?”

Vissek responded.

“Oh, but a 45 second cool down? That is good to know, but double the damage you say?”

Jass sounded pretty pleased with what Vissek was telling him and he proceeded to test fire all the weapons. They fired without any issue. A few moments passed and Vissek turned back to the comm. gathering the info before turning back to Lynorri and called for Jass’ attention. Vissek looked to Jass and had a grave expression upon his face. He looked at Jass and began speaking, Jass translated.

“Vissek’s sources say in Corellia the Nibobo Killee met up with a… What, are you sure?”

Vissek chittered an acknowledgment.

“An old XS Freighter, that is a unique and incredibly old ship. Vissek and I have only come across once. Fairly recently too. That frink osk’y¹ bounty hunter who took my foot!”

Vissek chittered away angerly at the mention of the Mandalorian before getting up and moving to the storage locker in the corridor just beyond the cockpit’s exit. Vissek continued to chitter away, raising his voice to compensate for the distance and his head being stuck in the locker, Jass continued to translate for him.

“Vissek says, the Nibobo Killee, is run by the Hutts, so it has a bunch of illegal upgrades. Boasting two AG-2G quad laser turrets, one dorsal on ventral and a heavy ion cannon. To avoid being boarded the ship has an anti-piracy lockdown program, effectively killing outer and possibly inner hatch controls and sending their operation to a single control pad in the cockpit. That sounds like a problem. Can you slice through that?”

Jass asked Lynorri as he looked at her wondering if he should have brought demo charges and an EV suit to breech the hull. Of course that meant a possible danger to the slaves aboard. This would be a tough nut to crack. But another 35,000 Credits would put a sizeable dent in his debt to the Black Sun, just over half of what he owed them.

Vissek came back with a large bag and setting it down and unzipping it. He looked up at Jass and chittered away.

”You took the liberty of spending some money on weapons?”

Vissek chittered of a dismissive reply and opened up the bags flaps, inside were four reverse-polarity pulse grenades, two G-20 Glop grenades, a pair of DXR6 heavy blaster carbines, extra energy packs, and a ion blaster.

Jass smiled darkly.

”Haha, Vissek!”

Jass exclaimed as he pulled out the ion blaster and looked it over.

”This bundle is like tailor made for taking out Mandalorians…”

Vissek muttered a chitter and shrugged, which was funny cause Jass let out a roaring laugh before setting the ion blaster and pulling out one of the DXR6s, looking it over and holding it out to Lynorri.

”You know how to handle one of these?"

He looked at her curiously, Jass was fairly sure she knew how, it wasn’t very difficult, point and shoot. After they examined the weapons, Jass put them back in the case and finished listening to Vissek get back to the point of how the Mandalorian’s ship met up with the Nibobo Killee, and then began trailing it. Jass cursed, so now there was two ships to deal with, and Jass was nearly certain that the Bounty Hunter’s ship would be a lot more difficult to deal with than slave transport. Sighing Jass sat back in his seat trying to think of how they would handle this.

”We’ll have to disable the ship quickly, we have our new ion blasters to do that. We can disable their engines and blaster turrets; hopefully we can pounce on them before they have time to initiate the anti-piracy countermeasures. We dock with them; Lynorri slices our way into the ship. We’ll have to deal with at least one Mandalorian, who knows if they’ve brought more. But that is why we have our new toys. The reverse-polarity pulse grenades will short out their systems for about ten minutes, even then they would need to recalibrate and configure them, which would leave us enough time to hit them with the ion blaster taking out their tech for good. From there it should be ease. The RPPG will knock out their blasters too. Basically anything with a circuit, we just got to make sure we aren’t in the 5 meter blast radius. You up for a gun for kicking some Mandalorian ass? I am itching for some payback!“

Jass nodded to himself and looked at smiled roguishly at her and Vissek.


Translation:
1- "Expletive nemesis" in Old Corellian

[Lynorri Starfall]

When they dropped out of hyperspace, she got the information she needed. This type of antipiracy program was going to be a formidable challenge.

