Mao’han powered down his datapad as he lifted the bottle in his hand to the light, examining the last bit of liquid left inside.
“Of course…” A deep sigh emanated from the Clawdite before tipping the bottle up, savoring every last drop he could before rising from his seat at one of the cantina’s Balaans tables “Good game, Yanni… And you beat me without cheating this time,” he said, looking down at the Shani woman on the opposite side of the table.
“I’m not the one who cheats!” Yanni said, blowing a stray feather out of her eyes as she raked in her winnings. “Sure you don’t want to play again? I really don’t mind taking your all of your credits.”
Mao’han stretched, setting the bottle down. “You just did. Now I gotta go make a few more to get ‘em back.”
Yanni leaned her chair onto its back legs, nodding at the empty bottle. “If you’re out, then how do you plan to pay for the drink, Mao?”
Right on cue, a roughed-up little pit droid plopped a small pile of credits on the edge of the table near Yanni.
“I said I was out…,” Mao’han said with a smirk, before turning to leave. “C’mon, Skrunch! Time to get busy.”
Mao’han squinted against the afternoon sun as he stepped out into the bustling streets of Black Spire Outpost.
More of a town than anything, the Outpost was cluttered with tightly packed buildings and crowded markets that held nearly every kind of merchandise you could imagine, including some of the not-so-legal varieties. Some came as tourists and explorers looking for a new adventure, while others, like Mao’han, came as smugglers or the galaxy’s usual assortment of scum looking for a score or a place to lay low. That is until the its the scores that find them…
“Alright. Let’s go,” Mao’han said, looking expectantly down at his droid who indignantly crossed his arms at his owner. “Skrunch, the last thing I need is for you to get grabbed off the streets by some fexsnatcher who’s gonna sell you for death sticks, so let’s go! Fold up!”
Muttering complaints in his chittery droidspeak, Skrunch walked over to Mao’han, slamming his ‘nose’ into the pirate’s knee.
“Ouch,” Mao’han said through gritted teeth, leaning over to pick up his compacted companion.
Weaving his way through patrons and shoplifters alike, Mao’han pushed his way across the town, ducking off into an alley as he neared the spaceport.
Setting Skrunch to the side, Mao’han lifted his comlink, activating it. “This is Mao’han Vane, ID number two-three-one-four-one. Track me.”
“Already did.” A voice behind him responded from deeper in the alley.
“Well… That was fast,” Mao’han said, deactivating his comm as he turned to meet the cloaked figure. “Nice timing, Sage.”
“U know what they say, destiny waits for Noone.”
Sage stepped forward and gave the man a firm handshake.
His hand was a bit larger his comrades, and he made sure not to pierce the flesh with his claws.
“It’s been what, a month? Maby more sence we were deployed together?”
Sage leaned agenst the ally wall and took down his hood revealing a large wolfish head with grey fur and bright blue eyes
“Shoot to kill is what it looks like they said, it’s not common practice that, not from what iv seen.”
“We headed out soon?”
Sage folded his arms and nodded to
“That depends on if we can get a ship,” Mao’han said, rising to his feet as he peeked around the corner toward the spaceport entrance.
“If?” Sage asked. “What happened to yours?”
A mixture of sorrow and anger flashed across the pirate’s gaunt face. “Those karking traitors stole it,” he said, glancing back at the Shistavanen. “I‘ll get her back, you can count on that… Anyway, I know of a ship docked inside the spaceport that we can use, buuuuut it’s gonna attract a lot of attention, so once we get in there, we’ll have to move quick.” Moving back a step, Mao’han reached over with his boot to tap Skrunch’s photoreceptor.
Springing to life, the little droid peered at his surroundings before his gaze landed on Sage.
“Hey, eyes up here!” Mao’han said, snapping his fingers in front of Skrunch to grab his attention. “Hey. Hi. Welcome back. Now, listen. We’re stealing Yanni’s ship, and I need you to make sure everything gets disconnected before we can take off.”
Shaking his domed head in emphatic protest, Skrunch spat out a whole series of chits and chirps at Mao’han.
“Transport Solutions…? We’re broke, remember? Besides, what kind of pirate would I be if I paid another pirate for his ship?”
Skrunch retorted again, still unwilling to budge.
“She’ll get over it. Look, are you gonna do your job or do I need to find another droid to do it for you?”
With a singular chirp, Skrunch hung his head in defeat before nodding up at his owner.
“Good,” Mao’han said, turning back to Sage. “You ready?”
Halfway across the galaxy, excitement may have been a rare mineral.
Glassware clinked dully as fists slammed the lab bench.