It will take me one minute and 45 seconds to slice this without tripping the antipiracy program. If they activate it manually before then, we are borked unless you have explosive charges to blow the door. Our best option will involving negating all their bridge controls with ion cannons first. That way its only a matter of time before we are in. Of course, if there is someone waiting on the other side of that door when it opens, that is a different issue.

She held up the DXR6 heavy carbine. It was a model that she had never used before. The principle was the same as with her blaster pistol though. Point and shoot. This one even made it easier because it had a scope on it.

If that happens we will be needing these.

What had she gotten herself into? All this life risking stuff just to get some credits. She needed them desperately, but there had to be safer ways to earn a living. Just as she began to consider settling her nerves by taking the captain back to bed, she saw the alert that indicated that the Nibobo Killee had just been picked up by the long range sensors. For good or ill, this mission was about to go hot.

[Anjea Skirata]

Anjea blinked as the sensors picked up a ship. She looked out of the cockpit at it and growled, recognizing it. She switched all the shields to maximum power, but didn't charge the weapons... yet.

She could hear laughter coming from behind her in the ship and it made her smile a little. At least the people they freed were finding some reason to laugh, and that was always a good thing. She sighed and looked back out at the ship, who undoubtedly belonged to that smuggler. Why did he always seem to be in the way? Though, this time, she knew that they could even possibly be on the same side, wanting to work against the Hutt and free these slaves.

Tracyn had followed her lead and raised the shields on her ship. Anjea's ship was an old one, but it was built solidly, fully upgraded, and unique. She was one to stand out in a crowd and always be remembered. Whether it was remembered for good reasons or bad, you still remembered her.

Anjea sighed and put her buy'ce back on. With a few control adjustments on her HUD, she reached over the clicked the comm on and hailed the other ship. When she spoke, her voice was a deep basso of a male with a metallic hint from the buy'ce, and heavily accented as she spoke Basic, "You just can't stay out of my way, can you, Mr. Quin-Val?" In all truth, she sounded exactly like her uncle as she disguised her voice.

She hated to admit it, but she may need his... help... in getting the slaves off of this ship. With their rough and rowdy past, she didn't think he'd be one to listen to reason or stop to chat things over, but if she could get him to talk, maybe he wouldn't blast his way onto the ship and kill everyone before he could realize they were working towards the same goal. All she knew was that he would automatically think she was in on the slave smuggle with the Hutt. If she could get him to talk, she may be able to at least make him hear the truth, whether he believed it or not.

She spoke again, after a moment, and added, "Is there something I can help you with? If there isn't, I'm trying to shab over the Hutt, so if you don't mind, I don't have time to play games, unless you would like to lose another body part."

She mentally slapped herself for not refraining from saying something that was more likely to piss him off, but she couldn't help it. He was annoying.

[Jass Quin-Val]

Jass growled as he heard the bounty hunter mocking him but he didn’t bite at jibs.

“Keep talking you Firk droyk skrag¹.”

Jass muttered to himself as he flipped on the navicomputer, in the hours since arriving and waiting for the Nibobo Kilee he had taken the liberty of plotting a series of micro jumps. He couldn’t be for certain his plan would work but it seemed like the vessel followed on the most probably course through the system. Trapped by the gravity well of the Rishi system’s sun (also called Rishi) they would not be able to escape to hyperspace, while Jass and Co. waited for them on the far edge of the system. Jass knew that the likelihood of the bounty hunter’s ship was probably better armed, and faster; so with that in mind Jass had devised a plan using an old piloting technique to cover pre-established distances in system.

The Ke’dem Jeboe’I made a series of 4 micro jumps, the first for .75 seconds, the second for .45 seconds, the third for .25, and the last for 1 second. With sub-light adjustments the entire maneuver took just over five seconds. Jass essentially made a large fish-hook shaped course coming up on the Bounty Hunter’s starboard side and just under it, effectively in the ships blind spot where the her turrets couldn’t track him. Of course Jass was assuming that the ship was stock, with a top and port mounted turret.