“Why are you not working!?” Searing blue eyes bored into a line of scorched vessels. Titius had been working on the experiment for hours and advanced nowhere.
Is there an issue, Magistrate? The lab droid drifted up beside the destroyed instruments.
“Yes! One, I am bored of this insipid experimentation and two, these formulations are becoming weaker with each distillation! Are we sure this is the strength I requested?” Scrolling through his datapad, Titius pulled manifests for his orders. Sure enough, he had been overridden by a quartermaster who had sourced less volatile substances citing danger to structure. An eyebrow twitched.
“I need to blow something up…”
Sage was amused by the interaction between Mao'han and his Droid. Droids, thou usefull have never been soemthing he became accustomed to.
“Ready, HA! Was born for this Captian. Let’s go!” Standing from his leaning position sage began to walk out of the ally expecting his fellow companions to follow.
Sage led them through a maze of alleyways and through a couple of very full bustling crowds untill finaly they made it to the edge of the Space port.
“Alright guys here is my plan.” . Sage pulls out a smoke gernade and with a large grin he tossed it from one hand to the next.
“So I have developed a certan…force cloaking ability. It’s allows be to walk among and around people for a short amount of time being next to impossible to detect. ”
“I’m thinking I can carry your little Droid over there while cloaked in the force…set him to work on the ship we are after; then set off a few of these to provide cover for him working and the both of us boarding. ”
Now looking directly at Mao'han sage asked, “what say you Captian?”
<@348547724628721695> <@503352868363960336>
“That could work,” Mao’han replied. “The staff won’t care about us, but Yanni and her crew are gonna know as soon as we touch her ship, so save your grenades until we need them.”
“What about you? Won’t they see you boarding the ship?” Sage asked.
With a smirk, the pirate gave his gear a quick check. “Not if I’m not the one boarding it.”
Closing his eyes, Mao’han’s skin began to shift and flex, his skeletal cheeks filling in with a soft green complexion with thin seam-like lines tracing his morphing features. His bald head sprouted thick plumes of colorful feathers that fell to his shoulders, and his bulbous slit eyes receded back to humanoid proportions. “May I introduce Yanni the Shani,” he said with a slight bow, his voice breathy but lithe, snake-like yet naturally feminine.
From the corner of his eye, Sage could see Skrunch nodding knowingly up at him.
Adjusting to the new skin, Mao’han rolled his neck and shoulders. “Alright, let’s do this.”
Stepping out of their covert, Mao’han strutted through the Spaceport entrance, hips swaying and lips pursed as he made his way toward the bay where Yanni’s ship awaited him.
“That’ll work,” Sage said, head cocked to the side as he watched Mao’han’s whole demeanor change. “C’mon,” he said, looking down at Skrunch. Turning his thoughts to the ever-shifting presence of the Force, Sage focused its flow around his body, slowly rendering himself invisible to prying eyes.
Poking Skrunch in the nose, Sage scooped him up as he followed off after Mao’han, clinging to the edges of the walls to avoid drawing attention to the disembodied droid floating through the air.
Striding through the starport, Mao’han made a point to avoid as many people as he could, but as Yanni, there was only so much avoiding he could do against the like of cat-callers and lurking peddlers that didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘no’.
‘Yanni, you kriffing crowd pleaser,’ Mao’han thought to himself as he winked back at the Dug shouting unsavory comments about his butt.
After a few more encounters with Death Stick dealers and hecklers, Mao’han sighed in relief as he finally made it to other side of the port, rounding the corner to find his prize waiting right where he knew it would be.
Peering up at the blacked out ZH-40 freighter neatly centered on the landing platform, Mao’han couldn’t help the waggish smirk that crept onto his face.
Though it was common vessel among the more lawless corners of the galaxy, the ZH-40 was nothing to sneeze at, especially when in the hands of a cutthroat Shani businesswoman who had personally modified it to be faster than standard models.
A brief wave of better judgment caused him to pause, before immediately waving it off with a shrug as he started toward the ship’s open loading ramp.
“Heya, Yanni!” A voice called from behind him, stopping in his tracks as he neared the ship.
Spinning on his heel, Mao’han’s hand instinctively fell to his blaster as he turned to see the burly, orange-skinned Twi’lek walking towards him with a datapad in hand.
“Woah!” The Twi’lek man lifted his hands. “Easy now! It’s just me…”
Quickly regaining himself, Mao’han shifted his weight to one side, pressing his hip out slightly as he placed his hands on them. “What have I told you about sneaking up on a woman when she’s admiring her ship?,” he scolded the man.
“Sorry…” The Twi’lek gave a nervous chuckle, letting his hands drop. “I’ll drop a wrench or something next time to let you know I’m there.”