Jass didn’t wait to find out, as soon as his ship reverted Jass could see the bounty hunter’s ship, it was the size of a dinner plate in his transparisteel viewport, his targeting computer quickly acquired a lock and Jass pushed his thrusters to maximum, quickly closing the distance. Once within range Jass opened up with blasts of his twin SW-7a light ion cannons. Unlike blaster or laser cannons, Jass’ SW-7a ion cannons fired highly ionized plasma which, if hit interfered with the ships electronics, shorting them out of disabling them. They weren’t terribly accurate so you had to get close, and though most ships had both particle and ray shields, ion cannons that fired ionized plasma meant that particle shields couldn’t stand up to them. However, ray shields could. Jass would need to try to overload the ship's shields as fast as possible.

As he closed distance Vissek spun up their top mounted turret and let loose a torrent of laser cannon fire, three heavy laser cannons blasting in succession at the underside of the ship while still firing ion cannons at close to extremely close range. Jass didn’t want to destroy the ship, just disable it. The Corellian did contemplate stealing it, maybe if they had time after they ensured the slaves didn’t make it to Kessel, but that would be an added insult to the bounty hunger. First thing first was to knock out her ship. Jass didn’t expect the ship to not break into evasive maneuvers, but he had the advantage of having the jump on the ships.

One moment Jass was at the far end of the system, the next he was upon them and firing with all he had. Jass made a pair of quick strafing runs at the underside of the XS Stock light freighter. Jass didn’t worry about the Nibobo Killee escaping to hyperspace because they were in Rishi’s mass shadow still. Jass and Vissek attacked the older ship mercilessly. Jass used the heavy laser cannons to attempt to overpower the shields before firing off more ion cannon fire.

It only was a couple minutes before Jass set his sights on the slave transport. Jass approached the ship from the rear before using the technique on the Nibobo Killee. As he did, Jass finally opened the comm. to the Nibobo Killee.

“I am not letting you take these slaves to Kessel, you kriffing skrag!”

Jass closed comm. and turned to Vissek.

“Viss, track that other ship, if you see it looking like it plans to attack light it up and take it out for good.”

He opened the comm. back up to the bounty hunter.

“Disembark the ship via the escape pods. Once we’ve boarded and confirmed all the slaves are safe and in good order we will leave the system to an undisclosed location and free the slaves. You have twenty seconds to comply before we disable the ship and my boarding team takes it by force.”

Jass sat back and looked over to Lynorri.

“Gear up, you’ll follow me in, we drop in the RPPG’s that will knock out any scanners or weapons they have, then we follow in after the pop. Stay behind me and keep that rifle shouldered, where ever you look you aim. This kriffing Mandalorian will shoot.”

Jass pulled out a fresh dose vial for his implant and changed it out before he charged up the heavy laser cannons to deal twice their normal damage as he watched for any sign of escape pods.

Translation:
1- String of expletives in Old Corellian.

[Lynorri Starfall]

Lynorri had the DXR6 strapped to her shoulder and her datapad in her other hand. She had been working on something feverishly while Jass focused on pulling off his fishhook maneuver.

"Ok its finished. Now, I need you to listen to me closely for just a minute. I have their anti-piracy system beaten but I'm going to need your help because its gonna take at least one of those Reverse Polarity Pulse Grenades to do it.

First step, I need five seconds with that lock to upload this virus I just finished writing. Once its installed, an RPPG will reverse the commands on it after it reboots. Activating the anti piracy lockout will pop the door open, and trying to open the door will activate the anti piracy lockout. System reboots, I intentionally trigger the anti piracy system and we are in there in a matter of seconds.

Then I follow you in just like you said.

She looked to Jass questioningly, trying to determine if she was going to have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what might possibly work for a plan C, or if he was satisfied with her solution to that annoying obstacle of an anti piracy system they had to overcome.