“Attaboy-…” Mao’han said, eyes darting down to the nameplate on the man’s shirt. “-Nolan. I wouldn’t want to hurt you accidentally.”
A sheepish smile spread onto Nolan’s face before he forced a cough to try to repress his embarrassment. “An-anyway… I was just gonna say we did a full-check, like you asked. We’re about to refuel now, and then she’ll be ready to go.”
Mao’han purposefully relaxed his posture, taking note of the Twi’lek’s flustered demeanor. “I appreciate it, Nolan,” he said with a wink, subtly sweetening his voice as he pronounced his name. “And while you finish that, I’m gonna go make sure everything is ready to go on board.”
Nolan’s light orange cheeks grew bright pink. “Hey, anytime, Yanni!” He said a bit too eagerly, immediately looking to the ground to avoid eye contact. “Just, uh, just sign for the service total, and then we’ll take the flight lock off.”
“Service total… Right…” Mao’han paused as he looked down at the datapad in Nolan’s hand, cursing himself for not thinking about the lock. ‘Dank Farrik!’
Just then, with the most inconvenient timing possible, Mao’han noticed from the corner of his eye the hovering body of his compacted pit droid floating around the corner into the docking bay behind Nolan.
‘Think, Mao, THINK!’
“Uhh, Yanni?” Nolan asked, datapad still outstretched. “You okay?”
Mao’han turned his head to hide the sudden twitch of his cheek, his wavering concentration causing his disguise to begin to revert. Taking a deep breath to recenter himself, Mao’han lifted his eyes to meet Nolan’s concerned gaze.
“I, umm… I’m fine,” he said, channeling all the adrenaline of the moment towards his emotions. “It’s just…” His voice trailed off as he blinked back a fledgling tear. “I’ve been scraping everything I have together for weeks just to keep the cantina open, and then Sohta sent his guys to collect on a few debts I owe him, and now…” Mao’han wrapped his arms around his waist, heaving a few panicked breaths as the tears began to fall. “I don’t know what to do…”
Nolan paused for a moment, unsure of what to do as ‘Yanni’ sobbed in front of him. “Hey, hey! It’s okay, just… It’ll be okay,” he said, taking a step forward to grab Mao’han’s hand. “Don’t cry. It’ll will be okay. Things will turn around, okay? I promise.”
Mao’han looked up at Nolan with streaming eyes. “How?”
“I-… I’m not sure… But they will. Bad luck always turns around eventually.”
Behind them, underneath the ship, Sage and Skrunch had already begun disconnecting power lines and hoses as Mao’han put on the waterworks to keep the staff distracted.
“Wow, he can really act,” Sage said, quietly pulling a small hose free.
“I’ll have to sell the cantina… And my ship… I’m gonna lose her too,” Mao’han choked out, before another wave of tears hit.
Nolan’s brows furrowed in a pained expression as he looked over his shoulder at the docking bay’s control room, then back to the weeping woman in front of him. “I won’t let that happen.”
Mao’han sniffled as he looked up at Nolan. “What do you mean?”
Bringing up his datapad, Nolan input a couple commands that caused a mechanism on the ship to deactivate with a notable Click.
“Yanni, listen. I just disengaged the flight lock over your ship,” Nolan said, glancing back toward the control room. “You need to go, quickly, before they realize what happened.”
“But… You’ll lose your-.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Nolan said, cutting Mao’han off. “Consider this the start of your good luck. Now go.”
Wiping the tears from his eyes, Mao’han looked back at Sage and Skrunch just as they snuck onto the ship.
Turning back towards Nolan, Mao’han finally let his disguise drop, his appearance suddenly morphing back into the gaunt-faced Clawdite underneath. “Thank you, Nolan,” he said with a smirk, his natural voice returning. “For everything.”
Swiping the datapad from the Twi’lek’s hand, Mao’han spun on his heel as he sprinted for the loading ramp. “Let’s get out of here!” Mao’han shouted, passing the other two as he ran for the cockpit.
Staring out into the endless black, Titius’ mind wandered. Cannons swiveled silently, the sound of motivators hushed by the expanse. Red lights pulsed at the edge of the monitor ring, giving silent warning to ships approaching.
The depth of space was terrifying but still held peace. A calm only possible from vast expanse of nothing. And possibilities were…
Sound flooded back with a rage as a message landed on his spacesuit visor display. Sender: Mao'han Subject: Adventure
Detaching himself from the hull of the station, Titius moved to the airlock. Why was that scoundrel sending him messages? All prior deals had been through the broker. Or rather brokers as each seemed to disappear mysteriously after a certain number of shipments.
Something something, need to know information Titius smirked. Each had provided plenty of information in their last moments thought the gargling had made the chain codes hard to understand. A shrug and switched airlock later, Titius managed to pull the full script.
Dearest Magistrate Osseus, Stole ship. Lots of people looking. Adventure to follow with big credits. Envoy target to kill. U in? Your supplier. P.S. Bringing friends
The signoff was a bit on the nose but the message was clear. Mao'han had never made his drops in the same ship twice and Titius doubted any of them had been registered to the pirate. Signing off from the terminal, Titius went to refresh himself, gather supplies and wait for what would inevitably be a quick exit.
At least the Deru could fly fast…
“Can you hit that switch over there?”
Skrunch stared out through the viewport at the swirling streams of white and blue streaking past the ship, oblivious to Mao’han’s request.
“I’ve got it,” Sage said, reaching over to the switch as he noticed the growing frown on the Clawdite’s face as the droid continued to ignore him. “Nicely done back there, by the way. I really thought we might have to shoot our way out for a minute there…”
With a shrug, Mao’han reached up to a panel above him, clicking a series of multicolored buttons. “It’s all about leverage; For some, it’s money, or power, and for others, it’s a woman.”
Sage smirked, turning his chair as he crossed his arms and propped a heel over his knee. “Which one is it for you?”
Leaning back in his seat, Mao’han simply returned the smirk.
“Fair enough.” Leaning his head back, Sage closed his eyes, his peaked ears listening to the dull hum of the ship’s engines as they slipped through hyperspace. “Where are we headed anyway?”
“Horizon Station. It’s a research facility in the Unknown Regions. There’s an associate of mine there whose skills will be useful for this job.”
“You trust him?” Sage didn’t bother opening his eyes as he spoke.
“I would go that far,” Mao’han said, laughing to himself. “I don’t think anyone trusts Titius… But he is very good at what he does.”
“And what does he do?”
Mao’han smiled knowingly at the Shistavanen. “Titius is a skilled tactician and demolitions expert, not to mention ruthless.”
Sage’s eyes popped open at Mao’han’s words. “Did you say ‘demolitions’?
“Heh…sounds like my kind of guy.” Sage stood from his chair and took a large long stretch. He let out a small growl and started pacing.
“Honestly man…your the first one of your kind i have met. Can you really turn in to anyone? Seems usefull.”
Nealing down sage tapped Scrunch on his domed head twice, then picked him up and started just holding him like some sort of sport ball.
“Wanna play catch?” Sage looked at his comrade with an expression of mock play
Mao'han guided the ship in smooth as a whisper. Blast doors closed over the tail as a cohort of security personnel raced to surround the ramp.
“Remember Sage. Be cool.” Mao'han moved to the ramp, arms held in a loose surrender. “Greetings! While I have circumvented certain protocols and broken others, I am here to liase with one Magistrate Titius Osseus.”
The security foreman’s eyes widened at the mention of a magistrate. They ducked away, whispering urgently to their commlink. The response was swift.
“…understood. Take them to containment hangar 3. The Magistrate will receive them there.”
Several turbolifts, more snarky commentary from Mao'han and a few growls from Sage later, the group reached CH-3. Sat in the middle of the landing zone was a heavy hauler surrounded by crates of ordinance and explosives. And among the chaos, one jet black armored…
“Magistrate! It is my absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance once again.” Mao'han feigned a bow, earning a blaster muzzle pointed at his nose.
“Get them on board, lieutenant. Then make yourself scarce. You saw nothing, you know nothing and the ship they arrived on does not exist. Am I understood?”
The lieutenant snapped to attention, escorted his two charges aboard the vessel before sprinting with his cohort from the hangar.
It did not take long for preparations to complete. Titius entered the cockpit and asked, “Where is the target?”
“I see we will be skipping the pleasantries,” Mao’han said, distractedly trying to smooth out a small crease on his coat shoulder.
“The bounty board said that he was hiding out in the Koboh system.” Off to the side, Sage pried up the lid on one the various crates of armaments, making no attempt to mask his grin at its contents. “Oh-hoho… Yes, please.”
“Oi, sticky fingers!” Titius looked back at the Shistavanen through his visor. “Paws off before you blow us all to hell.”
“Yeah, no blowing us up, please,” Mao’han said, forsaking the crease.
“Fine. But…! I get to blow something up later,” Sage said with a reluctant sigh, re-sealing the crate.
“Who’s the wolf?” Titius said to Mao’han, side-eying Sage as he slid the lid back into place.
“An associate of mine. He’s helped me with a few jobs here and there; Even some for you,” Mao’han replied. “He can hold his own.”